Conference Agenda

Working Meeting NW 01

ISSPP Internal Working Meeting

Link Convenors' Meeting 1

This study investigates the differences in academic performances between primary school students in Nigeria's public, low-cost, and high-cost private schools. Unfortunately, reliable evidence on the causal differences in performance between different school types is unavailable in Nigeria. This is because it is difficult to derive causal estimates of the effect of school type on academic achievement when students are not randomly allocated to each school type.

Instead, students self-select into school types based on expected (in this case, their academic achievement) or are predisposed to attend particular school types due to certain demographic characteristics. This non-random selection of students into each school type introduces systematic bias between students in the different school types (Tooley & Yngstrom, 2014). Therefore, selection into a school type (high-cost private schools, for example) and academic achievement of students in that school type are confounded by pre-existing differences between students attending high-cost private schools and those not.

The earliest studies that attempted to estimate the private school effect used simple regression models treating the school type variable as exogenous. This means that researchers treat the school type a student attends as an independent causal factor of any observed differences in academic achievement between public and private school students (Lipcan et al., 2019). However, the main challenge in using regression models is the issue of selection bias which occurs because selection into private schools is endogenous. Therefore, treating private schools as exogenous will likely lead to computational differences because the school type a child attends is influenced by some child and household factors. For example, children from higher socio-economic households are more likely to attend private schools because of the costs associated with private schooling. These children are also more likely to afford after-school tuition (extra lessons), have parents who are highly educated and have higher ambition, and have access to other forms of social capital that can impact academic achievement. Therefore, households that select one school type (private schools, for instance) might differ in key observable and unobservable demographic factors from households that select public schools. This means that estimates OLS estimates will be biased and would not be the true causal effect of attending a private school.

In this study, I use the three advanced statistical techniques from a comparative perspective to assess the extent of selection bias, and control for it: Instrumental Variables, Heckman Correction, and Propensity Score Matching to evaluate the extent of selection bias and control for it (see Heckman, 1979; Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983).

Finally, most studies of the impact of school type on academic achievement divide schools into categories, public and private schools. However, this categorization is misleading for Nigeria (and most countries in SSA). Private schools differ in terms of tuition and other fees associated with them. To illustrate this, public schools are not completely free in Nigeria. While they are tuition-free, there are other direct costs associated with attending public schools, such as uniforms, exam fees, and books. In some instances, the tuition fees and costs associated with some private schools are cheaper than those associated with public schooling. Therefore, students attending lower-cost private schools will likely differ from those in higher-cost private schools along many dimensions. As a result, in this study, I intend to adopt a method of comparison that accounts for four school types: public schools, extremely low-cost private schools, low-cost private schools, and high-cost private schools.

My study is part of a larger project called BRIDGES which aim is to develop research- based interdisciplinary didactics in teacher education, and to improve teacher education with the support of and in collaboration with the end users. The focus of interdisciplinary didactics is closely related to the renewal of the Norwegian national curriculum (2017 – 2020) and the introduction of the three crosscutting themes public health and life skills, democracy and citizenship, and sustainable development. The implementation of the crosscutting themes into the curricula has prompted an interest for and actualized interdisciplinarity in both teacher education and schools. Interdisciplinary work is the common denominator in BRIDGES, and the research conducted is either focusing especially on one of the three crosscutting themes or interdisciplinarity as an objective to ensure better coherence within and between school subjects or disciplines in teacher education. In my PhD-project, I facilitate a collaborating space, that is this study’s main objective. In 2017, a national initiative for decentralized competence development in schools was implemented, emphasising partnership and locally based initiatives as pivotal means to target learning and development in schools. The partnership entails an equal and mutually binding collaboration, departing from research-based, practice-oriented, and relevant measures (Udir, 2022) to facilitate processes that improve practices. The overall aim is to improve practices within teacher education and collaboration between schools and teacher education for mutual exchange of knowledge, experiences and worldviews, and to obtain a deeper understanding of how practices develop. The overarching research question for my study is how can collaboration between teacher education and the field of practice contribute to learning and strengthening practice for teacher educators and schoolteachers? I the project I investigate collaboration both on a horizontal and vertical level, looking at collaboration within teacher education and between teacher education and schools. In addition, I explore how both teacher educators and schoolteachers understands the concept interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning.

The project is designed as a case study, where I as a teacher educator collaborate with two other teacher educators and three schools in one Norwegian municipality throughout one school year. Interdisciplinarity is targeted as a focus area the municipality and its schools wish to address and further develop. The overall strategy, or design for the partnership is decided by the school owner (municipality) together with the administrative project leader at the university. In this case, the design is a so called “competence package” consisting of eight different modules targeting interdisciplinarity in different ways. We as the teacher educators create the content and tasks for the different modules, and the school principals are responsible for initiating and leading the teachers’ work and development processes locally. The competence package is built around a methodology focusing on individual and collective reflections on different parts of the curriculum, and on introducing new elements into existing practice and already prepared work in classroom (Penuel et al., 2007, Kennedy, 2016). Authentic learning implies that initiatives targeting competence development in schools should enable teachers to be agents in their own development process. The intention of the reflections is hence to facilitate critical discussions to challenge existing practices and enable the teachers to find ways to ask new questions related to their fundamental values and theories of action (Robinson, 2018).

“It is no wonder many secondary school students complain that school is irrelevant to the real world. […] The adolescent begins to realize that in real life we encounter problems and situations, gather data from all of our sources, and generate solutions. The fragmented school day does not reflect this reality” (Jacobs 1989, p. 1).

Interdisciplinarity helps and challenges students to think about the world from different disciplines, and, therefore, from different and diverse perspectives (Lattuca, Voigt, & Faith 2004). It prepares students for the way they need to handle real problems and situations in a real and diverse world and hence prepares them for the future (Beane 1997). A coherent curriculum is a widely shared ideal amongst teachers at all levels of teaching and learning (Janssen 2020). Furthermore, interdisciplinary teaching plays an important part in counteracting overload and fragmentation of the curriculum (Abbenhuis et al. 2008). For example, by diminishing overlap in learning plans between different school subjects, the problem of an overloaded curriculum can be solved (Folmer et al. 2017).

This study will focus on interdisciplinary teaching at secondary schools in The Netherlands. When considering all the advantages mentioned above, one would expect interdisciplinary learning to be an essential component of the curricula in secondary schools. However, according to recent reports (for example, the ‘Curriculum Mirror’ of 2017) it is not.

The main goal of this study is to investigate current practices of interdisciplinary teaching and learning, focusing on difficulties teachers encounter when developing this type of education. The two main questions to be answered are:

1. Which problems do teachers in secondary schools in The Netherlands encounter when developing interdisciplinary education?

2. What do teachers need in order to improve their interdisciplinary education?

Answers to these questions will provide essential input for a didactical instrument aiding teachers in the development of interdisciplinary education. This instrument will be developed in the next phase of this research project.

This study focuses on a specific department of the Dutch secondary school system: the gymnasium. The ‘gymnasium’ is the Dutch school type that prepares pupils for higher education (university). This is also the school type where, among other subjects, Latin and Greek Languages and Culture are taught (Remie 2022, Burgersdijk 2022). The gymnasium is considered a promising place for interdisciplinary teaching and learning, but also here the development of it appears to be problematic (BGV 2015, BGV 2020).

In order to answer the questions two methods were used (see also the method section below). First, a questionnaire was sent out to gymnasium teachers of different subjects in The Netherlands. Secondly, I organized three focus group meetings with teachers from different gymnasia.

In this ignite talk I will argue that interdisciplinary education in Dutch gymnasia is often developed on top of existing disciplinary curricula. In other words, it is overloading curricula, instead of doing the exact opposite. Therefore, to make interdisciplinary teaching successful, it is important to really embed it in the curriculum, strengthening and diversifying existing disciplinary curricula. This is one of the main steps that needs to be taken to successfully embody a widely shared ideal: a coherent curriculum.

Almost everything around us is made up. It is created – whether intentionally or unintentionally – by other humans, including things that we often take to be natural, such as the foods we eat or animals we keep as pets. As it turns out, most of the vegetables we enjoy and the pets we love to spend time with have been “designed” by artificial selection over decades, even centuries. What does that mean for us as humans, and as designers?

Recognizing that we live, for the most part, in an artificial, human-created world can change how we are in the world, how we perceive it, interact with it, and, more importantly, how we can change it. One could argue that it also provides us with a moral imperative to do so because we know that much of the world around us is unfair, often disadvantaging and marginalizing huge swaths of people and communities. Since there is nothing inherently “natural” about these artifacts or processes or systems, we have the agency to change them.

Included in this artificial world is education. Almost every aspect of what makes up today’s educational system—classes, schools, credit hours, universities, degrees, even the very idea of receiving an “education”—has been invented by humans. The current design of education does not work for many, particularly the groups that have been historically marginalized. If schools are not fun, if they do not support play and creativity, it is because they are designed to be this way (either intentionally or by happenstance as a side effect of some other decisions that were, at that time, believed to me more important). Because these are creations of humans, they can be reimagined and redesigned for better outcomes. Although the changing educational system might be incredibly complex, it is worth recognizing that it is designed and so can be re-designed.

In our work, we have found that expanding what we see as artificial, particularly the artificial nature of education and schooling, can enable powerful change. It is enabling in two ways. First, it allows us to interrogate everything around us, not taking it as a given, but rather something that was created and thus can be re-created, re-imagined, and re-designed. Second, it provides a response to those who resist change by making an essentialist argument — “this is just how things are.” Acknowledging the artificiality of the system suggests that this is how things may be, but they don’t have to be this way.

Another important aspect of seeing the world as artificial is expanding what we mean by the “world.” For too long we (and the field of design) have conceived of the designed world as constituted of physical artifacts and other technological tools. Although these are important, we argue that there are many intangible aspects to the designed world. They may include experiences (such as the feeling of awe when faced with the immensities of the cosmos); processes (such as the process of registering for school), systems (such as the K-20 educational system), or even culture (such as the culture of high-school football). Although design in some spheres (such as systems and culture) might be more complex than others, applying a wide-angled design lens can increase agency, empowering change makers. In order to do so, we need a frame, a way of categorizing or classifying the different kinds of “designed things” that are out there in the world.

Understanding how teachers perceive students with disability is essential to their inclusion and education, particularly with the rising debate between special and inclusive education (Florian, 2019). It was the recognition of the inequality and unfairness of systems that segregated students because of their differences that led to questions about the practice of special education (Vislie, 2003). Saudi Arabia is a signatory to international initiatives aimed at improving education for all and so in the drive towards Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia has embarked on a series of initiatives aimed at improving education. With the international drive towards inclusion, Saudi Arabia is now turning its attention to placing students with disabilities in mainstream schools. While this practice is to be welcomed, successfully including students with disabilities is not straightforward.

The Saudi context is one that is underpinned by Islamic values and Arabic tradition. Thus, this paper is part of my PhD thesis and will provide a snapshot from Muslim teachers involved in inclusive schools. Looking at this phenomenon from an Islamic perspective offered a unique opportunity to explore how these aspects intersect on the ground. This is an important omission, because as this study will argue, the Islamic cultural context found across the Middle East brings a unique and dynamic understanding of inclusive education. This is not to suggest that there is a homogenous approach to inclusion across the Middle East region; rather, each country in this geographical region implements inclusion in ways which consider local and national contexts, and this can result in different practices being adopted (Gaad, 2011). We know from the literature that the Middle East is not alone in this phenomenon, as differences in implementation exist globally (Carrington et al., 2015; Yada & Alnahdi, 2021). Studies of Islam and disability are quite limited, with a notable exception of Bhatty et al. (2009), who synthesise the historical, legal, sociological and theological literature relating to disability. Al-Aoufi, Al-Zyoud & Shahminan (2012) contend that within Islam, concern for the disadvantaged demonstrates a commitment to inclusion, and they cite acts undertaken by the Prophet to include those who were sick or disabled. Their paper also considers the right to education of those with disabilities, and argues that this right is clearly upheld in the Quran. Analysing text from the Quran, they conclude that:

- ‘Individuals have a right to be treated equally: everyone is equally important, whether disabled or not disabled.

- Individuals have a right to be educated regardless of disability.

- Individuals have a right to be included within society and to have an effective, valuable role within it.'

Al-Aoufi, Al-Zyoud & Shahminan (2012:211)

However, there has been little debate about the concept of inclusion in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general (Gaad, 2011). As countries implement inclusion based on international declarations, the additional lens of the Islamic faith within Middle Eastern countries is of importance not only to this study but to the field in general, and it brings an added dimension to the topic. Indeed, recently there has been a call to pay more attention to the Islamic perspective when fostering inclusive education, as the principles of inclusive education are seen to align with Islamic values (Ibrahim & Ismail, 2018; Abu‐Alghayth, Catania, Semon et al. 2022). This study is an attempt to tease out how Islamic principles influence teachers as they seek to understand and work with young people with disabilities when providing an appropriate education so that future work with staff can use these as a starting point for the implementation of inclusive education.

School inclusion pursues the normative goal of identifying and overcoming barriers that disadvantage, discriminate, and marginalize and replacing them with means that (can) enable full participation of all students (Ainscow, 2008). School systems in German-speaking contexts with their multi-tracked structure, their hierarchizing and selective functions are often problematized in this context and contrasted with more inclusive programming. This contrast has been reconstructed in various studies conducted in the German-speaking context in recent years (a.o. Rabenstein et al., 2013; Sturm & Wagner-Willi, 2015; Wagener, 2020). These studies identify achievement rankings as a central difference dimension of teachers' teaching practices in multi-tracked school systems: "These differences are ascribed to the students individually, in a hierarchical way (better/worse), accompanied by discrimination and a lack of learning opportunities, mostly for the 'weak(er)' students" (Sturm, 2019, p. 657 f.). At the same time, exploratory studies that comparing the construction of differences in schools in single-track systems and ones following multiple tracks suggest that teachers' practices and their construction processes differ according "to the formal school-based context in which they work" (ibid., p. 656; Sturm & Wagener, 2023, under review). For example, group discussions conducted with teachers in Norway, the USA and Germany showed that “German teachers only refer to the students’ achievement, which they understand as a result of the giftedness of the child, measured in IQ” whereas teachers in Norway and the United States explained lower “academic achievement of students in terms of the need to adapt their teaching approaches” (Sturm, 2019, p. 666). Since these results concern single cases and cannot be generalized to single-track and multi-track school systems overall, it is the central concern of the PhD researcher to systematically compare the constructions of achievement (or student differences) between school systems that differ in basic structure (integrative/selective) in order to find out whether and to what extent teachers’ practices differ. The project provides a comparison of teaching practices situated in a single-track school system, specifically that of Canada, and in a multi-track school system, specifically that of Germany. Canada – in Germany discussed as the “North Star” of inclusion (Hinz, 2006) – was the first country to enshrine rights for people with physical and mental impairments in 1985 as part of its Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (see CCD press release, 2012, online). In educational discourses, it is particularly characterized by its approach to societal heterogeneity and diversity. For example, Canada has enshrined multiculturalism nationally in law since 1988 (cf. Canadian Multiculturalism Act, 1985), which protects the rights of all marginalized population groups and aims to preserve and strengthen Canada's cultural diversity (Polat, 2019). The following research questions are formulated to address the multi-level comparison described here: How is achievement constructed and dealt with in the teaching practices of social studies classes in single versus multi-tracked school systems? Which forms of enabling and hindering academic and social participation of students in the classroom are reconstructable? In order to begin articulating an explanation for the similarities and differences in teaching practices, this study investigates the question of the significance and relevance of structural and legal frameworks in everyday school practice and curriculum. For this purpose, the second empirical part of the work will include curricuuma analyses as well as analyses of the respective school laws. In comparing teaching practices, data (principally audio/visual) have been collected at two secondary schools in British Columbia. Similarly data have been collected at a secondary school in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, while data collection at two other types of schools is still pending.

As professionals engaged in learning environments continue to adopt inclusive approaches, it is important that we recognise how theories frame “inclusion” and our approaches to “inclusive practice”. In this paper we will share the learning from a doctoral research that identified “the power to include” when exploring i) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in relation to (ii) Career Guidance, within (iii) the philosophy of inclusive education. This innovative research paradigm enabled a deeper and meaningful consideration as to what “Inclusion” means for career guidance practice; as once again we seek to identify the interlinked factors that might necessitate careful attention if guidance is to take its place in the broader inclusion agenda and adopt a more sustainable inclusive approach as defined by the UN SDG’s (United Nations Department of Global Communications, 2015).

Career guidance theory originated at a time when work was predominantly male and industrialised (Arthur & McMahon, 2018) – a time when the medical model of disability was prevalent. Frank Parsons, a lawyer, and social activist identified the significance of a more scientific approach for decision making around learning and career choices; he observed the many inter-linked factors that required careful attention and understanding when choosing career paths (Jones, 1994). However, little has been considered in terms of inclusion in educational guidance; while there has been considerable change in relation to learning, learning outcomes and the workplace for learners themselves (Mann, Denis, Schleicher, Ekhtiari, Forsyth, Liu, & Chambers, 2020).

The medical model of disability once separated learners with disabilities from their peers, seeking to “fix” the problem while the social model demanded that education change the focus from the person to the learning environment. Universal Design (UD), based on 7 principles is primarily focused on designing for inclusion; and while “inclusion” is framed by the experience of people with disabilities, the objective is to design for the widest diversity of people possible. Such a philosophy demands adaptability and flexibility and a consideration of all who want to engage (Storey et al, 1998). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) – UD applied in the learning environment also demands change; responding to the diversity of learners in our classrooms (Bowe, 2000; Rose & Meyers, 2006). Philosophies and practices based on UD and UDL approaches take a very contemporary and proactive approach, embracing notions of democracy, diversity, belonging and empathy.

The research design also adopted such values together with an unlikely combination of a bioecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), UD and UDL approaches, while continuously seeking to empower (Freire, 1996). The “inclusion as process” approach (Quirke, Mc Guckin, & McCarthy, 2022), a reflective research method that seeks to take both an ethical and inclusive approach to educational research enabled a reframing and re-understanding of the central issue - the definition and understanding of the term “inclusion”. This resulted in an understanding of “inclusion” in relation to guidance and an elevated view of “inclusion” itself. As inclusive practices continue to develop, we ask, is there a bigger challenge emerging – the role and “knowing” of each professional and expert?

It is important that the wider diversity of professionals engaged in contemporary education, each consider their approach to inclusion – particularly if there is to be a more sustainable approach for inclusion across education – an approach aligned with the UN SDG’s. In 2001, Herr credited career guidance as a contributor to the equality agenda at the time; can guidance, perhaps again, contribute to a renewed focus on inclusion for the ever-changing set of demands faced today as change takes hold across education.

If being a teacher and attending to the diversity and heterogeneity of students in the classroom, giving appropriate help to all students, is a complex task even more so in the case of multi-grade classrooms of rural schools (Abós et al., 2021). In these schools, teaching pupils of different chronological ages, interests and characteristics together in the same classroom represents a challenge for teachers to give an adequate attention to all of them, enhancing the inclusive and pedagogical value of the multi-grade classroom. A type of school that must be valued for the active methodologies applied and the inclusive work that is promoted and carried out. Nevertheless, in many aspects rural schools still remain invisible in favor of the urban graded school (Abós et al., 2020) despite the fact that it represents 30% of all schools worldwide (Little, 2006). Moreover, there is a lack of initial and continuous teacher training that takes into account the particularities of rural schools (Abós et al., 2021; García-Prieto, 2015), which hinders teaching in multigrade classrooms. There, to respond to the heterogeneity of all students, it is necessary that teachers implement active-participative, democratic and globalized strategies of specific multigrade didactics (Bustos, 2007) and to develop specific competencies for working in rural contexts. The methodology used must be supported by teaching materials that go along the same lines and also take multigrade into account in their creation or use by adapting the teaching response to the diversity of students in the multigrade classroom (Boix & Bustos, 2014). The scarcity of existence of specific didactic resources for multigrade teaching and learning, as well as the lack of knowledge about how these resources should be (Brown, 2010; Msimanga, 2019), is a problem reported in international research (Carrete-Marín & Domingo-Peñafiel, 2022; Coladarci, 2007; Fargas-Malet & Bagley, 2021). In addition, different studies highlight the inadequacy of existing resources (Juvane, 2005) and those used in schools, as well as teachers' difficulties in developing them, despite their importance for the success of work in the multigrade classroom (Boix & Bustos, 2014). In view of this, it is necessary to see how teachers face this challenge today and show what materials teachers are using in the classroom and how, what aspects they take into account to select or design them and what their needs are in this respect. In addition, it is relevant to analyze what teachers think and what they actually do, to see if it goes accordingly.

The first results of a research project in the Spanish context are thus presented, the central questions of which are as follows: What kind of teaching materials do teachers use in multigrade classrooms? What elements do they take into account to select them to promote inclusive work in the multigrade classroom? What are the rural school teachers’ beliefs and actions about the selection, use, creation and adaptation of materials to face the teaching-learning process in the multigrade classrooms?

Based on these questions, the goals of the study were: (1) to analyze the type of resources used by teachers and their use in relation to the planning and methodology used in the multigrade classroom by teachers; (2) detect criteria for the elaboration and selection of didactic materials in rural schools, so that they are pedagogically meaningful and take into account multigrading.

This research is also a response to the scarcity of research on the subject, despite the need for it as reflected in various studies. This study is therefore of particular importance because it is unique on the subject and provides relevant results to take into account.

The current crisis of the research regarding teachers’ views about inclusive education consists of tension between two problematic camps. On the one hand, the first camp, which can be defined as the psychological school, examines teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge roots from an inherently individualistic and reductionist perspective to determine whether teachers reject or adopt the idea of inclusive education. The second camp, which can be called structuralist tradition, on the other hand, focuses on socio-cultural barriers teachers face when they intend to become active agents for promoting inclusive education.

Even if these two camps seem opposite perspectives, they still fall into the same pitfall by overlooking their hidden assumptions about teacher agency. The former camp looks for the explanation for the failure of THE inclusive education project in the gap between teachers’ beliefs and actions, serving the responsibilisation mechanisms of neoliberalism (Done & Murphy, 2018). Similarly, the structuralist camp- ignores the teacher agency’s transformative capacity and power to change the status quo.

Current explanations point out that neoliberalism has a discursive capacity to demarcate the fields of validity, normativity, and actuality within a particular economic rationality (Grimaldi, 2012). In the education field, we can observe this through either human actions or the products designated to guide these actions, such as policy texts or curricula. However, this does not necessarily mean that all actions are determined by the coercive power of a neoliberal discourse since there would otherwise be little or no autonomy for the agency. Instead, the status of teacher agency remains preserved by conceptualising the neoliberal discourse as a mechanism that imposes limits on what we can say.

The way of dealing with the impact of competitive economic rationale of neoliberalism on education, we need research that presupposes that there is room for a change and a role for teacher agency in making inclusion replace the current dominant educational discourses. From this point forth, this research project formulises its research question as follows; to what extent and in what ways are teachers’ views and actions of inclusive education informed by neo-liberalisation discourses in Scotland?

The concept “diversity” is being used more frequently in today’s globalized world, where cross-cultural communications and interactions have risen. As for higher education, which according to Brubacher (1987) is the engine for the growth of contemporary society, the spirit of diversity is vital for its development in all of its facets, including the improvement and practice of teaching methods, the dissemination and innovation of knowledge, the discovery and cultivation of talent, the renewal of technology and the transmission of civilization, etc. This study intends to examine and analyze the effects of diversity on higher education by looking back to the Jixia Academy in China during the Axial Age (Jaspers, 1949).

The term Axial Age is mentioned in the book The Origin and Goal of History published in 1949, written by German philosopher Karl Jaspers. He thinks that the “axis of history is to be found in the period around 500 B.C., in the spiritual process that occurred between 800 and 200 B.C.” During this era, both the West and China produced many great philosophers and educators, including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. It was also during the Axial period that the prototypes of higher education emerged in both West and East : the Platonic Academy in ancient Greece and Jixia Academy in China.

Jixia Academy is recognized as a prominent institution of higher education in China during the Spring and Autumn era. It was founded during the reign of Tian Wu, the Duke Huan of the Qi State (374-357 B.C.). Jixia was a place where various schools of thought flourished, where many talents nurtured and where excellent teachers were gathered. The masters of Jixia produced works and taught their doctrines, in which we find the sources of almost all Chinese philosophical ideas, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, the Yin-Yang school, the Huang-Lao school, etc. Moreover, the scene of ‘hundred schools of thought’ unfolded in Jixia Academy precisely because of the value of diversity, liberty and equality it maintained.

This Ancient Academy came to an end after the defeat of the Qi state against the Qin State in 221 BC. Nevertheless, it had a spectacular existence for more than 150 years. It not only made a significant contribution to the academic and educational research work of the Qi State, but also had a great influence and effect on kingdoms at that time and later generations. In 1982, a national symposium on Jixia Studies was held in Zibo, the former site of this Academy, and the study of Jixia became widespread. After 5 years of archaeological work, the existence of Jixia was officially confirmed at the beginning of 2022. Apart from the historical documents, this discovery objectively proves its glory of the time.

Bai Xi (1989) believes that the success of Jixia Academy lies first and foremost in its spirit of diversity. Indeed, diversity is a powerful agent of change and an imperative that must be embraced if universities are to succeed in a pluralistic and interconnected world (Daryl, 2020). Therefore, how does Jixia Academy embody the spirit of diversity? If we concur that “until today mankind has lived by what happened during the Axial Period, by what was thought and created during that period” and that "the conception of the Axial Period furnishes the questions and standards with which to approach all preceding and subsequent developments” (Jaspers, 1949), then what remains of the Jixia Academy of the Axial Age for us? This research focuses on the effects of Jixia mainly in terms of the diversity of teaching methods and educators (schools of thought).

This doctoral study develops as the diagnostic phase of a fourth-generation formative intervention seeking to understand and catalyse the learning processes at the core of eco-social mobilisations triggered by collective challenges (Heidemann, 2019; Kuk, Tarlau, 2020; Engeström, Sannino 2021). Ever more local communities across Europe strive to resist the existential risks posed by climate change, globalisation, and pandemics by engaging in transformative activities aimed at envisioning alternative futures (Gümüsay, Reinecke, 2022). Plagued by intensifying floods, relentless overtourism, and rampant depopulation, the urban lagoon of Venice has notoriously become one of the most endangered European sites (Pascolo, 2020: 17-26). Therefore, the current research focuses on the critical case of the Venetian civil society, which is struggling to reclaim the vanishing future of its city suffering from an organic crisis akin to those experienced along the Northern Mediterranean region (Dlabaja 2021). Venice’s civil society organisations (CSOs) seem unwilling to surrender to the chronicle of a death foretold: they have recently tried to mobilise together by breaking the historical tensions between environmentalist groups, neighbourhood associations, and trade unions (Chiarin, 2022).

The general research question orienting the fourth-generation formative intervention captures the above problem statement:

How can the Venetian community learn to collectively enact its desirable futures?

Nonetheless, this preliminary stage focuses on diagnosing the conditions, or the lack thereof, for expanding the transformative activities of Venetian CSOs into heterogeneous coalitions seeking to regenerate the futures of the urban lagoon.

In view of its enduring environmental, residential, and economic crises, the diagnostic research questions guiding the present study are as follows:

1) How have Venetian CSOs learnt to coalesce into mobilisation networks dealing with these critical challenges?

2) Have mobilisation networks enacted collective transformative agency (TADS) by producing mediating artefacts sustaining their future-making activities?

3) Which major congruencies and contradictions have emerged between mobilisation networks and multi-level activity systems seeking to shape the futures of Venice?

The corresponding research objectives consist of a) the reconstruction of long-lasting learning processes enabling Venetian CSOs to mobilise more or less effectively; b) the identification of primary, secondary, or tertiary artefacts enabling coalescing CSOs to enact collective TADS; c) the hypothesis of congruencies and contradictions constituting the relationships between Venice’s civil society and its public bodies, educational establishments, and labour market. Besides this practical impact at the community level, the project aims to contribute to the emerging fourth generation of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, first, by conducting and documenting a systematic diagnosis preparatory to multiple Change Laboratories (Sannino, 2022).

Hyperobjects such as climate change, globalisation, and pandemics affect cross-sectoral activities, which in turn call for eco-social transformations of communities and their institutions (Hasse, 2019). The formation of cross-scale coalitions coordinating various actors at local, national, and global levels capable of responding to these challenges becomes both the qualitatively new unit of analysis and intervention goal of 4G Activity Theory. Thus, the diagnostic work must focus on the potential developments of activities across sectoral and hierarchical boundaries by examining the history and configuration of the field (Antti, 2019). For the Venetian case, this entails mapping:

• The timelines of mobilisation and institutional activities responding to the organic crisis of the urban lagoon;
• Their major transformations due to novel mediating artefacts (Venice’s special laws, mobilisation strategies, etc.);
• The germ cells of coalescing mechanisms involving multi-level actors in cross-sectoral campaigns for the city’s infrastructure, sustainability, and degrowth.

Such 4G diagnosis lays the foundation for the operational phases of multiple Change Labs meant to enact the future-making coalition through cross-scale expansive learning cycles.

Education is a fundamental concern of all countries. This relevance comes from the fact that it is a Fundamental Right, necessary for people to develop, grow and contribute to a fulfilling life. Despite the discrepancies about the foundations and goals that education should pursue in its most global sense, there is a consensus regarding the need for education, as well as the commitment to quality education.

This can be seen at the most current level, when the United Nations in 2015 established a framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), among which education is number four. To further elaborate on the education goal of 'Quality Education', several international bodies, including UNESCO, UNICEF, or the International Labour Organization, based in Switzerland, come together to develop the so-called "Incheon Declaration". A Framework for Action for 'Quality Education' is elaborated under the subtitle "Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all" (2016). This serves as a reference for governments to define their education policies, following the general guidelines set out here.

This work is not intended to elaborate on education policy, but rather to highlight the importance of education for personal and social prosperity. Precisely, this paper will try to clarify the ‘good teacher’ concept and analyze some of the characteristics that might contribute to ‘quality education’, responding to the following objectives:

1. Analise the elements of a good teacher following David Carr’s contributions.
2. Suggest two moral virtues, humility and magnanimity, as characteristics of a good teacher.

In the recent years, the characteristics and requirements of ‘professionalism’ have been a matter of debate, questioned by researchers and academics such as Carr (1991, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007; Cooke & Carr, 2014), Campbell (2000, 2008; Campbell et al., 2013), Arthur (2011, 2019; Peterson & Arthur, 2020; Revell & Arthur, 2007), Kristjánsson (2015), Sockett (2012; Sockett & LePage, 2002), Sanger & Osguthorpe (2011, 2013), and many others, who are trying to define what is understood by ‘the good teacher’.

Teaching, for all the above-mentioned authors, is a moral profession, which requires being, as Carr stated (1991), “a certain kind of person”. This implies that the personal character of the teacher is manifested in his or her professional work.

The current educational aims, in contrast, are mainly instrumental. Competencies are considered as the ultimate goals and assessment standards. According to DeSeCo (2005, p. 4), “a competency is more than just knowledge and skills. It involves the ability to meet complex demands, by drawing on and mobilizing psychosocial resources (including skills and attitudes) in a particular context”. This frame is intended to go beyond a simple provision of knowledge and skills, conforming the base of some European educational political frameworks. Nevertheless, the frequent use of competence as a set of dispositions which omit deliberation fail to resolve, according to Carr (2000), the deepest sense of education, the pursuit of the good to contribute, in an Aristotelian language, to a ‘eudaimonic life’.

Whereas ‘dispositional competence’ is focused on the efficacy of action, virtue seeks the realisation of the good at its epistemological levels, identified with the ‘capacity competence’ presented by Carr (2000). Many writers have challenged the competence scope on the grounds that these educational standards cannot encapsulate all the human abilities or qualities of the ‘good teacher’ (Arthur et al., 2016, p. 16). Therefore, in accordance with Carr (2006, 2007), without rejecting the contribution of competences and skills, it is a matter of revitalising virtue for being ‘a good teacher’. For that, the Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian theory of virtue forms the theoretical framework that we intend to explore in depth here (2010).

One of the aims of contemporary education is to enable individuals to understand that society and science are mutually influenced by each other. The concept of Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) is scientifically based controversial dilemmas such as biology, sociology, ethics, politics, economy and environment that concern the society. The process of dealing with SBK requires students to make sound decisions and schools to train knowledgeable individuals. In SSI education, students' ability to think critically, associating subjects with daily life and raising individuals as individuals who can cope with these issues come to the fore.

The purpose of the argument is to convince oneself and other participants of the peculiarity of one's own reasoning (Krummheuer, 1995). Reasoning occurs interactively during mathematical modeling processes (Lesh, Doerr & Carmona, 2003). Thus, argumentation, defined as interactions in the observed class, relates to deliberate disclosure of a solution's reasoning, during or after the development of a solution. It can be a trigger for the modeling processes of the participants. In this context, this study examines the arguments created by the participants in the mathematical modeling cycle and interprets these arguments by taking into account the participants' modeling processes. In the broadest sense, cognitive argumentation is defined as an argumentation, justification process in which more than one person (student or teacher) has a mathematical claim and presents evidence to support this claim (Conner, et. al., 2014).

