Conference Agenda

Introduction

Participative equity in higher education has largely been framed as equality regimes to address some of the consequences of massification (Trow, 1973), high participation (Marginson, 2016) and the neoliberalisation (Rizvi and Lingard, 2011) of higher education (HE). It has become even more critical in pluralistic and postcolonial states like Nigeria, where the need to forge an inclusive community through higher education remains a cardinal function of the universities (Lebeau, 2008). This changing nature of the ‘missions’ of the university has challenged how higher education institutions respond to diversity initiatives and their investment in maintaining or altering institutional cultures (Aguirre, 2020, Ahmed, 2012). With little focus on students' agency, institutional perspectives on why institutions change (Powell and DiMaggio, 1991, Thornton et al., 2012) and become what academics or leaders make of them (Chaffee and Tierney, 1988, Tierney and Lanford, 2018) abound in the literature on the sociology of HEIs. However, students’ demand for the dissociation of the university from its colonial (Bhambra et al., 2018) and capitalist relics (Santos, 2018) to an inclusive and liberating pedagogical space has called for the need to understand students’ agency or roles in institutional transformation. This explains why the post-Salamanca education debates on the meanings of inclusion, who is to be included, into what and how inclusion should be done (e.g. Ainscow et al., 2006, Ainscow et al., 2019) have shown why policies on inclusion and equity in HE must be approached as a holistic policy process; that addresses asymmetrical power relations of access, participation and outcome of underrepresented and underserved communities such as students with disabilities (SWDs), women, forced migrants, persons of colour and young people from low-income families. Inclusive education policy and corpus of work on how education systems can become inclusive, have been critiqued as a ‘neo-colonial project’ (Walton, 2018 p.34 ) developed in the rich countries of the Global North. This has thus given rise to a “second generation of inclusive education countries in the global South” (Artiles et al., 2011) uncritically adopting the theoretical and empirical understanding of disability and inclusive practices developed from the centre.

To interrogate knowledge on the experience of students with disabilities in higher education and practices of inclusive education more broadly, this study explored how the practices of inclusion and participation of students with disabilities in universities are organised. This study’s novel approach situates the analysis of textual and structural relations or the “untidy policy moments” (Svarícek and Pol, 2011) of disability inclusion practice in the HE system of Nigeria within the “colonial matrix of power” (Quijano, 2007) shaping global education agenda. It seeks to explain the everyday experience of students with disabilities by taking a critical perspective on how complex intersections of poverty, gender, religious and cultural beliefs at the local continue to shape the meanings of disability and the practices of inclusive education.

Inclusive education refers to a system where students with disabilities are valued and active participants in regular classrooms in their neighbourhood schools (Porter & Towell, 2017). In 1994, the Salamanca Statement reaffirmed a global and united commitment to making education more inclusive for students with disabilities (UNESCO, 1994). In the decades that followed the Salamanca Statement, much cross country research has been done in the field of inclusive education, creating opportunities for countries to learn from one another. There is overwhelming evidence that including students with disabilities in the regular classrooms has social and academic advantages for students with and without disabilities (Hehir et al., 2016), yet teachers continue to report significant barriers to effectively implementing inclusive education (Sokal & Katz, 2015). For example, teachers commonly perceive a lack of resources and report feeling like their training did not provide them with the skills needed for inclusion (McCrimmon, 2015; Sharma et al., 2007; Sokal & Katz, 2015). Ensuring that teachers are prepared to work effectively in inclusive classrooms and schools is thus an essential focus of research today.

Sharma (2018) proposed the 3H framework as a way to support the development of inclusive teachers. His framework posits that development must target three key areas: (1) knowledge of inclusive practices, (2) beliefs that support inclusion, and (3) skills and confidence to implement inclusive practices. This paper focuses on the development of beliefs that support inclusion. Beliefs are known to influence the way people perceive their world and subsequently guide behaviours and action (Fives & Buehl, 2012; Funkhouserk, 2017). Not surprisingly, research has found that teachers’ beliefs influence their instruction in inclusive classrooms (Jordan, 2018a; Jordan, 2018b). Specific beliefs about the teacher’s role in the classroom, the goal of teaching and learning, and the nature of ability influence the quality of inclusive practices. These beliefs are captured in a 20-item self-report measure called the Beliefs about Learning and Teaching Questionnaire (Glenn, 2018).

Teachers with inclusive scores on the Beliefs about Learning and Teaching Questionnaire tend to use more cognitively engaging instruction (e.g., back-and-forth question and answer periods) and scaffolding with individual students and small groups. They are also more likely to take responsibility for meeting the learning needs of students with disabilities. Teachers with low inclusive scores tends to spend less time engaging their students in academic talk and more time managing behaviours and clarifying routines and instructions. These teachers are more likely to place the responsibility of educating students with disabilities with special education teachers (Glenn, 2018; Jordan, 2018a; Jordan, 2018b).

A recent analysis of Beliefs about Learning and Teaching Questionnaire data from 396 Canadian beginning teachers revealed three distinct trajectories for the development of beliefs from the time pre-service teachers were in their education program through to the early years of their careers. Most notably, one fifth of the sample became less inclusive in their beliefs after graduating from their education program (Specht, Delorey & Puka, 2022). Past research has identified broad experiences that contribute to the development of beliefs; however, there is a gap in our understanding of how these experiences influence beliefs at different stages of teacher development. The present study aims to contribute novel information to further the field’s understanding of how various experiences influence the development of beliefs from initial teacher education through the first two years of teaching.

Legislative texts and recommendations are representing both legally fixed rights and duties and an overview of the changes in mindset and the terminology of concepts (Bowen, 2009; Prøitz, 2015). School leaders are obliged to follow the law and justify their decisions based on the Education Act (Møller & Skedsmo, 2013). These documents serve furthermore “as reference points for government discourse and are viewed as important sources for analyzing dominant trends and shifts in discursive patterns” (Stenersen & Prøitz, 2022, p. 198). One of these shifts is the powerful movement towards an inclusive school for all. However, the “fuzzy concept of inclusion” has to be included and transferred into practice in different historically developed education systems. Stakeholders of these systems have to interpret the regulations which led to many variations not just internationally, but also in a national frame (Badstieber & Moldenhauer, 2016). Findings have shown that especially school principals play a significant role in the implementation of reforms in general (Abrahamsen & Aas, 2019; Moos et al., 2016) but it is just assumed that they are important actors in the context of inclusive schooling (Badstieber, 2021). This is in conformity with a foregone study, where preliminary results are indicating clearly formulated task allocations for school authorities, while school leaders’ tasks are formulated more accurate just after the year 2001 (Dahle, 2023). Their tasks are furthermore influenced by accountability (Brauckmann & Schwarz, 2012; Moos et al., 2016). However, how these policies are admitted by school principals over time is still a blind spot. On that account, the study asks: How is the discourse of school principals’ leadership autonomy discussed in school leaders’ professional journals in Germany and Norway, regarding the implementation of inclusion policies since 1994?

Leadership autonomy is thereby understood as decision-making, control, and associated responsibilities (Wermke et al., 2022). A study has furthermore shown that a certain amount of autonomy in education is needed to quickly react to different educational needs: “Professionals in public education need a certain scope of action to formulate their decisions in interactions on the reactions of students in their educational day-to-day life” (Wermke et al., 2022, p. 5). Combining these aspects of leadership autonomy with the results of a foregone study about school leaders’ task allocations mentioned in policy documents (Dahle, 2023) will present the groundwork for the discourse analyzed in this study.

The fact of inclusion and its implementation is especially significant for this analysis. Inclusion shall improve the well-being of all people, which is associated with many risks and potential errors on the part of school principals. Taking risks, making mistakes and dealing with the results are topics crucial for the analysis of leadership autonomy (Wermke & Forsberg, 2017).

Since 92 countries agreed on a school for all children during an UNESCO-conference in Salamanca, the year 1994 is chosen as a starting point for the analysis. The conference led to extensive changes not just in schools in general but also in leadership autonomy.

Germany and Norway are interesting to compare due to many similarities in later education reforms with significant impact on educational leadership. However, these reforms are embedded in different educational traditions. Both countries differ in their education system, a bureaucratized tracked in Germany and a comprehensive approach in Norway but resemble each other in their method of system regulation (Wermke & Prøitz, 2021). Comparing these two countries with their different educational traditions, similarities in later education reforms, and an almost contrary approach to inclusive education will lead to a more nuanced picture about leadership autonomy from a comparative perspective.

Pring et al. (2009) state, one of the most valuable functions of education should be responsible for keeping young people’s learning constantly up to date. This means that education should be shaped according to the needs and requirements of the period in which we live. Increased diversity within societies has started to influence school history to prepare students for the new world settings, due to its inherent nature such as understanding and respecting different perspectives, appreciating the value of diversity, and questioning one’s own views (Zajda, 2015).

Therefore, now, teaching sensitive and controversial issues (SCIs) has crucial importance within history-teaching communities in the UK for both developing individual cognitive skills and preparing students for a pluralist, democratic society (Barton & McCully, 2010; Hess, 2002; Oxfam, 2006). That is why, these kinds of subjects should be encouraged, to provide students, the opportunity to appreciate differences, tolerate different values and perspectives, and the ability to live in peace with people from various backgrounds in society (Bourn, 2014). However, the relevant literature in the UK frequently shows that history teachers hesitate to teach SCIs in their lessons (Byford et al., 2009; Kitson & McCully, 2005; Oulton et al., 2004). According to the Historical Association’s T.E.A.C.H. report, history teachers’ reasons for avoiding emotive and controversial historical subjects can be varied such as their lack of knowledge and skills, delivering misleading messages, creating conflict and alienation among students, and potential issues related to parent and school complaints (HA, 2007). Therefore, according to the research of Byford et al. (2009), the vast majority of teachers (60%) avoid teaching SCIs within the community they teach in order to protect themselves. The reasons behind this avoidance seemed to be related to the potential disapproval of the parents, potential lawsuits, and students’ sensitivities (HA, 2007; Philips, 2008, Traille, 2007). Additionally, topics related to students’ cultural and religious heritages and subjects about the wider issues in societies such as terrorism, racism and Islamophobia (Philips, 2008) are the other factors making teaching SCIs difficult for history teachers. The aim of this research, therefore, was to conduct exploratory case studies in London among history teachers, to gain further insight and understanding regarding the situation of teaching SCIs among English history teachers.

