Regional Influence, Global Impact: The Council of Europe’s Promissory Governance of Education

• In Event: Leadership, Governance and the Globalization of Education: Future Forming and Situated Analyses

Proposal

Global education reform agendas and their governance are founded on complex interactions among various stakeholders who operate not only in a top-down manner, but also across different scales and contexts (Lawn, 2013; Mundy et al., 2016). Regional organisations play an important role in the transfer and translation of international norms, as well as in the extrapolation of national and sub-national priorities and discourses to the global level.
Europe is a particularly interesting case for investigating the dynamics of regional-global synergies (Krejsler, 2019). For decades, the oldest and largest European political organisation, the Council of Europe (CoE), has served as a conduit for translating international norms into regional standards, but has also contributed to the development of the global discourse on the purposes and governance of education (Lawn & Grek, 2012; Orivel et al., 2000).
Furthermore, the CoE mode of soft governance allows for the proliferation of the regional and global education agenda beyond the European Union (Sprague, 2016). The 46 full-fledged member states of the CoE, as well as neighbouring states like Kazakhstan and Morocco, participate in the development of common education standards and implement them according to what they deem suitable for their own systems.
Thus, an analysis of the evolution of the CoE’s education policies is integral to understanding the complex constellations of global governance modes across different levels and regions. This paper reviews the role of the CoE as a regional organisation in the global governance of education and its historical influence on the European education space through the following research questions:
• How has the CoE shaped education policies in Europe and beyond?
• How has the CoE engaged with other international organisations in the global governance of education?
• What are the implications of the findings related to these questions for contemporary comparative and international education?
The vision of the future shapes both the CoE’s modes of soft governance and the grounds for its legitimacy. To review not only how the CoE has governed but also how it has justified its expanding and evolving governance, I will use two theories. The theory of “anticipatory governance” (Berten & Kranke, 2022; Robertson, 2022) explores how international organisations deploy imagined futures to strengthen their influence by shaping the present, particularly in education. This governing approach is closely linked to the concept of “promissory legitimacy” (Beckert, 2020) , which examines how governance is legitimised through promises of a better future. The methods used in this paper are derived from these applied theories. I analyse CoE archival materials related to its governance of education, its impact on the formation of European and global governance of education, and the justifications behind these developments. To address any gaps in the archival data, I conduct semi-structured interviews with former and current CoE officials involved in the development and implementation of education policies.
The study is ongoing, but some preliminary conclusions can be drawn. The CoE has had a significant influence on education policies across Europe and beyond, particularly in the areas of citizenship and human rights education (UN, 2010; UNESCO et al., 2009). It has governed through expertise that promised profound value-based societal transformation through education, which would ensure democratic stability and peaceful coexistence in the region As more former authoritarian states joined the CoE, this narrative gained increasing influence through the organisation's governance at both regional and global levels. This was largely driven by cooperation and competition with the EU, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and UNESCO.
The current crisis of CoE legitimacy, related to Russia’s war on Ukraine and the rise of nationalist and non-democratic powers in Europe, fits into the broader context of the shifting world order paradigm that affects all international organisations. Future research must critically examine the role of regional organisations in shaping the discourses of global governance and account for their influence in the formation of both education policy and broader social agendas, such as democratisation and human rights.

Author

• Elizaveta Ebner, University of Zurich