Education policies in the context of the 2030 Agenda / Call for Papers / Foro de Educación (v. 21, n. 1, 2023)

Many countries around the world strive and hope to construct a more inclusive, fairer and more equitable society. The UN’s 2030 Agenda establishes a new framework designed to enhance efforts, clarify objectives, guide processes and provide resources to help advance towards a successful education for all from a cross-sectional and global standpoint. A good example of this intention is Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) which states that education systems should “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. This means that all students are important and must be able to learn. Consequently, all public education policies must reflect deeply on a quality education system within a setting and process of equity for each and every student who must be able to learn effectively at school. This means they must have access, consistency and progression, besides obtaining relevant outcomes that are meaningful to their life plan. This special issue sets out to trace the evolution of contemporary approaches to educational equity in public education policies from an international, comparative and universal perspective, as well as with a critical outlook. Similarly, it tries to contextualise and assess the main international trends in the area of educational equity in terms of curriculum policy reforms, teacher training and student and family participation, so we may then position the lessons learned, setbacks, pending questions and challenges associated with education policies in different parts of the world within the framework of the goals for the 2030 Agenda.

Education equity reforms have been about narrowing social and personal gaps and maximising learning opportunities related to student’s needs. However, in practice, the problem has often been that not all students have had an equal chance to achieve educational success. This fact underpins the need to know, understand and share the progress that education policies have made in recent years in developing successful educational processes for all. Furthermore, education policies and programmes have put lots of effort in promoting equity of access/offer and outcomes, but not in equity of process, which is beginning to be of political, academic and social interest. Equity as process implies that all students should have the equal opportunities to survive and promote within the education system, so that their school life career will meet the needs, potentials and results of the student with suitable quality conditions, and not only minimal ones. The relevance of learning cannot only lie in whether the student accesses or completes, but in how the student builds its learning pathway in line with its needs, concerns, potentials and learning pace. If everyone has the right to learn and everyone has the right to a quality educational setting, everyone should be treated as equal, in terms of the right, but as different, in terms of the process.

The intentions of education and curriculum reforms have revolved around the importance of maximising learning opportunities for all, in the sense of fostering relevant learning conditions connected to student needs. But in practice, the problem has been that not all students have had the same possibilities and opportunities for educational success, and that social, family and personal factors have been determining factors. This is undoubtedly one of the pending challenges in many educational systems, which supports the need to know, understand and share the advances experienced by educational policies in recent years in the development of successful educational processes for all. Furthermore, education policies and programmes have invested much effort in promoting equity of access/supply and outcomes, but not in equity of process, which is beginning to be of political, academic and social interest. Equity of process implies that all students should have the same opportunities for permanence and progression within the education system, so that their school life trajectory responds to their needs, potentials and outcomes with adequate, and not only minimal, quality conditions. The importance of learning cannot only lie in whether the student accesses or completes, but in how he or she builds his or her educational pathway in coherence with his or her needs, concerns, potential and learning pace. If everyone has the right to learn and everyone has the right to quality education, everyone should be treated as equal, in terms of rights, but as different, in terms of the process.

The aim of this special issue is to trace the evolution of the contemporary approach to educational equity in educational public policies from an international, globalised and globalising, but also critical perspective, in order to contribute to the debate on the relationship between policy and practice in the development of successful educational processes for all in the context of today’s educational challenges. Similarly, it is of interest to have contributions that allow contextualising and analysing the main international trends on educational equity from the perspective of educational change and reform of curricular policies, teacher training and student and family participation in education, in order to situate the lessons learned, the setbacks experienced, the pending issues and the challenges of educational policies in different parts of the world in relation to the educational objectives of the 2030 agenda. And finally, the aim is to foster research that contributes to an improved understanding of the educational equity process, specifically, in comprehending the dynamics of the relationship between educational policy-practice relationship, based on the idea that everyone is important, everyone must learn; education must contribute to make this possible.

Recommended topics for this special issue are: conceptual and methodological issues within the study of educational equity from a public policy perspective; educational policy and equity from a comparative perspective; trends in equity in the international and/or national context focusing on educational policies; lessons learned for the design of best practices in designing educational policies from educational equity practices informed by evidence on educational equity; curricular and teacher training policies based on educational equity; challenges for the promotion of educational policies informed by equity; the role of educational policies based on competency (digital competency, etc. ) and/or educational and vocational guidance in promoting educational equity.

