Conference Agenda

Teachers play a central role in our current process of sustainable transformation, being tasked with the ambitious goal of giving students the necessary competencies for facing and mitigating the challenges of the Anthropocene. The current study aims to contribute to the literature on this topic by investigating factors that may aid teachers in their success in this endeavor.

Following years of curricula revisions to strengthen the presence of sustainability as a theme in education, a timely question is how these revisions are followed through at the classroom level, and how this process may be aided further. The present study contributes to the understanding of how teachers’ environmental and sustainability education self-efficacy (ESESE) may be fostered. While there is an increase in studies focused on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in teacher education, few have investigated the relative significance of teacher education in relation to other interplaying factors when it comes to ESE (Evans, et al. 2017; Ødegaard, et al. 2021). As such, the guiding research questions for this study are as follows:

1. What factors may be associated with teachers’ ESESE, and what is the role of teacher education programs when compared to other theoretically significant variables?
2. To what extent does the results from the inquiry above differ between the Nordic countries?

The study is grounded in the theory of self-efficacy, as developed by Bandura (1977). Self-efficacy is a concept of a person’s own expectation to succeed at a given task (Bandura, 1977). In meeting challenges, self-efficacy may not only aid in reducing anticipatory stress, but also in fostering efforts, and may influence the results of the undertaking of an action (Bandura, 1977, 1997; Gardner & Pierce, 1998). Within the frame of educational research, teacher self-efficacy has been found to be a key factor both in student learning and teacher instruction practices (Klassen & Tze, 2014; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Several factors are suggested as important for self-efficacy in the literature on the topic. In Bandura’s (1977) seminal work, four major drivers are presented: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states.

While the study’s primary aim is to better understand the fostering of teachers’ self-efficacy in ESE generally, a comparative approach is used as well, looking at differences between the Nordic countries. While these countries are culturally and historically similar, their approaches to sustainability in education in the past decades have differed (Breiting & Wickenberg, 2009; Straume, 2016). These differences came to light to some degree in the preliminary descriptive analysis of this study, which showed variety between countries in both ESESE and several of the explanatory variables described in the methods section below. The assumed and observed differences in the samples allow for comparative analysis to illuminate the effectiveness of approaches to ESE in teacher education in otherwise (relatively) culturally homogenous populations.

Over the past two hundred years, anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a major scientific and societal issue (Incropera, 2016). In this context, the latest Glasgow Climate Pact (UNFCCC, 2021) reiterated the importance of climate change education as a lever for action to mobilise the population. The problem is: whereas many countries integrate the topic of “climate change” in their national curricula, teachers very often face this topic alone, when they come to address it in class.

This paper focuses on the diversity of teaching postures in formal climate change education. It is positioned at the crossroads between a sociology of teaching practices, and a comprehensive sociology, studying the meaning given by practitioners to their own practice (Weber, 1965). It aims to highlight the diversity of teachers' postures when they address "climate change", by identifying their personal approaches and understanding of this topic, and investigating a possible distance of the teachers’ from the official instructions.

The research question can be formulated as follows: what is the diversity of postures amongst teachers regarding their personal approaches to and understanding of climate change, and how does this translate in formal education? The theoretical framework of this research includes the definition of Kelly's teaching postures (1986) on the teaching attitude in class around a controversial issue, and Jean-Marc Lange's postures (2008) on positioning oneself in relation to the object being taught. To answer the research question, the methodology is based on a qualitative survey in the form of semi-structured interviews, all conducted in 2022 with seventeen secondary school teachers from different disciplines, carried out as part of my Masters in educational sciences’ research.

The first part of my results concerns the teaching postures. They are translated by the transitive verbs used to express their action: to raise awareness, to give the keys to understanding, etc. These postures translate actions. The eight postures identified are those of: the facilitator (who gives the keys to understanding the phenomenon on the basis of scientific knowledge), the awareness-raiser (who relies on communication and awakening emotions regarding the topic), the thought-provoker, the illustrator (who uses the topic to give a "concrete" meaning to his usual theoretical teachings), the promoter of sustainable development solutions, the project coordinator, the posture of awakening to complexity, the awakening to the living environment, and finally the posture of neutrality towards the issue.

