The process of putting together a publication with a variety of different contributors is necessarily a collaborative one, and this volume benefits enormously from the support and suggestions of a number of individuals and institutions. The editors thank the CERI Governing Board for consistently supporting this work since its inception. Hege Nilssen and her team at the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training additionally made possible an expert workshop in 2018, which provided the backbone of the conceptual work and expert contributions in this volume.
The editors would also like to thank the external authors who contributed to this volume (in order of their chapters): Gustavo Mesch, Andra Siibak, Catrin Finkenauer, Yayouk Willems, Madita Weise, Meike Bartels, Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, Ellen Helsper, Svetlana Smirnova, Elettra Ronchi and Lisa Robinson.
In addition, special thanks to the following countries and systems who completed the 21st Century Children Policy Questionnaire: Australia, Belgium (Flemish Community), Belgium (French Community), Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom (Scotland) and United States. Your time, expertise, and co-ordination with colleagues from other ministries and departments are very appreciated.
We would like to thank past team members who contributed ideas, drafts and research papers from which this volume is drawn: Ruth Aston, Anna Choi, Julie Hooft Graafland, Quynh Nguyen and Alejandro Paniagua. And a special thank you to team members who valiantly reviewed multiple versions of each chapter to help improve the quality and relevance of the work: Liam Bekirsky, Marc Fuster Rabella, Leonora Lynch-Stein and Marissa Miller.
We would also like to acknowledge the many colleagues from our Education and Skills Directorate and Kate Cornford from the Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs for their feedback and comments on project working papers and specific chapters. Your time and expertise is invaluable to us.
We thank Andreas Schleicher, Director, and Deborah Roseveare, Head of CERI, for their comments on the draft. The CERI Governing Board provided encouragement, ideas and feedback throughout the process, and we are grateful for their guidance.
Thank you.
Tracey Burns and Francesca Gottschalk