Conference Agenda

A Ph.D. often requires several years to complete; throughout this time, students face both intellectual and emotional challenges. As many of the students experience enthusiasm in the process, others have negative feelings (Stubb et al., 2011). The extraordinarily competitive academic environment, stressful conditions (Mattijssen et al., 2021), lack of permanent contacts and research funding, and increasingly difficult working conditions (Olsthoorn et al., 2020) have negative effect on academic well-being and mental health. Thus doctoral students were seen as high-risk group for problems with their mental health and well-being that may affect the quality and quantity of the researcher’s output (Levecque et al., 2017).

Researcher Mental Health Observatory (ReMO) COST Action network (234 members representing 34 EU countries) is one of the first coordinated and evidence-based European initiatives addressing mental health and well-being issues in academia. In the public declaration called ReMO Manifesto, ReMO aims to develop strategies for researcher well-being and mental health which are prioritized by World Health Organisation (WHO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), and European Commission (EC) in the past decade. ReMO aims to promote and improve mental health and well-being of researchers through developing strategies for how Europa and national level organizations proposed frameworks for improving career development for doctoral and early career researchers in academia and beyond.

Thus, it is crucial to examine how and in what ways doctoral organizations such as Eurodoc and Vitae have been known to provide support for doctoral candidates and address well-being and mental health needs. Eurodoc, European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers is an international federation of 26 national associations of early career researchers (ECRs) from Europe. Eurodoc was established as a non-profit, global volunteer organization in 2005 based in Brussels after first being launched in 2002. Eurodoc interacts with all significant European stakeholders and plays important role to inform policy at the European level. Eurodoc (2018) proposed a transferable skills and competency framework that consist of nine competence categories for early career researchers to be used in doctoral training as follows: career development, cognitive, communication, digital, enterprise, interpersonal, mobility, research, teaching, and supervision. Besides, it conducts projects, and training activities for researchers, and creates a learning community among researchers.

Another important organization supporting the professional development of researchers is Vitae with over 50 years of experience. Vitae aims to empower doctoral researchers, provide professional and career development support for researchers, and inform policy related to researcher development. To achieve this, Researcher Development Framework (RDF), developed by Vitae with the help of the United Kingdom Higher Education sector and other stakeholders, provides a highly comprehensive approach to researcher development (2010). The RDF is a professional development framework for planning, promoting, and supporting the personal, professional, and career development of researchers in higher education. The RDF has four domains as follows: knowledge and intellectual abilities, personal effectiveness, research governance, organization, engagement, influence, and impact. Similar to Eurodoc, Vitae organizes events for researchers such as project meetings, conferences, training, and creating a learning community. Both of these organizations originally were focusing on developing academic skills and competencies, and only more recently they have expanded their focus to include the mental health and well-being of doctoral students.

In this context, the aim of this study is to compare and contrast the steps these two prominent organizations, which play a crucial role in doctoral researcher development, are taking related to the well-being and mental health of doctoral students that have a crucial role in doctoral researcher development. More specifically, the research question for this exploration is:

- How are doctoral researchers’ well-being and mental health needs being addressed by Eurodoc and Vitae?

The international higher education sector has developed growing interest in the concept of ‘sense of belonging’ for students over recent years. Understanding sense of belonging is about understanding how students come to feel connected with their peers, their place of study and their university community. This paper engages with the conversations happening across the United Kingdom, United States and Europe, about what sense of belonging is, how it can be fostered to improve students’ academic outcomes and experiences within their educational communities, and the key role of evaluation in making change for students.

Through insights from a literature review of international research and from primary research conducted in an English higher education institution, the paper aims to connect the worlds of research and evaluation to further knowledge of both sense of belonging research and a Theory of Change evaluation framework. The use of a case study will demonstrate how research-engaged evaluation methodologies can be used to assess the real-world application of research findings and their potential impact on students. Alongside the UK context of the case study, research and real-world findings from other contexts will be integrated e.g., student-led bonding and belonging activities in universities based in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

The research questions driving this work, and framing the structure of this proposed presentation, are:

• What is ‘sense of belonging’ in the higher education context and why does it matter?

• How can researchers and evaluators contribute to developing a sense of belonging and community for diverse student groups in universities across different geographical contexts?

• How can researchers and evaluators work together to improve outcomes for students in real-world applications of research?

These research questions align with the key purpose of this presentation: to articulate how research and evaluation can collaborate to establish, and ideally to improve, the impact on outcomes when planning and delivering interventions intended to facilitate a greater sense of belonging and community for students. The paper also investigates how university colleagues (including researchers, evaluators, and practitioners) can use existing research findings to inform how they facilitate diverse and inclusive communities and spaces for students. This objective will be met by sharing insights from key research on sense of belonging, including defining how ‘fit’ is influential for students’ belonging academically, socially and in the spaces which combine the academic and social.

These concepts of ‘fit’ come from the conceptual and theoretical frameworks underpinning the paper, which have been developed and challenged by the growing pool of literature on these topics. The conceptual frameworks for ‘sense of belonging’ span psychosocial, sociological, and educational theories; as my understandings have been influenced by multiple authors and ways of thinking, there is opportunity to share multiple theoretical perspectives within the paper. Crucially, I draw on the work of Lewis and Hodges (2014) who consider the two dimensions of “social fit” and “ability or academic fit” as the foundations of sense of belonging; this distinction acts as stimulus for the case study of encouraging greater student engagement in academic school-related societies.

Alongside the conceptual frameworks relating to sense of belonging and community, this paper is also informed by, and engaged with, the evaluative framework of Theory of Change. This approach is often used to evaluate community-based change interventions, aiming to make visible the complex interactions between actions and their outcomes. The paper will share insights on how a Theory of Change works and how it can be practically used in response to, and alongside, research and evidence in real-life application - in this case, in interventions aimed to facilitate university students’ sense of belonging to their academic school (/academic department).

The evolution of Irish Institutes of Technology (IoT) to Technology University (TU) status is near completion. These changes have resulted in a heightened need for the new TUs to continue to build on previous success in competing for research funding and attracting higher numbers of PhD students. Success of this nature depends, in part, on individuals identifying new sources of social, economic, and technological innovation. Building a research culture of interdisciplinarity (ID) will be a key aspect of achieving these milestones. At the centre of this move toward ID are the Principal Investigators (PIs), actors who find themselves responsible for delivering research projects; something which requires them to think and talk across disciplinary boundaries.

Until relatively recently, the use of the term ID has been inconsistent with respect to how and in what way it is defined. Therefore, conducting a review of the extant literature is helpful to explore different approaches and conceptualisations of ID and their historical emergence. Furthermore, conducting this review will identify the underlying theoretical positions as a first step towards the completion of a successful research study aimed at augmenting current knowledge on how to manage interdisciplinary research and development environments. Ultimately, better enabling PIs and their research teams to think and talk beyond their core discipline; to overcome the troublesome knowledge of disciplinary barriers; and to communicate across professional disciplinary boundaries.

The aim of this paper is to explore the historical emergence of interdisciplinarity and its main conceptualisations.

The following questions guide the literature review:

1. How is interdisciplinarity defined?
2. How has the concept of interdisciplinarity developed over time?
3. What are the key conceptualisations of interdisciplinarity within the literature?

Theoretical Framework:

The concept of ID has, over the last few decades, rapidly gained popularity within the research arena – including Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). It has impacted all areas of research, including practice, teaching, and policy. Proponents of ID posit arguments for why it is not only beneficial but necessary for tackling the large-scale challenges facing society. Examples of such support can be seen across the research landscape, from funding agencies introducing requirements for interdisciplinary collaboration in competitive calls (European Commission, 2018), to HEIs reducing the number of research centres so that researchers are coalesced into more interdisciplinary settings (EUA, 2021). Substantial innovation relies on the ability of research leaders to facilitate diversity and integration across disciplinary boundaries within their teams. (Gray, 2008).

Interdisciplinarity, although sometimes presented as being in a dichotomy with disciplinarity, fundamentally relies on an integration of different disciplines. Ways of thinking within individual disciplines have certain similarities (Donald, 2002; McCune & Hounsell, (2005): i) a deep engagement with the epistemology, ii) command of the vocabulary and theory of the field, that leads ultimately to iii) a different mindset or way of thinking and practising that is distinctive of the discipline. The differences between disciplines are often subtle and lie in the type of language used, the logical structure, preferred criteria for validating knowledge and most pronounced methods or modes of inquiry (Apostel, Berger, Briggs & Michauud, OECD, 1970; Dirkx, 1996; Becher & Trowler, 2001, Lave & Wenger, 1999). Donald’s working model of thinking processes across the disciplines reveals six thinking processes and behaviours that are coded across five methods of inquiry: hermeneutics, critical thinking, problem solving, scientific method and expertise (2002, pg24).

While universities are expected to enhance graduate employability, the role of different higher education features in this process has been overlooked due to an overreliance on employment-based measures. This holds even more in the context of European liberal arts education (LAE) and its distinctive features, the implications of which on student employability gains are still unknown. The resurgence of LAE in Europe has been taking place since the late 1990s, especially in the Netherlands, where ten university colleges have been established. Inspired by the American liberal arts model but maintaining its own specificities, Dutch university colleges are defined by several unique features that distinguish them from traditional bachelor’s programmes. Firstly, university colleges are broad, general academic programmes that are not professionally oriented. Furthermore, university colleges are distinguished by their self-tailored, interdisciplinary curricula that allow students to combine courses from a wide range of fields, a student-centred learning environment involving small-scale teaching and extensive student-faculty interactions, as well as selective admission policies. In contrast to this, traditional bachelor’s programmes in the Netherlands are typically more professionally focused and monodisciplinary, with a fixed curriculum structure, large-scale teaching, and non-selective admission.

Dutch university colleges have been lauded for their commitment to academic excellence, but also criticized for the alleged impracticality of their degrees. While the proponents of LAE stress its ability to provide an optimal response to the demands associated with the contemporary workplace, little is known as to how the distinctive characteristics of LAE programmes relate to enhancing student employability. The current paper addresses this research gap. Its main goal is twofold. Firstly, it seeks to propose an alternative, developmental approach to assessing the contribution of undergraduate programmes to fostering employability. Secondly, it aims to determine how a university college performs in this regard compared to a traditional bachelor’s programme in Law at the same university. It does so by applying the graduate capital model, a well-established employability framework proposed by Michael Tomlinson (2017), and using it to answer the following research question: How does employability develop in university college students during the course of their studies compared to their peers from a traditional programme?

Adjusting the graduate capital model to fit the study purpose, the paper focuses on six skills that enhance employability: creativity, lifelong learning, career decidedness, self-efficacy, resilience, and personal initiative. The framework adjustment has been guided by four main considerations, focusing on employability constituents which: (a) are malleable and can be developed within higher education, (b) fundamentally stem from the overall learning environment, (c) are expected to reflect the distinctive features of LAE, and (d) can be measured with adequate instruments. To measure employability growth, a cross-sectional pseudo-cohort research design is adopted, comparing first-, second-, and third-year student cohorts. The study employed a DiD approach, looking at the differences in the development students make within a programme.

The results show that attending an LAE undergraduate programme leads to visible progression in a range of career-relevant skills. This is especially the case with regard to creativity and personal initiative, in which second- and third-year LAE students both scored significantly higher than freshmen. As for career decidedness, self-efficacy, and resilience, significant gains were found for second-year LAE cohorts. Lifelong learning scores revealed no significant differences between the three study years. Compared to the traditional programme, the gains in creativity and personal initiative particularly stand out, reflecting the differences between interdisciplinary and monodisciplinary learning, and self-tailored and fixed curriculum structure. This refutes the stereotype that a liberal arts degree does not prepare students for the labour market and points to the relevance of programme-specific features for employability development in higher education.

Education across the globe, including Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia, has been fuelled by a resurgence of high-stakes testing, exacerbated by outcome-defined policies and competing factors, including the ongoing demands of accountability, performativity, and the rigid alignment between high-stakes exams and curricula (Lingard & Sellar, 2016; Löfstedt et al., 2020; Verger, Parcerisa & Fontdevila, 2019). The performance-based nature of education has turned education into schooling. Kemmis et al. (2014) describe schooling as the opposite of education; it is a ‘technical tool’ (p.25) used to impart and monitor information as outcomes. These influence assessments' objectives, methods, and outcomes, in addition, to teachers' pedagogical assessment practices (Cairns, 2020). Given current political preferences for teachers' accountability and measurable outcomes, students undertake multiple assessments measuring their learning at single points in time, each affecting their depth of understanding, engagement with the subject, and sense of who they are as a student (Andrade & Brookhart, 2020). Further, teachers' pedagogical practices may be modified by the effects of high-stakes testing as they move from collaborative work in the classroom to more 'teach to the test' methods, further reducing student engagement (Resnick & Schantz, 2017). A significant number of studies investigating the advantages of collaborative learning have been undertaken, promoting a constructivist approach to collaboration in the classroom. However, behaviourist methods are still prevalent when assessing students. This discrepancy leads to the question: if collaboration is widely recognized as enhancing learning, why does the reliance on individual summative testing persist? Broader recognition of multiple assessment methods is required to improve engagement in high school STEM classes and abate the documented effects of individual summative testing. Leading to the research questions –

• How do students perceive collaborative testing?

• How do students and teachers discern collaborative testing's impact on student learning?
• What are teachers' perceptions of the utility of collaborative testing?

Perspective

Humans exist in a dynamic world where we are a part of the world and being of that world interact with other humans and non-humans. Participating in the environment entangles or intertwines us with the material and others, all affecting each other as we understand our place, meaning and knowledge of the world (Barad, 2007; Muris, 2022; Plauberg, 2018). Knowledge is not separated from the learner; it is interwoven and interconnected; it affects and is affected by interactions with non-human and human interactions (Barad, 2007; Guillion, 2018).

Teaching science involves a dynamic intra-mingling between students, teachers, surroundings, and our classroom's tools. In this intra-play, students attained their understanding and knowledge of science. They did not do so alone; students did not sit apart, and they did not sit quietly; they participated, interacted and enhanced their understanding of science. These interactions influence our meaning-making (Koro- Ljungberg, 2015). The learner’s thinking and actions act upon the world equally as the thinking of the learner acts on the world. There can be no separation between object or subject, from human and non-human; all are intertwined in the knowing. Barad (2007) termed this interconnecting of theory and knowledge as onto-epistemology.

Onto-epistemology does not separate the object/subject, human/non-human, world/us, knowledge/learning. This theory places equal importance on the material world, ‘matter matters’ (Barad, 2007). Matter is an active participant in the entanglement of meaning, enfolded alongside material and discursive practices; they are constantly reconfiguring to forge reality (Guillion, 2018).

In December 2020, the Italian Ministry of Education adopted a new assessment modality based on predominantly discursive communication and the abolition of numerical grades. This means was introduced to incentivize greater equality and support students in becoming aware of how they develop their competencies (Girelli, 2022). One of the core elements of this change is the shift from a "normative" way of assessing pupils - that implies the comparison between a single student and the rest of the class - to a criteria-based one. This latter mode of assessment requires the teacher to consider pre-established criteria that help the students better understand their potential (Black, Wiliam, 1998) by indicating the level of achievement of a learning objective. Four fundamental elements must be considered for this purpose: the level of autonomy with which the pupil can achieve the set goals, his or her ability to find resources spontaneously, the fact that learning takes place in an unfamiliar situation, and finally whether the acquisition of the set goals is continuous (i.e. it occurs in more than a single isolated case) or not (MIUR, 2020).