The cognitive argumentation considered in this study considers the arguments of small groups or individuals working on different learning and teaching activities (Conner et. al., 2014; Yackel) rather than examining participants' arguments during proving activities (Inglis, Mejia-Ramos & Simpson, 2007). & Cobb, 1996). The focus is on the interactional aspect of argumentation. To investigate cognitive arguments, Krummheuer (1995) proposes the Toulmin argumentation scheme.

When students engage with modeling tasks, transitions between school mathematics and the real world, their cognitive reasoning in a real-world context can be supported during model development. By doing this, they try to reach consensus through their reasoning by discussing the claims put forward by the group members. In this process, they actively formulate and justify arguments. Therefore, since it is believed that the arguments created in the modeling cycle are based on the modeling processes, it is possible that the examination of the modeling processes will give an idea about the arguments of the students. The mathematical modeling cycle (Blum & Niss, 1991) was chosen as the research framework because it clearly explains the modeling processes that occur during the modeling cycle based on the modeling definition. This study will reveal the arguments in the mathematical modeling cycle by taking into account the modeling processes based on SSI issues.

Considering the focus of mathematical modeling, it is seen that this study has a different context from other cognitive modeling studies due to its argumentative nature. On the other hand, if the focus is on Cognitive Argument, the study is again different from previous literature examining student arguments during proving and learning/teaching activities due to its emphasis on modelling. Working to uncover the arguments in the modeling cycle will ultimately enable to identify the particular aspects that make in-group arguments meaningful, such as how they formulate the claims, how they refute each other's claims to reach the best common solution, what they warrant, what claims they make use of, and how they arrive at a solution.

The aim of the study was to explore how teacher candidates engage use their models whilst arguing about contextual of the COVID-19 a socioscientific issue and to explore whether and how the process of arguing is linked with the modelling process.

This paperexamines the perceptions of newly qualified teachers, placed in one Scottish local authority, of the practitioner enquiry that is required to be conducted by them during their first year of teaching. Using a constructivist (Charmazian) grounded theory framework, this research examined the perceptions and attitudes towards the enquiry pre and post enquiry and seek to identify what influence this may have on professional identity and classroom practice. This work analysed the literature relating to Charmazian grounded theory, discussed how this research was conducted, and examine the researcher’s positionality within the subject area. Throughout the paper, a number of themes emerge from the data and are discussed, including newly qualified teachers’ (NQT’s) perceptions of practitioner enquiry at pre and post enquiry, the importance of relationships, and what influenced their professional identity. Through the research methods of focus group and interviews, this dissertation looks to challenge the practice of a mandated practitioner enquiry in the first year of teaching. I conclude with a series of recommendations, in line with constructivist grounded theory, including the recommendation for the question of enquiry as project v enquiry as stance to be revisited in relation to the NQT experience. Additionally, for a reassessment of the NQT voice in the decision-making process around what support and experience in their first year should look like.

This paper will look at practitioner enquiry within the context of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) undertaking a practitioner enquiry during their first year of teaching. Two research questions guided the research, shedding light on the issues related to the requirement for NQTs to conduct practitioner enquiries in the early stages of their career:

1. What influence, if any, has undertaking a practitioner enquiry had on NQTs’ perceptions of themselves as professionals?

2. To what extent do NQT teachers feel enabled to effect change in the classroom as a result of undertaking a practitioner enquiry?

The early months and years of teaching can be crucial to identity formation, so it could be suggested that early experiences of teaching, and any professional learning programme that sits alongside it, should nurture within students a perception of themselves as being able to develop a constructively critical approach to practice that can affect change within the classroom. The small-scale nature of this project, along with using a constructivist grounded theory approach, enabled a more in-depth consideration of the factors which may have influenced how a NQTs identity as a professional evolves through their practitioner enquiry, situated in the context of their professional practice. This research topic is relevant due, in part, to the increasing expecation across Europe that teachers will come into the classroom and be research informed and research ready. This research focuses predominantly on ’how’ the above may influence NQT teachers’ perceptions of themselves as professionals (professional identity). Professional learning is defined where learning opportunities ‘stimulate their thinking and professional knowledge and to ensure that teachers’ practice is critically informed and current’. The research also focuses on the ‘what’, in terms of the outcomes of effecting change in the classroom and of moving forward in their careers. Finally, it considers the ‘why’ or rationale behind practitioner enquiry being built into the NQTs’ programme in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

The present contribution intends to introduce a doctoral research project, which explores the participation of young people in decision-making processes, a crucial issue at the heart of international and European policies (Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2009; UN General Assembly, 1989, 2015).

Alongside the increasing investment by key European institutions in terms of promoting participation, there has been a steady decline in the levels of political engagement in most EU countries over the past decades (Eurochild et al., 2021), especially with regard to young people. Indeed, in recent years, disengagement from institutional political participation seems to be a significant trend among contemporary European democracies even among younger generations, causing them to lack representation and power in political decision-making (Norris, 2003; Farthing, 2010). At the same time, there is a new wave of youth political engagement outside the institutional sphere, which has become particularly visible through youth activism movements, protests, demonstrations, volunteering and online engagement (Sloam, 2016; Spannring et al., 2008).

The United Nations and the European Union are currently aiming to invest more in participation by involving young people in its decision-making mechanisms. This is also reflected in the most recent EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child policy (European Commission, 2021) and in the recognition of 2022 as the European Year of Youth. Furthermore, the most recent European and international youth strategies (United Nations, 2018; European Union, 2018; Council of Europe, 2020) promote spaces for youth participation. Specifically, they highlight some characteristics youth spaces should have: they should be independently usable, accessible, safe, inclusive and combine the presence of physical spaces with digital environments. It is evident that these characteristics are also found in the literature on the subject. As expressed in Laura Lundy's (2007) participation model, the participation space should be safe and inclusive so that everyone can actively participate. What Lundy adds, however, is that one has to take into account the impact the space has on young people themselves and, above all, their willingness to participate or not in the decision-making process. Indeed, policies seem to assume that all young people want to be involved, but there is a risk of falling into the trap of 'forced' and inauthentic participation.

Within this framework, this project aims to explore participation in decision-making processes within 'specific spaces', i.e., within youth organisations (Council of Europe, 2023). Youth organisations are generally understood as voluntary, non-profit, non-governmental associations promoted by young people and, in some circumstances, may instead be part of the state apparatus or run by youth workers. They tend to be founded to promote the political, social, cultural or economic goals of their members. This is done through the implementation of youth activities and/or engagement in advocacy activities. The aforementioned strategies define them as privileged spaces for the promotion of participation in public life.

This paper will discuss a mixed-methods research study which explores how adult learners on lifelong learning programmes in SETU can inform and shape curriculum development through a co-creation model. Currently, there is limited empirical evidence on adult learners, as well as industry participation, in curriculum co-creation in lifelong learning programmes (Erkkilä & Kortesalmi, 2020; Shrivastava et al., 2022). By focusing on the inclusion of the adult learner’s ‘voice’ in curriculum design, this study is responding to the call for a communicative university and a participatory decision-making process where learners are involved in all aspects of college life (Cook-Sather et al. 2014; Fleming et al., 2017). Through a co-creation approach in curriculum design, the outcomes of teaching and learning are jointly negotiated to lead to a shared responsibility for learning, which results in a greater level of student agency and empowerment (Bovill, 2020).

As this research study commenced in early 2022, this paper will concentrate on the literature review process (traditional and systematic) and the development of the theoretical framework underpinning the research. It will also present the proposed methodological framework that will be used to gather data from adult learners in SETU. The overarching research question is: To what extent are adult learners co-creating the curriculum in lifelong learning programmes within SETU? The subsidiary research questions are framed within the aspects of adult learners’ professional, academic, and personal motivations to engage in lifelong learning in HE; how their needs are considered and embedded in curriculum design in HE; and how SETU supports adult learners’ engagement in the co-creation of the curriculum.

The literature suggests that co-creation is a contested term, with various definitions and interpretations emerging in recent years (Matthews et al., 2018; Godbold et al., 2021). Co-creation generally implies democratic collaboration and partnership between learners and faculty members (Cook-Sather, 2014; Godbold et al., 2021; Gravett et al., 2020). Doyle et al. (2021) highlight that co-creation encourages a shared responsibility between learners and faculty staff in the process of establishing and achieving learning outcomes. Co-creation is also differentiated from other forms of active learning and learner engagement based on the level of learners’ responsibility in decision-making regarding their education, assessment, and teaching process (Lubicz-Nawrocka and Bovill, 2021).

This research is underpinned by a theoretical framework incorporating Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Self-Determination Theory. According to SCT, individuals learn through personal experiences and by observing others’ behaviour, and their social context also influences their behaviour and learning (Bandura, 2001). One of the fundamental tenets of SCT is that individuals have the capacity to actively engage in their own growth and learning and to self-regulate their learning (Bandura, 2001). This is in keeping with the suggestion that adult learners should actively engage in the process of co-designing the curriculum (Erkkilä & Kortesalmi, 2020). This would tend to imply, within the context of this study, that adult learners on HE lifelong learning programmes should be encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences resulting in a more effective and relevant curriculum. Furthermore, an exploration of Self-Determination Theory, which posits that individuals have innate psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2017), will provide insight into the underlying motivational factors for adult learners' engagement in lifelong learning and how these motivations relate to the co-design of curriculum on SETU's lifelong learning programmes.

To become an expert teacher, it is theorised that a practitioner will need to develop three distinct knowledge bases; content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge (Lachner et al., 2016). Expert teachers integrate these knowledges into curriculum scripts, and are able to use their professional vision to activate their knowledge in ways that reflect their context (Lachner et al., 2016). Access to quality professional learning is a key mechanism for ensuring teachers are able to continuously build their knowledge base. This is particularly important in the area of high ability, where training providers often neglect to equip pre-service teachers with the knowledge needed to work effectively with this cohort (Plunkett & Kronborg, 2021). This is despite the important relationship that exists between a teacher’s knowledge base and their capacity to meet the needs of their high-ability learners. For instance, the abilities of students will often mediate what a teacher needs to know about the subject they are teaching, with high-ability students requiring their teacher to provide them access to advanced content (Van Tassel-Baska, 2019).

There is, though, much debate in the international literature as to what constitutes an appropriate knowledge base for teachers working with high-ability students (Dai & Chen, 2013; 2014), and in these circumstances designing professional learning can be fraught. It involves sifting through a range of contested approaches in order to make content decisions related to definitions (See Smedsrud, 2020 for an explanation of the various definitions in the field); identification (See Almeida et al., 2016 for a discussion of some of the issues surrounding the identification of high ability); provisions (See Walsh et al., 2012 for a discussion on the difficulties in locating evidence based practices in the field of high ability); cultural understandings of high ability (See Thraves et al., 2021 for a discussion of cultural perspectives and high ability); equity issues (See Peters, 2022 for a discussion of equity issues in the field); and practices and processes for supporting the social-emotional needs of this unique cohort (See Rinn, 2021 for a discussion of the issues related to the social-emotional and psychosocial development of high-ability students).

This paper presents a case study which involved interested teachers from the study site, an Australian school (The College) working closely with researchers to co-design a professional learning program on the topic of high ability. Often, when programs are designed by researchers alone, little consideration is given the school’s specific context, and as a result practitioners must spend time determining which of the program’s elements need to be adapted, and which are more universal (Gomoll et al., 2022). When researchers co-design with teachers, contextual factors can be interwoven into the design process.

Given the complexity of the high-ability field’s underlying issues, the study utilised a facilitated dialogue to support decision making. Facilitated dialogues are structured sessions built on the premise of promoting consensus (LoBianco, 2016). The facilitated dialogue in this study allowed the school to develop policy positions for each of the high-ability field’s contested areas, which, in turn, guided content decisions for the professional learning, thus answering the research question: What do participants envision should constitute the knowledge base to underpin the co-designed high-ability professional learning at the study site?

To this end, the study was guided by a conceptual framework that emphasises the role knowledge plays in an expert teacher’s cognition (Lachner et al., 2016), as well as the importance of co-design for accounting for context when designing professional learning (Gomoll et al., 2022). The conceptual framework also acknowledges the contested nature of knowledge within the field of high ability (Dai & Chen 2013; 2014).

Improving pedagogical practices has become a priority in the European context for both universities and governments (Lalle & Bonnafous, 2019). Eutopia, one of 41 consortia of European higher education institutions created and funded by the European Union since 2019, initially brought together 6 institutions and expanded to 10 by 2021. Each consortium has set a series of priorities in order to initiate exchanges and promote joint work. The priorities set by the Eutopia alliance are mainly focused on student-centred approaches, diversity and inclusion. In this respect, academic innovation for teacher education is an important topic.

This communication focuses on the mechanisms for improving teaching practice in six universities of the European University Alliance Eutopia, and is part of a broader research for a doctoral thesis on "Lecturer Education".

The training and support for the teaching staff can lead to changes in conceptions (Demougeot-Lebel & Perret, 2011; Gerard, 2016), but there is no evidence of changes in practice in the short (Ménard et al., 2017) and long term (Ménard et al., 2020). Some training specifications have been studied (Stes et al., 2010) making it possible to determine best periods and methodologies as well as minimum durations. But most of these studies make the same observation: differences, particularly cultural and institutional ones, can influence the effect of training and thus its results.

For this reason, our research aims to explore the pedagogical development of university faculty (Demougeot-Lebel & Lison, 2022), articulating local (departments and universities), regional, and national levels.

Whether they are public or private institutions, the universities studied have a great deal of autonomy but are nevertheless guided by the orientations of national or regional governance. We need to determine at what level the obligation to train exists, if at all, for example, whether it is a legal or a local obligation. Similarly, we would like to know whether training in higher education pedagogy is taken into account in the careers of teaching staff. The different statuses of teaching staff therefore should be questioned. Similarly, the question arises of a teaching reference framework that could lead to a certification recognised beyond the local structure. And more concretely, what resources and means have been implemented for this training at local or even national level? Finally, within the framework of the Bologna process, many elements have been put in place, whether to harmonize diplomas or to assess the quality of teaching and training curricula. European alliances aim at developing internationalization of teaching between universities. The question is, does it lead those universities to harmonize their practices by relying on European reference systems.

This is why we felt it necessary to compare these different contexts in order to describe the ecosystems (Bronfenbrenner, 1981) where teachers evolve: from the national or regional governance (macro level) to the institution (meso level), including the department in charge of teacher training, to the professional environment of the teaching staff (micro level), both during and outside the training courses.

At these different levels, the capability approach (Fernagu, 2017) aims to explore the resources that can be mobilized by teachers, such as the training offered by the institution at the meso level, but also the conversion factors that promote or hinder the mobilization of these resources. According to this theory, it is important to explore the teachers’ freedom to choose the resources that correspond to their context, their background and their wishes, as well as their training’s assessment. For instance, they should be able to choose the course and/or the kind of reflective writing they want to be evaluated on.

The European Students’ Union (ESU) was one of the institutions participating in the formation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the

European Higher Education Area (ESG) in 2005, which were amended in 2015(1) and are still used to this day. The ESGs serve as a core value of the Bologna process, assuring that the accredited institutions adhere to the same norms in higher education, and provide high quality of education across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) member states. Based on the publication Bologna with Students Eyes 2020(3), it is visible that students are not nearly recognised enough in different aspects of higher education, however, in terms of Quality Assurance (QA), constant progress is evident. Additionally, since the launch of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, internationalisation has become one of the main goals of higher education, promoting diversity and shared knowledge cross-sector, impacting QA practices as well.

In 2009, ESU formed a Quality Assurance Student Experts’ Pool (QA Pool)(2), with the main goal to train, educate and nominate students as QA experts in various international external QA processes under partnering institutions. Since then, many changes happened within the EHEA to involve, not only checking educational standards in teaching, learning assessments and accessibility of higher education, but assuring internationalisation, diversity and inclusion as well. The ESGs mention diversity as one of their four main principles for QA in EHEA, and mention it can be achieved through a “student-centred approach to learning and teaching, embracing flexible learning paths and recognising competencies gained outside formal curricula. Higher education institutions themselves also become more diverse in their missions, mode of educational provision and cooperation, including growth of internationalisation, digital learning and new forms of delivery.” According to these principles, ESU has also changed its internal policy on social dimension, and the QA Pool amended its practices to assure the selection based on diversity rather than merit only.

In line with that, our mission is to analyse how ESU has, over the course of 14 years, improved its policies on diversity within the organisation and the QA Pool, and whether this is reflected in practice. Concretely, our research questions are:

Do ESU QA Pool’s policies assure the diversity of student experts in QA compared to other European higher education organisations with similar practices?

Is the diversity of the nominated QA student experts for reviews correlated with the changes in ESU QA Pool’s diversity policies?

Do student QA experts find that the European QA systems are diverse enough?

We aim to answer these questions by quantitatively analysing our QA Pool database and testing it against the changes in the diversity criteria for the experts’ selection. Additionally, we plan on doing qualitative research on available resources within the organisation to compare the diversity policies and practices of ESU in nominating experts compared to the bodies who also nominate experts for international external evaluations, such as The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), The European University Association (EUA) and the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE).

Introduction

This paper aims to unpack Chinese students' experiences in an international joint university located in China - Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University (XJTLU). International joint university is one of the types of transnational higher education (TNHE), and the latter is defined as "the mobility of an education program or higher education institution/provider between countries” (Knight, 2016, p. 36), which is considered as an important symbol of the internationalisation of HE in China. Other types of TNHE are mainly unilateral establishments (Wilkins, 2018). Therefore, joint universities have equal parent institutions and potentially more space for internationalisation to be negotiated and constructed without being prescribed. Compared to joint universities, these unilateral institutions potentially have more limited space for students to participate in constructing internationalisation. However, there is limited research on students’ motivations and engagements in an internationalised environment where they have the space for co-construction. This study examines the reciprocal relationship between an institution-constructed internationalised environment and students’ agency, enriching understanding towards the dynamics in which internationalised aspects could be perceived and utilised.

Current literature mainly focuses on the particular type of TNHE, namely, the international branch campus. The individual situations of students are mainly examined from their relatively, and rather unexpectedly, low performance in Gaokao (Chinese national entrance examination), which prevents them from getting admitted to their first choice. Low performance in Gaokao acts as both a forceful push from domestic institutions and a pull from TNHE entry standards (Liu et al., 2021; Li, 2020). TNHE also attracts these students as a stepping stone to regaining entry to elite Chinese institutions (Fang and Wang, 2014), as well as a second chance to “make up" for their failure to obtain an undergraduate degree at one of China's top universities (Xie, 2022). However, such connotations of stepping stones and compromise may contradict with the more or less elite positioning of TNHE in China, therefore, this study attempts to link the personal motivations to the possible influence of institutions’ construction of internationalisation.

In terms of the internationalised encounter, current literature has examined the provision of English-medium instruction (EMI) in TNHE since the trend of teaching non-language subjects in English has become a significant indicator of internationalisation. EMI is defined as “​the use of the English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro et al., 2018, p. 37). In reality, teaching and learning in a non-native language can cause considerable, and often unnecessary, challenges to both teachers and students. Besides, with the overall tendency for research on TNHE examining EMI, there is an overlook of other internationalised aspects, e.g., the intercultural environment (Xie, 2022). Gu and Lee (2019) talk about how students strategically navigate learning resources but are still confined to language aspects. Therefore, this study brings these aspects together and explores how Chinese students actively manage expectations by engaging with various international aspects of TNHE.

This study selects XJTLU as a case to examine its students’ engagement in internationalisation. Since the study focuses on students’ engagement, XJTLU’s emphasis on the ongoing construction of internationalisation is perceived as a meaningful lens to examine the students’ receptions of and their interactions with institutional construction. XJTLU, therefore, is hypothesised to be a negotiated space which allows students to have more opportunities to co-construct internationalisation. This study aims to answer the following research questions:

1. How does internationalisation influence Chinese undergraduate students’ decision to study in a joint venture institution?

2. How do Chinese undergraduate students’ lived experiences of internationalisation in a joint venture institution (mis-)match with their initial expectations?

This presentation regards a Ph.D. project that aims to contribute to knowledge and understanding of whole-child education by asking the research question “What does it mean to educate the whole child?”.

The project analyses the curricula of four school systems at primary and lower secondary levels found within Norway. This is Norwegian public education, Montessori education, Steiner/Waldorf education, and International Baccalaureate education (IB). Also, interviews with teachers in the respective school systems will be conducted to gain an understanding of their notions of what it means to educate the whole child.

The research’s preliminary results show similarities and differences in what “educating the whole child” means. A common theme is a focus on well-being in all development domains. Related to this year’s ECER conference theme of diversity, it is relevant that all four school systems emphasize diversity as a foundational value in their educational models. Other common values among the four school systems are democratic values like equal rights, participation, and inclusion.

In a European and international context, the research is relevant as Montessori, Steiner (Waldorf), and International Baccalaureate education are present in many countries and the Norwegian public education system is part of the North-European pedagogics tradition.

The project’s theoretical framework is based on the field of holistic education. This field has emerged since the mid-1980s (Miller 2019a, p. 5), and the topic of holistic education engages globally. The field of holistic education is an eclectic and inclusive field with impulses from many sources (Rudge 2008, p. 4) and is seen as very diverse (Forbes 2003, p. 2). There is no textbook definition of what a holistic education is (Miller 1997, p. 75). It can be seen as an umbrella term covering different approaches and perspectives (Schreiner 2009, p. 755, 761). According to Rudge (2008, p. 21), many educational alternatives are calling themselves holistic, but a clear definition of what educating the whole child means is often missing.

In reviewing literature for an overview of current research status, many journal articles use the term “whole child”, but mostly concern topics related to physical health or community services for supporting children. Arguments for this type of “whole child” approach is that there is evidence of physical activity reducing obesity, and diabetes, and improving academic performance and cognitive functioning (Savina et. al 2016, pp. 283-286). The literature from the field of holistic education making up the theoretical framework of this project offers a broader view of the “whole child”. One statement exemplifying this position holds that holistic education “addresses every aspect of individual growth and development” (Eaude 2019, p. 61).

This project synthesizes the different definitions and descriptions of whole-child education in the literature of the theoretical framework into four different theoretical perspectives. These are used as categories supporting the analysis of curriculum documents and interviews. The four perspectives are “the whole child”, “the whole world”, “personal growth” and “social change”. The perspectives are recognizable in all the literature to a greater or lesser extent. They are outspoken and discussed in the main literature of the theoretical framework, but also present in the supporting literature from the field of holistic education.
Although the field is eclectic and has many sources of influence it also draws on known educators and philosophers. Often mentioned as historical influences are Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori, Steiner, and Dewey, amongst others (Miller, 2019a, pp. 5-16, R. Miller 1997, pp. 92-101, Mayes 2019, p. 143).

The different curricula analyzed in this project do indicate a concern for the whole child, although different emphases amongst the different school systems. This will be described in the conclusion section below.

The Covid-19 crisis has had and continues to have profound impacts on the continuity of learning of young children. While families and early years practitioners faced unprecedented challenges and demands, the crisis also urged us to explore new approaches to developing early childhood education, especially around parental engagement strategies and practices (Education Scotland, 2020; Ribeiro et al., 2021). As a PhD researcher and an early years practitioner, I became interested in how parental engagement in children’s learning worked in real-life contexts beyond the nursery setting during the pandemic. By understanding better parents’ interactions with young children, new insights can be gained to help us consider effective parental engagement practices that support young children’s learning experiences during crises and beyond.

“Parental engagement” can be considered as the active involvement and interactions of parents with their children’s learning in a variety of contexts, such as early learning and childcare settings, the community, and through family learning in the home (Education Scotland, 2019; Epstein, 2018). However, previous literature and the emerging ones under the pandemic tended to mainly limit the discursive power to practitioners and parents, which means that children, especially those who are at a formative stage in their lives and their growing civic awareness, are rarely consulted in this important debate on parental engagement (Oppenheim et al., 2022). In Scottish early years education, parental engagement has always been an enduring theme that has resonated in an array of policies and guidelines to make efforts to promote children’s learning and development with the engagement of parents and family members (Bryce et al., 2018). This academic and political discourse has been given prominence in the early years even more than ever along with national policies and studies that immediately responded to it after the outbreak of Covid-19, though still without seeking the voices of young children (Bynner et al., 2020). My PhD research is intended to address the absence of young children’s views and experiences in the research literature on parental engagement during the pandemic, which is too often dominated by adults’ narratives (Pascal & Bertram, 2021). Listening to children’s voices is also aligned with the Scottish Government’s initiative to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (2009) into its legislation to ensure that children’s rights are respected and their views are heard over matters that may affect them (Scottish Government, 2020).

Additionally, my research also specifically considers parental engagement through the lens of Froebelian pedagogy. As a prominent discourse in early childhood education, Froebelian pedagogy is distinct as this approach rests upon the idea that parents and families form the basis for a child’s learning (Bruce, 2021). Based on the Froebelian approach that emphasises the integrity of childhood in its own right, parenting and family engagement as well as children's voices are the essential tenets of this pedagogy (Tovey, 2017). Thus, the Froebelian context can be uniquely stimulating for me to rethink in-depth the principles, values, and implications of parental engagement,

Overall, this research aims to explore young children’s learning experience with parental engagement during and after the Covid-19 crisis and examine how the Froebelian principles and practices shape parental engagement with young children’s learning during the pandemic and beyond. The research questions are:

• How do young children from a Froebelian setting experience parents’ interactions with their learning under and after Covid-19?
• How do parents from a Froebelian setting perceive and engage with their children’s learning under and after the Covid-19 crisis?
• To what extent Froebelian pedagogy offers opportunities and challenges for parental engagement with young children’s learning during and after the Covid-19 crisis?

The rapid progression of technology has altered the technologies used in education, specifically in the education of children. Recently, educational robotics and robots (ERR) are utilized by various research domains to contribute to children’s life and development. For example, some research studies focused on the use of educational robotics in computational thinking (e.g., Atmatzidou and Demetriadis, 2016; Chen et al., 2017; Karaahmetoğlu and Korkmaz, 2019; Tengler et al., 2021), Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics [STEM] learning (e.g., Barker et al., 2014; Ching et al., 2019; Karim et al., 2015; Master et al., 2015; Mosley, 2016; Üçgül and Altıok, 2021), language learning and development (e.g., Kory and Breazeal, 2014; Lee et al. 2011), disabilities (e.g., Begum et al., 2016; Özdemir and Karaman, 2017; Pop et al. 2013; Scassellati et al., 2018; So et al., 2016). While the amount of research studies has increased through the years, some systematic literature reviews were conducted in order to summarize and understand the possible contribution of the studies and possible future recommendations (e.g., Anwar et al., 2019; Benitti 2012; Toh et al., 2016). However, since the systematic reviews mostly include small-size studies for their analysis, it seems difficult to understand a broad view of the studies using large-scale research studies as well as the state of the intellectual structure and recent progress regarding children and educational robotics and robots. That is, despite the published articles related to educational robotics and robots, a broad overview is still needed to make a clear understanding of the population of children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to statistically and visually present the existing work using bibliometric analysis. Moreover, this research aims to bring a comprehensive overview and research trends in the field relating to children and educational robotics and robots (ERR).

The main research questions of the study were formed as below:

What is the contribution of the countries, institutions, and authors to global publications on educational robotics and robots for children?

What is the distribution of years, research areas, and journals to contribute global publications on educational robotics and robots for children?

What is the co-occurrence of the keywords on educational robotics and robots for children?

Identity negotiation is an often-overlooked process that adult immigrants actively experience through language learning, because for adult immigrants, learning is not only a means to an end (passing a language test, obtaining citizenship, joining the work force, or gaining study rights) but a process in which our identity is redefined by newly learned linguistic and cultural norms and by interactions with proficient speakers and other learners.

Identity is to be understood as a flexible set of beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of an individual which have been learned and are adjusted through social interaction and which influences the individual’s future actions. This understanding of identity is based on the work of Bonny Norton, who has extensively researched and discussed identity in relation to adult immigrants learning English in the US and Canadian context. Norton views language learning and identity from a poststructuralist perspective, drawing especially from Christine Weedon’s ‘subjectivity’, and from a sociological perspective, using the work of Pierre Bourdieu to highlight the power relations present in language use, learning and interactions.

Weedon uses the term ‘subjectivity’ to refer to a persons’ sense of ‘self’ including thoughts, feelings, and understandings of our relationship to the world. Language, for Weedon is where our ‘self’ is constructed, given meaning, and even challenged. Norton points out that, subjectivity also reminds us that identity and language is to be understood in relation to others and considering the power dynamic in these relationships.

Power relations in social interactions can be further understood by using the interrelated concepts of ‘habitus’, ‘capital’, and ‘field’ by Bourdieu. Habitus can be understood as a person’s history internalized into ideas, rules, language, and physical traits; Bourdieu also coined the term ‘language habitus’ as dispositions which show competences and strategies used in linguistic interactions adapted to different situations. The accumulation of this ‘history’ becomes valued ‘capital’ depending on the ‘field’ of interaction and the power relations in them. Though heavily centred in economics, the interplay between habitus, capital, and field becomes relevant in identity research with adult immigrants because it brings forth the sometimes-opposing forces present in their every interaction. Adult immigrants’ internalized history, may or may not be considered valuable in their new country; their language competences and strategies, may or may not be considered acceptable or worth responses. It is because and through these opposing forces that identities are negotiated.

Adding to Norton’s work, this research focuses on Finland and Finnish language. Unlike English, Finnish is a language that is often considered very difficult and slow to learn; it is used by a relatively small population worldwide and mostly restricted to residents; learning through other media like has only become available until recent years, and availability is still very limited. Most adult immigrants in Finland learn Finnish in intensive integration courses. The main objective is to help them integrate into work or study, but it is important to emphasize that learning a language, as stated before, affects the person as a whole, not only their status.

This is why this research aims to answer: how do adult immigrants in Finland negotiate their identities through language learning?

Even though the focus is on Finland and Finnish language, this research may be of use to other countries across the globe that may have a challenging to learn language, limited availability of language users, similar language integration courses, or overall interest in the process of identity negotiation. The research can be replicated in other contexts and results may offer a starting point for discussions about the suitability of language education for adult immigrants’ complex lives.

In Germany, roughly 27.2% of the population (22.3 million people) has a migrant background (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2022). Integration takes place in very different ways and depends not least on the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious dimensions of the immigrants. However, even with courses and many other support initiatives, the problem remains that many immigrants do not have adequate language skills (Becker & Lauterbach, 2008). Many of those who, at least, attend courses must retake the B1 exam and only 50-60% of them pass the B1 level, which they need to obtain a permanent residence permit (BAMF-Bericht zur Integrationskursgeschäftsstatistik, 2020).

Immigrants´ language efficiency in the host country has a positive effect on labor market integration and earnings (Dustmann & van Soest, 2001) and to be able to learn the language of the host country would be essential for immigrants to achieve full integration, whereby the immigrant becomes equal with the country's residents in terms of rights, duties, and opportunities (Sezer, 2010). However, as immigrant workers and refugees often do not have good education and some of them even struggle with literacy skills in their native language, Saunders (2015) asks the question whether the preconditions are given for these immigrant adult learners to participate autonomously in shaping their learning process. These new challenges call for new learning support methods. Saunders (2015) notes that one of the current challenges in foreign language teaching is to focus on learners' needs and to promote learner autonomy.

The level of a person´s autonomous learning ability may be indicated by the use of language learning strategies, which are behaviors or actions of learners to enhance their own learning (Oxford, 1990). Language learning strategies support the improvement of language proficiency (Oxford, 1990) because they support self-directed and active involvement, which is essential for improving communicative competence. Although they play a very important role in language learning processes, research that would have looked at immigrant and refugee self-regulated learning strategy use has been scarce so far, as most studies deal with the groups of school children or students.

Therefore, the current study investigates the self-directed strategy use (Oxford, 2016) of adult immigrants based in Germany and learning German as a foreign language in Integration Courses (BAMF integration courses). BAMF is the Federal Office and a competence center for migration and integration in Germany and is responsible for carrying out asylum procedures and protecting refugees but is also the driving force behind the nationwide promotion of integration. BAMF integration courses are specifically designed for adult migrants and guide participants in 6 modules (100 hours each) from the state of no language knowledge at all to the level B1 (Council of Europe, 2001).

The purpose of the research is to investigate in a smaller group of immigrant language learners (N=18) the external and internal factors influencing their learning and their autonomous language-learning ability. We use mixed method approach with narrative interviews, self-reflection questionnaires and a self-regulated strategy use questionnaire.

