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Sweden has actively pursued internationalisation policies at national level, in parallel to the pursuit of internationalisation strategies of individual universities. This article focuses on university responses towards internationalisation, and the interplay between external higher education environments and institutional positioning. We draw on empirical qualitative research in two of Sweden's largest universities, to examine institutional responses to internationalisation, expressed through documentary material and interviews with 32 senior leaders. Our findings suggest that the global research environment acts as a strong discursive driver for internationalisation actions, manifested in the strategic partnerships pursued by the two institutions. An equally powerful driver, is the national higher education sector as a context of constant comparisons and competition but also as a source of collaborative learning and exchange. The two universities exhibit strategic autonomy in their reading of the internationalisation imperative, and in constructing their actions and responses, although these are significantly framed by size and geography. In the Swedish higher education landscape, these two dimensions constitute a constraining physical and discursive context, underpinning the links between a global, internationalised environment, and the universities' self-image and positioning.

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. This article examines the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA). Drawing on documentary reviews and interviews with policy actors in the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, we trace the rise and fall of policy ideas in the new framework. The negotiations over the definition of EEA reveal new tensions between and within European institutions over specific policy ideas, with "lifelong learning" and "gender" as the most controversial ones. Continuing, longstanding tensions between the education and employment fields remain, and present a difficulty for the construction of a comprehensive and cohesive education policy program.

This article examines the national and European policy contexts that shaped the Swedish internationalisation agenda in higher education since 2000, the policy ideas that were mobilised to promote it, and the national priorities that steered higher education debates. The analysis highlights how domestic and European policy priorities, as well as discourses around increasing global economic reach and building solidarity across the world, have produced an internationalisation strategy that is distinctly 'national'. Drawing on the analysis of the most recent internationalisation strategies we argue that the particular Swedish approach to internationalisation has its ideational foundations in viewing higher education as a political instrument to promote social mobility and justice, as well as a means to develop economic competitiveness and employability capacity. In addition, internationalisation has been used to legitimise national reform goals, but also as a policy objective on its own with the ambition to position Sweden as a competitive knowledge nation in a global context.

The aim of this article is to identify the contexts and conditions that allow for successful education transitions and opportunities for the Roma minority in Europe. Thus far, transnational and national policies have failed to ensure Roma inclusion and education equality, even though some progress is visible. Using a combination of policy analysis and interviews with NGO and European Union actors, University academics and Roma students, the article examines the key contexts that frame education policies and create the necessary conditions for education transitions. It identifies the problems and challenges within the contemporary EU education policy frameworks and highlights the tensions between political rhetoric and policy commitments that are visible at national, transnational, and local levels. In addition, through a focus on individual student experiences, the article captures the lived reality of Roma students who have managed their education transitions with success.

This article analyzes the Swedish Strategy for Roma Inclusion. Drawing on interviews and documentary materials produced around the Strategy by official sources and Roma organizations, we describe its background, rationale, and evolution, as well as the rifts it has revealed around the issues of minority representation and the framing of inclusion. We describe the Strategy as a framework for education policy, aligned with the European Framework for Roma integration, and discuss it in relation to issues of representation, inclusion, and policy formation. We argue that, at the discursive level, the Strategy has engaged positively with the politics of Roma inclusion and has introduced a number of new issues in the public debate. However, at the same time it has given rise to policy tensions that reflect inadequate representation of and discussions with Roma stakeholders. For policy makers this has presented opportunities to rethink the design of the Strategy and to opt for an open final text that allows for a more versatile and flexible set of policy options to emerge at the local level.

This paper discusses the significance of international and transnational developments for education policy research, with a focus on the European Union. The rise of policy projects at the EU level since 2000, has altered the relationships between the state, EU institutions and education policy, in terms of the definition of values, purposes, and mechanisms of education change, in what is often referred to as the europeanisation of education policy and governance. In a time of financial crisis and extensive population migrations to and within the European space, the paper argues for further critical research on the EU institutions and their relationship to national education systems, as well as on the social justice dimensions and implications of considering both national and EU sites of policy for addressing young and vulnerable peoples' education and social futures.

The last 40 years have seen great political attention paid to issues of inclusion in education, both from international organisations and also individual nations. This flexible concept has been adopted enthusiastically in education reforms concerned with increased standardisation of teaching and learning, decentralisation of education management, reduced teacher autonomy and marketisation of school systems. This paper draws from a research project that explores inclusion as part of the education transformations in England and Sweden. These two countries have been very different in their state governance and welfare regimes, but have been following similar directions of reform in their education systems. The paper evaluates the changing policy assumptions and values in relation to inclusion in the schooling changes of the last few decades, through an analysis of policy contexts and processes, and a presentation of selected empirical material from research in the two countries. We argue that, despite the similar dominant discourses of competition and marketisation, the two education systems draw on significantly different paradigms of operationalising inclusion, with distinct outcomes regarding equality.

This article draws on research in one teacher education course in England and examines the ways in which the programme prepares student-teachers for inclusive practice in science teaching. We frame our analysis by drawing on aspects of institutional mediation of official policy in teacher education, as well as theories around inclusion and critical pedagogy. Using data from official sources, lecture material, and interviews, we argue that in order to achieve real inclusion in teacher education programmes, we need pedagogies of praxis that move beyond (and sometimes against) the official policy definitions of inclusion, and draw instead on a more critical approach to the formation of future professionals.