For these reasons, the research question that this study will address is: “What are the thoughts of the history teachers for teaching SCIs in history classrooms?” To answer this question, the following sub-questions will be explored:

• What kinds of challenges do teachers encounter while teaching SCIs?
• What approaches, strategies, methods, and activities do teachers utilise to overcome possible challenges while teaching SCIs?

The global discourse on diversity and inclusion makes it imperative for educational researchers to revisit marginalization in education settings. Marginalization in education is a form of acute and persistent disadvantage rooted in underlying social inequalities involving cultural differences, knowledge gaps, and socio-economic status (Akin & Neumann, 2013). It can affect students’ academic performance, peer-to-peer interaction and sense of belongingness in school (Benner & Wang, 2014; Pendergast et al, 2018). Despite the call for inclusive and equitable quality education (SDG4) that promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all, children from rural and urban poor communities, ethnic and linguistic minority children, and children in displaced situations in Ghana and many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced marginalization in education for decades (Mfum-Mensah, 2018). Thus, to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all, it is essential for stakeholders in education to create learning environments that address educational inequities among students by empowering students to speak up and become actively involved in the teaching and learning process, particularly, those historically marginalized. Consequently, educational researchers advocate for better-informed practice with research that seeks to achieve social impact (García-Carrión et al., 2020).

Along these lines, research shows that dialogic learning has transformed classrooms and schools to provide high-quality education for all students (Flecha & Soler, 2013). This approach, according to Flecha (2015) increases academic performance, improves social cohesion, and enables participants to overcome educational inequality in diverse contexts. It dismantles deficit thinking and creates opportunities for participants to be confident and freely express themselves (Flecha, 2000; García-Carrión & Allotey, 2023). Thus, drawing on the social-cultural theory of cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1978) and grounded on the theory of dialogic learning (Flecha, 2000), research shows that Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs), foster learning and inclusion of vulnerable populations (Soler, 2020). This approach to teaching and learning has been acknowledged by the European Commission for achieving social impact and benefiting historically marginalized communities in many diverse contexts (European Commission, 2011).

DLGs are an interactive dialogue-based learning environment where participants share and discuss the greatest literary works through egalitarian dialogue that fosters respect towards diversity, solidarity, freedom, and overcomes inequalities (Flecha, 2000). Implemented in over 7,000 schools in fourteen different countries across Europe and Latin America (Soler, 2020), the efficacy of DLGs has been studied in various contexts where positive impacts have been observed in reading and students’ prosocial behavior. DLGs encourage relations of friendship and respect, it fosters a sense of community and self-confidence (Díez-Palomar et al., 2020) and encourages participants to speak up and share their experiences in an egalitarian dialogic atmosphere (Flecha, 2000; Soler, 2020). Nonetheless, little is known about DLGs in Africa, particularly in Ghana. Thus, granted that the call for diversity is also a call for voice, influence and power (Biesta et al, 2022), the objective of this paper is to explore how the Dialogic Literary Gatherings empower historically marginalized students to speak up while they participate in DLGs in an 8th-grade classroom in southeastern Ghana.

Abstract: In contemporary discourse, sexuality is being presented as something fluid, with research persisting in framing sexuality as flexible and negotiable to some extent. This way of examining sexuality is problematic because as one discovers how identity changes and evolves, a certain terminology, such as ‘trend’ or ‘phase’ becomes prominent giving the illusion that LGBT+ pupils with SEND are easily influenced and too immature to form LGBT+ identities because of their cognitive impairments. Educators viewing sexuality and gender identity as a phase or a trend can result in providing inadequate support, which can be limited due to the misconception that information about LGBT+ concepts is not important for this category of pupils or that one can simply stop being LGBT+. This paper discusses the views and experiences of SEN teachers involving their pupils' ways of exploring and expressing their LGBT+ identities and examines how this links to the misconception of their sexuality and gender as a phase or a trend due to their SENDs. Being inspired by the work of scholars exploring sexual and gender identity, the paper is framed by intersectionality which allows for a detailed analysis of how identities interact and inform when used as an analytic tool. The paper calls for more nuanced thinking of sexuality and gender in the lives of LGBT+ pupils with SEND, which will help to decrease inequality.

Author of proposal: Klaudia Matasovska (email: kmata005@gold.ac.uk)

First choice network: Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Second choice network: Gender and Education Network

Keywords: childhood, youth, SEND, gender identity, sexuality, phase, intersectionality

General description:

This paper explores the opinions and experiences of SEN practitioners with work experience involving children and young people with SEND who also identify as LGBT+. This study asks the question: How do SEN practitioners’ views compare with wider society’s misconception of disabled LGBT+ pupils’ sexuality and gender as a phase or a trend due to being often viewed as too ‘immature’ to have LGBT+ identities? There is very limited information regarding the LGBT+/SEND intersection. In particular, research is very limited regarding the views of SEN teachers in relation to the LGBT+/SEND intersection and their views about the misconception that disabled pupils’ sexuality and gender identity is informed by their disability. This study is an attempt to fill in this gap in research and to talk about the intersections regarding gender, SEND and sexual orientation. Intersectionality is the chosen theoretical framework for this study as it is a suitable tool for highlighting social inequalities with regard to the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, etc. This framework is also used to highlight how individual intersections (disability, gender and sexual orientation in the case of this study) impact each other in terms of experiencing layered stigma.

Teacher education is an important field for research, since the quality of teacher education has been regularly questioned by governments across Europe, whilst teacher quality is increasingly seen as crucial to improving educational outcomes and pupil achievement (OECD, 2011; European Commission, 2015). Although it might look ’deceptively simple’ (Grossman et al, 2009), the work of teacher educators is complex and multiple (Boyd and White, 2017), and we are not just teachers of teachers (Lunenberg et al., 2017).

This workshop will begin with a short presentation from each of the convenors outling their current research practcies before we move on to make connections using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, a facilitated methodology that uses brick-building and metaphoric storytelling as a form of communication and problem-solving. In Making is Connecting Guantlett (2018) argues that through making things people engage with the world and create connections with each other. The aim of the workshop is to offer an opportunity for those interested in teacher education to engage with the themes of the network and create networking opportunities for doctoral students, emerging and early career researchers and those interested in learning more. In this workshop you will learn about the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method and how it can be used in a wide range of learning, teaching and research contexts as well as explore possibilities for connection and collaboration in teacher education.

Each EERA network holds a network meeting during ECER to review the conference, to prepare for the next year and to establish the convenors’ and reviewers’ group. The network meeting is also a chance to meet with researchers within your field of expertise and interest and to get more involved in the EERA networks.
All interested conference participants are welcome to join this meeting.

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.

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?

Assume that the thesis defense focuses on the critical criteria used by examiners to judge the merit of your thesis as they read it and create the agenda for the assessment report, or for questions to ask in the defense event. This will also determine the level of award that they will recommend to your university. So, knowing what the criteria are and what questions will possibly be asked, provides a framework from which to approach and undertake your research. Making the destination explicit should be the starting point and guide to the subsequent planning and execution for your doctoral research.

The workshop will introduce inescapable pre-requisites for a thesis to become doctoral- worthy. It will provide insights on what examiners consider to be the determinants of ‘Doctorateness’ in a thesis so that you can incorporate them right from the start of your writing. It will offer strategic practical tools to apply in your thesis and help candidates and readers appreciate:

1. The ‘whole’ and the’ parts’ that form ‘synergy’ between the account of the research that has been undertaken and the written text.

2. The high quality of conceptualisation expected from a doctoral thesis and recognized by presentation of argument and structure, which make the thesis a coherent piece of research.

The workshop will include both theory and practice where participants will be able to interact with each other and discuss issues regarding their own research.

In many school curricula in Europes' public schools, European competency is perceived as a cross-sectional task (see Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, 2020; “Curriculum Reform in Europe: The Impact of Learning Outcomes” 2012), but subjects outside of the social sciences struggle to fulfill these requirements. The German government organization "Kultusministerkonferenz" (KMK) has been working on defining European competence since the 1970s. In a recent publication (2020) they define a set of competences at the core of European education. The competences in summary are 1) geopolitical knowledge of Europe 2) intercultural competence 3) participatory competence 4) multilingual competence. Furthermore, the quote stresses the importance of building an individual European identity for every student, which co-exists with other regional modes of belonging like national, regional and local ones. Then again, Curriculum Studies (see for reference Pinar et Al., 2004, 2008; Varbelow, 2012) is rarely represented as a discipline in its own rights with research institutes in Europe (see for reference Hopmann & Riquarts 2012; Pinar, 2011). A short look at vastly different understandings of curriculum within curricular documents points towards these shortcomings.
The curricula here included fall into one of different types, which were encountered during the sampling. The classifcation here relies on a rationale of prioritization, to determine which documents were most closely related to the educational reality of the teachers and students, to classroom practice. (see Method section) The language of curricular documents vastly differs based on the outlet and the stake holder/s. Curricular documents, depdending on definitions, might include a wider or narrower range of genres of mediated production. I encounter in my research for curricular texts fall in genres defined as curriculum in a wider sense. The assembly of all curricular documents lead to a textual corpus, which I then divided into two subsamples: one being a corpus composed of all curricular documents across subjects of one area, the other being a corpus composed of the same subject across all areas. This approach will allow me to respond to the research question in two ways. One produces insight into the regional differences in terms of European education, the other produces insight into differences across subjects in that matter.
A similar definitory ambiguitiy persists with the definition of competence. For reason of practicability, I am here looking at competences which enable students to navigate the 5 political systems of the Greater Region and through the results of the analysis, I will also aim to further contribute substance to the working definitions by the KMK above and to the varying discourses of competence in classroom practice. The border region will be referenced here as Greater Region. The definition of Greater Region is marked on one hand by the geographical inclusion of Rhineland-Palantine, Wallonia in Southern Belgium, Luxembourg, the Saarland, and the French region of Grande-Est, on the other by efforts of cross-border cooperation (see Kooperationsraum-Großregion, n.d.). I am aiming to respond to the following: What (unused) potential for the inclusion of European competency is embedded within middle school curricula across different subjects in a cross-border metropolitan area? Which methodology can reveal these competencies across different curriculum designs? The responses to these questions and the analyses here provided will contribute, besides the implications for school development and didactics for teaching Europe, a pilot study to discourses of comparative curricular analysis (see Voogt & Roblin, 2012; Yates, 2016; Wei & Ou, 2019).