The second part of my results concerns the goals or “objectives” of these postures, i.e. what the teachers aims at for their pupils: that the children find solutions, that they change their habits, that they get involved in actions... The objectives reflect the teacher's intentions. For example: to inform (posture) in order to exercise critical thinking on media discourse (objective); to inform (posture) in order to adopt eco-responsible behaviour (objective); to make students think (posture) in order to propose solutions (objective). I identified eight predominating objectives in the following order:

1) adopting of eco-gestures,

2) orientating the pupils' choices as future "responsible" citizens,

3) that pupils find solutions and get involved in projects,

4) that pupils be able to think critically about media information,

5) awakening pupils' interest for a theoretical class through a “concrete” topic,

6) to have the pupils form their own opinion on the issue,

7) to get them to understand the complexity of the climate issue,

8) to get the pupils to feel a relationship with their environment.

The traditional role of the teacher as a "cultural mediator" (Hannah Arendt) is coupled here with the possibility of transforming the world by encouraging the younger generations to take action, but most often at the domestic or school level.

In many countries, particularly in the French-speaking world, "education for" has developed during the 1980s: health education, citizenship education, sustainable development education...

This communication project proposes to focus on Education for Sustainable Development, which could be described today as a "global movement" (Pauw et.al, 2015).
It was as early as 1972 with the Stockholm conference that environmental issues became an international concern. In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposing to achieve 17 Goals was signed by the 193 members of the UN.

Despite this international framework, national and local applications can evolve according to the pedagogical autonomy that teachers and headmasters can enjoy (Girault et.al., 2014).
This freedom can also be justified by the school-based form of this education, which differs from "classic" teaching by being based in particular on the acquisition of skills, values and attitudes (Barthes & Alpes, 2012)

If the objective is to train future conscious and responsible citizens, the question of sustainable careers arises : indeed, students must develop skills that "will guide their individual, personal and professional pathways" (Rieckmann, 2017). While it is difficult to estimate the emerging professions in the sector or to define a perimeter of professions labelled "sustainable development," works rather evoke the transformation of skills (Baghioni & Moncel, 2022) or the concordance of ethical values with one's career choice. (Di Fabio et.al, 2016)

In fact, finding its way path towards sustainable development does not only mean choosing a particular profession, but also taking into consideration ethical principles in one's professional aspirations. Indeed, we could be entering a new "guidance paradigm" that involves anticipating and preventing the ecological, social and economic impacts that a given choice of working life could generate (Guichard, 2016). Career choice would therefore represent a societal and even a global issue.

Schools, as key actors in the orientation and development of learning, are therefore asked to enter into a "global sustainable development approach" (Diemer, 2013). In addition to chapters in the school curriculum or the setting up of eco-delegates, some schools show their commitment by obtaining 'sustainable development' labels. In France, there are several labels, but one of the best known and most coveted is the E3D label (“Etablissement en Démarche de Développement Durable”), which implies taking sustainable development into account in the content and projects offered to students, but also in the management of the school itself (Chalmeau et.al, 2020). These establishments are therefore supposed to be in an important dynamic that should promote students' awareness and knowledge of global issues through the initiatives implemented in the name of sustainable development. Nevertheless, research shows that, overall, sustainable development is often addressed in a superficial manner in schools (Lange & Martinand, 2010).

Although we know that schools, particularly through their organisation, composition or pedagogical choices (Dumay & Dupriez, 2004), can have an effect on the cognitive skills of pupils, the question remains unclear as to their impact on the acquisition of sustainable skills by young people. We can therefore ask ourselves whether pupils in schools involved in a sustainable development approach will take sustainable development into account more in their choice of career path than pupils enrolled in an "ordinary" school. We can assume that individual characteristics such as gender or parents' qualifications will have an effect on awareness of these issues, but what about the school effect? Will exposure to education for sustainable development be enough to foster sustainable learning? And more importantly, beyond knowledge and familiarity with the issues, will students make sustainable development a new priority, a professional value?

The transformations of contemporary society inevitably affect the school ecosystem (Sala et al., 2020). The student population appears increasingly heterogeneous in terms of social and cultural background and communication modes. Space-time coordinates lose their clear boundaries and defined connotations, and knowledge becomes more fragmented and sectoral. These elements of complexity call for a rethinking of traditional didactic patterns to generate learning ecosystems that actively engage students and promote the development of 21st-century skills, which are essential to cope with a school and social context characterized by continuous emergencies (Binkley et al., 2012).