Guest editors:

José Sánchez-Santamaría (GRIOCE. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. España), Brenda Boroel Cervantes (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. México), Nathanäel Friant (Universidad Libre de Bruselas. Bélgica)

• Deadline for receiving the articles: January 30, 2022
• Guidelines for the authors: http://forodeeducacion.com/ojs/index.php/fde/about/submissions

Construir sociedades más inclusivas, justas y equitativas es una de las principales aspiraciones de muchos países del mundo. Con la agenda 2030 se establece un nuevo marco con la intención de redoblar esfuerzos, clarificar objetivos, orientar procesos y disponer recursos para avanzar hacia educación exitosa para todos desde una perspectiva transversal y globalizadora, un ejemplo de ello es el objetivo 4 (ODS4) que establece que los sistemas educativos “garanticen una educación de calidad inclusiva y equitativa y promuevan oportunidades de aprendizaje durante toda la vida para todos”. Esto implica que todo estudiante es importante y debe poder aprender, y que, por tanto, toda política pública en educación ha de profundizar en una educación de calidad dentro de un contexto y un proceso de equidad, a partir de lo cual todo estudiante pueda aprender de forma exitosa en la escuela, es decir, tener acceso, permanecer y progresar, y obtener resultados relevantes y con sentido para su proyecto vital.

Las reformas educativas sobre equidad han girado en torno a la importancia de maximizar las oportunidades de aprendizaje conectadas a las necesidades de todos los estudiantes. Pero en la práctica, el problema ha sido que no todos los estudiantes han tenido las mismas posibilidades para poder tener éxito educativo. Esta circunstancia avala la necesidad de conocer, comprender y compartir los avances experimentados por las políticas educativas en los últimos años en el desarrollo de procesos educativos exitosos para todos. Además, las políticas y programas educativos han invertido mucho esfuerzo en la promoción de una equidad de acceso/oferta y de resultados, no así sobre una equidad de proceso, la cual empieza a tener interés político, académico y social. La equidad de proceso implica que todo el estudiantado debería contar con las mismas oportunidades de permanencia y progresión dentro del sistema educativo, de modo que la trayectoria de vida escolar de respuesta a las necesidades, potenciales y resultados del estudiante, con unas condiciones de calidad idóneas, y no sólo mínimas. La importancia de aprender no solo puede estar en que el estudiante acceda o termine, sino en cómo va construyendo su itinerario formativo en coherencia con sus necesidades, inquietudes, potenciales y ritmos de aprendizaje. Si todos tienen derecho a aprender y todos tienen derecho a una educación de calidad, todos deberían ser tratados como iguales, desde el plano del derecho, pero como diferentes, desde el plano del proceso.

El objetivo de este monográfico se centra en rastrear la evolución del enfoque contemporáneo de la equidad educativa en las políticas públicas educativas desde una perspectiva internacional, comparada y globalizadora, pero también crítica, para contribuir al debate sobre la relación entre política y práctica en el desarrollo de procesos educativos exitosos para todos en el marco de los retos sociales actuales. De igual modo interesa contar con aportaciones que permitan contextualizar y analizar las principales tendencias internacionales sobre equidad educativa desde la perspectiva del cambio educativo y reforma de las políticas curriculares, de formación del profesorado, de la participación del estudiantado y las familias en la educación, de modo que permita situar las lecciones aprendidas, los retrocesos experimentados, las cuestiones pendientes y los desafíos de las políticas educativas en diferentes partes del mundo en relación a los objetivos educativos de la agenda 2030. Y por último, se persigue poder contar con investigaciones que aporten una mejor comprensión sobre la equidad educativa de proceso, en el sentido de conocer las dinámicas de relación entre política-práctica educativa, desde la idea de que todos y todas son importantes, todos deben aprender; la educación debe contribuir a que esto sea posible.

Temas recomendados dentro de este monográfico: aproximaciones conceptuales y metodológicas al estudio de la equidad educativa desde la perspectiva de la política pública; política educativa y equidad desde una perspectiva comparada; evolución de la equidad en el contexto internacional y/o nacional con especial énfasis sobre las políticas educativas; lecciones aprendidas para el diseño de políticas educativas desde las prácticas en equidad educativa informadas por la evidencia en equidad educativa; políticas curricular y de formación docente basadas en la equidad educativa; retos para la mejora de las políticas educativas informadas por la equidad; el papel de las políticas educativas basadas en el desarrollo competencial (competencia digital, etc.)  y/o de orientación educativa y profesional en la promoción de la equidad educativa.

Guest editors:

José Sánchez-Santamaría (GRIOCE. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. España), Brenda Boroel Cervantes (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. México), Nathanäel Friant (Universidad Libre de Bruselas. Bélgica)

• Deadline for receiving the articles: January 30, 2022

• Guidelines for the authors: http://forodeeducacion.com/ojs/index.php/fde/about/submissions