Likely impact of the project

Within the RESL.eu research project we expect to:

increase knowledge on how Early School leaving effects overall EU policy making and how various European Member States with country-specific ESL-profiles engage this issue;
innovate and make coherent the fragmented nature of European educational systems through significant, broad and in-depth long-term research aiming at involving the commitment of all stakeholders at all levels and taking into account processes of resistance to change;
to increase the potential of youngsters, especially social groups most vulnerable for ESL, by making educational systems more inclusive and raising skills of youngster with respect to their position in different life domains;
to encourage research which directly supports European national or regional policymaking by providing comparative data collection and interpretation methodologies and measurement tool

RESL.eu will address key thematic areas by

demonstrating the importance of developing and collecting comparable data and evidence concerning the issue of early school leaving in different European countries with specific profiles;
providing the academic world with a much needed empirically based multidisciplinary, multi-level theoretical framework that approaches the issue of early school leaving from the perspective of the individual embedded in various social institutions such as the family, the school, the peer group and the community.
helping to overcome policy compartmentalization and encourage greater policy coherence and coordination through the development and mobilization of cross-cutting forms of knowledge, especially on the basis of interdisciplinary and mixed method perspectives. In this sense the project will also have a demonstration effect and thus contribute to the establishment of new benchmarks in researching the interplay between individual agency and structural surroundings on the issue of early schooling leaving and in understanding the complex processes of micro, meso and macro levels of influence.
providing tools and instruments to measure, foresee and understand (future) ESL processes and evolutions in various European countries. It will help decision-makers to design and implement the most effective policy relating EU level benchmarks to country-specific processes.
providing researchers, policy makers and civil society actors micro, meso and macro level insights to induce a critical self-evaluation of Europe’s mission to innovate educational systems in the 21st century.
supporting capacity building in various European countries to research phenomena that are of particular relevance for their society.

Impact of RESL.eu

The expected impact is situated on several levels and different steps are identified to ensure their output:

In the academic field

To advance the state of the art in the academic field with the contribution of various disciplines and methodological perspectives:

First of all the scientific impact of the project lies primarily in its added knowledge value to be found in the descriptive, empirical and analytical parts of the research. It is the first project that systematically studies the issue of early school leaving by collecting new comparable and empirical data in seven European countries selected for their specific and relevant profiles with respect to the issues of early school leaving.

This project will design a general and coherent theoretical framework incorporating various levels of influence related to the issue of ESL focusing on the actions, perceptions and discourses of individuals – the early school leaver him/herself as well as significant others – in the family, the school, the peer group and specific learning arena’s. This knowledge is necessary to understand educational processes and ESL processes in particular in the EU/Europe and, to comprehend how these issues can be tackled by policy makers. This knowledge is relevant for the implementation of general but also country-specific EU educational policies and to understand country-specific processes.

Furthermore, appreciating the complexity of the issue of ESL it needs to be studied from different methodological perspectives such as ethnography, discourse analysis and statistical analysis and from theoretical disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, political and communication sciences and psychology.

In partner countries and Europe in general

To enhance cooperation between researchers in the partner countries and regions, and in Europe in general

Studying early school leaving processes by collecting and analyzing comparable data and evidence on a European level is important, and keeps in line with policy as well as academic needs. The consortium is constructed in such a way that countries and partners were chosen with relevant ESL-profiles and with specific attention for their expertise in the educational field and related issues.

In Europe some countries have high ESL rates but experienced an important decrease in the last decade, yet other countries with high rates saw further increases. On the other hand, some European countries have low ESL rates, with differing evolutions in the past ten years while other have ESL rates around the 10% benchmark the EU put forward. Countries and partners were chosen taking into account these profiles but also their geographical situation. As a consequence the consortium incorporates partners from the North, South, West and East of Europe. This increases the integration of various experiences with and approaches of the issue of ESL incorporating a sufficient amount of diversity as to lift the analytical insights and recommendations to a level exceeding the consortium.

The innovative management structures furthermore ensures various partners take up coordinating roles with respect to the different work packages which strengthens the cooperation and integration of the work of each of the partners and the different packages.

Moreover, entry to the field and data collection will be facilitated through this approach. All universities/research institutions involved in the consortium consist of an interdisciplinary team of researchers. This composition is essential as the consortium will use a multidisciplinary, mixed-method approach in each of the seven countries.

