Search

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ageing of the European population is creating a new demographic mix, increasing the relevance of intergenerational practice (IGP). To date, however, this field lacks an appropriate conceptual framework. This study aims to contribute to such a framework through an integrative review of peer-reviewed papers reporting on IGPs. Fifteen papers were obtained, published over the last 20 years. The main findings suggest that the wealth of IGPs lies in their versatility/diversity. In order to build an appropriate conceptual framework for IGP, it is recommended that IGP be understood as a tool to restructure society: from generations’ segregation to generations’ cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings attention to the notion of 'religious affects', namely, the affects, emotions and feelings related to religion and religious experience. It is argued that educators and students have a lot to gain from paying attention to and exploring the meaning and role of religious feelings in the context of controversies and debates surrounding Islam in the West. In particular, the paper suggests that by exploring the affective dimensions of religious injury (e.g. irritation, dishonour, insult, injury, offense, outrage), educators and students can enhance their understanding of how religious emotions are involved in religious controversies such as the recent cartoon controversies in several European countries. It is argued that a richer comprehension of affective dimensions of religious controversies will help promote inter-religious understanding and respect, an important educational aim in contemporary times, especially in school subjects such as religious education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial paper introduces the relevance of trust in educational settings. It discusses interdisciplinary approaches to trust, reflects upon the relationships between trust and education and how trust has so far been studied in educational research. In addition, a comprehensive model of trust is introduced as a framework for the individual papers of this special issue that altogether, through different disciplinary and methodological lenses, investigate trust in various realms of education in five European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is among the first to investigate the impact of over-education and over-skilling on workers' wages using a unique pan-European database covering twenty-eight countries for the year 2014, namely the CEDEFOP's European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey. Overall, the results suggest the existence of a wage penalty associated with over-education. When the educational and the skills mismatches are interacted with each other in order to distinguish apparent over-education from genuine over-education, the results highlight that the workers with the highest wage penalty are those who are both over-educated and over-skilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational inequalities remain a major challenge to the social cohesion of modern societies. They affect the younger generations in the society throughout their development and are also becoming more varied and entrenched. Although most inequalities are linked to socio-economic factors such as income, access to material resources, educational attainment, and social class, new emergent types of inequalities are developing rapidly: spatial segregation, residence status (native-born or immigrant) (Barnes, J. (2007). Down our way: The relevance of neighbourhoods for parenting and child development. Chichester: Wiley. ISBN 9780470030721; Lareau, A. (2014). Schools, housing and the reproduction of inequality. In A. Lareau & K. A. Goyette (Eds.), Choosing homes, choosing schools (pp. 169–206). New York: Russell Sage Foundation; Lareau, A. (2015). Cultural knowledge and social inequality. American Sociological Review 2015, 80(1), 1–27. doi:10.117/0003122414565814); and the digital divide (Bynner, J., & Heinz, W. R. (2021). Youth prospects in the digital society: Identities and inequalities in an unravelling Europe. Bristol: Policy Press; Melhuish, E. (2019). House of commons education committee (2019). Tackling disadvantage in the early years. London: HMSO. Tackling disadvantage in the early years (parliament.uk)). The use of in-depth evidence about the nature and variations in experiences of inequalities by individuals, families, communities within and across European countries is an effective way to provide up-to-date insights into evolving inequalities and the social problems that arise. This paper shifts the focus of the debate about the changing nature of inequalities in modern societies by drawing upon qualitative and mixed methods advances in studying socially disadvantaged groups. Their chances to integrate into society through the educational channels are not likely to be fully achieved without significant change in the current social environment and re-organisation of education systems. The paper draws its conclusions based on recent research and analytical reports with a focus on Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforms in higher education have been passed in many European countries in the last decades, mostly trying to adapt national systems to new European and global challenges. This study examines some consequences of such major reforms in France and Spain. Specifically, these reforms introduced new agencies whose remit was inter alia to provide evaluation of research and to make such assessments pivotal for academic career progression. The paper investigates empirically whether, and to what extent, these new forms of authority have been capable of engendering the expected change to the system of academic career evaluation. The respective policy approaches and policy implementation in France and Spain reveal that these reforms triggered a reconfiguration of powers at various levels of academic life – affecting strategies for successful career development. Policy-making implications are relevant when these two countries are compared, suggesting that more radical policy approaches (coercive isomorphism, the French case) do not result in more change to academic evaluation practices than mimetic ones (the Spanish case). It is also important to note that coercive isomorphism encountered more frictions in its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a sociological analysis of the knowledge and actors that have become central to international assessments, the paper focuses on the processes that influence the production of shared narratives and agendas, adopting the position that their existence is not organic, but rather the product of undertakings that often fabricate and manage, rather than strive for 'real' consensus. The paper suggests that limiting the analysis to the role of travel and exchanges of experts and policy-makers in the making of policy is, in fact, the construction of an 'ideal-type' of an international policy-making world. Recent research on these encounters suggests that one needs to focus on actors' conflict and struggles, rather than processes of 'collective puzzling'. Using the concept of 'political work', as well as elements of Bourdieu's field theory, the paper shows the ways that international comparative testing in the field of education has not only offered policy-makers with much needed data to govern, but has in fact almost fused the realms of knowledge and policy; expertise and the selling of undisputed, universal policy solutions have now drifted into one single entity and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses children trafficking in England, frontline workers and gender oppression.

