Developing Schools as Learning Organisations in Wales

Annex A. Authors

OECD analysts

Marco Kools is an education analyst at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. He currently manages the Directorate’s policy implementation support work on Developing Schools as Learning Organisations. He previously has led and/or contributed to Education Policy Reviews in the Netherlands, Latvia, Sweden and Wales, worked on the Innovative Learning Environments project and led the development of the Education Today 2013 publication. Prior to joining the OECD in 2012, Marco worked with UNICEF in the Solomon Islands, Laos and at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Italy. Before that he worked for several years in the field of education in the Netherlands, where in 1999 he started his career as a teacher. Marco holds several degrees including an MBA, an MA in History and a BSc in Educational Sciences, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Administration.

Pierre Gouëdard is an education analyst at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. An economist specialised in economics of education, he has researched in areas of teacher careers and positive action in high schools, written on a range of related topics and taught in the field of economics. Formerly a researcher from the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP, Sciences Po, Paris), he developed an analytical framework to study aspirations of students when they apply to tertiary education. Pierre holds a PhD from Sciences Po, Paris, a Master’s in Analysis of Economic Policy from the Paris School of Economics and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Montreal.

Beatriz Pont is a senior education analyst at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. With extensive experience in education policy reform internationally, she currently leads OECD Education Policy and Implementation Reviews and recently led the comparative series on education reforms, Education Policy Outlook. She has specialised in various areas of education policy and reform, including equity and quality in education, school leadership, adult learning and adult skills and has also worked with individual countries, including Mexico, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Wales) in their school improvement reform efforts.

Previously, Beatriz was researcher on education and social policies in the Economic and Social Council of the Government of Spain and also worked for Andersen Consulting (Accenture). She has a PhD in Political Science from Complutense University, Madrid, a Masters in International Relations from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Pitzer College, Claremont, California. She has been research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (Tokyo University) and at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP, Sciences Po, Paris). She holds an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

Thiffanie Rodriguez is a junior consultant in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. She has been working with the Policy Advice and Implementation team on schools as learning organisations and school self-evaluation. She is an International Public Management Masters’ candidate at the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs (July 2019). Thiffanie holds a B.A. in political science and economics from Sciences Po Paris. Her research interests include education in emergency and crisis situations, schools as learning organisations and identity and inequalities.

External experts

Louise Stoll is a part-time Professor of Professional Learning at the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at University College London’s Institute of Education and an international consultant. Her research and development activity focuses on how schools, local and national systems create capacity for learning in a changing world, with particular emphasis on professional learning communities and learning networks, creative leadership, leadership development, and practitioners’ use of evidence. Among other work, she has carried out projects for England’s Department for Education, National College for Teaching and Leadership and the European Commission. Louise is a former President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, and expert to the OECD, contributing to projects on Innovative Learning Environments, Developing Schools as Learning Organisations, Improving School Leadership, and Evaluation and Assessment initiatives.

Bert Georges is an Assistant Professor of Public Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He holds a PhD in Business Economics, a Master of Science in strategic management and a bachelor of science in business administration from Ghent University. His research focuses on the strategic management-performance relation in government, behavioural public administration and research methods in public management. Bert is Programme Director of the Master in Public Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a senior member of the Netherlands Institute of Government. He co-chairs the European Group for Public Administration’s Permanent Study Group on Strategic Management in Government. He was awarded the European Group for Public Administration 2013 Best Paper Award of the PhD Symposium (Edinburgh), the European Academy of Management 2016 Best Paper Award of the Public Management SIG (Paris) and the Academy of Management 2017 Top Reviewer Award of the Public and Non-profit Division (Atlanta).