The theoretical framework of this research is the Capability Approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2006). It is «an intellectual discipline that gives a central role to the evaluation of a person’s achievements and freedoms in terms of his or her actual ability to do the different things a person has reason to value doing or being» (Sen, 2009). The attention devoted to the valorization of non-quantifiable processes in terms of accountability and rethinking the role played by the concept of measurement (Unterhalter, 2019) makes this framework a proper tool for proposing a new look at the evaluation methods currently in use in Italian primary schools. Since the right to education «requires a deep commitment to building human capabilities» and «Education nurtures understandings and builds capabilities that can help to ensure that our futures are more socially inclusive (UNESCO, 2021)», it is necessary to understand whether the learning processes promoted at school can promote the development of such resources.

Therefore, the question from which this research stems is how can formative assessment help students develop their capabilities. To date, few studies within the capability approach have focused on primary schools and formative assessment (Robeyns, 2017; Unterhalter, 2019; Palumbo, Pandolfini, 2019). The Italian context lends itself particularly well to investigating the relationship between these realities since the main document used by teachers to guide their teaching (MIUR, 2012) was formulated by Edgar Morin and the theory of complexity is also a fundamental factor for the capability approach (Szekeley. Mason, 2018).

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is the procedure by which students evaluate and rate teaching performance. Usually, during a SET procedure students complete rating forms or questionnaires about different aspects related to their teachers, but mostly about their teaching practices. Universities or higher education institutions from all over the world implement SET procedures to achieve 3 main purposes. Generally, and from a practical point of view, the main purpose of implementing this type of procedure in most universities is the necessity of reporting SET results to quality assurance agencies. The other main goal of SET procedures, and surely the most important one from an educational perspective, is to provide feedback to academics about their teaching practices and/or to design teacher training programs focused on developing teaching skills. Another important use of SET results is related to evaluating evidence of teaching performance to use the results for academic career advancements or other ways of rewarding teaching effectiveness.

The topic of Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) is one of the most researched ones in the domain of educational research, with over 2000 studies published in peer-reviewed journals over a period of a little more than 100 years (Spooren et al., 2017). One of the earliest debates in this field of research is about the validity of the SET scales and procedures. The main question was whether the measurement instruments applied to students during these procedures can accurately measure teaching effectiveness. Even if this debate was most active in the 1970s and the evidence was inclining more towards the affirmative answer to the question in case (see reviews from Richardson, 2005 and Marsh, 2007), a recently published meta-analysis (Uttl et al., 2017) presented some evidence which seriously threatens the validity of SET results. The results of the mentioned study strongly suggest that there is no relationship between the SET results of a teacher and the level of their students’ achievement/learning.

Analyzing the SET scales utilized in the studies included in the last-mentioned meta-analysis, we observed that lots of them contain items that are either too vague, either unclear, or even completely unrelated to observable teaching actions and behaviors. Moreover, many SET instruments had only 1 or 2 overall questions about teaching quality.

Some of the main reasons why we chose to develop a new SET scale are the following: (1) most SET scales are not rigorously developed from the theoretical and psychometrical point of view, and those that are, were developed in older times when digital environments were not so common; (2) the majority of SET instruments lack available and published psychometrical evidence for the validity of the results; (3) there are very few instruments that contain questions strictly related to the observable behaviors and actions of teachers; and (4) there are not many SET instruments than can be adapted to different teaching contexts by adapting the selection and number of dimensions to be measured.

Thus, we propose the development and validation of a new multi-dimensional instrument that is based on a systematic mixed-methods process of defining effective teaching in higher education, consists of questions related to the observable actions and behaviors of teachers, and contains a large number of dimensions suitable for several teaching contexts.

Given that the purpose of the study is to develop and validate a SET scale, the research objectives are the following:

1) To perform the theoretical substantiation of the construct and related dimensions.

2) To develop and refine items for each dimension of the scale.

3) To gather evidence in favor of validity (content, construct and criterion) and fidelity (test-retest, internal consistency) of the scale.

Formative assessment places greater emphasis on bidirectional contributions between the students in the assessment process (Yorke, 2003), as well as advocates an equal teacher-student relationship. To promote student learning, both stakeholders are expected to be fully engaged in the learning process (Black & Wiliam, 1998), instead of measuring student performance unilaterally (Wiggins, 1998). Although formative assessment is well established in western classroom practices and is required as one underpinning literacy for teachers (Popham, 2011), when the idea of formative assessment was introduced to Confucian heritage countries in Asia, tensions for K‒12 teachers arose due to the perennial convention of overemphasizing summative assessment in school.

Profoundly influenced by Confucianism, teachers in China may perceive formative assessment as a novel assessment paradigm that contradicts their traditional mindset on assessment. Take Chinese teachers as an example, many of them seem to be reluctant to this reform (Zhan, 2021). Moreover, schooling in these countries has been constantly shifted to virtual online classroom platforms since the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that online classrooms largely constrain the effectiveness of the implementation of assessment (Khan & Khan, 2018), the different classroom modes complicate the teacher formative assessment practices.

However, there is a paucity of research on teachers’ overall literacy of formative assessment in the eastern Confucian heritage countries (Zhan, 2019). There is also a need to design and develop a psychometrically sound and culturally responsive inventory instrument in the field of formative assessment literacy in the Confucian cultural context. Thus, I attempt to design and validate a first easternized online inventory to evaluate teachers’ capacity for formative assessment acquisition and authentic application. The whole process includes four phases under the guide of an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. Building on the interviews and the prior inventories on relevant domains (e.g., Campbell & Mertler, 2004; Yan & Pastore, 2022), I plan to categorize the dimensions as five scenarios, consisting of 1) face-to-face classroom, 2) online classroom, 3) after-school assignments and tasks, 4) feedback, 5) ethical concerns. Each contains six multiple-choice questions and each question has one best answer. The inventory will be uploaded to www.wjx.cn, a Chinese online open survey website, and automatically code the correct answer as 1 point while the incorrect answers as 0 points. Thus, the total grade for one participant is 30 points and each subsection values 6 points.

In particular, I am fully aware of the unique characteristics of Confucian heritage culture and its ubiquitous impact on teacher assessment practices. Therefore, all the questions are edited in line with the authentic local classroom settings. For example, I will emphasize student dignity considerations to replace the typical western inventory questions about privacy risks.

The expected findings will contribute to the initial investigation of the status of formative assessment literacy for K‒12 teachers in Confucian heritage culture and locate the specific factors influencing the building and practice of teachers in this domain. Eventually, the inventory will be used to gather evidence to inform in-service and preservice teacher professional development programs.

The participation of the private sector in the organisation of school provision has steadily expanded globally over the last decades (Verger et al., 2023), leading to mixed provision models characterised by the coexistence of a network of public and private subsidised schools in the organisation of school provision. This study is based on the analysis of a national educational reform that modifies the framework and guidelines that regulate mixed provision to raise the levels of equity and explores the variety of responses of the private subsidised network to changes in the conditions based on which its participation in school provision is arranged.

From a comparative perspective, reforms to mixed provision systems have focused mainly on three areas: the definition of the conditions for entrance and permanence in the subsidy regime, the mode in which school funding is organised, and the characteristics of school choice and admission processes (Zancajo et al. 2021b). These reform impulses aimed to standardise some of the regulatory dimensions of mixed models, defining a common structure for public and private schools. However, this does not necessarily include a principle of equivalence between them, nor does it imply convergence in all institutional aspects. In these institutional settings, regulators seek through educational policies to expand their capacity to influence the configuration of school provision, one of their main challenges being to align the network of private subsidised schools with the broader objectives of the education system.

Since 2015, School Inclusion Law (SIL) reform modifies at least three structural dimensions of the mixed provision in Chile: regulating practices of selectivity in the access to schools by a semi-centralised admission system, promoting to replace of obligatory charges to families including larger public funding and forbidding for profits incentive to educational administrators. The question that guides the research process consists of what are the factors that are linked to the variety of responses from the network of subsidized private centers regarding the changes in the regulatory context that the SIL promotes. The study’s main objective is to establish the patterns of interpretation and response of private subsidised schools’ networks to these regulatory changes introduced by the SIL in Chile between 2015 and 2020. Finally, the study examines how this variety of responses is associated with the problems of mixed school provision systems.

The concept of school responses pattern is operationalized, integrating elements of the literature about systemic change and logic of action (Bagley et al.,1996, 1998, Wood, 2000, Maroy & Ball, 2008, Van Zanten, 2008). In this sense, the notion of response generation is inherent to the quasi-market settings (Bagley et al., 1996) and is defined as the extent to which schools modify their practices and policies because of changes in the institutional context. For Bagley, et al. 1996, the generation of school responses is not straightforward but there are barriers that interact in complex forms that can negatively influence inhibiting the capacity of schools.

The generation of responses from schools does not constitute a simple adaptive process with respect to external conditions but rather a complex one, which is endowed with its own logic and includes, on the part of educational actors, a moment of active interpretation. It is in this intermediate zone where the actors negotiate a framework for understanding the problems, mobilizing a network of meanings, resources, and practical knowledge.On the other hand, this perspective should not lead to overestimating the response generation capacity of schools or neglecting the influence of structural factors that may either inhibit its generation or induce a unique type of response (Bagley et al. al. 1998, Zancajo, 2017, Moschetti, 2018).

Different transitions are built into all school systems, either between or within school forms. These transitions entail different changes and challenges for both students and teachers. This ongoing doctoral project aims to contribute with knowledge on how the transition between stages within compulsory school is constructed in policy, and by teachers, in a school system where compulsory school is cohesive. Although the Swedish compulsory school consist of only one school form, it bears traces from the pre-1960’s divide between primary and secondary schools, as well as several following school reforms. For a long time, these reforms aimed to tighten the cultural gap between primary and secondary school, resulting in a compulsory school without stage divisions in 1994. This lasted until the 2010’s when stage divisions were reinstated as a way of making each stage more specialised. Those traces imply that the cohesive compulsory school in Sweden can be organised in a variety of ways, with the consequence that transitions between stages can encompass many different aspects and practices. In many cases those practices are similar to transitions between school forms. The object of study in this project is the transition between stages equivalent to the transition between primary and secondary school (from year 6 to 7).

In an international, and European, context there is a large variety of aspects on transitions between primary and secondary school that have been researched – academic (e.g. Prendergast et.al. 2019), social (e.g. van Rens et.al. 2018) and comparative/organisational (e.g. Nielsen et.al. 2017). Research on transitions within compulsory school in a Nordic context, similar to the Swedish, is scarce but there are some studies about the student perspective (e.g.Virtanen et.al., 2019). In the Swedish context research mainly concern transitions between school forms: from preschool to compulsory school (e.g. Ackesjö, 2014; Kallberg, 2018) and from compulsory school to upper secondary school (e.g Sundelin and Lundahl, 2022). Most of the research on transitions shares some relation to the concept of continuity, sometimes differentiated between various types e.g. social or pedagogical. Continuity is mostly assumed to be desirable but lacking, affecting students’ well-being as well as their learning results. Criticism against the focus on transition in research include that this focus may exaggerate the problems with transitions (Bru et.al., 2010) or that this focus places blame on the transitions when there might be other structural problems that cause difficulties associated with transitions (Downes, 2019).

Focus in this paper is on policy. By using Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach I am investigating how transitions within the Swedish compulsory school are understood in policy. The WPR approach is a poststructural tool for policy analysis that departs from the statement that governing takes place through problematisations and that these problematisations needs to be scrutinized. The “problem” refers to the thing that needs to change through the studied policy and these representations are thought to be constructed within the policy process, not problems existing “in the real”. Representations are part of discourses but do also impact discourses. The impact of the representations also may concern how those governed view themselves and others as well as possibly having material influence. Research questions for this part of the project are:

- What is included and excluded in the discourse on transitions in Swedish school policy?

- What may be possible effects from this way of problematising transitions?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following research questions are explored:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following questions will help to address the research objectives:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An important aspect of Educational Psychology (EP) practice is the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. We, the authors, are part of an academic team on a training programme for educational psychologists in Scotland. Our presentation concerns the recent revision of the manner in which we ‘teach’ key developmental theories in educational psychology. In the past, these theories were imparted as discrete pieces of knowledge, with students then required to integrate theory and practice by presenting an assessment of how a particular theory can be applied in practice. The discrete ‘teaching’ that this approach necessitated was identified by the programme team as being a major limitation as it did not reflect the often messy and complex interplay of theories that real life practice often presents.

Following our evaluation of this, we sought to engage with the question of what students are expected to learn and decided to come to the theories of development through real life scenarios which reflect the complexity that EPs in practice face on a daily basis. We now approach this teaching by starting from such a vignette, which we then seek to unpick by discussing (in a co-teaching format) how different aspects of the vignette reflects a variety of theories, some of which interact with each other. Stories can bring abstract principles to life by giving them concrete form and tends to have more depth than a simple example (Green, 2004).

Research question: How can we “reimagine” the teaching of developmental theories in educational psychologists’ professional training?

This approach reflects the humanising drive which we seek in the professional training of EPs, where we actively position ourselves, in our role as practitioners as well as teachers, as subjects rather than objects. And as subjects engaging in the contradictions and tensions in a complex social world, we develop our “critical awareness and willingness to engage in transformative action” (Roberts 2008, 2). Using the problem-posing andragogy, seen by Paolo Freire as ‘liberating education’, we start from the posing of problems rather than the giving of answers, and its dialogical nature means that teachers and students learn from each other. Our planning also involved a graduated approach, where trainees would first see us, as members of academic staff, have a discussion about the psychological theories in a story, after which we would then gradually support the trainees to do the same with other casework vignettes. This graduated approach to having the trainees work on the vignettes independently was aimed at supporting their thinking and their self-efficacy in a process of conscientisation as the trainees’ (indeed even that of academic staff) understanding of the social world is deepened through the dialogue.

This approach, we believe, contributes to increasing the trainees’ capacity for critical reflection and engaging in praxis, both ethical processes which are inherent in the formation of a professional. This is important for educational practitioners as it highlights the interaction that is needed between theorising and acting in order to critically reflect on reality and therefore create change through action. This ties in with our previous work phronêsis, the capacity ‘to see’ and be sensitive to a situation, discern, deliberate, reflect, judge and act (see Carr, 2006). The suggestion that trainees are viewing the more experienced lecturers deliberate and uncover complexities in the stories is in line with Joseph Dunne’s (1993) work that trainees need to experience this virtue to enable them to embed it in their character, in both their thinking and their practice.

The current study examines teachers' processes throughout an online teachers' professional development (TPD) program and an interactive activity, where 68 teachers shared their cultural components with teachers from other cultures.

