Despite the limitations for the entire education sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic, PHERCLOS managed to achieve all milestones and planned output during the project lifespan.
After thorough preparation, the project has established six LECs, which bring together schools and further relevant actors in education during a pilot phase of 18 months. Already during the pilot phase, all six LECs gathered a total of 355 different institutions, including universities, schools, business and industry, non-profit organisations, local authorities, governmental institutions and others. More than 1.200 teachers, 2.400 parents, almost 500 academic researchers and more than 150 teacher training students were directly involved as stakeholders in these pilot initiatives, which were addressing almost 10.000 pupils during the initial phase.
The formation of the LECs was based on comprehensive workplans that were co-created in a collaborative process among all LEC associates. They include all roles, responsibilities and expected contributions during the pilot implementations phase and represent a joint agreement.
The entire process was constantly informed by targeted tools and instruments, which were developed from the perspective of academic implementation research, like checklists and guidelines, as well as workshops, webinars and bilateral counselling. The same was provided from an advocacy perspective, which makes sure that all stakeholder positions (including teachers, school heads, teacher training students, parents and pupils) are properly addressed in the formation of the LECs. Supportive in this regard is a set of (initial) Briefing Papers which were developed and disseminated in order to support awareness raising among relevant stakeholder groups.
Moreover, the entire process was informed by a compilation of 63 inspirational cases of practise, which have already proven efficient and impactful in Open Schooling. These cases are analysed further and are made available online as a relevant resource for the wider interested public.
The individual and institutional learning was thoroughly captured and translated into specific toolkits, which are well proven and support instruments derived from OS practise. Hence, they are capable to support the formation of other Local Education Clusters in other contexts and helpful for promoting and scaling up Open Schooling as a model in general. These instruments are, the Teacher Training Innovation Toolkit on Open Schooling, the Advocacy Toolkit for school leaders and teachers and the Open Schooling Policy Recommendation Brief. Moreover, the Sustained Modelling and Scenario Building Reference Guide includes a reflection and analysis of practical experience from the 6 model LECs – and translates into a guiding framework of “12 Factors of Success”, a “LEC Logbook” and “9 Reference Points for Implementation” which can help to guide other OS initiatives sharing PHERECLOS outcomes.
All these tools and even more supporting material are available on www.phereclos.eu
As the central vehicle for dissemination, the PHERECLOS White Book on Open Schooling Education Clusters examines collaboration in education from various perspectives and provides a snapshot of the current state of affairs in Open Schooling. The White Book was presented and discussed at the PHERECLOS Final Conference “The Lay of the Land” in Bucharest/Romania from Sept 7th-9th 2022.