The research questions are:

1. What are participants’ perceptions about their own learning?
2. What technics, tools and learning strategies do the participants use outside of the classroom for self-directed learning?
3. What are their motivations, attitudes towards learning German, and what are their needs and obstacles in learning German?

The aim of the research is to investigate how young people’s wellbeing priorities and how different forms of youth work participation in Scotland impact their ability to take action to address those priorities, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bynner et al. (2020) note that the climate of lockdowns, isolation, and social distancing has contributed to substantial shifts in our daily lives, resulting in severe repercussions for health and wellbeing. Adult populations have been at the forefront of many COVID-19 wellbeing studies, but there is a lack of research on young people’s experiences (Guessoum et al., 2020; Suhail, Iqbal, and Smith, 2020).

Research shows that people belonging to Scottish communities of multiple deprivations are facing extensive challenges, which, although predating the pandemic, have been exacerbated by it (The Scottish Government & COSLA, 2020). Specifically, it has worsened the disproportionate effects for “…households on low incomes or in poverty, low-paid workers, children and young people, older people, disabled people, minority ethnic groups, and women” (Scottish Government & COSLA, 2020, p.4).

The literature provides strong evidence that the detrimental impacts of the pandemic have hit young people hardest out of any group (Hagell, 2021; Leavey, Eastaugh, and Kane, 2020). It has deeply intensified poverty, impacted employability and education outcomes, and hindered wellbeing (Bynner et al., 2020; The Scottish Government and COSLA, 2019; The Scottish Government, 2021).

Recent research argues that community organisations, such as youth projects, are ideally placed to address and solve local problems caused by the pandemic (Leach et al., 2020; O’Sullivan et al., 2021; Suhail, Iqbal, and Smith, 2020). For example, Stansfield, Mapplethorpe and South (2020) argue that communities and youth work have been paramount in helping meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Youth work services articulate that they have been significant in supporting young people throughout COVID-19 (UK Youth, 2021; Youth Scotland, 2020; YouthLink Scotland, 2020), but young people’s views are missing.

This research addresses this gap in the literature by investigating the experiences of those young people who have been most detrimentally impacted by COVID-19. This project seeks not only to speak to young people about their experiences but to find out what they need from youth work in Scotland. How much do youth work services listen to young people? Is there meaningful engagement of young people in youth work? This study will get to the heart of these issues by investigating young people’s perspectives on the role of Scottish youth work in supporting youth wellbeing.

The primary research question of this research is: How can young people’s wellbeing be better supported by Scottish youth work? The sub-questions are: How do young people define wellbeing?; What are young people’s priorities concerning wellbeing, Scottish youth work, and the impact of COVID-19?; How can young people be supported to take control of their wellbeing?

Empowerment theory has been chosen as a focus of the theoretical frameworks of this research because of its emphasis on social justice, where the individual is an active participant in the empowerment process (Rappaport, 1981). Additionally, this theory has become a focus due to its acknowledgement of the inextricable link between power and empowerment (Page & Czuba, 1999). This theory is vital in enabling power to be disseminated and rightfully restored to individuals. The shift from tokenistic engagement in the name of empowerment is at the heart of this research and consequently creates space for highlighting youth perspectives, a central aim of this study. Lastly, empowerment theory and its key concepts will contribute to the lens from which the data will be analysed.

Constructs of children’s learning in rural communities often go beyond learning as schooling alone. One concept which has been applied to try to understand conceptions of learning is parental ethnotheories. Parental ethnotheories are the cultural belief systems which underpin parents’ organisation of the everyday lives of children (Harkness & Super, 1996). They are cultural models evident in taken for granted notions about the right way to act, with particular application for children. Parental ethnotheories constitute one of the components of a child’s developmental niche, the others being 1) children’s physical and social settings; and 2) the culturally regulated customs of childcare and bearing. (Harkness & Super, 1996). The concept has been applied across various ethnocultural groups around the world, including indigenous and rural African societies, and studies have typically focused on parents’ beliefs around their valued traits and aptitudes for children (e.g., Nsamenang & Lamb, 1993; Harkness & Super, 1992; Harkness et al., 2010). For example, among the Kipsigis in Kenya, parents valued domestic chores and younger sibling care for girls while for boys, they valued the caring for livestock, and the independent carrying out of minor domestic repairs (Harkness & Super, 1992). For parents, these duties developed children’s socially responsible intelligence, the absence of which was evident in children who neglected their duties to play (Super et al., 2011). In other parts of Africa including, among the Tchokwe (Angola), Touareg, Hadza (Tanzania), Igbo (Nigeria), others have also identified gender differentiation of children’s chores and other work types (Lancy, 2016).

In this paper, the concept of parental ethnotheories is broadened slightly to include parents’ beliefs about the broad range of daily activities for children and the purpose those activities fulfil. The paper focuses on the Yorùbá in Nigeria and existing evidence had shed light into some of their ethnotheoretical constructs. Levine et al.’s (2003) late 1960s study of Yorùbá fathers, in rural and urban settings, found that rural fathers more greatly valued children’s practical skills acquired through the running of household errands and completion of tasks. Zeitlin’s (1996) late 1980s study corroborated this, finding that Yorùbá parents accorded primacy to children’s errand-completion capabilities. For parents, such capabilities also inculcated the necessary social skills children required for verbal and commercial transactions. Other studies have shown similar findings where Yorùbá parents assigned children household duties and sent them on errands, as well as trained them to be responsible, helpful and to respectfully relate with others, particularly those of age seniority (Ogunnaike & Houser, 2002; Omobowale et al., 2019). For parents, these practices contributed to the development of an Ọmọlúàbí, – a person of good character – a central concept in Yorùbá beliefs around child rearing and social cohesion (Busari et al., 2017) and one of the goals of Yorùbá traditional education (Akinyemi, 2003). The concept of ethnotheories will be used in this paper to frame the historical and socioculturally situated set of shared ideas representing implicit notions about the appropriate ways to think, act, and be (Harkness & Super, 2006).

The following research questions are explored:

• What ideas underpin Yorùbá parents’ organisation of their children’s everyday activities?
• How do these ideas interconnect?

In this article I present how family-school relations influence the discussion of a controversial issue through a case study of Sainte Madeleine, an elite school in Santiago, Chile. Due to a nation-wide social outburst occurred in 2019, the country experienced social and political unrest, which led the political parties to call for elections to form a Constitutional Convention. After one year of work, citizens were asked to vote on a referendum whether they approved or rejected the Convention’s proposal for a new Constitution that addressed subjects like social welfare, indigenous and women’s rights, and the protection of the environment. Despite initial backing, the Convention suffered dramatic shifts in public support throughout 2021-2022, with high levels of coverage and heated debates on the media, ending with the rejection of the proposal. Therefore, I set out to describe the ways in which the school engaged students with the constitutional process, to identify parental strategies aimed to influence its discussion at school, and to analyze which context factors enabled or constrained the school’s ability to justify its pedagogical decisions.

An open classroom climate for discussion has been consistently established as a significant predictor of students’ civic knowledge and interest in political and social issues (Schulz et al., 2018). However, when it comes to controversial issues “many adults want schools to mirror their ideas, or fear that adding controversy to the curriculum creates controversy, as opposed to simply teaching young people how to deal more effectively with the kinds of political controversies that exist outside of school” (Hess, p.257, 2004). Fear of indoctrination of children and disagreements on what counts as a debatable issue are also common. Therefore, administrators and teachers increasingly hesitate how (and if) to address these topics (Miller et al. 2022; Oulton et al., 2004).

While ICCS 2016 reported that parents have little influence on actual decision-making processes at school -including Chile (Schulz et al., 2018), I argue that this asseveration mostly reflects formal instances of participation, since previous qualitative studies have shown the informal yet effective ways in which parents - particularly middle-class ones- influence school decisions (Calarco, 2020; Reay, 2004). In this paper I address these family-school relations in a seldom studied context, elite schools, to show how the enhanced involvement and entitlement of upper-class parents constrains the school’s ability to teach democratic citizenship and discuss controversial issues.

Chile is a paradigmatic case to study parents and their influence due to its educational marketization, with high levels of privatization and universal school choice. While most schools, whether public or private, receive public funding via vouchers, 10% of schools remain entirely private and charge high tuition fees. In this context, elite schools rely exclusively on parents for resources as well as for reputation, which allows them to maintain their elite status. Furthermore, their exhaustive student selection processes have generated extreme socioeconomic segregation inside these schools as well as endogamic ideological groups (Barrera et al., 2021; Bellei et al., 2020), which reduces the chances for students to naturally encounter diverse points of view.

The results from this study are relevant as schools are increasingly dealing with acute political divides regarding global subjects such as racism, migration, or social inequality. Additionally, it shows the barriers for the development of democratic citizenship abilities such as dialogue, debate, and conflict-processing in private schools, given their combination of social closure and strong parental influence. This also highlights the risks for countries with high or expanding privatization and school choice policies (West & Nikolai, 2017; Wilson & Bridge, 2019), which further position schools as privilege-dependent institutions (Calarco, 2020) and reduce intra-school diversity.

Due to the Russian Federation’s military offensive against Ukraine which launched on the 24th of February 2022, thousands of Ukrainians have been forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries. The rise in the number of refugees in the EU has created an unprecedented challenge to host countries and their educational systems (Eurydice report, 2022). The Czech Republic has been following a welcoming policy for Ukrainian refugees and has been making efforts to integrate them into the Czech society through different initiatives: the Czech government has exerted efforts to accommodate refugees by supporting them financially so they can have access to Czech public schools and medical services and have free access to the labor market. Thus, the Czech Republic holds a significant role as a host country to 409,008 Ukrainian refugees and the level continues to rise. (UNHCR, 2022). Given the current massive influx of refugees into the Czech Republic, it is both timely and important to conduct the present research as policies related to welcoming refugees are inextricably linked with integration into society including its educational system.

Schools can potentially play a very important role in the life of refugees. They can offer social opportunities for the newly arrived refugee children and serve as a starting point in managing their assimilation into their new communities through a sense of school belonging (Kia-Keating & Ellis, 2007; Montgomery & Foldspang, 2008). Thus, the objectives of the study are to identify, explore and critically evaluate multiple barriers that refugee families face when engaging with their children’s Czech public schools as well as different roles of parents in supporting their own children’s learning. Though these topics have been discussed recently, little is known about the parental involvement of Ukrainian refugee families as well as their parental role in Czech public schools. To discover Ukrainian refugee parents’ schooling experiences in Czechia and the ways schools engage with them, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of affairs. Therefore, home-school cooperation lies in the foreground of this study shedding light on issues concerning the socio-economic status of refugees and the self-elected roles of the parents engaging with Czech public schools.

The following questions will help to address the research objectives:

1.What are the challenges Ukrainian refugee parents encounter when engaging with Czech public schools?

2.What role do Ukrainian refugee parents give themselves in school-parent interaction?

The paper presents results of a study with an exploratory qualitative approach using interviews and an interpretative phenomenological analysis for data interpretation.

Identification of barriers and limitations to home-school cooperation might help Ukrainian refugee children adjust to their new life in the host country. It is hoped that some propositions included in this paper could be used to facilitate the successful inclusion of Ukrainian learners in the national education system proposing a holistic model of integration in education that responds to the learning, social and emotional needs of refugee students and their parents.

This article reports from a case-study (Yin, 2018) in two fifth grade classrooms in the South-West of Norway. The case-study is a part of a Ph.D.-project and involves observations, audio-and video recordings of lessons, interviews, and focus-group interviews. The findings draw on six interviews with two lead-teachers and five focus-group interviews with 31 students. The research question is: How do teachers and students describe mutuality in teacher-student interactions, and how can these descriptions contribute to understanding qualities in teacher-student interactions? Teacher-student interactions are a central feature of what goes on in school and is in the research-field often related to students' educational achievements and effective teaching (Hattie, 2009; Marzano et al., 2003). Nevertheless, the purpose of education involves dimensions other than qualification (Biesta, 2009). Therefore, in investigating teacher-student interactions, this study aims to reach beyond the scope of effective teaching and educational achievement, focusing on exploring the qualities inherent in teacher-student interactions and how these may be understood, taking the perspectives of teachers and students.

Applying Buber's (2002) concept of meeting, interactions between the teacher and the students could be considered as meetings between I and Thou, "a relationship of openness, directness, mutuality, and presence" (Friedman, 2002, p. xii), where both partners meet like equal subjects capable of taking the view of the other. Rommetveit (Helgevold, 2016; Rommetveit, 1974) introduces the perspective, "attuning to the attunement of the other" as an expression of communication where both parties are on the same channel, or they are being in line with each other, as an ethical response to the Other. When the teacher and the students work well together and they communicate and gain mutual understanding, one could say that they are attuned to the attunement of the other. According to Rommetveit, we are in fact "dependent on a dialogical relationship with our fellow being to become human—to get to know who we are. Dialogue creates self-understanding and identity" (Hagtvet & Wold, 2003, p. 201). In Gillian's term, this 'ethics of care' … "refers to our mutual dependency on each other to become ourselves" (Hagtvet & Wold, 2003, p. 201). Drawing on Mead (2015), this mutuality may implicate that the qualities in the interactions between the teacher and the students involve identity-formation for both teachers and students. According to Honneth (1995) such development of a person’s identity “presupposes, in principle, certain types of recognition from other subjects” (Honneth, 1995, p. 37). And since the self is a social self, realized in the relationship to others “it must be recognized by others to have the very values which we want to have belong to it” (Honneth, 1995, p. 86). The theoretical perspectives will be discussed in regard to the empirical results from the analysis of the interviews with the teachers and the students. Constructing knowledge about mutuality in teacher-student interactions can be an important contribution to the field of teacher-practice as well as the further development of teacher professionalisation.

Considering a child's developmental characteristics during the preschool years supports teachers in effectively interacting with children and constructing effective educational and training programs (Trawick-Smith, 2017). Thus, when creating learning opportunities for children, it should be remembered that each child's developmental speed and learning method is unique. In other words, it is essential that teachers are aware of the developmental characteristics of the children in order to successfully instruct and educate preschoolers (Berk, 2016; Bredekamp, 2016). To support children's learning in the best possible way, preschool teachers should offer learning experiences using different teaching methods that put children at the center. It is crucial that the activities included in the education programs are carried out with very different methods for children to benefit from their environment at the highest level (Güven et al., 2013). Additionally, learning experiences must be presented to preschool children with planned and programmed activities by implementing different methods (Dinç et al., 2011).

When the studies are examined, the importance of preschool teachers knowing and applying methods suitable for children's characteristics in different activities comes to the fore (Güven et al., 2013). Since it is necessary to create activities where teachers will get to know more complex teaching methods closely, they should be used in ECE settings. Although there are a wide variety of complex teaching methods in the literature, studies have revealed that preschool teachers use a limited number of learning methods (Güven et al., 2013), which are mostly simple and subtle verbal teaching methods (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009). Considering teachers' preferences for these subtle and simple teaching methods in the education process, these can form the foundations of the more complex ones: co-constructing, deconstructing, and community building as instances of specialist teaching methods.

Co-constructing is a way to highlight children’s voices and perspectives because it involves active participation in the learning process, where they establish meaning and build knowledge about the world together with the staff (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009). Similarly, deconstructing serves as a way of thinking critically about social relationships, enabling children to comprehend their everyday interactions with others and the world (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009). Finally, community building refers to the staff and children groups developing and improving together through learning that gives children a sense of belonging (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009). All these three are considered specialist and child-centered teaching methods (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009). Including them in the early childhood education undergraduate programs would be beneficial for pre-service teachers to be familiar with these methods, which promote critical thinking, analytical research, interest (Hesson & Shad, 2007), and learning (Deci & Ryan, 2000) in the classroom. Within this purpose, this qualitative study aimed to explore the co-constructing, deconstructing, and community building as child-centered specialist teaching methods from the perspectives of early childhood pre-service teachers.

It is significant to start these implementations with a quality undergraduate education since they allow learners to build their own learning and understanding by putting them in the position of constructors (Darling-Hammond, 2009). It is thought that when specialist child-centered teaching methods: co-constructing, deconstructing, and community building (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009) are presented, it can contribute to the professional development of pre-service teachers. Within this context, the research questions were determined as follows:

RQ.1.: What are pre-service EC teachers' views regarding specialist child-centered teaching methods: co-constructing, deconstructing, and community building?

RQ.2.: To what extent does the theoretical information given and discussed in the course contribute to pre-service teachers transferring their knowledge from theory to practicality in using specialist child-centered teaching methods: co-constructing, deconstructing, and community building?

For teachers in England, the expectations and purpose of research activity has evolved over the last decade in response to structural changes borne of the academisation agenda and the rollback of Local Authorities (LAs) (DfE, 2010; HMSO, 2010). Since 2010, the English education system has undergone several cycles of fragmentation and reformation, and has been described as “messy, patchy and diverse” (Ball, 2012), standing accused of policy borrowing from the charter schools of USA and Sweden (Heilbronn, 2016) which have been critiqued as pushing the neo-liberal agenda by encouraging the privatisation and marketisation of the education system (Au & Ferrare, 2015).

As academisation has forged ahead, teachers have found themselves in a confusing landscape of ‘self-improving school systems’ and ‘evidence-based improvement’ (DfE, 2011; Goldacre, 2013) where the goalposts constantly change, and guidance is perceived as inconsistent (Greany & Higham, 2018). At one stage of system reformation, it was mandatory for teachers in Teaching School Alliances (now disbanded) to conduct research that informs school and system improvement (Walker, 2017), but this was soon reduced to a suggestion (Walker, 2017; DfE, 2015; Warren, 2017). The ‘self-improving school’ was expected to produce evidence and to share it with other schools as a means of understanding ‘best practice’ (Goldacre, 2013). However, this led to a culture of ‘gatekeeping’, with the fragmented nature of the system creating multiple, increasingly marketised models for knowledge exchange whereby some schools sought to protect or sell knowledge (Greany & Higham, 2018). This paper reports on findings from a PhD study of how research is undertaken and managed within school alliances and multi-academy trusts in the context of a ‘schools-led education system’, with a focus on how accountability structures and performativity culture impact on teacher agency and professionalism when engaging in research or evidence gathering activities.

As the education system has continued to evolve, ‘evidence-based’ education has become dominated by the ‘what-works’ model of medical research, advocating for the use of strategic and rigorous methods, such as randomised control trials, that assess the efficacy of interventions in schools (Hargreaves, 1996; Hillage et al, 1998; Hargreaves, 2010; Taylor & Spence-Thomas, 2015; DfE, 2016j; Lortie-Forgues & Inglis, 2019; Dawson et al, 2018). Biesta argues that ‘what-works’ does not work due to education being non-causal in nature (Biesta, 2007, 2010, 2009), and proposes that the ‘culture of measurement’ present within the education system removes opportunities for educators to make value judgements about practice (Biesta, 2015, 2017). Concerns have been raised that policymakers’ enthusiasm for 14 evidence-based education and the use of RCTs serves to control teachers, keeping them in a place of ontological insecurity whereby they are forced to produce numerical data to report on system progress (McKnight & Morgan, 2020).

The push for an evidence base has persevered, with institutions such as the Chartered College of Teaching have attempted to bridge the gap between teaching and research by offering evidence-based practice courses to schools and by making research available to members (CCT, 2020). Meanwhile the EEF, through the vehicle of research schools and implementation guidance, continues to promote a ‘what works’ approach to the generation of evidence in schools (EEF, 2021), and the Government continues to pursue academisation, with the aim of all schools being in a ‘strong MAT’ by 2030 (DfE, 2022). Drawing on evidence from 26 interviews, this paper demonstrate how the culture of performativity affects agency and professionalism when teachers are engaging in research or evidence gathering activities.

This paper calls attention to Cross-Culture Kids’ (CCKs) need for cultural transition care in Lithuania by suggesting a cultural narrative intervention approach.

As student mobility becomes ever more common globally, schools are faced with reconsidering their role in identity curation as part of adolescent well-being, directly affecting student performance and learning outcomes (Mahoney and Barron, 2020). Alongside repeated relocation comes significant personal and social difficulties often overlooked by its benefits to the international mobile youth. Ven Reken (2002) termed Cross-Culture Kids (CCKs) as “(those) who are living/ have lived in – or meaningfully interacted with – two or more cultural environments for a significant period of time during the first eighteen years of life". They experience being transience, or, on the move, and are in the constant status of 'transition', which is the change from one place, state, or condition to another (Pollock & Van Reken, 2017). Many see CCKs as victims of globalisation who is left to deal with the consequences of where culture and identity collide (Carter & McNulty, 2012). As the educational needs of CCKs differing from their non-expatriate counterparts is much acknowledged, scholarship has largely investigated four pedagogical consequences due to social and emotional issues as implications of living an internationally mobile lifestyle: 1) identity, 2) sense of belonging, 3) grief & transition, and, 4) coping strategies. Killguss (2008) found that many CCKs suffer from "authenticity anxiety"- and not having solid definitions of one's identity can cause problems later in life, developmental trauma such as high-risk Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) was evident (Crossman & Wells, 2022).

This is especially true as they are considered alien and abnormal in mono-cultural societies like Lithuania (Garšvė and Mažeikiene, 2019). As a historically emigration heavy country (Eurostat, 2015), the Lithuanian context is specific to CCKs care as only in 2018 did Lithuanian schools first experience receiving a continuation of steep increase of CCKs. This included repatriated Lithuanian pupils post-Brexit or due to the COVID pandemic, and refugee children due to the recent European political climate. As the key agent of socialisation, schools are responsible for providing spaces in mainstream classrooms for multi-contextual narratives of identity to be expressed and differentiated cultural representation to be recognised. Changes have been called for with sensitivity, reflexivity and interdisciplinary collaboration (Bagdonaitė, 2020). Yet, a clear framework to aid the integration of these youth whose lives have been utterly disrupted by mobility has yet to be provided to Lithuanian schools (Chu & Ziaunienė, 2021). This paper proposes a cultural and identity narrative intervention as a pedagogical strategy for school agents to foster identity narrative spaces and to provide language for cultural transition care to be explored.

The research question that this paper looks to answer are:

1. How do narrative interventions aid CCKs in Lithuania in developing their identity, belonging and place?
2. How may narrative interventions facilitate the development of cultural transition awareness in Lithuanian educational settings?
3. What are the implications of narrative interventions for Lithuanian educators to better assist CCKs in the process of cultural transitions?

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2016), international communities should committ to ensure quality, inclusive and equitable education for every individual worldwide and for life. By 2030, it should be possible that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. Moreover, international comparative studies from European countries show that educational systems develop their own strategies for intercultural education and promotion of linguistic and socio-cultural diversity in schools (Allemann-Ghionda, 2002; Bežen, 2013; Gomolla, 2005; Göbel & Hesse, 2004; Kramar, 2022). As part of the german Primary School's general educational mission, Foreign Language Education should also contribute to a fair and positive perception of social, ethnic, national, cultural and linguistic diversity and contribute in terms of development of Intercultural Competence in classes (KMK, 1996, 2013).

The introductory part of this paper comprises international models of Intercultural Competence (Bennett, 1993; Erll & Gymnich, 2007; Allemann-Ghionda, 2014; Göbel & Buchwald, 2017), relevant definitions of curricula and a review of European documents related to the development of Curricula for Foreign Languages. The focus of this research lies on the Qualitative Content Analysis of the Curriculum for German as the first foreign language (2019) in the Republic of Croatia and Curriculum for English at the Primary Schools (2021) in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia from the first to the fourth grade of Primary Schools. The main goal of this research is to present the similarities and differences in the framework of implementation of the Intercultural Competence in the Curricula for the analysed foreign language subjects in two European school systems. This research presents the results of the Qualitative Content Analysis based on Intercultural Competence in three categories: (1) Educational goals of learning and teaching, (2) Educational outcomes and (3) Evaluation.

My research study has a three-pronged focus on the intersection of language, class and ethnicity to understand how equitable education and employment opportunities fluctuate for students in Pakistan. The participants belong to lower socioeconomic backgrounds with varying linguistic identities and are studying in various universities across Karachi, Pakistan. The focus is on their experiences in higher education (HE) institutions as they navigate learning in English, which is not their first language.

While language remains the focal point of my research, it cannot be studied without considering the social, cultural, and educational contexts (Valdes, 2004). This is especially true for the post-colonial relevance of English in Pakistan. Language related research in Pakistan has focused on the medium of instruction (Rahman, 1997), language policies (Shamim, 2008) and women’s education (Durrani & Halai, 2018). However, there is a gap in voicing the experiences of linguistically and culturally diverse students in HE, who struggle with English. My research focuses on this gap.

English plays a crucial role in social mobility in Pakistan, where a socially and economically disadvantaged population struggles to access quality education (Mustafa, 2015). While English is not widely spoken in Pakistan, it is used in education, workplaces, bureaucracy, and courts as the country’s official language (Tamim 2014). Therefore, English acts as a “gate-keeper”, affecting the social mobility of students that are not fluent in English. It is the preferred language of the elite in Pakistan, determining a person’s educational background. The status of English makes one’s class status known, because access to English is a privilege only a few can afford in the country. It therefore becomes significant as linguistic capital which students can aspire to in efforts to attain social mobility. It is the medium of instruction in all elite private schools across Pakistan, thereby creating “hierarchical structures in society” (Tamim, 2014, p.8) and reproducing “class cultural power” (Mustafa, 2015, p.189). Social classes are also understood through cultural and economic capital, and it becomes imperative to understand the relationship between these various forms of capital and linguistic capital, especially in a post-colonial context (Simpson & Cook, 2009).

In order to study the impact of English on student experiences and their access to opportunities in HE in Pakistan, Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural and linguistic capital have been used to frame my research angle. Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and habitus shed light, and expand on, how some students may have more privilege than others, what these privileges may look like, and how they may translate to an unfair advantage when navigating HE institutions, based on the intersection of class, ethnicity, and language in Pakistan. The elements of Bourdieu’s theories that frame this research are: (a) habitus, (b) field and (c) capital. These elements are interconnected in how they shape our understanding of social inequalities and disadvantages.

The experiences of these students are being explored as part of my PhD study, currently in its second year, through the following research questions:

1. What roles do the students’ linguistic and cultural capital play in their educational attainment?

• What are the linguistic challenges (if any) that students face during their undergraduate degree programs?
• What are the potential challenges that the students face during their degree due to their cultural capital (particularly looking at social class, ethnicity, and language)?

2. How do other cross-cutting factors such as SES factors and economic precarity affect their educational experience and shape their opportunities during and after their undergraduate programs?

I conducted interviews from October 2022 to January 2023. Students shared their experiences of learning in English and its impact on their education, social life and job applications.

Within Physical Education (PE) and Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) research there has been a recent increase in studies looking into policies – here I use a broad understanding of policy as a “set of ideas or a plan … that has een agreed to officially by a group of people, organisation, government, or a political party” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2022) – for instance PE curriculum (e.g., Dowling & Flintoff, 2018; Fitzpatrick & Allen, 2019; Petherick, 2018) or PETE programmes/course syllabi (e.g., Apelmo, 2022; Backman & Larsson, 2016; Philpot, 2017) . Policies are “the operational statement of values”, and they “project images of an ideal society (education policies project what counts as education)” (Ball, 1990, p. 1), in the same way, curricula and syllabi state what is worth knowing and what is not, they prescribe behaviour and action, and create ‘subjects’ and ‘problems’ (Alfrey et al., 2021; Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). Since values are always embedded within a cultural context, we need to ask whose values are represented in policies and whose are left out.

In this study I seek to investigate how ethnic and cultural diversity are problematised in PETE policy in three countries: Norway, Canada and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Following Carol Bacchi’s (2016) approach for analysing policy ‘What is the problem represented to be?’ (WPR), I take a closer look at programme descriptions and course syllabi from one case PETE programme from each country, additional documents are examined to trace back discourses and examine how a problem is represented as a certain type of problem. The main research question that will guide my investigation is how are ethnic and cultural diversity problematised in PETE course syllabi. This paper is important because it shows how each country’s context can amplify or silence certain discourses and voices (Alfrey et al., 2021) within policy documents. Furthermore, Bacchi’s WPR approach – which is about “teasing out the conceptual premises underpinning problem representations, tracing their genealogy, reflecting on the practices that sustain them and considering their effects” (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016, p. 17) – stimulates to think about policies in a different way, with a critical perspective, something that can be helpful for teacher educators who have to interpret these texts.

PETE is changing in many countries, while in Norway a new five-year PE specialist programme was introduced last fall, time and courses are being cut from PE in favour of more ‘sport science’ content in Canada and New Zealand. These changes will of course have an effect on PETE. By comparing different national contexts, I hope to highlight contextual possibilities and constraints of how ethnic and cultural diversity are addressed in PETE, as well as commonalities across borders. What the three countries have in common is that they are all getting increasingly more diverse populations and that all three have indigenous populations. Obviously, there are many differences given that each country is located on a different continent, with different historical trajectories of immigration, multiculturalism and the relation with Indigenous peoples. Both Canada and New Zealand are settler countries and historically have been immigrant countries, but while Canada is set in a multicultural framework, New Zealand is officially a bicultural nation, whereas Norway has only recently experienced immigration on a larger scale. Given the global nature of concerns around how increasing diversity should be addressed in teacher education, it is important to explore how these issues are approached in different contexts. According to Broadfoot (1999, as in Afdal, 2019, p. 261), comparative education research can “enhance awareness of possibilities, clarify contextual constraints and contribute to the development of a comprehensive socio-cultural perspective” of educational issues.

In order to deal with complex societal challenges such as climate change, globalization, global inequalities, and the scarcity of natural resources, the development of a holistic global understanding and a clarification of one's own role in the transformation process is central (cf. e.g. Veugelers & De Groot, 2019, p. 27; Witt, 2022). Against this background, education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCE) address SDG 4.7 (UNESCO, 2019, p. 12). Although in the wake of the SDGs there is increasing pressure on companies to contribute to the development of 'global employees', the two concepts have so far remained largely unaddressed in the discourse on workplace learning. This paper therefore explores the role of corporate education and training in the context of global and sustainable developments in companies.
Tried and tested scales and models for capturing the necessary competencies for sustainable and global development are already available (e.g. Morais & Odgen, 2011; Seeber et al., 2019, Wiek et al., 2011). This paper transfers these competency models to in-company education and training and answers the following questions: to what extent do the existing competency profiles of training personnel meet the demands of companies in the fields of ESD and GCE? What potentials do current qualification offers in these two areas offer from the company's point of view and where is there a need for action?
The empirical basis for the article is provided by 10 expert interviews with company HR managers from 10 globally operating large companies from different industries (Meuser & Nagel, 2009). Using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2023), the interviews are evaluated deductively with reference to the above competency models.
The results systematically show the existing competence profiles as well as development needs of company education and training personnel in the field of sustainable thinking and acting. In addition, current requirements for corporate training and development personnel on the part of HR managers are identified and prioritized. The article provides concrete practical recommendations on the extent to which corporate framework conditions must change so that training personnel can meet the new tasks in the context of ESD and GCE, and it identifies necessary qualification offers.

In recent years, Spain has experienced an increase in the number of students enrolled in Basic Vocational Education and Training (BVET) and Intermediate Vocational Education and Training (IVET). However, 4 years after enrolling, 41.7% of BVET students and 30.7% of IVET students would have dropped out of the degree and educational system (Ministry of education and vocational training, 2022). For these reasons, it is important to explore those variables that would help prevent dropout in Vocational Education and Training (VET).

Numerous studies have indicated that school engagement is one of the central elements in preventing dropout (Cerdà-Navarro et al., 2020). In addition, various investigations have pointed out the decisive role that teachers play in promoting school involvement (Roorda et al., 2011).

The Self-determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci, 2017), considers the influence of teaching practices on teaching-learning processes, focusing on the types and sources of motivation and their impact on student behaviour. According to SDT, it is essential to consider teachers' perceptions of their professional autonomy, teaching competence, and interpersonal skills as determinants not only of beliefs and intentions, but also of teaching practice and the connection established with students (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009).

Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as the set of individual attitudes and beliefs that teachers have about their ability to accomplish particular activities successfully. Subsequent research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs is related to the ability to teach and facilitate learning process (Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011). Furthermore, high levels of teacher self-efficacy predict better instructional practices (Zee & Koomen, 2016) and closer relationships with students (Hajovsky et al., 2020).

In order to determine which factors influence the feeling of teacher self-efficacy, Klassen and Chiu (2010) argued the influence of years of teaching experience on teachers' self-efficacy is a nonlinear relationship, increasing as more years of teaching experience are attained but decreasing in the last professional stage. However, Fackler & Malmberg (2016) found that years of professional experience do not predict teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Siciliano (2016) noted that an optimal climate in the school and a good relationship and communication between teachers are factors that positively influence the teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Finally, Fackler & Malmberg (2016) observed that having opportunities for professional development positively influences the teachers’ sense of self-efficacy.

Taking into account the little existing research on this construct in VET and understanding self-efficacy as an element of vital importance for teaching practice, which helps to improve the relationship with students and strengthens their school engagement, the objective of this research is to delve deeper into this concept, analyzing which factors influence the teaching self-efficacy of VET teachers.