People within countries are diverse in many aspects, such as race, ethnicity, origin, gender, age, family, and disabilities (Aylward and Mitten 2022; Banks and Banks 2019; Dhiman et al. 2019; Ghazaie, Rafieian, and Dadashpoor 2021). For example, Israel has a diverse and multifaceted society, and its public education system is divided into multiple cultures and, sometimes, deep social-cultural rifts (Sabbagh and Resh 2014; van de Weerd 2020). Particularly, Israel’s public education system is divided into a Jewish system, which is again divided into several subsystems (secular schools, religious schools, and independent ultra-religious schools), and an Arab system (Abu-Saad 2019; Agbaria 2018). As a result, secular, religious ultra-orthodox, and Arab teachers rarely meet or work together. Further, students from these groups do not meet or know each other.

Under such circumstances, managing diversity effectively is crucial for societies worldwide and in Israel. For example, celebrating diversity is the key to greater productivity, increased creativity, and heightened workplace morale and motivation (Dhiman, Modi, and Kumar 2019). Urban areas and cities can break segregation and turn diversity into a creative force for innovation, growth, well-being, and safe places for the residents (Ghazaie, Rafieian, and Dadashpoor 2021; Fincher et al. 2014). Within this, social inclusion in schools is an important goal, supporting social-emotional and academic success for all students (Hymel and Katz 2019; Walsh, Fogel-Grinvald, and Shneider 2015; Pizmony-Levy and Kosciw 2016).

Indeed, it is possible to improve intergroup relations and celebrate diversity and societal multiculturalism through the contact hypothesis by encouraging meetings between cultures under appropriate conditions, face-to-face and online (Dovidio, Eller, and Hewstone 2011; Amzalag and Shapira 2021; Vezzali et al. 2014; Pettigrew et al. 2011). Thus, we based the current research on the assumption that we can foster a multicultural approach and celebrate diversity in the Israeli educational system through meetings and discussions between teachers from different cultures as the first phase before meetings between the students. Another assumption is that the meetings themselves are not enough. The teachers should meet, discuss, and learn about other teachers’ core cultural components (Hidalgo, 2013; Sever, 2014, 2016; Spencer-Oatey, 2012). Moreover, these meetings and discussions can occur online considering the separation in the Israeli educational system and the promise by scholars that online contact improves intergroup relations (Amzalag and Shapira 2021).

To foster meaningful meetings and discourses between teachers in Israeli society, we designed a Teachers Professional Development (TPD) program called ‘educators for shared society.’

The online TPD program aimed to accompany teachers who wanted to promote a shared society through:

• meaningful meetings and discourses among teachers from different cultures
• creating pairs of teachers from different cultures
• planning a shared program for students
• implementing the program in the classrooms

The current research presents the whole process of the TPD program. It focuses on the first phase of the program: a meeting that was conducted through an interactive presentation. On the first slide of the presentation, an explanation was presented outlining what culture is and what the core and peripheral components of culture are. Each teacher was asked to add a picture representing their culture, write about the picture and respond to two teachers from other cultures.

The research questions guiding our research are:

1. What changes occurred in the teachers’ attitudes regarding multiculturalism before and after the TPD program?
2. What cultural characteristics appeared in the interactive activity during the TPD program?
3. What characterizes the connection between the teachers during the TPD program?

This study investigates user experiences with newly built school environments by capturing experiences from Norwegian students and teachers. The school's physical environment is important for students' learning, well-being, and participation, and the physical environment outside and inside schools affects both learning and the working environment (Plotka, 2016; Niemi et al., 2022). Over the past twenty years there has been an effort to modernize schools and education, which has led to changes and new thinking in the design of school buildings and learning spaces (Deed & Lesko 2015; Rönnlund et al., 2021). In parallel there has been an international focus on skills needed for the 21st century and on inclusive education (eg. OECD, 2013). New school buildings, often named as innovative learning environments, are designed with flexible learning spaces, modern technology, and equipment to create room for a more adaptable and varied curriculum and to facilitate reformed practises of teachers’ work and students learning (Benade & Jackson, 2017). Innovative learning environments can be seen as a physical and pedagogical move to change educational culture and restructure educational practices (Page et al., 2021). Traditional classrooms, with rows of desks and teachers as instructors and mediators in front of the students, are nowadays described as outdated (Benade & Jackson, 2017). Flexible and extended learning spaces for larger student groups are thought to better support and improve teaching and student-active learning (Frelin & Grannäs, 2022). These environments are introduced with the aim of facilitating innovative forms of teaching and learning which in turn will promote future-oriented competences. However, little is known about how well the new school buildings support educational goals, and whether the physical environment and equipment are used as intended, are experienced as appropriate for the users, or live up to the ambitions, assumptions and intentions put forward regarding changes in teaching and learning (Mulcahy et al., 2015). In many cases, the design and use of new schools have revealed significant challenges for practical use and studies have shown such problems to be costly, when new schools must be rebuilt, rearranged, or re-aligned to become more appropriate for educational practice (Tse et al., 2019; Saltmarsh et al., 2015). Thus, the design of schools must be carefully assessed, and several considerations and factors come into play on how well a school building meets users’ needs (Byers et al., 2018; Dovey & Fisher, 2014). The design of new school buildings has met some resistance, and challenges with noise, unrest and concentration problems among students have characterized the debate (Everatt et al., 2019; Mealings et al., 2015; Shield et al., 2010). How teachers work in and respond to innovative and flexible school buildings can influence educational practice (Saltmarsh et al., 2015). Research on flexible learning environments and teachers' work points to different types of opportunities and challenges teachers face in new learning environments (Campbell, 2020; Young et al., 2020, Niemi, 2021; Vidergor, 2021). There is much evidence that teachers being able to experiment with teaching activities and organization is important to be comfortable and safe using new school buildings in an appropriate way (Vidergor, 2021). Today's school life has evolved from controlled timetables to an increase in students’ self-management through daily and weekly plans, and from having a clear and regulated school environment, to many children experiencing learning environments arranged for project and group work. The schools have to be inclusive both by design and educational practice for a varied diversity of students. Knowledge about teachers and students’ interactions, relations and experiences with the school’s physical environments may contribute to understanding how to and what supports both teachers' and students’ practices and well-being at school

Abstract

Reflecting on what happens when a digital quality tool is introduced in a preschool setting, a system owner expresses: “[I]t’s a process in itself, it becomes a new way of working really. It may be that you work with the systematic quality work on paper today, or in another digital product, however, you do it, it changes things” (Quote from an interview with a system owner). The quote is a description of what happens when a digital tool for quality is introduced. Things change and new ways of working appear. The quote above is also representative of how different processes of digitalization seem to challenge professional knowledge, e.g. how to work with quality in preschools, and how this leads to processes of sensemaking (cf. Weick, 1995) among practitioners. Thus, introducing a digital quality tool affects professional settings and challenges traditional ways of working. The specific digital tool investigated in this study, consisting of an integrated app and a web interface, has an outspoken aim to organize and develop the work with quality. As such, the new digital quality tool has the intention to create new ways of working as well as change. Thus, the introduction of a digital quality tool does things and it needs to be made sense of by organizations and individuals. The following is as such an investigation of these new ways and changes related to how pre-schools work with issues of quality and how they are made sense of within their professional context.

Based on these initial observations the research questions in this study address:

• How is an introduction of a digital quality tool carried out in a Swedish pre-school setting?
• How do pre-school actors make sense of the digital quality tool?

In relation to the above, it can be stated that implementing a digital quality tool is not a simple transport from one situation to the next one. Thus, the implementation is to be considered a challenge. It affects both preschool actors (teachers, children, parents, principals, etc.) as well as Education technology (EdTech) company's digital products on how to digitalize different aspects of education. Digitalization of education thus functions at the very hub of education where desires, ambitions, and practices are formulated and acted on (see for instance SALAR, 2019). The present study engages in this phenomenon and provides knowledge on how an introduction of a digital tool is carried out, what kind of intentions, purposes, and experiences appear, and how education is made sense of by involved actors when a digital quality tool is introduced.

The teaching profession is becoming increasingly digitized. The educational policies and curriculum address the technology-oriented changes. It is paramount that there is support for the digitalised citizen to ensure a democratic and accessible society. Teachers serve as the main facilitators of students learning. More precisely, teachers are expected to develop the necessary competences to teach in technology-mediated activities in order to support students’ digital competence (Starkey, 2020). Teachers’ professional digital competence (PDC) addresses the complexity that is specific to the teaching profession (Erstad et al, 2021; Skantz-Åberg et al., 2022) through the transitional role of technologies in shaping learning in a digitalized age (Danish et al., 2021). Therefore, the transformative character of technology positions teachers as agents in reshaping their emerging professional competence and calls for changes in the way in which teachers understand and articulate their changed profession and practice. However, teachers’ perspectives and reflections on their understanding of their changing classroom practices through their experience of technology-mediated teaching activities remain less focused (Reeves & Lin, 2020). Based on sociocultural approaches (Säljö, 2010; Wertsch, 1998) this study takes a particular analytical interest in teachers’ ability to look at their practice in professionally relevant ways, indicating signs of professional vision (Goodwin, 1994). The concept of professional vision involves discursive practices to see and understand central phenomena within a professional community (Goodwin, 1994), which in this study concerns aspects of PDC.

In this paper, preschool class teachers, working in pairs, in collaboration with a team of researchers participated in educational design-based research (McKenney & Reeves, 2014) in which teachers and researchers together discussed and reflect on the competences that come into play in technology-mediated teaching activities. The discussions were elicitated by video clips from the classroom activities. These discussions, which are also video documented, are named reflective discussions (Lantz-Andersson et al., 2022) understood as first-hand, situated, and collaborative deliberations in interactive situations.

The aim of this study is to explore how teachers elaborate on the competence that comes into play in technology-mediated classroom activities and what signs of professional vision are shown in the reflective discussions in terms of how we analytically understand their utterances as coding, highlighting and articulating (Goodwin, 1994) key aspects of competence that come into play in their teaching. The following question frame our interest: What signs of teacher professional vision in relation to a digitalized early years classroom can analytically be identified in the reflective discussions between teachers and researchers?

The concept of professional vision as introduced and described by Goodwin (1994) suggests that there are professional ways of seeing, understanding, and talking about things that are connected to the specific tools that professionals use within their professional community. We therefore use professional vision as a concept for scrutinising events in our study, where shared collective practices are discussed. In addition, professional vision provides a framework that brings together ways of seeing and examining individual skills “within a community of competent practitioners” (p. 626). In educational settings, focusing on how teachers learn to code and highlight remarkable events among the simultaneous events that occur during classroom activities is linked to the development of teachers’ professional vision. In this study, the elicited video clips are used as a starting point for teachers to comment on their practice with the researchers’ central questions and inputs supporting the organisation of “the perceptual field” (Goodwin, 1994, p.620). Therefore, teachers’ professional vision is informed and shaped by balancing the individual and collective skills that structure and organize a professional field of expertise through joint reflections.

It is well-documented that educators’ prejudices surface in interactions with students and as a result influence students’ learning, academic beliefs, and attitudes toward school (Brophy, 1983; Cheng & Starks, 2002; DeCuir-Gunby, & Bindra, 2022; Meissel et al., 2017; Rubie-Davies, 2006). Prejudice is generally defined as “a negative bias toward a social category of people, with cognitive, affective, and behavioral components” (Paluck et al., 2012, p. 534). While explicit (conscious) biases are easier to identify and address because we are more aware of them, implicit (unconscious) biases tend to impact our behaviour more when we are tired, stressed, act under time constraints, or are faced with ambiguous or incomplete information (Staats, 2016).

Policymakers have increasingly called for anti-bias training for educators, however, most research on such efforts has shown that they have little sustained effects (Bezrukova et al., 2016; Carter et al., 2020; Paluck et al., 2021). As Carter and colleagues (2020) note, training often merely raises awareness of bias and in some cases triggers defensive reactions when participants are confronted with their biases without being given strategies to move forward.

With the technological advances in virtual reality (VR), the ability to immerse participants into different worlds and embody other personas has given rise to a new avenue of anti-bias training and research. VR interventions to combat bias have shown some promising results (Hatfield et al., 2022), however, these have been mainly experimental studies documenting bias in psychology or in the medical field. Only a few intervention studies exist, and these have mostly been light touch (i.e., under ten minutes) and conducted in labs with graduate students, thus their applicability to real-life contexts is uncertain (Paluck et al., 2021). Hatfield and colleagues (2022) conducted a systematic review of VR intervention research regarding racial bias and noted that 61 out of 68 studies reviewed only examined whether prejudices existed but did not explore solutions. These studies often used VR to enable participants to have contact with avatars presenting an out-group (e.g., avatars of a different race). More recently, studies have experimented with participants embodying a different race or skin colour avatar to enable perspective-taking (Groom et al., 2009), however, if the avatar lacked a real context or persona, biases seemed perpetuated. Hatfield and colleagues (2022) described this form of embodiment as ‘virtual Blackface’ (p.6). VR experiences in which the avatar has a name and history, and offers views into their experiences of prejudice, have shown more positive results in facilitating prejudice reduction (for one example, see Banakou et al., 2020).

Most research has been conducted in psychology or the medical field and few studies exist in education. Haghanikar and Hooper (2021) describe a preservice course aiming to build knowledge and awareness about homelessness. One assignment involved a VR experience embodying a homeless person. However, the impact of the VR experience or the course on students was not evaluated. A couple of small studies have explored the design of a virtual classroom for teacher training and had a small but positive impact on teachers’ empathy towards diverse students (Stavroulia et al., 2018; 2019).

We present a preliminary study exploring the potential of VR to combat teacher prejudice and increase empathy. In our study, educational leaders engaged in the VR experience and were subsequently interviewed to answer the following research questions: (1) What are educational leaders’ perceptions of the potential of a virtual reality scenario to increase feelings of empathy? (2) What are educational leaders’ perceptions of whether virtual reality scenarios from outside of education could be adapted as a professional learning tool in educational contexts?

Teacher´s professional development is an essential process to contribute to the improvement of student learning (Gordon, 2006). However, teacher education is based on solitary, individual training strategies, rather than models that enhance collaborative work (Vaillant & Marcelo, 2018). The collaborative dimension of the teaching activity is often not reflected in the leadership of most schools. Building spaces that promote collaborative learning and connect communities and cultures is a real challenge for today educational systems.

The main purpose of this study is to examine how principals support professional learning communities in Europe and Latin America from a comparative perspective. At present professional learning communities have become a key idea in the educational field. Principal´s leadership plays a significant role in the ability of a school to become a professional learning community that enhances student learning. This study explore what kind of principal creates a professional learning community in his/her school in Europe and in Latin America and contribute to integrate different cultures.

Research questions:

1. What is the principals’ role to establish and develop teachers’ professional learning communities in ten European and ten Latin American countries participating in PISA 2018?
2. What kind of leadership do principals exercise to connect different cultures and promote student-centered pedagogical practices?
3. What differences emerge from the comparison between countries and regions?
4. What factors contribute to explaining such differences?

Objectives:

This study is guided by two main objectives. The first one is to generate knowledge about the principals’ role to create and foster teachers’ professional learning communities. The second one looks forward to understanding the relationship between school principals’ leadership and the connection of diverse cultures in the European and Latin American countries participating in PISA 2018.