Maker education has been developing in recent decades consolidating the trend of so-called “authorship learning” (Donaldson & Bucy, 2017), an educational strand in which the student is at the center of a process of creation, manipulation and imagination, whose products are strongly perceived as their own and personalized. Indeed, learners, as makers, actively and experientially construct their own knowledge through hands-on activities that combine manual and digital skills aimed at solving open-ended and everyday life problems and creating physical or digital artifacts (Repetto, 2020). This educational approach, originated in America in the wake of the Maker Movement (Dougherty, 2012), is considered a technological extension of activism, capable of conveying the development of STEAM and 21st-century skills and promoting a strongly “enactive” participatory design process.

Its main exponents believe that it can “disrupt” traditional educational methods (Martinez & Stager, 2013), transforming the way we understand «what counts as learning, as a learner, and as a learning environment» and marking a bold step towards equity in education (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014, p. 503). Alimisis and colleagues (2019) emphasize the possibility of democratizing access to learning by making and skills development opportunities and, more importantly, to foster positive attitudes and openness to the culture of making for future generations of citizens. The Maker Movement challenges educational systems to provide every citizen with opportunities to learn with recent technologies, regardless of their talents or qualifications in scientific fields.

However, the potential of Maker activities is still not fully exploited. The practical implementation in schools deals with several problems that limit its effectiveness and adequate integration, such as: the rigidity of curricula and other structural and organizational constraints; the inadequate technical and methodological training of in-service and pre-service teachers; the tendency to assume gender stereotypes. Bagattini, Miorri and Operto (2021, p. 252) advance the «glass ceiling» metaphor to allude to the «invisible and transparent barriers that prevent girls from pursuing courses and careers in technical and scientific fields». The gap between males and females in STEM subjects would indeed start as early as the transition between primary and secondary school.

To aspire to effective educational equity, it is thus necessary to avoid the uncritical and non-pedagogically adoption of the Maker approach and the design of predefined pathways, and instead appeal to learners’ individual inclinations and creative/interdisciplinary aspects, enhancing diversity and preventing mechanisms of exclusion (Bevan, 2017; Repetto, 2020).

Based on these needs and theoretical foundations, we developed a research project aimed at outlining a proposal for integrating Maker activities into the curricula of primary and lower secondary schools, answering the following questions:

• How can Maker education be integrated into the curricular activities of primary and lower secondary schools?

• What impact does it have on students’ perceived school self-efficacy and attitude towards STEM and 21st-century skills?

In the past decades in the European Union, as well as in Portugal, overcoming school failure and dropout has been a political priority in the promotion of employment, economy, social cohesion, cultural development, and citizenship. Portugal, in recent years, has been systematically reducing these numbers. Although this evolution there are social and educational inequalities that can be translated into high rates of school failure and dropout among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To address these issues, specific intervention programs and projects have been created. At a European level, several initiatives have been developed (Eurydice, 2021) highlighting in Portugal the implementation of interventions based on objectives such as the promotion of school success and social inclusion (Antunes, 2019; Magalhães et al., 2015).

Developed in the context of a doctoral project in Educational Sciences granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/143386/2019) and framed in the EDUPLACES project (PTDC/MHC-CED/3775/2014) the presented investigation focuses on the study of two inclusive socio-educational practices developed in the context of two national programs aimed at social inclusion and academic success, the Educational Territories of Priority Intervention Program, developed in the School and the Choices Program, allocated in the Community. Inclusive socio-educational practices are conceptualized as practices implemented under national government programs, in formal and non-formal educational contexts, to promote academic success and social inclusion (Antunes, 2019). Within these practices, we intend to study transformation processes in successful academic pathways in students at risk of school failure and/or dropout. The concept of atypical academic pathways is addressed, with multiple designations (Roldão, 2015), in national and international reference literature in the field of sociology of education (Antunes & Sá, 2019; Lacerda, 2006; Lahire, 2004) to mitigate, in line with Morrow and Torres (1997) the logics "of theories of social and cultural reproduction". These studies are based on questions posed to the macro-structural approaches, namely from the problematic of cultural and social reproduction and of socialization (Bourdieu & Passeron, 2009). Some authors point out approaches at a micro-level placing families and their strategies toward education as the focus in the analysis of educational inequalities (Zeroulou, 1988; Lahire, 2004; Roldão, 2015). In Portugal, only more recently, these trajectories were analyzed as an object of study (Costa & Lopes, 2008; Costa, Lopes & Caetano, 2014; Roldão, 2015).

