Commonwealth Researchers in Pursuit

#OpenupYourThinking has now provided more than 400 young researchers across 3 Bootcamps the opportunity to add meaningful contributions to not only the thinking around the implications that COVID-19 has on the education sector in South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Commonwealth countries at a macro; meso; and micro-level, but on the pressures being placed on education systems using an evidence-based approach.

The Commonwealth Secretariat, on experiencing the success of the Bootcamp methodology, has partnered with JET Education Services, an educational research agency with a non-profit motive to bring online the Commonwealth Researchers in Pursuit Bootcamp which started on 5 June 2020.

The initial focus was across eight thematic areas, but very rapidly expanded to fifteen thematic areas as interest grew from various stakeholders including the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), Dignitas, Global School Leaders, Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities, The Education Centre (TEP)in Nigeria and a number of Universities which we are confident will have an incredibly positive impact on the education community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe.

The Commonwealth Researchers in Pursuit Bootcamp will add real-time inputs into other countries’ national education processes and is designed to keep a group of young researchers collectively engaged during the lockdown periods in 29 countries across the globe.

The research aims, through the establishment of cross-cutting partnerships, to benefit the education fraternity and broader community, and the emerging findings from the thematic streams will be fed into the relevant debates and the Commonwealth Ministers Conference for 2021 in Kenya. We also encourage young researchers to make their voices heard and we do this via podcasts and surveys during the Pursuit. 

Update: The outputs of the research have been consolidated into a compendium report, Learning and ‘Building Back Better’: An Early Research Response to the Impact of COVID-19 on South Africa’s Education System.