The following paper suggests a connection between recent developments in the justification of the capitalist system and contemporary European Liberal Arts programs. By looking at Luc Boltanski's and Eve Chiapello's study on The New Spirit Of Capitalism and Gilles Deleuze's term of societies of control we highlight a pivot within Western societies towards flexibility, creativity and self-fulfillment as essential requirements on the job market. We then link this observation to European Liberal Arts programs and ask to what extent the Liberal Arts' self-understanding, as it appears at European universities, conforms to this new capitalist imperative. Furthermore, we examine how we experienced these claims during our time as Liberal Arts students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the June 10-13, 2014 conference of the organization Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), noting a call for papers based on the conference theme "Governing Educational Spaces: Knowledge, Teaching, and Learning in Transition." A symposium on the theme "Comparative Education, International Education, and Intercultural Education: Tensions, Harmonies, Contradictions" is noted.

The theoretical and empirical foundations of research on trust in education are still weak. To contribute to a better understanding of the role of trust in educational systems, this final article of the special issue "Trust in educational settings. European perspectives" highlights the findings from the contributions in this special issue and links them to insights and concepts from interdisciplinary trust research. Furthermore, it identifies and discusses seven avenues for future research on trust in educational settings. Thus, this paper and the special issue as a whole aim to highlight relevant avenues for future research, thereby strengthening research on trust in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development'sProgram for International Student Assessment(PISA) as a public policy instrument, whose worldwide circulation is mediated by processes of reinterpretation, negotiation, and re-contextualization, where national, local, and international agencies intertwine. It is focused on the active reception of PISA in six European spaces (Francophone Belgium, France, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, and Scotland) along its first three cycles. The paper identifies two contrasting developments: the Program's divergent uses and its attractiveness in different social worlds. The paper gives particular attention to what is called the ‘update of reference societies’ in the context of national receptions of PISA. These ‘updates’ are analyzed as part of a composite process that involves domestic reasons, either related to current agendas for education or to deep historical factors, and injunctions related to PISA's rationale and PISA objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to show how competence as an educational concept for the 21stcentury is struggling with theoretical problems for which the concept ofBildungin the European tradition can offer alternatives, and to discuss the possibility of developing a sustainable educational concept from the perspectives of competence andBildung. The method of the study is conceptual analysis of ‘competence’ andBildung. The paper concludes that (1) competence must be abandoned as an educational concept, as its problems cannot be solved due to the lack of a theory of educational content. With competence, the content aspect of education is obscured and hidden from public debate, and human autonomy is threatened. (2)Bildungcan be revised as an educational concept by reinventing educational content as subject to interpretation and open debate by autonomous individuals on all levels from the transnational to the classroom. (3) A revised ‘mimetic’ concept ofBildungcan prepare students for the knowledge society, as imagining is a type of higher order thinking essential for innovation and creativity. Instructional content in school is meaningful to students if they are able to imagine the representational object ‘as if’ it is both subject matter and real to them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Roma, today perceived as the most numerous European minority, face marginalisation and exclusion. Education is considered to be one of the focal points for improvement, and numerous studies have analysed and reported on the educational situation of Roma. Several studies have argued that Romani cultural values are not compatible with institutional schooling and that Romani families perceive schools as an alien institution. Other studies have drawn upon cultural–ecological theory (CE theory), developed by Ogbu and colleagues, and argue that the Romani cultural frame of reference is oppositional to academic success and thus suggest that successful Romani students distance themselves from Romani culture. The paper discusses the application of CE theory in the context of the academic discourse about the educational achievement of Romani students. Drawing on interviews with Spanish Romani university students, the paper argues that Romani students themselves challenge the assumption that educational success leads to cultural alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to compare the evolution of inclusive education policy in the four countries of an EU-funded research project (QualiTYDES) operating under the shared policy environment of the UN, EU and European Commission. A shared policy cannot of course be assumed to result in common legislative or provisional outcomes at national level. The different sociocultural, political, historical and economic contexts in each country shape its journey towards ‘compliance’ with an international convention (both pre- and post-ratification), and neither the route nor the destination can be assumed to be shared, given the scope for different interpretations of the same texts. This paper places the implementation trajectories of