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Research Projects

Between 2005-2010 RECOUP is conducting six collaborative projects:

Disability and Poverty Study

There is a consensus that impairment and disability are both causes and consequences of poverty. Whilst it is argued that this interaction can be broken via inclusive education, many questions remain. This study, using qualitative research methods, investigates local definitions and perceptions of disability and poverty; it examines the present educational arrangements available to poor people with disabilities and explores the meanings they attach to education and schooling. The study also focuses upon differences in participation, learning and social outcomes of education amongst people with disabilities, to establish enabling factors which break the cycle of deprivation facing poor people with disabilities.

Related news and links:

Project Documents:
Terms of Reference

News:
Progress on the Disability, Education & Poverty Study in India

Working Papers:
Forgotten Youth: Disability and Development in India
Conceptualising Disability and Education in the South: Challenges for Research

For more information, please email Dr. Nidhi Singal at sn241@cam.ac.uk

Health and Fertility Study

This study investigates explanations for the relationships between schooling and the health and fertility-related behaviour of poor households. It also examines questions relating to reproductive citizenship, women's agency and empowerment in poor communities. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, it examines

  • whether the current orthodoxies about the strong positive relationships between a woman's schooling and her decision-making power are robust and, if so, it examines the pathways through which such effects operate;
  • whether schooling 'works' through community or individual influences;
  • whether there are threshold effects, and whether schooling effects on health and fertility are different for the poor than for the less poor;
  • how teachers, officials, NGO workers and other educational stakeholders might develop better strategies to enhance pro-poor policies in local communities.
Related news and links:

Project documents:
Terms of Reference

News:
Health & Fertility study fieldwork is approaching its completion in Pakistan
Research skills workshop completed in Ghana
Qualitative skills workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya

Working Papers:
Schooling, transitions and reproductive citizenship for poor people in urban and rural north India: Preliminary results from Alwar and Dewas

For more information, please email Prof. Roger Jeffery at R.Jeffery@ed.ac.uk

Youth, Gender & Citizenship Study

This inter-generational gender study investigates whether and how education helps male and female youth in poor communities achieve participatory citizenship. It investigates how education can help youth and their communities protect themselves, make decisions, achieve an independent livelihood and participate in community life. Using qualitative methods, it examines

  • How young men and women living in poverty construct their identities and how such identities mediate the effects of schooling and opportunities for enacting citizenship.
  • The extent to which young people's strategies to break out of poverty are differentiated by gender and by schooling.
  • The extent to which schooling can offer more opportunities to break out of poverty for young men and women than it does or did for their parents.
Related news and links:

Project documents:
Terms of Reference

Working Papers:
Gendered Experiences of Teaching in Poor Rural Areas of Ghana,
Researching Gender: Explorations into Sexuality and HIV/AIDS in African Contexts
Globalising the School Curriculum: Gender, EFA and Global Citizenship Education

For more information, please email Prof. Madeleine Arnot at mma1000@cam.ac.uk

Skill Acquisition and Its Impact upon Lives and Livelihoods

The ways in which the education and training of individuals affect their future lives and livelihoods are the focus of this study. A set of papers examining the relationships between earnings, education and other individual and household characteristics are being produced, using our household surveys and comparable data sets from other countries. A separate enquiry, using primarily qualitative methods, examines how and under what conditions, the main long- and short-term skill training systems (both public and non-state) contribute to positive labour market outcomes for the poor. It also studies how trainees from poor backgrounds who successfully enter formal or self-employment learn the things that make them succeed.

Related links:

Project documents/reports:
Terms of Reference
Report on the skills workshop, India, 4-5 June 2007

News:
Dissemination seminar in Ghana

Working Papers:
Education, Training and Labour Market Outcomes in Ghana: A review of the Evidence
Health Shocks, Job Quality, and Self-Employment in Africa
Does Doing an Apprenticeship Pay Off? Evidence from Ghana
What can Teachers Do to Raise Pupil Achievement?

Policy Briefs:
Public-Private Partnerhips in Education: Some Policy Questions

For more information, please email Prof. Geeta Kingdon at g.kingdon@ioe.ac.uk

Public-Private Partnerships in the Provision of Education

Recently, new forms of partnership have emerged in the provision of education. This study evaluates the provision of education by public and private providers, drawing on the concepts of 'voice' and 'exit/entry', to examine individual behaviour within organizations that operate under the rules of the market. It will undertake a number of school-level studies to identify the manner in which demand-side and supply-side factors operate within a school, and how aspects of provision are affected by the ability of parents, pupils and providers to use and respond to voice and exit respectively.

Related news and links:

Project documents:
Terms of Reference

Working Papers:
Tilting at Windmills: Public-Private Partnerships in Indian Education Today

Presentations:
Can School Type Help to Identify the Supply and Demand for Education?

For more information, please email Dr. Shailaja Fennell at ss141@cam.ac.uk

Aid Partnerships and Educational Outcomes

This study analyses the relationships between the provision of educational aid and educational policy and practice in partner states. It examines how and why the quantity and modalities of aid have changed and investigates their effects upon education policy and outcomes. A mix of research methods is being used, including interviews, case studies and analysis of documentary sources.

Related news and links:

Project Documents:
Terms of Reference

Working Papers:
The Financing and Outcomes of Education in Ghana
Aid Effectiveness and the Role of Donor Intervention in the Education Sector in Pakistan - a Review of Issues and Literature
Public Expenditure on Education in India: Recent Trends and Outcomes

Presentations:
Does More Money for Education Help the Poor? RECOUP open seminar series
Growth, Poverty and Skills: What should policy try to achieve?
Measuring and Monitoring the Quality of Education

For more information, please email Prof. Chris Colclough at cc413@cam.ac.uk