The educational context children are born into profoundly shapes their life chances—not only economically, but also in terms of civic and political engagement. While it is well established that education matters, recent research highlights how institutional variation in education systems influences a broad range of outcomes. Yet we still lack systematic, comparative data on the educational contexts in which today’s adults were educated, the political forces shaping those systems, and their long-term impacts. We also lack strong comparative theory to explain why post-war education systems diverged across countries. In an era marked by rising geographic and educational inequalities and political polarization, understanding how education systems affect social mobility and democratic participation is crucial for developing inclusive, effective policy. SCHOOLPOL contributes to this goal by offering data and insights to better address persistent disadvantage, improve social cohesion, and support democratic institutions.
The project had four core aims. First, to document and explain variation in national education systems (WP1), by building detailed longitudinal data on primary and secondary education structures and reform trajectories in 20 countries from 1945 to the present. This included novel measures of tracking, access, privatization, standardization, and reform politics. Second, to understand the geographic dimensions of educational inequality and their political implications (WP2). With rising interest in regional disparities, WP2 examined how educational inequality varies spatially and how it relates to evolving patterns of political behavior. Third, to assess how education systems shape intergenerational mobility and political preferences (WP3), asking whether growing up in different institutional contexts alters life outcomes and attitudes. Fourth, to examine the contemporary politics of education—how parties use reforms to pursue political goals and how these reforms feed back into political life.
To achieve these aims, SCHOOLPOL produced three major work packages covering policy, institutional, and political data from 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For federal systems, key subnational units were sampled to capture variation within countries.
