This article presents a state of the art of the history of education in Western and Southern Europe by 'cutting together-apart' (Barad) 'knotting-s' (Ingold), in terms of both discipline formation and historiography across and beyond countries in these regions. It (dis)entangles national and regional particularities in terms of approaches, themes…

In which ways do curricula recognize existential questions of compulsory school students, and what direction is given regarding how to address them? By asking these two questions, this study analyses syllabi for the school subject of religion education and its equivalents in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and in the two German regions of Bavaria and…

It is often assumed within much of the academic literature and by many of those working in higher education that universities across Europe are homogenising, converging around an Anglo-American model as a result of neo-liberal pressures and the aim of creating a single European Higher Education Area. However, drawing on an analysis of 92 policy…

By comparing two federal education systems, namely Germany and the U.S., and their reactions to PISA we show how international, large-scale student assessments (ILSA) have been used by national stakeholders to gain leverage for legitimising or de-legitimising policy reforms in education. From a neo-institutionalist perspective we argue that…

Every innovation should be questioned critically in the sense of humanization of education, in particular with regard to the context and overarching objectives for which an innovation is effective. That innovations are not always improvements will be shown on two international examples from the last six decades. In the 1960s, triggered by the…

The small-scale research presented in this paper was conducted as part of the GeoCapabilities project. Though originating in the Anglophone world, the project attempts to address the purposes and values of geography education internationally. Using the idea of "powerful disciplinary knowledge" the project asks what geography has to offer…

This paper explores comparatively and historically why Nordic and Continental welfare and education regimes differ in the degree of comprehensiveness of their primary and lower secondary school systems. It analyses how school reforms, reform attempts and coalitions in the post-war decades were shaped by different cleavage structures in Norway and…

This article compares the discourses, practices and politics of film education in France and Germany, and outlines their historical development. The discourses on film education in the two countries are fundamentally different: whereas German film education is anchored in the global politics of media education and around notions of…

Current discussions on Religious Education (RE), both in Germany and England, focus on the quality of teaching and the professionality of teachers, but neglect the historical and institutional process of professionalisation upon which conceptions of teaching quality and teacher professionality hinge. This article seeks to provide definitional…

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are renowned for their extensive systems of collective vocational skill formation, which, however, have developed largely in separation from higher education. This divide has become increasingly contested as a result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that have led to an increasing demand for higher level…

We exploit changes in student funding policies across the four UK nations and the Republic of Ireland to conduct a natural experiment investigating the marginal effect of differing tuition fee levels on students' enrolment behaviour. Whilst previous international research suggests increases in fees suppress demand and disincentivise cross-border…

Germany has relied on its well-established tradition of preparing the workforce through the so-called dual system of practical in-firm training (apprenticeships) and theoretical foundations conveyed by vocational schools. Believing in the high quality of academic school programmes that prepare a small elite for university studies, the German…

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of the philosophical, historical, sociological, political, and economic perspectives reflected in the public policies about lifespan sexuality education of Germany and The Netherlands. A new conceptual framework for analysis and evaluation of sexuality education policies that integrates the…

The IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) is the first large-scale international study of the preparation of primary and lower-secondary teachers. The study investigated the pedagogical and subject-specific knowledge that future primary and lower secondary school teachers acquire during their mathematics teacher…

This paper focuses on a generational change taking place in the Polish academic profession: a change in behaviors and attitudes between two groups of academics. One was socialized to academia under the communist regime (1945-1989) and the other entered the profession in the post-1989 transition period. Academics of all age groups are beginning to…