four European countries side by side as they attempt to move towards ‘inclusive’ education systems. Following a brief overview of the international education policy environment relating to the education of people with disabilities, we describe the national education policy responses in Ireland, Austria, Spain and Czech Republic in recent decades, including both legislation pertaining to special educational need and implementation of policies in practice. The comparison highlights the different manifestations of inclusive education current in each country, and also explores the challenges which have arisen as individual countries attempt to align international policy with provision in existing education systems, each with their own legacy interests, pressures and priorities. Examples of ‘gaps’ in this alignment are where learners with disabilities/SEN are likely to be failed, and represent the critical points at which barriers to fully inclusive education arise and negatively impact opportunity over the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many current national and institutional education policies address the issue of raising participation amongst young people and enhancing employability after leaving school or university. What sort of information are these policies built on? This paper compares national information systems from the last three decades across Europe that gather information on school leavers' and graduates' pathways after compulsory education. Using documentary data collected systematically the paper describes the main focus, the research design and the sampling frame of the school leavers' and graduates' information systems (SLGIS) arriving at several different typologies. This paper gives an overall picture of what sort of research is conducted within the area of school leaving and graduation and points out the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. Beyond these, the paper gives an indication of how the school leavers’ and graduates’ data are used within the different European contexts and points towards the next steps of this meta-research: case-studies on how the school leavers' and graduates' data are applied at the national and the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that crucial elements of the three most important theoretical models of twentieth-century education can be traced back to three Protestant denominations that were developed in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. First, rather than to look in depth at the Protestant Reformers' own educational ideas, the paper examines their perceptions of how the social or political order should be governed as appropriate for salvation. It then shows how educational models became possible in the context of the three Protestant denominations as they morphed across time and space: German Lutheranism and how it eventually gave rise to the theory of Bildung, which goes hand in hand with the dual world view of Lutheranism; the political theology of Zwinglianism and how it was developed into the Congregational religious order in England and led to the ideal of the virtuous and cooperative citizen in American pragmatism; and Geneva Calvinism and how it was transformed into Presbyterianism in Scotland, its principles of governance, and how it contributed to a certain idea of school organisation that is to be regulated by test psychology and experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a fully nonparametric framework to assess the efficiency of primary schools using data about schools in 16 European countries participating in PIRLS 2011. This study represents an original enterprise since most of the empirical research in the field is restricted to evaluations at regional or national level and focused on secondary education. For our purpose, we adapt the metafrontier framework to compare and decompose the technical efficiency of primary schools operating in heterogeneous contexts, which in our case is represented by different educational systems or countries. Similarly, we use an extension of the conditional nonparametric robust approach to test the potential influence of a mixed set of environmental school factors and variables representing cultural values of each country. Our results indicate that the intergenerational transmission of non-cognitive skills such as responsibility or perseverance are significantly related to school efficiency, whereas most school factors do not seem to have a significant influence on school performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various studies show that higher education institutions contribute to regional economic development by R&D, creation of human capital, knowledge and technology transfer, and by creation of a favourable milieu. It is brought out that the basic procedure is to sum expenditures of the college community (students, faculty, staff and visitors) created by the presence of the institution and apply multipliers to account for the interdependency of economic activity in a local economy, resulting in an estimated ‘local economic impact'. The aim of the paper is to investigate the relationship between students in tertiary education and economic growth in NUTS 2 level in Europe from 1998 to 2008 by looking whether the share of tertiary students (measuring human capital) is correlated with the share of knowledge-intensive employment (KIE) in different regions. The increase in KIE is related to increasing levels of GDP per capita and R&D expenditures. Taking into account regional-level fixed effects, the share of tertiary students is not statistically significant. We found out that the increase in KIE is related to increasing levels of GDP per capita and R&D expenditures. The share of students five periods ago has a positive relation with the KIE: as we assumed, it takes time for the human capital to contribute to the economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education became a rallying cry in Luxembourg's general