This study is an empirical contribution to the explanation of class-specific educational inequality in continuing vocational education and training (CVET). Inequalities in CVET build up or down over the life course. It is in relation to this life course dependency that I want to examine educational behavior in CVET (O'Rand 2006). Class-differentiating educational decisions are related to class-specific differences in the cost-benefit trade-off. Those decisions then - mediated by the selection and allocation function of the educational system and the resources of the parental home - lead to social inequality of educational opportunities. An important conceptual distinction of social educational inequalities is that between primary and secondary effects (Boudon 1974). The latter is aimed in particular at social inequalities that arise outside the education system and already before entry into the (pre-)school education system - i.e., primarily within the family of origin. Inequalities during a person’s life course shape their attitudes towards CVET (Loeng 2020).

In the public and academic debate, a close and direct connection between educational systems and educational decisions is often assumed (Van de Werfhorst and Mijs 2010). Such a connection is of interest mainly because educational institutions are among the factors that are in principle open to political control and can thus be shaped. In contrast to early pre-vocational education, two characteristics become important in the case of CVET. First, educational decisions are no longer made within the framework of institutionally predetermined decision-making latitude, i.e., under specifications of the respective decision alternatives and access criteria. According to educational research, a large part of adult learning processes takes place outside of educational organizations (Livingstone 1999, Livingstone 2001, Holland 2019). The decision for or against CVET and the knowledge of relevant and necessary educational offers are thus even more dependent on the individual and his or her decision-making and subjective and objective knowledge about educational offers. Second, the dimension of standardization ceases to apply. An institutional anchoring of education with predefined (humanistic) educational ideals and determined standards is increasingly being replaced by the practice- and application-oriented perspective on education. Education becomes economically exploitable employability, which is also discussed under the term “subjectification of education” (Ryökkynen, Maunu et al. 2022). In this sense, the term "vocational education" is becoming more diffuse as it is applied to an increasingly wide range of different learning processes and as CVET becomes less and less definable by institutional or content-related criteria. In particular, the specification of forms of "organized learning" (Bildungskommission 1970: 197) can no longer be convincing today in view of the increasing importance of informal learning (Eraut* 2004, Holmgren and Sjöberg 2022).

The paper first provides a brief overview of empirical findings on social inequalities in the (German) CVET landscape in order to clarify key comparative dimensions of the observed educational differences. Then, based on a number of problems identified, the paper outlines the main features of a research program that combines the analysis of CVET with that of an individual decision-making behavior and educational history. The research question is Q: What impact do (parental) educational decisions during school time, bounded rationality/norms and framing of education and the learning environment during school time have on educational decisions on CVET?

Introduction

There is a lack of first-hand accounts from dyslexic Higher Education (HE) tutors within the literature. This investigation will add to a body of research, offering insight and understanding into the experience of a dyslexic tutor working in HE. Being an autoethnographic inquiry, the work derived from this study is not intended to be universal; experiences shown in this project should exist for others to respond to in the wake of a lack of accounts. Moreover, the findings of this investigation possess the power to resonate with others where intersections of their lives may be similar, including national and international colleagues. The rationale for using my own first-hand account stems from a lack of autoethnographic accounts of dyslexic tutors in HE. Several studies in the literature detail the experience of dyslexic trainee teachers (Glazzard & Dale, 2013; 2015; Jacobs, Collyer, Lawernce, & Glazzard, 2021); dyslexic students (Robinson, 2017; Shaw & Anderson, 2018; Gant & Hewson, 2022); and dyslexic tutors teaching at various levels of study (Riddick, 2003; Griffiths, 2012; Patrícia, Borges, Pinto, 2022). However, most of these works do not utilise autoethnographic approaches. Additionally, none of the accounts mentioned reflect on tutors who develop a dyslexic identity whilst teaching.

The ontological and epistemological stances taken in this work are social constructivism (SC). I will conduct this work with the notion that reality is the product of agreed-upon concepts (Cresswell & Poth, 2016). Autoethnography is suited to be framed via SC, as I am embracing that in a world where agreement by society dictates what we know of a given thing, under this framework, I know intimately about the thing I am researching – my experience. I am seeking to demonstrate the relationship between being an educator and being dyslexic so that others may understand my experience in their views. The findings of the study are not meant to be generalisable, however, these may be relatable and encouraging to others who find themselves in a similar position or those who desire to understand the authentic experience of dyslexic tutors; an important consideration given the lack of representation for dyslexic educators in HE (Hiscock & Leigh, 2020).

Background
My own experience of teaching and dyslexic identity covers a period of five years. Firstly, I taught in a college during my undergraduate degree, with no firm conception of what dyslexia/ being dyslexic was. I then studied for a teacher training degree immediately after learning of my dyslexic status; finally, currently, I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at a UK HE institution, whilst writing my PhD on dyslexic experiences, and self-identify as dyslexic. The sections and intersection of these stages of my life chart the development of my professional practice and dyslexic identity. Whether or not learning more about those aspects of myself that can be called dyslexic has had any impact or influence on the way I teach is unclear. This investigation will offer insight into my own lived experience, where readers may relate or empathise, in response to the research question: In what ways has the development of my dyslexic identity impacted my professional practice?

The project presents preliminary results of the research into informal and non-formal training practices of photovoltaic system assemblers in Switzerland. The research follows an empirical subjectivation approach and aims to understand the interrelation between normatively loaded education-discourses, intrinsic learning ambitions and the construction of workers identities. Such knowledge is necessary for understanding increasingly diverse careers and corresponding new learning needs.

In Europe, the competition with uprising economies and the unfolding of a knowledge society has amplified political efforts, to institutionalize a culture of lifelong learning (LLL). Such efforts are accompanied by the establishment of normatively loaded discourse regarding ideal learning-subjects, which emphasize flexibilization, self-disciplining and individual responsibility (Holzer 2014; Mariager et. al 2016; Rothe 2011). The shift in responsibility for one's own positioning in the social hierarchy, has strengthened the importance of educational certificates, gained through formal training. At the same time, research in adult education has come to recognize the importance of informal learning for further education. This applies especially to craftspeople in SMEs who demonstrate a strong culture of “learning by doing” (Dobischat et al. 2019; Eraut 2004; Fenwick 2008). The consequence is a conflictual relationship between the learning ideals conveyed by the LLL-discourse and the learning dispositions of craftspeople. The questions appear, how do craftspeople from SMEs, with extensive experience in lifelong learning, relate to formal education courses and the LLL-discourse throughout their identity-work, and how does their identity as learners instruct their informal learning practices?

The photovoltaic system industry in Switzerland is of special interest for these questions, as it lacks a standardized apprenticeship system and relies on non-formal and informal learning strategies. This circumstance attracts a range of diversely qualified workers with extensive experience in informal and lifelong learning. At the same time, the industry is undergoing a process of formalization, with the first apprenticeship-course starting in 2024 („Grünes Licht für Schweizer Solarlehren ab 2024“ 2022). This change is likely to require experienced assemblers to take part in formal training courses which threatens to devaluate their identity as experienced professionals and conflict with their intrinsic learning ambitions. The goal of this research is to document the strategies of assemblers to address these challenges by looking at both, the institutional adaptations of the companies and the identity-adaptations by the assemblers.

Examining this tension provides valuable insights into the conflictual dichotomy between formal and informal learning and ways to overcome it. Such insights are of importance for establishing ways to formally accredit professional experience, thereby supporting people in their learning needs as career jumpers and lifelong learners. The research is conducted through a qualitative case study approach, involving interviews with assemblers and participatory observations.

This paper discusses - on a methodological basis - how the entanglement of research object (inclusive education), method (ethnography) and researcher (myself) constructs research on inclusive education in North-South relations. In addition, this paper illustrates how this construction leads to a reproduction of exclusive dynamics within this field of research, by taking into account an Inclusion and Open Science (OS) perspective. These patterns suggest at elements of an ongoing and contemporary postcolonial context in terms of knowledge production, representation and equity. The methodological discussion is part of my PhD project on inclusive education practices in rural Ghana.

To begin with, doing research on inclusive education in an international context is of a human rights based and developmental interest, as both the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) and the Agenda 2030 have politically and legally anchored inclusive education at the international level. However, doing research on this concept in an international context is problematic: both inclusion and dis/ability are considered to be contextually generated constructs that consequently differ from context to context. Both phenomena are themselves constructs that combine socio-economic, historical and politically shaped perspectives. (Singal, 2010, 2013) As a result, an a priori understanding of disability or inclusion is not reliable, so that the concept of inclusive education is limited to the contextual factors in which these phenomena are considered.

The need to discuss and reflect on contextual factors is of particular interest in North-South relations, which are characterized by issues of post-colonialism, power and inequity. This is not sufficiently pursued by academics. Consequently, the negotiation of inclusive education is described as a form of "('western') cultural imperialism" (Haskell, 1998) or as “from the West to the rest” (Grech, 2011). This aspect is hardly surprising, given that the concept itself results from reforms and developments of education systems in the so-called Global North (Global North is italicized to emphasize that it is a social construct based on a discriminatory ideology) (Werning et al., 2016).

It becomes evident that the theoretical negotiation is far away from an open, collaborative, and inclusive interaction that the idea of OS aspires to. By defining OS as a call for the democratization and decolonization of research (Chan et al., 2019), it becomes clear that the dominant norms within knowledge production create an exclusive, constant re-legitimization, in which diversity plays a marginal role. Hence, this closed research process does not fulfil the idea of a science that considers diversity, equity and inclusion as guiding research principles. This framework spans a field of tension where methodology, theory and epistemology need to be critically examined in order to achieve equitable representation, participation and diversity. (Bivand Erdal, 2019; Vicente-Saez & Martinez-Fuentes, 2018)

Furthermore, inclusive education theory in North-South relations points to methodological challenges: how is research ethically justifiable? Contextualizing my dissertation project on inclusive education practice in rural Ghana within the inclusive education theory and within the OS framework, I critically discussed the development of an inclusive research design in order to reduce exclusive dynamics. To achieve this, I address exclusion in several areas, which in turn may provide implications for an inclusive research process: object, method, and researcher. As outlined, the overarching research interest lies at both a methodological (I.) and a theoretical (II.) level:

1. How does the entanglement of researcher (me), object (inclusive education) and method (ethnography) construct the perspective on inclusive education in North-South relations?
2. How is the inclusive education practice adopted in rural Ghana?

Consequently, I will be able to present the inclusive education practice in rural Ghana as constructive, by considering both levels as influencing each other.

Governance of primary schools in the Republic of Ireland is an area that is not well researched in the national educational research literature (cf. O'Sullivan and West-Burnham, 2012). According to a recent report from the former Department of Education Chief Inspector of schools, Dr Harold Hislop, “because of their voluntary nature, boards might not be adequately equipped for their significant responsibilities... The voluntary nature of school governance arrangements is not sustainable.” (Department of Education, 2022, p. 237). How individuals understand their roles on Boards of Management is, by extension, also not very well understood.

Therefore, this paper's aim is to explore primary school governance in the Irish context over the last ~20 years, mapping the research literature pertaining to it and distilling key contemporary issues through a comparative analysis with issues arising in other identified national contexts. For example, governance approaches in other OECD countries (e.g. England and Australia, given the substantial literatures on school governance in these other English-speaking contexts) will be explored and commented on regarding how the Republic of Ireland could learn from policy approaches taken in these countries. Additionally, preliminary data analysis from a sample of chairpersons, principals and teachers - three key actors on all primary school Boards of Management - exploring how they make sense of and enact their roles in the contemporary policy and practice context will be shared.

This study first documents the evolution of school governance in the Republic of Ireland through a scoping literature review distilling key issues over the last 20 years since the establishment of the monumental Education Act 1998. It also advances an overview and analysis of international school governance trends against which to situate the Irish 'case'. It then moves to present and synthesise empirical data from actors drawing on a dual conceptualistion of both role theory and sensemaking theory (cf. James et al., 2012).

Since the establishment of boards of management in Ireland in 1975, there has been a gradual separation of the education system and the Catholic Church. These two major power brokers, the State and the Catholic Church, acted as gatekeepers and controllers for the implementation of education policy in Ireland during the twentieth century (O' Buachalla, 1988), including in relation to school governance. In contrast to many countries, the Church's engagement in the education system has given a new layer to an already complex institution, creating difficulties and tensions along the way. This study maps and reviews school governance in Ireland since the establishment of the Education Act of 1998. Since then, a number of other laws/ Acts and policies have followed and presented school leadership and Boards with a ceaseless flow of mandates and regulations that govern every aspect of their work (Simmie, 2012). Therefore, the issue of sustainability of school governance arrangements is key in this presentation.

Given this backdrop, the main research question for is:

1. How do primary school board members (namely, chairpersons, principals and teachers) make sense of and carry out their role (including which supports are offered to them) on contemporary Boards of Management?

2. Which historical legacy issues (e.g. voluntary status of boards) need reform to ensure a more sustainable approach into the future?

Introduction

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, global initial teacher preparation and development has shifted towards enhancing teacher leading in the pedagogical spaces (Heikka et al., 2021). Teacher leaders are responsible for creating a community of learning within their teams where leadership responsibilities are distributed among themselves (Heikka, 2014). The concept of distributing pedagogical leadership roles to teachers empowers teachers to enact leadership roles thereby improving the pedagogical functioning of the multiple professional staff (Heikka et al., 2021). Initial teacher education programs intend to prepare competent teacher leaders who can influence pedagogical leadership, learning, and learning needs, participate in collective decision-making, resources mobilization for teaching and learning as well as involvement in quality pedagogical improvement (Alsubaie, 2016; Contreras, 2016; Male & Palaiologou, 2015). Through the distribution of pedagogical leadership roles, future teachers are able to design ways of creating and evoking synergy within their pedagogical spaces, where collaborative and collective practices are developed within a focused relationship (Afalla & Fabelico, 2020; Jäppinen & Sarja, 2012). According to Contreras (2016) without proper preparation of high-performing future teachers with pedagogical leadership competencies in school management as well as necessary autonomy in decision-making, there can never be a good school or quality pedagogical improvement in the school. This paper there aimed at exploring the ways through which teacher leading is fortified at the initial stages of teacher preparation in the pre-service teacher education programs in Kenya.

Research Questions

The study was guided by the following questions:

1. How do pre-service teacher education professionals perceive the functions of distributed pedagogical leadership practice?

2. What are the roles of the principal in enhancing teacher leadership through distributing pedagogical leadership responsibilities?

3. What are the challenges faced in the enhancement of teacher leadership through distributed pedagogical leadership practice during initial teacher education preparation?

Theoretical framework

The study was guided by a theoretical framework as advanced by Heikka et al. (2021) and Contreras (2016). According to Heikka et al. (2021) distributing pedagogical leadership is involving teachers in enacting pedagogical leadership to foster curriculum reforms thereby improving the pedagogical functions among the teaching staff. Leadership in a community of practice is a combination of individual and collective responsibilities. This creates an interdependence that helps teachers reach the goals set. Distributed pedagogical leadership is the innermost characteristic of multiple professionals in a learning community where joint tasks and goals are shared (Heikka, 2014). Contreras (2016) opined that teacher leadership is the active participation of teachers in school management in order to generate ideas and ways of improvement and innovation in the community of learning in the school. Teachers and their pedagogical performance in class is the first factor of influences the students' learning (Contreras, 2016).

Project context

The research project is part of the content cluster School Development & Leadership of the project School makes you strong (German: Schule macht stark) (SchuMaS). SchuMaS is an interdisciplinary joint project that accompanies 200 schools in socially challenging situations in Germany. The overall goal of the project is to improve educational opportunities for socially disadvantaged pupils.

Theoretical framework

School leaders[1] are particularly important for school development processes because of their significant influence on the school (both on the school as an organisation and on its members) (Lichtinger & Rigger, 2022, p. 152). As so-called gatekeepers, they decide, for example, whether innovations find their way into the individual school (Bermann & McLaughlin, 1975; Rolff, 2012, p. 15). In particular, a resource- and strength-oriented (positive) leadership approach, which focuses on potentials and strengths instead of weaknesses of employees, represents added value for all involved, both for the employees and for the leaders themselves (e.g. Lichtinger & Rigger, 2022, p. 158). Connections between personality factors and positive leadership have already been proven (e.g. Lichtinger & Rigger, 2022, p. 156).

The key role that school leaders play in relation to school development processes shows the importance of research on the person of the school leader.

Research interest

The research project is to deal with the (professional) biographies of school leaders and to find out how access to the position of school leaders (especially at schools in disadvantaged locations) takes place.

• Where do the school leaders come from? What statements can be made about the habitus of origin of the school leaders?
• What orientations do they have with regard to their own school years? Which (former) student habitus is possibly still recognisable?
• How did they get into their professional position?
• Can (professional) school leader habitus be generated from the data?

Closely linked to this, the leadership style of the school leaders and, in connection with this, their self-image in school development processes are to be surveyed:

• What ideas do school leaders have about what schools must be like?
• What does school development mean to them? What experiences have they had with it?
• Where do they see needs (in relation to the school's internal development process), where hurdles and implementation problems?
• What tasks, goals and visions do they pursue at their school?

The results could be used to generate hypotheses on whether, for example, a certain leadership style is related to certain orientations (e.g. resource-orientation or deficit-orientation) or whether certain orientations can be explained by one's own biographical or professional biographical experiences.

[1] This refers primarily to school principals, but also to other school members with leadership functions.

Teaching in Sweden is undergoing a vocational crisis in terms of facing increasing teacher shortages reflected by low examination rates and increasing teacher attrition rates (Adermon & Laun, 2018). These shortages are particularly evident in elementary-year schooling. Reports by the Swedish National Agency for Education suggested that there will be a shortfall of ~80 000 teachers in 2031 (Skolverket, 2017). This shortfall is driven by demographic factors such as projected increases in the student population; low teacher education examination rates; and a high proportion of teachers nearing retirement-age (European Commission, 2019). Another contributing factor is the inability to retain teachers, illustrated by teachers’ turnover and attrition rates (Ingersoll, 2001).

Why teachers choose to leave their profession has been widely studied in the literature. Individual factors associated with attrition have provided an insight into which teachers are more likely to leave the profession whereas contextual factors have provided an insight into why these teachers choose to leave the profession. The results point to teacher attrition being higher among younger, less experienced teachers who report low levels of self-efficacy and job satisfaction (Borman & Dowling, 2008). Moreover, studies have consistently shown how challenging work environments, characterized by high job demands and low job resources, causes teacher burnout and exhaustion and subsequently contributes to teachers’ intention to leave the profession (Chambers Mack et al., 2019). In contrast to what makes teachers want to leave the profession, less focus has been placed on understanding the vast majority of teachers who choose to remain in the profession despite being subjected to the same occupational challenges (Sell, 2019). Refocusing the attention towards what can help teachers stay in the profession can provide valuable information about nuanced organizational practices that can safeguard teachers work-related health and facilitate teacher retention. This is important as better teacher retention can contribute towards addressing teacher shortages in Sweden (Lindqvist & Nordänger, 2016). Studies in the teacher retention literature have attempted to identify factors that can facilitate teachers’ willingness to remain in the profession. Some studies have indicated that contextual factors can facilitate teacher retention by providing teachers with a more advantageous work environment, characterized by horizontal and vertical support processes, that buffers against teachers’ job demands and poor work-related health outcomes (McCarthy, Lambert, & Reiser, 2014).

The study that will be presented at the conference is part of a doctoral research project and aims to contribute to the teacher retention literature by exploring factors that are associated with teachers’ intention to remain in the profession in Sweden. By doing so, this study aims to provide an insight into protective aspects of teachers’ psycho-social work environment that can facilitate teacher retention.

This is a part of a PhD project in science education and this paper is structured around a concept, created by the author, inspired by actor-network theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005; Law, 2004; Mol, 1999) with an ambition to try to investigate how nature and preschool are assembled together in various preschool practices. In this paper I would like to discuss how this concept of preschool-naturing could be theoretical and methodological useful when understanding nature’s role in preschool practices in the time of the Anthropocene.

In this study the notion of the Anthropocene, originally a suggested name of a geological time period to mark humans’ substantial impact on planet earth (Crutzen, 2006; Steffen et al., 2007), is used as an underpinning to stress the need for studies concerning human/nature relations. Gilbert (2016) argues that in these peculiar times of the Anthropocene we need to find the “blind spots” of science education and acknowledge previously unacknowledged assumptions. One of these unacknowledged assumptions in science education is the fondness of “entities” and Gilbert (2016) argues that we need to ask different questions to be able to deal with this: “How are science, society, and education inter-connected? How do they depend on each other? How do they influence each other? How do they construct each other? How do they talk to each other?” (s.18). These questions with the ambition to disrupt clear cut entities and with a focus on how, is in line with the ambition of this PhD project. Here the aim is to trace the complexity of how ”nature” and natures role in preschool is done together with preschool practice by also taking an interest in power aspects involved in these enactments.

In Sweden “nature” can be seen as a part of preschools aim and practice in several ways. This is stemming from a long tradition of connecting children to nature through natural environments but also as a part of the educational system, articulated in the curricula connected to science education, sustainable development, health and wellbeing (Halldén, 2011; National Agency of Education, 2018). In a hybrid understanding of the world where everything is nature and culture, also constantly connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting, this is a try to use a concept for investigating taken for granted assumptions concerning nature and preschool. According to Fenwick and Edwards (2010) ANT can offer a different way to approach education and help us to better understand the complexity of everyday practice that often is overlooked. Preschool practices can be understood as actor-networks where humans and other-than human actors are connected in assemblages that are not symmetrical but draw on different certainties, already established. To stabilize themselves, actor-networks use relatively already stabilized networks, for instance materials or discursive resources (Nespor, 2011). Mol (1999) discusses how decisions can be made invisible by pushing them into places out of sight making them appear as if they are not decisions, but facts. This makes it interesting to understand where these facts, concerning preschool and nature, are made, and which places and actors are involved. These decisions are not only intellectually made but occurs in practice involving both human and other-than-human actors. This is a practical and necessary stabilization of the actor-network that enable practicians to handle reality but it is relevant, to try to understand where decisions are made since they often are taken for granted as facts when they rather could be reconstructed into other understandings of reality (Mol, 1999). Can the concept of preschool-naturing be helpful to make visible natures complex role in preschool practices and acknowledge unattended assumptions concerning nature and preschool?

Ulrich (2018: 75) points out that inclusion – in a pedagogical definition – dodges the aspiration of formalization that organisations process. Instead, it remains in the undefined which refers to the unavailability of the mental systems and attitudes of the organisational members (cf. ibid.: 74). This indirectly describes an empirical research program that is dedicated to the question of what exactly happens when organisations (such as schools) work inclusively – or claim to do so. More precisely – in terms of the level of pedagogical interaction following the systems theory sensu Luhmann (2002) – it would be to speak of an underdetermination: the decisions made at the organisational level tend to take on a form that contours the operational level (e.g., the classroom interaction) but does not determine it extensively (cf. Kuper 2008: 153). In this sense, organisations specify the rather diffuse expectations on the part of society and translate them into concrete programs (e.g., via curricula, timetables, cf. ibid.) or prevent them from being overwhelmed – as not all decisions can be made in the classroom itself (cf. Luhmann 2002: 121). On the other hand, freedom is created for professionalised actions, which cannot be oriented towards rules, since it always must deal with individualised clients (cf. Stichweh 1996: 60).

In this view, there is drawn a complex relationship between the interconnection and disconnection. Subsequently, research questions should not only focus on the orientations and practices of teachers, but also on the organisational structural condition for the interaction (cf. Bohnsack 2017: 135). In this context, Bohnsack – following Luhmann (2000: 222ff.) – describes it as a characteristic of organised social systems that they are based on decisions enabling further decisions. Consequently, interactions within organisations differ categorically from those outside since the latter do not know such (decision-based) frameworks (cf. Bohnsack 2017: 135). In this respect, the praxeological sociology of knowledge speaks of a constituting framing since it is of constitutive importance for organisations (cf. ibid.).

The question of how the specific framing is contoured can function as a 'yardstick' of professionalised action, because it focuses on the necessary processing of the demands on the part of the organisation as well as on the part of the interactions with the clients (cf. Bohnsack 2020: 109). Bohnsack thus addresses a tension that has already been raised in existing theories of professionalised action (cf. Oevermann 1996) but outlines it differently – especially regarding the question of how the individualised clients (Stichweh 1996: 60) are thought. The present contribution wants to use this framework within an empirical study.

The aim of the research is to compare quality of class climate in age homogeneous (hereinafter HO) and heterogeneous (hereinafter HE) preschool classes in Czech Republic, which is demonstrated through the quality of teacher-child interactions. Second aim of the research is to prove suitability of the tool CLASS Pre-K to Czech preschool reality.

The quality of preschool education depends on many different factors. One of them is teacher – his or her level of education, devotion to profession or quality of teacher-child interaction (Melhuish et al., 2015; Bennett, 2011; Bertrand, 2007). Age composition is another phenomenon influencing the quality of class climate. This factor was perceived from many points of view. Impact of age composition on social and emotional, language, cognitive development was examined (Foster et al., 2020; Ansari & Pianta, 2019; Justice et al., 2019; Moller et al., 2008; Mounts & Roopnarine, 1987). In Czech Republic is this area not examined enough, although the national curriculum Framework educational programme for preschool education allows both types of class composition in preschool education (FEP PE, 2021).

Educating for sustainability includes rethinking daily actions, making more sustainable choices, working collaboratively to solve problems, reflecting on individual and collective actions, and creating close relationships with the Other and the context. From an educational perspective understood by its orientation towards the development of lifelong skills and values, education for sustainability intends to promote the development of critical and systemic thinking, as well as the ability to solve problems based on diverse and interdisciplinary strategies in an interpersonal and collaborative way (Mindt & Rieckmann, 2017; UNESCO, 2017; Wiek et al., 2016). Alongside the above, education for sustainability presupposes acting in a locally relevant and contextualised way, to enable stakeholders to participate actively in issues that are part of their interests and daily lives (Boyd, 2019; Ernst & Burcak, 2019; Green, 2017). Currently, special attention has been given to sustainable development objectives, which understand education as one of the main focuses of action to promote relationships between human beings and the context.

It is in the logic of understanding and stimulating the development of cultural, linguistic, and biological relations with the contexts that the concept of biocultural diversity emerges in the present study. It is observed that there is an increasing distance between the subjects and the surrounding context. The importance of the natural and social context in people's lives and well-being is also acknowledged, as well as the benefits associated with greater involvement with the environment from the early years of a child's life (Eriksen, 2013). As such, biocultural diversity emerges as an important concept in the education for sustainability from an early age, as it fosters a relationship with the environment and enables the understanding of relationships in their three dimensions: linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, and biological diversity (Batista & Andrade, 2021; Hanspach et al., 2020; Terralingua, 2014). These three axes are present within the scope of the early years, insofar as the tales, songs, and rhymes have, in many cases, a biocultural past based on traditional environmental knowledge which allows for a more careful, reflected, and sustainable life. The commemorative days, popular festivities, or traditions themselves express, together with the first aspects indicated, part of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the context. Biological diversity appears, in turn, in the songs, the rhymes, the customs, the food, and in the health. In fact, it appears everywhere, since this is where the treatment of biocultural diversity in the educational context comes in. A relationship of synergies where linguistic, biological, and cultural diversities are interdependent and co-evolve (Loh & Harmon, 2005; Maffi (ed.), 2001; Skutnabb-Kangas et al., 2003).

Given the aforementioned, the main aim of the present study is to identify and then analyse and reflect upon possible ways of educating for sustainability through pedagogical-didactic strategies focused on biocultural diversity. This research was developed in a Portuguese kindergarten context and intended to contribute to a possible answer to the research question "How can educational practices focused on biocultural diversity promote more sustainable actions of children in a kindergarten context?”. The objectives were to a) understand which pedagogical-didactic strategies were more and less appropriate to the interests and needs of the children; b) analyse how the children reacted to experiences outside the classroom context to which they were accustomed and; c) reflect on the learning promoted during the implementation of the project on sustainability and biocultural diversity.

Migration is a complex and worldwide phenomenon. By 2021, Chile’s migrant population corresponded to 7.6% of the total population. Currently, the largest nationalities are representative of Venezuela (30.7%), Peru (12.5%), Haiti (11.4%), and Colombia (11.4%). There has been discrimination against migrant families from these territories not only based on their skin color, nationality, personality, culture, socioeconomic status, but also based on their parenting practices (Pavez-Soto, 2012; Tijoux-Merino, 2013).

By 2019, 12% of children attending any Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC) were identified as migrants. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to changes in attendance at ECEC, and since then migrant children exceed non-migrant attendance (Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, 2021). Exploring how EC practitioners and migrant families are experiencing this new scenario could contribute tremendously to the promotion of culturally-responsive teaching practices. Especially since considering that the National Curriculum and the ECE training in Chile are mainly based on theories from north-western countries.

The majority of studies focused on parenting and children aim to classify parenting practices into standardised categories or to associate specific behaviours with future outcomes on children’s development and learning processes. Research from the area of Sociology of Childhood and Parenting Cultural Studies is relatively new and has contributed enormously to the exploration of migration in the school system but from only one perspective; children, teachers/headteachers, or families. Throughout my doctoral dissertation, Children and Parenting Cultural Studies have been unified since "the positions of adult/parent and child/son/daughter are mutually constituted and changed" (Vergara Del Solar et al., 2019). This research uses a relational approach (Mayall, 2002) and participant observation methodology to examine what are the views about childhood and parenting practices held by children, their migrant caregivers, and their ECE practitioners in Santiago de Chile.

Specifically, I plan to use the submission for the ECER conference to reflect on the process of proposing and implementing a research design that acknowledges and treats migrant families, especially young children, as experts. My experience as an EC practitioner a few years ago has prompted me to ask how to position myself as a researcher who does research with children instead of, continuing to do what was usual for me; researching about children. Would it be possible to carry out an ethnography if my intentions are to involve families in decision-making throughout the process? To what extent this research would be beneficial to these families and EC practitioners and not only to my doctoral research?

Chinese international students’ negative feelings are often seen as their difficulties in fitting into the local context. From the perspective of host institutions, the notion of ‘transition’ is often underpinned by the discourse of ‘deficiency’ for Chinese international students lacking the necessary skills to manage their learning experience (Ploner, 2018). However, the discussion of the emotional experiences cannot be reduced to the claim of merely presenting the vulnerable subjects and talking about Chinese international students’ ‘deficiency’ when they enter into an unfamiliar educational context, but it rather a way to expand our understanding of emotions affects/effects and retheorize them when we deal with social difference. Also, it is critical to improve the pedagogical practices in classroom to prevent uncomfortable experiences from international students in the first hand, rather than suggesting them to seek for help after they have negative feelings.

Shame and shaming underlie the lived, embodied and overseas experiences of inequality and exclusion, which seem to be veiled by the mainstream discourse of ‘inclusion’ in the higher education that locate the responsibility of overcoming barriers at the individual level (Burke, 2017). Archer (2003) argued that discourse of ‘inclusion’ implicitly requires that the person must fit into the dominant framework, or be excluded either through self-exclusion or through institutional exclusion. In other words, the discourse of ‘inclusion’ works as a form of symbolic violence to make those who are not familiar with the dominant education system feel excluded, and coerces them to transform themselves into ‘standardized’ personhood. For instance, this includes, becoming ‘adaptable’ to the western academic requirements of being critical and independent, and thus being recognized as a qualified pedagogical participant. Therefore, the discourse of ‘inclusion’ may unconsciously perpetuate the problematic deficit model of Chinese international students that they are often described as silent and passive learners, poor written and oral English, lack of critical thinking and emphasising memorisation (Zhu, 2016; Ye, 2018). Chinese international students are asked to ‘fit’ or ‘adapt’ into the UK educational norms, otherwise, they may feel aliened in the classroom. Experiences of shame may play out in ways that Chinese international students regard these academic deficiencies as their personal failures and simply not being the ‘right’ person to study in the UK, and even not ‘good’ enough to deserve the success.

Meanwhile, diversity is often constructed as a positive characteristic to improve the reputation of a university for its commitment to equity and wider participation, usually accompanied by the discourse of assimilation and acculturation (Burke, 2017). One the other hand, ‘difference’ is usually an unspeakable term in the wild education which may trigger anxieties connected to ‘non-traditional’ identities (Burke, 2017). However, the misrecognition and shame can always be hidden behind the ‘seeming to be’ unproblematic discourse of diversity. Diversity in the higher education should welcome different cultures, values, perspectives, dispositions, customs and learning habits, rather than ‘project all that is bad onto those who are different’ (Barnett, 2011, 673). Plenty of literature has presented the difficult and painful adaptation and acculturation process of international students that they need to ‘fit into’ the dominant framework. However, sometimes, these transitional processes may be triggered by a fear of difference which may lead to ‘punishments’. This ‘fear of difference’ can lead to the problematic judgements about students themselves and students from the same cultural background. They may feel inferior compared to those who are familiar with the UK educational system.

