This article problematises the recent "merit turn" in the Italian education system. It addresses the analysis of how the global idea of "merit as lever for modernisation" and its related technologies have flowed into a regional education space through a set of four policy trajectories. It explores how these have partially…

In this article it is argued that an important task of career-long teacher education is the encouragement of imagination and creativity in experienced teachers. The task implies a reversal of the managerialism that currently afflicts so many European education systems. The article begins by giving an analysis of pedagogical relationships to expose…

For many years the EERJ Roundtable has been a standing event within the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In a discursive style it addresses issues related to contemporary relationships between educational research and educational policy in Europe. The changing educational landscape, together with shifting practices and…

Scholars in many knowledge domains rely on sophisticated information technologies to search for and retrieve records and publications pertinent to their research interests. But what is a scholar to do when a search identifies hundreds of documents, any of which might be vital or irrelevant to his or her work? The problem is further complicated by…

Over the last two decades, a sense of awareness has arisen that universities are facing important challenges. This article focuses on the challenge that could be broadly termed as "the digitisation of academic work", yet without assuming that this digitisation would be an explanatory factor clarifying the precise nature of contemporary…

How can the conception of formal learning environments like schools foster individual learning and the acquisition of the competences necessary for a rewarding participation in the knowledge societies of the twenty-first century? Just how important learning has become as an issue for society is demonstrated by the interest shown in the subject by…

This article advances the enlightened discussion of the nature, logic, and possible effects of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The purpose is to analyse the assumptions regarding how PISA is to achieve its intended effects, that is, to reconstruct PISA's programme theory (PT) and to probe the validity of its…

Drawing inspiration from the research conducted in Italian schools involved in the reform process, the article proposes to investigate two visions in the research on Sociology of Education: one distal and the other proximal. The distal vision is offered by quantitative research nowadays supported by extensive public funding and framed as…

Among the many arguments against affirmative action discussed in the academic literature, there is one stating that affirmative action fails to target the most marginalised members of a disadvantaged group, and instead it supports the group's most affluent members whose socio-economic position may be comparable to that of the mainstream…

A total of 12 European countries with significant Roma populations are taking part in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005-2015 (the Decade). Each of these countries developed a Decade Action Plan with the aim of eliminating the marginalization and discrimination of Roma in the areas of housing, health care, employment and education. Nonetheless, as…

Drawing on their personal experiences, the authors reflect on the relationship between the European Educational Research Association (EERA) Council and the National Educational Research Associations (NERAs). The article will argue that while much of the work undertaken by the EERA Council is hugely valuable, at times it can be difficult to see a…

The purpose of this article is to explore the extent to which European Union (EU) policies impact upon the activities of associations such as the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and the experiences of emerging researchers aligned to such associations. In essence, the authors explore potential tensions between policy and the lived…

Transnational collaboration by educational researchers in Europe has grown fast since the mid-1990s and the means to support it have become more easily accessible. A study of the growth of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) since its foundation in the mid-1990s shows how transnational research in European education began, and how…

This is a review of the "European Educational Research Journal" ("EERJ") since the start in 2002 and up to 2014. Three questions were put forward: what are the ambitions with the journal, how has the journal developed over time, and what are its possible futures? The review is based on minutes and emails from the late 1990s up…

In this article, the authors begin to frame a discussion of the educational research space that the European Educational Research Association (EERA) has been given and aims to take. The educational space is not merely a geographical phenomenon, but rather refers to the networks, flows and scapes that form the foundation for the construction of…