elections of 1974. For the first time in the country's post-war history, the Socialists and Democrats entered the government, with new plans for education. The unbroken rule of almost 30 years by the Christian Democrats was over. New 'global' educational concepts were employed to introduce changes in the national curriculum, the aim being a transformation from an elite to a mass system of participation. One of these changes was the idea of the comprehensive school, which divided the electorates, parties and press respectively. Yet, this fundamental change has received little attention in the academic literature. What were the differences between the parties when it came to education policy? By intersecting politics, globalisation and education, this paper examines the impact of the election events of 1974 on Luxembourg's political discourse. The conclusion points to the central role the parties played in the proliferation of new educational norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by a super-diversity approach, this paper seeks to explore the influence of the 'ethnic hierarchy' of 'old' minority groups over the way 'new' migrants from Turkey negotiate their interaction in the daily life in three settings: Amsterdam, London and Barcelona. By focusing on highly educated migrants from Turkey who by virtue of their country of origin or religion are positioned at the bottom of 'ethnic hierarchies', it strives to understand the significance of these different sources of diversity in daily interaction. Applying boundarydrawing strategies developed for ethnic boundaries, this paper argues that education does not necessarily 'trump' nationality, but allows for substantial claims of difference. New migrants from Turkey carve out a space for themselves by on the one hand homogenizing Turkish or other Muslim communities through attributing 'unwanted' behaviours and on the other redefining the boundaries of their individual identity with emphasis on different sources of diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Ireland - one of Europe's most rapidly changing societies - as a case study and examines progress towards an inclusive education system. It explores policy and progress on developing an inclusive system under a number of key headings: social class, ethnicity, gender and disability. On the basis of analysis of official statistics and of research evidence from a study of the inclusion of children with disabilities and special educational needs, this paper assesses whether the impact of recent state policy and legislative change has significantly increased the degree of inclusion in the education system under the four headings. There is a particular focus on the area of disability. The particular questions explored in this paper are whether the unprecedented changes which have taken place in Ireland since the mid-1990s have resulted in a more inclusive system, an increase in equality, and an increase in inclusive practices in schools. On the basis of the available evidence, the results appear to be mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the purchase and usefulness of the notion of digital literacy. Comparing and contrasting theoretical formulations of digital literacy from the “top-down” and “bottom-up”, it reviews how the concept has been used across three research fields in Europe and Australia. An introductory section situates the ways in which digital literacy offers itself as a mean of empowerment in the tradition of the “new literacy studies” but at the same time exposes contradictions in terms of access and power. The first domain explored is media discourse, and this section of the paper examines ideas which have been circulating in Australia since the early 1990s about the need for children to become digitally literate. The second section examines how the concept of digital literacy has developed over the last decade in the domain of school policy, curriculum documents and practices in Norway; and the third section reviews transnational research to explore how the term digital literacy is used in the domain of children's and youth's out-of-school cultural digital practices. We argue that the term “digital literacy” incorporates more notions of exclusion and division than is commonly supposed, and that it exposes the contradictory politics of literacy education in new and provocative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging is exacerbating the loss of competences in the workforce and simultaneously young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEETs) are struggling to be reengaged in employment. These issues, which are deemed priorities for the European policy agenda, could be addressed by triggering active aging dimensions, valuing and exploiting older adult entrepreneurs' knowledge for enhancing youngsters' entrepreneurial attitudes, through mentoring. This paper reports the results of a study based on an intergenerational learning program, carried out in 2018 in Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The study was aimed at developing and testing one training on mentoring addressing 41 older adult entrepreneurs (55 and over), and two intergenerational learning trainings aiming at boosting entrepreneurial competences of 33 NEETs (aged 18–29). The impact of the program on older adult entrepreneurs and NEETs was assessed through a pre and post-evaluation using qualitative and quantitative tools. Findings at country level were treated as national case-studies and then the latter were compared by considering them as a multiple embedded case-study. Results indicated that, to different extent in the study countries, mentors learned and enhanced mentoring competences, e.g. active listening and the capability of orienting, improved well-being and self-esteem, social inclusion and active aging attitude. Moreover, NEETs acquired entrepreneurial and socio-relational competences by benefiting from the full exploitation of mentors' know-how and the trust relationship