Foreword

Since September 2025, Professor of Educational Policies in the Department of Political Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). He was Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO IESALC) between 2019 and 2025. Previously, he led the education policy advisory service, including national policy reviews, as well as international comparative studies in the education sector at UNESCO in Paris (France) since 2010. Prior to that, she worked at the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) at the OECD, where, as a senior policy analyst, she was responsible for projects such as the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and the New Millennium Learners Project. He also directed the reviews of educational research in OECD countries and the project on Systemic Innovation in Education. Francesc (Barcelona, 1960) graduated in education at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and obtained a PhD with a thesis on comparative education at the UNED (Madrid). Subsequently, he did postdoctoral studies in Comparative Public Policy at the Institute of Education, University of London (UK). He taught at the UNED (Madrid), the Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona), and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona), the first European public university to offer its courses only through the Internet, of which he was vice-rector from its foundation in 1994 until 1998. His most recent books are Working out change: Systemic Innovation in Education and Training (2009), Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade? Technology Use and Educational Performance in PISA (2010), Inspired by Technology, Driven by Pedagogy (2010), Technology and Education: What Works and Why (2011), and Connected Minds. Technology and Today's Learners (2012), Le numérique: une chance pour l'école (2013), Technologies for Transforming Education (2017), Promising Education Policy Levers For 2030. The Untapped Potential of Governance, School Leadership, and Monitoring and Evaluation Policies (2018), and A primer for engaging education stakeholders in policy reviews (2020).