Session Information
23 SES 06 C, Policies of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The transition from an industrial to a knowledge-based society and the short-time adjustment of knowledge, competences and skills is challenging education and lifelong learning structures. Increasing heterogeneity of work, education and living and the constant change of technological, managerial and organisational working conditions are a challenge for education and lifelong learning from the early-childhood to the retirement phase. Education has to give short-termed and new structural answers to these developments. Beneath different approaches to modernise and improve education and lifelong learning structures the Social Innovation concept is becoming more and more prominent, even for education and lifelong learning.
Continuous improvement of education is the key challenge for European societies and the global world. Education and training, or from a European perspective better summarised under the more comprehensive Lifelong Learning strategy, “have a fundamental role to play in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives” (European Council 2011) as well as to deliver competences to manage social change. Educational strategies do not only focus on the knowledge society to foster European competiveness, but also the reduce poverty and to improve integration and social inclusion.
In Europe and global the concept of social innovation is becoming increasingly evident in policy, scientific and public debates. There is a growing consensus among practitioners, policy makers, the research community and others that widespread social innovation is required to cope with the significant challenges that societies are facing now and in the future. The EU funded project SI-DRIVE (www.si-drive.eu) will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how social innovations occur and under which conditions they flourish and lead to social change. One of the key objectives is to determine nature, characteristics and impacts of social innovation and to identify success factors, drivers and barriers of social innovations in seven policy areas, including education.
Analysing the relation between social innovation and social change, the main focus of the policy field education will be on research on social innovation processes for the implementation of new educational structures within the European concept of improving Lifelong Learning (from early childhood to retirement as well as from the support of vulnerable groups to promotion of talents). SI-DRIVE will analyse Social Innovation creating space for new solutions within and beyond the formal education systems and how far they help to overcome economic and social changes, and to assure social cohesion and economic growth.
The object is to study and analyse the educational policy environment in order to understand social innovations and their dynamics, to find out what and who drives social innovation in the field of education, which stakeholders are doing what and how far educational policies can be barriers or facilitators to innovation. This will result in a deepened understanding of different actors’ roles and functions (policy, education areas, stakeholders of related policy fields like employment and economy, learners, pupils and parents, teachers, etc.) within social innovation. The main research questions are:
- What is the context of social innovation in education and lifelong learning?
- In howfar do social innovation create new spaces to improve education and lifelong learning?
- What is the structure of actor-networks in concrete social innovation processes of education?
- What is the relation between European and national education and lifelong learning policies on the one hand and regional-local implementation on the other hand, including support and policy structures?
- What are social innovation prototypes and clusters of education and lifelong learning within different European regions?
- What are important coordination models and platforms for education and lifelong learning?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
European Commission. (2013). Social Innovation Research in the European Union. Approaches, findings and future directions. Howaldt, J. & Schwarz, M. (2010). Social Innovation: Concepts, research fields and international trends. IMO international monitoring. Aachen. Howaldt, J., Butzin, A., Domanski, D., & Kaletka, C. (2014). Theoretical Approaches to Social Innovation - A Critical Literature Review. A deliverable of the project: ‘Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change’ (SI-DRIVE). Dortmund: TU Dortmund, Sozialforschungsstelle. LLL2010 (2011). Final Integrated Report: Towards lifelong learning society in Europe: The contribution of the education system. Working Paper 77. Project Report 6. Schröder, A. (2012). Implementing Innovative Structures to Improve Lifelong Learning - A Social Innovation Process. The Example HESSENCAMPUS CSI Discussion Paper, Nr. 28, Vienna: Centre for Social Innovation. Schröder, Antonius (Editor) 2015. Green skills along the value chain of the automotive suppliers industry, Milano [u.a.]: McGraw-Hill Education.
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