Report - 8th eduLIFE Workshop at the European University Institute

Phase 4 of the ERC project ‘Education as a Lifelong Process – Comparing Educational Trajectories in Modern Societies’ (eduLIFE) addresses the impact of childcare arrangements on social inequalities in early and later life. Of major interest for the project phase is the links between social origin, childcare and short and long-term individual achievement in different childcare systems. Leading experts from several academic disciplines (like sociology, psychology, economics, and educational science) joined Phase 4 by contributing country-specific studies tapping one of the following research topics: Social disparities in cognitive or non-cognitive outcomes in infancy particularly the role of family care quality, the patterns of care arrangements in infancy and early childhood (pre-school age) by children’s social background, and the consequences of early education and care for social inequalities in early and later individual outcomes. Our common investigation adopts a comparative design by putting together empirical evidence from longitudinal data in different countries.

More than 30 researchers attended the 8th eduLIFE workshop that took place in the Badia Fiesolana of the EUI on November 12 and 13 of November, 2015. The conference was chaired by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Dr. Nevena Kulic, Dr. Jan Skopek, and Dr. Moris Triventi. Researchers from various countries presented their findings which are going to be published in an edited volume soon.