On June 6, 2025, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) team convened the inaugural National Stakeholder Group (NSG) meeting to present and discuss the STRIDE project. The meeting was conducted virtually to accommodate two NSG members based outside Athens who were unable to participate in person. The NKUA team comprised team leader Dimitris Parsanoglou and two team members, Maria Symeonaki and Alexandros Sakellariou. NSG attendees included: Christos Zagos, Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Ioannina, Eleni Godevenou, special education teacher and principal at a primary school in Chalkida, a city near Athens with a significant Roma minority population, Georgia Papadopoulou, researcher in sociology of education at NKUA’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Two additional invited members were unable to attend the meeting.
Following introductions, the NKUA team delivered a comprehensive presentation of the STRIDE project, covering its objectives, methodology, anticipated outputs, and partner institutions. Subsequently, Maria Symeonaki, leader of WP4, presented the interactive map component of the project.
All participants expressed considerable interest in the project and committed to follow STRIDE’s developments. The stakeholders emphasised that the interactive map represents a valuable resource for various audiences, including academics, students, policymakers, and practitioners in the field.
The discussion encompassed several key areas of inquiry: Participants inquired about the nature of data collected and utilised, specifically whether the research employed primary or secondary data sources. Questions were raised regarding the existence, content, and quality of educational reform evaluations included in the project. Stakeholders sought clarification on whether the research documented connections between reforms, such as linkages between contemporary and preceding policy initiatives. A recommendation was made to categorise educational reforms according to established academic frameworks, distinguishing between internal reforms (inherent to the content of education, e.g. introducing foreign language instruction in kindergarten) and external reforms (a policy or measure based on concerns stemming from other areas, e.g. abolition of vocational education programmes that do not meet labour market needs).
Participants emphasised the significance of incorporating dropout rates into the analysis and provided suggestions for their effective integration. Stakeholders recommended that future research initiatives consider including lifelong learning and education components, given their substantial growth over recent decades.
All NSG members were informed of opportunities to participate in subsequent STRIDE meetings, subject to their availability. The NKUA team received notification of the upcoming Sociology of Education conference scheduled for Crete in 2027, where the team could present STRIDE findings and the interactive map.
A second NSG meeting has been scheduled for autumn.
