Judit Horgas, our expert represented Parents International at the State of Affairs Meeting of the European Education Policy Network on Teachers and School Leaders (EEPN) in Brussels, Belgium on 21-22 March 2022. This year, EEPN is researching a very complex topic assigned by the European Commission: Teachers and school leaders towards a sustainable whole school approach for quality and inclusive education. As every year, the work has started by partners giving input for desk reserach, and Parents International could contribute to all four sub-topics with own or partner initiatives. We also participated in the discussions about sustaining the network after the EU funding period, after 2023. We are keen to be part of this collaborative group of organisations representing policy, practice and research, and we are happy to commit resources to sustaining it.

The four topics being covered this year are all complex ones, making this year an even bigger challenge than the previous ones. However, we could provide inspiration by sharing both research and practice for all of them, and hope that we can also support the creation of resarch-based policy recommendations for this very broad field that are useful for our members and partners to aim for policy change.

Topic 1 – Teachers’ and school leaders’ competences and support for effective blended learning

Topic 2 – A whole school support and networking to ensure school success for all

Topic 3 – A whole school approach for sustainable development, with a particular focus on the role and competences of school leaders to support the implementation of it

Topic 4 – Schools as learning communities to support teachers’ and school leaders’ professional learning and well-being

The desk research will be published in the summer of 2022, followed by the Annual Conference that we will attend, too.