Theoretical framework:

The theoretical framework of this research is based on the accumulation of the so-called "professional learning communities." “community of practice”, “learning community” or “professional learning community” are terms that focus on the communitarian dimension of teaching activity. As Leclerc (2012) has pointed out, these terms are is based on the idea that the mutual commitment of the participants of a school constitutes a fundamental factor for the development of shared learning.

In “professional learning communities”, group meetings are held periodically - virtual or face-to-face- so as to strengthen work teams, contribute to teacher professionalization and foster the creation of a professional culture with common values ​​and priorities (Gairín, 2018). In particular, in the educational field, “profesional learning communities” aspire to build communities with a high degree of teaching professionalism and high expectations regarding student learning.

Additionally, the study is also supported by the literature on school leadership, which has grown significantly in recent years (OECD, 2013; UNESCO-IIPE-IWGE, 2012; Weinstein, Muñoz & Hernández, 2014). In the past, school leadership was synonymous with the management teams of schools. In the last decade, the conceptualization has varied and it emphasizes that leadership involves the generation of a common culture of expectations, in which all school actors are responsible for their contribution to the collective results related to student learning (Leithwood & Louis, 2011).

From the data of the TALIS 2018 survey, we can state that the participation of Czech teachers in professional development (PD) is one of the highest in comparison with other countries, and they have a more positive attitude towards PD activities. The most common forms of PD are reading literature and attending seminars, but below-average is team teaching or mutual observation of teachers in the classroom. (Boudová et al., 2020) According to Czech School Inspectorate (CSI), in about one-fourth of the monitored schools, the CSI assesses care for the professional development of teachers as "requiring improvement" or "unsatisfactory". (Pražáková, 2021)

The importance of PD is perceived worldwide as a subject that can affect the quality of teaching or the professional motivation of the teacher (Starý et al., 2012). Current research relates to examining the process of PD in terms of its quality and effectiveness (Gore et al., 2017; Garet et al., 2001; Darling-Hammond et al., 2017), but also as a tool that has an impact on pupils' school success (Starý et al., 2012; Yoon et al., 2007). Continuous professional development is related to teacher self-efficacy and classroom climate. Teachers' self-efficacy, which affects relationships with colleagues and parents, is also an important factor that allows them to appreciate their colleagues and school management. (Caprara et al., 2006) Feedback and evaluation of teachers' work together with the overall school climate are factors that affect a teacher's confidence and job satisfaction. (Badri et al. 2017).

Our study aims to describe some characteristics of the professional development of Czech teachers on the ISCED 2 level (upper grades of primary school). For the secondary analysis, we will use data sets from the TALIS survey in 2013 and 2018 and data from the 2015 research conducted by S. Michek (2016) in cooperation with NIDV (National Institute for Further Education). We will describe how teachers in the selected datasets perceive professional development activities, how they engage in these activities, what factors are associated with them, and how they are related to the age and length of teaching practice. Due to changes in TALIS questionnaires and the fact that the 2015 sample does not meet all criteria for the representative sample is a description based on time development limited. However, we can focus our perspective on how the statements of teachers differ in individual datasets based on their age and length of teaching experience.

Our research question is: How does the teacher's length of teaching experience affect his or her active participation in professional development? What is the relationship between the length of teaching experience, the assessment of professional development activities, the influence of feedback, and school climate? What types of professional development activities do teachers choose based on the length of their teaching experience?

In America, as is the case around the world, students with disabilities are taught in the general education (regular) classroom alongside peers without disabilities. However, content area teachers (e.g., science, history, mathematics) do not always receive ample preparation to support these students' unique behavioral and learning needs (Kahn & Lewis, 2014). As a result, students with disabilities that impact their capacity to learn such as learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and behavioral disorders may not receive the type of instruction needed to support positive academic outcomes (Kennedy et al., 2018). When younger adolescents do not succeed in content area coursework they can become turned off to the discipline, and thus potential career pathways (Blondal & Adalbjardardottir, 2012).

The purpose of this randomized control trial was to explore the impact of a multimedia professional development process on the quality and quantity of vocabulary instruction for inclusive middle school science teachers and corresponding learning of students with and without disabilities. The conceptual framework for the treatment intervention is cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al., 1991), and the looks and sounds of the intervention components reflect Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning (2020). The PD package reflects cognitive apprenticeship by scaffolding declarative, procedural, and conditional learning for teachers using three main components.

The first is a series of multimedia vignettes called content acquisiton podcasts (CAPs) (Kennedy et al., 2018). CAPs are short vignettes designed using Mayer's CTML and associated design principles and can be watched and rewatched as needed by teachers (or those in training). We produced five CAPs for this project corresponding to key evidence-based vocabulary practices known to be effective for teaching students with disabilities (e.g., using student-friendly language, using examples, conducting a demonstration, and breaking terms into morphological word parts). CAPs help build what Collins and colleagues call declarative and preliminary procedural knowledge, as each video explains the steps of the practice, and shows a model teacher implementing. An example CAP can be seen here https://vimeo.com/444031616.

The second component of the intervention is the team provides teachers with customizable instructional materials in the form of PowerPoint slides to use during vocabulary instruction. Over 100 slideshows were produced and checked for accuracy by experts in special education and science instruction. The slideshows use the instructional practices taught by the CAPs, and also adhere to Mayer's principles. These slides can be used during live instruction or recorded for student use. These slides also help build declarative and procedural knowledge of key instructional practices. Sample slides can be seen at www.vocabsupport.com.

Finally, the team developed a combination observation and feedback took called COACHED (Kennedy & Kunemund, 2020). COACHED contains the Classroom Teaching (CT) Scan observation instrument, which documents in real time instructional moves made by teachers for later reflection and identification of areas to improve. Data generated by the CT Scan is translated within COACHED into a customizable feedback template that does not give a quality score, but instead focuses on the extent to which a teacher used each practice with fidelity. COACHED is a free tool and flexible for use in a variety of formats (https://coachedweb.azurewebsites.net/). The feedback from COACHED helps develop conditional knowledge of teachers in that they receive notes on how, when, with whom practices are used.

Although science teachers are taught and reinforced for using inquiry approaches, many of these colleagues fear too much time is given to vocabulary instruction (Parsons & Bryant, 2016). While we agree the traditions of the paradigm should be honoroed (inquiry), students with disabilities are unlikely to succeed without the type of explicit instruction proposed in this study (VanUitert et al., 2022).

Growing evidence suggests the value of developing professional learning communities to ensure educational improvement, with a solid literature developing the ideas of "professional learning communities” (Bolam et al. 2005; Stoll et al. 2006). Educational policy guidelines in the Spanish context assume and promote this school model as the most relevant for encouraging teacher reprofessionalization and educational improvement. It is understood that if schools are to meet the needs of students and achieve educational success, then, in parallel, they must provide opportunities for teachers to learn together how to do it better. But do these conditions exist in today's schools? Moreover, Spanish managers themselves have assumed, in their "Spanish Framework for Good Management" (FEAE/FEDADI/FEDEIP, 2017), that one of the competencies of the "pedagogical leadership" dimension is "Promoting and leading a professional learning community”. All of this signals a point of confluence between current pedagogical knowledge, educational policy, and the professional positioning of school principals' associations regarding the necessary shift towards advanced PCL models. It is therefore interesting to investigate the extent to which Andalusian schools adopt this proposal.

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the extent to which the Andalusian schools, with diverse realities and at different stages of development, meet the basic dimensions to act as a professional learning community (PLC). Such elements include having a clear-shared goal and being capable of acting systemically in line with a joint community project with leadership, organizational, and professional conditions compatible with the learning of all and among all to increase social and professional capital with differential effects on the education of their students.

To detect the strengths and weaknesses of Andalusian schools as professional learning communities, the instrument used proposes items that respond to a set of questions: Do teachers have shared objectives for school improvement? Are there opportunities to learn from others through open dialogue? Do teachers have opportunities to observe and encourage their colleagues in analyzing classroom practices? Are ideas and suggestions for improving student learning shared informally among colleagues? Finally, are there opportunities at the individual and group levels to apply teaching practices and share results?

We also aimed to analyze whether the central dimensions of the research instrument varied according to the following sociodemographic variables: type and size of educational center, position held or professional function of the informant sample, and gender.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) of educators are groups of individuals who constantly seek to improve their teaching practices. The essential features of such communities include collaboration, shared goals, action, result-driven processes, and continuous improvement (Berglas-Shapiro and Flash-Gvili, 2021).

Effective PLCs assume that teaching is an ever-changing practice that challenges educators to constantly examine pedagogical approaches to determine what best suits them (Roberts & Pruitt, 2008). Studies have shown that educators who are members of PLCs improve the quality of their teaching practice, and their students' achievements improve accordingly (Watson, 2014; Prenger et al., 2019).

PLCs can take different forms, depending on the organizations with which they are affiliated. For example, some PLCs may be composed of educators from the same grade level or subject area, while others may be cross-disciplinary. Some PLCs meet in person, while others may use technology to collaborate remotely. However, the common thread among all PLCs is that they are focused on improving student learning and involve collaboration among educators.

A discipline-based professional learning community (DIPLC) is a group of educators within a specific subject or discipline who come together regularly to collaborate and learn from each other to improve both their practices and student outcomes; group members come from diverse cultural, ethnic, and social groups and from different schools. This type of PLC allows educators to focus on a specific subject area and develop a deep understanding of the content, pedagogy, and best practices within that discipline. Learning from practice is an essential component of DIPLCs, as it focuses on interaction in class, the choice of topics and curricula by teachers and students, and the challenges of epistemic quality and joint negotiation of meaning.

In the fan model (Levy et al., 2018), which is commonly used for DIPLCs, teachers' communities are led by two facilitators and operate under the auspices of an academic institute that specializes in the particular discipline. This is a multidirectional, hierarchical model in which the academic institute sets up a "facilitators' community" comprising facilitators from the various field communities. The institute presents them with innovative disciplinary content (skills, content knowledge, and relevant teaching strategies) and teaches them the skills for facilitation. The facilitators' community members evaluate this content and implement the content they deem suitable in the field communities (Aricha & Marzel, 2021). Concurrently, activities that teachers recommend in a particular field community are presented at the facilitators' community so facilitators can disseminate to the other communities. Thus, the content moves up and down the fan, benefiting all teachers who are members of the network of communities (Yayon et. al., 2021).

DIPLC facilitation is an important role in ensuring success. Facilitators are critical to creating a culture of continuous improvement, and are responsible for fostering a collaborative and reflective environment where educators of all backgrounds can share ideas and best practices and work together to improve instruction and student learning outcomes. The rationale for appointing and training DIPLC facilitators stems from educational leadership theories (Connolly, 2019), which advocate for strong, effective leaders who can provide direction and guidance and create and maintain a positive and productive learning environment for all learners.

This study investigated the skills and knowledge required to effectively facilitate DIPLCs within the context of rapid societal changes and emerging social and individual needs. Additionally, it examined different facilitator-training methods and the ways in which these methods supported the DIPLC facilitators. The goal was to understand how to best equip facilitators with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead and support the members of the community in their collaborative efforts to improve teaching and learning.

Since 1990s, the idea of professional learning communities (PLCs) became fashionable, and now it is widely practiced in North America (DuFour et al., 2010; Hord, 2008), Europe (Doğan & Adams, 2018; Lomos, 2017; Vanblaere & Devos, 2016), East Asia (Hairon & Tan, 2017; Pang & Wang, 2016; Zheng et al., 2020) and other contexts (Jäppinen et al., 2016; Vangriekenet al., 2017). PLC is globally welcomed as ample studies have shown that Transforming schools as PLCs can bring enhance student achievement and teacher learning (Vangriekenet al., 2017, Stoll et al., 2006). A PLC is commonly defined as “a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth promoting way” (Stoll et al. 2006, p. 223).

Many previous studies have considered the whole school as a PLC (Vanblaere & Devos, 2016; Zhang et al.,2021), but many scholars have called for assessing the different levels of PLCs (Sleegers et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2021) and their possible influences on students and teachers (Lomos, 2017; Vanblaere & Devos, 2016, 2018). Within schools, departments are the basic unit for teacher collaboration. Teachers are nested in departments and departments are nested in schools. This is especial the case in Chinese schools, where teacher collaboration mainly occurs at the subject-based departments (Gao & Wang, 2014; Wong, 2010). The present study focused on PLCs at the department-level in Chinese contexts. It explored the departmental PLC characteristics and their influences on individual teachers.

In addition, even previous studies have documented the benefits of PLC, it is not self-evident that teachers who engage in departmental PLCs can bring positive outcomes (Louis et al., 2010; Vescio et al., 2008). The study concerns the role of different dimensions of departmental PLC, namely shared norms, collective responsibility, deprivatized practice, and reflective dialogue. Using a multilevel analysis, it analyzed the relationship between departmental level PLC characteristics and individual teacher development.

Leadership is vital in developing and sustain effective PLCs. In school contexts, there exist multiple leaders, such as school principal, middle leaders and teacher leaders. Previous studies have mainly focus on the role of principal leadership in PLCs (Stoll et al., 2006; Vanbalere & Devos, 2016; Vangerieken et al., 2017). The study focused on teacher leaders in departments. Scholars argued that departmental leadership may possess greater influence for the creation of departmental subcultures than senior leadership roles, as teachers were in direct and continuous contact with subject leaders on daily basis as opposed occasional and seasonal contact with senior leaders (Ghamrawi, 2010; Leithwood, 2016; Printy, 2008). Therefore, the study further explored the role of department heads as teacher leaders for teacher development. Teacher leaders’ two types of leadership, namely instructional leadership (IL) and transformational leadership (TL), were examined at the departmental level.

In terms of teacher development outcomes, the study selected teachers’ self-efficacy as the outcome, which is a commonly used indicator for teacher development (Zee & Koomen, 2016). The study addresses teacher leadership and PLCs practices at the departmental level in the Chinese contexts. Two research questions are addressed:

(1) What are the relationships between departmental PLC characteristics and individual teachers’ self-efficacy?

(2) What are the relationships between two types of departmental teacher leadership (namely transformational and instructional leadership) and individual teachers’ self efficacy?

Professional school leaders are indispensable for the quality of schools and for continuous development (Sammons et al. 1995; Huber, 2010; Huber & Mujis 2010). Therefore, adequate qualification offers and measures of continuing education are necessary for the function of school leadership. In this way, school leaders can further develop their professional competencies and reflect on their job-related values and attitudes (Huber, 2003, 2005, 2012).

The various design of the didactic framework of such qualification and continuing education offers is discussed in the relevant literature. The focus is no longer only on classic courses or seminars. Multiple learning occasions (Huber, 2013; Huber & Schneider, 2013) include cognitive-theoretical forms of learning (lectures, presentations), but also cooperative and communicative-process-oriented procedures (e.g., project work) and reflective methods (e.g., self-assessment, feedback, supervision, coaching).

The aim of the present study is to identify important process characteristics for the quality assurance and further development of qualification offers for school leaders. For the study, which was conducted in a mixed-methods design, 782 participants could be queried about the process qualities and outcome qualities of a preparatory national qualification offer for school leaders.