When it comes to Europe, pupils, as the “addressees” of education, are embedded in a rapidly changing society and thus confronted with a variety of conceptions of Europe found in societal discourse as well as school curricula and political guidelines on education about Europe. They have to find their place within these discourses and form their own judgements. Additionally, they have the possibility to identify with Europe as a cultural, political, geographical, economical or historical space. Due to heterogenous individual backgrounds and everyday life-experiences, a diversity of students’ perspectives can be assumed. As the didactics concerned with teaching about Europe aim to consider the students’ perspectives in education about Europe and empower them to represent their interests in society and politics (Lange, Vetter & Wegner 2021), this research provides a thorough insight into the students’ perception of and identification with Europe.

The Greater Region, a cross-border region between France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium with strong functional integration and frequent cross-border flows (Durand & Decoville 2020), serves as the geographical area of research. Due to the numerous entanglements in the Greater Region, it can be understood – just like other border regions within Europe – as its own transnational region within the region. It forms a space of shared, cross-national action and experience for its inhabitants. The study also examines to what degree the pupils make use of these transnational possibilities.

As a common ground, the objectives for education about Europe by the European Union were analyzed. The Council of the EU formulated recommendations On promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching (2018). The objectives of education about Europe established in this document are strengthening the “European” values and “European” identities as well as promoting active and critical citizenship. These recommendations tend to juxtapose positive identification on one end with autonomous judgement on the other end of the spectrum. As a consequence, the national or regional curricula range between these two extremes and take these recommendations into account to varying degrees. Furthermore, the production of these curricula rely on different conceptions of Europe (Langer & Mönter 2022). The didactical concepts of Critical Education about Europe reflects on educational goals and aims at enabling the students to reflect critically on the social discourses about Europe with its respective power structures. It also aims at providing students with tools needed to reflect on their own political socialization and to be able to participate in the democratic negotiation process (Eis & Moulin-Doos 2018).

Considering the above mentioned context of diverse interpretations of Education about Europe, an international comparison in an area of common transnational experiences seems all the more necessary to inform about what aspects constitute students' perspectives – their own experiences or/and societal discourses.

Following the perspective of “subjectification” (Mecheril 2014), for the purpose of this research the learners are understood as individuals, that are addressed by institutions like schools in the form of their curricula and the political requirements as subjects, who should develop certain characteristics. Since the orders of difference and belonging are only maintained through performance, the contingency, the possibility of doing things differently, is already inherent in this perspective. The empirical study therefore examines, how the pupils position themselves in the field of so called “addressings” (Rose 2019). To facilitate this examination, the perspectives of the pupils are studied regarding seven dimensions: Conceptions of Europe, identification with Europe, attitudes towards Europe, education about Europe at school, perceived possibilities for participation, the idea of a future Europe and reflection on one's own socialisation and integration into societal structures of power.

The EduLing project is concerned with citizenship education in language teaching and learning in France, Austria and Germany. It is an international comparative study on three teaching-learning settings: language teaching and learning in minority schools, in CLIL and mainstream classes. Although citizenship education is repeatedly considered in the policy discourse on language teaching and learning in Europe, there have been hardly any studies on citizenship education in this context as a didactic category to date: these include a study on the historical development of didactics and textbooks in France (Wegner 1999), curriculum research on regional studies and later intercultural competences (e.g. on "citoyenneté participative", Béacco et al. 2016) as well as two studies on CLIL at German secondary schools with a view to the subject of politics and economics (Wegner 2011) and on social science teaching and learning (Nijhawan 2021). The project therefore aims to empirically reconstruct selected European concepts and practices of citizenship education in language teaching and learning and addresses the research question of the extent to which the mentioned language teaching-learning settings contribute to citizenship education / éducation à la citoyenneté (Ravez 2018) in three different European countries.

The EduLing study is based on the assumption that democracies essentially depend on all adolescents developing into citizens who are able to critically analyse local, national, European and global contexts, negotiate their own positions and help shape society. The challenge for the further development of a concept of citizenship education with regard to language teaching and learning is therefore to extend it from the cultural to the political, democratic and social justice level, especially in the context of social change, globalisation and worldwide migration (Veugelers 2021: 1187). Furthermore, it can be assumed that language teaching in all teaching-learning settings is characterised by linguistic diversity and individual linguistic repertoires of the student body, which decisively shapes both citizenship education and language education. The linguistic heterogeneity of the student body and its consideration and support in the classroom is therefore a focus of the analysis throughout.

The reconstruction of teaching and learning practice focuses on the concept of epistemic quality and powerful knowledge (Hudson/Gericke/Olin-Scheller/Stolare 2022). The promotion of epistemic quality must be seen as elementary, especially in the context of the challenges of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, i.e. with regard to the development of an inclusive and equitable quality of education (UN, 2015) that grants all students epistemic access (Young 2013: 115; Morrow, 2008) to powerful knowledge. According to Winch (2013), powerful knowledge includes propositional knowledge (knowing that) as well as inferential and procedural knowledge (knowing how). Hudson (2018) accordingly defines creative thinking as a particular characteristic of high epistemic quality in school mathematics, for example, while superficial, rote and algorithmic thinking in mathematics must be regarded as of low epistemic quality. The concept of epistemic quality can be transferred to the context of citizenship education in language teaching and learning. In this respect, too, the concept of epistemic quality implies an epistemic ascent (Winch 2013; Hudson 2022), a continuum reflecting the progression of the novice towards an expert in subject and language (cf. Wegner/Hudson/Loquet 2022).

The proposal is limited to a discussion of the substudy of French and Basque language teaching and learning in minority schools in the Northern Basque Country, the Ikastola.

Network 27 invites researchers from the host country to report on their research at the round table. With short impulse presentations, they introduce their work and offer space for discussion with the audience.

In genetics education, epigenetics is an important emerging concept. When communicating biology, external representations help students understand epigenetic phenomena since these representations depict essential visual features and symbolism. This study explores how students interact and reason with different visualizations that communicate epigenetic phenomena presented at different levels of biological organization and modes of representation. The aim of the study is to investigate how different modes of visual representations depicted at different organizational levels mediate students' meaning making of epigenetic concepts. To identify students’ interpretation of the visualizations, the CRM model was used as an analytical tool. In an exploratory approach, thirteen students interpreted and discussed six visualizations representing different levels of biological organization at various degrees of abstraction for about 20 minutes as part of semi-structured focus group interviews. The results show that influence of the representation mode and depicted biological organization level is important in students’ meaning-making of epigenetic visualizations. Previous research has shown that students’ interpretation ability of abstract science concepts is supported by the use of different representations. This study concludes that supporting this ability in an epigenetics education context is dependent on the use of different representation modes communicated at various levels of biological organization.

Keywords: Visual learning, CRM model, levels of biological organization

Modern genetics is difficult for students to understand. The nature of biological entities are embedded in multiple hierarchical (macro, micro and sub micro) levels of organization (Marbach-Ad & Stavy, 2000). To make meaning of and understand biological phenomena requires interpretation of all these levels (Tsui & Treagust, 2013, Knippels & Waarlo, 2018). The macroscopic (organismal) level can be defined as visible objects, i.e. biological characteristics that are visible to the naked eye, the microscopic (cellular) level as objects visible under a light microscope, and the sub microscopic (biochemical) level as molecular objects that cannot be observed directly such as DNA and proteins (Marbach-Ad & Stavy, 2000). Learning with visualizations can improve students’ conceptual understanding of biological phenomenon by promoting representational competence. In particular, the ability of students to decode and interpret visualizations represented at the sub micro level is heavily influenced by the diversity of visual information and symbolism inherent in different visual representations (e.g., Ainsworth, 2006).

Epigenetics explains how environmental factors at the macro level can influence gene activity at the micro and sub micro levels. It follows that students need to reason between and across different organizational levels to understand epigenetics. This makes for a compelling didactic case in investigating students’ meaning making when interpreting multiple visual representations. This study explores how different modes of representation communicated by visualizations across and between organizational levels mediate students' meaning making and reasoning about epigenetic concepts. Various factors influence students’ interpretation of scientific visual representations. For instance, Schönborn and Anderson (2009) have shown that factors include the external visual features and graphical markings making up a representation (Mode (M) factor), the reasoning skills necessary to make meaning of a representation (Reasoning (R) factor), and the learner’s prior knowledge of the concepts that the learner “brings” to the representation (Conceptual (C) factor). A student’s ability to successfully interpret and learn from a visual representation through engagement of all three factors (i.e. C-R-M). This study uses the CRM model as an analytical tool to guide identification of students’ interpretation and reasoning with epigenetic visualizations at different levels of biological organization.

The posed research question were: How does the mode and reasoning with the concept of epigenetic visualizations influence students’ interpretation of epigenetic phenomena presented on different levels of organization? How does the mode and level of biological organization influence students’ meaning making of epigenetic concepts?

Students’ increasing unwillingness to take part in science and technology-related careers has been underscored in the science education community (Ulriksen, Madsen y Holmegaard, 2015) because it may weaken the STEM-related workforce (Subotnik et al. 2009). However, our view is not aligning with the improvement of STEM areas to reproduce cognitive capitalism and to contribute to the reinforcement of the future workforce who with their knowledge, skills, and expertise assist the financial marketplace (Torres, 2017), but a matter of social and curricular justice.

