Conference Agenda

Problem solving and collaboration are crucial components of the 21^st century skills and the combined ‘collaborative problem solving’ has received remarkable academic attention and been integrated into major educational frameworks such as PISA 2015 (van Laar et al. 2020; Scoular et al. 2020). While frameworks such as PISA focus on students' strategies for surmounting difficulties, academics also argue that struggling with a problem can have a unique learning potential, through reflecting on what the problem consists of (e.g., Schön 1987). A noteworthy contribution to this tradition is Manu Kapur and his notion of productive failure. Herein Kapur emphasizes that spending time on open-ended, non-scaffolded problems allows students to discuss the limits of a problem, which he found supported students’ long-term learning (Kapur 2008). In this paper, I am investigating the circumstances in artefact-based group work that facilitate or hinder students’ engagement in meaningful problem-solving conversations.

For understanding students’ discussions during problem-solving challenges, I am interested in whether students are comparing and contrasting different solutions, in so-called exploratory talk (Littleton and Mercer 2013). Several articles suggest that the use of tools and artefacts is important for how group members can work together (Knight and Littleton 2015; Wegerif 1996). The distribution of access to instruments or digital artefacts is co-constructing how individuals can take part in their groups, as exemplified in the use of all-participating-at-once at interactive tabletops vs the turn-taking when groups are collaborating around a single ipad (Fleck, Vasalou, and Stasinou 2021). As the artefacts can restrict access to task-relevant information, it influences the need for information-sharing within the group, whether that be vocal or physical through turn-taking. This focus emphasizes the importance of the body and the near-material sphere for understanding how collaboration happens around (digital) tools in education (Gourlay 2021; Davidsen and Ryberg 2017).

Exploratory talk thus shows promise as an effective learning strategy but places demands on group communication to establish a shared understanding. With a lack of common ground (Stahl 2011), groups might turn to either advance their own ideas without discussing them (dispositional talk), or just accept others’ ideas without having any basis to challenge them on (cumulative talk) (Littleton and Mercer 2013). By investigating relevant situations where student groups face problems, this project seeks to identify mechanisms that affect the exploratory talk in group work. This is in line with a ~30 years old discussion on the sequence of sharing tools and artefacts (Wegerif 1996). This article is based on the following research question:

How is group-members’ engagement with the artefacts affecting the orchestration of the work, the establishment of common ground and their exploratory talk?

To address this question, I observe student groups at an activity center, in which 8^th graders participate in a one-day science lab. The work in this article is part of a bigger project, which through combining ethnography and sensors, badges, and cameras will investigate in what situations groups remain courageous and curious in science despite encountering challenges (Bjerre-Nielsen and Glavind 2022). While important in its own right, this ethnographic investigation is also serving to ground our analysis, and to help pinpoint indicators for a quantitative ethnographic layer of the project (Shaffer 2017). While language has been highlighted as the primary modality to investigate exploratory talk through (Littleton and Mercer 2013), my focus is on how artefacts are part of co-creating the group work centers the physical use and showing, and the access to the resources (Fleck et al. 2009; Fleck, Vasalou, and Stasinou 2021; Davidsen and Ryberg 2017).

This research project is associated with a Ph.D. investigation, which aims to develop (design, implement, and evaluate the impact) a didact resource based on comics for science communication and science education (science comics), related to the Health Education field. The context of action and investigation is a non-formal education environment – a science center based in Portugal – and the target audience is composed of children from the first years of schooling.

The methodology is based on the Research and Development (R&D) ideas, combining principles of qualitative research (Creswell, 2012) with the process of Design Thinking (DT) for Educators (Riverdale & IDEO, 2012).

The research question is “How to communicate science to children, using comics, in order to foster learning?".

To answer this research question, three specific objectives were defined:

1. Understand how the characteristics of comics can be used to communicate scientific content and what competencies can be developed in this process.
2. Develop (design, implement, and evaluate the impact) the didact resource based on comics, through activities implemented in a non-formal educational context.
3. Co-create, with the education and communication experts involved in this process, a framework to develop didact resources based on comics for science communication and education (science comics).

In the field of science communication and science education, comics emerge as a powerful mediator tool, fostering engaging and effective learning experiences. In this context, we can use the term science comics, i.e. the “comics which have as one of their main aims to communicate science or to educate the reader about some non-fictional, scientific concept or theme” (Tatalovic, 2009, p.4). Previous studies (omitted for blind review) concluded that comics are an interesting resource for science communication and education since they have the potential to explain concepts that are difficult to visualize (such as abstract scientific concepts) and, as a didactic resource, it is important to be combined with a didactic strategy adapted to the learning objectives, the target audience, and the educational context.