One of the research questions that this study aims to answer is: "What is the students' perceived impact of participating in inclusive educational practices towards successful academic pathways”?. From a qualitative approach, it was developed a multi-case study (Seale, 2004; Yin, 2010) conducted in a municipality located in the northeast region of Portugal.

The theoretical framework of this study aims to be consistent with the lines of research based on an approach to sociology on an individual scale, considering atypical academic pathways as unique cases studied at a micro-sociological level considering their involvement in a broader and historically situated phenomenon, the school failure and educational inequalities resulting from the massification of school (Antunes & Sá, 2019).

The main objective of this proposal is to bring into academic debate the effects of the dimensions of inclusive socio-educational practices - arising from intervention policies and measures aimed at overcoming school failure, dropout, and social exclusion - that may generate the construction of atypical academic pathways.

Background

Research suggests that educational disadvantage exists across the life course and education sectors including the transition from second to third level. Recent decades have seen a dramatic decrease in early school leaving across Europe. However, in their 2021 report, Eurostat data showed that just 41% of the EU population aged 25-34 had a third level degree. The EU now has a policy target of 45% of 25-34-year-olds attaining tertiary education by 2030 (EUROSTAT, 2021b). In January 2022, equity and inclusion was identified as a clear priority by the EU commission in their Strategy for Universities. Following this, in March 2022 the EU commission released the Eurydice report titled ‘Towards Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education in Europe’. This report highlights how some education structures and policies tend to perpetuate the exclusion of socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and that their participation in higher education remains low across all EU Member States. In times of increased social and economic inequality, a major challenge for universities internationally is to address the lack of diversity and access for groups that are underrepresented. There is an increasing policy emphasis on how systems can support students from these groups to progress to Higher Education. However, research on the effectiveness of interventions which increase post-primary students’ aspirations and progression to higher education is limited.

Theoretical Framework

Researchers have linked the lack of social and cultural capital of low-income students to the lack of access to higher education (Perna & Titus, 2005). Bourdieu described cultural capital as “institutionalised or widely shared high status cultural signals (attitudes, preferences, formal knowledge, behaviours, possessions and credentials) used for cultural and social exclusion form jobs and resources and the latter to exclusion from high status groups” (p. 158). Bourdieu described how humans acquire cultural capital throughout childhood within the family. First generation students or students from low-income backgrounds are less likely to engage in conversations about possibility of college, to discuss the importance of academic success with their family or peers or to engage in educational activities outside of school. Researchers argue that students with limited access to college going social networks have less post-secondary options compared to their more affluent peers who are exposed to a range of college going options (Bell, Rowan-Kenyon, & Perna, 2009; Farmer-Hinton, 2008; McDonagh, 2005). University Access programmes aim to support young people, through familiarising students with college campuses, college applications and providing information about courses, scholarships and grants. By giving students this information and support, they can be empowered to ulilise their social and cultural capital in educational contexts and enabling them to reach their full potential.

Research Aim

The Trinity Access 21 (TA21) project is a widening participation (WP) outreach initiative that aims to support students from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas to reach their full academic potential. The outreach programmes include, but are not limited to, mentoring programmes for students and a range of pathway to college activities that give students the information and skills needed to make informed decisions about college. This paper examines the evidence base for university access strategies by investigating the impact of a WP outreach intervention on students’ college readiness in Ireland. In so doing, it aims to provide guidance for policymakers and practitioners on what types of interventions work, and if they work, how and why are they effective.

Studies show that students with the language of instruction as their first language often perform better in mathematics than students with a different first language (Kasper et al., 2020; OECD, 2016). Compared to other countries, Germany shows the highest difference between these two groups’ mathematics achievement (Meyer, Prediger, César, & Norén, 2021). However, everyday language skills in the language of instruction do not suffice for academic success (Cummins, 2001).

Language has different functions in mathematics classrooms. On the one hand, classroom interaction as well as learning assessment take place through language (Durkin & Shire, 1991). On the other hand, language is a vehicle for developing mathematical knowledge (Prediger, 2017). Therefore, language can become an obstacle for students regarding understanding and solving tasks, as well as developing procedural and conceptual knowledge. The mentioned obstacles are relevant for students’ mathematics achievement, which makes it necessary to investigate linguistic difficulties during mathematical learning processes (Prediger, Wilhelm, Büchter, Gürsoy, & Benholz, 2015).

