The Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) Programme is a collaborative knowledge-building approach across policy, research and practice in New Zealand. The Iterative BES synthesizes and explains evidence and what works for diverse learners. The touchstone of the program is its focus on explaining the influences on a range of desired outcomes for diverse learners. The primary purpose of the program is to support sustainable educational development whereby a whole education system and its communities strengthen a range of desired outcomes for all learners through iterative processes of shared knowledge building and use. The iterative approach is designed to be a collaborative tool and catalyst to intensify and embed the interplay of research and development (R & D) as a systemic lever for sustainable development in education.
This chapter begins by highlighting the importance of the focus on diversity on the work and then explain the Iterative BES, its fit-for-purpose methodology, its collaborative and iterative approach to development, the emerging findings about making a bigger difference for diverse learners, early work in an evidence-informed strategy for dissemination and use, and the vision for BES as a systemic lever for sustainable development.