The last GOETE Consortium Meeting was held in Rennes, France, from February 20th to February 23rd 2012. Prof. Dr. Patricia Loncle and her team welcomed as many as 50 representatives from all partner teams who attended the meeting to discuss research related issues such as comparative analysis and dissemination strategies of the GOETE project.
One topic pervading all discussions during the Rennes meeting was the discussion of first findings of comparative analysis. Also, as GOETE addresses its research question by adding different components of quantitative and qualitative data collection that allow for an articulation of different perspectives, extended methodological discussions around mix-method integration took place. GOETE includes not only international comparative
- of eight EU member states - but also multilevel analyses (at individual, school and education system levels), all of which aim at providing a more emcompassing picture of the institutional and informal mechanisms of governance that regulate educational trajectories at local, regional, national and European level, and especially their interactions at different levels.
The integration of different data sets and types of - qualitative and quantitative - findings may be seen as an important preparation for the thematic analyses that started during the meeting.
During the Rennes meetings the GOETE consortium started a new phase of the research project, switching the work mode to thematic analyses. In this new work phase the different empirical findings are drawn together into an overall thematic and comparative analysis that are undertaken in GOETE along five different axes: life course, access, coping, relevance and governance of education.
Analyses are expected to contribute to the development of a theoretical understanding of education in European knowledge societies; to model different patterns in terms of regimes of governing educational trajectories; and to formulate recommendations for policy and practice.
As refers to the later, activities were started in all participating countries aiming at the dissemination of the project findings both into the scientific community and to policy and practice concerned with children’s and young people’s educational trajectories inside and outside school, on the local, regional, national and European level. A variety of forms, tools and channels have been chosen in order to secure widest possible representation. Apart from communicating findings, also concrete processes of dialogic educational planning at local level are being conducted as are also units of further training for educational professionals in all GOETE countries. In the coming months, GOETE researchers will be busy with these activities, that are vital for the overall success of the research project.
GOETE Consortium, France February 2012
