New directions & policy ideas

The European Union (EU) is facing multiple crises since the mid-2000s, and education policy is called to provide solutions. The role of critical research on EU education policy becomes increasingly important (see paper: Crises and research on EU education policy). Twenty years after the Lisbon strategy, education policy in the European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture with a new set of strategic goals endorsed for the 2021–2030 decade. With my colleague Xavier Rambla (Autonomous University of Barcelona, AUB, Spain) we examine the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA and the power of ideas). In addition, we apply a 'policy instrumentation' approach to the examination of the European Semester and how this manifests in different logics in the cases of Spain and Sweden (xx). In a different collaboration with Ken Jones (Goldsmiths Univ. London, UK), we examine the increasing convergence of objectives and policies over the last 35 years of EU activity in the field of education (see chapter: Educational policy-making in Europe 1986-2018)

Europeanisation and  education policy

Under development

Policy learning

This strand of research explores EU education policies through the concept of 'policy learning' and its significance for the process of Europeanisation (see chapter: Policy learning as a mode of governance). This concepts brings the study of ideas into the analysis of education policy and governance, and helps to explore their transfer, dissemination and feedback between the international and national policy making arenas. With colleague Lisbeth Lundahl, we have explored the shifting assumptions about education policy knowledge and change in the case of Sweden and its relationship to external policy bodies (chapter: Sweden - a reluctant policy learner?). 

In further theoretical work, with colleague Bettina Lange (Oxford Univ. UK, UK), we examine 'policy learning' in its 'soft - reflexive' and 'hierarchical' dimensions, and apply it to the field of Higher Education in Sweden (re. internationalisation) and the UK (re. post-Brexit regulation) (XX).   

EU, education & equality

The EU represents a transnational level of polity where education policies are constructed in parallel to those of nation states, and where equality is framed both in legal frameworks and in policies around citizenship and inclusion. This strand of research focuses attention on the interplay between the legal and the policy landscapes around equality and their relation to education policy, and explores these ideas in relation to the Roma minority, and the efforts of the EU to address their experience of multiple inequalities across the continent. This includes the transition of disadvantaged students (in general) from school to labour markets or universities (article: researching difficult education transitions in Europe ), and Roma students in particular (paper: transition policies and Roma students-EU ).

The process of developing an education and social policy, and the refinement of equality and anti-discrimination legislation, contribute to a reframing of equality beyond the borders of national policies, and open up new opportunities for their negotiation. The case of Roma EU policies suggests that a combination of legal and policy processes is necessary to address issues of inequalities in education. But there are political risks with the EU taking over such policy work especially when the equality definitions used are narrow in their remit, and when national governments lack the political will to implement EU policies (chapter: EU education policies and Roma).