Page 50 - Štremfel, Urška, ed., 2016. Student (Under)achievement: Perspectives, Approaches, Challenges. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Digital Library, Documenta 11.

formance between 2006 and 2012, thereby getting nearer to the European
benchmark in all three literacy fields: reading, maths and science.

Conclusion

In the paper it has been demonstrated that there is no shortage of opportu-

nities for common European cooperation for Slovenia on its path to fostering

academic achievement of Slovenian adolescents, but also that Slovenia meets

certain limitations. Conclusions are presented below, taking into account what

has been stated above as a basis for solving the perceived policy-related issue

of academic (under)achievement of Slovenian adolescents within a Europe-

an context.

The development trends in modern societies dictate that the develop-

ment of national educational systems cannot be conceived without interna-

tional comparative insights. In the process, the EU constitutes the institutional

framework, as part of which member states are (based on mutual compari-

50 sons, transfer of best practice examples, European funds etc.) able to signifi-
cantly strengthen their national endeavours for reaching adolescents’academ-

ic achievement and other common goals in the field of education (Alexiadou,

2007).

The success of the new mode of governance of the EU is based of the abil-

ity to develop a definition of legitimate, or clever and suitable, policies and

the common public good based on an inclusive and deliberate policy making.

However, developing non-contradictory and homogeneous definitions of the

public good (and objectives) has also, in modern societies, become unattain-

able, in view of the wide social, political and economic diversity within the EU

(Borrás and Conzelmann, 2007).

Analyses (e.g. Cort, 2010) indicate that meeting common EU goals has be-

come attainable due to these objectives being substantiated by means of ex-

pert data. Steering the activity of the key actors towards achieving common

goals on the basis of expert knowledge has become a unique mode of gov-

ernance in the EU, which enables gradual penetration of European agendas

in the national educational space, commonly even without identifying the na-

tional actors. The aforementioned non-selective adoption of European agen-

das slowly, yet efficiently, limits the sovereignty of member states in develop-

ing and implementing their national educational policies.

With awareness of the stated assumptions, it is of key importance to take

a critical look at the transfer of European guidelines into the national educa-

tional space, and to endeavour to take into account the expert knowledge (de-

veloped at an EU level) at a national level in accordance with neopositivist and

critically rationalistic forms of speaking truth to power, and not in line with the

student (under)achievement: perspectives, approaches, challenges