This article presents a comparative analysis of two country-specific cases. The comparative analysis is situated within the broad domain of the changing knowledge economy landscape for educational policy. The two cases examine the transfer, embedding and enactment of policies during the interactions between supranational, national, institutional and individual levels. Case study one concerns policy transfers and their mediation between the EU and the national levels, drawing from empirical research on the UK. Case study two explores the experience and interpretation of higher education mobility practices from the point of view of individual mobile academics located in, or connected to, the Dutch frameworks of higher education. We employ the concept of space to illuminate the effects on education policy and practice of the changing relationships between the national and inter-, supranational levels of discourse and practice. Our central thesis is that even though EU member states have lost sovereign power over defining education goals and outcomes, hindering dynamics remain. The extent to which policies and discourses from "outside" the national level are integrated and adopted "within" depends on the interaction between education-political discourses with existing institutionalised practices. In the case of the EU education policies we observe a weak form of policy transfer to the national level. In the UK there is a combination of a dense institutional field in education and a Eurosceptic political discourse. In the Dutch case of individual academics, on the other hand, we found a positive discourse around international academic mobility. A moderately adapted set of regulatory frameworks and emerging support structures facilitate to varying degrees the Dutch practice of academic mobility.

This article reviews the changing relationships between education policies and their links to social disadvantage and conceptions of school leadership. The argument is that definitions of leadership evolve as the assumptions underpinning the relationships between society, the economy and education institutions change. The article draws on the case of English education policy developments over the last 60 years, and places debates about school leadership against a set of changing relationships between the state and the institutions of the market. Defining a good school leader very much depends on ideas about the core school functions as well as dominant ideas about how these functions relate the institution of the school to major social and economic structures.

Open methods for coordinating (OMC) education policies in the EU rely on a number of techniques, one of which is policy learning. This article examines how policy learning and governance transform each other. More specifically, policy-learning in the education OMC becomes differentiated into four distinct learning styles: mutual, competitive, surface and imperialistic learning. While they overlap with some forms of policy learning discussed in the literature, they are also different by focusing upon interactions and political dynamics between the European Commission and the member states. In seeking to understand how governing through learning occurs, we argue that any "impact" of EU-level policy-learning is co-constructed by both the European Commission and the member states. The analysis of this article is grounded in a discourse analytical and institutionalist perspective. It draws on qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with officials from the Directorate General for Education and Culture in the European Commission and on EU documents generated during policy-learning activities. (Contains 18 notes.)

This article addresses two key questions about the convergence of education policies in the European Union (EU). How does the open method of coordination (OMC), a new governance instrument for the Europeanisation of education policies, change existing national education policy making and how can the OMC and national responses to it be researched? The authors argue that the OMC brings to national policy making a particular set of ideas about education, such as an emphasis on the contribution of education to building competitive economies and a new public management approach. The authors further suggest that the significance of such policy ideas in national education policy making can be best analysed through a combination of sociological institutionalism and discourse analysis. Hence, "implementation" of EU education measures--which have been developed through policy learning--should be understood as a combination of a "bottom-up" and "top-down" policy-making process that links EU and national levels. Finally, the article suggests--on the basis of a preliminary exploration of the implementation of education OMC measures in the United Kingdom and Slovenia--that education OMC policy ideas resonate to varying degrees in "old" and "new" member states. (Contains 3 notes.)

This article critically explores how a new form of European Union (EU) governance--the open method of coordination (OMC)--impinges on education policies. The first part discusses three key characteristics of the OMC, in particular its flexibility, reflexivity and reliance on the techniques of new public management. It also outlines briefly why the OMC is being applied to EU education policy. The second and main part of the article develops a critical analysis of the OMC in education by questioning to what extent it can be considered as a new form of EU governance and with what vision of Social Europe it is associated. Most importantly, the second part argues that there may be significant potential for the politicization of mutual policy learning in the context of OMC education measures. (Contains 12 notes.)

This article explores how the European Union coordinates education policy making through the use of a mode of governance called the open method of coordination (OMC). Part One briefly presents and discusses the mechanisms of the education OMC and its key characteristics. Part Two draws on contemporary theories of Europeanisation and discourse analysis to provide a theoretical and methodological framework for researching the response of member states to this policy coordination. Member states of the European Union are not seen as passive recipients of policies from the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Rather they engage in a complex process of selective adoption of policy measures that suit particular purposes, formulate various aspects of policy often in tension with other member states, and possibly reject those elements of policy that do not fit national priorities or timelines. Finally, the author briefly exemplifies these issues by operationalising key research questions around the issue of domestic response to the education OMC through a suggested research approach for the exploration of the process of Europeanisation of education policy. (Contains 1 table and 8 notes.)

This paper first examines the New Labour government's redefinition of equality of opportunity in Britain, mainly with regard to education and the ways in which it mediates "opportunity". In doing so, it also draws on wider social policy issues, such as the use of education policies to combat social exclusion. Second, the paper reviews European Union policies and selected documents that address questions of social inclusion, social cohesion and the role of education in achieving those policy goals. The main argument is that both New Labour policies in Britain and the examined EU documents promote rather minimal understandings of the term "equality of opportunity", while, education, in both cases, is given an enormous burden to carry in balancing increasingly liberalised market-driven economies, with the requirements of a socially just society. (Contains 10 notes.)

Discusses three concepts of term "social exclusion" and its implications for educational policy in the U.K. Examines views that social exclusion is "a product of under-achievement," represents "under-achievement within a context," or is the result of a "structural problem." Discusses policy implications of each view and explores similarities and differences between them. (Contains 42 references.) (KSB)