A European Experiment in Governing Teacher Training

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A European Experiment in Governing Teacher Training: The Case of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, MF-A511

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A﻿bstract:Over recent decades a distinctive European Union (EU) agenda has developed related to the complex issues of improving the attractiveness of the teaching profession and the quality of teacher education and professional development (Sorensen et al. 2021; Symeonidis, 2021). Since the EU’s jurisdiction is limited in education, EU governance relies on soft modes of enhancing cooperation that seeks to mobilise and encourage national and sub-national actors to experiment when addressing education policy issues (Graf &amp; Marques, 2022; Héritier &amp; Rhodes, 2011).

In this respect, the recent policy initiative of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies provides an intriguing case for policy analysis. A flagship initiative forming part of the current EU strategy to create a European Education Area, these teacher academies are associated with the Europeanisation of teacher education and training, an area of education which remains particularly embedded in the governance logics of member states (Menter, 2022). 

This paper has the objective to analyse and discuss the extent to which the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies represent a case of experimentalist governance (Eckert &amp; Börzel, 2012; Sabel &amp; Zeitlin, 2012), and the ways in which the policy initiative potentially contributes to Europeanisation (Lange &amp; Alexiadou, 2007; Radaelli, 2008). Our entry point is based on the observations that the teacher academies involve the creation and financial support of networks of teacher education and training providers in order to modernise teacher training with a view to green and digital skills, inclusion, and expanding international mobility. Network partners are meant to work together in innovative ways, whereas the European Commission appears to represent a hub monitoring and distributing knowledge and experiences gained in the projects.

Our analysis involves tracing the key ideas, actors and mechanisms driving the policy initiative, the roles of project partners, and the workings and outcomes of their interaction, including the roles and influence of the European Commission as a hub orchestrating the academy networks. We draw on comprehensive desk research, review of the academic literature on experimentalist governance, and an empirical inquiry of key policy documents and interviews with professionals with first-hand knowledge about the development of the policy initiative so far. 

The paper contributes to the empirical study of this recent EU policy initiative as well as the theoretical discussion around modes of experimentalist governance in a particular area of higher education and skills development that is deemed central for the well-being of education systems and societies overall.
A﻿bout the speaker:Tore Bernt Sorensen is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Educational Governance Team based at the Hertie School, the University of Governance in Berlin, Germany. Tore’s work is characterised by three lines of research: Globalisation and education, public policy analysis, and teachers and teaching. Currently, his research focuses on the ideas, political actors and institutional arrangements, which have shaped European Union policies in education, lifelong learning and skill formation since the 1990s. Previously, Tore worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in UC Louvain and in Jagiellonian University Krakow, and he has been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Helsinki and the University of Sydney. He holds degrees from the University of Bristol and the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. Tore’s research has been published in journals such as Comparative Education Review; Globalisation, Societies and Education; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, as well as in a range of anthologies. Recently, he edited the handbook section &quot;Globalization and Teacher Education&quot; in The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research (Editor-in-Chief Ian Menter) and contributed with the chapter “Globalization, Teachers, and Teacher Education: Theories, Themes, and Methodologies&quot;.

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A European Experiment in Governing Teacher Training

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