CFP: Equity in extended education: analytical, comparative and critical perspectives on policy, pedagogy, and practices
Mathematics Education Researchers (MER) community
Background
With the growing perceived diversity of the child population, more and more societies across the world are confronted with the expectation of eliminating disparities in education and ensuring equal opportunities to education for all children (Bae et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2017), especially for those in disadvantaged situations (UNESCO, 2017), e.g. those from low socio-economic family backgrounds (Bellibas, 2016), ethnic or linguistic minorities (Bates, 2023), children with special needs (Dyson, 1997), migrants and refugees (Schmidt et al., 2025), children living in rural or remote areas (Zhang et al., 2015), those affected by gender-based discrimination (UNESCO, 2020), as well as children impacted by cultural biases and stereotypes (Baker, 2005) or intersecting forms of disadvantage (Maroto et al., 2019). Despite significant policy efforts and resource investments in many countries, persistent equity gaps remain a pressing concern (Mullis et al., 2023; OECD, 2023).
Recent evidence suggests that educational disparities are not only reproduced but sometimes even amplified in out-of-school and extra-curricular contexts (Zhang & Bray, 2018), raising critical questions about how extended education contributes to or counters inequity. Extended education encompasses various educational and care opportunities that provide children with supervised activities designed to encourage safety, learning, and development during periods that extend beyond formal education (Schüpbach & Lilla, 2025). Current studies covering various national contexts indicate that extended education is playing an increasingly vital role in addressing the challenges and opportunities encountered by the growing diversity of participants at all levels, including children, staff, leaders, parents, and organisations (Krejcik et al., 2025; Ning et al., 2025).
In the Nordic context, where comprehensive welfare models traditionally emphasise universal access and social equity (Hansen & Gustafsson, 2020), extended education has developed distinctive features, such as Icesland’s Frístundaheimili (leisure-time centres), Sweden’s fritidshem (school-aged educare centres), Norway’s and Denmark’s SFO’s (after-school care programs) and various forms of leisure- and youth clubs, that explicitly aim to support all children and youth regardless of background (Haglund, 2023; Pálsdóttir, 2024; Petersen et al., 2023; Ringskou, et al., 2020). However, even in these contexts, research reveals growing concerns about inequity in the provision of quality, with studies documenting significant disparities in learning environments across socioeconomically different areas (Boström & Augustsson, 2016) as well as in exclusionary processes (Lago & Elvstrand, 2019). Similar tensions can also be observed in the field of extended education within broader global contexts. Examples include after-school programmes in South Korea (Bae et al., 2019) and the US (Huang et al., 2017), extra-curricular activities in Russia (Kosaretsky & Ivanov, 2019), community schools in the UK (Kerr, 2022), all-day schools in Switzerland (von Allmen et al., 2019), out-of-school science education in Canada (Burke, 2020), and private tutoring in China (Zhang & Bray, 2018), both in-person and on digital platforms.
Despite the importance of the topic, fundamental questions remain underexplored regarding equity in extended education: Which policy frameworks and pedagogical innovations have been pursued, by whom, and toward which specific goals? How do different welfare regimes, educational systems and cultural contexts shape equity understanding and outcomes in extended education? What role does technological development, including digital tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI), play in either advancing or undermining equity in these settings? How do practices on the ground align with or diverge from policy intentions, and what can comparative analysis reveal about different implementation strategies?
Call for Papers
Against this backdrop, we invite theoretically grounded, empirically rigorous and critically engaged scholarship that explores how equity is conceptualised, negotiated, practised, and enacted in the diverse formats of extended education offerings. Among others, we particularly encourage comparative, international and multidisciplinary perspectives across different welfare regimes, educational systems and cultural contexts worldwide.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
1. Policy frameworks, discourses, and implementation: comparative analysis of policy approaches to equity across national contexts, tensions between universal extended education ideals and stratified access, governance structures and their impact on equity outcomes, policy responses to technological development and digital divide in extended education.
2. Pedagogical innovations and practices: inclusive and diversity-sensitive pedagogies, learning environment design with equity considerations and resulting policy needs, professional development approaches and their role in policy negotiation, digitalisation in practice and emerging structural and policy challenges.
3. Access, participation, and outcomes: barriers to participation for marginalised groups and strategies to address them, fee structures and subsidies and their impact on socioeconomic equity, geographic disparities in availability and quality, dropout and retention patterns across different populations, long-term educational and social outcomes for participants from diverse backgrounds in extended education.
4. Partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaboration: collaboration between extended education providers, communities, and external organisations in promoting equity, family engagement strategies across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, the role of civil society organisations and NGOs in equitable extended education offerings, public-private partnerships and their implications for policy concerning extended education.
5. Curriculum, offering planning, and cultural relevance: culturally responsive and sustaining approaches in extended education programming, representation and inclusion in curriculum materials and offering planning, language policies and multilingual approaches, integration of local knowledge and community perspectives in extended education planning and implementation.
6. Staffing, workforce, and professional issues: diversity, recruitment, and retention of practitioners from underrepresented groups, working conditions and professionalisation and their impact on equity, competencies needed for equity-oriented practice, volunteer training, as well as (multi-)professional collaboration between staff in promoting equity in extended education.
7. Funding, resources, and infrastructure: resource allocation mechanisms and equity outcomes, physical and digital infrastructure and accessibility considerations, material resources and their distribution across different settings, and sustainability of equity-focused initiatives concerning extended education.
Important: Please note that contributions focusing primarily on praxis-oriented recommendations are not encouraged. Contributions focusing on topics other than policy (e.g. topics 2-7 in the above list) should address the political ramifications in their conclusion.
References
Bae, S. H., Cho, E., & Byun, B.-K. (2019). Stratification in extended education participation and its implications for education inequality. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 7(2), 160–177. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v7i2.05
Baker, P. B. (2005). The impact of cultural biases on African American students’ education: A review of research literature regarding race-based schooling. Education and urban society, 37(3), 243–256.
Bates, S. (2023). Unseen advantage and disadvantage in high schools: Cultural norms and educational equity. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 68(4), 300–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2023.2238628
Bellibas, M. S. (2016). Who are the most disadvantaged? Factors associated with the achievement of students with low socio-economic backgrounds. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 16(2), 691-710.
Boström, L., & Augustsson, G. (2016). Learning environments in Swedish leisure-time centres: (In)equality, 'schooling', and lack of independence. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 4(1), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v4i1.24779
Burke, L. E. C. (2020). Informal science educators and children in a low-income community describe how children relate to out-of-school science education. International Journal of Science Education, 42(10), 1673–1696. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2020.1774936
Dyson, A. (1997). Social and educational disadvantage: reconnecting special needs education. British Journal of Special Education, 24(4), 152–157.
Frønes, T. S., Pettersen, A., Radišić, J., Buchholtz, N. (2020). Equity, equality and diversity in the Nordic model of education. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61648-9
Haglund, B. (2023). Pupils' development: Policy enactment in Swedish school-age educare. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 9(3), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2023.2236748
Huang, D., Leon, S., & La Torre Matrundola, D. (2017). Using entropy balancing to reduce the effects of selection bias in afterschool studies: An example in studying the relationship between intensity of afterschool program participation and academic achievement. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 5(1), 5–25.
Kerr, K. (2022). Supporting "slow renewal": Developments in extended education in high-poverty neighbourhoods in England. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v9i1.08
Kosaretsky, S., & Ivanov, I. (2019). Inequality in extracurricular education in Russia. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 7(2), 132–142. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v7i2.03
Krejcik, L., Gogolin, I., Ning, H., & Schmidt, J. S. (2025). Participation in extended education: The relationship between parents and educational institutions as an enabling factor. In M. Schüpbach, T.-S. Idel, & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Extended education: Different impetus, conceptions, developments in an international perspective (pp. 339–364). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47630-4_14
Lago, L., Elvstrand, H., (2019), ”Jag har oftast ingen att leka med” [“Usually I have no-one to play with”]: Sociala exkludering på fritidshem [peer rejection in leisure-time centres], Nordic Studies in Education, 39(2), 104-120. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1891-5949-2019-02-03
Maroto, M., Pettinicchio, D., & Patterson, A. C. (2019). Hierarchies of categorical disadvantage: Economic insecurity at the intersection of disability, gender, and race. Gender & Society, 33(1), 64–93.