As mentioned, the focus of the project demands an interdisciplinary approach, in order to develop a theoretically and empirically sound cross-country and cross-region research design. The project strives for maximal incorporation of meso and macro level context-influencing and micro level individual factors on the processes under study. By adopting a case study approach and comparing and contrasting a diversity of important European countries, and various types of regions within these countries.

At cross-country level

To help decision-makers in the scholarly community and policy makers on different levels design efficient education policies and innovate educational systems by developing comparative indicators for the issue of ESL

By adopting the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the European heads of state and government acknowledged their concerns with respect to the issue of early school leaving and renewed the commitment that was made by the Lisbon Growth and Jobs Strategy (and benchmarked in the Education Council in 2003) to reduce early school leaving rates to less than 10%. Yet, comparable data to assess the situation of and evolutions related to ESL are scarce and existing databases seem relatively outdated or studied rather superficially. This research project offers these data and corresponding instruments in such a way they are readily applicable for policy makers at the European, national and local levels.

As comparison of ESL between European countries is the primary target of this project studying these issues at an European level is essential. At the same time data will be gathered from a top down perspective (studying EU policies and implementation strategies) as well as a bottom-up perspective (the perceptions and actions of individual early school leavers in different social institutions and learning arena’s).

Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of country-specific measures and projects will be executed offering decision-makers clear understanding what works and for what reasons to tackle the issue of early school leaving. Good practices will be identified and studied in-depth as to ensure critical success and risk factors can be singled out, and guidelines will be provided to enhance implementation of measures into other countries and contexts.

The different work packages are constructed in such a way that knowledge and data accumulate during the project years resulting in important contributions to innovate educational systems.

In the scholarly community

To allow the scholarly community to prepare for future steps towards engaging in a significant joint international research effort

The innovative management structure of the project has three special qualities that will have an impact on the on-going and results of the project, but even more important, its special qualities will prepare the way for future international collaborative academic and policy actions that involve actors on national and local levels in all EU countries.

First, the consortium is composed of members with a vast experience in international and EU-research networks. Some partners participated in or were coordinator of EU-projects such as the TIES-project (The Integration of the Second Generation) or the FP7-project EUMAGINE. Other partners are member of the European Network on ‘International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion’ (IMISCOE), a EU network of excellence; partners have therefore a proven track record in EU funded research.

Second, by its well thought of composition of EU countries with specific profiles with respect to ESL and considering their geographical spread, the consortium will guarantee a sufficiently broad and in-depth approach, which will enhance their insights in all relevant factors in demonstrating the current ESL situation in the partner countries and in foreseeing how ESL processes occur and how it could evolve over time. The consortium and its spin-off are perfectly placed to initiate, facilitate or collaborate in future international research projects, building further on the insights learned from this project.

Last but not least, the interdisciplinary composition of the consortium is a must in order to study the complex issue of ESL processes on a micro, meso and macro level, which will be necessary for any further academic ambition of tackling the complex phenomenon of ESL as it relates to individual’s agency as well as the surrounding structural constraints or opportunities. The impact of the project on policy in its largest sense will be found specifically in the normative part, but also the descriptive and analytical sections of the research will impact on it.

At national and European policy level

To improve the contribution to formulation, development and implementation of policy at national or European level

The project addresses several of the complex challenges Europe is confronted with today and which will become even more urgent in the years to come. First, early school leaving is an important issue and reaching the 10% benchmark in 2020 set out by the EU will be an extremely difficult task. The current economic and financial crisis impacts hard on European societies effecting socially vulnerable groups the hardest. Furthermore, its long term consequences are believed to be felt the coming decade too.

Second, providing comparable data on the ESL situation for EU policy makers is important, yet the search for innovation is one of the driving forces underpinning this research project. Studying traditional educational contexts such as schools provides data on the perceptions and interactions in a school context. The ESL.EU project takes this notion a step further and collects and analyses data in alternative learning arenas which will provide insights into what works for those students that left the traditional educational context as it did not connect with their personal aspirations. Moreover, studying early school leavers not participating in any formal educational institution reveals how these ‘drop outs’ engage with the challenges they are confronted with due to important economic and social transformations. These empirical data help to innovate educational systems from a user/student’s perspective. Last but not least, elaborating on these issues, this research project focuses on the implementation of European educational policy on the national and local level, and tries to identify and understand processes of resistance to change initiated by educational actors or policy makers at all levels.