Session Information
05 SES 14 A, Symposium: Tackling Inequalities Through Educational Diversity
Symposium
Contribution
Given their promising equalising effects, strengthening the link between the different settings and modalities of formal, non-formal and informal education has become the central goal of inequality-related education policy, research and professional practice (Hadjar et al., 2022).The corresponding efforts to address the complex vulnerabilities of children and young people show a broad spectrum: from the recognition of different ways of acquiring competences to the networking of different institutions and a stronger inclusion of out-of-school activities in formal education to a corresponding interplay of diverse teaching and learning modalities in complex learning ecologies (e.g. Russell et al., 2013). However, given the diversity of educational landscapes in Europe, a variety of concrete patterns in the interlinking of educational settings and learning activities is also evident, which have emerged at the intersections of national welfare/education systems and In particular (in)equity structures (West & Nikolai, 2013), institutional pathways and supranational/global forces (Hoppers, 2006, Roosma & Saar 2010). The variance of these policies and initiatives to combat inequalities precisely by means of diversity of education relates both to a) what is understood by formal, non-formal and informal education/learning, b) which patterns of relationships between these three (exemplary) types of education are sought (complementary, alternative, supportive, combating, transformative, etc.) and c) from which institutional structures and modes of separation, connecting and blurring of formal, non-formal and informal education these attempts gain their legitimacy and their actually realised or just hoped-for effectiveness (e.g. Schmachtel, 2015). Even if this discoursive differentiation of formal, non-formal and informal education is mainly found in governance-related perspectives, the aim of diversifying education also leads professionals everyday striving for more equity as well. Against this backdrop, the panel focus at the discursive yet idiosyncratic expert knowledge of professionals and other experts and stakeholders on actively combating educational inequalities through a ‚diversification of education/learning‘ in three different national education/welfare systems – Germany, Spain and Norway.
Each contribution will present a qualitative case study on pioneering educational practices in combating educational inequalities in their specific national, regional and/or local contexts, selected along the MILC approach of the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation project PIONEERED (Seiler et al., 2021), which inquiries into pioneering policies and practices in tackling educational inequalities across nine countries along an intersectional understanding of inequalities. The case studies provide a comprehensive approach to understanding how practices and policies of interlinking formal, non-formal, and informal education/learning in tackling inequalities are embedded in a dynamic context of change (Simons, 2009). By that, it allows for a balanced comparative analysis of the similarities and differences within and across the educational fields and national contexts. Each presentation will specifically address the following questions:
- How does each intervention capture the complexity of educational inequalities? How do practitioners relate inequalities and their respective interventions to the diversity of educational sectors, settings, modalities and activities?
- What patterns of linking and interweaving formal/non-formal/informal education are visible in practitioners' practice and how are these patterns linked to complex inequalities in education at the levels of access, treatment and impact?
- In which (sub)national political contexts, pathways and discourses are these patterns embedded? How are the common institutional contexts contested and changed by these pioneering practices?
The presented (sub)national case studies will be discussed comparatively with a view to the question of how this perspective on the link between formal/non-formal/informal education, can help to identify instruments to combat inequalities across Europe based on the knowledge of experts and professionals in the respective contexts. The discussant's commentary will lead to this comparative perspective.
References
Hadjar, A., Alieva, A., Jobst, S., Skrobanek, J., Grecu, A., Gewinner, I., De Moll, F. & Toom, A. (2022). PIONEERED: Elaborating the link between social and educational policies for tackling educational inequalities in Europe. Sozialpolitik 2022(1). https://www.sozialpolitik.ch/article/content/480/show/183 [19.07.2022] Hoppers (2006): Non-formal education and basic education reform: a conceptual review. International Institute for Educational Planning. Roosma, E.-L., & Saar, E. (2010). Participating in non-formal learning: patterns of inequality in EU-15 and the new EU-8 member countries. Journal of Education and Work, 23(3), 179-206. Russell, J., Knutson, K., Crowley, K. (2013). Informal learning organizations as part of an educational ecology: Lessons from collaboration across the formal-informal divide. J. Educ. Change 14: 259-281. Schmachtel S (2015) Local partnerships as ‘rationalized myths’: a critical examination of the micro-discourse in educational partnership working. Crit. Policy Stud. 10(4): 448–467. Seiler, S., Herzing, J., Erzinger, A., Jensen, J. & Skrobanek, J. (2021). Methodological guidelines: MILC framework for measuring inequalities and their intersectionalities (D 2.2). https://www.pioneered-project.eu/public-deliverables/PIONEERED_101004392_D2-2_methodological_guidelines_final.pdf (15.01.2023). Simons, H. (2009). Case Study Research in Practice. Sage West, A., & Nikolai, R. (2013). Welfare Regimes and Education Regimes: Equality of Opportunity and Expenditure in the EU (and US). Journal of Social Policy, 42(3), 469-493.
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