Gerard
Ferrer Esteban

Gerard Ferrer-Esteban’s academic background includes a PhD in Sociology and degrees in Pedagogy and Social Education from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He is the coordinator of the research group at the Laboratori d’Educació Social (LES) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and a member of the Global and Comparative Studies in Education (GLANCE) research group at UAB. His main research interests include comparative education, education policy, educational research methods, and teaching and learning strategies. He has worked as a researcher on the ERC-funded Reformed project at UAB, where he has used mixed-methods approaches to analyse the effects of school autonomy and performance-based accountability policies on key dimensions such as learning outcomes, equity, and other non-cognitive competences. Dr Ferrer-Esteban has also worked as a researcher in the fields of education policy and school effectiveness at the Fondazione Agnelli (Italy). During this period, he took part in research projects related to assessment, teaching, and formal education, some of which were carried out in collaboration with Italian education authorities. This experience enabled him to participate in expert panels and technical working groups at the Italian Ministry of Education and to advise on education policies and professional standards. In teaching, he has worked as a full-time assistant professor and as an associate professor in the Department of Theories of Education and Social Pedagogy at UAB, as well as as an associate professor in the Department of Pedagogy at the University of Girona. During his predoctoral period, he was a visiting researcher at the European University Institute (Italy).