The interrelationships of different process and outcome qualities were analyzed on the basis of the offer-use-impact model for education and training (cf. Fend 1987, 1998; Helmke, 2003; Huber et al., 2008; Huber, 2011). This integrates the evaluation levels according to Kirkpatrick (1994) and divides process and outcome qualities into offer characteristics, offer perception, offer use, and offer effects. These are influenced by the offer evaluation and general conditions.

The results of the quantitative evaluation of the present study show that the better the survey participants evaluate the micro-didactic offer characteristics of the practical implementation and the process design of the courses, the greater are the offer benefit and the offer effects (the self-assessed competence development and the increase in motivation). The better the perception of the offer (satisfaction with the lecturers and the organization of the seminars, the overall satisfaction and the relevance of the learning content) of the survey participants is, the greater are the estimations of the benefit of the offer and the development of competencies. Also, correlations of offer effects among each other can be identified. The better the personal development is assessed, the greater the survey participants' assessment of their competence development and behavioral change. If the development of competencies and the increase in motivation are rated as better, the change in behavior is also rated as greater.

According to the designs of the BIO strategy model (Huber, 2020), it is presented which process features of the qualification offer should be preserved, innovated and optimized from the point of view of the participants (qualitative analysis). Here, it stands out that the survey participants particularly benefited from networking and exchange with other participants. Group work, practice-based project work, and specialist lectures are positively highlighted by the survey participants in terms of micro-didactic features. In terms of content, the greatest benefit is seen in dealing with topics related to service and school law.

Selected results of the survey of the participants were compared with a survey of the lecturers of the qualification program, whereby the lecturers assessed it consistently better than the participants. Selected results of the survey of the participants were compared with a survey of the lecturers of the qualification offer, whereby the lecturers assessed it consistently better than the participants.

We know that educational equity, at its core, is about addressing the impact of historical and structural practices that have contributed, and continue to contribute, to unfair outcomes for children from the most marginalized parts of our society. As such, the San Antonio Independent School District has currently engaged in work with the Wallace Foundation focused on the development of an equity-centered principal pipeline. The question the initiative seeks to answer is:

How can large, high-needs districts, in partnership with their stakeholders, create comprehensive, aligned principal pipelines and other supports that are capable of producing and supporting equity-centered leaders within the district ecosystem?

In order to develop an ‘ecosystem’ that is equity-focused, we must ensure that staff in the central office, those who are charged with creating and maintaining systems across the district, have a common understanding of equity. One way to start this work is to engage in the reflective work of developing autoethnographies of current school leaders. The Urban School Leaders Collaborative (USLC) at the University of Texas at San Antonio has engaged each of their aspiring urban school leaders in this work for well over two decades. Therefore, faculty from this nationally recognized program have facilitated the autoethnography work for the leadership cabinet of SAISD the Spring 2023.

Through a pedagogy of collective critical consciousness (Freire, 2000), deep critical reflection (Garza, 2015), and other self-directed learning activities, district leaders will develop a deeper understanding of self that will help them see themselves in the students they serve, and write an autoethnography towards leadership for social justice. The model is grounded in theoretical and empirical models of instructional reform, specifically as these apply to the education of Latinos and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. These include subtractive/deficit schooling framework (Delpit, 1996; Valenzuela, 1999; Valencia, 1997), culturally relevant teaching framework (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2009), race (Anzaldúa, 1987; hooks, 2000), gender (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011; Blount 2003) and social justice framework (Theoharis, 2009).

Change in any school system is inevitable, and although change has the potential to improve learning contexts, one of the biggest challenges with change is the realistic assessment of the constraints and obstacles that come with it (Levin, 2008).

When evaluating the impact of change Byrk et al (2015) maintain that it is necessary to “see the whole system” and to consider multiple possible solutions to the issues that result from change. One way to do this, is to use a design-based approach to inquiry that identifies the core issues brought about by change, followed by the generation of a theory of action and strategies that respond directly to these issues (Childress & Marietta, 2017).This research study uses such an approach to explore teachers’ experiences of systemic change following the expansion of an international school environment.

The school involved is an International Baccalaureate school, situated in the Netherlands. In recent years, the school experienced expansion, across all areas of the school, from the Primary Years Programme all the way through to the Diploma Programme level.This expansion brought with it additional buildings, an increase in student numbers, additional classes and course offerings, the restructuring of teaching schedules, and a reduction in outdoor play areas for students.

The objective of this study is to explore teachers' perceptions of any issues that may have arise from the expansion, to consider their perceptions of the root causes of any issues that may have arisen, to consider how the context would be different if issues were addressed, and to identify preliminary courses of acton that could address these issues.

This paper proposes a meta-model of professional learning (PL) that attempts to synthesise the constructs, theories, and processes accounted for in published models to date. The paper builds upon two of the authors’ existing frameworks for designing (King, 2014; Poekert et al., 2020) and evaluating PL (King, 2014), whilst also drawing from the key constructs, theories, and processes of PL in the wider literature. The results advance a conceptual framework that aggregates empirical illustrations and practical tools to support the understanding and application of the constructs elaborated within the framework in both research and practice. It aims to serve as a diagram, as defined by Deleuze (1988, p. 44): “a diagram is a map, or rather a series of superimposed maps.” Such diagrams model the rhizomatic nature of experience.

By grounding the meta-model in pragmatism and complexity theory, it aims to address critiques that challenge scholars to highlight the epistemological, ontological, and ethical commitments that inform methodological decisions and approaches to PL (e.g., Boylan, 2021). Because the model is rooted in pragmatic complexity, it allows for flexibility in its application based upon the goal(s) that a user is trying to achieve. Previous taxonomies of professional learning (i.e., Kennedy, 2014) posit that these goals might range from the transmission of discrete skills or knowledge to the development of competencies to the transformation of professional identities. It stands to reason that as the goals of the professional learning activity vary, so will the constructs that must be accounted for in the design and evaluation of PL. Pragmatic complexity also allows for consideration of the emergence of different constructs operating within diverse contexts that can be understood and navigated through pragmatic inquiry, either during enactment or evaluation because both are understood to be experiments aimed at improving the situation under study toward an ethically grounded goal. The ultimate ethical goal of these efforts to improve teaching and learning is “equal participation by all in the conversation of humankind” because “initiation into this conversation is the purpose of education, and it is the purpose of educational research to provide tools to aid in this task” (Garrison, 1994, p. 13).

The model is also flexible enough to account for the complexity, nonlinearity, and nuance of individual experience situated within unique contexts as participants engage in PL activity while still highlighting patterns that emerge across individuals. This flexibility affords discretion to both the practitioner in the selection of tools and approaches and the researcher in the selection of methods and instruments that are fit for purpose. The model makes both theoretical and practical contributions by synthesising conceptualisations of PL to date and serving as a platform for future theoretical and programmatic development. Further, it is the ambitious goal of this framework to promote a meta-model that is simultaneously universal and deeply contextualised within and across national boundaries and circumstances because it can be configured and applied in a multiplicity of ways. By advancing a language that aims to be both accessible to researchers and practitioners alike and broadly applicable across nations, we aim to develop shared understandings across numerous audiences toward improving research and practice.

The paper directly responds to the theme advanced in the ECER call for papers in that it aims to represent the diverse influences in the lived experience of participants, schools and systems that affect how PL translates into teaching and learning outcomes. It also aims to offer a model that can be applied in diverse settings in the development, enactment, and evaluation of professional learning in order to optimise for equitable impacts on student learning outcomes.

Professional learning is vital for the development of educators and for the development of a strong educational system (Opfer & Pedder, 2011). This research project investigates the development of critical praxis (reflection and action for positive change) through a professional development program. Drawing on the work of Freire, and using the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014), the research considers the professional learning of English speaking teachers and school leaders involved in a long-term professional development program in Hong Kong.

In a previous article based on three research projects across two countries and three different education sectors (Francisco, Forssten Seiser & Grice 2021), we identified trust, power and agency as the key themes impacting on the development of critical praxis. We continue to explore these themes in this work. According to Aristotle, praxis is a morally committed action in which, and through which, values are given practical expression (Carr, 2009). Kemmis and Smith (2008) consider praxis as ‘what people do when they take into account all the circumstances and exigencies that confront them at a particular moment and then, taking the broadest view they can of what is best to do, they act’ (p. 4). Mahon et al. (2020) argue that educational praxis is forming, self-forming and transforming. It is forming in the sense that educators are involved in supporting the formation of people and of society (Kemmis et al. 2014). It is self-forming in that educators are reflexive and reflective in their praxis informed actions. It is transforming in that educators with a praxis informed approach will transform people and sites through their actions.

The research is framed and analysed using the theory of practice architectures (TPA). This theory identifies practice as “a socially established cooperative human activity involving utterances and forms of understandings (sayings), modes of action (doings), and ways in which people relate to one another and the world (relatings) that ‘hang together’ in characteristic ways in a distinctive ‘project’” (Mahon et al. 2017, p 7-8). Practices are enabled and constrained by site-based arrangements: the practice architectures.

The research discussed in this presentation explores how educators develop critical praxis (reflection and action for positive change) during formal professional learning experiences and in informal spaces, and the factors that enable and constrain its development. Specific research questions are: what practice architectures enabled and constrained the development critical praxis in a long-term professional learning program; and in what ways is the professional learning forming, self-forming and transforming?

As a result of the tertiarisation of teacher training in most Western countries, the issue of professional development has become part of a lifelong learning approach (Allen et al., 2018; European Commission, 2018, 2021). The continuing professional development policies that have been put in place have therefore tried to respond to this challenge, while adapting to national context. In the canton of Vaud in French-speaking Switzerland, in-service teacher development is essentially managed by the University of Teacher Education (Haute école pédagogique - HEP), the institution empowered to award teachers' diplomas.

For the past four years, the Directorate General of Public Education has mandated the University of Teacher Education of the canton (HEPVaud) to develop in-service teacher training aimed at meeting the major challenges in education. Among them, the inclusive school policy, which was the subject of an official document published by the Ministry of Education in 2019, under the title "Concept 360". Its aim was to provide a framework and guidelines on how schools and professionals should deal with student diversity. Our contribution shows how this policy was translated into in-service training and how it was articulated to the needs of education workers.

Objectives and purposes

With the establishment of performance-based accountability (PBA) policies that combine various types of data about educational quality to form a basis for school improvement (Verger et al., 2019), the demand for evidence-based practices in education has increased significantly. In Switzerland, a competency-based curriculum for primary schools in the German-speaking cantons was introduced in 2018–19 along with standardised tests that provide data on educational quality for cantonal authorities. At the same time, the external evaluation of schools and legal regulations remain strong policy instruments. One example is the regulation of formative assessment in a canton in Central Switzerland, Schwyz. This paper examines how school actors respond to new expectations by applying various data sources and aligning their practices with new legal requirements. Particular attention is directed towards how teacher teams negotiate and make sense of the various data sources to make decisions about classroom practices to improve student learning.

Theoretical perspectives

This paper draws on two theoretical perspectives. The governance perspective emphasises the interplay of various policy instruments, routines and rules in the school system or school organisation, while the enactment perspective helps identify priorities and conditions for local school actors to respond to new governing expectations to improve classroom practices in specific socio-institutional settings (Ball, 2011; Braun et al., 2011). We also explore how the various data sources can be used to develop practices, such as bounded decision-making, leading to formal and informal learning across teacher teams in the school organisation (Cain et al., 2019).

Internationally, there has been a proliferation of networks in education over the last two decades and much literature has been written on the models, processes and interactions involved (Azorín and Muijs 2017; Azorín 2020; Azorín et al. 2020; Brown and Flood 2020; Rincón-Gallardo 2020). This paper presents findings from an original piece of research in Ireland which sought to understand how two networks of DEIS schools have supported individual members and schools over a twenty-year period. DEIS is the Irish government policy instrument to address educational disadvantage.
In addition to contributing to the evidence and practice base nationally and internationally, this research developed a unique Conceptual Framework to problematise the networks from a policy, practice and theoretical perspective. As such it draws on national and international education policy, literature on school networks, social theory on the reproduction of inequality in education, social capital theory and the social learning theory of Communities of Practice to recognise the complexity of the two networks and match them with conceptual tools that do not, in Lima’s words (2010, p. 2), ‘oversimplify’. The CF maps the interplay between the key elements in the analysis of the networks drawn from the literature i.e., composition, structure, purpose, processes, dynamics, effectiveness and challenges (Hadfield and Chapman 2009; Lima 2010; Muijs et al. 2011; Rincón-Gallardo and Fullan 2016; Azorín and Muijs 2017; Azorín 2020; Azorín et al. 2020) and the domain, community and practice of CoPs (Wenger 1998; Wenger Trayner and Wenger-Trayer 2015), illustrating how they can co-exist. It also demonstrates how social capital is built internally through bonding social capital (Putnam 2000) and externally through bridging (ibid) and linking social capital (Grootaert et al. 2004) to support schools in the face of societal and economic inequity and social and cultural reproduction of inequality in education. In doing so, the networks help to connect the micro level of the DEIS school to the macro level of national education policy mediating through the meso layer in the centralised Irish system. This research captures and analyses the multifaceted nature of the networks and illuminates the structures, processes and interactions through which the aims of the networks and outcomes from participants’ perspectives are realised at the individual level (i.e., professional learning, growth and development of leadership skills and occupational wellbeing of members), and collective level (i.e., mobilising resources and support for schools involved in a variety of areas, advocacy and raising awareness of the concerns of member schools). The CF also recognises and illuminates the challenges and limitations of these networks theoretically, practically and in terms of policy. This approach will be of benefit to other researchers internationally who wish to situate school networks or indeed, other collaborative professional learning within practice, policy and theory.

This paper reports on a project aiming to develop empirical and theoretical knowledge about teachers' planning and preparations (PaP) of lessons as a didactical collegial practice and how this shapes and is shaped by the local school organization. One goal is to explore and theoretically describe PaP as a collegial practice by contrasting different subjects over time. Another is to analytically explore how these settings affect and enable teachers' ability to make strategic decisions for students' learning. Finally, the aim is to examine local school improvement efforts. The project is based on longitudinal case studies wherein teachers of different school subjects had time to plan and prepare lessons. The collegial setting was organized to facilitate teachers' focus on student learning, primarily subject-oriented and sometimes cross-curricular, but always oriented to a learning object. This design allowed us to study teachers' transformational competence over time and between subjects by following their decisions about content, learning goals and objects, sequencing, and adjusting to students' needs and interests. This design opened up for comparative analyses to better understand similarities and differences between and across subjects. Further, the schools have different management cultures, one more individual and one more collegial. How PaP is implemented and refigured in regard to the local school organization is also examined in the project. We will be asking three research questions:

• RQ1: How do teachers' PaP appear as a transformational competence when scheduled as collegial collaboration?
• RQ2: How does the collegial teaching setting affect teachers' ability to make strategic decisions in relation to students' learning?
• RQ3: How is school leading prefigured in the implementation process of scheduled collegial PaP at participating schools, and what are the implications for the local school organizations?