Recent studies have reported that declining interest and negative attitudes towards school science occur during the lower-secondary school years (Gibson & Chase, 2002; Murphy & Beggs, 2003) and it is attributed, among other factors, to the overloaded, outdated and not very relevant curricula, difficult and boring contents, and the gap between the science taught and the current techno-science of everyday life (Vázquez & Manassero, 2005; Murphy & Beggs, 2003; Gilbert, Bulte &Pilot, 2011). In the Spanish context, the content-based teaching approach in science education, the presentation of knowledge as dogmas proved through a stereotyped method (Rivero et al. 2017), and the lack of attention paid to scientific procedures in science education, and its relation with society has impeded students to get closer and familiarised with the scientific activity (Vázquez, Acevedo y Manassero, 2005).

Rocard et al. (2007) cite the teaching approach (instruction) as the cause of declining interest and negative attitudes towards S&T. Tolstrup, Moller and Ulriksen (2014) believe that teaching strategies play a key role in the development of positive attitudes, as do Aguilera and Perales (2017), who highlight the importance of using active T-L strategies in science education such as inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, context-based learning, and model-based learning. All these strategies, rooted in the theory of constructivism, are more likely to foster the relationship between curiosity, interest, and learning (Palmer, 2005 in Aguilera y Perales, 2017) and thus develop a positive attitude towards it. In this sense, Vazquez and Manassero (2009) point out that science education must not only inspire students' enjoyment of learning, but also promote activities with technological devices, machines, and tools to develop and promote interest in science and technology.

Therefore, in this communication we analyze – with a gender perspective - an interdisciplinary, context-based, and collaborative educational practice carried out in the 4^th year of secondary education – Year 11, students aged 15-16– rooted in ICT and technology subjects – and its impact on students’ interests in technology.

The main objectives of this study are:

• To analyze the foundations of an interdisciplinary, context-based, and collaborative educational practice.
• To determine the impact of active teaching-learning approaches on students’ interest in technology.

In this paper, we analyze how variation theory is used in teachers’ collegial discussion concerning physical education. Teaching is supposed to be researched-informed, but teachers experience discrepancy between educational research and their everyday practice (Cain, 2017). Ertsas and Irgens (2021) argue for the importance of viewing theory and practice as interwoven instead of hierarchical. The use of theory and theoretical concepts is challenging for teachers, and Cain (2017) call for more studies of how teachers “receive, understand and use educational research” (s.622).

Even if use of theory is demanding for teachers, theoretical concepts which appear meaningful in planning, enactment and evaluation of teaching, has a potential to become theoretical tools in teachers’ learning communities, TLC. TLC with a focus on teaching and student learning is valuable for the development of teacher competence (Vangrieken, Meredith, Packer & Kyndt, 2017). Ertsas and Irgens (2017) emphasize a need of shifting focus from teachers’ knowledge about theory to the process of professional theorizing, which implies the operationalization of theoretical concepts in interplay with teaching practice. In the theorizing process, they argue, the theory is of different degrees (Ertsas & Irgens, 2017). The first degree of theory, T1, is implicit and viewed in teachers’ actions in the classroom. The second degree of theory, T2, is explicit, viewed in the teachers’ arguments and assumptions for teaching. The third degree of theory, T3, contribute to teachers’ reflections and analysis of accomplished teaching. The professional theorizing process is illustrated as different phases, where the three different degrees of theory interplays (ibid).

The professional theorizing process is an essential part of collegial development in schools (Ertsas & Irgens, 2021), especially when authentic questions and teaching experiences function as the point of departure (Darling-Hammond et.al., 2005). Teachers’ collegial discussions is phrased as inter-thinking by Littleton and Mercer (2013). The professional collegial discussions are characterized by inquiring, questioning, and problematizing suggestions and reflections concerning teaching (Kintz, Lane, Gotwals & Cisterna, 2015; Nelson, Slavit, Perkins & Hathorn, 2008; Popp & Goldman, 2016).

In the present study, variation theory (Marton, 2015) is used in the teachers’ collegial discussions. According to variation theory, the learner (the student) always learns something, which is conceptualized as the object of learning (Marton, 2015). The object of learning is described in terms of critical aspects to be discerned by the learner. To learn, it is necessary to experience variation in relation to what has to be discerned. The teaching design focus on how to offer possibilities for the learner to experience the necessary variation in the aspect. This implies a need of an initial investigation of how the specific group of students experience the object of learning.

Variation theory is used in the school development models learning studies (Lo, 2014) and Subject Didactics Groups, SDG, (Mårtensson & Hansson, 2018; Hansson, 2021). These models, thereby, include professional theorizing in line with Ertsas and Irgens (2021). In SDG’s teachers and a researcher collaboratively plan, teach and evaluate teaching guided by variation theory. Teachers’ learning from participation in learning studies (Kullberg, Mårtensson & Runesson, 2016; Mårtensson, 2015) and Subject Didactic Groups (Hansson, 2021) shows that teachers develop their teaching and become more specific regarding what the students are supposed to learn. Teachers in learning studies use the term critical aspect in the conversation whereas other variation theory concepts are more demanding (Mårtensson, 2015; Hansson, 2021). Most studies of SDG´s focusing on mathematics teaching (Hansson, 2021). There is a lack of studies concerning other school subjects. Our research question is: How is variation theory used in teachers’ conversation in an SDG in physical education?

Discussions of higher education teaching are often shrouded with narratives highlighting common and regular teaching obligations and situations rather than extreme and spectacular examples. However, as seen during the pandemic, teaching in times of crisis moves beyond what is needed in times of stability. Indeed, the pandemic reminds us that it is pivotal for teachers to be able to navigate different and sometimes unknown contexts (Christensen et al., 2022; Jung et al., 2021) while at the same time adding, what to some may come across as something extra to teaching in terms of caring about, and for, others (Tronto, 2010). This paper moves beyond the Covid-19 pandemic as a point in time to the pandemic as a case of disrupted education involving sudden changes to the educational framework (García-Morales et al., 2021). Our paper focuses on what we might learn from the pandemic in terms of ways to support teachers in times of disrupted teaching. This paper is written to directly respond to the NW27 call for studies of ’teaching and learning in diverse contexts’.

Studies of higher education teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic have produced substantial accounts that address broad issues of digitisation of higher education teaching and learning. Transitioning to remote emergency teaching was, by large, seen as an organisational and technological accomplishment. However, as adapting to and appropriating new contexts cannot take place independently from human thought and actions, this paper seeks to rehumanise transitions by focusing on the role of teachers’ identity and agency. Whereas identity refers to teachers’ identification with a specific group or as a self-image we construct (Kreber, 2010) and involves an emotional attachment to particular roles intertwined with sociality, culture and power relations (Elliott, 2019), agency comprises humans’ capacity and willingness to act and cause actions or changes (Goller & Harteis, 2017). While teacher agency is expected, it is rarely explored or supported in ways that move beyond didactical decision-making. In that sense, then, narrow accounts of teachers’ agency and identity signal a trend of approaching teaching as an individual construct and teachers individually responsible for making teaching work “no matter what”.

From the outset, this paper discusses what is needed to navigate new and disrupted teaching contexts from a teacher's perspective and what higher education can do to support teachers. In particular, the present paper presents findings from a study of teachers’ identity and agency in higher education in times of disrupted education, which explores the following research question: What supports teachers’ agency and identity in complex interventions and times of disrupted education?

Phenomenological research approaches whilst well-established in the health sciences, have only recently begun to be applied in educational research. Farrell (2020) finds the underrepresentation of phenomenological research in education surprising, given that, as she says, 'education is founded on attending to and building upon the knowledge and experiences of others'. As phenomenological research gains momentum in the educational domain, researchers will seek to understand how it can be applied. Those undertaking phenomenological research are cautioned to familiarise themselves with its origins as a philosophy rather than a methodology (Farrell, 2020, p.1) wherein principles rather than methods are outlined. Despite the lack of prescription by way of methods, as research practice in the field has developed, it is apparent that studies that adopt phenomenological approaches depend, almost exclusively, on data generated through in-depth interviews. This is unsurprising given the focus on description in phenomenological inquiry but it opens up the question of what experiences might remain untold in the dissemination of findings from phenomenological studies.

In this paper, the richness of possibilities to illuminate lived experiences using multi-modal data generation tools is discussed. The paper draws on a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the nature of the lived experiences of upper primary school teachers’ and pupils’ relationships with one another. Hermeneutic “texts” were generated using embodied methods, visual methods and artefacts. In this paper, I suggest that inviting participants to describe their experiences through a variety of modes constituted an inclusive research design and offered the potential to unearth experiences that might otherwise have been inaccessible. In this study, teacher participants were invited to bring three artefacts, which helped them to describe their relationship with the children in their classes, to an in-depth interview. The use of the artefacts created an inclusive interview dynamic giving a degree of control of the interview to the participants and allowed both myself as researcher and the interview participants to have an ‘effective joint referent’ (Westcott and Littleton, 2005, p. 148). Further, using the artefacts as part of the conversational interviews enhanced the depth of descriptions of the child-teacher relationship.

Finally, in the context of an increasing recognition of children’s participation in research from a rights perspective (UNCRC, Article 12), and mindful that oral language can present a barrier, I share my experiences of using embodied drama research methods in the exploration of children’s experiences of the child-teacher relationship. I argue for the generative potential of inviting children to ‘show’ as well as to ‘tell’ in phenomenological inquiry honouring the sometimes neglected idea of corporeal knowledge.

English Language Arts [English/literacy] teachers in the main anglophone countries experience extreme pressures on their teacher agency, especially in England, Australia and the USA. The curriculum has narrowed, accountability is extreme, tests are high stakes and many teachers are leaving. Our research, involving four, projects, from USA, England and Australia analyses these issues and reveals a desperate situation. Certain teachers have developed ‘adaptive agency’, a powerful aspect of such which is their retention of loving literature and profound belief that all students can still love and enjoy literature, passionately believing that the curriculum/test combination is ruining this fundamental element of professional lives. They express hope, drawing on long experience, that reforms may bring about a time of more equitable opportunity.

