Research evidence in education serves as a compass, directing stakeholders towards informed choices that drive educational progress, enhance teaching methodologies, address inequities and support resource optimisation. Overcoming the challenges of harnessing research evidence in education by policy makers and practitioners involves fostering a culture of research engagement.

This Education Spotlight draws on an international Policy Survey conducted with Ministries of Education from 37 education systems, and other evidence from the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation publication Who Really Cares About Using Education Research in Policy and Practice? Developing a Culture of Research Engagement (OECD, 2023[1]) and beyond to explore the following questions:

• Which systemic conditions, such as resources, infrastructures, and leadership, matter for the development (or transformation) of an organisational and system-level culture of research engagement? How do these conditions relate to one another?

• How can these conditions be developed to best support education research engagement from the system level?

This Spotlight reflects on the elements at the system level that are crucial for establishing such a culture for policy makers and practitioners. It does so with the understanding that complex systems require thinking strategically and employing systems approaches to knowledge mobilisation, alongside the more commonly used linear models of disseminating evidence or relational ones focusing on partnerships and networks.