The aim of this explorative pilot study is to assess inclusiveness of didactic tools experimented in an Italian school, within a wider action research involving about fifteen teachers focused on giftedness in the national school context.

framework: To talk about inclusive education in Italy in 2023, there is the need to value the long path done to get to one school for all students. In 1977 with a National Law (L. 517, 4 Agosto 1977, n.d.) the public school welcomed all its students, without any differences based on backgrounds, languages, disabilities or any learning difficulties. This has meant opening wide doors to a pedagogical model that valued education more than curriculum, learning to grow up and develop the self. It is granted nowadays that it is possible to act self-competences within a group and not in loneliness (d’Alonzo, 2008). Integration at school meant a development of new interactions not only in class but also with several professions, psychiatrics and psychologists in the first place, and a development of new teachers, special need teachers, with prior attention to a child with disability but responsible also for the class development as the curricular teacher (d’Alonzo, 2008, 2019b; Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito, 2022).

To move a step forward towards inclusiveness it is important to look back and focus on milestones that helped Italian schools to become a model (Ianes et al., 2020). Italy started with the integration of students with disability in schools, children used to a different didactic and curriculum and a life project based on oneself. Special education started focusing on the person adding the element of a rich context, trying to fill in the feeling of membership. This need of being part of a group allowed the effort to support the research to find a room for each student within a class and every child in the world. This view is much wider than a simplified didactic to pass content. This process has faced several challenges generated by barriers due to stereotypes, prejudices, fear and impotence, just to mention a few.

On the side of giftedness education, some key elements have been highlighted as well. Specifically, background studies have been focused on differences with mainstream education and non-negotiables. Some criteria have been extracted by the work of Bruce M. Shore (Shore, 2000), Joyce VanTassel-Baska and Tamra Stambaugh (VanTassel-Baska, 2005; VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005). There is a need for attention to metacognition (as monitoring, evaluation and control of thinking strategies) and its connection to flexibility and accuracy (Shore, 2000). VanTassel-Baska and Stambaugh mention specifically “barriers” that could occur while addressing differentiation: «a) degree of differentiation required b) need to provide advanced learning opportunities beyond grade level, c) philosophical barriers and antipathy of many teachers towards the gifted learner and their needs, d) lack of understood services for the gifted population, and e) lack of services for gifted learners leading to greater neglect» (VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005, p. 212). To stimulate thinking skills, curriculums should reflect complexity, important issues and enough creativity to provoke a variety of feedbacks. Some methodology suggested are: problem/project based learning, the regular usage of rubrics to assess and, possibly, involving the competences within the educational community other than just the teacher (VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005).

There is a parallel journey between gifted education and special needs (referring to disabilities and learning difficulties) in mainstream education that let arise amongst several challenges a main one: heterogeneous classroom, several needs, different pace in learning and interests (d’Alonzo, 2019a; VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005).

My research is trying to answer the question of how the education systems in different countries (Germany, Ireland, and England) are dealing with racism. Fueled by current events around the death of George Floyd and the resulting discussions around racism and structural/institutional racism, I decided to look a bit closer at how this might affect the education system. The PISA, TIMSS, and PMSS studies all showed drastic differences in achievement levels for children with an international family history compared to their native counterparts. Following that, I looked into the differences in the government documents that give guidance/advice and instructions to the education systems of these three countries, as well as the teacher training, and what the curriculum includes about racism and the different school curriculums. My research questions are:

* How are racism and discrimination in the documents of official organs inside the education system addressed, and do these documents include calls to action?
* What kind of pedagogical approach is found in the different curricula as well as in the teacher training on how racism is addressed?

The decision to look into Germany, Ireland, and England was made for different reasons. Firstly, they have very different results in the above-mentioned studies, where in England, for example, the children with an international family history perform in some areas even better than their British counterparts. Ireland has overall better results and in Germany, there seems to be a fundamental achievement gap.
The other reason why I am determined to this country constellation is the significantly different historic experiences these countries have made with racism and discrimination which makes them a very interesting subject to look into and see the different routes and developments that have taken place over time in these countries.

Racism is defined as a system that involves the whole society in which an unlawful categorization of people into groups based on their looks, ethnic belonging, or culture is taking place. Following this, that categorization is used to diminish this group and legitimize the creation of a hierarchy.
I will line out the historical development of racism and the historical events that have an impact on the countries and the way they approach racism. Further, I will evaluate how the concept of othering is relevant to the education system and how institutional racism might impact the educational results that children with an international family history are achieving.

My work will also touch on the topic of white fragility to discuss why there seems to be a reluctance to call out racism as an important and present topic in the education system. The choice of wording will also be part of my research, in which manner racism is addressed and how clear the messages go to the education system regarding racism.

Given the impact the teacher has on educational success, the analysis of the teacher education itself regarding the topic of racism and discrimination is imperative. Are new teachers prepared to deal with racism, and if so, how are they trained?

As per my definition of racism as a systematic issue that includes all of society, it is a meaningful topic in education, so determining how children are taught around this is of great importance for our development as a society. Given that institutional racism as such is not necessarily a conscious decision to discriminate against minority members but a result of structural regulations and small acts, it is also important to discuss the topic of bias in this context.

This workshop offers to experience a way to analyse professional practices through an approach oriented by psychoanalysis. The method we will use is inspired by Institutional Pedagogy (Vasquez & Oury, 1967), that authors of the proposal both practice since a few decades. The leaders of the device proposed in this workshop have been conducting this type of working group for more than twenty years with different publics in the field of education and training.

This workshop will run in four steps:

–First step: presentation of the ‘device-frame’ (Roussillon, 1995).

–The second step, individual writing: each participant will be invited to write the narration of a situation encountered at work, in a context of teaching or training. The text will be handwritten and in English, which will be the language of the exchanges.

–The third step, a time for exchanges based on free-associations (Freud, 1904): each writer will be invited to read his text and the participants to share what has come to their minds in association with the evoked situation and the way it is related.

– The fourth stage, a time of "meta-reflection" on the method: after having experienced this method, a moment will be devoted to a free discussion during which each participant will be able to talk about this experience of working in group. The leader of this session will be able to briefly present the origin of this method and give examples of its use in the field of education. One of the participants (if possible one of the convenors of Network 21) could be placed in an observer position to focus especially group phenomena during the workshop, i.e. the associative chains.

Note: Participants should bring a laptop. Lecturers will hand out USB sticks with published PIRLS material for group work. Participants could practice analysis if they have the IEA IDB Analyzer and either SPSS, SAS, or R installed on their laptop.

The primary objective of this workshop is to explore how data from international assessments can be used for research regarding outcomes and contexts of reading literacy. The workshop will put emphasis on how data from studies conducted by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) could provide further insights for policy and practice.

As a leading organization in the field of educational research for more than 60 years, the IEA promotes capacity building and knowledge sharing to facilitate innovation and foster quality in education. IEA studies approach the reality of educational learning outcomes in all its complexity by collecting a huge variety of background information that can be related to students’ achievement, knowledge, and attitudes.

This course will introduce participants to the IEA Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021. The PRILS 2021 database will be published in June 2023 and will provide a fresh and rich source for secondary research of outcomes related to reading literacy across the world, and in particular in Europe with more than 30 European countries participating. PIRLS 2021 is the 5^th cycle of IEA’s flagship study in reading literacy, following the administrations in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016.

The course will include an overview of PIRLS, covering its background, conceptual framework and design. It will present some key findings from the 2021 data collection. Participants will be introduced to the survey instruments and database, and be provided with access paths to data sources, technical documentation, analysis guides and software tools. There will also be a presentation about available variables such as students’ achievement, their attitudes towards reading, characteristics of their teachers who teach reading, and class- and school-level learning contexts.

With this information, participants will formulate and discuss research questions that can be addressed with PIRLS 2021 data. The instructors will be available to mentor the development of research ideas and design as well as to answer data related and technical questions. Research questions from individual attendants will be presented to all participants in order to provide opportunities to share ideas.

No prior knowledge about large-scale international studies is required. Basic knowledge about statistical analysis is not required but is an advantage.

Draft Agenda:

Introductory session – 10 min

• Introduction of participants and their research interests

• IEA – mission, studies, topics, audiences

PIRLS – 20 min

• Introduction

- Background

- Main research focus, framework

- Design

• PIRLS 2021

- Highlighted results

- Instruments, outcome variables and scales

- Access and availability of data files, technical documentation, analysis guides and software tools

Group work – 35 min

• Participants will form working groups

• Each group will receive selected questionnaire materials and information on the corresponding variables (e.g., perceptions and background) of PIRLS 2021

• Participants will develop their own research questions that could be answered with the information collected in PIRLS 2021

• Each group presents one or two research questions and gets feedback from instructors and audience

• If participants have the IEA IDB Analyzer and SPSS, SAS or R installed, they can practice analyzing the PIRLS data with support by the instructors

Example Analysis – 20 min

• Live demo of analysis of example research questions

• Discussion of analysis and results

Closing – 5 min

• Questions, summary & conclusions

• Invitation to advanced data analysis seminars and initiation of collaborative work

In the first stages of their career, many researchers experience writing academic papers a challenging task. Writing a research paper is a specific professional skill, but oftentimes researchers are not prepared and mentored enough to fulfil expectations. In addition, scholars today face with constant pressure to publish at a very fast pace, which makes it writing papers a highly competitive and stressful activity.

To support researchers in overcoming this challenge, EERA Network 04, in cooperation with the European Journal of Inclusive Education, invites you to participate in a three-hours workshop on the fundamentals of writing scientific papers for journals in the field of education.

The workshop, especially addressed to junior researchers, aims to present and discuss the essential elements of academic writing. During the workshop, we will review the streamlining processes, writing strategies and editing techniques that help you conceive, draft and complete your paper in a consistent and productive way.

In the first part of the workshop, a panel of four expert researchers will introduce the methods and approaches they usually adopt in developing scientific papers. In the second part, questions and answers from participants will be facilitated through discussion in small groups. The workshop will conclude with a summary of the main suggestions and reflections emerging from the groups.

NW 15: Working Meeting, Research Partnerships in Education

Preparing a publication

This workshop is designed for researchers and practitioners willing to learn about computer assisted qualitative and mixed-methods research. This hands-on session will comprise the presentation of the main options available for coding and extracting meaning from data. Workshop participants will grant the possibility of testing different options, ranging from the more traditional approaches to automation using AI tools.

The workshop will consist of a quick guided practice tour through the opening stages of a research data project. Main features and tasks will be practiced in detail, including importing data, creating and applying codes, performing searches and queries, writing memos, retrieving selected coded data segments, analyzing data, and reporting results using some of the special features available (e.g. summaries, QTT, reports, AI Assist). The main goal of this workshop is to provide an overview of the data analysis process relying on MAXQDA assistance, a state-of-the-art software package for qualitative and mixed-methods research. Upon completing the session, workshop participants will identify important options available for tackling their qualitative research data.

Participants will bring their own laptops. A temporary license of MAXQDA will be provided to participants attending the session.

Requirements - IMPORTANT:

• You are only eligible to attend this workshop if you are registered as participant of ECER.
• Please do NOT register for more than one workshop. We will cancel double bookings.
• Should you not be able to attend, please cancel your reservation, as there might be a waiting list.

In this workshop, we will address the question of what makes educational research fit within a didactics tradition. Is it about the theories, the methods or the topics we choose to investigate?

The organizer of the workshop, network 27, provides a Europe wide meeting place for educational researchers from the diverse traditions in relation to didactics and teaching and learning. Central questions from a didactical perspective are what is taught in the different school subjects, what is learned and also why, and how. A key ambition for the network is bringing together research on teaching and learning in different subject-specific domains, and discussing the generic aspects of teaching and learning on an empirical basis. In this workshop, we will ask and hopefully answer the big question of what makes educational research fit within the label of didactics. We will discuss how different research questions and different methods add to the field of didactics and how we can frame our research so that the didactical value is clear. In a collective effort, we will also consider the biggest challenges for the somewhat ”messy”, yet more and more interesting, diverse and fascinating field of didactics in an educationally turbulent Europe for the years to come.

This workshop will explore a number of methodological and theoretical perspectives used in curriculum research. For example, we will look at Design Based Research, Use of life Histories, Network Theory, Critical Realism and other methodologies and theories.

This workshop will be of interest to early career researchers in the area of curriculum studies. From the saying “There is nothing so practical as good theory”, we will explore different methodological and theoretical perspectives being used in research in this area. Researchers will share their own experiences and knowledge of how they have used various methodologies and theories to research curriculum. There will be an opportunity to question and look at real applications in the context of current research.

The objectives of this workshop are as follows:

• To share theoretical perspectives from early career researchers
• To explore methodological approaches to curriculum research
• To investigate theoretical perspectives and how they inform curriculum research.

The induction phase is an important part of teachers' professional development. Thus, in the EERA network Professional Learning and Development, numerous presentations and symposia have been held during the past couple of decades with the common theme of induction of new teachers.

One well-established way of supporting teachers is mentoring. It has recently been increasingly interpreted as peer learning and dialogue rather than as a one-way transfer of tacit knowledge or socialisation in the workplace.

This workshop is open to all European educational researchers who are interested in developing modern approaches to mentoring research. The workshop is organised by the network project “Ecosystems of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME)”. This initiative has been launched in 2021 as a part of the EERA network 1 (Professional Learning and Development) in association with the project “Nordic Teacher Induction - Promoting Professional Development” (NTI-PPD).

The objectives of the workshop are to:

- provide an opportunity for an informal meeting of educational researchers in Europe who are interested in induction and mentoring

- enable networking and collaboration between researchers interested in the topic

- present the activities of the network so far

- plan further research on induction and mentoring, for example in the form of joint publications, symposia and meetings

- outline the possibilities for applying for research funding for joint projects on induction and mentoring in Europe

Network 30 Environmental and Sustainability Education Research has reached the age of 10, and this session is dedicated to celebrating this milestone.

For those of us who want to join via zoom, please, use the following link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/61233457685?from=addon

We use this opportunity to discuss major shifts, contributions, challenges and achievements in ESE Research over the past decade with perspectives from Europe and beyond. ‘European’ is here used as a reflexive concept, to be played with, criticized and transcended.

We start with an introduction from our founding Link Convenor: Per Sund who will share some of the history of the network.

There will be short introductions from a panel with researchers from Europe and beyond, including:

Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Rhodes University, South Africa;

Greg Mannion, University of Stirling, United Kingdom;

Marcia McKenzie, University of Melbourne, Australia;

Johan Öhman, University of Örebro, Sweden;

Arjen E. J. Wals, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

We will provide space for group talks (physically and in break out rooms) with the aim of identifying some questions for the panel, and a final plenary, including details about upcoming events and opportunities from the network.

Elsa Lee, Stefan Bengtsson and Ole Andreas from the convener group chair will chair this session.

Inclusive education is often times shaped by a model of students in teachers that reflects a binary understanding of function and dysfunction. Thus resulting in an understanding of subjects which comply to a norm and those who should be included in this group. Especially in schools medical models like DSM-V (Falkai et al. 2018) or ICD-11 (WHO 2019) are used to reference singe students, resulting in a pathologically based, stigmatizing view on individual students. Even more progressive approaches using social model of disability, like the ICF-Model (WHO 2001) show perspectives which conclude in a description of norms and deviation (Hirschberg 2018). Recognizing this we have to conclude that a truly inclusive understanding can’t be realized while describing differences in normative ways.
On the other hand the recognition of individual differences is needed in educational settings, to provide individualization and appropriate learning methods and materials to fit the individual needs of each student, providing ‘reasonable accommodations of the individuals’s requierments’ as UN-CRPD (2006, Art. 24) puts it. The issue of recognizing and reducing barriers depends on the description of individual needs, thus the description of differences.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce a new model, which includes everyone participating in an inclusive group. Starting from the discourse around neurodiversity, this presentation will include philosophical, psychological and neurological perspectives to introduce a model, which is capable of describing differences based on regular human variation, without stigmatization.
“Neurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.” (Walker 2014) This categorizes neurodiversity as another dimension of heterogeneity within the human species, tying it to other discourses like race, class or gender (Singer 2017). This means that neurominorities like autistic persons (I’m using this wording with respect to it’s self-chosen character in accordance to Walker (2016)) must also be seen as a regular variation of the human species. This perspective rules out any pathological description that frames autism as a deviation of a norm. The image of autism is first and foremost based on outside descriptions, founded in a socially constructed image of normality. Still neurological differences do exist within humankind and result in individual needs, especially in an environment like schools, which is primarily suited for the needs of neurotypical students – another overgeneralization, which can lead to inappropriate environments and obstacles to overcome for everyone.
This may result in barriers which must be recognized and dismantled (Boban and Hinz 2009). Still these barriers effect every person, not only neurodivergent. This is due to differences in sensory processing which are inherent to every person (e.g. Friston 2017; Newen 2013; Northoff et al. 2016). By developing a general model of sensory processing in context of Self (‘Selbst’) and environment we can describe individual differences, provide reasonable accommodations for each persons needs, and ultimately provide equity in inclusive education, as this perspective shifts the view from overgeneralization of a group to an individual recognition of inclusive subjects. This will be concluded in the presentation, by looking exemplary at autistic students in inclusive learning settings.

Kanner (1943) first used the term ‘Autism’, based on case studies he observed of a group of children who he remarked, differed considerably and uniquely from one another and therefore, deserved careful consideration of their differences. Eight decades later, researchers, like Bolte (2022) argue that frameworks currently used for diagnosing autism, namely the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. [DSM-5], American Psychiatric Association, 2013), do not reflect the individual differences and holistic profiles of autistic people. Considering Kanner’s (1943) original insights into autism within the modern 21st century’s diagnostic and intervention systems, this paper explores the context for supporting self-regulation in autistic children from an international lens. The paper also seeks to present a framework for supporting autistic children to develop self-regulation in an Irish context.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ([UNCPRD], United Nations, 2007) called for a human rights perspective on education for people with Special Educational Needs (SEN). From a human rights perspective, governments are called upon to remove barriers to the full participation of people with disabilities in society. This includes providing individual support to enable people with SEN to maximise their academic and social development (United Nations, 2007). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ([OECD], 2011) further argue that more support is needed to enable autistic people to develop autonomy and self-determination. Supporting the development of self-regulation is viewed as key to this goal (Nuske et al., 2021). Autistic people are significantly more likely to have challenges with self-regulation (Kuypers, 2011).

This paper presents findings from a systematic literature review on self-regulation for autistic children in the Irish and international context. Further, drawing on international policy, and empirical and theoretical literature, it presents an ongoing teacher-designed intervention to promote self-regulation in autistic children in one Irish primary school. Using a case study design, the teacher researcher leading the study used the Stress, Self-Regulation, and Communication Framework (Binns, Hutchinson & Cardy, 2019) to offer an individualised programme for supporting self-regulation for autistic children over three months. Participants include six children with a diagnosis of autism in Ireland. Binns et al. (2019) capture the staged approach to the development of self-regulation in the Stress, Self-Regulation, and Communication framework. The model starts with supporting co-regulation where social partners support the child by pooling executive resources and adapting the environment as needed. The model then moves on to foundational self-regulation capacities, including teaching emotional literacy. Finally, the model focuses on developing autonomous self-regulation strategies where the children can identify causes of dysregulation and develop a toolbox to regulate their emotions. The framework can be individualised to children by adapting the pace, programme, and strategies used. Based on this framework, the primary research question of the current study is how autistic children in a special class in Ireland respond to an individualised self-regulation programme based on the Stress, Self-Regulation, and Communication framework.

Inclusion and the creation of inclusive learning environments have since the Salamanca statement (UNESCO, 1994) been both a means to an end and a goal in itself to create equitable schools as well as equitable societies across the world (Ainscow, Slee, & Best, 2019). Moreover, inclusion might also be a central premise for schools to meet a rapidly growing diversity in the student demographic landscape in Europe (Dyson & Berhanu, 2012; Wolff et al., 2021). However, there is far from any concord within the research community on how inclusion should be defined or how to implement inclusion in schools (Florian, 2019; Nilholm & Göransson, 2017). Therefore, the actual practice of creating inclusive learning environments is an area which merits further research.

Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) play a central part in implementing inclusion by creating inclusive learning environments for all students (Abbott, McConkey, & Dobbins, 2011; Cole, 2005; Göransson, Lindqvist, & Nilholm, 2015). Previous research has shown that qualitative positive relationships are central, even essential, for a successful SENCO profession and for SENCOs’ ability to create inclusive learning environments (Aspelin, Östlund, & Jönsson, 2021; Maher, 2016). However, how, and where this work is performed by SENCOs is an area of research which needs to be further explored to better understand how inclusion can be implemented and possibly contribute to meet a growing diversity in the student demographic in Europe and across the world.

Aim and knowledge interest

Considering the brief introduction above, the current study aims to explore how SENCOs in Swedish Upper Secondary School utilize lived body and lived room in their everyday worklife to create and manage inclusive learning environments. A further aim is to understand how professional ethos and agency is expressed in the participants lived experiences. This is explored using a lifeworld phenomenological approach studying the participants lived experiences of creating and managing inclusive learning environments.

Research Questions

(i) What are the SENCOs’ lived experiences of how lived body and lived room conduce and/or impede their agency in the creation and management of inclusive learning environments?

(ii) What are the SENCOs' lived experiences of professional ethos and how it conduce and/or impede agency in their everyday worklife when managing and creating inclusive learning environments?

Although the pursuit of equality of opportunity has been high on the agenda in both policy and practice in recent years, inequality in educational opportunities has meanwhile increased even further, arguably especially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Achieving equality of opportunity turns out to be a particularly complex task. It can be characterized as a ‘wicked’ problem – for a number of reasons.

First of all, wicked problems are socially complex, because a large number of actors is involved, in a dynamic social context. Because various stakeholders (can) play different roles in both the causes and the solutions of the problem of inequality of educational opportunities, it can be seen as a multi-actor problem. Relevant actors in the Dutch educational policy context are parents, teachers, school directors, educational directors or school board members, local policy makers and the municipal educational executive.

Secondly, wicked problems are normatively complex, as solutions often require transcendence of individual interests. All aforementioned stakeholders do not only have an actor-specific views and interests, but also a personal or political ones, which at times might contradict each other.

Thirdly, wicked problems are substantively complex, because the problem cannot be defined unambiguously and has a multitude of – often interrelated – causes. Reducing inequality seems a goal shared by many and, at first glance, the definition of equal opportunities seems unambiguous. Research shows that the shared pursuit of equality of opportunity can be and has been interpreted in a variety of ways.

In this study, inequality of (educational) opportunities is approached as a wicked problem that requires individual and collective commitment from various actors in educational policy and practice, such as local governments, school boards, teachers and parents. To reach collective efficacy, each actor should feel responsible for tackling the problem of inequality of opportunities (ownership) and be willing and able to do so (agency). Feelings of ownership and agency, however, might differ as they are affected by the perspective that actors have on the nature, causes and approaches of the problem of inequality of opportunity. Moreover, in order to be able to show agency, the context must provide sufficient space for actors to actually exert influence on a situation or problem.

This study investigates the perceptions and perspectives of various actors within a local context, regarding the problem of inequality of opportunity in education, their own role in tackling it and possible obstacles they might encounter in developing (collective) agency. The aim is to gain insight in the ways in which local networks handle 'wicked' problems. The central question of this study is: What views, ownership and agency do different actor groups in education have with regard to increasing the equality of opportunities in education?

This quantitative study focuses on various actor groups in their local contexts. In two medium-sized Dutch cities, the entire local school networks, including the municipal educational executive and local policy makers, school boards, headteachers, teachers and parents were asked to fill out an online survey.

Although this study takes place in the Netherlands, the insights will be useable by researchers and policy makers across the national borders as well, as the problem of inequality of opportunity and questions of agency and ownership are universal. During the discussion we can compare the results of our study to the experiences of the audience: do they recognize the way this ‘wicked’ problem is viewed and handled in their own local context? Moreover, possible explanations for (a lack of) perceived ownership and agency by various actors and potential implications for policy can be discussed.

The role of teachers as active curriculum-makers, who make curriculum by considering the contextual conditions and the needs of diverse learners, has particular importance for today's educational environments with a growing number of students from different socio-cultural backgrounds. Subsequently, recent educational reform movements in many places strongly emphasise the role of teachers in enacting curriculum policies, with an increased rhetoric of autonomy and flexibility that is linked to teacher agency (see, for example, Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence and New Zealand Curriculum Framework; Priestley & Biesta, 2013). Offering more flexibility and space for teachers have been addressed along with equity goals (Pantic, 2015; Sinnema & Aitken, 2013). Moreover, the teacher role as the agent of change has been widely discussed in relation to teaching diverse learners by referring to an effective teacher who can initiate and also resist the change to create equitable practices (e.g. Irvine, 1990; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Darling-Hammond, French & Garcia-Lopez 2002; Pantic, 2015).

However, Turkey followed somewhat different trends than international reforms by standardization of educational processes and offering narrow flexibility and autonomy for teachers, while still focusing on reducing the inequalities in the education system through policy papers (e.g. Education vision 2023; MoNE, 2018). Hence, it is crucial to examine teachers’ role in curriculum making for promoting social justice and equity in the context of Turkey.

Teacher agency has been addressed by referring capacity of the teacher and individual ability to act like a change-maker and critical decision-maker in the literature on educational change (e.g. Fullan, 1993; Zeichner, 2009; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). However, Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson (2013) have challenged this approach with their model for understanding teacher agency from an ecological perspective which is outlined by Emirbayer’s and Mische (1998), that suggests social, cultural, and structural conditions also play an important role in achieving agency for teachers in their work. The model of the ecological approach to teacher agency is a theoretical basis for this study that aims to explore teacher agency in curriculum making in respect of social justice and equity. Thus, this study aims to explore how do teachers' individual and ecological conditions enable and constrain mathematics teachers’ achievement of agency, in respect of curriculum making through social justice and equity in Turkey.

The following questions are addressed in this study:

1. How do mathematics teachers perceive their agency in relation to teaching diverse learners?
2. How do teachers perceive the mathematics curriculum and their role in curriculum making in relation to social justice and equity?
3. What are individual, cultural, social, and structural factors that influence teacher agency in mathematics curriculum making in relation to social justice and equity?

Auditing Gender Equality

This study contributes to critical literature on educational equality policies by examining equality promotion through school level functional equality planning. Equality policies in Nordic countries, such as Finland, have been described pro-active and exemplary, especially because state-feminism has an established status in the national policies (Kreitz-Sandberg and Lahelma, 2021; Lahelma, Öhrn and Weiner 2021). An equality planning obligation was extended to Finnish basic education (grades 1-9, age group 7-15 years) in 2015 in the reform of the Act of Equality (609/1986). The reform was a state-feminist establishment of equality work in elementary schools, that feminist researchers have desired for decades (Kreitz-Sandberg and Lahelma 2021). In this study, I examine critically the steps and missteps that the Finnish gender equality work has taken when the recently implemented equality tool – equality planning – was operationalised in elementary schools and reflects its potential in equality promotion in Finland and elsewhere.

The functional equality planning is targeted to challenge the educational equality policies that have repeatedly failed to problematise gendered binary structures and norms (see Ikävalko and Brunila 2019; Myyry 2022). In general, schools draft their equality promotion policy on the grounds of the gender inequalities, which school community find out by surveys addressed to pupils (FNAE 2015). Previous studies have examined the equality planning in upper secondary education (Ikävalko 2016), working life (Ylöstalo 2012; Ikävalko and Brunila 2011), and a diversity planning in universities (Ahmed 2012). These studies on equality tools have shown that the equality planning can offer a stage for institutional discussions on gender equality, but unfortunately the plan and the planning process are often truncated into technical performances of fulfilling the requirements. Additionally drafting a document requires time and effort from every-day school practices and thus after completing the formal document, there is no time left to critically ponder and raise awareness of inequal structures (Ikävalko & Brunila 2011, 328-329). Thus, despite the step forward in equality promotion, policy researchers have shown that bureaucratic logics of equality techniques depoliticise feminist approaches, because then feminist knowledge becomes mainstreamed and equality work is audited from the viewpoint of efficiency and effectiveness (Prügl 2011; Ikävalko 2016; Ahmed 2012; Ylöstalo 2012). From the critical viewpoint, equality planning represents an auditing culture of education, and then the plan is a document in which schools perform their equality (see Ball 2000).

However, due to the novelty of the gender equality tool in basic education, there is no information yet on how the equality plan succeeds in challenging binary inequalities. In this study, I show how equality planning as an equality tool discursively fix, shrink, stretch, and bend meaning of gender equality and what happens to problematisation of gender binarism in the process of functional equality planning. In particular, I will show that drafting a document does not itself problematise gender binarism, but instead it can be harmful for equality promotion, if the meaning of gender equality is stretched and bended to other premises or fixed to some depoliticised questions (see Lombardo, Meier and Verloo 2009).

The emergencies of the last period, the COVID-19 pandemic, the environmental crises, the war in Ukraine, and the resulting socio-economic crisis, have accentuated, in education, the differences already existing among students (Save the Children, 2021; Giorgino, 2020) and produced new ones. These differences are also related to distance education (Ballarino et al, 2020; Torre et al, 2022) due to issues of economic, social, and cultural inequality.

To cope with the situation that has resulted and for a more democratic and equitable school, there are two levers on which to act: on one hand, flexible planning that helps with dealing with the unexpected, and on the other hand, fostering greater student autonomy. It has been studied in the literature how teachers, in order to cope with the unexpected, are forced to make fast decisions (Perrenoud, 1999), and this often favors the reproduction of embodied methods of operation (Magnoler, 2017) that reproduce worn-out patterns that do not fit the current situation and the changes taking place. Linear and instructivist methodologies often prevail, which are only effective in appearance but in essence do not meet the criteria of equity that are essential today. If regulation in action can no longer be based only on the practices incorporated by teachers, it becomes essential to rethink design models and to understand whether it is viable a "design for the unexpected" that can prepare many possibilities and support the teacher in making decisions in action amid unexpected situations. Regulation in action in the past was seen as teacher improvisation. Our hypothesis, on the other hand, sees regulation as a design in action that opts among the various possible paths identified in the design. In other words, we hypothesize that in order to cope with the unexpected and to implement equitable educational practices, it is necessary to both activate implicit intelligence and explicit intelligence (Damasio, 2021) while having to operate at speed.

The research we are describing attempts to answer the previous problems. It started from the analysis of 200 teaching sessions of Primary Education students that made us verify how the unexpected impacts on (1) the spatiotemporal conditions of teaching action and (2) the way pupils respond to the devices proposed by teachers.

Spatiotemporal conditions also result from students' different modes of working and learning. The need to activate multiple channels and engage students on authentic tasks results in different work times for each. The use of technologies to activate different processes introduces new possible sources of uncertainty. Different student responses also result from the increased differences present. Today, each student arrives in the classroom with a personal and multivariate store of knowledge, and this depends not only on the individual cultural background but also on the experiences and vicissitudes he or she has gone through.

"Designing for the unexpected" uses certain strategies: modularity, which is designing self-consistent lessons; redundancy, which is proposing activities that pursue the same objectives with different devices; deviation, that is activities that pursue different objectives but are more adherent to contingent needs; anticipation, that is predicting what will happen in the classroom (Rossi et al., 2021); and hierarchy, that is being clear about which activities are unavoidable and which can be added or changed. Some of the above strategies are derived from Berthoz's (2011) studies on simplexity and how complex systems respond to crises.

Introduction

There has been a plethora of research within physical education that outlines the multiple barriers that young women and girls face to participation (see Flintoff & Scraton, 2006). Importantly, young women and girls are often constructed as the ‘problem’ within physical education settings by being labelled as ‘disengaged’ (Vertinsky, 1992). Yet, this dominant narrative has not held up to scrutiny because of the structural factors including content (Stride & Flintoff, 2018), uniforms and clothing (Fitzpatrick & Enright, 2016), gendered stereotypes (Oliver, 2001), curriculum (Oliver & Kirk, 2015), amongst many others, that work to limit girls’ engagement. Rather than just critiquing physical education, more recently researchers have shifted their focus in order to explore how we can transform physical education to be more equitable toward young women and girls. This paper continues in this line of scholarship.

There have been multiple initiatives in order to transform physical education into a more equitable place for young women and girls. Much of this work has examined how to (re-)engage young women and girls in physical education by actively changing the environment. Within this, Oliver and Kirk (2015) have developed a pedagogical model, the activist approach, to working with girls in physical education. This work has been used across multiple settings (e.g. USA, Brazil, Australia, Scotland). Further, much of this work has examined pre-service teachers experiences of engaging with the Activist approach (Luguetti & Oliver, 2019; 2021; Oliver et al., 2018). To build on this scholarship, it is important to consider the experiences of current in-service teachers that are using this novel approach in school-based physical education settings.

