This exploratory paper seeks to shed light on the methodological challenges of education systems research. There is growing consensus that interventions to improve learning outcomes must be designed and studied as part of a broader system of education, and that learning outcomes are affected by a complex web of dynamics involving different inputs, actors, processes and socio-political contexts. How should researchers in comparative and international education respond to this call for complexity? To begin to answer this question, we draw on recent and ongoing research within the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems research programme – a programme of 30 projects funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The paper explores critical ways in which the methods used by individual research projects, and across the programme as a whole, offer opportunities and raise challenges for advancing systems thinking in education research.

中文翻译：

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探索教育研究中的系统变化：不断发展的研究设计和方法

本探索性论文旨在阐明教育系统研究的方法论挑战。越来越多的共识是，必须设计和研究改善学习成果的干预措施，并将其作为更广泛的教育体系的一部分，并且学习成果会受到复杂的动态网络的影响，这种动态网络涉及不同的投入，参与者，过程和社会政治背景。比较教育和国际教育的研究人员应如何应对这种对复杂性的呼吁？为了开始回答这个问题，我们在“提高教育系统中的学习成果”研究计划（该计划由英国国际发展部（DFID）和经济及社会研究理事会（ESRC）资助的30个项目）中借鉴了近期和正在进行的研究。