Pöhler and Prediger (2015) distinguish lexical means, which are important for establishing a conceptual understanding: Technical terms and phrases can be located on the word level, while “meaning-related vocabulary” (Pöhler & Prediger, 2015, p. 1701) contains all lexical means necessary to explain the meaning of technical terms and therefore also includes grammatical elements. Thus, the meaning-related vocabulary goes beyond the word level and can be considered on the sentence level.

On the discourse level, students must be able to follow and participate in discursive practices. Explaining and arguing are the most common and the most important discursive genres for the construction of conceptual understanding of mathematics (Erath, 2021). Despite these high requirements on different language levels, language support in mathematics classrooms predominantly addresses the word level. This indicates that linguistic competences on the sentence and discourse level in the language of instruction are implicitly expected. At the same time, linguistic skills on all levels are distributed unequally among students, so these expectations often disadvantage students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those with other first languages (Prediger, 2017). However, it is important to mention that the cited studies refer to secondary mathematics education and so far, the question of whether these findings also apply to elementary mathematics education remains unanswered.

In addition, learners' first languages play an important role in promoting their conceptual understanding (Ellerton & Clarkson, 1996). Even though it is particularly difficult in classrooms comprised of speakers of several different languages, as it is the case in Germany, Meyer et al. (2021) suggest various measures to foster first languages in mathematics teaching. Other studies criticize the lack of acceptance of multilingualism in the classroom (Baur & Küchler-Hendricks, 2021). Overall, an insufficient support in the language of instruction and a lacking integration of other languages could create a difference between speakers of the language of instruction and speakers of other languages. This difference would reproduce the social power relationship between speakers of the majority language and speakers of minority languages (Cummins, 2001).

The presented project therefore investigates the main research question:

How do teachers interact with linguistically diverse learners in elementary school mathematics and how is difference produced in the process?

This research question can be broken down into smaller research questions as follows:

1. How do teachers in elementary school mathematics use technical terms and how do students adapt it?
2. At which levels do language obstacles occur in elementary school mathematics classrooms and what practices of dealing with these barriers are evident?
3. How are learners’ first languages included in elementary school mathematics instruction?
4. How are language hierarchies visible in elementary school mathematics classrooms?

In a constantly changing world we are frequently reminded that as educators we need to provide students with opportunities that will encourage them to think creatively and critically in order to find solutions outside the box. There seems to be a consensus among students, parents, teachers, researchers, school administrators and politicians that these skills are essential to do well in the 21^st century, however the question how to develop them causes many disagreements among interested parties.

This paper discusses the use of students´ plurilingual repertoires in art-based activities in L2 classroom as a tool to further develop their creative and critical thinking skills. Students´ collaboratively prepared plurilingual literary writings (using students´ linguistic biographies to define the languages) are analysed. The objective of this analysis is to determine if Choi´s (2016) argument that ¨allowing students to use their entire range of linguistic resources, and to mix codes and modes, is a way to encourage creativity¨ can be further supported. By encouraging students to use their plurilingual repertoires in one text, they are asked to find ways to make different languages work together in order to create a coherent message. This promotes creativity which Jones (2010, p. 477) defines as: ¨a matter of finding our way around constrains or limitations placed on us by the discourses within which we operate.¨ For the purpose of this study, I draw on Beyer’s (1985) definition of critical thinking (CT): “critical thinking is the assessing of the authenticity, accuracy and/or worth of knowledge claims and arguments" (p. 271).

Using students´ artistic products created in L2 classroom as data source may allow a deeper understanding of students´ L2 and other languages´ use. According to Barone, Eisner and Barone, arts-based research ¨broadens our conception of the ways in which we come to know¨ (2011, p. 4).

Studies on Literature teaching (Candido, 1995; Cosson, 2018; Freire, 1921; Leahy-Dios, 2004; Paulino, 2010; Paulino & Cosson, 2009; Segabinazi, 2011; Zilberman, 2009) argue that the development of literary literacy enables to constituting critical readers, capable of reflecting on the dichotomies between the real world and those that are fabled to them, building, in this process, their identity. Despite this, other studies (Cosson, 2020; Duarte, 2013; Witte & Sâmihaian, 2013) demonstrate that the school approach to Literature has its statutes, autonomy, and appreciation frequently revised, motivated by didactic-methodological tensions related to the place of Literature in the school and socio-political interests, which cause changes in the conceptions and practices of teaching Literature.

