From External Evaluation, to School Self-evaluation, to Peer Review

Most modern systems of school education around the world now have highly developed evaluation processes. Following quickly in the wake of external evaluation policies have followed calls for schools to develop their own capacities for self-review. An OECD report (2013) describes a number of ways in which developing school evaluation capacity should be a priority for school improvement. Among the report’s suggestions are promoting peer learning among schools (pp. 469–470). This chapter describes the research on external evaluation, internal evaluation and the relationship between these two. It then moves on to define and describes peer review and chart its growth. The accountability dimension of peer review is also explored. Finally the existing evidence on peer review is presented from the vocational and schools sectors to show key findings so far, and key conditions for effective peer review are described

Cross-border cooperation under asymmetry: The case of an Interregional Trade Union Council

In order to protect minimum wage and social standards in cross-border regions marked by considerable economic disparities, trade unions have built cooperation structures across adjoining (usually sub-national) regions. Since the 1970s more than 40 Interregional Trade Union Councils (IRTUCs) have been established. This article investigates emerging practices of cross-border trade union cooperation in the West Pannonia region between eastern Austria and western Hungary. It argues that IRTUCs can play an important role in fuelling cooperation to preserve wages and labour rights in cross-border regions, particularly in sectors with high precarious employment. While actual practices are contingent on regional union strategies as well as industrial relations and labour market institutions, cross-border cooperation occupies an important place within European industrial relations practices and can support new forms of capacity-building