Mullis, I. V. S., Davier, M. von, Foy, P., Fishbein, B., Reynolds, K. A., & Wry, E. (2023). PIRLS 2021 International Results in Reading. Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. https://doi.org/10.6017/lse.tpisc.tr2103.kb5342
Ning, H., Schmidt, J. S., Lilla, N., Nieuwenboom, W. J., & Schüpbach, M. (2025). Extended education in primary education across different national contexts: Developing an approach for categorising educational foci. In M. Schüpbach, T.-S. Idel, & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Extended education: Different impetus, conceptions, developments in an international perspective (pp. 317–338). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47630-4_13
OECD (2023), PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The State of Learning and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en
Pálsdóttir, K. Þ. (2024). Extended education and well-being of children: A case study of Iceland. IJREE – International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 11(2-2023), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v11i2.03
Petersen, K. E., Rose, P., Damkjær-Ohlsen, S., & Duncan-Bendix, J. (2023). Pædagogers arbejde med børn og unge i fritidspædagogikken – Fritidspædagogikkens betydning for børn og unges trivsel, udvikling og livsmuligheder. DPU, Aarhus Universitet.
Ringskou, L. T., Vengsgaard, C. K. M., & Bach, C. N. (2020). Klubpædagogen mellem demokrati, frihed og markedsgørelse? Forskning i Pædagogers Profession og Uddannelse, 4(2), 64–79. https://tidsskrift.dk/FPPU/article/view/122504
Smith, E. P., Witherspoon, D. P., & Osgood, D. W. (2017). Positive Youth Development Among Diverse Racial–Ethnic Children: Quality Afterschool Contexts as Developmental Assets. Child Development, 88(4), 1063–1078.
Schmidt, J., Ning, H., Nieuwenboom, J. W., Schüpbach, M. & Lilla, N. (2025). Pädagogische Qualität außerunterrichtlicher Angebote in deutschen Ganztagsgrundschulen zugunsten doppelt benachteiligter SchülerInnen mit Migrationshintergrund: Qualitative ExpertInneninterviews mit internationalen WissenschaftlerInnen. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 71(4), 488-508. https://doi.org/10.3262/ZP2504488
Schüpbach, M., & Lilla, N. (2025). Extended education – different impetus, conceptions, and developments in an international perspective: An overview. In M. Schüpbach, T.-S. Idel, & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Extended education: Different impetus, conceptions, developments in an international perspective (pp. 1–28). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47630-4_1
UNESCO. (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/CGBA9153
UNESCO. (2020). Global education monitoring report 2020: Gender report – A new generation: 25 years of efforts for gender equality in education. UNESCO.
von Allmen, B., Schüpbach, M., Frei, L., & Nieuwenboom, W. (2019). The effect of utilization of extended education offerings and of their quality on reading achievement at open-attendance all-day schools. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 7(1), 5–19.
Zhang, D., Li, X., & Xue, J. (2015). Education inequality between rural and urban areas of the People's Republic of China, migrants’ children education, and some implications. Asian development review, 32(1), 196–224.
Zhang, W., & Bray, M. (2018). Equalising schooling, unequalising private supplementary tutoring: Access and tracking through shadow education in China. Oxford Review of Education, 44(2), 221–238.
Submissions must align with the thematic scope of this Special Issue as mentioned aboved and adhere to the general instruction for authors of the Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy. This includes compliance with policies regarding peer review, ethical standards, manuscript structure, word count, formatting, and the use of third-party material.
Please note that submission platforms and open-access policies are subject to updates; authors will be notified of any changes in a timely manner.
Review ProcessPhase I: Abstract Submission & Screening
Authors must submit an abstract (maximum 500 words, excluding references) by May 15, 2026. The abstract should provide sufficient detail to evaluate the quality and relevance of the proposed paper, including summaries of all planned sections and preliminary results. Abstracts should be submitted by email to haiqi...@fu-berlin.de, with copies sent to marianne....@fu-berlin.de and D...@via.dk.
Phase II: Full Manuscript Submission
Papers that pass the initial screening will proceed to formal peer review. Full manuscripts (ca. 6,000-8,000 words) must be submitted between 1 and 31 January 2027. Due to the scheduled migration of the journal's submission platform, the (guest) editors will provide specific instructions for the second phase before the submission window begins.
TimelinePhase I: Abstract submission & Screening· Abstract Submission Deadline: May 15, 2026
· Notification of Abstract Results: About June 15, 2026
Phase II: Manuscript Submission & Review· Full Manuscript Submission Window: January 1 – January 31, 2027
· Peer Review & Revision Period: February – August 2027
· Final Acceptance Notification: July – September 2027
Phase III: Publication & Dissemination· Expected Publication Date (Online First and Open Access): September 2027 – January 2028
· Promotion & Dissemination: Starting September 2027