The importance of education is hardly a new insight; however, an increasing body of research points to the impact of different educational contexts on a range of outcomes. Yet this previous research provides little systematic, comparative data on the educational contexts of today's adult population, or their long-term impact on social and political outcomes. Schoolpol is an innovative 5-year research project which will provide crucial resources to policymakers and academics alike in understanding and crafting school reform. The Project asks three major questions:
How and why do formal educational structures vary?
How and why do regional educational structures vary?
How does this variation affect political behaviours of those educated in varying systems?
To investigate these questions, this project will create the first systematic database of educational policy from 1945-2015 and regional educational performance from 1980-2015, across a group of selected democracies. The research will investigate the consequences of earlier political choices over education on long-term social and economic outcomes, examining the link between varying cohort educational experiences and social mobility and political participation.