Purpose and context

Around the world teachers have been experiencing strong external pressures on their work, reducing their autonomy, constraining creativity [Author 1., 2013, 2016, 2020], especially true of a subject area like Language Arts [English/literacy – see note below] where teachers have deep convictions about the vital importance of engaging students in local and immediate ways, untrammelled by nationalistic agendas. The identity of Language Arts teachers in the USA, Australia and England has marked similarities, characterised by a passionate attachment to teaching literature [Author 1. et al, 2015], a student centred ideology often constructed around a Personal Growth model of the subject and strongly inflected by a view of students as agents in meaning making who adopt a critical literacy perspective on texts and language [ Author 1., 2004, 2005].

Another common factor is what is happening to the subject of English/Language Arts in schools and universities, less students choose to study it at school and numbers on degree programmes are rapidly reducing. It is becoming more difficult to recruit LA teachers onto teacher preparation programmes coupled with the remarkable increase in LA teachers leaving either during their first 5 years of teaching or at a later stage taking early retirement or making a career change.

Conceptual framework

Teacher agency is important in all curriculum subjects but we argue it has an additional element in Language Arts [LA] because of the centrality of literature to teachers own lives and to their teaching. In former times of more ‘harmonious practice’ there was an alignment between the kind of literature teachers themselves wanted to teach and the curriculum and modes of assessment.

Adaptive agency can be first defined in a simple way as: The evolving agency of the individual teacher within the power matrix of external and internal regulation. When viewed in more detail its components are: [1] Agency this relates to the individual’s degree of control over classroom practice and curriculum design at the point of the present tense, that is when ‘English’ is happening in a classroom (Author 1., 2019). [2] The external matrix has many elements, some are subject documents [like a curriculum definition or an examination specification], teacher standards, inspection frameworks, these documents are pervaded by principally neoliberal discourses [3] the internal regulations are those elements where the teacher behaves in alignment with the documents and the ideology that pervades them. The adaptive quality relates to the Darwinian characteristic (Darwin, 1869) of surviving and coping in a difficult environment but also to adaptive expertise (Author 1., 2016) where the agent can still exert some power and control in a skilled and personal manner. Inevitably this set of factors creates a very tense and conflictual strain on the teacher’s personal and professional identity, too much strain for some teachers to bear, the emotional toll is too high and many leave the profession [certainly in England].

Teachers' daily work with chemistry teaching involves a range of everyday decisions about the content and how to organize the teaching. This study is a pilot study of professional agency in teachers' work with teaching middle school chemistry using curriculum units and resources from Naturvetenskap och teknik för alla (NTA) [in English Science and Technology for All]. The NTA curriculum resources can be described as a Swedish equivalent to the US program “Science and Technology for Children” (STC). The NTA resource provides a basis for elementary school science teaching in many Swedish schools and is intended to support science teaching and continuous professional development of science teachers including those with a limited science education background. Previous research has pointed to that NTA has a positive effect on student achievements on national tests concerning the aspect of planning and conducting investigations compared to teachers who do not use NTA in their teaching (Mellander & Svärdh, 2015). Thus, the NTA resources appear to have an impact on chemistry education and the aims achieved (cf. Johansson, 2012).

Teachers interpret and enact policy from steering documents as well as curriculum resources such as NTA or resources produced by other actors seeking to influence how the school subjects are constituted in practice (cf. Andrée & Hansson, 2021). Thus, even when teachers work with relatively structured teaching units such as NTA their enactment of teaching can be seen as part of the transposition of Chemistry as a school subject.

Within the Swedish school system, teachers are considered to have a high degree of autonomy with opportunities for their own beliefs to shape their teaching (cf. Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä & Paloniemi, 2013). How teachers approach the transformation of policy intentions in shaping middle school chemistry instruction becomes intertwined with the space for professional autonomy. As teachers approach different visions of the purpose of science education, they orient themselves in different ways as to what knowledge is considered to be important. This study zooms into how teachers make use of their professional space in the transformation and enactment of chemistry as a school subject, in spite of various forms of increasing standardization (Oolbekkink-Marchand et al., 2017) and other restricting factors.

In this study, we draw on an ecological model of teacher agency by Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson (2015) to shed light on the professional agency achieved by middle school teachers in the transformation and forming of chemistry education when they work with NTA curriculum resources. Here, agency is seen as an emergent phenomenon that is achieved with “continually shifting contexts over time and with orientations towards past, future, and present” (op cit p. 25). The model is based on a temporal-relational view of agency highlighting three dimensions of teacher agency; as informed by the past (iterational), as orientated to the future (projective), and as acted out in the ‘here and now’ (practical-evaluative).

The aim is to contribute to an understanding of the agency achieved by middle school teachers in the forming of chemistry teaching with NTA curriculum resources. Thus, the presentation zooms into teachers’ histories and beliefs concerning the teaching of Chemistry, their ability to visualize alternative ways of teaching Chemistry with NTA and their day-to-day navigation of practical conditions for chemistry teaching.

The research question is: How do middle school teachers achieve agency in chemistry teaching built on the use of NTA curriculum units?

Situated in relation to the recent use of the construct Powerful Knowings in Scandinavian and German didaktik, this paper develops a posthuman theoretical model for Bildung based on a diffractive reading through of two contemporary works: Iain McGilchrist’s “The master and his emissary - The divided brain and the making of the Western world” (2007) and Karen Barad’s “Meeting the universe halfway - Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning” (2009). The model’s development is seen as a key step in a larger project oriented towards improving teaching for Bildung (as Knowings) in science and technology education, but also, in relation to this, in opening for empirical investigations of both Bildung-oriented teacher praxis and student outcomes. In this way the model’s development may be of valuable importance with regard to with fundamental questions of Scandinavian and German didaktik (What is important to learn? How should it be taught, and Why?), as well the question of what Bildung and didaktik might mean for us in today’s increasingly complex societies.

As part of a response to the loss of a content discourse within educational research (see for example Biesta, 2009), as well as a need of a reorientation in school towards navigating today’s complexity and challenges stemming from the issues of socio-ecojustice and human impacts on the systems of the Earth, there is interest in science education research in the use of the construct Powerful Knowings (e.g. Carlgren, 2020; Yavuzkaya, Clucas and Sjöström, 2022). A question requiring further exploration in this regard is how science and technology educators (at all school levels) can more purposefully teach for Knowings in their science and technology teaching.

Powerful Knowings are linked to a situating of Young and colleagues’ (Young, 2013; Young and Muller, 2013) idea of powerful knowledge in relation to the Scandinavian and German didaktik educational tradition and Bildung (Carlgren, 2020). As a central element of the Scandinavian and German didaktik educational tradition (e.g., Sjöström and Eilks, 2018), Bildung emphasizes learning and change that takes place based in a perspective of humans as relating with and indivisible from ‘the whole of their context’ (e.g. von Humboldt, 2000; Kvamme, 2021). A central idea in this respect is of the Bildung person as someone who intentionally opens themselves to learning and change through their relating, and of becoming capable of responding responsibly and ethically to key issues associated with ‘the whole of their context’ (Kvamme, 2021). Crucially then, by situating powerful knowledge in relation to Bildung, Subject-Knowings are seen as powerful content knowledges that include embodied and relational dimensions (Yavuzkaya, Clucas and Sjöström, 2022).

Recently there has been an interest in developing a posthuman understanding of Bildung which more purposely seeks to broaden what is understood by ‘the whole of the person’s context’ to include all entities making up our world (Taylor, 2017). In this paper we seek to further develop Bildung as understood through posthumanism by drawing largely from a diffractive reading through of Karen Barad’s agential realist ontology (2007) and McGilchrist’s divided brain hypothesis (2009). The purpose of the larger project is to develop a framework that can be drawn from in guiding science and technology educators (at all school levels) in more purposefully teaching for Bildung (as Knowings) in their science and technology teaching.

In this study, we target the role and the work of science teachers when encountering teaching resources produced by industry and offered to schools to support science and technology teaching. The project is set in the intersection of curriculum studies, educational policy and didactics and focuses on industry-produced teaching resources offered to schools by companies and business organizations in various areas of science and technology.

There are many examples of such teaching resources across Europe. In Sweden, examples include textbooks produced by the forest industry on forests and forestry or on plastics by the petrochemical industry, as well as lesson plans with films and student worksheets by the meat industry on antibiotics. Similarly, Parvin and Stephenson (2004) conclude that there is a long tradition of industrial engagement in the UK involving the manufacturing industry and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. To date, previous research on science and technology education has pointed to that teaching might benefit from industry collaboration e.g., in terms of increased student motivation and challenging stereotypic images of science, technology, and industry (e.g. Henriksen et al., 2015; Loukomies, 2013).

However, when industrial actors engage in education, they also act to influence the transposition of the educational content (cf. Chevellard, 2007). According to Chevellard (2007, p. 32) a core to the theory of didactic transposition is that “it considers knowledge as a changing reality, which adapts to its institutional habitat where it occupies a more or less narrow niche”. In other words, the content of education is not merely defined and set in curricula and syllabuses but set in praxis, in a dialectic of persons and institutions. Rather, what constitutes knowledge or content of a school subject is what has “gained epistemic recognition from some culturally dominant institutions” (op cit, p.133).

In the Swedish context, there is a range of industrial education initiatives including school programmes, competitions, festivals and other event-based initiatives (cf. Teknikdelegationen, 2010). It has been estimated that about 40% of the STEM initiatives in Sweden are in some way financed by industry and the private sector (op cit). In the production of teaching resources industry actors seek to influence what is considered knowledge; what is considered true and valuable. In doing so, the industrial actors become part of the local governing of education (Robertson et al., 2012; Giroux, 2019). In Canada, Eaton & Day (2020) show how the oil industry influences the messages communicated in science teaching on climate and climate change. Thus, when teachers incorporate and make use of such resources this will impact the students’ encounters with the school subjects. In decentralized school systems, such as the ones in the Nordic countries, classroom practices become particularly vulnerable to such external influences (Carlgren, 2009).

The aim of this presentation is to discuss the interests of industry actors in education and how teachers can navigate such interests in the didactic transposition of knowledge in education. This presentation synthesizes a three-year project on the participation of industry actors in science and technology education where the following research questions have been investigated:

• What are the rationales used by industry actors to account for why they engage in science and technology education?

