Pioneering policies and practices tackling educational inequalities in Europe

Project Information

PIONEERED

Grant agreement ID: 101004392

DOI

10.3030/101004392

Project closed

EC signature date 10 November 2020

Start date 1 March 2021

End date 29 February 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 3 500 000,00

EU contribution

€ 3 500 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PIONEERED (Pioneering policies and practices tackling educational inequalities in Europe)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Educational inequalities in terms of systematic variations in access to education, educational trajectories, and educational attainment structured along certain axes of inequalities such as social and ethnic background, gender and disability are a key challenge for European education systems. Educational inequalities have consequences at the individual level – as educational disadvantages translate into disadvantages on the labour market (income, risk of unemployment) and in other life fields, namely disadvantages in political participation, wellbeing, health and even life expectancy. At macro level, educational inequalities may go along with unused skill resources, democratisation deficits, lower societal coherence and lower economic prosperity.
Vis-à-vis these challenges, the overall objective of PIONEERED was to contribute to European social cohesion and inclusive economy through research on "the most promising policies and practices tackling educational inequalities" to inform the next generation of European and national initiatives and policies. Accordingly, the PIONEERED project included mapping the state-of-research regarding educational inequalities in the nine European PIONEERED countries, creating a methodological framework to analyse pioneering policies and practices and select the most promising, mapping and analyse policies to tackle educational inequalities, analysing quantitative data sets with regard to inequalities along certain axes of inequalities and its intersections (e.g. working class boys), and mapping and studying practices to tackle educational inequalities in formal and non-formal educational settings.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

After a successful online kick-off meeting in spring 2021, the state-of-research on inequalities was mapped in all the nine PIONEERED countries and a detailed methodological framework centering on the MILC approach (multilevel, intersectional, life-course) and an open approach to be able to also discover policies and practices beyond this approach was developed (WP2). The policy analysis work package (WP3) started as the first empirical work package. In this framework, we successfully mapped policies in all PIONEERED countries that were explicitly set up to tackle educational inequalities including policies deemed to impact equity of access, participation, and outcomes from a scientific and/or stakeholder point-of-view. Next, we researched large-scale international and national data sets, created harmonisation guidelines and carried out extensive quantitative analysis in the framework of WP4. We analysed the prevalence of intersectional educational inequalities in the PIONEERED countries and explored certain mechanisms related to educational inequalities, e.g. school segregation. We, then, selected promising practices in collaboration with national stakeholders through practice research in formal and non-formal educational settings in the nine PIONEERED countries. This involved interviews, focus group discussions, and guided tours in educational institutions (WP5). Finally, we synthesised all research results and created and discussed a list of pioneering policies and practices (WP6). The project ended after a successful final conference in Luxembourg involving PIONEERED researchers, stakeholders, policymakers, and practitioners in spring 2024. This event included the launch of the final PIONEERED report and a sustainable website.
All tasks, deliverables and milestones have been successfully reached. PIONEERED provided documents mapping policies (policy inventory), reports on the prevalence of educational inequalities including in-depth descriptions of promising policies and practices. Results of national research were frequently discussed in internal workshops and at international scientific conferences, at stakeholder and policymaker meetings and with practitioners.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project already went beyond the state-of-the-art during its first months as it created a unique conceptual and methodological framework to analyse educational inequalities and how to reduce them, triangulating different perspectives. As the PIONEERED researchers collaborated closely and exchanged ideas in different work packages, they transcended their fields gaining and sharing knowledge and skills. As researchers, stakeholders, practitioners and policymakers collaborated in different tasks, there was also an exchange between these different perspectives facilitating conclusions beyond the state-of-the-art. Main results: While not many policies and practices explicitly address intersectional inequalities, these are prevalent in all education systems with low social origin students of immigrant background appearing to constitute the most vulnerable groups. Common features of promising policies and practices include creation of inclusive school settings (focusing on internal differentiation and support measures and abolishing school segregation and early tracking), bridging formal, non-formal education and establishing bridges with informal education to foster sense of belonging and inclusion, and embedding schools within their communities as centers for lifelong learning, inclusion, and outreach.

Going Beyond_understanding of PIONEERING

New analysis approach