The objective of this Symposium is to make sense of contemporary developments in education governance at the European level. The title indicates the broad scope of the Symposium. We aspire to move beyond the debate on the intergovernmental and/or supranational nature of European Union (EU) governance and address the question of how the form of the political is re-articulated in the ‘multi-scalar meta-governance’ of the EU (Jessop 2007, see also Kjaer 2010 and Dale 2009). In doing so, we emphasise the importance of contextualizing education as one among numerous policy areas subject to EU governance.  

Our common entry point is that the ‘Europeanisation’ of education (Lawn and Grek 2012; Normand and Derouet 2017, Nóvoa and Lawn 2002) since the 1990s has involved the continuous articulation of hybrid and increasingly complex modes of government and governance. The Treaty of the EU is the most obvious manifestation that the EU involves a component of government. However, since education was first enshrined in the EU Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992, along with the principle of subsidiarity, the activities conducted as part of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) have proliferated to such a degree that they arguably go beyond the legal foundation in the Treaty (Garben 2013). This presents new possibilities, but also new contingencies, uncertainties and risks for those engaging with and affected by EU governance.

The contributors to the Symposium represent a diverse group of scholars that employ theories and concepts from sociology and political sciences to analyse and discuss the sets of relations between actors in the field, and the functions and mechanisms in EU governance. Furthermore, we are fortunate to include one of the key scholars in the field as discussant.

The four papers are complementary, each of them focusing on key aspects of EU governance, including: i) the political possibilities emerging from the informality and ambiguity of the OMC; ii) the political functions of knowledge and ‘epistemic authority’ in the European Commission’s Working Group on Schools; iii) governance and deliberation in the Education Committee; and iv) the re-scaling of social dialogue as a distinct aspect in EU governance.

Our papers are based on original research and involve varying sets of empirical material, including policy documents, research interviews, and ethnographic observations of policy-making processes. In line with our entry point, the papers reflect that the study of the Europeanisation of education requires contextualisation and considering the longer chains of governing and governance events in the EU.  Where the two first papers focus on the specificities of the OMC and the pivotal role of the European Commission in the Europeanisation of education, the latter two papers with various foci highlight how education governance is influenced by dynamics between EU institutions, and ‘cross-field effects’ between employment and education.

A common thread in the four papers concern the relationship between knowledge and governance (Nordin and Sundberg 2014). Always central, we show that the vocabulary of learning and sharing of knowledge in varying ways are constitutive of EU governance processes, as they play out in OMC Working Groups, Comitology in the Education Committee, and social dialogue. Given the continuous hybridization and complexification of EU governance, and their common basis in knowledge practices, we argue that making sense of the relationships between governance and knowledge has become more pertinent than ever.

Collectively, our papers advance the study of the Europeanisation of education by reflecting on the re-articulation of the political form(s) in EU governance, the sets of relations between policy actors involved, as well as useful theoretical approaches to furthering our understandings of governance in this unique policy space.

Dale, R. (2009). Constructing Europe through constructing a European Education space. In: Re-Reading Education Policies: A Handbook Studying the Policy Agenda of the 21st Century, edited by M. Simons, M. Olssen, and M.A. Peters, 369-386. Rotterdam: Sense. Garben, S. (2013). The Case to correct some of Maastricht's Mistakes: a Critical Assessment of Article 165 TFEU on Education and Suggestions for Reform. In: The Treaty on European Union, 1993-2013: reflections from Maastricht, edited by M. de Visser and A.P. Van der Mei, 599-622. Cambridge: Intersentia. Jessop, B. (2007). Multiscalar metagovernance in the European Union. In B. Jessop, State Power: A strategic-relational approach, 198-224. Cambridge: Polity. Kjaer, P.F. (2010). Between governing and governance: On the emergence, function and form of Europe’s post-national constellation. Portland, Oregon: Hart. Lawn, M., and Grek, S. (2012). Europeanizing Education: Governing a new policy space. Oxford: Symposium. Nordin, A., and Sundberg, D. (eds. 2014). Transnational Policy Flows in European Education: The making and governing of knowledge in the education policy field. Oxford: Symposium. Normand, R., and Derouet, J-L. (eds. 2017). A European Politics of Education: Perspectives from sociology, policy studies and politics. Routledge. Nóvoa, A., and Lawn, M. (eds. 2002) Fabricating Europe: The formation of an education space. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.