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(1) Background: The equality of life chances in Germany is often assessed along the lines of a west/east and urban/rural differentiation in which the latter usually perform worse. One currently popular proposal for addressing these inequalities is to strengthen cultural and arts education. The question arises to what extent regional characteristics genuinely influence participation opportunities and to what extent individual resources still play a decisive role. (2) Methods: Using descriptive analyses and multilevel logistic regression modelling, we investigate the distribution of and participation in non-formal cultural education amongst German youth. (3) Results: We find that differences are more complex than a simple west/east or urban/rural divides. Rather, cultural activities must be considered in terms of their character in order to assess the mechanisms at play. There seem to be differences in the dependency on district funding between very peripheral and very central districts that frame the cultural infrastructure. (4) Conclusions: Regional discrepancies are not uniformly distributed across different fields of education or infrastructure. Simplifying statements that classify peripheral regions the general losers can be refuted here. Simultaneously, more comprehensive data could yield significantly more results than we are currently able to produce.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to enormous societal changes worldwide and touched many different areas of daily life. One of the most serious restrictions to contain the pandemic was the closure of schools and kindergartens. Particularly in countries with comparatively low levels of digitalization in schools, this situation opened up opportunities for private actors to gain importance and influence in the education sector. For this article, we draw on policy network approaches and network theory to analyze Twitter discussions around digital learning and homeschooling during the period of school closures in Germany due to the COVID-19 crisis. We use social network analysis to identify the actors involved and their influences in the issue-specific Twitter communication network. In recent years, Twitter has been increasingly used for exchanges on education policy content, mainly by political and civil society actors. Our study shows that with respect to digital learning and homeschooling, it was primarily individual experts and consultants as well as corporations which influenced the discourse. In particular, it appears that Twitter is used as a forum to promote corporations' own products and platforms, including by globally operating corporations such as Microsoft and YouTube, while public actors remain barely visible.

In recent years, partnerships between schools and non-system actors, that is, cross-sector alliances, have become increasingly important in education systems around the world, raising concerns and doubts regarding the influence of non-school actors in educational management and leadership. In these debates, trust is regarded as a key element for the success of cross-sector alliances. Although both trust and cross-sector alliances have been increasingly studied in education research in recent years, an investigation of the role of trust in such relationships is still missing. This article analyzes relational trust in cross-sector alliances in education in order to contribute to further theory building. To this end, it implements a qualitative design based on semi-standardized interviews with 21 individuals responsible for managing an illustrative cross-sector alliance. Interviews are analyzed with the help of an approach based on Grounded Theory. The analyses result in a five-dimensional theory of trust in cross-sector alliances, comprising (1) individual attitude, (2) time, (3) professional affiliation, (4) power, and (5) multiplexity. The theoretical approach developed in this article has practical implications for networked leadership and school principals' work and training as it provides information regarding the skills and knowledge needed for managing cross-sector alliances.

Educational collaborative networks (ECNs), as instruments for achieving educational goals through the integration of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have become frequent elements of public education worldwide. Despite their contribution of additional resources to the education enterprise, the roles of philanthropic foundations in ECNs are particularly controversial. Research suggests that leaders of ECNs such as policy makers, administrators, and school principals design and coordinate governance structures to guide participants' behaviour. However, the importance of governance design and coordination in ECNs for governing philanthropic roles is yet to be systematically analysed. This article centres on the relationship between the design and coordination of governance boards and role-related participation of philanthropic foundations. A mixed methods design is implemented based on secondary analysis of a German large-scale standardised survey and an in-depth case study conducted in a south German municipality. Results confirm that leaders of ECNs impact philanthropic engagement via the design and coordination of governance boards. Participation in ECNs can take on diverse roles of representing particular interests, pursuing innovation, or providing services and are explained by underlying governance-related mechanisms. Identified associations within governance boards and role-related participation of philanthropic foundations in ECNs offer valuable insights for leadership in education.

Entrepreneurship education is increasingly prominent in university and school curricula worldwide, following its intensive advocacy by intergovernmental organisations and national governments as a remedy for the urgent pressures to better prepare students for today's globalised and highly competitive workplace. This study analyses the official policy documents of two of the most influential intergovernmental organisations -- the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development -- in a quest to understand how each of these organisations presents and promotes entrepreneurship education. We argue that while the rationales and problems the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development address regarding entrepreneurship education differ somewhat, the two organisations propose a very similar solution for entrepreneurship education implementation, occasionally even advocated through formal collaboration between the two intergovernmental organisations. We suggest that this collaboration exemplifies how intergovernmental organisations seek to govern in line with a globally dominant logic by providing universal, de-contextualised solutions to various problems. We build on previous studies on other policies these intergovernmental organisations advocated (e.g. quality education and modernisation of higher education) to learn about the nuances of such policy moves. We conclude by suggesting a critical understanding of such policy convergences and outlining recommendations for future research.

