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.
