European Institute of Education and Social Policy

About Us

Our Journal

You can find the links to the most recent issues here:

Volume 46, No. 4 December 2011
Title: On becoming a teacher: a lifelong process
Guest editors: Janet Looney and Jean Gordon

Volume 46, No. 3 September 2011
Title: Key Competences in Europe
Guest editors: Alain Michel and Alejandro Tiana

Volume 46, No. 2 June 2011
Title: Education, poverty and inclusion
Guest editor: Marta Soler

Volume 46, No. 1, March 2011
Title: Education Policies in Europe: how effective are international initiatives?
Guest Editor: Jean-Pierre Jallade
This issue will be free to download

Contact Information

Postal address:
IEEPS / EIESP
J. Gordon
84 rue Vergniaud
75013 Paris, FRANCE

Legal address:
IEEPS Institut européen d'éducation et de politique sociale
c/o Université de Paris-Dauphine
1, Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny
75 116 Paris FRANCE

Phone: +33 (0)6 38 47 68 19
Website: www.eiesp.org
Email: ieeps@eiesp.org

News and Events

2012

The EIESP is pleased to announce that at the Board meeting on the 20th January 2012, Jean-Claude Ruano-Borbalan was elected as the new Chair of the institute, Michèle Sellier and Luce Pépin as Vice Chairs; Jacques Bessières as Treasurer and Alain Michel as Scientific Advisor.

2011

Raymond Georis, A Quiet European Gardner

29th June 2011 a reception was organised by the European Foundations Centre in Brussels for the publication of “Raymond Georis, A quiet European Gardner” the book written by David Watkiss and Dianna Rienstra, celebrating and honoring the work of Raymond in European philanthropy. In 1975, as Secretary-General of the European Cultural Foundation created the EIESP as part of the EFC’s contribution to European construction. He was involved in the life of the institute for many years as a board member and always as a friend. Jean Gordon and Jean-Pierre Jallade attended the reception as well as Daniel Kropf, Executive Director and Founding Chair of the Universal Education Foundation and Luce Pépin, both current EIESP board members.

Active citizenship in the European Union

The EIESP is participating to the project “Active Citizenship in the E.U.” as member of a consortium, coordinated by the Institute of Education (Llakes Centre) of the University of London, The consortium coordinated by Bryony Hoskins (Llakes Centre) includes also the U.K. National Foundation for Research in Education (NFER) and 5 universities of 5 European countries: Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Slovenia. Alain Michel will participate in the kick-off meeting in London on June 20th 2011. The study aims at clarifying the concept of active citizenship and its perception among the member States, describing what is actually happening in each country, analysing the favourable factors and he obstacles, singling out interesting innovations and good practice, and formulating recommendations to enhance active citizenship at European, national, regional and local level. On behalf of EIEPS will participate to this project: Gloria Arjomand, Antoine Bevort (professor CNAM), Jean Gordon, Alain Michel, Michèle Sellier and Diane Michel (during her internship).

Education and training in France in 2025

EIESP is participating in a foresight study about education and training in France in 2025 coordinated by Futuribles International. EIESP is bringing in the European context and comparative perspective. Alain Michel gave two lectures on this topic at two 1-day seminars at Futuribles in May 2011. For EIESP, Jean Gordon, Janet Looney and Diane Michel also participate in this project.

Learning for Well-being: A Policy Priority for Children and Young People in Europe - A Consultation

The Consortium invites you to review the draft policy glossary: Learning for Well-being: A Policy Priority for Children and Youth in Europe - A movement for change. The Policy Glossary is designed to contribute to better policy for children and youth across Europe, fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Please click here to read about the consultation and to download the Policy Glossary.

The Challenges of Education Systems in Multicultural Societies

Jean Gordon was invited to make a presentation on "Learning for Well-being: Key competences for lifelong learners in multicultural societies" for a study tour group of practitioners from Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey organised by DG Enlargement in Brussels from the 1st to the 4th March.
You can download the presentation here

Study on policy measures to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession in Europe

We are pleased to announce that the consortium led by the Université Sciences et techniques, de Montpellier 2 (FR) and IBF International Consulting (BE) in which the EIESP is a partner has won the tender EAC/34/2010 - Study on policy measures to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession in Europe. The study will be carried out during 2011 with partners and experts from across Europe.

2010

Key competences in Bosnia and Herzegovina

On the 16th and 17th December, OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the MDG Achievement Fund organised a two-day conference for the pedagogues (teacher advisors and trainers) in all compulsory education schools in BiH on the theme of: Education for the Future: The European Framework of Key Competences. Jean Gordon was invited to make a presentation on Key Competences in Europe: opening doors for lifelong learning in school and teacher education. The conference included interesting presentations and workshops led by colleagues from Bosnia, Finland, Serbia and Slovenia.

DISCO II: a multi-lingual thesaurus of skills and competencies

Since November 2010, the EIESP is a partner of the DISCO II project in an European consortium led by 3S Unternehmensberatung (Austria). Realising a ‘European labour market’ and a ‘European lifelong learning area’ requires qualifications and competences which can be easily understood, compared, and transferred. To address this challenge a set of European transparency instruments has been developed. The most important examples are the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) and Europass (Europass CV, Europass Mobility, Certificate Supplement…).

DISCO II supports those instruments by offering a variety of terms and expressions to describe occupations, qualifications, jobs and competence profiles of individuals in three growing economic sectors: health and social services, environmental protection and information technology. DISCO II thus offers a common terminology based on learning outcomes (extracted from e.g. Certificate Supplements) for the comparison of skills and competence profiles in education, labour market and industry. Alain Michel participated in the kick-off meeting in Bratislava on 25th and 26th November.