What motivates this focus on PaP? In short, we know little about how collegial planning affects teachers' transformational competence and how this may be context-bound to different subjects, nor about its infrastructural function in the local school organization (Hirsh, & Lindberg, 2015; Yuan, & Zhang, 2016). Such evidence-informed knowledge is needed as PaP involves complex strategic decisions that have been shown to benefit from adequate collegial cooperation (Nordgren et al., 2019; 2022). As teachers can make a difference in student learning beyond socio-economic restraints (Hattie, 2008), school authorities and research communities alike have invested in enhancing teachers' professionalism both through collegial and individual strategies (Chetty et al., 2014; Lefstein et al., 2020). Consequently, it is a paradox that planning is largely overlooked as a fundamental activity for generating qualitative teaching. Boeskens and Nusche (2021) note that student learning does not correlate with lesson time as such, but with 'the time students spend engaged with tasks that are of adequate difficulty' (p. 12). To improve teaching quality, teachers have to canalize their knowledge through their PaP. If PaP is compromised due to organizational or ability restrictions, teaching quality will also be compromised. Yet, the role of teachers' planning is seldom distinguished in political reforms nor as a salient practice in school improvement research. In subject-didactical research, the planning–teaching–reflecting cycle is acknowledged as core to teachers' professionalism (Carlson & Daehler, 2019), yet it is seldom targeted for study (Boeskens & Nusche, 2021). Evidence indicates that whether the school improvement efforts target collegial cooperation or teacher leadership, a necessary condition for enduring improvements is teachers' ability to think strategically and autonomously about students’ learning processes (Kennedy, 2016).

This contribution presents a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design (Creswell & Clark, 2017) focused on training conditions to support teacher capacity for assessing, in both a descriptive and formative approach, student's learning outcomes as a way to enhance professional development.In recent decades, researchers have shown an increased interest in professional development (Kennedy, 2016); most recently, several reviews have been written and several meta-analyses (Kennedy, 2016; Sims et al. 2021;) have been conducted in an effort to identify the ideal conditions for effective professional development (PD) (Kennedy, 2016a; Timperley et al., 2007; Walter & Briggs, 2012) and to clearly define the term "professional development", which is often used as an umbrella term to refer to any opportunities that serve to enhance teachers' knowledge. In this contribution, PD specifically refers to a “structured, facilitated activity for teachers intended to increase their teaching ability” (Sims, 2021). This definition allows us to include a wide range of skills and abilities, but at the same time is useful in its exclusion of PD activities and programmes consisting of mere updates for teachers on general topics.

Results of the meta-analyses reveal that several design features (Kennedy, 2016) and factors (Sims et al., 2021) characterize effective PD and that these can be divided into two main categories: external factors, namely features established before the intervention (content knowledge; program intensity and length; role of the instructor; mandatory/voluntary participation; online/presential); b) internal factors, namely features developed during the intervention (feedback; goal setting; self-monitoring).

This contribution seeks to place the teacher's ability to collect educational evidence (firstly, to make student’s learning visible; secondly, to analyze and assess it) at the center of PD, starting from the consideration of the aforementioned factors in designing a formative intervention. The hypothesis, to be explored in this contribution through an empirical study based on the evaluation of the formative impact of a training program, is consistent with Guskey’s model of teacher change (2002) and the idea that professional change primarily occurs as the result of gaining evidence of students’ learning rather than as the result of a change in teachers’ attitudes and beliefs. The feedback, in the form of an analysis of the students' learning process, that teachers receive on their educational practices is intended here to be an effective motivator toward PD. In continuity with Guskey's theory, the purpose of this contribution is to provide a qualitative exploration of the formative impact of a training program focused on supporting the teacher’s capacity for making students’ learning visible. In particular, the study aims to identify a) the set of professional skills enhanced through the training program as perceived by teachers; b) the training program methodologies and conditions that best foster the development of these skills.

The skills we are considering belong to the area of teacher professionalization, identified as “pedagogical-didactic,” and relate to the ability to design activities consistent, as well as the gathering and analysis of evidence of learning outcomes, the formative feedback provided to students. Most of these skills can be associated with the professional profile of the so-called “teacher-as-researcher”. This connection between PD and the definition of teacher as researcher relies on the idea that teacher professionalization is dependent on the teachers ability to a) adopt an inquiry-based approach to his or her own teaching and, b) use this approach to observe and to collect data on the educational process and then to reflect on it.

The paper presents a study on Swiss teachers' workplace learning which explores workspace learning processes of experienced teachers. More specifically, a qualitative research approach is used to explore how teachers' professional learning occurs in practice, triggered by a continuous professional development program.

Workplace learning of teachers is seen as learning embedded in daily classroom activities in order to cope with the demands. Both formal and job-embedded workplace learning are considered (Hallinger & Kulophas, 2020). The latter has become more important in a knowledge-based society that is constantly changing due to technological and societal developments (Lecat et al., 2020). Research on workplace learning is a rather young field that has expanded considerably since the 1990s due to the changes in work and is now broadly based and interdisciplinary. Initially more at home in workplace education (Dehnbostel, 2018), there have been an increasing number of studies on teachers' workplace learning in recent years (X. Huang & Lai, 2020). An important topic is the distinction between formal and informal learning (L. Huang & Liew, 2021). The consensus is that both forms play an important role, with Workplace Learning focusing on informal learning (Tynjälä, 2008). Studies in the school field have become more numerous in the last decade. They refer, for example, to learning activities and learning outcomes of usually experienced teachers as well as to conditions that promote learning in the work process (e.g. Louws et al., 2017)). A central aspect of the debate on teachers' workplace learning is the question of how to further develop teachers' professional competences in a sustainable way, with much attention being paid to the link between formal and informal learning (Geeraerts et al., 2018).

The continuous professional development program mentioned is a comprehensive and practice-based procedure for data-supported teaching development called STEEV (simultaneously teaching and evaluation that is effective and visible; in german: LUUISE) (Beywl & Odermatt, 2019). STTEV draws on research on teaching (e.g. Helmke & Weinert, 2021) and further education (e.g. Lipowsky & Rzejak, 2021). In addition, it fosters "evaluative thinking" (Dunn & Hattie, 2021): teachers plan ahead thinking about how they can check and also pro-mote the success of their teaching by means of own data collections. The change of perspective, "seeing through the eyes of the learners" (Hattie, 2009), is crucial: Questionnaire results are made visible to everyone in the class as soon as possible. The STEEV process strengthens the expertise of teachers by supporting them to address pedagogical challenges effectively and to achieve high teaching goals. STEEV is applicable to all subjects at all levels of education. Specific features of the programme are the high practical orientation and the close support of the participants by coaches during the planning of a data-based teaching intervention, the implementation in the classroom, which usually lasts several weeks, and the collegial reflection.

Dialogic teaching has been seen as a method of supporting social and moral learning processes (English 2016). It has been framed as improving student learning by teachers improving classroom dialogue and interaction patterns (Alexander, 2020). This presentation reports on a two-year qualitative study of peer co-coaching triads introduced to develop English primary school teachers’ skills in dialogic teaching. Whilst much is known about teacher development by means of more formal learning activities, research on more everyday situated teacher learning is limited (Kyndt et al 2016). Supporting teacher development includes collaborative teaching practices, and increasingly, coaching is acknowledged as a facilitator of teacher professional development. In an educational context, coaching can take many forms, with emphasis often placed on the role of the instructional coach working in a dyadic relationship alongside a teacher with the intention of developing instructional practice (Haneda, Teemant, and Sherman 2017; Lofthouse, 2018). In the field of educational leadership, the potential of group coaching has been recognised for enhancing learning about leadership practices (Fluckiger et. al., 2016). However, research into group coaching in the wider school context (and specifically group coaching between teachers) remains minimal (Fluckiger et al, 2016). Furthermore, Roberston (2009) acknowledges that educational leaders do not necessarily have the skills, theoretical frameworks, time or experience to effectively coach their staff in the development of instructional practices.

This presentation responds to the lacunae in our professional knowledge through consideration of a research project undertaken with seven teachers in a primary school in the South of England. The research focused on developing teachers’ skills in using group (peer) video coaching to further dialogic teaching approaches in their classrooms. In doing so, it sought to address previous recommendations (Bignell, 2018) that academics should seek out models of professional development which empower teachers to lead professional dialogue in order to develop the depth of understanding required to effectively implement dialogic teaching in daily classroom practices.

To that end, a model of group (triadic) video coaching was adopted that sought to develop teacher skills in dialogic teaching and explore the potentialities of a group coaching methodology. In seeking to give voice to the participant experiences, the research drew upon pre and post-project questionnaires and post-project interviews. Throughout interviews, the teachers, Deputy Headteacher and Headteacher reflected extensively upon their experiences of group coaching and how they understood the impact on professional learning in situ. Two research questions were addressed:

• To what extent can teacher video co-coaching enhance the development of dialogic teaching skills?

• What are the advantages and limitations of a using group video co- coaching approach for professional development?

Abstract

Building on earlier research that focused on the undergraduate experience, this paper presents the primary teacher perspective on an interdisciplinary music and physics educational outreach program called Quavers to Quadratics.

This popular program, now in its eighth year, involves pairs of undergraduate music and physics students, (interdisciplinary co-facilitators) creating and presenting a pioneering initiative for 4^th – 6^th class primary school children and their teachers. The program aims to playfully explore via co-teaching, concepts common to music and physics including pitch and frequency; dynamics and amplitude; tempo and velocity.

Co-teaching is an approach to teaching and learning encompassing the knowledge and skills of two or more ‘experts’ committed to teaching together and at the same time learning from each other. In this program, undergraduate students from the two faculties of music and physics [Music Education at Trinity College Dublin and Physics at University College Dublin] form interdisciplinary pairs of co-facilitators. Primary teachers participating in the program are invited to co-teach with the co-facilitators. Fidelity to the co-teaching model dictates that teachers and co-facilitators meet on three occasions. Co-facilitators visit the school classroom to meet the children and to co-plan with the teacher in advance of the children’s visit to the National Concert Hall, the location of four interdisciplinary workshops, seeing sound, hearing sound, feeling sound, and creating sound. On the day of the visit to the National Concert Hall, the teacher, and co-facilitators lead the children in their exploration of the concepts common to the two disciplines in an informal playful co-teaching pedagogical style. Later the children create their own instruments with recyclable materials. Co-reflection, the final part of the program involves co-facilitators visiting the classroom once again and co-reflecting on the experience with children and teacher. The Quavers to Quadratics program which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland has been rolled out across Ireland, including in Gaeltacht [Irish speaking] areas.

Participation in professional development (PD) activities is a pivotal approach to stimulating school improvement and promoting continuous teacher learning. It is to ensure that teachers have the required competencies to deliver quality teaching and learning activities to support students in achieving better outcomes (Darling-Hammond, 2013; Dogan & Adams, 2020; OECD, 2020). However, the quality of PD programs has a long-standing critique because in-service training, workshop and seminar are perceived to be ineffective because they are not situated within the school context and not embedded in the daily teaching practices (Darling-Hammond, 2013; Forte & Flores, 2014). A school-based PD in the form of teacher collaboration is found to be more effective in improving teaching practices (Weddle, 2022; De Jong et al., 2022).

Studies have demonstrated that teacher collaboration is the key to creating an effective teacher PD program. For example, a report by OECD (2019) recognises teacher collaboration as one of the most impactful models of PD to improve teacher practices since it fosters continuous teacher learning within the school context and enables more flexibility and efficiency in teacher learning experiences. This evidence is consistent with Darling-Hammond's (2013) study that effective professional development requires strong collaboration among teachers. This research evidence supports teacher collaboration adoption in many schools worldwide (Shavard, 2022; Weddle, 2022)

Given its widely recognised importance, the discourse on teacher collaboration has attracted scholars in the last decades to study it further (e.g., de Jong et al., 2019; Hargreaves, 2019). Although teacher collaboration is a frequently used concept in the literature on professional development (Hargreaves, 2019), this concept is also not well understood. There are apparent issues related to understanding practices of teacher collaboration. First, teacher collaboration has been used in different ways, pointing to different types of interactions among teachers. For example, some scholars view teacher collaboration as an informal, spontaneous, and flexible activity built upon teachers' circumstances (e.g., Brodie, 2021; Hargreaves, 2019) while some view it as a formal and mandatory activity built on teachers' commitment (e.g., Schuster et al., 2021; Webs & Holtappels, 2018). Second, the term is poorly delineated because people conflate teacher collaboration with other professional development terminologies such as Community of Practices (e.g. Hjerto et al., 2014), and Professional Learning Community (e.g.Chua et al., 2020). Third, The existing literature paid little attention to examining the contextual differences in other educational contexts, most of which were conducted in non-western contexts. If teacher collaboration is a product of a particular educational setting, the practices of teacher collaboration in a system as diverse as Indonesia would be a distinctive practice. Hence, it is important to examine how this construct is perceived and practised in Indonesia because cultural dimension elements such as the power distance, the culture of individualism, and the culture of collectivism may influence it.

This issue, as mentioned previously, shows a greater need to grasp the clarity of the teacher collaboration concept so that it will stimulate teachers' engagement in collaboration and guide the principals to promote teachers' engagement in teacher collaboration in the school context. The theoretical perspective of Activity Theory was used since it provides an analytical tool for providing greater clarity for tackling theoretical questions underpinning teacher collaboration practices. In this study, Activity theory was used to examine teachers' experience in collaboration by examining the teachers' activity system and its development, the setting, and the issues that cut across multiple activities within the setting. Thus, we aim to provide greater clarity to these three issues in this paper by answering the following research questions:

How do teachers in Indonesia conceptualise teacher collaboration? What factors influence teachers’ engagement in collaboration?

Continuing professional development (CPD) has been a major research area of interest in the field of the teaching profession. Within this context, teacher motivation plays a key role in teachers’ engaging in CPD. Research into the reasons why teachers are motivated to participate in CPD is valuable to help us better understand teacher professionalism (Guskey, 2000; McMillan, McConnell & O’Sullivan, 2016; Ng, 2010).

“Competence for Quality” (Kompetanse for kvalitet) is a 10-year (2016-2025) national strategy for in-service teacher training (videreutdanning) which has been in practice since 2016. The goal of this training is to enhance pupils’ learning outcomes through further developing teachers’ and school leaders’ professional and pedagogical competence (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2015). The Special Education 1 programme (Spesialpedagogikk 1) has become one important official offer in Norway providing in-service teachers with the competence package in the field of special needs education (SNE).

Although extensive research has been carried out on CPD of teachers in Norway, no single study exists which explores what motivates teachers to enrol in this Special Education 1 programme. In addition, the work in the field of SNE is usually viewed as one of the most challenging and most complicated compared to other fields of the teaching profession (Kiel, Heimlich, Markowetz, Braun & Weiβ, 2016; Payne, 2005). Hence, this research aims to examine what motivates teachers in Norway to engage themselves in this CPD programme in order to work in the field of SNE.

The theoretical framework applied in this research is Teacher CPD Motivation Model (McMillan, McConnell & O’Sullivan, 2016). This model attributes teacher CPD motivation to three major factors: intrinsic factors (advancement, growth, achievement), contingent factors (interpersonal relations, school policy), and tangential factor (compulsory system).