This article explores perceptions of local philanthropic foundations situated in community-based initiative (CBI) policies that aim to achieve educational goals through the establishment of collaborative connections between schools and multiple local actors. Although roles of philanthropy in public education are controversial, scholars have yet to rigorously consider the specific local context of CBIs. We aim to help fill this research gap by investigating the main collective orientations that underlie actions of local foundations in German CBIs. Based on semi-structured interviews with chairpersons in a south German municipality, we examine patterns of experience and attitude through application of the documentary method. The reconstructed collective orientations allow for the identification of four primary roles of philanthropy in CBIs. Notably, the addition of an advocacy role relocates a phenomenon that was previously identified as a disruptive element at a (supra-)national level. These roles suggest potential for philanthropy to engage in local education policy-making. As such, they pose pressing questions that need to be addressed by public authorities and regulators.

Elaborating on stakeholder salience theory, this study aims to explore the different agendas and modus operandi of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within the Israeli public education system. This article is part of a larger study, focused on NGOs that offer services within the secular state education sector in the field of 'Jewish (religious) identity.' Through a case study of one such organisation in particular comprised of several units, we attempt to understand the different processes, actors and interests at play, based on data from semi-structured interviews with NGO representatives, school leadership and parents. Using a dynamic view of stakeholder salience theory, we identify the different actors involved and classify their roles in the various relationships. The complex Israeli context and focus on religious NGOs offer us a unique perspective on the role of organisations offering services within the Israeli school system and society in general. We find the expected controversy over these NGOs' presence in secular schools to have been muted by a convergence of opinions resulting from Israeli 'post-secularism.'

In recent years, teachers around the world have been increasingly confronted with various expectations concerning the improvement of their classroom practices and school activities. One factor widely acknowledged to facilitate school and classroom improvement is a strong collaborative culture among teachers. As such, teachers are expected to work in teacher teams, to collaborate closely with colleagues, to co-construct classroom practices, and thus to strengthen trust relationships within the team. A growing number of researchers has analyzed how teachers address these expectations. They suggest that there is a link between teachers' embeddedness in collaboration networks and teachers' trust relationships. The present study seeks to contribute to the research literature by presenting results of Social Network Analyses (SNA) and exponential random graph models (ERGMs) on teacher collaboration in nine secondary schools in Germany (N = 366 teachers). We investigate how the involvement of teachers in co-constructive collaboration in schools, measured by the amount of team teaching (TT), relates to teachers' trust levels. Results of our analyses suggest that a high amount of TT is not necessarily related to a higher degree of trust among teachers at the school level. However, a high involvement of teachers in TT is related positively to their being perceived as trustworthy. Furthermore, the emergence of trust relations in teacher networks depends on general network characteristics, such as homophily, reciprocity and transitivity.

With the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), inclusive education has become the main alternative to special schools for the schooling of children with disabilities. In order to promote the global implementation of inclusive education, a variety of stakeholders form networks to transmit and exchange information and knowledge concerning political strategies. However, little is known about the actors and actor groups involved in these networks. In the present paper, we draw on general network theory and policy network theory to examine the Twitter communication network that has formed around the topic of inclusive education. Using exploratory and inferential social network analysis, we show that disabled persons' organizations and international organizations, such as the United Nations, hold a particularly central position in the network. This position enables them to potentially exert influence on the content and flow of information within the network. Aside from that, business actors are active participants in the network. Moreover, the Twitter network shows some structural patterns that can also be found in policy networks. Our findings help to map the global sphere of inclusive education promotion and can contribute to a broader understanding of global processes in inclusive education policy.

The rise of cross-sectoral collaboration initiatives has been widely documented. While schools and third-sector organizations share important educational goals in these initiatives, the predictors of their identification with common goals have not been examined systemically to date. This article analyses predictors of common goal identification within educational collaborative initiatives through a case study of a German initiative aimed at tackling inequality in education. By implementing a mixed-methods design -- including surveys, semi-structured interviews and social network analysis, combined with logistic regression and qualitative content analysis -- we demonstrate that an actor's identification with the common goal is shaped not only by individual characteristics, but also by his/her relative position within the collaboration. Findings of this study have practical implications for networked leadership and school principals' work and training, since they inform regarding the particular settings, skills and knowledge needed for managing cross-sectoral collaboration to the benefit of schools.