with them. Companies, trade unions, educational and voluntary organizations should cooperate to adopt intergenerational learning programs as good practices for older adults and NEETs' lifelong learning promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides a brief outline of the European Consortium for Accreditation in Higher Education project and future intentions. The paper notes that significant progress in the first two milestones in its road map has been achieved: mutual understanding of accreditation organizations and mutual recognition of accreditation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper we question how engineering education (and engineering) can support greater participation and inclusiveness in decision making and science and technology. We consider the work relating to engineering and society that is conducted by the scholars of science and technology studies, but which is rarely read or considered by the engineering educators who could draw on it. We consider the results of an initial analysis of data collected from interviews with the science, technology and society (STS) faculty across North America and Europe. STS looks at how technology affects society and how society affects technology, while engineers ‘create’ technology. Consequently the current authors suggest that it would be of great relevance to both engineering and STS to join up the thinking across these two arenas by focusing on a question that is not privy to the disciplines: is how can we create a socially just and sustainable future for all? We shall consider questions asked in STS of technology (engineering), e.g. what is its impact on society, who owns the technology, what are the political artefacts of the technology and we consider their influence on engineering (education). Using a phenomenographic approach to the research, 12 categories of description have emerged. Three of these categories are highlighted in this paper: participation; politics and policy; and citizenship, as they reflected themes that are rarely ‘discussed’ in engineering curricula but which appear to be uppermost in the STS arena. Participation was described in a range of ways, from approaches to participation to the case for and against it. In politics and policy much was made of the interplay between scientists and politicians and the power and knowledge games between these two arenas. Citizenship is a hotly discussed topic and is evident in a number of government agendas. Approaches to enhancing citizenship are discussed in a myriad of ventures, e.g. through public participation, being critical of information and through education. ‘It is only the oppressed who by freeing themselves can free their oppressors. The latter, as an oppressive class, can free neither others nor themselves. It is therefore essential that the oppressed wage the struggle to resolve the contradiction in which they are caught; and the contradiction will be resolved by the appearance of the new man: neither oppressor not oppressed, but man in the process of liberation. If the goal of the oppressed is to become fully human, they will not achieve their goal by merely reversing the terms of the contradiction, by simply changing poles...’. Paulo Freire, 1970 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the recent extension of price and production statistics to health, social assistance services and education. In the first part of the paper it is emphasised that using net prices instead of gross prices, as for the European harmonised consumer price index, is inaccurate. The index is thus partly hybrid and inconsistent. The second part of the paper explains why, even if quality is a significant issue, production measures should not rely on the user's changes of condition. It should rather be based on supplied quality. The paper then describes and discusses two complementary ways to estimate quality changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. As a relative newcomer from the Anglo/American curriculum tradition, I seek to highlight the ways in which Central and Northern European tradition of Didaktik has offered a new dimension and fresh insights to the notion of reflective practice. In particular, the paper seeks to emphasize the significance of Klafki's notion of Didaktik analysis, with its focus on meaning and its aim to re-enact the rationale for subject matters. Against this background, teaching is seen as a moral and reflecting activity that is primarily concerned with a search for meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares approaches to curriculum specialisation in secondary education in New Zealand and England. In both countries there have been movements towards increased specialisation, though these have been quite different in form and scope. In both countries specialisation cannot be divorced from broader education policies designed to increase devolution and choice and the paper discusses these contexts before analysing the different approaches to specialisation and attempting an explanation. The authors draw on findings from research undertaken in New Zealand schools. The paper identifies three dimensions that have played a part in influencing curriculum specialisation in both countries. These are opportunity, source of impetus and support. It is argued that while local initiative is possible in New Zealand, central planning and guidance is inadequate. In England while central planning is strong and support is available, it is far from clear that real specialisation is encouraged by existing curriculum and assessment frameworks. In these circumstances in both countries it seems likely that vertical, rather than horizontal, diversity will continue to hold sway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training of human resources in port facilities is of particular importance, especially if one considers that cargo crime could be facilitated by negligence or support of personnel. Recommendations regarding training and