The study (N=267) examined how intellectual humility (IH) relates to learning, how it expressed in the following dimensions: independence of intellect and ego; openness to revising one's viewpoint; respect for others' viewpoints; lack of intellectual overconfidence. Philosophers discuss IH (Roberts, Cleveland 2016, Bąk et al. 2021, Barrett 2017) and/or explain the concept in religion (Hopkin et al., 2014, Hodge 2019). The psychological significance of humility has been examined by Wright, Nadelhoffer et al. (2017), intellectual humility in interpersonal theory was discussed by Priest (2017); However, although there are epistemologists interested in intellectual humility (Whitcomb et al., 2017; Kidd, 2016; Tanesini 2018; Spiegel 2012, etc.), attention to this phenomenon is not great. Cowley (2017) emphasizes that education should not only provide confidence valuing commonly available sources of meaning, but should also teach IH. Baeher (2016) argues that IH is closely related to good thinking and learning and is therefore a meaningful educational goal. IH can be seen as a humility that characterizes thoughts, beliefs, ideas and opinion area (Krumrei - Mancuso et al. (2020). IH involves openness to new information that can improve people's existing knowledge. In such a conceptualization, IH includes the independence of intellect and ego, which presupposes the conditions that people do not feel the threat of intellectual disagreements, are not overly confident in their knowledge, respect others' points of view and are ready to reconsider their own when the need arises (Krumrei-Mancuso, Rouse, 2016). In learning situations, the relationship between the advised and the consultant is common. Stephen, Truscot (2017) identify IH as important in the counseling relationship. An important aspect of IH is that respect for the beliefs of others encourages an honest exchange of ideas. Some opinions are incompatible with openness. Admitting that there is room for error and that someone else is wrong is an admission of imperfection. It involves an attitude that is potentially wrong, but that attitude is not weaker (Taylor, 2016). A teacher is a person who creates various learning situations involving students, colleagues, parents. In order to improve, the IH teacher should have an activity component.

Motivation is a central concept in education and the teacher-student relationship is significant in promoting students’ academic motivation and engagement in school (Hattie, 2009; Roorda et al., 2017). However, previous research has suggested that teacher education may not sufficiently prepare teachers how to build positive teacher-student relationships (Korpershoek et al., 2016; Rucinski et al., 2018). Teachers need a diversity of pedagogical strategies and professional tools to be able to adapt their instructional behaviour and motivational style to the diversity of students they meet in school. Motivational interviewing (MI) has gained attention as a method to promote students’ motivation (Rollnick et al., 2016; Strait et al., 2014), and previous studies have shown that MI can be an effective tool for teachers (Svensson et al., 2021). MI is a collaborative communication style used to enhance individuals’ motivation for change and is related to both positive academic outcomes as well as mental health outcomes (Rollnick et al., 2016; Snape & Atkinson, 2016; Strait et al., 2014). However, there is a lack of school-based interventions where teachers have specifically been trained in MI in order to increase students’ motivation, and to promote teachers’ instructional behaviours and teacher efficacy (i.e. teachers’ own belief in their capability to organize and implement specific teaching tasks required to achieve desired outcomes of student engagement and learning; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Hence, this study aims to explore whether an MI-based intervention can increase teacher efficacy and teachers’ perceived autonomy-supportive teaching, and increase students’ academic motivation.

Theoretical background
Motivational interviewing (MI) is based on four central components: partnership, compassion, acceptance, and evocation of change talk (Miller & Rollnick, 2012). In MI, the core is to get the student to state their own arguments for change, in order to strengthen motivation and confidence in their own abilities. Although MI is a collection of communication techniques, MI is in many ways similar to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which is used as a relevant theoretical framework to understand school motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2017). Autonomy is central in both MI and SDT, and SDT distinguishes between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation. SDT emphasizes the importance of not controlling the students and suggests that students who are autonomously motivated are more engaged, effective and persistent compared to students who feel controlled. In this study, the concept autonomy support is central, which is defined as the teacher being respectful to the students’ perspective, and supports their intrinsic sources of motivation and sense of freedom of choice (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Previous research has shown that students who receive autonomy support from their teacher have reported increased intrinsic motivation and greater engagement in school (Reeve & Cheon, 2021).

The phenomenon of (inter)professional collaboration might not be globally considered a new research field; this area continues to evolve and develop as the challenges faced by many professionals are increasingly complex. The concept of (inter)professional collaboration has been widely studied in a variety of disciplines. Significant part of research in this field has been focusing on professionals whose main objective is to provide an effective, high-quality care to patients or clients (i.e. doctors, nurses, social workers).

In education, (inter)professional collaboration can be defined as a mutual, reciprocal effort among professionals, families, and other caregivers to deliver effective interventions to children for their increased physical, emotional, and academic well-being (Mostert, 1996). Its importance has been rising especially since many educational systems have established inclusion and inclusive education as one of their key priorities. However, this priority is not (yet) reflected by educational practices in a sufficient manner (Slee, 2018).

Attending different needs of heterogeneous student populations (in inclusive classrooms) can cause the teachers to reach the boundaries of their professional competence (Švec et al., in press). From the standpoint of cultural-historical activity theory and the concept of expansive learning (Engeström, 2001), collaboration in school settings provides the professionals with greater room to maneuver, i.e. more ways of acting and reacting to the needs of students (Roth & Lee, 2007). At the beginning of the collaboration, involved professionals (subjects) form a shared goal or purpose of the collaboration (object) by expanding their original goals (objects) and thus find a common ground. The process of achieving mutually defined goal is determined by sharing the cultural and material resources used in the collaboration (tools) and effective division of work, which combined lead to new ways of acting (innovative practice). If expansive learning is successful, this process eventually leads to internalization of shared cultural tools and practices, resulting in qualitative transformation of all components of the activity system (Engeström & Sannio, 2009).

Despite many benefits of (inter)professional collaboration and its potential in education, schools worldwide lack directions and clear guidelines regarding how to ensure its most effective implementation (Gable et al., 2004). Research has shown a wide variety of ways in which professionals collaborate. It is possible to identify two broader models of collaboration - the direct and the indirect model. In the case of the direct model the support person works with students, whereas the indirect model is characterized by joint work of professionals who aim to develop the teaching and learning community (Hedegaard-Soerensen et al., 2017). Possible forms of indirect collaboration include exchange of materials, methods and knowledge, division of work, joint planning and structuring, (inter)professional discourse and sharing responsibility (Wiedebusch et al., 2020).

Bearing in mind the importance of collaborative practice and variability in its realization in education, the current study aims to describe how the (inter)professional collaborative practices take place at selected primary and lower secondary schools. The presented study is an introductory part of a larger project which intends to establish the research field on (inter)professional collaboration in education in the Czech context. Despite being a discussed topic among teachers and related professionals as well as among scholars, systematic research in our country is lacking. Research on various forms of collaboration in a different cultural setting will broaden the knowledge on the subject and thus contribute to establishing potentially functional inclusive practice.

Lesson Study (LS) is being utilised globally as a powerful model for teacher professional learning and development. This structured approach to teacher professional learning is based on collaborative group work of teachers researching their teaching practice through joint planning, teaching, observation and discussion of classroom lessons (Dudley, 2014). Having originated in Japan more than a century ago (e.g., Stigler & Hiebert, 1999; Dudley, 2014; Fujii, 2014), LS is becoming popular among teachers and teacher educators worldwide. Elliott (2014) forecasts that as LS is utilised in different contexts worldwide it will shape up in different ways. Though numerous studies report on the benefits of LS in relation to teacher learning, there is still a lack of understanding of how the learning of individual teachers is shaped in LS. More needs to be known about the factors that influence professional learning experiences of individual teachers in the context of LS. This study aims to explore how the learning of individual teachers is shaped in LS looking at multiple level factors, which include individual, group and school factors.

The theoretical framework for this study is based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (1978), which emphasises human learning as a social process and looks at how the societal context contributes to an individual’s development, and on Valsiner’s Zone Theory (1997) that redefines Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) by suggesting two additional zones, the zone of free movement (ZFM) and the zone of promoted actions (ZPA) that address the roles of context and the goals and actions of an individual. More specifically, Valsiner’s Zone Theory adaptation by Goos (2013) was applied in this study. Goos (2013) interpreted the ZPD as “a set of possibilities for development of new knowledge, beliefs, goals and practices created by the teacher’s interaction with the environment, the people in it, and the resources it offers” (p. 523), the ZFM as the possibilities and constraints within a teacher’s professional environment, and the ZPA as professional activities that a teacher can engage in to develop professionally (both formally and informally). In this study, with reference to Valsiner (1997) and Goos (2013), the ZPD was re-interpreted and defined as the set of personal characteristics of a teacher that can enable or hinder a teacher’s learning experience in LS. As LS is recognised as a collaborative learning approach and teachers work and interact in a group with their colleagues to improve their practices the ZPA was referred to as the LS group context and dynamic. While teachers work within their LS groups, they also function within the wider school context, which can either facilitate or constrain the learning experiences of teachers in their LS groups. Therefore, in this study, the ZFM was defined as the school professional environment. The proposed adaptation of Valsiner’s Zone Theory in the context of LS allowed to explore the individual and environmental factors that can shape individual teachers’ learning experiences in LS considering the collaborative aspect of LS with the focus on an individual teacher.

Lesson study (LS) is a pedagogical approach that characterizes a special form of research in action in the classroom, aimed at improving knowledge in the field of teaching practice (Dudley, 2015). Lesson studies involve teams of teachers collaborating in planning, teaching, observation, analysis of learning and teaching, and documenting their findings (Rock & Wilson, 2005).

Nowadays, in Kazakhstan, large educational reforms are taking place. The main purpose of these reforms is to improve teaching and learning by implementing the best educational practices of the world’s educational system. To expedite this process, since 2008, the Kazakhstan government has established new types of experimental schools, named Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, to test the best foreign educational practices for the Kazakhstani population. Since then, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools are successfully implementing Lesson Study and shared their experience with all secondary schools in the country (Wilson & Sharimova, 2019). A recent study by Khokhotva, (2018) shows that LS is gaining momentum in Kazakhstan and getting popular among secondary school teachers.

According to the rising tendency of Lesson Study in Kazakhstan, we considered it necessary to contribute to the development of this field and show teachers’ attitudes and beliefs toward the implementation of Lesson Study in their practice, by surveying them with the use of a validated tool for Kazakhstan population (Abdulbakioglu et al, 2022). For this purpose, we put the following research questions:

What are the beliefs and attitudes of teachers toward LS?

Do the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes differ toward LS according to gender?

Do the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes differ toward LS across discipline groups?

Do the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes differ toward LS according to their teaching experiences?

Do the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes differ toward LS according to the number of conducted and participated LS?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of LS for teaching and students’ learning?

Although teaching focuses on the activities teachers perform, its purposes and outcomes involve changes occurring on the part of students (Svensson & Doumas, 2013). The complexity and uncertainty involved in teaching generate innumerable problems occurring in the context of classroom environments. It gives the impetus to solve those problems through research, especially action research. Action research as a democratic and participative orientation to knowledge creation brings together action and reflection, theory and practice, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concerns (Bradbury, 2015).

Classroom action research (CAR) can be based on diverse research perspectives and take on different forms. The core feature of it is the idea that there should be an intimate, two-way relationship between research and some form of practical activity‒such that the focus of inquiry arises out of, and its results feed directly back into, the activity concerned, in a spiral of improvement (Hammersley, 2013, pp. 85-86). Therefore, CAR is practice- and reflection- oriented. It means that teachers engage in action research aiming to explore methods of solving real classroom problems in order to improve their pedagogical practice. As a result, CAR connects meaningfully with student learning and potentially becomes an effective strategy for school improvement.

CAR also closely relates to teacher professional development. Flynn and Bruce (2019) paralleled the characteristics of teacher professional learning with action research structure. They both emphasize evidence-informed practice, the need to balance teacher voice and the bigger context of school goals, and the need for supportive and engaged leadership. Therefore, CAR has been regarded as one of the most powerful strategies for teacher professional development. It can help teachers develop new knowledge directly related to their classrooms, promote reflective teaching and thinking, and expand teachers’ pedagogical repertoire (Johnson, 2019, pp. 258-259). It is becoming increasingly known as an approach that encourages teachers to be in control of their own lives and contexts (McNiff, 2010). An issue related to the connection between CAR and teacher professional development is concerned with what types of knowledge CAR constructs. CAR produces living knowledge or practical knowledge that is useful to people in the everyday conduct of their lives (Reason & Bradbury, 2001, pp. 1-2) and insider knowledge that is not accessible to traditional researchers coming from outside (Somekh, 2006).

Since 2022 the EU Academy has offered a self-study module “Improving Classroom Practice through Action Research” for classroom practitioners to reflect on and innovate their teaching practices and analyze the effects of their innovation (European Commission, 2022). In Taiwan, the government has launched a series of curricular and instructional reforms entering the 21st century. The Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines had been gradually implemented since the academic year 2002 in order to meet national development needs and public expectations (Ministry of Education, 2008). Then, the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education have been implemented since 2019 in response to the emerging social issues such as the low birth rate, population aging, diversified interactions between ethnic groups, growing awareness of social justice, and so on (Ministry of Education, 2014). Both guidelines encourage teachers to engage in diverse professional development activities such as action research and to conduct innovative teaching experiments or action research with funds and assistance provided by relevant competent authorities. Thus, the number of CAR on teaching is quite large in Taiwan. The rise in the number of CAR results in the need for knowledge synthesis in order to provide more convincing evidence for practitioners and policymakers. However, the findings of those studies produced as a whole have been less known so far. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the findings of CAR on teaching in Taiwan.

This study is an exploratory study that looks at teachers’ experiences of using the history resource pack through Project Based Learning. The study was done in the framework of an experimental project carried out with 30 public school history teachers in Armenia. The teachers were all female, with almost equal representation from all regions in Armenia.

In 2021, the Paradigma Educational Foundation started an initiative of developing resources to help teachers teach under-explored sections of Armenian history, including gender-sensitive topics and women’s role in Armenian history, through the lens of active historical thinking (Metzger and Harris, 2018; Seixas 2015). To that end, the foundation developed an innovative history-teaching resource pack called “History #5”. Therefore, this paper reports the finding of the study done to explore the practices of teachers with the resource pack in developing active historical thinking skills and multiperspectivity, as well as discussing gender-sensitive topics. The project was run in collaboration with UNICEF Armenia and the National Center for Education Development and Innovation.

The aim of the study was to explore teachers’ experiences of teaching with the resource pack through PBL and their practices of dealing with gender-sensitive topics. The study also aimed at identifying the affordances and constraints of the resource pack for further improvement.

The “History#5” resource pack is a history-teaching resource based on the theories of active historical thinking and multiperspectivity. Active historical thinking as a theory developed at the end of the 1970s in the UK, USA, Canada, and Germany (Metzger and Harris, 2018) and has been internationally spread through the work of Peter Seixas (Seixas, 2015). Active historical thinking theory holds that history teaching and learning should aim at helping students: Establish historical significance; Use primary source evidence; Identify continuity and change; Analyze cause and consequence; Take historical perspectives; and Understand the ethical dimension of historical interpretations.