The different approaches, tensions, and interests that have motivated the development of Literature teaching over time have also modified the value and the definition of Literature; the purpose of its teaching; the contents taught; the adopted methodologies; the roles played by teachers and students; the criteria for selecting texts; the teaching materials, the activities, and the assessment (Cosson, 2020). By identifying and studying these aspects, Cosson (2020) defined the paradigms that have influenced Literature teaching in the Brazilian context. Considering similar topics, Witte and Sâmihaian (2013) identified points of agreement and disagreement between the Literature curricula of six European countries, and Duarte (2013) investigated the similarities and contradictions between the paradigmatic conceptions of teachers, regulatory discourses, and academics on the Literature teaching in Portugal.

Considering the mentioned studies, the relevance of literary literacy development in the citizens' formation, and the role of the school as the central agent of its promotion and democratization (Lajolo, 1983, 1988), we believe that it is crucial to understand how the Literature teaching has evolved over the years. Because of it, in this study, we intend to characterize an overview of Literature teaching as a curricular subject based on identified teaching trends developed and implemented in the context of first-language teaching in Basic Education. To achieve the objective of this study, we intend to answer the following questions:

• What place has the teaching of Literature occupied in curricula and school practices for Basic Education?
• What objectives have guided the school's teaching of Literature in Basic Education?
• What Literature teaching strategies and practices have been developed and implemented in Basic Education?
• What kind of Literature learning assessment has been developed and implemented in Basic Education?
• What roles have teachers, students, and learning objects played in Literature teaching and learning processes in Basic Education?
• What tensions and interests have likely motivated identified changes in the statutes, autonomy, and appreciation of Literature teaching?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There has been growing interest in the use of outdoor spaces in school institutions and in outdoor learning (Dinkel et al., 2019; Kalpogianni, 2019). Also in Portugal, research has pointed to the growing relevance of being and playing outside at an early age (Bento & Portugal, 2019). Still, there isn’t a widespread use of the outdoor space in creches (0-3 years old). Several factors influence this situation. A study conducted in some European countries, including Portugal, states that weather conditions and aversion to risk are considered by parents and teachers as the main reasons to prevent outdoor time (Sandseter et al., 2020). McClintic and Petty (2015) claim that although positive thoughts about the use of outdoor spaces are associated with childhood memories (space to express creativity, imagination, and time to explore), that vision is not incorporated in daily practice, where the adult assumes a supervisor role, responsible for maintaining the security and conflict resolution.

The adult’s role is central to the educational experience of the children, not only outdoor but as an important indicator of quality. Research on quality in early childhood education highlights how quality contexts are essential for assuring long-term benefits for children (Cash, Ansari, Grimm & Pianta, 2019). In Portugal, studies conducted in early childhood institutions raised concerns about quality at the creche level (Barros et al., 2018) reinforcing the importance of the adult role as a quality indicator (adult-child interactions), also referring space organization, including the outdoor spaces of the institutions.

In Portugal, the creche is supervised by the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security and not by the Ministry of Education, so there are no curriculum guidelines for early childhood education teachers who work with these ages (only for 3 to 6 years old which are included in the educational system as the first stage of basic education). Kalpogianni (2019) refers that in the absence of such a document, the early childhood education teachers’ opinions and personal experiences gain more value regarding decision-making concerning the use of outdoor spaces, reinforcing that the adult role is strongly affected by teachers’ conceptions.

Acknowledging the centrality of the adult-child relationships, this study looks into the outdoor space learning experience for children by focusing on the adult’s role or profile: what dimensions of the adult’s role/profile are considered important by early childhood teachers in their interactions with children from 3 months up to 3 years old in outdoor spaces aiming at a quality practice. For the adult’s role/profile we have combined dimensions from Laevers’ framework on Experiential Education (Portugal & Laevers, 2018) with dimensions from the CLASS Infant (Jamison et al., 2014) and CLASS Toddler (La Paro et al., 2014).

In this paper, we present part of our study by analysing the results of a survey that has been answered by early childhood education teachers in the centre region of Portugal. This survey aimed to: a) Describe spaces, practices, and routines at outdoor creche spaces; b) Identify problems associated with the use of outdoor space, and c) Design a profile of the use of the outdoor space at creche’s settings.