• To which extent are these rationales mirrored as interests in the teaching resources offered by the industry to schools?

• And, how do teachers approach the evaluation of teaching resources offered by the industry?

In the presentation we will present the main points of three sub-studies and engage in a meta-reflection regarding how the combined results may contribute to the understanding of the processes of didactic transposition and the role of different actors.

This paper reports on a school development project of an innovative learning environment (ILE). Staff and pupils from two traditionally build corridor schools have merged into a new build school, whose architecture is described as new, innovative, modern, and flexible (OECD, 2017). Instead of having one classroom with a standardised size of 60m2, the ILE consists of different rooms both regarding size and furniture. Another change was that teachers had to be prepared to go from the traditional practice of individually teaching a class with approx. 25 students to the practice of team teaching with 2-5 teachers teaching a whole grade with approx. 60-100 students. The narrative of the project focused on the shift from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred learning, which in previous research have been a challenge due to well established teacher-centred methods (Cardellino & Woolner, 2019; Sigurdadottir & Hjartson, 2016; Gislason, 2010).

The present research project started two years before the teachers moved into the new ILE. During these two years, school leaders prepared teachers for the new practice. Among these preparatory activities, one core activity consisted of prototype ILE classrooms where teachers could practice student-centred learning methods. In our research, the materiality of the new classroom and teachers’ played-out practice are operationalised as two dimensions (Bergström & Wiklund-Engblom, 2022; Bergström, 2019). The first, a vertical dimension, concerns preconditions of the physical learning environment embodied through the arrangement of desks, use of teachers’ and students’ areas, relations between learning resources, and selection of software applications. The second, a horizontal dimension, includes teachers’ communication in practice pertaining to their selection of content, sequence, pace, and speech space (cf. Bernstein, 2000). The combination of the two dimensions creates a theoretical framework for an ecology of teacher practice as an “emergent phenomenon” (Carvalho & Yeoman, 2018, p. 5). This is an illustrative metaphor for the practice that emerge in teacher preparation for teaching in an ILE.

The aim of this study is to examine and unpack emergent and varying practices in the prototype classrooms with regard to the two dimensions. The following research questions were asked: 1) What variations in teachers played-out practice emerge from teachers’ organisation of the classroom space and communication in practice? 2) How can the teachers’ reasoning further explain the variation of these emergent ILE practices?

Theory

One outcome of our prior studies is the development of a new theory-driven analysing tool, the Typology of Teacher Power and Control (TTPC) (e.g., Bergström & Wiklund-Engblom, 2022, Bergström, 2019), constructed from Bernstein’s (2000) theory of power and control. In the vertical dimension of the TTPC-typology, Bernstein’s relative concept of classification is used to analyse how power emerge from the relationship between objects in the classroom. In short, strong classification keeps things apart, which indicates a strong symbolic power relationship. The opposite is true for weak classification. For example, desks in rows keep students apart and indicates a strong classification and teachers’ power. In the horizontal dimension of the TTPC-typology, Bernstein’s relative concept of framing is used to analyse how control emerge from teachers’ communication in practice. Framing is also a relative concept on a scale from strong to weak. Stronger framing indicates that the teacher has more control in the communication, while weaker framing indicates increased student control. Framing is operationalised as the variation of selection, sequence, pacing, evaluation, and teacher-student and student-student communication. Hence, the concepts of framing and classification represent the two dimensions, which construct a two-dimensional matrix illustrating the emerging teaching practices in the prototype classrooms.

Economic development worldwide requires specialists in the STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Mohtar, 2019). Research shows that there is great interest in STEM disciplines among primary school children but that this interest decreases at lower secondary school. The attitudes of lower secondary school students depend on the environment and the people around them, like teachers, friends and parents (Tomperi et al., 2020).

Gender differences influence motivation for STEM education and careers, and most researchers agree with the existence of gender inequality in STEM fields (Delaney & Devereux, 2019; Diekman et al., 2017; Master, A., 2021, Moss-Racusin, 2018). According to Master (2021), children belonging to a gender group with negative STEM stereotypes tend to doubt their abilities, making it difficult to develop an interest in this area. These processes begin in preschool age and intensify later in school years and carrier choices. Delaney and Devereux (2019) believe that the effects of these processes are shown by the different choices of subjects and grades in secondary school. Several studies have attempted to identify factors that contribute to the development of the gender gap in STEM, such as differences in lifestyles, support for shared goals, and access to appropriate role models and mentors (Diekman et al., 2017; Master, A., 2021; Moss-Racusin, 2018; Kiernan et al., 2022).

Research on students’ career choices is based on social cognitive career theory (SCCT), which explores students’ interest in STEM subjects and examines the interactions between self-efficacy, goals and expected results (Lent et al., 2000). These three variables enable people to influence their professional development. SCCT also includes variables that influence personal control over a career.

In this paper, we focus on students’ STEM subject and career aspirations in a city in Northern Norway. This is a further investigation of an international study in which we investigated STEM subjects and career aspirations (Tomperi et al., 2022).

The research questions are as follows:

1. Which STEM subjects do students from a city in Northern Norway have interest in?

2. What influences students’ orientation towards a particular STEM discipline as their future career?

3. Do gender differences exist in the students’ orientation towards certain STEM disciplines as their future career?

This paper uses an adapted version of the STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) to investigate the interest in STEM subjects and careers of students in lower secondary schools in a city in Northern Norway. STEM-CIS is derived from SCCT (Lent et al., 2000). The SCCT framework includes three models of career development: interest, choice and performance. The interest model examines the ways self-efficacy and output expectations develop students’ interest, while the choice model explores the ways interest, self-efficacy, and output expectations influence choice goals, which then motivate choice actions (Lent, 2013).

Personal inputs, such as gender, grade, family and school, influence individuals’ learning experiences, which in turn affect their self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Factors that are influenced by personal inputs also affect interest, goals and actions. Guided by SCCT, the STEM-CIS was developed to measure the six key constructs of self-efficacy, personal goals, expectation of results, interest in, contextual support and individual inputs (Kier et al., 2014).

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has become an important policy agenda in many countries around the world to increase international economic competitiveness (Kärkkäinen & Vincent-Lancrin, 2013). With the recognition that teachers are critical to successful learning (Baker‐Doyle & Yoon, 2011; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hattie, 2011) and as schools grapple with how to introduce STEM into their curriculum (Education Council, 2015), it is becoming increasingly essential to develop processes and programs that support and sustain teacher and school change (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2016a). STEM learning centres play a vital role as part of the STEM education ecosystem (Schugurenzky, 2000; Traphagen & Traill, 2014) in providing specialist learning experiences for students and teachers to compliment school curricula. Depending on their purpose and structure, STEM learning centres can offer informal and non-formal learning opportunities and may be integrated into formal learning as part of school programming. Some STEM learning centres are part of the outreach strategy for universities, such as the University of Arizona STEM Learning Center, which engage local school students in STEM-related programs in partnership with a range of organisations. In comparison, in Italy the Fondazione Golinelli is funded privately by a philanthropic foundation since 1998, providing STEM experiences for students from early childhood through to adulthood. Different again is the LUMA Centre Finland, which is a large multi-university organisation that collaborates with private and public institutions to research, develop and implement non-formal, out-of-school and extra-curricular LUMA activities. Industry collaboration and design-based pedagogy are core foci (Aksela et al., 2021).

In Victoria, Australia, the Tech Schools are specialised, purpose-built STEM learning centres that are hosted, owned and operated by universities or Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions, but funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training (the Department). Currently consisting of a network of ten Tech Schools operating under a single Tech School ‘model’, Tech Schools are designed to provide learning programs that are developed in partnership with local industry partners to suit local contexts and needs, and are aligned to the Victorian school curriculum. Each Tech School offers different programs. Teachers are offered a range of professional development opportunities, whilst the wider community interacts through events, after school programs, and access to the facility’s resources. Like the other STEM learning Centres mentioned, Tech schools are not schools, but centres that are accessed by local secondary schools to supplement their STEM programs.

We are conducting a longitudinal evaluation of the Tech Schools Initiative in 2019-2023. The evaluation uses a Theory of Innovation based on Jäger’s (2004) wave model of innovation, which identified three pillars of innovation: content, structure and people. This presentation will focus on one part of the evaluation: the effects of the innovative content arising through the student programs. The research question is: What differential effects do Tech School programs have for participating students and teachers? Six categories of programs were devised in order to undertake a program impact analysis:

Category 1. Programs with industry (Industry-based technologies and involved Industry and community partners);

Category 2. Programs focused on problem solving and design-based challenges (Design and problem-based learning);

Category 3. Programs focused on skill building (Skill development);

Category 4. Programs with blended delivery modes or locations (Located at the school, host, industry and community, online);

Category 5. Programs focused on networking and deep engagement (Networking, Weeks or months in duration, Located at Tech School or industry); and

Category 6. Programs focused on enhancing senior studies (Skill development, Career pathways, Senior school year levels [Year 11 and 12]).

A shift is apparent in design of school building over the last decades, from the traditional 20th century „bell and cell“ (Nair et al, 2005) design towards more open and flexible learning spaces. This is the case in Iceland and is well documented by Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir and Torfi Hjartarson (2016, 2018, 2021) and reflect paradigm changes from traditional 19th- and 20th-century design forms, based on conventional classrooms along corridors, towards open and flexible learning spaces designed for teamwork and more student-centred approaches. This development has not always been clear-cut nor free of difficulties, but most schools or school extensions built in this century have been designed to accommodate open and flexible approaches in school practices. A similar trend has been apparent in other parts of the world, including Sweden (Frelin & Grannäs, 2021), Finland (Niemi, 2021), Australia (Kariippanon et al. 2020), and many other countries OECD, 2013), often involving considerable challenges for school leaders, teachers, and students (Woolner & Stadler-Altmann, 2021). Several studies have focused on investigating the link between school design and pedagogy, but little known about if and how school design have impact on student learning. This study is a first step in effort to better understand these impacts. The objectives of this study are to analyse student perception towards some aspects of teaching and learning in ILE classrooms in Nordic schools and compare it to student perception in more conventional classroom settings.