Multiperspectivity is based on the constructivist approaches of the Nouvelle Histoire movement. It assumes that “we too have a perspective which has been filtered through our own cultural context, reflects our own standpoint and interpretation of what has happened and why, our own view of what is and is not relevant, and may also reflect other prejudices and biases” (Stradling, 2003, p.14).

In the course of the project teachers used the resource pack through project-based learning, as it helps students develop key knowledge and skills (Larmer et. al, 2015). Moreover, using PBL is required by the new national curriculum. Within history teaching, that means the development of active historical thinking concepts and multiperspectivity, as well as encouraging student-centered experiential learning (Kolb, 2015), and a facilitator role for the teacher through scaffolding (first introduced by Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976).

Therefore, studying this new resource pack through PBL aims at contributing to the knowledge base of history teaching and provides implications for policymakers, history educators, teachers, and the organizations working in the field. Moreover, it seeks to contribute to an understanding of the teachers’ motivation for using the resource pack, challenges and opportunities associated with the pack, its sensitive topics, and PBL. Thus, to achieve this aim this study employs a qualitative methodology and sets out to answer the following research questions:

• What were the experiences of teachers doing project-based learning through the use of the “History#5” resource pack and the project-based learning guide developed to assist project implementation?

• What were the experiences of teachers while discussing the gender-sensitive topics of the “History #5” resource pack and questions arising during the project?

This paper reports on a pilot project in a public school (pupils aged 6-16) in a small municipality regarding a school development project that the authors have developed and facilitated in the school year 21/22. The goal of the project was to create knowledge about how to foster teacher development through an intervention centered around Professional Learning Communities (Stoll, et al., 2006; Doagan & Adams, 2018) and Action Learning (Aubusson, 2012; Revans, 1998). More specifically, the project sought to fulfill the ambition of the school administration who wanted problem-based and project-organized learning (PBL) to be the focal point for a pedagogical and organizational reorientation of the public schools in the municipality. A reorientation that held the potential to improve student motivation as well as increase the schools’ ability to develop students’ understanding of the world around them and foster their acquisition of 21^st century skills (OECD, 2019) – a goal that is shared widely in the primary educational sector across Europe and described in the European Councils recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning (European Council, 2018).

PBL is an international recognized pedagogical approach. Evidence for PBL’s effectiveness in improving stu-

Dents’ outcomes is promising although further research is still needed (Condliffe, 2017; Grant & Tamim, 2019). PBL can be organised in many different ways and in very diverse settings. However, across the research literature there is general agreement on the common characteristics that form the basis of PBL in education (Barrows 1996; de Graaff & Kolmos 2007; Savin-Baden & Major 2004). As such, PBL is characterised by the following principles:

• Learning is organised around real and complex problems that links theory to practice
• The nature of the academic work that students produce is authentic
• Knowledge is constructed through active learning processes
• Learning is a social phenomenon based on students’ active participation and involvement
• Learning takes place in small groups in order to achieve a goal only reachable through collaboration
• Teachers acts as facilitators of learning
• Students take responsibility for identifying own learning needs and organizing own learning path.

The full paper describes the concrete background for the competence development project as well as the didactic and practical considerations behind the design. Through countless research projects, organizational researchers have documented the difficulties of implementing successful organizational change (Beer & Nohria, 2000; Hughes, 2011). Educational institutions are in no way more susceptible to change than other organizations - rather the contrary (Burner, 2018). However, Fullan (2011), points to four conditions that, if met, provides initiatives aimed at promoting educational change a greater probability of success:

1. Cultivate the intrinsic motivation of teachers and students
2. Engage teachers and students in continuous improvement of teaching and learning
3. Inspire cooperation and teamwork
4. Be sure to involve all teachers and students

Based on Fullan’s four principles and Hargreaves & Shirleys (2020) notion of Leading from the Middle, small groups of teachers met once a month with a university facilitator to develop pedagogical PBL-based experiments which were subsequently tried out in class and finally evaluated at the next meeting in the learning group. After one year, the project was subject to a quantitative evaluation through a survey questionnaire. Finally, focus group interviews with teachers and managers were conducted (interviews with students is to be completed in Spring 2023). The research question that the project sought to answer was:

Are the principles behind theories of Professional Learning Communities, Action Learning and Problem-based Learning an effective way to foster pedagogical development for teachers in all subjects and classes simultaneously in primary education?

Abstract

With continuous development of the Internet, learners are overwhelmed by information flow which is available and sometimes accurate if filtered properly. During our experience of implementing different projects with Nazarbayev Intellectual School students, we noticed that they tend to find most of the information on the Web, but not necessarily criticizing it or checking for relevance to what they’re looking for. For that reason, as an Action research group, we took an aim to enhance learners’ skills of judging information for relevance while implementing project-based learning thereby improving their reading literacy.

Project-based-learning (PBL), as it is called, stands for a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in projects. The concept of PBL is similar to the notion of “knowledge building” launched by Bereiter and Scardamalia. Students are focused because they are creating a product or building something that reflects their dedication and passion.

The definition of PBL in Blumenfeld’s publication (1991) which discussed the effectiveness of project-based learning and motivation, PBL is a set of drive activities that culminate in a final product. Moreover, a question or a problem is set before the project begins and the solution is found by the end of the project. Analyzing the nature of PBL through different scientific articles we decided that implementing PBL would be advantageous as it matched perfectly with my goals to improve my students’ digital literacy, searching and sorting skills. Thus, we linked research to PBL as conducting research and doing projects is essential for their further academic life, development of problem-solving, critical analysis, communication and evaluation skills.

Defining the problem:

Though conducting research and working on a project might seem appealing and engaging, there are hurdles which students can be faced with. First of all, they find it challenging to identify the relevance of the data they collected to their project goals and research questions which may in turn take them off the track if not guided or given support. Students usually have problems:

While working with data from the internet:

• students write full sentences to a search engine thinking that more they write, more accurate information will show up;

• students trust a search engine that may return hundreds of unreliable documents;

• students hope that one or two listed on the first page will be relevant;

• students limit their research with one or two sources;

While working with data they collected from their surveys, interviews, experiments:

• they think every information they collected is relevant to their project. Therefore they struggle with sorting information which includes evidence and facts

• students struggle with contracting open-ended questions;

• after every new information students tend to shift from their initial goal.

• students focus on irrelevant, additional information rather than relevant data.

Abstract

Nowadays, scientists have made enormous discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychology. However, to translate these findings to classroom teaching and learning process in order boost academic achievements requires another branch of investigation. Consequently, teachers carried out action research to examine the usefulness of the concept in benefiting students of different age groups, culture, gender, etc. At the end, action researchers drew conclusion recommending the selective adoption of the pre-existing ideas. In his book called “how the brain learns”, David Sousa (2016) states: The cognitive belief system is a window through which we can see the world to understand it, there is a self-concept underlying the cognitive belief system. Self-concept means how we understand ourselves in the world. One of the most important components of our self-concept is a mindset. There are two basic types of mindsets: fixed mindset and growth mindset. Neuro scientist David Huberman from Sandford university explains the process-effort reward concept from the point of view of Neuroscience and in terms of the chemical neurotransmitters, and concludes that if you recognise the agitation, stress and confusion as an entry point to where you eventually want to go, it is allowed to pass through more easily, and rewarding it makes you feel joyful in the process. (David Huberman, 2021). This action research will examine the effect of the mind-set in enhancing the teaching and learning in the classroom.

Introduction

The term “growth mindset” was coined by psychologist Carol Dweck in the mid-eighties. “The “Growth Mindset” is the belief that mindset can be changed, especially in the education system, it refers to the belief that a student’s intelligence or learning ability can be improved when teachers give praise for the effort” (Carol Dweck, 2017). Dweck argued that we all have different beliefs about the underlying nature of ability; children and adults with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different strategies and learning from mistakes (Carol Dweck, 2017). Dweck argues that having a growth mindset can improve academic achievements.Dweck introduces simple methods for teachers to apply during lesson time to improve students’ experiences and academic achievements. She provides two simple tools to encourage students’ growth mindset in her ted-talk. She states the praising students’ effort and rewarding their process help to master their growth mindset and boost their academic achievements. (Carol Dweck 2014).

A search of the available literature found that there are currently no studies testing the value of growth mindset approaches in Kazakhstan. By analysing our own teaching experience and observing our colleagues' lessons over the years, I noticed that in most cases, students were praised for their intelligence and rewarded only for their achievements.

Despite being selected through examination, NIS school students have a wide range of abilities within each grade, even within each class. Students in Kazakhstan, especially those who have lower achievement levels, may find that using the growth mindset approach improves their learning experiences and academic achievements. To determine how the growth mindset intervention could benefit learners in Kazakhstan, called for an action research. This research will focus on the relevance of the concept to the Kazakh curriculum and possible pitfalls to avoid in the future while successfully implementing it in the classroom teaching and learning practices. To qualify the research process, the following research question was formulated:

What benefits can periodic use of “praising effort” instead of “intelligence rewarding” of achievement bring to academic achievement of year-12 students?

Twice exceptional students (2e students) are those young people who combine superior ability in one or more areas and disabilities that may be areas of specific learning disabilities, behavioural or attention deficits, or social impairments (Reis et al., 2014, Ronksley-Pavia et al., 2018). Based on teachers’ observation currently there are more learners who can be both gifted and possess additional exceptionality. Another observation is that there are more students who have difficulties when expressing their thoughts, understanding own emotions and following accepted behavioral patterns. Hence, it is highly important to provide differentiation strategies for 2e students as several studies report that negative school experiences have lifelong ramifications. These students continue to feel insecure, undervalued, and like they do not belong (Ronksley-Pavia et al., 2018).

Teacher collaboration is vital when searching for ways to adjust curriculum and teaching strategies. One of these experiences is described in this study. Teachers of History and English (as a foreign language) conducted a Lesson study implementing storytelling into their lessons.

Purpose of study

The study is aimed at identifying effective teaching instruments for facilitating twice exceptional students with the focus on storytelling. The following research questions were shaping this study:

How effective is the use of storytelling in meeting the needs of twice exceptional students?

What are some suggestions for school administration and teachers who are interested in meeting the needs of twice exceptional students?

Conceptual framework

There are two concepts which are shaping this study: twice exceptionality and storytelling.

Understanding the needs of twice exceptional students is a critical factor of curriculum adjustment. More than 50 articles were analyzed and important findings were taken into consideration when planning collaborative work for this study. Based on literature review storytelling teaching method, which currently is gaining popularity, can be an effective tool to help twice exceptional learners use their full potential in educational organizations.

The topic of twice exceptionality has been widely discussed by researchers mainly focusing on inclusive and special education. There is a lack of research suggesting strategies which could be employed on a wide range of subjects in regular classrooms for developing countries where inclusive education is being introduced currently (Gierczyk & Hornby, 2021, Yuying 2015, Metelski 2022). Another important finding is the difficulty in identifying 2e learners. Educators frequently are unaware or unable to identify 2e learners (Baldwin et al., 2015, Neihart, 2018, Bechard, 2019, Baldwin et al., 2015) since “some 2e learners achieve average grades because their superior talents and disabilities are counterbalanced in a manner that masks both high potential and areas of weakness” (Neihart, 2018). Therefore, there role of teachers conducting professional dialogs with their colleagues to understand the complexity of 2e nature is crucial. Since these learners can be very complex and have needs that are usually met in gifted or special education settings constant development of teachers’ skills by sharing their results and opinions through research could bring positive effects (Bechard, 2019).

Regarding storytelling teaching method, research shows that for language and History lessons storytelling can be employed in various ways and the implementation of this technique can lead to improvements in academic performance and enjoyable learning process (Atta-Alla, 2013, Xu, Park, & Baek, 2011, Gakhar & Thompson, 2007; Myatt, 2008, Schell, 2004; Nguyen, et.al., 2014). Moreover, it can lead to a positive transformation of students and improved social interactions and language outcomes (Maier & Fisher (2007). As for History, a number of educational scholars have indicated that viewing history as a story offers stronger possibilities for bringing overall coherence and interest to history instruction (Schell, 2004).

Teacher identity has been conceptualized as a second-order construct, as a set of meanings connected to the professional roles of teachers, each meaning reflecting a part of what teacher identity is (Hanna et al., 2020). Professional teacher identity is a role identity (Brenner et al., 2018), socially constructed and preserved (Burke & Stets, 2009). A teacher role identity preserves the impression management (Goffman, 1959) in relation to authority and hierarchy of educational field. The role performance is influenced by many factors, including mindset (Yeager & Dweck, 2020) and context (Turner et al., 1994). Therefore, cultural dimensions and differences (Hofstede, 2011) are important social contributors to the construction of teacher identity. A broaden perspective to cultural differences reveals the contribution of national and organisational cultures to teacher identity.

The construction of teacher identity can be set in initial teacher education and may increase student teachers learning potential (Nias, 2002) and decrease the risk of dropout before graduation or shortly after (Hong, 2010), or safeguard the quality of education avoiding burnout and dropout (Den Brok, Wubbels, & Van Tartwijk, 2017). Nevertheless, a cross-cultural approach to teacher identity describes different patterns of learning and professional development and factors contributed to these specific patterns.

The research question is whether there are differences in the exposed patterns in the development of professional identity among student teachers from Romania, Poland, and Georgia.

The first aim of this research is to investigate the teacher identity of student teachers from the perspective of motivation, self-image, self-efficacy, task perception, and cultural dimension at individual level.

The second aim is to analyse the differences in the exposed patterns of identity profession of student teachers exploring the background of the teacher identity construction.

In this paper I will discusses the question of identity within an island community and the potential impact this may have on a person’s professional identity, and the implications around this in relation to professional learning and networking for remote, rural and specifically island based teachers. Using Biesta’s three educational domains of qualification, socialisation and subjectification as a lens, what are the professional learning needs of teachers in remote, island communities, and what are the opportunities to the members and their school communities. In an increasingly digital age, there are still limitations for those in less digitally connected rural areas to take part in national professional learning opportunities, along with whether there is a desire to do so, leaving the question of what is the nature of professional development for island communities, the influencing factors, and the ultimate question of whose needs should a teacher’s professional learning serve? Identity is simply the story we tell about ourselves and Identity is not something one has, but something that develops during one’s whole life and, as such, is an ongoing process of interpretation and re-interpretation of experiences.It is important to recognise that professional identity is formed by an interplay of different spheres of life, including those outside work and education, and that some of these spheres play a bigger part depending on the time and situation. The notion of identity can be used as an analytic tool in determining how, what or where you place yourself in relation to others in a particular context or sphere, in this case, in an island community as a teacher. Thus, tradition influences the way in which teachers act day to day, the way in which professional learning is approached, and the conditions that are needed to suppor and improve professional learning and development for those working in the margins of Europe. The challenge, for all of us who work, research and stand up for those in the island communities is how to enable apprpriate professional learning, that is cognisant of current policy, but in which recognises and celebrates our unique heritage, opportunities and challenges.