education are available in the SOLAS Chapter XI-2 and ISPS code. However, experts claim that too much freedom of interpretation is given to these frameworks in the process to define security training and education. As a consequence, harmonization of security may be hindered, leaving weak points and compromising commitment, security culture and awareness. In this paper, we aim to understand the present status of port security training and education courses that today are offered in Sweden. In particular, we look at the market for these services and the current level of harmonization. Results show that level of commitment, size of ports, cultural and working conditions may affect the outcome of security courses. From a harmonization viewpoint, we found that more work need to be done to ensure the development of common requirements on EU level, quality assurance systems, and distance learning courses. This paper concludes with a roadmap to harmonization for governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most cross-country studies on educational systems aim at identifying the net effects of single institutional aspects on students’ outcomes. In this paper, I argue that educational systems are best conceived as configurations of interconnected elements. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic assessment of how selected features of the educational system and of the immigration context combine in countries where second-generation immigrants severely underperform their native peers, net of socio-economic differentials. Using PISA data from 2006 and 2009, I compare the relative mathematics achievement of students with and without an immigrant background in 17 Western-European educational systems. The empirical results, based on fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, point to the existence of functional equivalents and institutional complementarities. Equally severe disadvantages can be found in the rigidly tracking systems of German-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, but also in the highly comprehensive Scandinavian systems, where a delayed entry in the educational system is coupled with a wide distance from the language of instruction. Moreover, even in the absence of tracking, second-generation immigrants critically lag behind their native peers if they are overrepresented in schools with a poor learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely observed that planning education in Europe is affected increasingly by various forces of Europeanisation and internationalization. While these trends are not regarded uncritically, very often commentators treat them as inexorable, or it is assumed that individual universities have considerable agency in how they respond. However, closer attention to the literature on Europeanisation shows that nation-states significantly mediate these processes. This is the focus of this paper, which draws on a case study of the creation of an integrated multi-country Masters programme in spatial planning. The analysis shows that national institutions still exert significant force, at least on the structure of the degree programmes that can be created, which universities seeking to Europeanize have to negotiate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reducing the number of early school leavers, those who quit education without at least a high school degree, is a key objective of educational policy throughout Europe. Previous research has shown that in particular youngsters from disadvantaged families face relatively high risks of school dropout. In this paper we use data from the 2009 ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey to examine how macro-level determinants influence school dropout risks among different social groups. Our results indicate that both the design of the educational system (tracking age, extent of vocational education) and characteristics of the socioeconomic context (poverty rate, unemployment patterns) have an impact on the social distribution of school dropout risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historically, to be a black public intellectual in Britain has, almost by definition, meant being located on the liberal-left spectrum, in terms of analyses of race and class. However, in the past decade a number of high-profile black British thinkers have explicitly positioned themselves at odds with black liberal and radical traditions of thought. This has been particularly apparent in their critiques of multiculturalism, youth and education. This paper uses recent documentary sources to analyse the discursive features of this emergent black social conservatism, examining its claims to authenticity, its claims to offer rethinking of multiculturalism and identity, and its objects of racialization. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis and critical theories of race and black intellectual production, it identifies internal tensions in this emergent discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Liberal Arts model of undergraduate education within small, internationally- focused University Colleges is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. This trend is most notable in the Netherlands, where the liberal arts model is acclaimed as filling a gap in Dutch undergraduate education at conventional research universities. This paper explores the status of the Dutch University College as simultaneously continuing the liberal arts tradition of the US, with its civic and pedagogic values, and providing a truly modern education preparing students to find innovative and inter-disciplinary solutions to the complex problems which define contemporary society. It concludes that the traditional role of a liberal arts education in cultivating intellectual rather than vocation skills does not have to exclude its appeal as providing the skills necessary for professional success in global sectors of the 21 st century knowledge economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Europe