Many authors have been studying science communication and science education simultaneously (Baram-Tsabari & Osborne, 2015; Lewenstein, 2015; McKinnon & Vos, 2015) to comprehend the relationship between both. They are distinct disciplinary areas but may share some characteristics, such as similar goals, strategies, and learning contexts. It is important to comprehend the relationship between science communication and science education to understand how comics can contribute to achieving the expected results of both disciplinary areas.

One of the main goals is to promote scientific literacy, and it is important to develop this competency in children since the first years of schooling, to develop critical citizens who can make informed decisions based on science. According to McKinnon and Vos (2015), “Each definition of scientific literacy incorporates common elements: principally an understanding of scientific concepts and the nature of science, interest in science and an ability to find and evaluate information in order to make decisions about science-based issues” (p. 301)

Nowadays, non-formal science education contexts have an important role in promoting scientific literacy in society. According to Rodrigues (2016), non-formal education is an important ally of formal education and even informal education, as a lifelong learning strategy. Schools are no longer seen as the only space for learning and other educational contexts have gained importance to ensure the scientific culture of society.

The promotion of scientific literacy is associated with the development of competencies, considering that “the concept of competency implies more than just the acquisition of knowledge and skills; it involves the mobilization of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values to meet complex demands” (OECD, 2018).

This paper is a methodological discussion regarding doing Poetic Transcription jointly with the research participants to create data. Within the frame of a larger research project centred on Early Career Academics experiences of teaching in Higher Education, learning for their role and learning to teach, this paper explores the conversations had with all 11 UK participants regarding the use of Joint Poetic Transcription to produce the data for the research project.

Early Career Academics (ECAs) often step into Higher Education Institution (HEI) teaching roles without the necessary pedagogical know-how (Emmioğlu, et al., 2017; Salimzadeh et al., 2017), adding to their already extensive list of challenges (Hollywood et al., 2020; Nästesjö, 2020). This situation raises questions about how academics in higher education navigate their experiences of teaching. The main project behind this paper aims to illuminate the learning journey of ECAs experiencing teaching in a UK University. On top of that, it advocates for Art-based Research via Poetic Transcription to research and reflect on this process, as it has gained some attention for researching experiences (Sánchez, 2023).

Art-based research understands research as a dynamic interplay among various elements and actors and acknowledges the role of methods in not just describing but actively shaping our understanding of reality (Law, 2004). Thus, research becomes a creative craft, itself producing an experience (Clough, 2009). For the main project, Art-based Research was deemed good to provide answers to its questions, using poetry as a means of expression that offers rich, complex avenues to create meaning (Leggo, 2018). Thus, within the broad research field of Poetic Inquiry, Poetic Transcription was selected as the appropriate approach (Faulkner, 2019; Vincent, 2018; Glesne, 1997). Typically, it involves interviewing participants, transcribing the conversations, and creating poems based on these transcripts (Loads et al., 2019; Burdick, 2011). For the project, and following the constructed, relational and collective understanding of both research and experience (Sánchez, 2023), participant collaboration was added to the process, thus creating Joint Poetic Transcription.

Recognizing research as a creative craft, Joint Poetic Transcription involves participant collaboration in creating poems as data. This collaborative poetic process surpasses the prior by actively involving participants in the creation of poetry: they became co-creators of the poems by crafting the poem alongside the research team. In a nutshell, the transcription is shared, and both produce meaning together through poetry. Parts of the transcript verbatim are intertwined with arising ideas, woven into poems using poetic license. As a joint constructive process, this approach seeks to redefine research as an experiential, participatory and productive journey.

This transformative, participatory process redefines research as experiential and productive, and thus some challenges arise. Specifically responding to the literature regarding the quality of this methodology, this paper argues that engaging participants in crafting poems would offer a unique avenue for learning from their experiences and thus provide a way to argue for the value of said method.

Specifically in Poetic Inquiry, some emphasize the importance of engaging with the craft itself as a marker of quality, like in Leavy's focus on authenticity and resonance (2017). Faulkner's proposed criteria for assessing quality involve methodological, artistic, and technical elements, encompassing rigor, impact, and the development of craft within the research process (Faulkner, 2016).

In this paper, one of the signs of quality suggested by Faulkner (2016) is explored: Participant Response. The aim of the present paper is to explore the merits and quality of the method directly with the participants. Through Participant Response, a way of evaluating if the methodology was well executed in its transformative and learning character could be provided.

Title: Unveiling Educational Needs: A Narrative Inquiry into Kazakh Adult Returnees from China.

