Policy in transition: the emergence of tackling early school leaving (ESL) as EU policy priority

Abstract

Policy in transition: the emergence of tackling early school leaving (ESL) as EU policy priority This paper explores, from a Foucauldian perspective, the emergence and nature of the current EU education policy priority issue of 'early school leaving'. The paper suggests that a number of problematizations developing from the failure to secure Lisbon Strategy objectives have served to create a much stronger focus on the issue of young people deemed to be leaving education and training early in EU states. In examining how EU policy discourse positions such young people (subjectivation), the paper highlights how this has narrowed to a concern with young people as economic problems and principally positioned as economic units which require to be more productive. Education and training are understood as investments in human capital and as the principal means to secure the dominant global economic position desired by the EU. The paper suggests, however, that human capital theory has been modified within this approach so that merely being retained in an educational setting is seen as proxy for the investment which education and training represent. This is a weaker policy position than previously espoused but, born of economic crisis, one which addresses related EU political aims of softening youth unemployment figures, dampening associated unrest, and reducing risks to social cohesion.

High School Dropout in Proximal Context: The Triggering Role of Stressful Life Events

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Early School Leaving by Nationality in Contemporary Greece Sociological Interpretations of Recent data

“…are undoubtedly parts of the most important and inalienable achievements of modern society. Briefly, we have to approach the issue of early school leaving through the critical overview of its conceptual framework (Gillies, & Mifsud, 2016). Hence, every drastic treatment of any social problem requires both the accurate diagnosis and understanding of its anatomy.…”

Keeping doors open: transnational families and curricular nationalism

“…Etzioni (2013) was more critical of the EU nations' attempts to coordinate education policies, arguing that the policies (like the Australian effort) were more economically driven and did 'little to strengthen European identity or community' (p. 320). Etzioni further argued that a 'foundation of shared moral values and affective bonds' (p. 316) still needed to be built through education to achieve any ethos of community in the EU project ( see also Gillies and Mifsud, 2016). Michaels and Stevick (2009) reviewed civics curricula in Slovakia and Estonia and their construction of new Europeans in post-socialist states, alongside and in tension with the recovery of nationalist identities.…”