About

Network 21: Politics of Education and Education Policy Studies
In focus of this NERA network are studies in the political aspects of education and educational policy making. A point of departure is that educational phenomena are political. They are based on power relations and are producing significant differences in culture and society.

Given this interest in “the political” we are studying political aspects in teaching and learning as well as in the making of educational systems. This also means that we are interested in education policy making as well as in the politics of educational technologies related to notions of performance and governance. Of special interest today is the restructuring of educational systems and the working of neo-liberal reforms and self-regulating technologies. And for tomorrow – the sustainability of politics – might be of vital interest?

The Nordic dimension is important here – given for instance experiences of Nordic Welfare State Education in transition – as well as notions of internationalisation and globalisation in educational systems and processes.

With this focus we are interested in research on the politics of educational reforms and education policy studies as well as the politics in pedagogical processes, their contents and outcomes.

We are currently dealing with the following topics:

• Education policy-making and the politics of educational reforms
• The politics of expertise
• The politics of learning
• Globalisation and the politics of education
• The politics of inclusion and exclusion

Given our interest in the politics of education we are interested in cooperation with other networks, e.g. Sociology of Education, Curriculum Research, Gender and Education etc.