Intergovernmental organizations (IOs) increasingly promote global citizenship education (GCE) and related topics. This paper analyses the body of scholarship on GCE that focuses on teachers and interprets the development of environment-related education (ERE) within the GCE discourse. Using a novel, data-rich methodology employing Natural Language Processing and Social Network Analysis, we trace how ERE is represented within the GCE scholarship and how this representation evolved during the last ten years. We argue that ERE topics have become increasingly prominent within the GCE discourse, as a tendency toward subject-specific discourse emerged in GCE, heavily influenced by intergovernmental organizations' policies. It is important to trace and understand such transformations, given their possible influence on curricular development and classroom experiences. Future research directions and possible practical implications are discussed.

Since the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), far-reaching efforts have been made to implement ESD worldwide. While ESD seems increasingly to be diffused as a social innovation related to environmental education, we still know little about how the concept is implemented through social relations and what role trust plays in this process. This article applies descriptive and inferential techniques of social network analysis to study how ESD is realised through social relations in Germany and the role of trust in this context. It is assumed that innovations such as ESD, which have been launched at the global level, are employed and diffused through communication exchanges at the regional level. Empirical results from this study show that the realisation of ESD is concentrated on the regional level, demonstrating social relations with high density within the regions and a lack of links beyond regional borders. Furthermore, the links of actors involved in implementing ESD tend to be concentrated on actors from the same sector. Explanations for this can be found in conceptual differences between ESD and environmental education, which have resulted in a serious void between political decisions, educational plans and the practical implementation of ESD.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address school-NGO interactions by analyzing the power of foundations -- a specific type of third sector organization or NGO in education. Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected through a quantitative survey, qualitative interviews, official documents, reports and websites. Social network analysis and grounded theory are used to analyze the data with the aim to develop a theoretical approach. Findings: The study identifies three dimensions, i.e. relational, structural and discursive dimensions of power. Based on the analysis of an illustrative multi-stakeholder initiative, the paper highlights the role of foundations in framing educational settings, concepts and structures of the education system as such. Practical implications: The three-dimensional power perspective offered in this paper is particularly useful for scholars investigating school-NGO interactions or multi-stakeholder partnerships in education. Furthermore, it is of crucial importance for practitioners, school principals and education administrators dealing with school-NGO interactions given that foundations seem to be increasingly able to draw on new sources of power in these interactions. Originality/value: While the number and power of the third sector in education continues to rise worldwide, there is wide consensus that NGO power in education has, to date, hardly been researched. This paper contributes to this dearth of research by uncovering foundations' different sources of power and by developing a theoretical approach for analyzing the power of third-sector organizations in education.

The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has brought about extensive education policy reforms towards inclusive education in many countries around the world. At the same time, it has been observed that intergovernmental organisations and non-state actors have been extensively involved in establishing these reforms. To better understand the roles of these actors in this field, we conducted a systematic literature review combined with network visualisation techniques. Specifically, we applied the policy cycle framework to analyse peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2020 on the implementation of inclusive education and the roles of intergovernmental and non-state actors therein. The systematisation of findings from the studies included in our review indicates that inter- and non-governmental organisations are the dominant actor groups, which become involved through the provision of capacity development support and implementation in practice. At the same time, researchers and experts are becoming increasingly involved at different stages of the policy cycle, from policy formulation, to capacity development, to implementation in practice. Overall, our results provide a comprehensive picture of intergovernmental and non-state actor involvement in inclusive education and can contribute to a better understanding of implementation processes in the field of inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAlthough education is acknowledged as an important tool to address climate change, only some countries refer to education within their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Using a mixed-methods approach, we explore the question of how countries frame education within their climate pledges. First, we examine NDCs with a discourse network analysis (DNA) to identify country framings of education and climate change and potential discourse coalitions among countries. Education is most often referred to as an instrument to adapt to climate change and to a lesser extent as an instrument to mitigate climate change. Second, we use a regression analysis to complement the DNA results. We find that countries with a higher exposure to climate change impacts are more likely to mention education, which explains the prevalence of the adaptation framing. Moreover, we find that countries with a higher GDP per capita are less likely to include education within their NDCs. These results confirm the traditional divide between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries also with regard to education in NDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]