Abstract
Participatory action research (PAR) is a useful methodological framework that empowers social actors to investigate their community context. The PAR framework helps to build the capacity for social change through taking action based on evidence. Evidence-based action is central to the vision of ASER Centre, a non government organization that facilitates the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), one of the largest surveys on educational outcomes in India. This chapter describes and reports on how the ASER tools are utilized by educators and teacher candidates to translate India’s education policy into practice. The chapter examines how the ASER toolkit is used as an instrument for PAR. To do so, the chapter investigates a case study of the uses and perceptions of 62 teacher candidates on the ASER toolkit. The study’s findings reveal how the ASER toolkit helps contextualize teacher preparation through the facilitation of data gathering about and for the communities where teacher candidates are situated.
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Bhattacharjea, S., Byker, E.J. (2017). Chapter 3 The ASER “Translating Policy into Practice” Toolkit: From Participatory Action Research to Evidence-Based Action. In: Kidwai, H., Iyengar, R., Witenstein, M., Byker, E., Setty, R. (eds) Participatory Action Research and Educational Development. South Asian Education Policy, Research, and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48905-6_4
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