Education 2030, the international community’s renewed, holistic, ambitious and aspirational agenda, aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all based on a humanistic vision which deems education as a human right and a public good (UNESCO, 2015); that is, a shared responsibility to which different stakeholders may contribute. This panel will explore the specific contributions that educational researchers may make, in terms of conceptual, theoretical and practical perspectives, to the implementation of the Education 2030 Agenda. In particular and attending to the emphasis placed on equity and inclusion in the Framework for Action, the panel will enquire as to the factors that may enable education systems to reach the most disadvantaged populations.

Beginning with a presentation of the vision, principles and goals entailed in the Education 2030 Agenda, the panel will discuss how research on the effects of certain policy regimes, funding mechanisms, institutional frameworks, pedagogic approaches, and specific forms of governance of education may contribute to the creation of quality learning opportunities and/or to enhancing access, participation and outcomes in existing educational structures.

Discussants will address the targets and the challenges associated with their achievement, and will signal how research could shed light, for example, on the barriers that prevent the most vulnerable from accessing, participating and benefitting from educational opportunity, and on the policies and practices that may be –and have been- effective in expanding learning opportunities and redressing inequality.