Learning for Well-being Policy Glossary

The Learning for Well-being Consortium organised a highly successful expert consultation on 26-27 November, In Marrakshesh with the aim of generating concrete feedback on the first draft of the ‘Learning for Well-being’ Policy Glossary, prepared by Professor Ilona Kickbusch.
For more information click here

Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage

This Belgian Presidency conference held in Ghent from the 27th to 29th September aimed to put European, national and regional policy and models of good practice under the spotlight with a view to promoting equality and inclusion across all levels of education (preschool, compulsory, higher and adult education). Jean Gordon was invited to chair a workshop session on "Pupils at risk of social exclusion: overcoming school failure and reducing school drop out".

More information can be found on the conference website: www.eutrio.be/breaking-cycle-disadvantage-social-inclusion-and-through-education

European Foundation Centre Annual Conference

From the 31st May to 4th June EFC (www.efc.be ) organised the first ever Foundation Week which included Open Days that showcased the work of foundations and offered free admission to a variety of debates on issues that affect the lives of citizens across Europe and globally as well as the annual conference. The Learning for Well-being Consortium of Foundations in Europe joined forces with the EFC Children and Youth Funders Group and Eurochild to organize a full-day event on the 1st June dedicated to children and youth, celebrating international children’s day. It consisted of three consecutive sessions focusing on different aspects of children’s rights, participation and learning for well-being. As well as debates, there was a networking lunch where foundations could showcase their work with children and youth. As Secretariat to the Consortium, Jean Gordon and Gloria Arjomand organized and participated in the Consortium session which was attended by about 45 representatives of foundations and their partners, government, NGOs and researchers. You can find a report on the session on the Learning for Well-being Consortium page.

Romania - higher education foresight

On June 2nd 2010, Alain Michel participated in a seminar on the future of higher education in Bucharest, organised by the Romanian authorities. It is the third seminar of this activity, financed by the European Commission, in which EIESP is participating since October 2009

Capacity-building for education reform - Turkey

On May 28th and 29th, Alain Michel gave a lecture in Ankara at the final conference of the European project on ‘Capacity-building for educational reform’ organised by the Turkish Ministry of Education. This was the 4th lecture given by Alain Michel during this project. The others were: in Istanbul in June 2009 and in Paris in October 2009 and in March 2010 when EIESP organised with SOFRECO a study visit to Paris for senior civil servants from the Turkish Ministry of Education.

People to People Programme - seminar in Sarajevo

On the 18th and 19th May, the People to People programme of DG Enlargement organised a seminar for civil society organizations and education stakeholders in Sarajevo on Education in a multicultural society. Jean Gordon gave an overview presentation: ‘Key competences for Education in a multicultural society’.

More information is available on the website of TAIEX: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/taiex/p2p/index_en.htm

Future of higher education

Alain Michel participated in an international seminar in Paris on May 7th on the future of higher education organised by the Foundation Leopold Mayer.

EU Thematic Forum on School-Business Cooperation

DG Education and Culture organised the first EU Thematic Forum on School-Business Cooperation on the 24th and 25th March. Jean Gordon was invited to participate in a panel discussion on Transversal Competences.

Seminar on foresight - Brussels

Alain Michel participated in a seminar on foresight organised in Brussels on March 12th 2010 (second one after the seminar organised in Brussels in September 2009).

University of Creteil - lecture for school principals and teachers

Alain Michel gave a lecture at the University of Creteil on March 9th for about 45 principals and teachers coming from about 23 countries on the salient features of the French education system and the main ongoing reforms.

2009

Participation in the Council of Europe’s ‘Building a Europe for and with Children’ – December 2009:

A consultative roundtable was organised by the Council of Europe on children’s participation in the framework of their project, “Building a Europe for and with Children” in Helsinki in December 2009. Daniel Kropf and Jean Gordon attended for UEF. This roundtable discussion aimed at introducing the Roadmap 2000 – 2011 for Council of Europe actions on participation of children and young people under the age of 18, and in particular to exchange information on good practices and to seek advice and input from stakeholders for future actions on participation.

European Training Foundation symposium

Alain Michel participated in a European symposium held at the European Training Foundation in Torino (Italia) on November 10th on 'Education and training for Change, Sustainability and Social Gain'. It was organsied in the framework of the issue of the European Journal of Education guest edited by ETF on this subject, which was published in June 2010. Alain represented the editorial board of the journal.

European Training Foundation - seminar in Albania

Alain Michel participated in a seminar on October 28th and 29th in Tirana (Albania) organised by the European Training Foundation on short higher technological education.

The 6th Annual Eurochild conference:

The 6th Annual conference organised by Eurochild was held in Cyprus from 11-13 November 2009 and was entitled ‘Monitoring child well-being: better policy and practice’. Daniel Kropf and Jean Gordon participated for UEF and were invited to make a presentation ‘Engaging Children and Young People in Shaping their Learning Environments’. This conference was an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how indicators are being used in policy development at national and regional levels in advocating for children’s rights and well-being, as well as in improving practice and setting standards in service delivery to families and children. A key question for the conference was how indicators are being informed by children and young people themselves.

Child Well-being Expert Consultation organised by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, OECD and the European Commission:

Jean Gordon participated with Daniel Kropf, representing Universal Education Foundation, in the OECD/EU/Innocenti Centre consultation meeting on data for monitoring child well-being in late May 2009. There were about 50 participants from major international organizations and a number of representatives from OECD and partner countries. The purpose of the consultation was to develop a shared understanding of a set of data that countries should monitor in order to inform policies for children’s well-being.