Regionalization in the educational context A review of projects and research findings

The present literature review focuses on the plurality of regionalization efforts in the German educational sector, which so far have not been systematically compiled. The aim is to trace the current societal discourse in the educational sector from two perspectives: On the one hand initiatives from all 16 federal states are analyzed regarding their objectives, structures and employed notions of "space". On the other hand, current empirical findings on regionalization from a total of 34 scientific publications are presented. These studies report evidence on relevant actors, local structural changes as well as perceived challenges and conditions for success. However, it also has to be pointed out that there is a gap between the important socio-political objectives of regionalization initiatives, such as equity in education, and the empirical evidence on their actual effectiveness.