Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Education and identity politics in Eastern and Western Europe

Final Activity Report Summary - EDUCATION AND IDENTITY (Education and Identity Politics in Eastern and Western Europe)

The project proposal listed two objectives regarding the involvement of the researcher in specific research projects:
(1) to gain understanding in the role of education in the identity politics of new European states and to assess the feasibility of a collaborative international research project on this topic;
(2) to make a substantial contribution to a project on education, equality and social cohesion, led by the scientist in charge.

Without doubt it is in the area of research projects that the most significant scientific achievements of the whole project have been made:
(1) It has proved possible to not only assess the feasibility of a collaborative international research project on education and identity politics, but to actually organise and complete such a project. The publication of a special issue on education and identity construction in Eastern Europe and East Asia in March 2007 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Compare marked the successful completion of this project. The researcher assumed the role of guest editor for this issue.
(2) The contribution to the project on education, equality and social cohesion has resulted in (1) a co-authored book and (2) a successful bid for an ESRC research centre due to start in January 2008.

The project proposal listed four publications as the research output of the project. In fact, the project has resulted in nine publications, seven articles in peer-reviewed journals, one co-authored book and one chapter in an edited book.

The project proposal foresaw the participation of the researcher in four courses of the contractor's Mphil/PhD research training programme. On top of that, it stated that the researcher would devise and teach two courses for PhD students.

The researcher has followed the four courses mentioned in the project proposal. In terms of the teaching duties foreseen in the project proposal, he has done more than was asked for. In addition to the two courses, he has devised and taught for PhD students, he contributed to another PhD course, he has organised the MA course 'Minorities, migrants and refugees in European education systems' and he has contributed to several other MA courses.

The project proposal envisioned four to six conference visits. The researcher has attended seven conferences, both in the field of education and beyond, and delivered presentations on all of them. On top of that, he organised a one-day conference himself in connection with the aforementioned project on education and identity construction. He has also made several trips to Paris to discuss a joint project on education and social cohesion with French partners.