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Europe is comprised of geographically and politically diverse countries, with different cultures and languages, at different stages in their progress towards achieving inclusive education for diverse ranges of learners. This chapter discusses cross-country collaborative work conducted within the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. The work supports countries in meeting commitments to Sustainable Development Goals in Quality Education, by developing and implementing more inclusive education systems. This collaborative approach is based on a shared vision and evidenced-based key principles to guide policy development. It highlights the challenges alongside the progress achieved in European Country contexts towards SDG 4 targets.

Educational intelligence can be considered a prized asset in political actors’ careful calculations in setting policy agendas for radical educational transformations in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT). As an agent of globalization, the European Union (EU) is uniquely positioned to steer the direction of this new wave of digital technologies for two cardinal objectives in the EU’s rhetorical discourse: social cohesion and economic prosperity. Conversely, its complex governance architecture, which restricts its role in educational policy, tempers its ability to drive policy reforms in education for the strategic and coordinated deployment of Big Data in educational systems to support those twin objectives. This chapter examines this burgeoning policy arena in the European Union by interrogating the most recent policies on the “data economy” enacted at the EU-level and the positionality of education in this newest wave of policy formulation. A content and discourse analysis of policy documents on Big Data reveals that the EU is launching multiple initiatives to regulate these novel technologies across its socio-economic sectors. However, the amorphous nature and unpredictable impact of these technologies, along with the jurisdictional barriers in the education sector stemming from the delimitation of governance layers in the EU, pose difficulties in generating a coordinated approach to policy implementation to engender tangible results. Hence, the contours of an educational intelligent economy in the EU needs considerable policy attention and technical resources in its transition from the current ideational stage to its concrete manifestation.

This chapter aims at contributing to the promotion of education for competent and responsible citizenship with regard to the European Dimension. It takes into consideration five points: (1) the expected profile of the active European citizen in a reliable European cooperation project; (2) the attitude of people in Europe to the European Union (EU) and to the other member countries, according to Eurobarometer and other surveys, keeping in mind the international scenario, and the internal cooperation among the EU states; (3) the situation of citizenship education, as reported by European and international studies as Eurydice (2017); (4) suitable innovative and technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning excellence, aiming at Education of Responsible Competent European Citizenship, including digital citizenship, focusing on knowledge, skills, attitudes, values of responsible citizenship in a democratic society, and developing thinking processes: information management, judgment and decision-making processes, working constantly under European point of view, strengthening contacts, and exchanges among EU member countries; and (5) non-formal and informal learning, influences from the family, the social environment and the mass media on the attitude of people in Europe to the European cooperation. Proposals are developed for improvement in the field of teaching/learning, teacher training, and communication, fostering interaction, engagement, and competent citizenship for the common future.

European Educational Policies have been studied not only from an economic and political approach but also from an educational and cultural one. On this basis, and according to the contemporary political, cultural, economic and social changes and reclassifications, modern higher education and teacher education – not only in Europe but in Africa and elsewhere – suggest new aims and targets. These aims are to find new ways of knowledge communication and production. Educational policies in Europe – like the Bologna Declaration and the Uniformization of Higher Education provide some ‘lessons’ for Higher Education and Teacher Education in Africa.

This chapter aims to identify and explore those critical factors in relation to teacher education and development that may hinder or support the wider implementation of policy for inclusive education in practice. The chapter considers key issues related to initial teacher education (ITE) and in-service teacher education and continuing professional development (CPD) that appear to be relevant albeit in differing degrees across most European countries.

The chapter builds on initial work completed in the European Agency project on Teacher Education for Inclusion (TE4I). The project concluded that the role of core values for inclusion (particularly in ITE) can be a critical factor in ensuring more inclusive education systems overall (European Agency, 2011, 2012).

A number of policy questions in relation to preparing teaching staff for inclusive education were highlighted in this work, but two critical issues are the focus here:

• 1. How all relevant policies can support flexible education opportunities in initial and continuing professional development for all teachers.

