Policy Briefs

The implementation of Open Schooling as a strategy requires a process of institutional learning and a fundamental change in how schools are perceived by various stakeholders. In order to get their commitment, evidence needs to be based on authentic first-hand insight into well proven practices, as well as on a thorough analysis of policies and structures which are relevant for the school sector. For this reason, PHERECLOS has dedicated a separate Work Package to advocacy activities, delivering policy recommendations and supporting upscaling to ensure the long-term and widest possible impact of the project.

This set of Briefing Papers, based on a mapping of needs of PHERECLOS LEC partners, has been developed in a way that can support local advocacy work towards various levels of policy making, focusing on thematic areas identified by LEC partners as possible barriers, but each taking the perspectives of main open schooling stakeholders: school students, teachers, school heads, parents and teacher training into account. Further on, the Briefing Papers and experiences of LEC partners with using them will provide a basis for the formulation of the Advocacy Toolkit and Policy Recommendations in the final stages of the project.

Based on input from LEC Partners the following thematic areas have been identified as relevant for local advocacy:

1. The Benefits of Open Schooling on STEAM learning
2. School Autonomy and Stakeholder Engagement in Open Schooling
3. School Leaders and Teachers in Open Schooling
4. Non-formal Education Providers in Open Schooling
5. Financial Aspects of Open Schooling
6. Physical and Legal Barriers to Student Participation in Open Schooling

As the Briefing Papers were developed  in the first half of 2020, during the global school closure period due to the COVID-19 virus, and additional Paper was added on Lessons Learnt from COVID-19.

Each Briefing Paper is an individual document that can be used separately for advocacy work. They were developed bearing in mind that LEC partners, or any advocate for the PHERECLOS model or open schooling in STEAM education for that matter, will use ones relevant in their context and not use others. This is why each paper is formatted separately and there is an extra section on PHERECLOS in each of them.