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POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1463412

Conceptualizing 'quality of education': an analysis of European political documents on education

Provisionally accepted
Carla Figueiredo Carla Figueiredo 1,2*
  • 1 Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
  • 2 Center for Educational Research and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This paper conceptualizes 'quality of education' in the European political discourse. The expression 'education quality' and its variations are frequently found in literature and policies at supranational, international, national, and local levels but are not explicitly defined. However, it is assumed to be a goal that countries pursue and has gained prominence in the European context. Acknowledging the European agencies' legislation's influence on Member-States' domestic policies, understanding what "education quality" means is of the utmost importance. Based on the content analysis of political documents issued by several European agencies, this paper categorizes, systematizes, and interprets the European political discourse on education to infer aspects that can compose 'quality of education' and develop an understanding of the concept. The analysis resulted in the systematization of three aspects that help to conceptualize the 'quality' of education: i) 'What is expected of education'; ii) 'Components of education quality'; iii) 'Priorities for Education'. Based on these aspects, a generic definition was formulated stating that education of quality is oriented towards preparing people to contribute to the social and political project, acquiring knowledge, skills, and competences to be productive; needing motivated and well-prepared teachers and leaders, adequate conditions, and being closely monitored and evaluated. The paper concludes with some recommendations. The paper conclusions could help policy-makers and school professionals in their professional practice and reaching education quality. Nonetheless, by only focusing on European documents addressing 'quality of education' the paper may present a narrower perspective that could be complemented by analyzing a wider range of international/transnational documents.

    Keywords: Quality education, Conceptualization, Political discourse, Europe, definition

    Received: 11 Jul 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Figueiredo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carla Figueiredo, Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.