Building a Community of Practice
The Sino-European Hub emerges from a shared conviction: that understanding educational transitions today requires sustained dialogue across traditions, disciplines, and borders. Rather than a fixed institutional architecture, the Hub operates as a living network—growing organically through intellectual affinity and collaborative projects.
Our Founding Initiative
The Hub was born from a joint initiative between Capital Normal University’s Comparative Education Center (Beijing) and the University of Bordeaux’s ECOr Department and LACES Research Unit (France). This partnership, built over years of scholarly exchange and mutual trust, provides the foundation from which our network continues to expand.
A Collaborative Ethos
We believe that the most productive international research emerges not from hierarchical structures but from genuine intellectual partnerships. The Hub is coordinated through:
- Joint scientific animation shared between European and Asian colleagues
- Thematic conversations that bring together researchers around questions rather than positions
- An open door policy welcoming new voices, especially early-career scholars seeking international research experience
Thematic Working Groups
Research activities are organized through six thematic areas, each functioning as a space for collaborative inquiry:
- Curricular Studies — Exploring curriculum as a window into educational cultures
- Teacher Education & Professional Development — Comparing pathways to the teaching profession
- Assessment & Evaluation Cultures — Understanding how societies define educational success
- Educational Governance & Policy — Analyzing how systems steer educational change
- Education for Sustainability & Global Citizenship — Preparing learners for shared global challenges
- Digital Transformation — Investigating technology’s reshaping of curriculum and educational practices
These groups evolve with our community’s interests—new themes emerge as new colleagues join.
Our Growing Network
Founding Partners
- Capital Normal University – Comparative Education Center
- University of Bordeaux – LACES Research Unit & ECOr Department
- Beijing Normal University – Institute of International & Comparative Education
Academic Collaborators
- University of Oulu – Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Northeast China Normal University
- Normal Shanghai University – Unesco Tec
Scholarly Societies
- AFEC (Association Francophone d’Éducation Comparée)
- CCES (China Comparative Education Society)
- WCCES (World Council of Comparative Education Societies)
Institutional Supporters
- UNESCO
- Chinese Ministry of Education
- French Ministry of Higher Education & Research
- Institut Universitaire de France
Join the Conversation
The Hub is not a closed club but an expanding community. If you share our commitment to rigorous, respectful, and genuinely comparative research on educational transitions, we welcome your participation—whether through our working groups, joint publications, doctoral exchanges, or simply by attending our events.