User:Repljuga/Pavle Zgaga

Pavel Zgaga, philosopher and sociologist, university professor, politician, * 30. June 1951, Jesenice.

He spent his childhood in Hudajužna in Baška grapa (western Slovenia), where he attended the first four grades of elementary school and the second four grades in nearby Podbrdo. He continued his education at the Gymnasium in Nova Gorica, where he graduated in June 1970. He enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, where he graduated in philosophy and sociology in June 1975. In July 1988, he received his doctorate from the Department of philosophy.1

After graduation, he worked first as a teacher at the Technical Upper Secondary School in Ljubljana and, from the fall of 1978, as a lecturer at the then Pedagogical Academy of the University of Ljubljana. He actively participated in the conception and transformation of the Pedagogical Academy into the Faculty of Education (1991). In 2003 he was appointed full professor in the field of Philosophy of Education. After his retirement (2019), he remained a part-time senior scientific advisor.

In different periods of his activity he was active in various fields and involved in different forms of collaboration,2 especially in the field of (higher) education. As a student, he actively participated in the student movement and contributed to the Alternative University project,3 among others, and he was also an editor of the radical student newspaper Tribuna. In the 1980s, he was active in the then Šolsko polje (School Field) group, which developed alternative epistemologies in the field of educational sciences and critically observed the reform currents in the field of educational policy in the last period of life in the SFRY. During this period, he was also the chairman of the Student Radio Council, a radio station that played an important role in the media during Slovenia’s independence.

From 10 June 1992 to 28 July 1999, he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Slovenia, and from 29 July 1999 to 7 June 2000, he was Minister of Education and Sports of the Republic of Slovenia.

After his return to the faculty in the fall of 2000, he participated in the establishment of the Center for Educational Policy Studies (CEPS) and devoted more time to research activities. Between 2001 and 2004 he was also Dean of the Faculty of Education and a member of the Senate of the University of Ljubljana.

He has awarded several national and international research projects and grants, mainly in the field of higher education studies and educational policy, including issues of teacher education. In these areas, he collaborated with a number of foreign universities, participated in numerous international groups and conferences, and published in international monographs and journals in this field. Between 2010 and 2017 he was a member of the Council of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), and in 2011 he initiated the establishment of the Slovenian Association of Educational Researchers (SLODRE), of which he was president until 2017.

As an expert he also cooperated with several international organizations, in particular with the Council of Europe, the European Commission, UNESCO, the OECD, etc. He was invited as a speaker and consultant in many countries. He participated in the development of the Bologna Process in its earlier stages; among others, he was its general rapporteur for the period 2001-2003, member of the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG, 2004-2005) and, with its approval, rapporteur of the Working Group on the External Dimension of the Bologna Process (2006-2007).

He has been – and still is – a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals, including European Educational Research Journal, European Journal of Higher Education, Theory and Research in Education, Education Inquiry, CEPS Journal and others. As an peer reviewer, he is involved in many scientific journals and monographs.

Awards and recognitions:
In 2006, he received the Republic of Slovenia Award in Education for his research in education.

In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from Umeå University, Sweden.

In 2007, he received a gold award from the University of Ljubljana.

Important publications (in English)
Note: most of the oeuvre is available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pavel-Zgaga