29. Studies of the consequences of differences in school achievement for health and well-being are also needed, both short-term and long-term. 30. Comparative studies between the Nordic countries are needed regarding health-promoting processes and their relationship with school achievement. 31. Collaboration grants could be developed to help Nordic researchers to combine on-going national or international data collection for analysis of trends, causal web, consequences, interventions or specific programmes, and implemented policies.
Towards a summary This report has discussed a series of concerns regarding methodology, theoretical perspective, policy aspects, and ethical and political considerations. There is a need for scientific knowledge, practical knowledge, and practical wisdom to guide the further development of the Nordic school systems. This can be achieved by bridging different knowledge gaps through studies of different educational practice, interventions, and measures by [1] 305 using systematic reviews to summarise what is already known [2], doing original comparative research [2,6], using the potential of the unique infrastructure and competence in registry-based research [5,7] as well as the best available evaluative research designs and practicebased research designs [3,5], and increasing research collaboration between Nordic researchers in relevant fields [8] such as educational science, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology (developmental science), sociology of education, child public health, and policy science. Moreover, the research should be concerned with ethical and political issues of the selected approaches. The three perspectives on inequality in school achievement – gender, socioeconomic aspects, and health – are closely related. An intersectoral approach is essential if we are to understand school achievement, educational attainment, and educational trajectory from childhood to adult participation in working life, and quality of life. Therefore, it is possible to combine some of the proposed study topics in larger research programmes. The suggested topics are grouped into five different complementary categories:
305
The numbers within brackets refer to the knowledge gaps and concerns identified in this report. 101
