The REVERS-ED project brings together 12 strategic partners from 8 European countries (Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Turkey), forming a multidisciplinary consortium with extensive expertise in educational research and social inequalities.
This international collaboration unites leading academic institutions and research centers, each bringing their unique expertise in areas such as longitudinal analysis of educational data, the study of effective educational interventions, and the implementation of inclusive educational policies.
The University of Siena team from the Department of Social, political and cognitive sciences was involved for its experience in dialogic processes and its specific expertise in co-construction of participatory action research. It is composed by Professor Mariarita Mancaniello, Principal Investigator, expert on adolescence education, pedagogy of marginality, social pedagogy, Professor Tiziana Chiappelli, Responsible for the research, expert on processes of inclusion of minorities through education adopting intercultural and gender approach and Professor Sabina Leoncini, Senior researcher, expert of process of inclusion of minorities and pedagogy of care.
“The geographical and contextual diversity of our partners – Mariarita Mancaniello explains – allows us to examine educational inequalities from multiple European perspectives, enriching our understanding of how different educational systems address these challenges”. “This variety of experiences and contexts – she underlines – is fundamental to identifying successful educational interventions that can be transferable across different European realities”. “Together – she adds – our consortium works towards achieving quality education for all children, developing evidence-based solutions to reverse educational inequalities across Europe”.
“Research through the decades – Tiziana Chiappelli explains – has demonstrated the existence and persistence of educational inequalities. These inequalities particularly affect vulnerable groups of students such as those with low socioeconomic status or a migratory history, who more frequently show high rates of early school leaving and low school performance”.
“However, – Chiappelli says – there is increasing scientific literature which identifies educational interventions that are effective in compensating for these inequalities, overcoming deterministic analyses in the understanding of the educational trajectories of vulnerable children and youth”.
“Taking this into account, – she concludes – this project will have a double approach. On the one hand, the project will exploit the large volume of existing educational data at the national and regional levels to map and analyse educational inequalities from a longitudinal perspective, identifying key features and trends. For the analysis, retrospective cohort studies will be conducted to understand how educational inequalities have evolved in recent years and how they relate to characteristics of the education received. On the other hand, the existing interventions that compensate for these inequalities will be studied in depth”.
Longitudinal analysis (quantitative and qualitative) will be performed on the educational trajectories of children and youth who have participated in successful educational interventions already identified by scientific research, to better understand how and to what extent they contribute to improve learning outcomes.
With these analyses, the project aims to facilitate that effective interventions can be translated into policies and replicated to advance into more inclusive educational systems with better learning outcomes for all. Additionally, the project will allow a better knowledge of the type of data to collect and how to collect them, to be able to make informed decisions towards overcoming educational inequalities in the short, medium, and long term. The project started in June 2024 and is currently in full swing, focusing on data collection and analysis and the development of analytical tools to make the most of the available sources.
Research team approach is based on promoting academic success and well-being at the personal and community levels.
The UNISI team will lead Work Package 5, focusing on improving methodologies for longitudinal data collection and enhancing the analysis of learning outcomes. These improvements will provide a clearer understanding of educational performance and inequalities over time, offering valuable insights to guide policy making aimed at boosting student achievement and reducing disparities in the education system.
“A final goal – Sabina Leoncini highlights – is to identify the conditions that allow successful interventions to be transferred into national and European policies. By doing so, we aim to counteract and reverse educational inequalities, paving the way for more inclusive and resilient education systems”.
“Additionally – she concludes – we will share and promote the best educational practices identified in the project at local, national and international level, ensuring their wider adoption to improve learning outcomes and reduce disparities”.
REVERS-ED project will end on the 31st May 2027. The project is funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe programme.
This article draws on the knowledge created by the coordinating team of the Horizon Europe project “REVERS-ED. Trends on educational inequalities over time and successful interventions that contribute to reverse them” selected and funded by the European Commission under the Grant Agreement N. 101132470, Horizon Programme. The project is coordinated by the University of Barcelona and includes twelve partners, including the University of Siena. For further information, please visit https://revers-ed.eu/.