In 2004, Slovenia became a member of the European Union (EU), thereby fully entering into joint European cooperation in the field of education. This is primarily based on the open method of coordination (OMC), consisting of different policy instruments (common goals, benchmarks, indicators, peer learning, comparative reports), by which member states are supported and triggered to develop their educational system in a certain, European, way. Since 2000, this cooperation is organised within the so-called ten-year strategic frameworks of European cooperation in education and training (E&T 2010, E&T 2020, E&T 2030). At the end of the I&U 2010, the European Commission pointed out that the data on how the OMC is being implemented in member states are deficient and missing and the scientific debates (e.g. Alexiadou & Lange, 2015) exposed the need for in-depth empirical research in the field. At the end of E&T 2020, the emerging European education area is facing similar challenges - a lack of studies that would explain the ways in which member states pursue European goals in the field of education (European Commission, 2019). Although the OMC since 2000, when it was formally introduced in the educational sector with the Lisbon strategy (European Council, 2000), has lost its visibility in EU policy documents, as well as attention in scientific debates, Gornitzka (2018) explains the education sector upheld its governance arrangements. The question of its implementation in member states and the strength of Europeanizing national educational systems, therefore, remains actual, especially in times, when the European Education Area is to be established by 2025 (Council of the EU, 2021).

Objective, research question

The main aim of this paper is to explicate the Europeanization of the Slovenian educational space in the last two decades, namely, by in-depth comparative empirical insight into the implementation of the E&T 2010 and E&T 2020 strategic frameworks. The paper, therefore, addresses the research gap in the field, by providing an innovative in-depth longitudinal research framework of the OMC implementation in the last two decades in the particular member state. The research question, the paper address is: “How the OMC and its changing governance arrangements have influenced the development of Slovenian educational space in the last two decades?”  

Conceptual and theoretical framework

In the paper, we study OMC in the field of education policy and its influence on member states (e.g. Slovenia) within a theoretical framework that presents the combination of theoretical postulates of the concept of a new mode of governance as the outcome-oriented governance, governance of comparisons, governance of problems and governance of knowledge (e.g. Altrichter, 2010; Grek, 2010), theory of policy learning (e.g. Radaelli, 2008) and the concept of evidence-based policy-making (e.g. Pellegrini & Vivanet, 2021). In the paper, we use a complex multilevel framework of analysis, which serves us for the explanation of conditions under which OMC triggers member states to reach EU goals and therefore initiate the convergence of the European educational space and establishment of the European Education Area by 2025. In that way we explicate a combination of ideational and organizational pressures, stimulating member states to adapt their own ideas and organizational structures in order to attain common EU goals (Bórras & Radaelli, 2011).

This paper is qualitatively oriented. In order to address the research question we employ a methodological framework, including the following methods and techniques: a) comprehensive review of the academic literature on new modes of governance, open method of coordination, policy learning theory and evidence-based policy; b) an analysis of Slovenian educational legislation, EU official documents in the field of education policy, non-official documents, press releases, newspaper articles and speeches since 2000 onwards; c) semi-structured interviews conducted with relevant officials in the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (9 interviews conducted in 2012 and 7 interviews conducted in 2021), the Slovenian Permanent Representation in Brussels (1 interview conducted in 2012 and 1 interview conducted in 2021), f) mailed questionnaires that were sent to Slovenian experts in the field of education that are also active at the EU/international level (n = 22 in 2012; n = 4 in 2021), to education policy makers (n = 8 in 2012; n = 5 in 2021), and to stakeholders (headmasters) (n = 91 in 2012; n = 147 in 2021); g) the analysis of already existing statistical data. The data collected in two waves (2012, 2021) enable us to get important longitudinal insight into the Europeanization of Slovenian educational space in the last two decades and comparative insight into the implementation of the E&T 2010 and E&T 2020 in Slovenia. As the key strategy for the quality assessment of research findings, we employ triangulation, which enables not only testing the validity of research results but also gaining a better understanding of the phenomenon studied.

An in-depth case study of the OMC’s influence on the Slovenian educational space in the first two decades of Slovenia’s formal EU membership provides so far missing empirical evidence about the OMC’s influence on the national educational space. The paper includes a critical evaluation of the OMC reception in the Slovenian educational space in the past two decades in a comparative perspective and presents the author’s views about the further development of the Slovenian educational space within the EU environment. In critically estimating how Slovenia has not selectively neither adopted nor rejected the OMC (institutional and ideational) pressures on the development of the national educational space in the last two decades, the paper presents an alternative way of understanding, how common European cooperation in the field of education has widened and deepened since 2000 onwards and how the establishment of the European Educational Area has become a reality. In the paper, OMC is therefore explicated as a meta-instrument (toolkit) consisting of technical and social devices, which in accordance with the representations and means these hold, establish a specific socio-political relationship between the EU and the member states therefore ensuring the attainment of the common EU goals in the education policy field. The paper with its innovative long-term approach presents an alternative way of researching OMC’s influence on member states and with its conclusions from one perspective explains the social reality - the establishment of the European Educational Area.

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