European Education Policy Network on Teachers and School Leaders
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The European Education Policy Network on Teachers and School Leaders is a Europe-wide network of several organisations (policymakers, practitioners, researchers and stakeholders) to promote co-operation, policy development and implementation at different governance levels, and to support the European Commission’s policy work on teachers and school leaders.
This network is building on existing activities developed at European level, especially initiatives and projects supported through European Union programmes in the field of education. The coordinator of the 4-year project that started in January 2019 is the European School Heads Association, in strong cooperation with the European Sectoral social Partners in Education – ETUCE and EFEE - and currently includes 27 partners from 17 countries.
EEPN project 1st year (2019) on career development of teachers and school leaders
The first year of the project has been dedicated to desk research on career development of teachers and school leaders.
The desk research reports have focused on the following topics:
- How to make teacher and school leader careers more attractive in different European countries;
- Efficient education and continuous professional development for teachers and school leaders;
- Teacher recruitment, retention and motivation in Europe;
- Best EU projects for teachers' and school leaders' more attractive career paths;
More information about the project and the reports are available via the following website: https://educationpolicynetwork.eu/publications/
Please find the Newsletter of the project here
The final conference of the first project year which was held in Jyväskylä (Finland) on 18 November, 2019. The participants were educational policy makers, teachers, school leaders, education social partners, educational stakeholders, and researchers.
The 1-day conference discussed the draft Policy Recommendations which summarised the topic of the first year of the project and the messages of the desk researchers: career development of teachers and school leaders.
ETUCE takes a broad view of school leadership, encompassing, not only the head or principal of the learning institution, but also other individuals with leadership roles such as deputy principals, departmental/subject heads, senior teachers and other individuals entrusted with leadership responsibilities. ETUCE believes in distributed leadership, shared or collaborative leadership involving teachers and the whole pedagogical community. Through such collaborative leadership, school principals can work with the whole pedagogical community to develop a shared vision for the school, to set the school goals and to work systematically towards their fulfilment.
The outcomes of the 1st year project can be found at the project website https://educationpolicynetwork.eu/publications/ and here below:
Policy recommendations on effective career paths for teachers and school leaders
Agenda of 1st Annual conference:
https://educationpolicynetwork.eu/annual-conference/
Research on Good Practices: Practitioners and Parents
Research on Good Practices: Policy Implementation
Research on Education: School Leaders
Research on EU Funded Projects
Research on Education: Teachers
Highlights Report summarising the findings
Synergies Report introduces the partnership
https://educationpolicynetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Deliverable-5_3_Synergies-Report.pdf
State of affairs report on distributed school leadership policies
https://educationpolicynetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Deliverable-4_1-State-of-affairs.pdf
EEPN project 2nd year (2020-2021) on teaching and school leadership in the digital area
The project partners focused on teaching and school leadership in the digital area in 2020 by developing desk research and organising a conference on this topic. The activities of the 2nd year of the project were extended until October 2021 due to the COVID-19 measures.
ETUCE contributed to and supports the following desk researches developed within the activities of the 2nd year of the project:
- Digital technical tools, skills and competences supporting teaching and learning
- Collaborative learning and collaborative school leadership in digitalization
- Digitalisation supporting literacy and multilingual competences
- Active citizenship skills and active digital citizenship skills in a digital age
The final conference, to be co-organized by the European School Heads Assosication (ESHA) and the project leaders on 24 September 2021 will present the outcomes of the project, including a list of policy recommendations.
EEPN project 3rd year (2022) on teachers and school leaders towards a sustainable whole school approach for quality and inclusive education.
The project partners met for the annual State of Affairs meeting on 21-22 March to discuss the future of the network and the sustainability of the project. Furthermore, the network welcomed 4 new partners and 2 new countries this year, thus in Year 3 the EEPN is a network of 33 partners from 21 European countries. ETUCE contributed to and continues to support the following desk research developed within the activities of the 3rd year of the project:
- Teachers’ and school leaders’ competences and support for effective blended learning.
- A whole school support and networking to ensure school success for all.
- A whole school approach for sustainable development, with a particular focus on the role and competences of school leaders to support the implementation of it.
- Schools as learning communities to support teachers’ and school leaders’ professional learning and well-being.