Physical education teachers are part of schools, communities and professional cultures that are steeped in conventional ways of thinking. Within these spaces, there are dominant practices that often limit the pedagogical creativity of teachers as they rely on traditional approaches to physical education (see Kirk, 2010). Physical education teachers, therefore, that undertake transformative approaches are often ‘at the margins’ of the field and struggle to enact new forms of teaching (Fitzpatrick, 2013). In order to empower teachers to experiment with different forms of pedagogies in physical education, it is important to understand the challenges they may face in schools. Of further importance is to understand how these teachers experience these challenges as well as how it affects their ability to enact new pedagogies in physical education.

Purpose and Research Questions

The purpose of this paper was to examine the experiences of an in-service teacher who is engaging with the activist approach in physical education. The purpose was explored using the following research questions:

1. What are some of the challenges that a teacher may face when they are enacting an activist approach in physical education?
2. How do these challenges affect the teacher’s experiences of enacting an activist approach in school-based physical education?

Paradigm

The paper is grounded in a critical and transformative paradigm of qualitative research in physical education (Landi, 2023). Within this paradigm, the goal is to not merely critique social inequitable structures but also to transform them. As such, this paper draws on the Girls Activist Approach of Physical Education in order to transform physical education practices within Scotland to be more equitable for young women and girls. This study’s aim, of understanding a teacher’s journey to become-Activist, was underpinned by an approach to learning that was student-centred, embodied, inquiry-based, and emphasised listening to students (Oliver & Kirk, 2015).

This research focuses on the relationship that student teachers have with mathematics and how this relationship develops and evolves to create their identity as a mathematics educator during their first year of initial teacher training (ITT) at a University in England. The impetus for the research has stemmed from witnessing first hand, as a mathematics lecturer in Initial Teacher training, the relationship that undergraduates have with mathematics as subject that they must study but also one that they must teach. Research has found that teachers with higher levels of self- efficacy are less likely to suffer from burn out and leave the profession early. Less well understood is the development of attitudes towards mathematics in correlation with teaching experiences (Patkin and Greenstein, 2020). Many students entering university may have had 10 or 12 years of learning formalised school-based mathematics, but their subject knowledge is weak. Reasons for this may be that they have disconnected pockets of knowledge and what they perceive to be mathematics bares little correlation with how mathematicians perceive it.

For ITT students who have had a successful past relationship with mathematics and have achieved well in formal school testing such as GCSE and ‘A’ level, it might be assumed that they will have a strong perception of competence and confidence in the subject. However, an erroneous view of the way in which mathematics is presented and viewed as a subject persists amongst these students. This has also been confirmed through Rowland et al., (2009) who have suggested that formal qualifications are not a reliable indicator of sufficient subject knowledge to teach primary mathematics.

There is the suggestion of a cycle from learner through to teacher whereby perceptions of mathematics are formed by a child through cultural, family and social interactions including through their experiences in school. The weak subject knowledge and poor mathematical pedagogical knowledge held by some teachers can reinforce the negative experiences of the learner. As the learner moves through school further disengagement occurs and shallow learning takes place. I argue that the following elements have an impact on their perceptions of mathematics and self-efficacy: The teaching approach of the school, the relationship with the mentor and how the mentor is teaching them, the relationship that the mentor has with mathematics themselves, the experiences the student teacher gains in teaching across the different strands, the academy approach to mathematics and the use of schemes in general.

Drawing on a theoretical framework of Bandura’s (1977) theory of the development of self-efficacy I argue that for many student teachers the understanding of the equal value given to the how and the why of teaching may be problematic for them, as it is a different experience to the one in which they experienced as a learner of mathematics themselves. Traditional teaching practices experienced over formative school years lead to beliefs and attitudes being formed about mathematics and how it should be both taught and experienced (Gainsburg, 2012).

Further to this, the influence of the diversity of teaching approaches of any school-based placement and how decisions regarding the value of mathematical knowledge and the curriculum have an impact on the developing self-efficacy of the student teacher are established. Mentoring also plays a significant role in the student teachers’ developing self-efficacy as does the relationship between the student and the mentor. How this supports or develops positive perceptions of the subject and therefore higher levels of self-efficacy is established.

Objectives

Teacher agency is a rather abstract concept, and it has been extensively theorized (e.g. Aiello & Sibilio, 2018; Eteläpelto, 2013; Priestley et al., 2015a; 2015b), yet its practical unfolding in an actual inclusive school setting remains largely unexplored. Recent literature reviews on teacher agency for inclusive education have shed light on the phenomenon (Miller et al., 2020; Li & Rupper, 2020; Andreoli et al, 2022). However, a comprehensive empirically based theorization is still lacking. The purpose of this study is to explore teacher agency for inclusive education at work, by collecting and analyzing teachers' experiences and perspectives. To this end, we have tried to respond to the following research questions: 1) How does teacher agency for inclusive education unfold in inclusive school settings? 2) How can teachers “make a difference” and contribute to more equitable opportunities for all students? 3) What strategies are employed in this process? 4) Is teacher agency enacted differently by general and special education teachers?

Theoretical Framework

According to Pantić (2015; 2017a), Pantić and Florian (2015) teacher agency is a transformative process aimed at fostering social justice in schools, which are more and more characterized by increasing cultural and social diversity. When enacting teacher agency, teachers act strategically, removing the risks of school failure and social marginalization, promoting academic achievements, and ensuring better opportunities for all students (Pantić, 2015).

School systems and teachers as change-makers are mutually constituted, meaning that teachers act not only in but also through a particular school context. As Biesta and Tedder (2007) put it, “the achievement of agency will always result from the interplay of individual efforts, available resources, and contextual and structural ‘factors’ as they come together in particular and, in a sense, always unique situations” (pp.137). In this vein, several environmental elements have emerged in the literature as relevant factors impacting teacher agency for inclusive education. Pantić (2017b) notes that teacher agency is influenced at the micro level by personal factors, i.e., teacher attitudes and beliefs, at the meso level by school/context-specific ideologies and practices, and at the macro level by educational policies, curriculum, etc. The most critical factors lie at the meso level and concern relationships and cooperation among different school actors. They are, nonetheless, also more "malleable" and unlike structural elements, they can be modified by new practices. Other factors facilitating or hampering teacher agency for inclusive education have been mapped in three different literature reviews (Miller et al., 2020; Li & Rupper, 2020; Andreoli et al, 2022). Barriers include the absence of structural resources, the dominant ableist culture, the perceived inadequacy in the relationship with the students with disability, the special education teacher's unpreparedness on specific learning contents, the marginalization of the special education teacher, the absence of shared planning, and the lack of school administration support. On the other hand, teachers proved they can change existing practices thanks to resilience, teamwork, and student-centered ideologies (Andreoli et al., 2022). Yet, how do they do that? What actions do they take? What happens when teachers make a change and make enhanced educational opportunities for all students possible? Miller et al. (2020) and Li & Rupper (2020) argue that for a better understanding of the phenomenon, researchers should identify specific “actions” informing teacher agency. Building on these premises, we collected a large body of empirical data to gain practical knowledge on transformative actions and agency-driven outcomes in existing inclusive school settings.

There is increasing attention paid to improving students’ historical thinking (HT) competences in the UK. With this, there are several definitions and understanding of HT in the literature from all around the world. Among British history educators and researchers, for instance, HT refers to several aspects of disciplinary-based history teaching, In the United States, Wineburg (2001) defined HT as a systematic recognition process that the past is different from the present, and it has several distinctive and disciplinary procedures to make meaning about the past. In the present study, this term has been framed as teaching history in a way that equips young people with a set of abilities such as asking perceptive questions, weighing evidence, thinking critically, sifting arguments and judgement. Teaching HT had gained considerable interest in history teaching communities because of what it entails and its potential benefits. As HT involves processes such as examining historical sources, negotiating different perspectives, and resolving historical values with present judgements, it is essential for students’ cognitive development (Lee, 2011). From a social perspective, learning HT may equip and sensitise young people to understand the differences around them and to learn how to live with them peacefully and respectfully (Levesque, 2016). The roles of teachers’ self-efficacy and agency have been oftentimes found to be decisive factors in their decisions of teaching HT.

Although the popularity of HT within the history teaching circles, existing literature gives very little considerations to the conceptions and ideas of history teachers of teaching historical thinking and its influences on their practices. However, teachers play a vital role in this process as they are the meditators who are responsible for interpreting and enacting the curriculum (Harris & Reynolds, 2018; Monte- Sano et al., 2014). Although teachers’ role in this process is highly critical, the literature is quite limited in terms of how history teachers adopt the demands of official policies into their school curricula (Harris & Reynolds, 2018). Thus, it will be important to focus on the perspectives and behaviours of teachers associated with HT to provide further insights in this field. One of a few comprehensive studies exploring history teachers' thinking was conducted by Husbands et al. (2003). However, since then, the field of history teaching has seen many changes. Therefore, a new and updated study exploring history teachers' perspectives, specifically for teaching HT, can make an important contribution to the field.

This study, therefore, aims to investigate the perspectives and approaches of history teachers towards teaching HT by raising and evaluating the question of what influences the decisions teachers make in terms of teaching historical thinking. Teachers' decision-making processes involves the process of taking action according to the specific intentions (Seixas, 2012). Therefore, at this point, the concept of teacher agency and self-efficacy become important aspects of teacher decision-making processes (Biesta &Tedder, 2007; Robinson, 2012). In this research, teacher agency is associated with their decisions and actions in relation to improving their teaching based on the new ideas and changes – more specifically HT. Teachers’ self-efficacy also affects their decisions for the selection of curriculum, teaching strategies, and their general behaviours in the classroom (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Teachers’ sense of efficacy may shape their goals and their level of effort and desire that they invest in teaching in the classroom (Hoy, 2004). Therefore, teachers with higher self-efficacy are more likely to choose to apply classroom enquiries and student- centred teaching methods (which are very beneficial for teaching HT) to improve students’ learning.

Digital technology, as a form of infrastructure, has greatly facilitated sharing of knowledge and information. However, these technologies were not invented for education but can be appropriated for it because researchers, including Henry Jenkins (Jenkins, 2006; Squire & Jenkins, 2003), have observed that learning can be developed through engagement in such platforms. Selwyn points out that the introduction of technology in education is often approached in a deterministic way, which leads to the polarisation of debates and practices. The role of teachers in such transformation is increasingly examined. They are acknowledged as having the capacity to practice agentively in their classroom for educational change (Severance et al., 2016; Van der Heijden et al., 2015), and they are considered the most important agent affecting the implementation of digital education. Teacher agency is commonly referred to as teachers' capacity to make choices and implement actions to realise changes (e.g., Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; Eteläpelto et al., 2013). Although the number of publications on teacher agency has increased significantly in recent years, there is a lack of scholarly consensus on the relationship between digital technology and teacher agency, and mediating factors in shaping teacher agency within technology-integrated teaching. In order to address these gaps, a systematic review was conducted with the following objectives:

● Explore a comprehensive and clear understanding of the relationship between digital technology and teacher agency.

● Summarize factors that have been identified to impact teacher agency for implementing digital education.

The research questions of the review were:

1. What teacher agency has investigated in empirical research of digital education?

2. What factors influence the improvement of teacher agency for digital education?

3. How has the effectiveness of digital technology for teacher agency been measured?

-What is the impact of digital technology on teacher agency?

Within the extension of accessibility of higher education concerning its transfer from massive to almost universal phase (Trow, 1973), the number of non-traditional students attending higher education is increasing (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). One of the results of this growing demographic diversity is the substantial amount of so-called first-generation college students whose parents had not achieved more than a high-school education (Pascarella et al., 2004). In the Czech Republic, first-generation students make up more than 50 % of all university students (Hündlová & Šmídová, 2020).

However, it is known from several studies that first-generation college students have a higher drop-out rate than their second-generation peers (Ishitani, 2006). As in several other countries, Czech tertiary education is experiencing a high rate of university student academic failure (OECD, 2023). According to Tinto (1975), the effective way how to reduce the number of students leaving university before its completion is their appropriate academic and social integration. Reportedly, first-generation students have some difficulties with that integration process (Soria et al., 2013). It has started to be considered the importance of structural and sociocultural factors that may influence student retention and success and shape experiences of the underrepresented groups of students coming from a broader range of family and school backgrounds (Naylor & Mifsud, 2020).

The findings of some researchers show that these students have limited financial, social and cultural resources, receive less parental support in decision making, and more often attend less prestigious institutions (Reay et al., 2005). Futhermore, they are less in contact with the faculty members, less willing to ask for help and rely more on themselves (Yee, 2016). They also earn lower grades, spend more time on paid work, and are less involved in extra-curricular activities (Pascarella et al., 2004). Generally, first-generation college students struggle more with fitting in to a new study environment and identifying with the role of a student due to the incompatibility of their family and institutional habitus (Reay et al., 2005).

Only a few studies highlight that first-generation students may also have a supportive family background (Gofen, 2009), could be motivated good learners and excel at elite universities (Reay et al., 2009), are encouraged to achieve their educational goals by strict work ethic (Lehmann, 2009a) and career potential of university (Lehmann, 2009b) or bring to the higher education their unique cultural knowledge and wealth (Jehangir, 2010) which is the aim of this research as well.

This paper provides an exploration of the meanings, factors, resources, actors, and identities entering and influencing the process of construction and development of student identity of university students whose parents do not have a university degree. It is focused on the process of transition which is accompanied by a change in one's identity and uncertainty in one's social and cultural world (Crafter & Maunder, 2012). Theoretically anchored in a postmodern approach, identity is perceived from the perspective of social constructivist psychology (Burr, 2015; Gergen, 2009).

Higher education institutions, as societal educational institutions, are always subject to processes of change: Educational questions and research questions are oriented towards current societal values, challenges, problems and expectations (Becker 2017). Changing societal demands also require responses and constant adaptation from higher education lecturers.

These find themselves between multiple roles and expectations: In many countries, they are not only lecturers, but also researchers and/or must fulfil additional tasks in administration, student examination, supervision of student theses, etc. (Billot 2010). Furthermore, within their role of lecturers, they need to respond to diverse expectations: On the one hand, they must convey fact knowledge to students, on the other hand, they are increasingly expected to promote competences for acting in a rapidly changing world (Öhman & Östman 2019). And especially when it comes to complex societal topics which contain controversial and normative questions, they sometimes need to choose their position between freedom of research and freedom of teaching and societal responsibility (Müller-Christ et al. 2018).

Sociological role theory offers a fruitful frame for understanding the diverse expectations university lecturers assume in their daily job life. Sociological role theory refers to socially pre-formed positions and culturally pre-formed patterns of behaviour and understands social structures as a connection between positions and roles. The socially pre-formed positions are referred to as positions, the behavioural patterns associated with them as roles. Ralph Linton is considered the founder of sociological role theory, which was expanded by Robert K. Merton and Ralf Dahrendorf. Dahrendorf refers to social roles as "bundles of expectations that attach to the behaviour of the bearers of positions in a given society." (Dahrendorf, 2006 [1958]: 37) A social position is related to several other social positions. The position of the teacher is related to the positions of the student, the parents, the colleague, the headmaster, etc. Consequently, a position holder has several role partners, each of whom directs certain bundles of behavioural expectations towards him or her and demands different role actions from him or her to a certain extent (Schulz-Schaeffer 2018: 388). If different reference groups address diverging expectations to an individual, this may cause role conflicts.

It is especially interesting to observe diverse roles and role conflicts of lecturers in the field of teaching sustainability topics. Such topics, as for example climate change, loss of biodiversity and increasing global disparities, often contain multiple actors and can therefore not be treated by just showing one perspective. The so-called “wicked problems” consist of complex entanglements and there are often no simple solutions. The solutions which are chosen strongly depend on the perspective and values of an individual and therefore are controverse in themselves (Miller et al. 2011).

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a concept which aims at enabling present and future generations for tackling such “wicked problems” and acting responsibly in an intertwined world. The concept not only aims at conveying knowledge and skills, but also values and attitudes linked to sustainability topics (UNESCO 2020). According to policy makers on all political scales, ESD should be implemented at all levels of educational systems (e.g. UNESCO 2020). Higher education institutions are important leverage points for societal change, as the future decision makers and experts are trained there.

How do university lecturers understand their roles in teaching sustainability topics? Which challenges and other fields of tension do they face? These questions shall be discussed in the paper presentation. In a first step, the questions will be examined by a theoretical approach through sociological role theory. In a second step, the theoretical reflexions will be translated to a practical level with examples from a qualitative reconstructive study.

The study examines the academics’ perception and experiences of performative ethos in research universities in Finland and South Korea. It is in the process of analysing the interview data questioning academics’ practical matters (tasks and roles), governing mechanism (assessment and incentives), and value of academics and universities in the performative regime. Based on a doctoral dissertation planned to be written in a monograph, this paper will present a brief of the whole research and preliminary ideas of findings and discussion parts.

The study investigates how academics in Finnish and Korean research universities have experienced and perceived performance-based management (PBM) in the name of effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness. It embraces academic life and challenges in performative ethos; academic autonomy, assessment, and incentives which are core techniques of PBM on academics; academics’ roles, views on students, and university roles in both countries. A total of 28 academics (researchers, lecturers, and professors in hard and soft sciences) in research universities of two countries participated in the semi-structured interviews.

The main research question is how the globally promoted ideas of PBM in universities get interpreted and translated into socio-culturally different (local) contexts. It is inquired through perceptions and experiences of academics in research-based universities in Finland and South Korea. Along with it, there are four sub-questions: 1) practice: similarities and differences of academics' tasks, working environment and challenges in performative ethos in two countries 2) governance: similarities and differences of impact and effect of PBM (assessment and incentives) on academics in two countries. 3) engagement: similarities and differences of responding to performative ethos in two countries 4) core value: similarities and differences of academics' views on themselves, students, and universities.

The fundamental purpose of the study is to propose the direction and implications for the further comparative education research of Finland and South Korea concerning the academics’ subjectification through their academic lives and work in the performative regime. In addition, to comprehend this global phenomenon, actively respond to the changes and rethink policy borrowing or education export issues, this comparative education study considering socio-cultural aspects can play a pivotal role.

According to Deem (2001), the ‘local dimension can make a difference to how universities respond to global forces because local conditions or a lack of overall national policies can affect the extent to which academic capitalism or entrepreneurialism develop’ (18). Thus, it can shed light on how neoliberal education tendency (policy) in HE, such as research funding scheme and salary system, can have similar effects on academics in contrasting cases despite the different degrees.

Performance-based management is the disciplinary technique (power) which is optimised for neoliberalism based on freedom and flexibility (Son, 2016, p. 9). PBM is in the same line as university marketisation: enhancing efficiency, effectiveness (productivity and responsiveness) and quality by shouldering more accountability and receiving rewards (economic or social incentive) (Brown, 2013). Performativity is pursuing the effective usage of resources by measuring and determining true value (Tolofari, 2005, p. 86), which sophistically permeates the mindset and behaviour of actors. Value, judgement, display, incentives and self-controlling for the performance secured the justification to actors through the discourse of efficiency found on competition and accountability (Ball, 2003; Gunter, 2012, p. 76). These are ‘disciplinary techniques for taking charge of the behaviour of individual day by day and in its fine detail is exactly contemporaneous with the age of freedom’ (Foucault, 2008, p. 67).

Across the European Union, countries are reporting alarming levels of “education poverty”, and many education systems have become less successful in ensuring that all students acquire all the skills that they need to thrive in the 21^st century economies (Herrera-Sosa et al., 2018). At the individual level, relational educational poverty manifests as a lack of formal qualifications, which severely restricts participation in a number of areas of social life (Glaesser, 2022). When discussing young people’s skills development and learning outcomes in the context of formal education, school engagement is a centrally important concept.

Generally speaking, school engagement refers to the quality of students’ connection or involvement with schooling (Skinner et al., 2009). In scholarly literature, school engagement is treated as a multi-dimensional concept consisting of cognitive (e.g., investment in learning), emotional (e.g. sense of belonging and positive feelings), and behavioural (e.g., participation in class) aspects (e.g., Blondal & Adalbjarnardottir, 2012) each influencing the others (Virtanen, 2016). School engagement is essential to learning: it correlates with higher achievement and reduces the likelihood of dropping out of school (Fredricks et al., 2004). Higher level of school engagement is associated with better academic competence and performance, staying in school longer and participating in further education, fewer problem behaviours, psychological and social difficulties. Thus, it is highly important for learning outcomes and educational pathways, but also for more general wellbeing (e.g. Virtanen 2016). Moreover, student engagement is associated with a lack of adjustment problems, such as low levels of delinquency involvement, depression, and substance abuse (e.g., Li & Lerner, 2011).

One persistent research finding regarding school engagement – as well as achievement – is the gender difference with girls on average displaying higher levels of school engagement and scoring better than boys (Van Houtte, 2020). However, much less is known about whether the mechanisms of school engagement work the same way for both genders; for instance, whether family’s socioeconomic background (the effects of which on engagement have also been established in several studies; e.g., Linnakylä & Malinen, 2008) is associated in the same way with boys and girls’ engagement, or whether the level of engagement contributes in the same way to their achievement levels.

In this paper, the focus is on the school engagement of Finnish lower secondary school students, particularly on whether there are differences in the associations of school engagement with family socioeconomic status and parental education as well as academic achievement and educational aspirations based on students’ gender. In other words, the study aimed to answer the following three research questions:

1) Is the association of family background with school engagement mediated through parents’ investment in child’s schooling and their aspirations for child’s future education among lower secondary school students?

2) Does school engagement predict students’ academic achievement and educational aspirations?

3) Are there gender differences in the ways in which family background is associated with students’ school engagement or in the ways school engagement predicts students’ academic achievement and educational aspirations?

As school engagement is argued to be more malleable than educational achievement (Virtanen, 2016), it has the potential to narrow the gap between low- and high-achieving students (Woolley & Bowen, 2007) and even to lessen socio-economic disparities in education (Abbott-Chapman et al., 2014; Gorard & See, 2011). Thus, the better we understand the factors contributing to and stemming from school engagement among different groups of students in different educational contexts, the better are our chances to reach these goals of narrowing achievement gaps and socio-economic disparities in Europe and beyond by promoting students’ engagement in schooling – which highlights also the significance of this study.

Peer and gender violence in educational spaces is a worrying reality (1). Specifically, high schools are unsafe spaces for many students and members of the community, especially for vulnerable people, such as women or LGBTI+ youth, who suffer violence in very different forms. For instance, 25% of young women experienced digital violence in the past five years (2); and most LGBT cannot express themselves freely because they suffer more harassment (3). Ending this violence is a European and international priority, as the Fundamental Rights Agency and the Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 4 state.

For decades, a line of research on the eradication of gender-based violence has analysed three ideal models of masculinity. The first two belong to a traditional model: first, there are boys and men of Traditional Dominant Masculinities (DTM) attitudes and behaviours of disdain, taunt, dominance, superiority; among these DTM there are all those who perpetrate violence; second, and in a complementary way, there are those non-violent boys who nonetheless lack self-confidence and strength to step up to violence, following a model of Oppressed Traditional Masculinity (OTM). Research has found that there is a social dominant coercive discourse (4) that passes on the idea that dominant boys and men who follow a DTM model are exciting and fun, while, in parallel, pressures people so that egalitarian men are seen as boring. However, research also recognises the existence of a third model, New Alternative Masculinities (NAM): these are egalitarian, courageous, strong, confident and attractive boys and men, who have a transformative role in the prevention and eradication of gender-based violence because they are brave to stand up against injustice and besides desire and therefore create free, safe, and exciting relationships wherever they go (5).

These NAM boys and egalitarian boys and people in general are promoted in dialogic educational spaces (6), where the type of person who is valued are those who help others and show solidarity. Dialogic gatherings is a Successful Educational Action identified by the INCLUD-ED project of the 6th European Framework program which consists in the previous reading of a text by each participant with the aim of sharing at least one paragraph with the group explaining why they have chosen it, after which an open dialogue is collectively created. Some impacts of dialogic gatherings include improvement in relationships or in academic results (7, 8). Among the different types of dialogic gatherings, the feminist or scientific dialogic gatherings differ in that the text provided needs to show scientific rigour (9, 10).

Within this framework, the present research arose from the question: what impact can dialogic gatherings on New Alternative Masculinities and overcoming violence have on a group of boys and their environment? We found a gap in the literature about this educational action, which has never been investigated worldwide.

To this end, a high school teacher, along with a researcher, decided to start a voluntary dialogic gathering in a high school of Valencia, Spain, in which boys from Secondary Education (from 12 to 17 years old) participate. The moderator of the discussion group is this teacher, who is close to them and with scientific knowledge about dialogic gatherings, NAM, and preventive socialisation of gender violence. This group has met over two periods for the last year every 2-3 weeks to debate different texts related to NAM and the prevention of gender-based violence extracted from The Feminist Diary (El Diario Feminista) (11), whose articles always have a rigorous and scientific evaluation.

The research we present assumes that we are living at a global level an agonistic moment (Mouffle, 2013) for the dispute to establish the meanings that will be considered hegemonic (Gramsci, 1995), where gender and feminist discourses are being central.

While the feminist project (Walby, 2011) and its desire to change everything (Gago, 2019), during the last decade, have been central in the restructuring of social relations that advocate for a democratic transformation in a way that produces effects on state public policies, the reactionary ghosts of the past have once again taken on materiality through increasingly sophisticated devices that produce and reproduce neopatriarchal and neocapitalist subjectivities and discourses (Brown, 2019).

According to Mark Fisher (2014) the overlapping of past eras is now so pervasive that we do not even notice it. The politics of nostalgia (Tanner, 2021) seek to renew the old through the disguise of the ecstasy of novelty. In this context, the slow cancellation of the future (Fisher, 2014) solidifies the distribution of social inequalities.

Education and educational organisations interest us as contexts of transmission of the social world we live in (Arendt, 1996), allowing us to understand how the macro level intervenes in the micro, and vice versa. Among the different educational organisations, the context of Vocational Training and, specifically, the professional family of Vehicle Transport and Maintenance in Valencia (Spain) is chosen in order to understand the ways in which society distributes, classifies and orders that knowledge, physical and symbolic, which it considers valuable, in a way that generates different social groups (Bernstein, 1990).

The vocational family of Vehicle Transport and Maintenance, historically and culturally associated with working-class masculinities, has been used to analyse the characteristics of gender and social class relations The main research question is: what and how are the ideals and representations of gender held by young people studying Vocational Training in Transport and Vehicle Maintenance in Valencia (Spain)?

Out theory is based on gender as a regulatory apparatus of society that operates within social practices by defining the parameters by which some subjects are considered intelligible and others unintelligible in a given context (Butler, 1990). Masculinities are one of the possibilities of performativising gender, being linked to the history of institutions and economic structures. Following Raewyn Connell (1993), they are a social position, a place in gender relations, which has effects on social practices, culture, bodies and subjectivities.

We understand that those who access Vocational Training in Vehicle Transport and Maintenance are learning to be - or to performativise - a certain social position that involves not only learning manual and technological skills, but also a pedagogical form of cultural assimilation and a form of self-representation (Rajan-Rankin, 2017) that materialises in the social life and bodies of young people at the liminal moment of transition to the world of work in the automotive industry in a historical context of deindustrialisation (Nayak, 2003) and crisis in the sector.

Under the neoformulations of patriarchal capitalism and in the face of the loss of control over the production of existence, many young people are left with only the neoliberal fantasy of a future projection where they have access to material and symbolic goods, while at the same time they are wary of being lucky enough to find a paid job. In the words of Michael Kimmel (2019, p. 111):

"(...) in a way, their bloated expectations may be a response to the very different economic climate in which they're coming of age (...) they know that corporations are no longer loyal to their employees (...) So why should they be loyal to the company?"

Children increasingly have access to digital technologies at home from a young age. Despite differing views on the affordances of technology use by young children, research has found that children aged two to six years of age are spending on average 25.9 hours a week using screen-based media, and just over a third of preschool aged children ‘own’ a smartphone or tablet device (Rhodes, 2017). Further research indicates that parents believe technology can be a useful tool for learning, although they generally equated learning with traditional subject areas relating to numeracy and literacy (Huber, Highfield, & Kaufman, 2018). While in education settings, technology is yet to reach a point of integrated ubiquity, the boundaries of digital and analogue are often blurred when it comes to technologies in the lives of children (Edwards, 2016).

This study is situated in the notion that children live in post digital times, where digital technology and media and the worlds they create are not separate, to but are rather part of, our everyday lives (Jandrić et al., 2018). The aim of this research is to investigate family perspectives on learning with digital technologies at home. The research question ‘What are parent/caregiver’s and children’s perspectives on learning with digital technologies at home?’ seeks to address the nuanced ways both parents/caregivers and children understand learning with digital technologies, and explore how perspectives within the same family may converge and diverge.

For this study's purposes, we will not define the terms learning or technologies for families. Instead, we will be led by parents/caregivers and children. As researchers, we recognise that our own understandings of learning and digital technologies may be different to the study's participants. We aim to explore families' understandings of these concepts, noting that this will likely look different between and among family members and families.

This research is founded in sociomaterial perspectives (e.g., Burnett & Merchant, 2020; Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). What kinds of perspectives on learning and how they are stabilised or disrupted in the home are of interest. The relationship between the ‘things’ within the home space and how these shape understandings of learning and digital technology is brought into focus, which as Fenwick and Edwards (2011) contend, can invite, exclude and/or regulate participation. ‘Things’ in the home can include people, technologies, space but also extends to things such as technology guidelines or recommendations.

This paper focuses on the research design and methodology. Early findings from selected cases will be presented to highlight initial thinking and how this contributes to the international perspectives of learning at home with digital technologies.

Introduction

The current educational system in Kazakhstan has seen a significant shift in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a tool to facilitate learning. The need has called for this shift to move away from traditional teaching methods to more effective and efficient teaching methods (OECD, 2017). Additionally, ICT-based instruction is seen as a way to improve the quality of instruction and provide students with the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century. As such, using ICT-based instruction has become increasingly common in Kazakhstan (Oralbekova et al. 2016).

Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) is one of the leading educational institutions in Kazakhstan, and it has been at the forefront of the shift towards ICT-based instruction. NIS has implemented a range of ICT-based instructional practices, including the use of online learning platforms and the incorporation of ICTs into the classroom (e.g., Bilimland, Twig, Mektep and iTest). Additionally, NIS has implemented a range of initiatives to promote using ICT-based instruction in teaching chemistry, such as using virtual reality simulations and interactive whiteboard technologies, as well as the provision of specialized training for teachers in using ICT-based instruction (Lewis, 2004). Moreover, according to research conducted by Nechypurenko et al. (2022), "ICT-based instruction can help to create an environment where collaboration and dialogue among teachers and students can be improved, and this can ultimately lead to a more meaningful learning experience." Similarly, ICT-based instruction can also provide teachers with an opportunity to differentiate instruction, allowing them to customize the learning experience for each student (Jung & Lim, 2021). The success of NIS ICT-based instruction is a testament to the potential of technology to improve teaching and learning in the classroom (Krause et al., 2017). As the use of ICT continues to grow and evolve, it is important to continue exploring the potential benefits of ICT-based instruction to maximize its potential to improve student learning outcomes.

The primary objective of this research is to assess the influence of ICT-based instruction on the academic performance and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) literacy of chemistry students at NIS. This study seeks to determine the effectiveness of ICT-based instruction in helping students understand and apply chemistry concepts, as well as its impact on their academic performance and STEM literacy. Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions:

1. How does ICT-based instruction impact the academic performance of Chemistry students at NIS?
2. What is the effect of ICT-based instruction on the STEM literacy of chemistry students at NIS?
3. Does ICT-based instruction improve student engagement and motivation in Chemistry classes at NIS?
4. What are the perceived benefits and drawbacks of ICT-based instruction for chemistry students at NIS?

Within Higher Education (HE) Early Years (EY) undergraduate students are trained using a range of knowledge and experiences to support their learning. This in turn influences how the students support children’s learning. This paper focusses on the experiences of both tutor and student as the collision between the pedagogies of digital technology and outdoor learning and play are explored, in order to support a holistic curriculum.

The focus of this study is a BA (Hons) Early Years Education and Practice undergraduate degree, in a large UK University. Over the three years of the course students engage in a breadth of modules, including “Children Learning through Landscapes” which is a specific module teaching students about the importance of the outdoor environment and how to provide children with regular opportunity to engage with it, connect with nature and learn through the use of all their senses. This experiential, active learning is critical in children’s brain development as well as their holistic development (Palmer, 2006), helping them to make sense of the world around them. This pedagogy is an integral element of EY practice and follows the pioneering work of Montessori, Steiner and Froebel, who first advocated the importance of an outdoor space to play and learn, as well as a rich environment for healthy growth and development (Pickering, 2017). Welsh Government (WG), (2020) expect all children to have regular access to the outdoor environment as part of their curriculum.

Thus, in order for EY students to understand and to be “able” in this teaching pedagogy, they also need regular access to the outdoors. This affords them opportunities to embrace the natural environment in order to promote their own knowledge and understanding, enabling them to become role models for future generations.

