Gerard Ferrer-Esteban’s educational background includes a PhD in Sociology and a BA in Pedagogy (UAB). He realised a research stage as a visiting PhD student at the European University Institute (Italy). His main fields of research are comparative education, education policy, and equity in school systems. During the last seven years Gerard worked as a researcher on education policy and school effectiveness at the Agnelli Foundation in Italy. There, he took part in research projects related to evaluation, teaching and formal education, some of which he carried out jointly with the Italian educational authorities. This experience allowed him to be involved in expert panels and technical groups, and to counsel on education policy and professional standards. Dr. Ferrer-Esteban has also worked as a full-time lecturer in the Department of Social Pedagogy at UAB, and as a part-time instructor in the Department of Pedagogy at the University of Girona.
Dr. Ferrer-Esteban is part of the REFORMED project as a Marie Curie research fellow, and complements the existing qualitative approach with quantitative analyses to disentangle the effects of school autonomy and performance-driven accountability policies on relevant outcomes, such as learning outcomes, equity, and other non-cognitive domains. In doing so, he aims to articulate relevant policy implications to inform global and local education policy agendas.