The first STRIDE Working Paper marks an important step in the project’s research journey. It lays the conceptual and analytical foundations for understanding how education and training reforms implemented over the past 25 years have addressed — or failed to address — equity and inclusion across European education systems.
A long-term perspective on inequality
Educational inequalities do not emerge overnight. They develop, accumulate and persist over time, shaped by structural factors and policy choices. Working Paper 1 adopts a longitudinal perspective to examine how reforms introduced since the late 1990s have influenced learners’ trajectories and opportunities across different stages of education.
By focusing on long-term reform dynamics, the paper moves beyond short-term policy evaluation and highlights the importance of policy continuity, coherence and cumulative effects when addressing inequality.
A shared analytical framework for STRIDE
A key contribution of Working Paper 1 is the development of a common analytical framework that guides the entire STRIDE project. The paper clarifies how STRIDE understands and operationalises core concepts such as:
-
Equity and equality in education and training
-
Inclusion and exclusion processes
-
Target groups affected by educational disadvantage
-
Policy mechanisms shaping access, participation and outcomes
This shared framework ensures coherence across STRIDE’s subsequent analyses, including country case studies, comparative research and policy recommendations.
Understanding reforms and their impacts
The Working Paper also provides an overview of major education and training reform trends in Europe, examining how policies have sought to respond to persistent inequalities related to socio-economic background, migration, language, disability and other intersecting factors.
Rather than assessing reforms in isolation, the paper emphasises the need to understand:
-
how reforms interact over time,
-
how they are implemented in specific contexts, and
-
how they affect different learner groups unevenly.
This approach allows STRIDE to identify not only intended outcomes, but also gaps, trade-offs and unintended consequences of reform processes.
Laying the groundwork for future STRIDE outputs
As the first Working Paper, this publication sets the stage for all subsequent STRIDE research outputs. It provides the theoretical grounding for:
-
the country case study analyses,
-
the systematic review and policy analysis reports, and
-
the project’s final policy recommendations.
Working Paper 1 reinforces STRIDE’s commitment to evidence-informed policymaking, offering a robust foundation for understanding how education systems can be transformed to become more equitable and inclusive over time.