What counts as an innovative learning space is debatable and can be viewed from many perspectives (Bradbeer et al 2019). The term of an innovative physical learning environment (ILE) has, however, gain popularity in the literature about an environment that is different from the traditional “grammar of schooling”, with classrooms of similar sizes lined up along corridors. It is a design forms as open and flexible learning spaces of different size designed for different purposes. Two or more teachers share the responsibility of a group of students, refereed to here as team teaching. Team teaching is a common practice and is a promising condition for a professional learning community (PLC) as it promotes teacher collaboration, job satisfaction and professional dialogue (e.g. Hargreaves, 2019). Not much is known on effects on student, however, Kariippanon et al (2018) noted positive changes in student engagement and wellbeing as they moved from traditional classroom settings to ILE arrangements in Australian schools.

A recent review of the literature (Duthilleul, et al 2021) leads to the conclusion that the physical environment does affect processes of teaching and learning and could be assumed to have an impact, for better or worse, on student learning (Byer, 2021). There is however a broad agreement in the literature that potential positive effects of ILE on student learning or well-being is only possible if other factors of the schoolwork aligned with the ideology behind the design (e.g. Gislason, 2010; Woolner et al, 2018; French et al. 2020; Frelin et al, 2021; Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir, et al 2016, 2021). An innovative learning space would always incorporate innovative pedagogies that aims for better learning outcomes and more competent students (Bradbeer et al. 2019; Frelin & Grannas, 2021). Therefore, studies on physical learning spaces should always include investigation of potential influences on teaching practices and student learning and well-being.

The research question is: How, do students in ILE classrooms perceive the teaching practice differently from students in traditional classrooms?

Lot of public and private institutions and organizations are facing explanations to understand the new social and individual needs in learning and teaching at all stages of education derived of COVID-19. Some of them have published reports on youth (Injuve, 2020), on employment (ILO, 2022), on training systems (Cedefop, 2020; DOUE, 2020), among others. However, there are no many studies to understand the emergence of new social and individual needs in the context of second chance training programs (Portela-Pruaño et al., 2022) to re-engage young people in training, education and employment.

The Second Chance Schools scheme was proposed by the European Commission (2001) in November 1995 to combat exclusion. The projects concerned were intended “to provide new education and training opportunities to young excluded people who lacked the skills and qualifications to enter further training or the job market” (European Commission, 2001, p.8). Expressions of interest began to appear, strongly in some countries than others, and the Second Chance Schools scheme became as a reality in different countries. It is appropriate to recall that it was not a European incursion into education systems, nor the imposition of a particular model. Therefore, the particularities of each school were to depend to a large extend on local and national circumstances but some general rules.

In Spain, the Spanish Association of Second Chance Schools (E2O) is responsible of a large part of these re-engage programs thanks to the 45 accredited schools as E2O. Training for employment and the return to formal training constitute the offer that second chance schools plan to promote the social inclusion of young people in vulnerable situations (Merino et al., 2022). In the context of actual societal crisis, it is necessary to know what characterizes the curriculum, the didactics, and the demand profile of second chance schools.

Our objective will be to analyze organizational matters which focuses on the design of a curriculum (are E2O able to adapt the curriculum to respond adequately to the characteristics of their students?), on the conceptions of didactics and teaching practices in E2O scenarios (what are the interventions principle of second chance schools to answer individual needs in learning?) and on the profile of second chance schools' students (what characterize the profile of E2O students?).

Research that seeks to describe how inclusive teaching can be conducted needs to take students' perspectives as a starting point, Kiki Messiou argues that it’s “a manifestation of being inclusive” (Messiou, 2006, p. 9). Furthermore, Messiou and Mel Ainscow (2017) argues that “students’ views can add a distinctive perspective for developing changes in learning and teaching that go well beyond traditional views of effective practice” (ibid, p.5). Hence, they state that students’ perspectives can lead to changes in understandings and practices which in turn can help to facilitate the development of more inclusive approaches in schools (ibid). In line with this argument, students' experiences of inclusive teaching constitute the starting point of this current dissertation project.

Within the field of inclusive education inclusion can be defined as “broad” or “narrow” (Ainscow, et. al, 2020). A narrow perspective focus on inclusion of specific student groups i.e. students in need of special support, in mainstream school education. A broad view, on the other hand, focuses on how schools make use of pluralism among students in a school for all (ibid). This study connects to this broader view. Ainscow & Messiou (2017) state that a broad understanding of inclusion presupposes that the school eliminates exclusionary processes which depend on ethnicity, social class, religion, gender and perceived abilities (ibid). Accordingly, this can be described as an intersectional perspective on inclusion, based on how several forms of inequalities and discrimination are connected over time and in different contexts (UNESCO, 2019).

Inclusive education is in this current dissertation project understood through the lens of didactics. Alexander von Oettingen (2010), who bases his ideas within the continental general didactic tradition (Allgemeine Pädagogik), state that "without didactics there is no opportunity for participation or emancipation because life itself does not teach, it socializes" (ibid, p. 137, my translation). von Oettingen describes school as an artificial place where students can take a step away from "reality" and go beyond taken for granted ideas regarding themselves and the world. Students might be limited by social prejudice and discrimination in everyday life, but through general didactics in teaching students can be offered an inclusive situation in school. Oettingen’s ideas has inspired to the idea that inclusive education needs to be described and understood in didactic terms.

In this study, to be able to study inclusive education from a student perspective, phenomenology is used. According to Edmund Husserl phenomenology is about going "back to the things themselves" (Husserl, 1969). The basic idea within this philosophical way of thinking is that the world can only be understood if it is described on the premises of the things, how they appear pre-reflective, in themselves. The ontological starting point is that the world is lived and that it appears to humans through and within their direct experiences, in actual situations, in an environment which includes other human beings. The epistemological consequence of such an ontology is that the world can be understood only through human experience (Bengtsson, 1998).

To conclude, the aim of the current dissertation project is to describe teachers’ inclusive teaching with a phenomenological approach, from students’ perspectives and to use general didactic theories to analyze these descriptions. The scope is relevant to European educational research as it provides an opportunity to discuss and formulate the work regarding diversity in education and educational research with a “critical edge” (Ainscow & Messiou, 2017) and with didactical language. Hence my ambition is to explore how teachers in teaching can work in new ways and with their professional didactic language for societal change.

In this study presented here, the international feedback method "Learning Stories" was implemented in the project “WEICHENSTELLUNG” (setting of the course). The aim was to foster the (intrinsic) motivation and the self-esteem of the children from the project WEICHENSTELLUNG, both basic psychological constructs for the transition process from primary school to secondary school.

The target group of the German project WEICHENSTELLUNG are children from families who cannot sufficiently support their children in the transition to secondary school. These are supported in the project by students of teaching from the fourth to the sixth grade.

The Learning Stories were established in 1996 in early childhood education in New Zealand (Carr, May & Podmore, 1998). In Germany, the approach was adapted by the German Youth Institute (Leu, Flämig, Frankenstein, Koch, Pack, Schneider & Schweiger, 2007). In addition to New Zealand and Germany, the Learning Stories are used in Switzerland (Simoni & Wustmann Seiler, 2013) and in various other European countries such as Ireland (Early Childhood Ireland, undated), but not yet in primary education as in this study.

The approach of the Learning Stories takes a resource-oriented and dialogical perspective with a focus on the development of learning dispositions. In this way, the diversity of learners can be addressed and individual support can take place. All learning dispositions can be related to (intrinsic) motivation and self-esteem (Carr, 2001).

During the transition from primary to secondary school, several studies have shown that intrinsic motivation decreases (Raufelder, 2018). According to the self-determination theory of motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2017), intrinsic motivation is a form of motivation that is not controlled by external impulses. The three basic psychological needs, the need for competence, the need for relatedness and the need for autonomy, are fundamental components of the theory and through their satisfaction intrinsic motivation is fostered. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is a form of motivation that is controlled by external stimuli.

In addition to the theory of self-determination, research on self-esteem contingencies was used in this study on the construct of self-esteem. Self-esteem contingencies are factors that can influence self-esteem both externally and internally by individuals deriving their self-esteem from them (Morf & Koole, 2014). In this study, the model of Crocker and Wolfe (2001) was used. The development of self-esteem during the transition to secondary school is individual and therefore diverse. Overall, there is a risk of instability of self-esteem, as the model of Hopson and Adams (1976) shows.

This study focused on the feedback function of the Learning Stories. Overall, feedback is attested to a medium to high effect size for learning (from d=0.48 to d=0.79, Wisniewski, Zierer & Hattie, 2019). Feedback processes are influenced by the perception of the recipient (Krause, 2007), which can be applied to the “Angebot-Nutzungs” (offer-use)-model of educational research (Helmke, 2003). The Learning Stories can be understood as an offer that has a different effect on (intrinsic) motivation and self-esteem through mediating processes of perception and use, influenced by the respective learning requirements in the area of (intrinsic) motivation and self-esteem. In this way the emphasis on the individual and diverse learning prerequisites of children can be included in the feedback process.

The main question of the study is "To what extent can Learning Stories foster the (intrinsic) motivation and self-esteem of the children from the project WEICHENSTELLUNG at the transition from primary to secondary school from the point of view of the persons involved in the WEICHENSTELLUNG project?”

The purpose of teaching is to facilitate learning and make the learning process more effective. While adapting teaching to students’ learning styles may not bring the desired results, as the adopted strategies are not always the most efficient, teaching in accordance with students’ preferences may at least improve students’ well-being.

Existing studies have already extensively examined which teaching and learning strategies are effective. Ideally, the methods that have been scientifically proven to be effective would be those students prefer. Knowing the students’ preferences for specific learning and teaching strategies can help improve understanding of their behaviour and keep learners actively involved in the learning process. This in turn may lead to improved competency and better academic achievement.