However, the introduction of the Digital Competency Framework (DCF), has become a compulsory part of the Welsh Curriculum. This means that EY students also need to be digitally competent to develop their own academic skills as well as to support and develop children’s digital skills; this has become an area of priority within the curriculum. Therefore, as an education professional in HE and as part of “innovative learning and teaching”, the need to present and role model digital practices blended with traditional outdoor pedagogy is now greater, and significantly challenging for ‘digital immigrants’(Sakr, 2020; Edwards, 2016; Prensky, 2001) ,encouraging students to confidently apply the relevant skills in their own practice.

Nonetheless, within the context of the Welsh curriculum the two approaches appear to conflict with one another as it seems that they are competing for the “attentions” of practitioners as well as the children they teach. They each look to develop skills for life as part of a new progressive Welsh curriculum (WG, 2020).

Therefore, blended pedagogies need to be modelled by the HE tutor so that students can confidently demonstrate and apply these skills in their own practices, making them self reflective learners and professionally ready for the demands of the work environment, allowing skills to be transferred and employability to be enhanced.

Thus, the questions that inform this case study are:

(1) Can digital technology be blended with traditional outdoor pedagogies to support a

holistic curriculum?

(2) What are the effects of blended pedagogies on student learning experiences?

(3) What lessons are learnt from the perspective of the HE tutor in attempting to model

the blended pedagogies?

One of the main challenges of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is the development of the teaching digital competence (TDC) of their academic staff. TDC development has been on the European agenda for at least a decade and several frameworks and initiatives have arisen to address it. One example that stands out is the DigCompEdu framework developed by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission to generate a common understanding of what TDC is (Redecker, 2017). The HEIs, for their part, have started to develop multiple digitisation strategies and plans to promote it (Castañeda et al., 2023). However, despite these efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic evidenced that there is still a gap, particularly in the pedagogical aspects of this competence. This is not surprising, given the lack of implementation of evidence-based initiatives that effectively address it (Castañeda, et al., 2023). The development of this competency is a complex process that requires approaches that go beyond the individual perspective, which focuses exclusively on teacher training (Coles, et al.,2020). For this competence to be deployed, it is necessary to generate the institutional conditions that enable it (Esteve et al., 2022).

This paper is part of a research project with the aim of designing a proposal on what a HEI could do to develop the TDC of its teaching staff. This project is carried out at a Spanish public University with about 1700 academic staff. We have designed and iterated the prototypes with different stakeholders during 2021 – 2022 and this prototype has been validated in the local Spanish context in a satisfactory way (Viñoles-Cosentino et al., 2021; Viñoles-Cosentino et al., 2022).

The prototype is structured in 3 main axes: Policy level, Training level and Communication level (Esteve et al., 2022).

Among the aspects that stand out in the policy level: It has been a participatory process, involving groups of teachers, technical experts in teacher training and university managers at all stages: from the diagnosis to the evaluation of the prototypes. Thus, different levels (macro/micro) and perspectives of the main actors involved have been considered (Hostins & Rochadel, 2019). A framework (DigCompEdu) has been integrated to serve as a guide (Redecker, 2017). In addition, the strategic documents have been reviewed and aligned with the digitisation plan and the DigCompEdu framework (Viñoles-Cosentino et al., 2021).

At training level: Broaden the offer to provide open, accessible, flexible courses with different levels of progression (basic, intermediate, advanced). Training topics aligned with teaching needs, taking as a reference the areas of the DigCompEdu framework. Creation of an introductory course on TDC to guide and serve as an umbrella for the training pathways (Viñoles-Cosentino et al., 2022).

At communication level: Working with aspects of building language around TDC and the institutional approach to it, to ensure that the strategy is understood and disseminated to all the actors (Century & Cassata, 2016). Design and deliver of an awareness-raising course on TDC focused on working on attitudinal aspects, beliefs, and knowledge on the subject. A platform to centralise communication and as a space for the exchange of teaching experiences (Spillane et al., 2002).

In this last phase, the objective is to evaluate the prototype proposal and preliminary design principles in the international context.

On January 1, 2020, INSEE counted 73.6 million young people aged 18 to 29 in Europe. This usual categorization of youth within the 15-29 age group does not meet with consensus in the literature. Indeed, defining what is meant by the term "youth" is not easy (Dubet, 1996). Since 2008, the economic crisis has had a real impact on young people, worsening their conditions of access to employment and particularly for the least qualified among them (Batard et al., 2012; Galland, 2012; Di Paola et al., 2018). Thus, despite a slight decrease, youth unemployment remains a concern. Yet, taking an interest in youth unemployment, and more broadly in their standard of living appears to be a real societal issue (Blaya, 2012; Schoeneberger, 2012). Indeed, not being employed would have both psychological and social consequences on the individual (Demers, 1983). Also, their situation would be correlated to the risks of delinquency (Fougère et al., 2005). As a result, many public policies have targeted youth. Thus, the interest in educational, professional and social integration is part of the development of the Missions locales with the Bertrand Schwartz report in 1981. Since then, we have observed a juxtaposition of measures in favor of this category of the population (Labadie, 2020). Our paper proposes to focus on the Garantie jeunes(GJ). The GJ corresponds to the declination of the European strategy deployed in the face of youth unemployment and was largely inspired by the Nordic countries (Wargon & Gurgand 2013). Indeed, youth guarantees were first created in the 1980s and 1990s in Scandinavian countries: first in Sweden (1984), then in Norway (1993), Denmark (1993) and Finland (1996) (Can, 2015). Introduced in 2012 in France as part of the National Conference against Poverty and for Inclusion, the main objective of this scheme is to support beneficiaries towards autonomy for one year (Wargon & Gurgand, 2013). The proposed follow-up is initially collective, then based on professional immersions in a "work first" logic (Farvaque et al., 2016). The Garantie jeunes targets vulnerable NEET youth, i.e., young people who are neither in school, nor in employment, nor in training, and who do not receive any support from their parents. However, the NEET category includes a variety of youth profiles. On this subject, Eurofound (2012) identifies five sub-categories: "young people registered as job seekers", "young people unavailable on the labour market", "the disengaged", "opportunity seekers" and "voluntary NEET". Our research problem is set in this context. More specifically, three major studies have been conducted on the Garantie jeunes and have considered the changes induced within the Missions locales, the target reached, and the effect generated on its beneficiaries (Farvaque et al., 2016; Loison-Leruste et al., 2016; Gaini et al., 2018). We propose to differentiate ourselves by considering the professional and social insertion of youth as well as their social skills. Thus, we first ask what is the profile of the young people who enter the GJ scheme? What are their past educational and professional experiences? What are their motivations? The answers to these questions will show that the profile of these young people is based on a diversity of situations. Based on this observation, we will look at their pathways after their support in the program. We will then see that three profiles can be identified.

Current topic focuses on at-risk youth and the role of vocational education institutions –the social ecology of risk factors for vocational students. Combating social exclusion and supporting risk groups (early school leavers, low-skilled workers, immigrants, unemployed) has been a high priority in European Union (EU) policy for the last decade. There are not many studies focusing on the Estonian context about the role of vocational education and workplace training (VET) on the social inclusion of at-risk youth. (OECD 2016) The students in VET institutions tend to be increasingly diverse in terms of educational and professional background, motivations and competence levels. Vocational education tends to be a second-choice solution for graduates of the general education institutions with lower educational outcomes and often tends to be an attractive choice for young people from less economically secure families. (Loogma et al, 2019). Therefore, vocational teachers ́ professional roles have diversified and teachers perceive the social work as forming an increasingly big part of their workload (Ümarik & Rekkor, 2013; Sirk et al., 2019). According to an interview study conducted among vocational teachers (Sirk et al., 2019) Even among the graduates of vocational schools the low level of generic skill, including social skills has been outlined as a problem by employers. (Nestor & Nurmela, 2013) and also as a most important risk factor for becoming NEET youth.Different projects targeted to risk youth, NEETs or young people with potential risk of dropping out from school have been carried out with the support of European Social Fund or government funding, but these initiatives have often been related to youth work providers, open youth centers or general education schools. But the problem is that VET institutions are rarely involved in these projects. Therefore, too many young people leave education or vocational education too soon (Cedefop, 2017). Youth at risk who dropout from school and early leavers are at greater risk of long-term unemployment, poverty and crime, and cost the European economy. (Reiska, 2018) Social ecology is treated not as the established and consistent theory, but rather as a methodological approach to analyze complex phenomena (e.g Weaver-Hightower, 2008, Evans et al, 2011, Evans, 2020). In the case of social ecological analysis, two main analytical directions can be distinguished. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory (1979). Another option of applications of the socio-ecological approach is more related to macro-level analysis, the analysis of organizations and different social groups (Evans et al, 2011, p. 356) Both approaches share the idea of dynamic and multi-level interdependencies that enable ecology to function and sustain itself.

The aim of the research is to find out the social and individual factors that increase and/or decrease the risk factors of at-risk youth in initial vocational education and their interactions in the context of an individual learning path.Based on this, the risk factors of young people at risk of dropping out of vocational education are discussed from a socio-ecological approach, paying attention to the limitations and opportunities experienced in their individual learning paths and the role of vocational education in preventing risk factors.

RQ1. How do young people at risk of dropping out themselves describe their individual learning path and understand how different social and institutional environments and communities have supported or hindered them? RQ2. What are the experiences and perceptions of institutional and personal risk factors in vocational education and possible support measures and their effectiveness in vocational education? RQ3. What practices and methods are implemented in vocational education institutions and the community that increase the social inclusion of young people at risk of dropping out and reduce the risk of dropping out of vocational education?

Despite increased enrollment, dropout rates remain a problem in the education system in Nepal. 36 out of 100 students who enrolled in grade one had dropped out by the time they reached grade ten (Ministry of Finance, 2021). According to another study published by the Government of Nepal, UNESCO, and the United Nations Children's Fund in 2016, dropout rates sharply increase after grade five and are highest in grade eight, with only 74.6% of students progressing from grade 5 to grade 8.

CEHRD (2021) reports that there are 3,780 children between the ages of 5 and 12 in Rautahat district of Nepal who do not attend school. In Rautahat, it is common for students to not attend school or drop out easily, partly because they can easily find work in India, which borders the district (Islamic Relief Worldwide, 2020).

Rautahat has the lowest literacy rate among all 75 districts in Nepal, and it is estimated that about one third of children in the district do not go to school. Despite the accessibility of schools nearby, many children in the district do not attend school (Thakur, 2013). Rautahat district has the lowest school performance rating in Nepal and this is often attributed to the high poverty rate in the district (Bhattarai, 2019).

During the 2018/19 academic year, over 100 children from Chetnagar Village in Chandrapur, Rautahat enrolled at the local Sindhure Ghari Secondary School. However, after only six months, none of these children are attending school. Instead, they can be seen playing in the village on school days (Puri, 2019).

There are several efforts made by the government, such as; free education for all up to the age of 16, free distribution of books and stationeries, scholarship provisions, mid-day meals, offer different training sessions to teachers and headteachers, and also sometimes support building of classrooms in required places. Moreover, the government has also worked with different stakeholders to improve the WASH facilities of the schools, make schools more accessible, and create a conducive learning environment for students. Furthermore, the government also initiates different campaigns to encourage students to go to school. It conducts enrollment campaigns every year at the beginning of the session (Ministry of Education, Nepal, 2020).

Despite all these efforts, the existing data on the numbers of out of school children and dropout suggests that, there is still room of more efforts and improvements to be made. Hence, this study aims to uncover some reasons as to why are students dropping out of schools and not attending schools despite schools being proximal in Rautahat district of Nepal.

The ecological systems theory will be used as a theoretical foundation for the research, which aims to understand the multiple factors influencing school attendance in children and their interrelationships between those factors. It identifies five environmental systems that an individual interacts with: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. The microsystem refers to the immediate institutions and groups that impact an individual's development, including their family, school, and community. The mesosystem consists of connections between microsystems, such as the relationship between the family and the school. The exosystem involves links between social settings that do not directly involve the child, such as a parent's work environment or earning. The macrosystem refers to the overarching culture that influences the child, and the chronosystem includes elements that can change over time, such as historical events and transitions (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The research tries to comprehend the many aspects that affect children's school attendance by taking into account all of these systems.

To speak about Global Citizenship is to speak about Diversity. This means that to speak about Global Citizenship Education is to speak about pedagogical approaches that aim to sensitize citizens to the value of diversity as a shared common; to prepare citizens to live with the linguistically and culturally distinct Other (through otherness and alterity); to educate critical citizens active in the defense, assurance, and protection of Universal Linguistic and Cultural Rights, in particular, of systematically marginalized and exploited individuals and communities (UNESCO, 1996, 2002, 2005; Council of Europe, 2000). Therefore, we could argue for intercultural education (Vavitsas & Nikolaou, 2021), an educational approach that aims for citizens mindful of diversity, and one of many educational approaches closely linked to global citizenship education, also as an adequate way to educate global citizens (Lourenço, 2018; Faas et al.,2014).

In this paper, we present the findings from a critical literature review whose objective was to identify ontological and axiological connections between global citizenship and diversity through the analysis of pedagogical practices of intercultural education in the formal context reported in the literature.

As Tarozzi and Torres (2018) affirm, diversity can be understood as “the most important conundrum of the new global scenarios” (p.18) that “help to design a new cultural horizon, set in new terms regarding otherness and diversity” (p.18). This new cultural horizon sways education in new (global) directions. Namely, in formal education, as it brings diversity forward to the front stage of teaching and learning, requiring (particularly) teachers to support students’ development of plural and multiple identities. Global citizenship can represent one of those plural and multiple identities, and so, consequently, global citizenship education can represent a way for its development.

Although its multiple and plural interpretations (Goren, H. & Yemini, M., 2017; Oxley, L. & Morris, P., 2013; Pashby et al., 2020) global citizenship education represents an educational approach that emphasizes the development of critical citizens engaged in addressing global issues. It aims to empower citizens to become responsible, informed, and active global citizens who can actively participate in creating a more just and sustainable world. As so, global citizenship education recognizes the interconnectedness of people and issues across the world calling for action toward more equitable solutions, especially, to social and economic inequality. Furthermore, global citizenship education promotes a critical understanding of diversity, particularly for the interest of this study, as it encourages citizens to examine their values, beliefs, and cultural biases, engage in intercultural dialogue, and critically analyze systematic inequalities and challenge systems of oppression (Tarozzi & Torres, 2018). Despite all this, in formal education, teachers and educators find it difficult to understand what global citizenship means.

In the field of intercultural education two concepts that show potential as pedagogical approaches to tackle global citizenship education-related issues in formal education are intercomprehension (Silva, 2018) and linguistic landscapes (Lourenço et al., 2022; Gorter & Cenoz, 2015).

To put it briefly, we understand Intercomprehension as an educational goal to be achieved, at the relational and communicative level which, in a social context marked by complexity and fragmentation, becomes a political and social concept (Pinho & Andrade, 2008). As to linguistic landscapes, what is relevant to say is that as a principle they represent possibilities for global citizens to have quotidian interaction with linguistic and cultural diversity. Regarding the promotion of intercultural education, linguistic landscapes promote greater awareness and openness to linguistic and cultural diversity, encouraging the development of skills and attitudes required from global citizens to participate in multilingual and intercultural contexts.

Over the previous three decades, social justice in education has become increasingly relevant to debates on globalisation, capitalism, and inequalities around the world (Rawls, 1971; Young, 1990; Fraser, 1997; Greene, 1998; Zajda, 2006; Rizvi, 2009; Taylor et al, 1997). In the Latin America context, neoliberalism has become hegemonic in the last 30 years with Peru adopting this model in 1990. However, neoliberalism has affected communities in distinct ways, creating further disparities between a minority who have benefitted from this model and more than one third of the population still living in poverty and exclusion in countries like Peru. Moreover, the neoliberal model has served to marginalise the voices of rural teachers and their practices of social justice in Peru.

Although previous educational research in the country has made important contributions in terms of quality education and educational inequalities, the voices of rural teachers from a social justice perspective have not been sufficiently incorporated into these studies. A social justice framework encompasses a set of ideal theories with which to analyse social contexts like the Peruvian case where disparities persist. The praxis of social justice in education is expressed through critical pedagogies.

Thus, the research will explore how do a group of secondary school teachers in rural Peru conceptualise and practice their commitment to social justice through critical pedagogies in a neoliberal context. In particular, the research will delve into the implementation of these critical pedagogies from the voices of seven rural teachers. The theoretical framework discusses distinct social justice traditions (liberal individualist, market-individualist and social-democratic) and the main concepts from critical pedagogy as a praxis of social justice in education. Through the review of authors like Rawls, Fraser, I.M. Young, Freire, Giroux, McLaren, Darder, among other scholars, the theoretical framework presents the implications of social justice and critical pedagogies through the concepts of dialogue, problem-posing and critical consciousness.

Racism is a global phenomenon affecting many of the world’s peoples across all continents including Europe and Australia, with experiences such as prejudice and discrimination well-documented (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), 2018). With the 2020 renewal of, and global interest in, USA’s Black Lives Matter movement, white Australian and European peoples have begun to become more cognizant of our dichotomous positioning as both ‘multicultural’ and highly racialised societies. Immigrants to Australia and Europe experience racisms through the systems of the dominant, neo-liberal, white, patriarchal, capitalist culture. These systems of Whiteness are invisible and ubiquitous, normative, and performative (Ball et al., 2022; Moreton-Robinson, 2015) and result in similar experiences of racisms for many individuals identified as not belonging to the white social. Although the targeted groups may differ, “race…as a technology of power” (Lentin, 2020, p. 82) and the “hierarchy of different races with White people (men) at the top” (Ball et al., 2022, p. 3) drives racisms across multiple facets of society in both the European Union and in the country now known as Australia.

The 2021 report from the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) provides an example of the similarity between experiences of racisms on the European and Australian continents. The experiences of racism in interactions with policing in Europe harms many non-white people, including Roma and people of African descent (Ball et al., 2022), with “discriminatory profiling by the police…a common reality” (FRA, 2018, p. 1). Racial profiling and targeted incarceration (in both adult and juvenile systems) are common experiences for Aboriginal Australian Peoples also. Changes to policy and systems at government levels have failed to demolish institutional/systemic racisms, address white privilege, or deliver substantive improvement to disparities in the wellbeing, life expectancy, and social opportunities afforded non-white peoples globally.

Experiences of racisms in pedagogies, curricula and policy continue to impact educational outcomes for many students of colour around the world, including Roma and Aboriginal Australian students (Ball, 2022; Moodie et al., 2019). The consequent “critical education gap” between Aboriginal peoples and other Australians is mirrored globally. The impact of a lack of cultural safety (Bin-Sallik, 2003) within classrooms on this “education gap” has garnered little attention in mainstream Australia, with student outcomes in education such as attendance, literacy and numeracy and year 12 completion remaining the most common measure of the impact of education on students (Burgess et al., 2019). These outcomes remain consistently unequal when compared to non-Aboriginal students, regardless of unceasing guidance from Aboriginal Peoples (Morrison et al., 2019) and decades of change to Australian federal and state policy and educational practice.

My PhD research is grounded in the need for non-Aboriginal Australian teachers to develop an understanding of the ongoing colonisation of the place now known as Australia, and the detrimental impact this continues to have on Aboriginal students, families, and communities. It seeks to explore how the concept of “racial literacy”, first posited in 2004 by British scholar France Winddance Twine and American scholar Lani Guinier, could provide a bridge for teachers to understand and address the euphemistically described “race relations” (Lentin, 2020) within Australian education. It draws on Decoloniality and Critical Whiteness Theory as frameworks to guide a critical qualitative research study in three phases.

This research paper explores how academics construct and teach intuitive reasoning to undergraduate and post graduate students studying to enter Social Work.

As a qualified and experienced Child Protection Social Worker, now working as an academic, I have developed a keen interest in how the habitus and fundamentals of knowledge of Social Work are taught to aspiring students. This paper specifically examines how academics construct and teach intuitive reasoning to their students. According to numerous scholars, intuition is regarded as a “below awareness” method of reasoning information which is then brought to the consciousness, allowing for rapid judgements (Cook, 2014 and Fook, 2012). It is viewed as a pillar of human thought and action, and is a profound aspect of decision making across a range of professional boundaries. Social Workers are uniquely situated at the forefront of working with children, young people and families where there can often be high levels of stress, high risk and profound vulnerabilities. As such, accessing and being taught a broad range of knowledge is critical. Whilst the literature presents convincing theories on methods, approaches, and evidence-based theories for working with individuals, little has been written on how aspiring students are taught to employ System 1 thinking (Kahneman, 2012), ergo intuitive reasoning.

According to literature the work of Social Workers has attracted a significant amount of attention, emphasised by tragic high-profile child death cases, observed across counties and countries. Indeed structural, sociological, and economical changes have resulted in many aspects of Social Work being based on objective, observable facts as “evidence” (Samson, 2015). Furthermore, Social Workers present with a greater level of confidence when they have concrete objective evidence, with many dismissing intuitive cues as improper to “evidence based Social Work” (Sicora, 2010., Sicora et al, 2021 and Ferguson, 2021). This notion has permeated into the teaching on Social Work programmes. This often brings into question how and what students are taught on their courses and how well they are taught about utilising intuition. Whilst this may be the case it would be erroneous to suggest that the answer to enhancing the rigor of Social Work decision making lies simply in the teaching of intuition.

Evidence suggests that Social Workers often feel uneasy about drawing on and listening to intuitive reasoning (Sicora, 2010; Sicora et al, 2021), opting for more analytical reasoning, particularly noticed within Social Work practice (Ferguson, 2021). And yet, access to “more and better information about the problem situation… meaning social workers are more easily able to recognise crucial patterns and critical situations” de Groot (1992). Indeed, Lannello et al. (2011) argue that intuition can enable individuals to overcome the limitations of the simplicity of analytical thinking. Nevertheless key themes emerging from historical Serious Case Reviews and the more recent Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews have continue to demonstrate missed opportunities for professionals to think and act in different ways that may have identified risks earlier on, thus potentially preventing the harm incurred by children (Rawlings et al, 2014). This has brought into question how Social Workers are taught to develop intuition and draw on a range of sources of knowledge from the moment they enrol on their courses.

I report on the findings from phase 2 of the study

This communication argues that education in care is a necessary element of emancipatory education. To this end, we engender a dialogue between recognition theory and critical pedagogy in light of the ethics of care. We conclude by arguing that an emancipatory education is an education that has relationships at its core and care as its foundation.

Cortina (2007) proposes that the notion of justice - as rights and duties - is insufficient for the society to reach its main ethical goals. This justice ethics need to be complemented by a cordial ethics, that emerges from the heart and established bonds that unite one person to the other, to their care and happiness: an ob-ligatio. The recognition of this ob-ligatio between people, and consequently acting based on care, would be the goals of an ethical education that’s coherent to our times.

Care paradigm determines that we are all part of one indivisible all and that, as a consequence, one’s ill is everyone’s ill. It proposes a care ethics: for the spiritual and material, the close and the distant, the recognised and the incomprehensible. And, for that, it is necessary we actively search for the Other.

For Levinas (2002), the existence of the Other is the condition for rationality. Without our relationship to the Other, we would be forever submerged in a bubble of selfishness, unable to access anything but our own equalities. The Other questions us and introduces to us what we did not know before. The Other also invites us to responsibility, to ethics.

Only by listening to the Other is it possible to build situated ethical practices, in which concrete decisions take into account contextual reality. Warren (according to Rosendo, 2012, p. 66) defends theory as a quilt, a single piece constructed by many hands from the union of different fabrics, which arrives at a unity. Grosfoguel also presents, in the same sense, the questioning walk of democracy of the Tojolabal people, where a concrete universalism is built from the inclusion of "the particular demands of all subjects and epistemes" (2007, p. 75).

Care ethics is a hot topic nowadays, especially after the appearance of global events that affect everyone's lives but especially the lives of vulnerable communities, such as climate change and the emergence of epidemics and pandemics. However, the relationship between ethics of care and education does not seem to be on the agenda yet, despite the fact that the need for a transformative education is already a common agenda.

Freire (1970) explains how conventional education is a form of cultural reproduction, of inculcating, for example, passivity through a banking form. The only way, for him, to create a transgressive, humanizing, and emancipatory education is by drastically changing the relationships established in the educational context: the person who educates, educates with, and never stops; he accomplishes his mission when the person being educated critically interprets the world and even his own educational process.

Part of this inculcation, though, is that of a detached relationship to others. There is no way to think of human development without considering relationships, and that dehumanization is what takes the person out of the neutralizing and anesthetized state, of a "mere succession of instantaneous gifts that leave no marks" (Horkheimer & Adorno, cited in Ferrarese, 2021, p. 35, own translation). Care (Adorno, quoted in Ferrarese, 2021) is an attitude of breaking with the everydayness of barbarism.

bell hooks (2008), in other words, argues that love is what breaks the oppressive and colonizing dynamics of traditional education. An emancipatory education, therefore, is not only, but is necessarily, an education in care.

As climate change accelerates, the vulnerability of our planet is becoming more evident and many societies are in crisis due to inequality, social exclusion and political extremism (UNESCO, 2016). Guattari (2000) refers to the link between the 'Three Ecologies' - mental, social and environmental - arguing that changing one ecology requires changing the others. Hence, to solve environmental and social problems, it is necessary to change people's mindsets. UNESCO (2016) proclaims that tackling global challenges requires a new approach to education: "comprehensive, holistic, ambitious and universal, inspired by a vision of education that transforms the lives of individuals, communities and societies, leaving no one behind" ( p. 24). However, what does holistic education mean?

Holistic education is a movement that began to emerge as a recognised field of study and practice in North America in the mid-1970s (Mahmoudi et al., 2012). Holistic education has been defined as transformative, postmodern, ecological, cosmic and spiritual education that addresses global issues (G.A.T.E., 1990). The basic principle of holistic education is the development of the whole child (physical, intellectual, social, emotional, aesthetic, spiritual), with a balance between the different domains of education (Miller 1988, 2005, 2010, 2016, 2019, 2021). In this study, modern holistic education is defined as a purposeful process of developing the whole person through the principles of interconnectedness, balance, inclusivity and spirituality, through holistic teaching, an integrated curriculum, in a holistic school with holistic teachers.

Holistic education has been extensively described at a theoretical level around the world (J.P. Miller, 1988, 2005, 2010, 2019; R. Miller, 1991; 2000; Heshusius, 1989; Hutchison, Bosacki, 2000; Nava, 2001; Taggart, 2001; Clark, 2005; Hare, 2006; Giraldo, 2007; Oberski, 2007; Andrzejewski, 2009; Ergas, 2011; Mahmoudi et al., 2012; Lovat, 2011, 2020; Di, 2020; Pang et al., 2021). A systematic literature review conducted by Miseliunaite et al. (2022) found that there is a lack of quantitative and comparative empirical research on holistic education. Moreover, Miseliunaite et al. (2022) found that holistic education is most extensively researched on the North American and Asian continents, with only a few isolated studies in Europe. It is recommended that comprehensive quantitative or mixed-methods studies be carried out to draw generalised conclusions about holistic education's prevalence, need and benefits.

This study aims to determine what and how the features of a modern holistic education paradigm are manifested in Lithuanian primary schools.

The case of Lithuania was chosen because 'The Lithuanian General Framework for Primary Education' (2008) states that primary education is organised according to the following educational principles: 'child-centred; integral, holistic; differentiated and individualised; contextual; oriented towards interpretive rather than reproductive thinking; the process of education is active; and the process of education is attractive and joyful' (p. 13). What is more, in Lithuania, holistic education is also discussed more on a theoretical level, highlighting its benefits for the spiritual and value education of individuals and society in the context of globalisation and the ecological crisis. A review of empirical work by Lithuanian researchers (Stulpinas, 1997; Aramavičiūtė, 2003; Kvieskienė and Vyšniauskaitė, 2017) leaves unclear how much and what features of holistic education are present in the Lithuanian education system. This raises a scientific problem - how and which features of a modern holistic education paradigm are manifested in Lithuanian primary schools?

This contribution aims to present results from a three-year research project. The theme of the study is how children understand and justifies Human Kinds. For the definition of Human Kinds, we refer to Mallon (2016) for which Human Kinds correspond to various types of human groupings, on the basis of characteristics considered similar.

During childhood, different ways of being, of doing and thinking are progressively acquired and structured (Lignier, Lomba & Renahy, 2012), inside various institutions. More generally, the schemes of classification and categorization of social reality used by social agents (whether adults or children’s) correspond to essential elements through which it is possible to define some aspects of social reality. These schemes contributing to respond to the human need to make order in the chaos of the surrounding world (Lévi-Strauss, 1984). Social agents use these also in order to create Human Kinds.

We consider that this subject corresponds to an important subject that need to be studied. There is also an historical series of studies dealing with the processes of categorization at a more general level (Cousineau, 2017; Edelman, 2018; Hacking, 1986; Jenkins, 2000; Liberman et al., 2017), but, the empirical field relating to how children categorize social reality remains little explored. It is possible to find some researchers carried out on this subject in France (Zarca, 1999; Ligner&Pagis, 2017) and in England (Connolly et al. 2009; Sutton, 2007; Kustatscher, 2017), but, this issue still remains little explored in Italy.

For these reasons, a case study has been carried out in 2019 Italy in order to explore the definition and justification of Human Kinds by children aged seven and by their parents. 96 families have been traced in three contexts, with different socio-economic level (High, medium and low).

One of the objectives of this research project is to observe whether the acquisition of the practice of social categorization (or of making Human Kinds) can be different depending on the socio-economic level of the school context. Secondly, if children practice can be similar to the adult’s one. Another dimension has been that have been studied, is the comparison of the children’s way of justification of Human Kinds with those of their parents.

That is possible to refer to Bourdieu’s (1980) theory of practice, especially his notion of practical sense, to explore what happens when children from different socio-economic and socio-demographic backgrounds bring their dispositions to the description and justification of human kinds.

The practical sense corresponds to the mechanism that underlies the selection of social categories and that becomes tangible when the individual is called to exercise it. The practical sense is configured as a sort of pre-logical thought that orients an individual in the action and in the formulation of judgments on others. The "practical sense" as well as the "social sense" endows social agents with "coordinates" through which to perceive, evaluate and act in the social world.

Therefore, the Bourdieu's notion of practical sense has been intersected with the neurological notions of “automatic cognition” and “deliberate cognition” (D'Andrade, 1996; DiMaggio, 1997; Kahneman, 2011).

At first, some findings will be presented in order to demonstrate how children and adults describe Human Kinds. Secondly, some findings will be presented in order to compare how children’s and parents justify their use of the “automatic cognition” during the social practice of grouping people.

The current educational agenda is highly focused on qualifications and measurable outcomes (c.f. Biesta, 2009). It is argued that this strong emphasis on qualification and measurement culture for preparing the future workforce might hinder students from living meaningfully (c.f. Schinker, De Ruyter, and Aviram, 2016). The assumption that attaining high grades, attending prestigious universities, and securing decent jobs ensures students' good lives appears to be uncritically accepted. Through the process of qualification and neo-liberal discourse, education seems to promote this narrowed concept of valid life. Furthermore, the question of life's meaning has attracted insignificant notice across both educational practice and educational research (c.f. White, 2009; Kronman, 2007; Lewis, 2006). Based on those issues, this research intends to explore the question of meaning in life and how education could help students live more meaningful lives.

In the first stage, I explored the question of what a meaningful life is by investigating key philosophical and psychological literature on life's meaning in the last thirty years. It cements an explanatory framework for the meaning of life by outlining its difference from the meaning of life (c.f. Seachris, 2009), whether it pertains to the subject or the objective (c.f. Wolf, 2015; Metz, 2013), whether life in its totality or elements delivers this meaning (c.f. Kauppinen, 2015; Brannmark, 2003), and the coherence, purpose and significance as three central aspects in sensing meaning in life as argued by psychologists (c.f. Martela and Steger, 2016; Baumeister, 1991; Frankl, 1985). Those theories provide conceptual knowledge about the structure of meaning; however, they might be neither sufficient nor necessary conditions for people to lead meaningful lives and it is difficult to draw meaningful implications for education.

I then consider the Confucian approach as an alternative and explore both the content and the form of the Confucian texts to bring insights into how education could help students to live more meaningful lives. In this section, I explain his key concepts and argue his understanding of education centres on how to live. His concept of Ren (仁) establishes the necessity for developing ideals and an ultimate purpose in life - elements that contemporary education ignores. His concept of Xue (学 learning) indicates the paths to Ren (仁) which is characterized by enactment, embodiment, and a continual and proactive learning process towards Ren (仁). The lifelong learning process for Ren (仁) constitutes a way to live meaningfully. His concepts of Dao (道 the Way), Yi (义 Rightness), and Ming (命 Fate) demonstrate the importance of self-endeavour under the acknowledgement of the limitations of human conditions. In this way, people learn what to be concerned about and what worries could be settled. It is argued that such an education could bring about meaningful lives. It is noticed that Confucian texts differ in style and format from those of analytical philosophers. The use of short, contextual dialogic aphorisms instead of long, clear philosophical arguments create a different relationship between the texts and the reader. It summons the hermeneutics of the reader, speaks to the reader, allows a space for the subject to think and come, and promotes the practical process of realizing the wisdom in the classics in each one's life. The artistic character of the form might inform a pedagogy for cultivating meaningful lives. While the theorising approach focuses on the theoretical question of "what is the meaning in life?" The Confucian approach focuses on the practical question of "how to live?" This raises the contentious inquiry of which of these questions is better to ask to bring about meaningful lives.

