Educational neighbourhoods in Vienna: A promising model to enhance educational opportunities and learning spaces through collaboration?

Collaboration structures across relevant partners in education are associated with the potential to address contextual barriers to all learners’ presence, participation, and achievement. Following these ideas, a newly introduced educational policy in Vienna, the so-called Bildungsgrätzl (educational neighbourhoods), aims to foster long-term cooperative structures between schools and neighbourhood institutions (e.g. leisure facilities and communities). This study explored the perspectives of 14 local stakeholders, school leaders, and informal leaders on policy translation, following the criteria of classical grounded theory. By analysing the problem and solution representations provided by the participants, the study revealed several critical challenges within the educational system. These included structural issues, such as the operation of schools as isolated, closed systems; organizational challenges, such as the lack of effective collaboration among key educational stakeholders; and social factors, such as the underutilization of available opportunities. However, the findings indicate that collaboration is widely perceived as a promising response to the social inequities embedded in these settings, consistent with the initiative’s foundational goals. Furthermore, the results underscore relatively high expectations and assumptions about the role of Bildungsgrätzl in promoting inclusive education, despite the paradox of a highly segregated educational system in Austria that does not fully support these efforts.