there are growing concerns about Islamophobia and far-right and anti-democratic movements. Until Anders Behring Breivik’s July 2011 attacks in which 77 died, Norway’s vulnerability was not perceived as great as that of other jurisdictions. Breivik declared his abhorrence of multiculturalism but also drew the world’s attention to intolerance and xenophobia in Europe, increasingly directed towards Muslims. In response, Prime Minister Stoltenberg spoke widely of ‘the new Norwegian we’, cautioning against exclusionary discourses and underlining that minorities are an equal part of Norwegian society. This paper examines education policy in the context both of extreme right political activity and national and international debates about nationalism and cosmopolitanism, considering ways in which policy supports an inclusive notion of nationhood, and ways in which it promotes an exclusive model of national identity. Drawing on framing questions from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s 1995 civic education study, relating to national identity and social cohesion, it examines how programmes address social cohesion, human rights, cultural diversity, and conceptualise minorities. It assesses the effectiveness of cross-curricular approaches to contribute to justice and equality and challenge racism in a multicultural society, proposing an inclusive model of education for cosmopolitan citizenship, which incorporates diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A large number of empirical studies have investigated the effects of women's education on union dissolution in Europe, but results have varied substantially. This paper seeks to assess the relationship between educational attainment and the incidence of marital disruption by systematizing the existing empirical evidence. A quantitative literature review (a meta-analysis) was conducted to investigate the temporal change in the relationship, net of inter-study differences. The results point to a weakening of the positive educational gradient in marital disruption over time and even to a reversal in the direction of this gradient in some countries. The findings also show that the change in the educational gradient can be linked to an increase in access to divorce. Finally, the results suggest that women's empowerment has played an important role in changing the educational gradient, while the liberalization of divorce laws has not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how the creation of a socially and ethnically mixed student body relates to mobility within the context of Beaumont Academy. This authoritarian school opened in 2004 under the ethos ‘structure liberates’. Based in a predominantly deprived, ethnic minority area of London, Beaumont seeks to culturally transform its students. With its outstanding GCSE results, the school has been championed as a blueprint for reform, yet the cultural implications underlying this approach remain unexamined. The ethos pathologizes the surrounding area while essentializing itself as an ‘oasis in the desert’ liberating students through discipline. The paper explores how mobility is embodied by students and the alterations or eliminations necessary to achieve it. These alterations produce raced and classed positions and bring them into focus, highlighting who needs to ‘adjust’ themselves to accrue value. Uncritical celebrations of mixed-ness conceal structural inequalities lingering beneath the rhetoric of happy multiculturalism and aspirational citizenship. These inequalities are exacerbated by a marketized education system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Irish society has experienced unprecedented demographic change since the turn of the twenty-first century, and increasingly, educators are facing the prospect of having to respond to the changing nature of cultural diversity in their classrooms. Traditionally characterised as ‘Catholic, white and Gaelic’, Irish schools are said to be finding it difficult to recognise and acknowledge new expressions of race, culture and religion. This paper focuses on the challenges facing educationalists in responding to cultural diversity within the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on empirical research conducted in Irish schools, we frame the discussion around a number of practical issues, namely, school dress, curriculum content and academic attainment, and explore the findings using liberal and critical multicultural theories. Finally, the paper contains philosophical discussion of the challenge of responding to cultural diversity and the implications this raises for policy and practice in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on the first, completed phase of a research project on inspection as governing in three European inspection systems. The data presented here draw attention to the rather under-researched associational activities of European inspectorates and their developing practices of policy learning and exchange, and highlight their significance as contributing to an emergent European Education Policy Space (EEPS). The paper is framed by original approaches to inspection that locate it as a set of governing practices, connected to changing governing forms and the growth of networks of relationships and flows of data across Europe. Comparisons are drawn between the relationships with Europe of inspectorates in Scotland, Sweden and England, drawing on Jacobsson's conceptualisation of regulative, inquisitive and meditative governance as a framing device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the Seventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics (CERME7) is presented. One paper described strategies applied in substraction tasks of students while another paper discussed the relationship between students' strategy use and their number sense. Linguistic structures expected to prevent students from applying number concepts were also explored in another paper.