Topic: Autistic life trajectories resulting from transition effectiveness

Research Question: Investigating the barriers and facilitators contributing to a successful transition from school to adulthood as an autistic person/student (AP), highlighting gender differences.

Objectives:

1) To investigate and complete a comparative analysis of the roles of transition services in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI), assessing the extent responsibilities are implemented.

2) To examine student and familial expectations/experiences of transition planning/implementation prior, during and post transition from school to adulthood. The trajectory of wellbeing outcomes for students and families (e.g., mental, and physical health, relationships, finance, accommodation, education, and work), with focus on gender outcome differences, will be mapped longitudinally.

My research sets out to compare NI and the ROI (Europe) using a comparative approach. I aim to create a comprehensive overview of the issues related to an AP transitioning to adulthood and the impact of this on their life trajectories, affecting individuals in both countries. The comparison between a European country and one which has since left the European Union will also provide insight on the differences between the two contexts from the policy, legislation, and practice perspective.

Framework:

The impact of gender inequalities/disparities as AP transition to adulthood will be further understood, as an aim of this research and will be underpinned by three main theories. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory (1) and the related model Process – Person – Context – Time will enable recognition of how trajectories of AP can be predetermined based upon gender-based issues and the quality of their transition process on life outcomes in adulthood. The framework considers developmental outcomes as a consequence of interactions between an individual and context throughout life. The Bioecological systems theory lens aptly supports us to understand the lived experiences and the effects of this most impactful transition, on AP, particularly when underpinned by longitudinal data (1).

The Schlossberg Transition Theory (2) is also pertinent; this theory argues transitions are as such if perceived so by each individual. The negative effects of transitions can be intermediated by the “4 S’s”, situation, self, support, and strategies. Situational supports include prior experience, timing, levels of stress and the duration of the transition. Self-support includes positive individual psychological well-being, emotional resilience, and personal and demographical assets. Access and disposal to external support and effective coping strategies impact the success of this transition. External support in the form of parental involvement is critical to life outcomes (3).

The self-determination theory identifies the necessity of providing opportunities throughout childhood and adolescence for AP to self-advocate developing autonomy. Self-determination should guide the transition process, reducing anxiety (4) and providing people with ownership over their lives. The precursor of self-awareness, that being understanding of one's own strengths, accommodation needs, self-belief, autonomously set goals and supportive parents is significant to transition success. The lens of self-determination theory, values self-determination as the causal link between making choices and those being heard and acted upon which is related to a quality of life, free from external intrusion (5).

Motivation is widely acknowledged as a strong predictor of academic achievement (Cambria, Eccles & Wigfield, 2012). Educational motivation predicts attitudes toward school, class participation, homework completion, test performance, attendance, and grades. It is particularly salient in high school because educational decisions made during high school are consequential as students position themselves in further education and their specific interest in certain subjects (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Manganelli, et al., 2021). According to self-determination theory, motivation is able to play an important role in helping students from low-wealth situations break out of poverty by raising certain behaviours to overcome the inequality barrier (Ryan & Deci, 2017). However, previous studies have demonstrated that low-socioeconomic status (SES) students endorse lower levels of achievement motivation than high-SES students (Manganelli, et al., 2021). Nevertheless, some low SES students obtain high educational motivations in China, albeit it “against the odds”, and achieve high academic achievements afterwards (e.g. Xie, 2015). Underlining the cultural background of filial piety in China, Guo and his colleagues (2021) also emphasise the role of parenting factors, including parental control and support, on adolescents’ motivations. Thus, it may be that parenting factors, are especially key for young people from low SES backgrounds to be highly motivated. For example, Leung and Shek (2016) have identified that parent-child discrepancy in perceived parental sacrifice influences the motivation of poor Chinese adolescents based on their study of 275 adolescents and their families in Hong Kong. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore how the parenting factors associate with the SES-academic motivation relationship in China. Moreover, empirical evidence of how disadvantaged adolescents can be more motivated academically could supplement studies of social justice.

Led by the theoretical framework of Coleman’s social capital theory in the family (Coleman, 1988), this study regards educational motivation as a non-cognitive ability outcome, which is considered to be closely related to future academic achievement (Ames, 1992). Coleman’s theory of social capital in the family suggests that financial capital, human capital and social capital all affect educational outcomes jointly and intercorrelate with each other (Coleman, 1988). Following this framework, this study aims to explore the association of parenting factors, SES and educational motivations among 12 to 15 years old adolescents in China using a nationally representative secondary dataset, the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). This secondary data was collected from around 20,000 secondary school students from 112 schools in 28 counties in mainland China (National Survey Research Centre at Renmin University of China, 2015). Through conducting quantitative analysis, the article aims to answer the following research questions:

1. What is the educational motivation pattern of adolescents in China? What is the difference in educational motivation patterns between Grade 7 (Age 12 to 13) and Grade 9 (Age 14 to 15) students?

2. How do different kinds of parental capital, including occupation, education and home possessions, relate to students’ educational motivations?

3. How do parental capitals incorporate parenting factors as a form of social capital in the family, including parental involvement, parenting styles and parental aspiration, relate to students’ educational motivation?

This study offers empirical evidence from China to further explain Coleman’s theory of social capital, joining the international theoretical conversation from a different country background. Moreover, it includes a broader range of SES and parenting factors and a wider age range than similar studies that have used large-scale data from China. Furthermore, it explores the patterns of educational motivation of adolescents in mainland China and its relationship with SES and parenting factors, which have not been jointly identified in previous large-scale quantitative educational research.

From the beginning of the 21^st century, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalization process of higher education has been accelerated worldwide, and the inclusion of virtual dimension in internationalisation actions has also gained momentum in academic practices and discussions (Woicolesco et al., 2022) thereby emerging different definitions and exerting a multifaceted impact on internationalisation practices. While the academia kept monitoring the approaches, rationales, activities or stakeholders of internationalisation of higher education, the most accepted definition of internationalisation of higher education was put forward by J. Knight (2004) as ‘the process of integrating an international, intercultural and global dimension in the purpose, functions, delivery of postsecondary education.’ This definition was later revised and enriched by de Wit et al. (2015), with emphasis on the ‘intentional’ process as well as its benefit for ‘all students and staff’ instead of the mobile few. Based on the Knight’s definition, Bruhn et al., (2020) has proposed to view virtual internationalisation as ‘the process of introducing an international, intercultural, or global dimensions into the delivery, purpose or functions of higher education with the help of ICT’. Recently, Liu (2020) also scrutinized Knight's (2004) definition under Chinese context, and highlighted the Chinese national goal as the purpose and functions of Chinese higher education universities for internationalisation.

In addition to varying definitions of virtual internationalization, the digital age has also embraced changes and brought new possibilities for future internationalisation efforts in many areas (Rajagopal et al., 2020). In terms of virtual course delivery, researchers highlighted the enriched access to unprecedented wealth of online information, tools and services and global knowledge in the digital age, which brought benefits both for education and research (Bruhn et al., 2020; Kobzhev et al., 2020; Moore & Kearsley, 2012; Saykili, 2019). Meanwhile, researchers stressed the addition of an international dimension to educational experiences and more possibilities and forms for internationalisation at home or internationalisation of curriculum in the virtual environment (Bruhn, 2017; de Wit & Hunter, 2015; Kobzhev et al., 2020; Woicolesco et al., 2022). However, as Saykili (2019) quoted, knowledge access and dissemination roles are shifting away from higher education at social level. Amirault & Visser (2010) observed the lack of recognition of virtual internationalisation, which made the virtual mobility programs difficult to benefit from the same advantages as in the offline environment, such as recognition of credits, credits transfer, accreditation, etc.

While previous studies have abundant discussion on the possibilities provided by the digital age for internationalisation, new initiatives continue to emerge and thrive globally, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, relevant studies in the post-pandemic period are still in scarcity. Meanwhile, De Wit & Jones (2022) called for a global cooperative strategy to better understand the multifaceted aspects of internationalisation by involving higher education stakeholders in various contexts. Academic members, as major components of the higher education system, have crucial role for the successful initiation and implementation of virtual internationalisation. This indicates a need to understand the various perceptions of virtual internationalization theoretically and practically from academic members in higher education from various contexts. To provide more up-to-date data for future studies as well as a response to this call, this study aims to explore the perceptions of academic members from a diverse context about virtual internationalization

The research objectives that guided this study are:

(1) What is virtual internationalisation as perceived by academic staff members in higher education?

(2) What are the new possibilities for internationalisation in this digital age as perceived by academic staff members in higher education?

Teacher effectiveness has been one of the most common topics in education for several decades. There has been a noticeable increase in studies examining teacher effectiveness during the past 20 years. One way to examine teacher effectiveness is by investigating the correlation between teacher characteristics as independent variables and student performance in standardised tests as a dependent variable. This study aims to add to existing knowledge by exploring the relationship between teacher characteristics and student math achievement in Saudi Arabia. This study examines teacher characteristics including gender, age, formal education, degree major, experience, and professional development. TIMSS 2019 is the primary data source for this study. The strategy for examining the correlation between teacher characteristics and student achievement in Saudi Arabia relies on including several student and school controls by utilising the Ordinary Least Squared (OLS) to explore this relationship for fourth and eighth-grade students. The findings of this study show that, on average, students with female teachers performed better than those with male teachers in both grades. Also, teachers' age and professional development are positively and significantly correlated with student math achievement in both grades. In addition, teacher major is positively and significantly associated with student achievement only in 4^th grade. The estimations for teacher experience were very close to zero in both grades. Furthermore, it was not applicable to examine teacher formal education due to the small sample size. One explicit limitation arises due to missing data, which could bias the results of this study. One way to deal with it is to rerun the model after excluding variables that present high missing values. This model presents the same results. These findings are relevant to education policy discussion since teachers are hired and paid based on these characteristics.

Children spend a great amount of time playing at school. Through play, they explore the world around themselves, discover their instincts, form survival skills and knowledge, step by step build relationships with other people. Play, therefore, plays an imperative role in children’s development (Smith & Roopnarine, 2018). Mentioning play also refers to a play environment which is the condition that can either support or impede and pose a threat to children’s play (Kyttä, 2003).

Children are not only the object of research in different fields such as psychology or education. They are actually the agents of their development; and they have their own opinions, thoughts and feelings when interacting with the world surrounding them (Corsaro, 2012; Kustatscher, 2017). Corsaro (2012) argues that ‘children do not simply internalise society and culture, but they actively contribute to cultural production and change. From the perspective of interpretive reproduction, however, children are always participating in and are part of two cultures - their own and adults’- and these cultures are intricately interwoven’ (Corsaro, 2012, p. 489). Similarly, Kusatscher (2017) also found out that children not only reproduce but also challenge the already established opinions of the society. Therefore, research on inclusive play environments for children needs to take into account children’s voice as children are the agent of their own development and they know what is appropriate and imperative for their own growth.

We are living in the world of globalization where, however, discrimination based on social-cultural and economic backgrounds is still a chronic issue. This happens not only in adulthood but also in childhood, which can impact children's development negatively. Therefore, it is necessary to build an inclusive play environment for children in order to support sustainable development as equity and inclusion are two sustainable development goals related to education that the United Nations promoted in 2015 (UN General Assembly, 2015, p.17).

Promoting an inclusive play environment requires teachers’ awareness, knowledge and skills. Therefore, exploring teachers’ perspectives of an inclusive play environment and the specific training or support which teachers need to be provided with is an initial step to create an inclusive play environment for children.

This research will be conducted in Spain (Andalusia) and Vietnam, which are two countries which follow different educational systems. While the former bases on Western-individualistic culture, the latter develops with the foundation of Eastern-collectivism. Both countries are diverse and rich in culture, where different social groups co-exist. The comparison between the two countries can bring a multi-cultural perspective to address a global issue of promoting inclusive play environments for children to ensure equality and equity in education. It is also noteworthy that it does not mean they are seen as two solid cultures as Dervin (2011) argues that it is necessary to move away from solidified, separate and objectivist perspectives of cultures; instead, it is imperative to have a liquid approach to intercultural discourses, which takes into account discursive choices and manipulations of speakers that often sink below speakers’ speech. In addition, culture does not cause behaviours, but summarises an abstraction from it (Dervin, 2011).

With the aforementioned aims, research questions of this study are the following:

1. Research question 1: What is the teachers’ perception of an inclusive play environment as well as the strategies that can promote such inclusive play environments?
2. Research question 2: What are children’s needs and their perspectives of an inclusive play environment?
3. Research question 3: What are the differences between Spanish and Vietnamese teachers, regarding their habits and beliefs of an inclusive play environment for children?
4. Research question 4: What training / support do teachers need to create inclusive play environments?

Topic & Objective:

By investigating the intercultural engagement of Chinese students in the UK as well as the ‘reverse cultural shock’ experienced by students who return to China after studying in the UK, this research identifies learning and social activities that effectively help students engage in intercultural communication and navigate the challenges these may cause, as well as their reflections of the culture of origin as former international students.

Research questions:

1. What intercultural communicative strategies do Chinese students adopt to deal with communicative difficulties in the UK?

2. What do returnee Chinese students think of Chinese culture through intercultural communication practices in the UK after moving back to China?

Theoretical framework:

This study adopts and blends a social constructivism alongside theand interpretivistm paradigm to guide the methodology due to the way I understand the social issues and the main concerns of this study. Social constructivism views cultural knowledge not as an object to be acquired but to be collectively identified, represented and interpreted through individuals’ experience and communication (Guilherme, 2002). From a constructivist perspective, knowledge is constructed by existing structures of foundation, that is human’s beliefs about realities through social interaction (Hollandar & Gordon, 2006), and influenced by the culture in a specific context and by personal reflections of experiences. Besides, In social constructivism, the world is interpreted through language and culture. That is, the world and its elements inside are not seen only as social constructions, but full of meanings made by ‘crucial participants’ (Crotty, 1998). Consequently, I am mainly interested in investigating human’s subjective understanding of the interrelations of cultures, strategies to handle cultural shock and how their knowledge and reactions to their culture of origin have been co-constructed and interpreted among all social elements.

Conceptual framework:

According to Bourdieu (1986), an individual’s cultural taste is related to acts of social positioning, so their preference for social practice is somehow decided by their social belonging and personal experience, reconciling with external social structures. That suggests if a human’s identity has been changed due to their social status, their choice of social behaviour will change. Besides, an individual’s prior knowledge has also an impact no matter how a human’s social identity changes. Cobern (1993) states that individual’s prior conceptions and self-positioning contribute significantly to their understanding of social events. When human’s new gaining of social beliefs contradicts with their prior knowledge, the decision has to be made whether to keep one side or abandon the other or objectively criticise both and choose the appropriate ones from both sides. Another thing that has to be noted is that humans’ ongoing learning experiences and social and physical milieu have an impact on their previous knowledge, which may be consistent, or against, or even fill in the gaps of ‘knowing’. This interchange of social impacts contributes to creating a different understanding of culture and interculturality, and also it keeps changing with the ongoing process.

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is regarded as an ability to communicate and interaction across cultures (Byram, 2012). As competence is a subjective term, since it depends on people’s personality, life experience, attitudes, learning styles, etc., the definition of ICC in academia is contested. Many studies focus on individuals, and regard ICC as an internal capacity of an individual. For example, Byram (ibid.) regards ICC as a set of intercultural skills (to interpret, relate, discover, and interact), knowledge about culture and interaction, attitudes and self-awareness of different cultures and education about critical issues in the host culture.. Among all ICC models, Byram’s (ibid) is the most recognised which divided IC competence into knowledge, skills, attitudes and awareness.

Researching diversity in education requires diversity-informed research methods and methodologies. Research methodologies must therefore be sensitive toward diversity in its variety of forms and peculiarities. Moreover, great adaptability of research approaches and researchers is necessary. Pre-given categories and structures thus may not allow for a sufficiently open and flexible capturing of the field’s characteristics. Hence, qualitative, inductive approaches that respect and reflect the circumstances and features of the field and the respondents are especially intriguing.

In light of international (comparative) research especially, some more aspects that require sensitivity must be taken into account. Here, three layers of reflection appear to be of relevance: Firstly, it is important to consider which terms and concepts are being used to describe the field. So, for instance, do we talk about cultures, contexts, or nations, and what is the underlying understanding of the corresponding notion that is applied (e.g., Dilley, 2002)? Secondly, it is important to consider how these concepts will be related to each other in the context of the research project. So, for example, do we apply an Inter-, Trans-, Multi-, or Cross-cultural research approach (e.g., Adick, 2010)? Based on this, it must thirdly be considered whether the research will rather focus on generalisations or observations of differences across fields (e.g., Dinkelaker et al., 2011)?

A critical reflection of these questions and considerations is crucial, especially as borders, nations, and cultures become increasingly blurry through migration, globalisation, and the ease of travel and information exchange across contexts (e.g., Fritzsche, 2012). Therefore, the Grounded Theory Methodology (Glaser/Strauss, 1967) appears as one promising methodology in this regard. Building on Falkenberg’s statement that Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) can be a valuable extension for international educational research (2018), the paper will engage in the question of how transcultural research on diversity in education can be conducted with GTM. To start with, the opportunities of GTM will be demonstrated by elaborating on two essential characteristics: Its sensitivity towards diversity and culture.

Firstly, the method allows for developing a theory that builds upon people’s diverse realities. Instead of applying pre-given theories and structures to the research field, GTM “is particularly helpful for uncovering processes or patterns of behavior that remain hidden in society” (Nayar/Wright-St Clair, 2020, p. 132). Thus, GTM allows us to conduct meaningful, qualitative research in complex, diverse, and so far, under-explored research fields. Under-explored fields can on the one side refer to thematic fields that have so far been rarely studied (e.g., tabooed research questions), but on the other side also to under-represented geographical fields (e.g., remote areas and communities). GTM, therefore, enables research in fields where little is yet known and the researcher must react and adapt to the unpredictable peculiarities of the field. Especially in light of diversity and international research, this feature is greatly important.

Secondly, the possibility to do culturally-sensitive research with GTM is essential. While in ethnography, culture is one of the concepts at the centre of attention, Nayar and Wright-St Clair (2020, p. 133) highlight that within GTM “it is the social process that is central to the study. Yet, this social process unfolds within a context, which means that culture cannot be ignored”. In addition to these culture-sensitive possibilities of GTM, Charmaz (2014, p. 1082) also explicitly mentions that “international researchers can adopt grounded theory strategies and adapt them to fit their cultural and research practices”. Especially in light of conducting research in diverse and multicultural settings with differing research traditions and realities and moreover, with regard to possibly uneven power relations, this is of great relevance (e.g., Robinson-Pant/Singal, 2013).

In order to get in-depth information about the participants, the study took an ethnographic approach where semi-structure interviews, informal conversations and audio diaries were used to collect data. Using the concepts of investment (Norton, 2013), imagined identity (Norton & Toohey, 2011) and imagined community (Norton, 2013) as the analytical lens, the findings showed that all participants experienced academic identity reconstruction and during this process, the role of their L1 is unignorable. There was a significant shift on their academic identity as their aims of studying abroad changed. Before they started their studies in the UK, their imagined identity of an international student focused on promoting their English linguistic competence such as pursuing native like accents, becoming global citizens and emerging into the new community. However, as they began their study in the UK, they started to vague the concept of native speakers and began to view English as lingua franca where they now focused more on the knowledge itself rather than the L2 (English) skills.

Unlike some previous studies (Chang, 2016; Gao, 2011; Crowther, 2020) where improving one’s English linguistic competence and adapting into the new environment are the target goals for international students in an English-speaking country, the participants showed low investment both in promoting their L2 (English) linguistic skills as well as adapting into the new environment. Though their investments in the destination country and English linguistic skills seemed to be limited, they managed to use their L1 (such as using translation tools or working with co-nationals) to integrate into the local community and at the same time, achieved satisfactory academic outcomes. For some participants who self-defined as inadequate L2 learners, they managed to use their L1 competence to make friends with non-Chinese which unexpectedly, benefited their L2 learning. It is also interesting to find that their naming practices in the UK also reflected the reconstruction of their academic identities as well. Some participants stopped using English names but began to use their Chinese names to reflect their Chinese international students’ identities. Some continued to use English names but the Chinese names are revealed under the coats of certain English names.

When it comes to the factors that affected their academic identity (re)construction, the Pandemic was just part of the reason why some of the participants had limited interaction with other non-Chinese in academic work and had low investments in promoting their L2 linguistic skills. The most important reason was affected by their imagined identity—potential job hunters in Chinese labour market. As most of them planned to back to China to seek for jobs, they had little interest to invest in promoting their L2 competence as Chinese labour market values more of their study abroad experience rather than their English competence. Also, unlike previous studies where language barrier (Fang & Baker, 2018) is the main cause of limited interaction with non-Chinese peers, my study discovered something different. The participants’ imagined future identity also affected their interaction with other non-Chinese as they had little possibilities to work in the UK after graduation, they found it less necessary to invest in maintaining friendship with other non-Chinese peers.

Globalization is a dynamic process that affects different cultures around the world in different ways. It permeates cultural borders and in the process leads to the spread of Western ideologies and values around the world(Jensen et al., 2011). The Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) shows that the total foreign-born or immigrant population in the U.S. hit 47.9 million in September 2022, and there are about 3,000 dual-language programs nationwide. With the development of the global connection, many individuals around the world are becoming members of multiple language and sociocultural networks(García, 2011), more and more immigrants’ parents would like to send their children to accept the bilingual education.

However, the different culture mixed to educated students may influence immigrant students’ identity. In 2020, Bu has studied the Asian students in the larger context of Asian immigrants to analyze how American education has historically shaped the racial and ethnic identity of Asian Americans as a minority group and the cultural meaning of being a member of that minority group during different times(Bu, 2020). Besides, the languages in bilingual education has a significant function, we assume that the languages classroom to be a key site for the construction of learners’ linguistic and multilingual identities.(Forbes et al., 2021)

Therefore, such student will face more than two different culture and language between home and school. In my opinion, both parenting environment and school environment are important for students to construct their identity and development. As for school, promoting students’ identity exploration in school within the curriculum and in relation to the academic content should be adopted as an important educational goal.(Kaplan et al., 2014). As for parents, there was research explored the experiences of immigrants in Canada, the results indicated that youth reported that their parents played a direct role in transmitting culture and influencing their identity in five different ways.(Glozman & Chuang, 2019)

This research will focus on the following questions: For the immigrant students, (1) Will the student choose one of their parents’ cultural identities or both or neither of them? (2) Whether the education change students’ identity? If yes, how does bilingual education change students’ cultural identity?

The rise of international migration has led to a growing number of students studying in a second-language environment. Although these students are often seen as having weaker language skills (Sharma, 2016; Kuo, 2011), language proficiency is crucial for their academic success and social integration (Akanwa & Emmanuel, 2015). In addition to language barriers, international students also face a range of challenges such as cultural differences, social adaptation difficulties, health concerns, educational obstacles, housing problems, insufficient institutional support, and financial hardships, therefore, it is important for universities to provide additional resources and more specific support to meet their academic and social needs (Akanwa & Emmanuel 2015). However, the exact support needed is still unclear due to the diverse backgrounds and complexities faced by international students, including cultural and linguistic adjustments and immigration policies. The term "international" fails to accurately represent this group's diverse subgroups and can lead to overgeneralization or fragmentation (Valdez, 2016; Sharma, 2016). To better understand these challenges, this study categorises subgroups of international students studying in a second language as ‘ISLA students’ (International Second Language Acquisition students) and seeks solutions.

This forms the basis for the the following objectives:

1) to identify the challenges and existing supports of International students who study in a second language context, also referred as International Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) Students;
2) to provide a sustainable and implementational solution for ISLA students;and
3) to develop the formal definition of ISLA Students.

Research Questions:

1. What is the definition of international second language acquisition (ISLA) students?

2. What are the barriers and enablers of ISLA students in higher education ?

To this end, four research aims are set:

• to raise awareness of challenges experienced by ISLA students with regard to knowledge acquisition at higher education;

• to support and enhance international students learning experience through participation in research informed transformative approach;  

• to inform higher education educators’ continuing professional development with regard to the specifics of engagement with ISLA students;

• to contribute to the sustainable development of a transformative learning environment at higher education for all.

Theoretical Framework:

The study will be informed by a combination of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological System Theory (2005), Lave and Wenger's (2009) Situated Learning theory, and Wenger's Communities of Practice (2011), specifically the concept of legitimate peripheral participation. This conceptual framework provides a comprehensive and integrated lens for examining the complex experiences of ISLA students and their facilitators in higher education. Communities of Practice offer an understanding of ISLA students’ learning in practice through participation in these communities at the higher education level and the challenges faced in such processes (Wenger, 2011). This framework also aids in the development of a formal definition for ISLA students Bronfenbrenner's theory allows for the assessment of ISLA students' barriers and enablers through a holistic system context, as it outlines the various interrelated environmental factors that shape their learning experiences. It also provides a means of understanding how the environment surrounding ISLA students either hinders or facilitates their growth and development, using the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner & Cole, 1981).

Decades of previous research has addressed the need for changes in physical education where embodied experiences and learning are emphasized (Wrench and Garrett 2015; Wright 2000). Accordingly, we align with the ongoing call for a ‘corporeal turn’ (Smith 2007, 66) in physical education, towards a more holistic understanding of learning and experience as embodied and emplaced (Pink 2011).

The concept of embodiment has roots in phenomenological philosophy. As such, understanding the body as the ground of subjective experiences (Standal 2020) deconstructs the notion of a mind/body divide. We come to know ‘in relation to the other elements of the environment’ (Pink 2011, 348, italics in orginal). Viewing learning as embodied and emplaced means that learning is a social activity, situated in the relationships between persons and with the environment around us, and that learning has tacit dimensions (Polanyi 1983) which cannot easily be put into words.

Physical education is a social arena where most experiences are characterized by the social aspect of collaboration and group activities. Relationships with peers form an integral part of pupils’ experiences in physical education (Wellard 2013). Previous research has shown the importance of friendship and social support in school physical activity, e.g., greater enjoyment when participating with friends (Owen et al. 2019), and feelings of a sense of belonging and a positive affective climate made pupils enjoy and value the physical activity more (Wright and Li 2009). In this study, I expand these existing contributions by exploring friendships in physical education by making use of data from a sensory ethnographic fieldwork. The research question for this presentation is “How do social relationships influence pupils’ embodied and emplaced experiences in physical education?”

Theories of embodied affect will be used to interpret the findings. Embodied affectivity can be described as the bodily resonance (sensations, postures, expressive movements, or movement tendencies) to affective qualities or affordances in the environment (Fuchs and Koch, 2014). Building on phenomenological theories of embodiment, emplacement and intersubjectivity, where the body is both subject and object at the same time (Merleau-Ponty 2010), and we constantly interact with our environment, we can talk about interaffectivity, where we continuously move and are being moved by others (Fuchs and Koch 2014). A greater focus on the affective perspectives in educational research have resulted in a call for an ‘affective turn’ when it comes to how we understand teaching and learning (Garrett 2022; Dernikos et al. 2020) and thus development of pedagogies of affect (e.g., (Kirk 2020; Ingulfsvann, Moe, and Engelsrud 2020).

The study carried out by WHO (2018) indicates that 23% of adults and 81% of teenagers do not follow the global recommendations in terms of physical activity (PA). It is recommended to engage in 150-300’ of moderate aerobic activity per week for all adults, and 60’ of moderate aerobic daily for teens and children. In this sense, we must value the importance of Physical Education (PE) when it comes to instilling healthy lifestyle habits, considering aspects as motivation and enjoyment to promote the development of physically active citizens (Trigueros-Ramos et al., 2019; De Vargas et al., 2020). In addition, it must be considered that there is a relationship between rewarding experiences in PE sessions and affinity towards them (Aibar et al., 2015). Likewise, part of the students who practice PA after school continuously have a greater interest and affinity for PE, yet it provides positive attitudes towards sports practice. This fact is highlighted by the differences between gender in the sport practice, where is needed to seek equity in practice to avoid stereotypes and sedentary lifestyles (Gutiérrez, 2017).

PE faces many challenges due to constant concern for the quality of education and the effectiveness of teaching and learning methods, pointing out that student achievement depends on the teachers’ techniques (Herrera and Almonacid, 2019). The methodology nowadays present 5 blocks of content that form the PE curriculum: I. Physical conditioning and health; II Games and Sports (collective, individual, and traditional sports); III Natural Environment; IV Body Expression and Comunication; V Transveral Elements. All these blocks possess great importance into the development of the PE curriculum, teacher training and everything related to the methodology used in the sessions. Thus, the attitudes, interests and motivations of the students must also be taken into account, in order to provide appropriate spaces and didactic materials. Therefore, one of the key links in this chain is the PE teacher, defining himself as an active, responsible person, with a high self-concept and intrinsic motivation, high initiative, and the ability to adapt, innovate, communicate, and make decisions (Benítez et al., 2017).

It should be noted that during the last two decades there has been a massive emergence of innovative proposals in the PE area, which, depending on their application will significantly affect the way of understanding education. These programmes might influence the approach of the E-A processes, the development of the practice, the typical structure of the sessions, the methodology, the evaluation, and attention to diversity, among others (Pastor and Fernández, 2010; Pastor et al., 2016). These can mean progress towards what we consider to be the key challenges in education, and should respond positively to the following questions:

Can our students transfer the learning they acquire at PE to their daily life, during and after school time? Are the learning and knowledge that we currently generate in PE authentic, and do they have a connection to real life? And does PE currently contribute to the social transformation the school? (Pastor et al., 2016, p. 185).

There are several studies that cover the quality of the PE teacher in their classes, specifically, is analysed the opinion of the secondary school students (García et al., 2015). However, no scientific evidence was found over students’ perception once that period was finished and the role that PE and their teacher had in their adherence to sports practice.

The aim of the study was to analyse the perception of first-year university students over their PE teachers from Secondary School, as well as its influence on adherence to sports practice of the student, according to the gender.

In recent years, education is no longer understood as a simple transmission of knowledge. Nor is it identified exclusively with learning certain essential skills such as communication, writing, etc. There is a global academic consensus where education is understood from a holistic perspective that encompasses all dimensions of the human person. Following a neo-Aristotelian perspective, education must reach the essence of the acting person on being, and not exclusively on knowing or doing. If not, otherwise it would be a superfluous or incomplete education. Let us give an example for your better understanding. In the case of educating in justice, education would not consist of knowing what justice is, nor knowing how to carry out acts of justice, but would consist of being fair (Aristotle, 2003). Knowing and doing can only be understood as previous steps of the ladder.

James Arthur defines character as a set of abilities that guides a person’s usual way of behaving (2019), that’s to say, his way of being. The way someone behaves is how he is, and it is reflection of his character. For example, one person is considered cheerful when he usually smiles, and as a consequence, he’s said to have a cheerful character. Therefore, it can be deduced that educating character makes impact in what me mean as real educaction, the way of being, and and hence the importance of character education in order to achieve a comprehensive holistic education.

Character is a set of virtues that a person acquires, which enables him to do good and be good (Kristjanson, 2019), and, character education is the process in which young people know and do the good (Jubilee Centre for the Character and Virtues, 2017).

Sport is widely considered as an ideal practice for the person’s character development (Rudd, 2005). There are numerous colloquial expressions that we can find in which sport is positively related to the character and virtudes development: “sport forges character”, “sport is a virtues’ school”, etc. However, how much of the previously said is based on scientific evidence? Is sport really a medium to achieve character education?

In fact the discussion about the influence of the sport practice on the person’s character is completely open (Giroux 2020; Kirk, 2018). Although it seems true that physical education correlates especially with the development of the performative virtues (Likona, 2009; Shields, 2011), the knowledge is more diffuse in the rest of the character’s dimensions: intellectual, moral and civic (Baehr, 2013; Lickona, 2009).

From a theoretical point of view, sport gathers the necessary characteristics to think that educational sport and physical education can positively impact on the character development (Brunsdon & Walker, 2021; Weiss & Bredemeier, 1990), but it’s actually that way in the practical standpoint?

In the present project we will do a systematic review of the experimental programmes about character education taught in the subject of physical education in order to shedd more light about the relationship between physical education and character education. We will stand out the different proposals, methodologies, programmes implemented in schools, as well as the main investigated virtues in the physical education area.