Professor Susanne Wiborg

Why Evidence Alone Can’t Reform Schools: Insight from Comparative Politics of Education

If we already know what works in education, why do so many reforms fail? This keynote explores why decades of promising research on school improvement have been so difficult to translate into lasting change. Despite abundant evidence, governments worldwide struggle to design policies that truly improve the performance of national education systems, both in terms of raising academic standards and promoting social inclusion. Too often, reforms are resisted, diluted, or stalled, leaving persistent problems unresolved. The emerging field of comparative politics of education addresses this gap by examining how politics, governance, and organised interests shape reform processes and outcomes. The talk will argue for the importance of paying closer attention to group behaviour. By presenting examples from different parts of the word, it will offer critical insights into why some reforms succeed while others falter – and provide new impetus and direction to a field long neglected.

Professor Susanne Wiborg is a Reader in Education at UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. She holds a BA and MA from Copenhagen University and PhD from Aarhus University, Denmark. Dr Wiborg’s research examines the comparative politics of education across Europe, with a particular focus on organised interests, the politics of education reforms, and educational institutions – and their consequences for schools and pupils.

She currently serves as the Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the research project: Admissions impossible: School Choice in European Cities, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (£1 million). Her most recent books are Who Controls Education? The rising power of vested interests in Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2025); The Comparative Politics of Education: Teacher Unions and Educations Systems Around the World, (with Terry M. Moe, Stanford University, Cambridge University Press, 2017); and Education and Social Integration: Comprehensive Schooling in Europe, (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009). Dr Wiborg’s work has been featured in the The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, BBC, Newsweek, and Prospect.