This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candidate country Serbia, with a focus on adult education policy. The study explores how the peripheral status of Serbia with its hybrid political regime combining autocratic and democratic features leads to the hybridisation of its adult education system,…

The need for change in the education system is obvious and overwhelming. But each stakeholder group has its own ideas about why the system is broken and how to fix it. Competing priorities, political inertia and diminishing budgets maintain the dysfunctional status quo. This essential text examines the underlying causes behind the key challenges…

Ecosystemic cooperation among the state, municipalities, and commercial actors is evident in the public education of Finland. The edu-ecosystems can include firm interdependences, value creation, co-specialisation, and co-evolution with an aim to sell products and services to the global market as well as to open up markets in a particular country.…

It is a truism to state that across the world the COVID-19 pandemic brought about and continues to cause disruption on a scale not seen before. As the pandemic is still very much ongoing, its lasting impact will take time to fully unfold. This article uses ecological theory to map the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people and their…

Several authors have underlined that processes of Europeanisation of education emerge despite the European Union's lack of formal power in this area. This article argues on the contrary that its lack of power precisely enables the EU to open up a range of possibilities for its involvement in this sector, among which the ET2020 Working Groups (WG)…

This report examines how First 5 Alameda can lead efforts to strengthen alignment and coherence across Alameda County's early childhood mixed delivery system. As the agency administering Measure C and partnering on the Oakland Children's Initiative, First 5 Alameda is well positioned to help build a more integrated early care and education system.…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 threw the world into an unexpected turmoil; schools were closed, exams cancelled, and educational systems were forced to react to deep and unexpected changes. In educational policy, however, the idea that we should prepare for an unknown, uncontrollable and risky future has been widely accepted long…

This essay examines the importance of student success in higher education, particularly for underserved and disadvantaged student populations. This essay provides a review of contemporary trends in national postsecondary completion and strategies to enhance student success outcomes which will provide thriving economies and a talented workforce.…

This article explores how global citizenship can be seen in the practices of science education in the context of international education policy and Finnish school and teacher education, with a focus on scientific literacy and sustainability education for promoting a sustainable future. Possibilities of science education to promote sustainability…

Mel Ainscow has recently written an interesting and important article concerning a challenging aspect of inclusive education, namely how to practically implement the ambitious ideal of inclusion in schools, where inclusion refers to making basic education of a high quality available to all learners by identifying barriers to access to educational…

There have been countless efforts to improve academic achievement in public schools across the United States, especially in urban school districts. Few efforts, however, use rigorous analytic modeling tools to anticipate and prevent the potential side effects of change. This chapter proposes the application of system dynamics on educational reform…

Based on an in-depth case study, this book reveals how politicians, as policy makers, conceptualise, develop and initiate large-scale education system reform and why it matters for whole system school improvement. Governments all over the world are spending increasing time, money and effort on improving school systems but the evidence suggests…

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) endeavors to promote both challenging academic instruction and more holistic aims--namely, intercultural understanding and respect. Throughout its history, the IB system has managed at least three ongoing tensions, which stem from its multifaceted aims and which the system has evolved to manage.…

The article argues for intersectionality as analytical concept for transnational education policy analyses of teachers' work. We first lay out the conceptual and methodological groundwork, and then revisit two case studies of teachers' work to deepen understanding of the conceptual framework for intersectional transnational education policy…

Taking a point of departure in the paradoxical fact that the increase in educational knowledge leads to an increase in uncertainty for educational organisations, this article explores how uncertainty and contingency have increasingly become an integral part of school governance. The article draws on Niklas Luhmann's theory of 'World Society' as a…