Professor Chris Chapman, Director of Policy Scotland, takes on the 2021 presidency of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement today.

ICSEI is a global community collaborating for enhanced quality, equity, and excellence in education, related to school effectiveness and improvement. ICSEI’s members come from more than 50 countries and represent the continents of the world.
“The International Congress for School and Educational Improvement is a dynamic community of researchers, policymakers and practitioners concerned with improving educational outcomes for all irrespective of their background. The congress’s primary ambition is to support the development of more equitable education systems around the world. As well as our annual congress the day-to-day activity of ICSEI takes place through its 7 networks and regional events. The last regional event before the UK lockdown in March 2020 was held in Glasgow in February. When things open up we have plans for the next regional event to be held by the University of California San Diego in California.”
Professor Chris Chapman, President of ICSEI
Policy Scotland and ICSEI collaborations
During the COVID-19 pandemic Policy Scotland has supported two new ICSEI knowledge exchange networks:
- Crisis Response in Education, which has focused on the role of school inspections in the pandemic
- Voices from the field, which has shared insights from educators dealing the impact of the pandemic in South America
Get videos and papers from the ICSEI regional event Empowerment, equity and excellence: Where next for Scottish education? held in Glasgow in February 2020.
ICSEI Virtual Congress 2021
The next big event for ICESI will be the ICSEI Virtual Congress 2021. Entitled Crossing Boundaries and Building Bridges, the conference aims to help educators cross multiple borders and boundaries to collaboratively improve the quality and equity of education at a global scale.

Educators need to critically engage with new and innovative ideas to help make educational organisations more effective, especially in the light of the pandemic. The conference will consider questions such as:
- What policies need to be in place to support quality and equity, and the wellbeing of our students?
- How does policy influence educational practice?
- What are urgent questions from educators that researchers need to address?
- How can educators learn from research, and researchers learn from practice?
Find out more on the ICSEI Congress website.
About Professor Chapman
Professor Chapman is Chair of Educational Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow. As well as Director of Policy Scotland, he is the key architect and Principal Investigator of Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland and the Network for Social and Educational Equity.
He is currently seconded part-time to Scottish Government as Senior Academic Adviser in the Learning Directorate, supporting the Scottish Attainment Challenge. He sits on:
- the Coronavirus (COVID 19): Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues, which is developing iterative operational guidance for providers of learning, childcare and children’s services.
- the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 Educational Recovery Group’s workstream focusing on disadvantaged learners
- the First Minister’s International Council of Education Advisers
Image credit: Tijs Zwinkels on Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0