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to all Grade 4 students (N = 10,742) at the beginning and end of school year 2010-2011. National policies were measured through (a) content analysis of policy documents, (b) interviews with policymakers, and (c) head-teacher questionnaires. Multilevel analyses revealed that most aspects of national policies for teaching and SLE were associated with student achievement in each subject irrespective of the source of data used to measure them. Implications are, finally, drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two aims: firstly, it sketches the history of language teaching in France and francophone Switzerland over a period of 200 years, with a particular focus on the teaching of German. Secondly, it seeks to shed light on some of the francophone historiographical approaches which have influenced recent research in this area. Historical sociolinguistic studies have highlighted the multilingual nature of the Ancien Régime. Mainstream conclusions from the history of language teaching methodology have been complemented by contributions from sociolinguistics which shed light on the developing status of teachers, their working conditions, their role in educational institutions and their professionalisation during the nineteenth century. From the beginning of the twentieth century, despite the dominance of monolingual ideology, discussion of modern language teaching started to take place transnationally. Today, historians are also working across borders in order to get a more accurate picture of the development of language teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper gives an overview of FLT in the German-speaking regions of Europe from medieval times to the present day, within a framework of language politics, communicative needs and educational ideologies. The languages addressed are French, Italian, Spanish, English, Russian and Turkish. Basic social and professional data of the various groups of teachers are provided. Formats of teaching discussed range from private tuition to state school curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent research into educational inequalities has shown the importance of decomposing social origins into parental class, status and education, representing economic, socio-cultural and educational family resources, respectively. But we know little about how inequalities in educational attainment at the micro-level map onto institutional characteristics of educational systems at the macro-level, if we treat social origins in a multidimensional way. Drawing on the rich over-time variation in educational systems in four European countries – Britain, Sweden, Germany and Italy – this paper develops and tests a number of hypotheses regarding the effects of various components of social origins on individuals’ educational attainment in different institutional contexts. It is evident from our results that a great deal of similarity exists across nations with different educational systems in the persisting importance for individuals’ educational attainment of parental class, status and education. But our findings also indicate that changes in the institutional features of educational systems have, in some instances although not in others, served to reinforce or to offset the social processes generating educational inequalities at the micro level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For some time the theme of the ‘European dimension’ in education has had a prominent place in school curricula across Europe. In practice the implementation of a European dimension in primary-school education still shows significant shortcomings. In some school systems Europe is not taken into consideration at all, while other school systems focus rather on formal aspects concerning Europe such as facts, names and figures. Compared to this, the ideas, preconceptions and experiences of children concerning Europe or other European countries are rarely taken into account. This paper, therefore, aims to provide an up-to-date contribution to European education taking into account the voices of children. Based on research results about children's perceptions of the world and of European countries, the paper offers perspectives on and suggestions about the implementation of a ‘European dimension’ in education, with special attention given to peer-learning. Methods of intercultural group learning and peer assessment are thereby used to underpin the co-operative learning environment for children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What has become known as the Bologna Process has evolved over a series of ministerial conferences with the last meeting in Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve in 2009. There has been a move towards recognition of the benefits to be gained from greater transparency, a general recognition of degrees across Europe, cooperation with regard to quality assurance, an emphasis on more flexible learning paths and lifelong learning, and the promotion of mobility. This paper highlights the ambitious objectives underpinning the Bologna Declaration and Process and the developments since the 1999 Declaration and the current position in particular with regard to medicine. The paper describes common myths and misunderstandings about the Process relating to the two cycle model, the progress of students after the first cycle and the concept of harmonisation rather than uniformity. It is argued that the Bologna Process can serve as a catalyst for the necessary change in medical education. With careful management and imaginative implementation and the necessary vision, creativity and enthusiasm, any problems can be circumnavigated and rich rewards achieved. The Bologna Process is constantly evolving and its dynamic nature is one of its strengths. Medicine has much to contribute and should be part of this Process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary contract migration schemes have experienced a revival in Europe. Such schemes mean that a significant number of migrant workers have limited access to rights and entitlements, let alone full citizenship. The temporary nature of their migration poses obstacles to traditional ways of organizing workers. This changing landscape of migration dynamics, thus, requires a changing landscape of migrant rights activism also. The focus in this paper is on collective activism by social justice organizations and their engagement with, and handling of, the subject matter of migrant workers' rights. Based on insights from scholars working on social movements and transnational advocacy networks, I argue that a transnational and trans-institutional perspective is required in addressing temporary migrants' socioeconomic and legal insecurities, and it is the concept of the 'network' which captures best these interactions between multiple actors at multiple sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]