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FrameWorks UK

Education

Americans see the value of education for their families—but it’s harder to see it as a public good. FrameWorks’ advice widens the lens.

Education advocates know that it can be hard to change people’s thinking. Efforts to move away from outdated practices are often met with nostalgic resistance: “It worked for me!”

FrameWorks research shows which values, metaphors, and stories can navigate unhelpful assumptions. Over the past decade, hundreds of advocacy organizations have used these framing strategies to help the public and policymakers think differently about the future of learning.

Explore these resources to find frames that:

  • Advance educational equity
  • Counter efforts to privatize public education
  • Build demand for personalized learning
  • Expand out-of-school opportunities
  • Foster STEM learning
  • Boost support for community schools

and more.

Featured Work

School nurse speaking with female student
Toolkit

Building Family Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccine

If you are a school nurse, school health services coordinator, or anyone else who talks with families about COVID-19 vaccines, you’ve found your way to the right place.  This toolkit offers...

 Young girl with hand raised in front of collage of education images
Report

Advancing Anti-Racist Education

How School Leaders Can Navigate the Moral Panic about “Critical Race Theory”

 young girl tele-learning
Report

Education is at a Crossroads

For advocates working in education and related fields, COVID-19 has created an opening to talk about long-standing needs.

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Report

Building Support for Teachers’ Unions: The Role of Values Framing

This study uses an experimental survey design with a large, national panel of respondents to identify a value—Pragmatism—that effectively inoculates against negative messages concerning...
Report

Where’s the Learning?: An Analysis of Media Stories of Digital Media and Learning

This report examines the explicit and implicit messages embedded in the media’s presentation of issues related to digital media and learning in the nation’s newspapers, radio and TV news...
Report

Painted in a Corner: How the Media Frames Teachers’ Unions and Education Reform

This report examines the media presentation of teachers’ unions and education reform by identifying and documenting the way existing frames about teachers’ unions are embedded and presented to...
Report

Get in Where You Fit in: The Role of Teachers’ Unions in Public Conversations About Education Reform

Explains the research behind the need to beware of the Caring Teacher Trap, and the frame elements of Pragmatism and Scaffolding.
Report

The Proper Attitude: Challenges in Framing Higher Education Reform

This MessageMemo offers insights on how to frame higher education to boost support for broader, more equitable access and attainment.
Report

“Faster and Fancier Books”: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Digital Media and Learning

This report compares expert discourse on this topic with the ways that average Americans talk and think about digital media and learning.
Report

Getting on the Right Side of Change: How Peer Discourse Sessions See the Role of Teachers’ Unions in Education Reform

This report details the research findings from a series of Peer Discourse Sessions conducted by the FrameWorks Institute with groups of civically engaged U.S. citizens on the role of teachers’...
Toolkit

Talking About Education Reform

This toolkit features a compendium of research on how Americans think about the educational system and education reform, and how to increase public support for policies that ensure that all...
Report

Understanding Teachers’ Collective Role in Reform: Mapping the Gaps Between the Expert and the Public Understandings of Teachers’ Unions

This report examines how experts and the general public understand the topics of teachers, teachers’ unions, and unions more generally. FrameWorks compares these expert and public understandings...
Report

Preparing America for the 21st Century: Values that Work in Promoting Education Reform

This report explores the extent to which alternative values elevate public support for a wide range of education reforms.
Report

Framing Education Reform

This report summarizes findings about how Americans think about the education system, and offers key strategies for talking about education reform.
Report

Orchestrating Systems and Remodeling Reform: Reframing Education Reform with Simplifying Models

People tend to to think that "teachers are the system" and that the education system is "broken beyond repair." Metaphors can help us reframe education reform.