The study examines students’ preferences towards learning strategies with varying degrees of effectiveness and explores preference heterogeneity patterns across subgroups defined by students’ observed characteristics (gender, academic result) as well as time left to final exams. We hypothesise that although evidence-based learning and teching strategies are often not practiced at schools, students have preferences towards them. Students' preferences towards learnn and teaching strategies may differ due to their proficiency as they may differ from the poor ones in type and regularity of practicing learning strategies (Shaffie et al. 2020), but also due to their age ( Magogwe & Oliver, 2007), and gender. Goh & Foong (1997) found that compensation and affective strategies were significantly more common among female than male students.Moreover, we aim to reveal how preerences may differ due to the conditions of education (pandemic and post-pandemic) and the moment in education (lower or final grade).

Preferences refer to a certain characteristics people like or want to have. Following common in economic theory assumption (Hausman, 2011; Nitzan, 2009), that there exists relationship between peoples’ preferences and their behavior, we can say that learning preferences relate to the tendency of students to choose the way they learn. Knowing preferences enables us to explain and predict behaviours including those related to the learning process. The preferences may differ between people due to their observable characteristics such as gender, age, type and level of education, learning goals, learning situation as well as not observable motives.

Learning strategies relate to a set of approaches and actions taken in the learning process to effectively obtain, process and retain information and skill for later use (Lublin, 2003). There are several classifications of learning strategies (Shi, 2017); they refer to both actions taken by the teacher, such as instructional delivery and the students, and may concern the organization of learning, methods of repetition, and assimilation of material and assessment. We consider the available evidence for the learning strategies widely advocated in recent years, starting with those implemented by students without assistance, including strategies analyzed by Dunlosky et al. (2013).

Literature in cognitive psychology has established learning strategies that are most effective at promoting long-term learning. The strategies with strongest empirical support are self-testing and distributing study activities over time (Black & Allen, 2019). Still, many students rely on ineffective strategies such as rereading or highlighting important points in the text (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011), which may result from the illusion of competence. Effective strategies may also be underutilized because teachers do not know them and hence also students do not implement them (Dunlosky et al. 2013) or due to numerous myths that exist about them.

In our study we consider strategies learning strategies such as mind maps, retreval practice, and traditional methods of studying. Based on the existing studies, we are able to order them according to their effectiveness Moreover we focus on the mode of class delivery (remoty, hybrid, stationary) and forms off assessment.

Introduction

Studies show the important effects of learning motivation and enjoyment on school success (e.g. Geis-Thöne, 2020) and how integrating gamification into the classroom can strengthen motivation and willingness to perform (Dahl, 2021) because intrinsic motivation is self-determined through joy or interest in the respective activity (Brandstätter, 2018).

There are several types of integration of gamification and one is role-playing (Kroker, 2021). Role-play games can provide an environment in which students can imitate social situations that are characterized by interactions with other people (Löffler, 1979) by imitation of real and everyday social situations (Grießhaber, 1987). The use of role-playing in language teaching improves the flexibility and creativity of the students, due to the free improvisation in the preparation. Not only the interaction with the partner expands the language activity of the learners but also performing the piece in front of other students increases and strengthens self-confidence and consequently motivation and interest towards the course (Reich, 2008).

Motivation can be divided into two: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is described as bringing about positive consequences and avoiding negative consequences. Extrinsic motivation can be external or self-determined (Brandstätter, Schüler, Puca, Lozo, 2018). As soon as the extrinsic factors are gone, the motivation is gone. Intrinsic motivation is the opposite of extrinsic motivation; however, it is also self-determined through joy and interest in things or activities. Humans have the desire to learn certain skills or feel content, but this is not influenced by rewards or punishments from the external environment (Fruhwirth, 2020). Learning is thus controlled consciously and purposefully by an internally controlled learning drive, such as curiosity (Krapp, 1999).

This study aims to show whether the use of role-playing games in language teaching has a positive impact on intrinsic learning motivation in German high schools. With this aim, the following research question will be examined:

-To what extent integration of role-playing games in language classes of German high schools affect the intrinsic learning motivation of students in grades 11 to 13?

To answer the research question Self-Determination Theory developed by Deci and Ryan (1993) will be integrated since its focus is on experiences, competence, autonomy, and social integration which were defined by Howes (1992)as issues that can be explored through gameplay.

The theory deal with the connection between human motivation and learning by framing motivation with autonomous and controlled factors. Based on the theory, three innate psychological needs play an important role: the experience of competence, autonomy, and social integration (Deci & Ryan, 1993). A person's experience of competence is reflected in their need to use and expand their skills. The solvability of the challenge or the task must not be too easy or too difficult. However, it must be feasible for the parties involved. People can then test and expand their skills. There is also autonomy, which is a need that allows people to act in a self-determined manner. This means that he is not pushed into his actions by external influences (Schüler, 2020). Humans can decide for themselves which actions to initiate and which to maintain (Krombaß & Harms, 2006). The last basic need is social integration. This is primarily reflected in the quality of social ties to other people and not in the frequency of this. Thus, the existence of a trusting basis plays an important role in that people can show themselves as they are and are accepted and valued by others (Frühwirth, 2020).

The proposed paper deals with the question how students learn from instructional explanations (in business teaching), in particular, to what extent they rely on the presented concrete example and/or on the explicated general rule when solving application and transfer tasks.

For concept learning, Tennyson and Cocchiarella (1986) state – referring to prototype learning research – that general definitions are helpful but that examples play a predominant role for understanding. Several experiments investigating the acquisition of psychological concepts substantiate the claim that giving definitions and examples leads to better learning than giving definitions only (Balch 2005; Rawson/Ruthann/Jacoby 2015), and suggest that students make more use of known examples than of general definitions when classifying new cases (Zamary/Rawson 2018).

Similarly, in teaching principles that enable students to deal with certain types of tasks/problems, the best strategy seems to be to explicate the general principle and to illustrate and elaborate it using a variety of examples (Fortmüller 1997). Several experimental studies document that abstract and concrete information complement each other in principle-learning and, thus, the combination of rule and example training fosters transfer (Chen/Daehler 2000; Cheng et al. 1986; Fong/Krantz/Nisbett 1986). Theories of analogical reasoning generally assume that concrete examples are easier to understand than abstract principles, and that generated understanding can be transferred to novel situations (Gentner/Loewenstein/Thompson 2003). However, the relation of abstract information and example details in mental representations as well as their role in problem solving is questionable (Reeves/Weisberg 1994). Based on structure-mapping theory (Gentner, 1983, 1989) and pragmatic schema theory (Gick/Holyoak 1983; Holyoak/Koh 1987) on the one hand and exemplar theories on the other hand, Ross (1987) formulates two contrasting hypotheses: According to the principle-cuing hypothesis, learners use examples to access the abstract principle, which is then – once understood – directly applied to solve a novel problem. According to the example-analogy hypothesis, a principle is only understood in terms of an example, such that learners need the example in order to be able to apply the principle to the problem at hand. Empirical findings mostly support the example-analogy view (Chen/Daehler 2000; Holyoak/Koh 1987; Ross 1987). Ross and Kilbane (1997) show that when an abstract principle is explained and afterwards illustrated by an example, students primarily rely on the example. They argue that it might be preferable to employ an embedded-principle method in order to tie the explanation to the example.

In order to investigate the impact of concrete examples and general rules in instructional explanations in business teaching on students’ understanding and achievement, Schopf (2021) compared several versions of a teacher explanation (example-rule, rule-only, example-only) on the topic “break-even point” in an experimental study with second year business academy students. The hypothesis that a teacher explanation with an example-rule pattern is perceived as more understandable and results in superior achievement, than a teacher explanation which only contains the general rule, was confirmed. The finding that in the application tasks mean performance of the example-rule and the example-only groups was significantly better than mean performance of the rule-only group, while mean performance in the transfer task was generally very poor and did not significantly differ between groups, may lead to the conclusion that students from the example-rule and the example-only groups were able to solve the application tasks by using the concrete example as an analogue without having fully understood the underlying general principle. However, students’ notes on the work sheets did not provide sufficient evidence to support this assumption.

Thus, in a follow-up project the author wants to dive deeper and analyse students’ thinking processes.

Problem solving is reported as an essential criterion for the appropriation of mathematical skills. According to mathematicians, psychologists, and mathematics educators, it allows in particular to access the meaning of mathematical notions (e.g. Schoenfeld, 1985).

With this respect, Problem Posing has been recognized as a valuable activity in mathematics education (e.g. Ellerton, 1986; Singer, Ellerton & Cai., 2013 ; Cai et al., 2015). However, researchers (e.g. Zhang & Cai, 2021) have shown the complex nature of teaching mathematics through problem posing. This paper would like to contribute to this research trend.

In this paper, we will focus on multiplicative problem posing. Our purpose is to provide a first understanding of a practice of using problem posing to teach mathematics over a long duration. Our research is part of a larger one, namely the ACE research (Arithmetic and Comprehension in Elementary School). This research proposes a mathematical program in first, second and third grade.

In ACE, a prominent emphasis is put on public representations of mathematical relations seen as “any configuration of characters, images, or concrete objects that symbolizes an abstract idea” (Goldin & Kaput, 1996) and may include manipulative materials, pictures or diagrams, spoken language, or written symbols.

Our early studies concerning one-step additive problems focused on semantic features (Riley, Greeno & Heller, 1983). An extension of our study focus on multiplicative word problems in grades 2 et 3. Our research is organized in a Cooperative Engineering (Sensevy & Bloor, 2020), where teachers and researchers have progressively built a curriculum, in the way of lesson studies (Miyakawa & Winsløw, 2009) with some representational tools. These representations have been worked out at the same time as means for exploring numbers and as problem-posing tools. In this research, the teachers belong to the research team, and are considered as teachers-researchers.

We focus on the fundamental fact, in the teaching-learning process, that students learn by relying on a previous set of meanings, that we may call an already-there (CDpE, 2019). In order to teach, a teacher has to gain a deep understanding of this already-there. For doing that, we argue that a promising avenue consists of organizing the teaching-learning process on the basis of specific examples of the way problems are posed and solved. These emblematic examples of the practice can be seen progressively as exemplar, in Kuhn's sense (Kuhn, 1977). In that way, we will see how a system of exemplars is designed to help students to pose multiplicative problems on their own. In this paper, we thus investigate the following research question: How can a teacher organize problem posing tasks by giving habits of representations of mathematical relationships?