Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLEAR (CONSTRUCTING LEARNING OUTCOMES IN EUROPE: A MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF (UNDER)ACHIEVEMENT IN THE LIFE COURSE (CLEAR))
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-09-30
The project Constructing Learning Outcomes in Europe. A Multi-Level Analysis of (Under-)Achievement in the Life Course (CLEAR) is committed to better understanding the factors that affect the quality of learning outcomes (LOs) across European regions and intents to spark innovative policy approaches to tackle underachievement and increase social upward mobility for young people. It focuses the processes of constructing learning outcomes as the result of manifold intersecting institutional arrangements, spatial and socio-economic determinants, discursive and socio-cultural influences, as well as individual experiences, dispositions, cognitive and psycho-emotional abilities. The overall aim is to examine the combination of multiple factors shaping LOs and thus affecting their quality. Based on a better understanding of the processes of constructing LOs, CLEAR inquiries into the impact of policies to boost achievement and tackle underachievement, and designs participative activities at local level to spark innovative policy solutions. It conducts comparative, multilevel analyses in 8 EU countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain – by means of quantitative and
institutional analyses, expert surveys at national and regional levels, qualitative analyses and innovative participatory strategies at local level. Special attention is given to groups that are multi-disadvantaged and/or in vulnerable situations. Dynamic and relational concepts – Life Course, Intersectionality, Spatial Justice – help explore the several mutually intersecting dimensions of the issue – individual, institutional, structural, relational, and spatial. In line with Open Science, the project adopts an innovative transversal participatory approach, enabling young people and other stakeholders to proactively shape educational policymaking and contribute with their views, ideas, and experience-based knowledge, thus enhancing the impact of the project.
institutional analyses, expert surveys at national and regional levels, qualitative analyses and innovative participatory strategies at local level. Special attention is given to groups that are multi-disadvantaged and/or in vulnerable situations. Dynamic and relational concepts – Life Course, Intersectionality, Spatial Justice – help explore the several mutually intersecting dimensions of the issue – individual, institutional, structural, relational, and spatial. In line with Open Science, the project adopts an innovative transversal participatory approach, enabling young people and other stakeholders to proactively shape educational policymaking and contribute with their views, ideas, and experience-based knowledge, thus enhancing the impact of the project.
In the first 12 months, the research project CLEAR has achieved several significant results. First, CLEAR has successfully established the project’s research infrastructure and developed agile management practices to better organise the workflow and support Consortium’s research tasks (Objective 1). Second, CLEAR has successfully launched and completed the first research phase (Objective 2) devoted to the design of the overall research framework and the selection, conceptualisation, and validation of sites for the empirical fieldwork. Third, CLEAR has focused the correlations between learning outcomes, labour market, and socio-economic conditions in a cross-national/cross-regional quantitative analysis and identified clusters of regions and ‘statistical profiles’ of national/regional contexts (Objective 3). Fourth, CLEAR has designed, launched and continues to administer the online expert survey on policy coordination (Objective 6) with the aim to give space to multiple voices in decision-making arenas and make policy measures more effective, inclusive, and innovative. Fifth, CLEAR has designed and operationalised multiple transversal participatory strategies tailored to the different WPs (Objective 8). Sixth, CLEAR has developed the project’s communication, dissemination and publication strategies (Objective 9).
We have produced an Interim Policy Brief to raise awareness among educational stakeholders on the indispensable coordination between school education, vocational education and training (VET), adult learning and education (ALE) and higher education (HE) at all the geographical levels.
We have produced an Interim Policy Brief to raise policy- and decision-makers' awareness on different voices and perspectives on key futures of education, and its impact on future debates and policies, but also on spatial inequality as a present and future challenge in policy, and on the problem of coordination in multilevel governance arrangements, potentially impacting equality.
We have produced National Briefing Papers with a contextualised interpretation of the most recent data on the interaction between educational outcomes and the integration of young people into the labour market, which can serve as a basis for evidence-based policymaking at national and European levels.
We have produced an Interim Policy Brief to raise policy- and decision-makers' awareness on different voices and perspectives on key futures of education, and its impact on future debates and policies, but also on spatial inequality as a present and future challenge in policy, and on the problem of coordination in multilevel governance arrangements, potentially impacting equality.
We have produced National Briefing Papers with a contextualised interpretation of the most recent data on the interaction between educational outcomes and the integration of young people into the labour market, which can serve as a basis for evidence-based policymaking at national and European levels.