Observation is a necessary professional tool that all early childhood teachers should have for understanding and assessing children’s development and learning and their professional acts (Wortham & Hardin, 2019). When the importance of teacher quality is considered, observation skills have a critical position among teachers’ capabilities (Halpin & Kiehler, 2015). Systematic observation for intentional teaching can be administered in various formats, including visual and written records, children’s narratives, and checklists (Bruce et al., 2014; Dunphy, 2010; MacDonald, 2007; Wortham & Hardin, 2019). Before starting the observation, the teacher should determine the objective and purpose, the time to be allocated, the place, and the form in which the observation will be made and recorded (Peterson & Elam, 2020; Wortham & Hardin, 2019). Based on their observations, teachers decide how the learning environment will be organized to support children’s development. The analysis during and after the observation informs the teacher about what children need, which materials and learning environments are preferred by children most or least, and the ways to support children’s learning and participation. Moreover, by analyzing children’s interactions during observation, they decide how to give them feedback and guide their learning experiences (Aras, 2019). Thus, teachers make educational decisions to improve their acts and children’s development by considering data-driven observation. With the increasing importance of evidence-informed practice, recent studies show the need for systematic observation and recording of children’s learning processes, which can provide information about the teachers’ acts regarding teaching quality. Concurrently, this need has brought an increasing responsibility to observe the children in the classroom in a qualified and systematic way (Damjanovic & Blank, 2018; Goldhaber & Smith, 1997; Peterson & Elam, 2020; Seitz & Bartholomew, 2008). Moreover, it can be understood how teachers use the data they obtained from observation (Gullo, 2005; Hatch et al., 2001). For this reason, early childhood teachers need to know what they do with which purpose, called intentional teaching, and make decisions based on the data they collect. However, there is less research on teachers’ perspectives on observation as a professional tool and their observation experiences with the purpose of their acts based on the data they collect (Birkeland et al., 2020).
Considering all these, the current study aims to contribute to the literature by examining teachers’ perspectives and self-reported practices regarding observation as a professional tool. As it is claimed, a clear understanding and interpretation of the issue of observation are crucial to achieving assessment goals (Alvestad & Sheridan, 2015; Aras, 2019; Goldhaber & Smith, 1997; Knauf, 2020; Lindh & Mansikka, 2022; Yılmaz et al., 2021) as at the center of assessment in early childhood education (Wortham & Hardin, 2019), there is a lack of knowledge about the early childhood teachers’ experience as a professional tool. Therefore, the current study seeks to answer the following research questions:

1. How do early childhood teachers define observation as a professional tool?
2. What are early childhood teachers’ experiences with observation as a professional tool?
3. How do early childhood teachers use the data obtained from observations as a professional tool?

Purpose of the study and the research questions

In this study, it is aimed to investigate inservice early childhood teachers’ conceptions of STEM education in early childhood and to understand how do they implement STEM activities in their classrooms.

This study aims to investigate and describe the conceptions regarding STEM education and classroom practices of a small group of preschool teachers in Turkey. For this purpose inservice early childhood teachers’ conceptions of STEM education will be investigated through interviews and their implementations will be observed, recorded, and documented.

In addition, it is aimed to reveal the similarities and differences between STEM conceptions and clasroom practices of early childhood teachers working in public and private schools.

Correspondingly with these purposes, the study aimed to respond to the following research questions:

1. What are STEM education conceptions of early childhood teachers working in public schools?

2. What are STEM education practices of early childhood teachers working in public schools?

3. What are STEM education conceptions of early childhood teachers working in private schools?

4. What are STEM education practices of early childhood teachers working in private schools?

5. What are the similarities and/or differences between the STEM education conceptions and practices of teachers working in public and private pre-schools?

Conceptual Framework

In this research it is known that there is no one way of conceptualizing STEM education for early childhood teachers. Although the description of STEM education are varied (Brown et al., 2011; Bybee, 2013; English, 2016; Herschbach, 2011; Johnson, 2012), the definition of STEM conceptualization is defined for this study as, “the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to understand complex problems and to innovate to solve them” (Balka, 2011, p. 7). This definition highlights STEM education as different from traditional learning in two key areas: content integration related to the disciplines of STEM and an approach to innovative problem-solving that we understand as including the use of the 21st Century skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010).

Also STEM education should promote the 21st Century skills which are creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010) and lead to innovative problem-solving in authentic contexts. These skills, along with adaptability, literacy, systems thinking, self-management, and self-development have been identified as supportive of STEM education (National Research Council, 2010). STEM education is then, upholds the idea that teachers who embrace these 21st Century skills as important for student-learning and who use pedagogies that teach them can support the comprehensive thinking required of students in STEM education.