• 2. How all teachers can be supported to develop the skills to meet the diverse needs of all learners, including a clear understanding of effective learning strategies, such as learning to learn and active learning approaches.

1. How all relevant policies can support flexible education opportunities in initial and continuing professional development for all teachers.

2. How all teachers can be supported to develop the skills to meet the diverse needs of all learners, including a clear understanding of effective learning strategies, such as learning to learn and active learning approaches.

This article provides an overview and analysis of 50 years of European policies, actions, and challenges to align its higher education and research, as well as lessons learned from this for similar initiatives elsewhere.

The study builds on a comprehensive overview and study of policy documents and scholarly literature to identify by decade the main policies and actions and the related challenges towards a European Higher Education and Research Area.

The findings make clear the key rationales, challenges, shifts and lessons to be learned from 50-year European policies for the alignment of higher education.

Its value lies in the historical overview and analysis of current initiatives, in particular the European Universities Initiative (EUI), to provide a historical and geographical context, which might give insight for similar initiatives elsewhere.

European-level debates regarding inclusion have most often focussed upon meeting the needs of learners with special educational needs (SEN) which occur as a result of learning difficulty or disability. In most European countries, the conceptualisation of educational inclusion has grown out of discussions surrounding specialist segregated provision, integration and mainstreaming (Donnelly, V. J. (Ed.) (2010). Inclusive education in action: Project framework and rationale. Odense, Denmark: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education). Inclusive education has – until relatively recently – been most often interpreted and understood as primarily concerned with efforts to meet the needs of this group of learners within mainstream and not separate educational contexts.

This chapter considers the differing and constantly changing conceptions of inclusion in countries. It draws on recent European Agency work with member countries that identifies policy and practice developments around inclusion indicating a move in thinking from SEN to special needs education (SNE), then inclusive education towards inclusive education systems.

This chapter investigates how and to which extent the European Union (EU)-related content is taught in Romania, by analyzing the school curricula and the teaching and learning methods at undergraduate level (primary and secondary school). It distinguishes between formal and non-formal education on European issues and emphasizes the role of teaching and learning the EU in building European identity and the sense of belonging to the EU. Both textbooks (as traditional learning tools) and various educational activities and learning methods using digital technologies (digital platforms, databases, simulations, games, etc.) are taken into account. The examples of non-formal activities presented in this chapter help to better understand the EU, its regions, its institutions, and their functioning. This chapter suggests the need to focus more the school curricula on skills training, participatory learning, education of values and attitudes, and less on mechanical transmission of information. The examples of good practice presented show the role of the European education, whether classical education or that one based on the use of new communication technologies, in the formation of an European consciousness, in the better understanding of the present by learning the past and in the development of participatory attitudes.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation and developments of the Bologna Process in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as a new paradigm of the European system of higher education, in general, and of the Portuguese system, in particular.

The paper uses firstly, higher education system statistics; secondly, Government and European Union documents; and thirdly, academic papers that conceptual frame the issues under discussion.

Portuguese HEIs are engaged in the Bologna process, but it shows some contradictions within the higher education system. One of these contradictions is the restructuring of the degrees and cycles had led to the apparently destruction of the binary system (universities and polytechnics) which existed in for more than 30 years. Another contradiction is carry out common European priorities and, at the same time, maintaining the national culture, language, education systems and HEIs autonomy. Although, the system promotes the cooperation between HEIs and increases the research, the innovation and the sustainable development, at a national level, as well as, an international level.

HEIs need to promote the strategic function of higher education and it demands a constant adaptation of the conceptual field, especially, in the social, economic and technological perspectives. These perspectives will assurance the enhancement and the preservation of quality of teaching/learning. These will improve the education for sustainable development that it develops higher growth and better educational performance.

Provides empirical evidence about the social dimension of the higher education system and analyse the Bologna Process in the HEIs.