The role of adult education as a means of adaptation of citizens to changing society is crucial. One of the communities which tend to be in demand of adaptation and smooth integration into broader society in Kazakhstan are ethnic Kazakh returnees. Returnees from the regions beyond the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) charachtarized by distinctive political regimes and socio-cultural features and writing systems that differ from Central Asian countries have drawn significant scholarly interest which stemmed from various factors which include returnees experience related to adaptation and integration issues in Kazakhstan. This research focuses particularly on adult returnees who come from China and who constitute the second biggest share of returnees among Kazakh diasporas in the world. Various disciplines have sliced the returnee experiences and issues from their perspectives. In particular, the scholarly discourse on China Kazakh returnees in Kazakhstan revolve around historical, legal, economic and political, socio-cultural aspects of the repatriation and adaptation and integration issues. There has been a limited scholarly investigation into the role of education as both a contributing factor to addressing issues among adult returnees and a mitigating factor in the context of integration. While the legal and regulatory framework for migration has been established and continues to evolve in the country, it is important to highlight returnees’ ongoing integrative challenges. Literature states that lifelong policy predominantly caters for local residents, which raises the concern about its inclusivity. Recognizing the broader challenges related to adaptation and integration, this exploratory study aims to explore educational needs of Kazakhstani adult returnees from China from returnee perspectives. The overarching question of this study is what educational needs do adult returnees have to aid in their successful adjustment and assimilation? This study explores educational needs of adult returnees through Bourdieu's concepts of ‘habitus’ ‘field’, ‘doxa’, and the Third Space Theory by (Bhabha, 1994) and Intersectionality Theory by (Crenshaw, 1991). The study used an eclectic theoretical framework as individually the mentioned theories provide fragmented picture and cannot individually help me in understanding educational needs of returnees therfore I cinsider them within the Third Space theory by Bhabha (1994); it is a suitable lens through which I can tap into the complex process of in-betweenness that is cultural hybridity and identity formation experienced by the returnees. As this theory is defined as ‘third space’ where the fusion and convergence of the individual’s prior socio-cultural experiences and new socio-cultural context occur (Bhabha, 1994). I will witness how the returnees’ hybrid identities are constructed, how they negotiate their dual or multiple cultural affiliations and how the negotiation and hybrid identity impact returnees’ educational needs and what educational resources they seek . Through this theory I acknowledges that their needs are not just shaped by straightforward factors like language proficiency or job skills but are intricately linked to their personal histories, societal structures, cultural norms, and evolving identities. In essence, Third Space theory offers a comprehensive lens through which the multi-layered experiences of returnees can be understood and addressed in terms of education. This research can contribute to knowledge by bridging the current gap in the existing body of knowledge on the subject matter, thereby facilitating understanding of the Kazakhstani context bound educational experience of adult returnees and their educational needs in the context of local and global migrant education.

This research is aimed at studying the transit trajectory of students’ progress to higher education after achieving vocational qualification. In the Russian educational context, vocational education means graduating from a community college. Community college graduates may be motivated by a variety of reasons when choosing a transit pathway.

Firstly, the educational path of «community college – university» can be considered as a widespread channel of social mobility. From the point of view of rational action theory, the researchers agree that the most socially and economically disadvantaged social groups choose vocational education (Alexandrov, Tenisheva, & Savelyev, 2015; Konstantinovskiy & Popova, 2018). At the same time, due to the transit trajectory, the path to higher education and social mobility upon graduation is not blocked for such students. Since Russian community college graduates can enter higher education without passing the Unified State Examination (USE), this path is called "bypass maneuver" (Adamovich, 2022).

Second, according to the theory of human capital, higher education contributes to the accumulation of the general human capital (Becker, 1962). This can be a significant incentive to increase the potential return on education. Various studies in Russia repeatedly showcase the positive impact of higher education and work experience on the success of entering the labour market (Dudyrev, Romanova, & Travkin, 2020; Roshchin & Rudakov, 2017).

And thirdly, in terms of the signal theory, by obtaining a higher level of education such as a bachelor’s degree after a vocational qualification, the candidates signal to the employer that they are productive and deserve a higher salary (Spence, 1973). Thus, community college graduates can enroll in higher education in order to provide a signal to the employer of their productivity and, as a result, grounds for potential wage increases.

Education and career trajectories are a common subject of both sociological and economic research. Sociological research is aimed at identifying the reasons for the choice of a particular educational path, and economic studies — its results. Sociologists, for example, often study educational routes based on the theory of rational action (Breen & Goldthorpe, 1997) and relative risk aversion (Breen & van de Werfhorst, 2014).

Economic studies, in turn, examine the results of an educational route. According to the theory of the human capital (Becker, 1962), students who have progressed from community college to university acquire human capital and become more promising candidates in the labor market. It can be assumed that investment in transit educational trajectory, in the long term, will bring higher income and protection from precarious employment (Maltseva & Rosenfeld, 2022).

The progression of college graduates to higher education is actively discussed by researchers in Russia (Yastrebov, Kosyakova & Kurakin, D., 2018). However, studying predictors associated with the Russian young people entering the transit trajectory remains scarce. In addition, the career trajectories of such students have not yet been covered by empirical research.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors related to the choice of transit education trajectory (socio-economic status (SES), academic achievement, personal characteristics). In addition, this study examines the relationship between the «transit» educational trajectory and the salaries of its graduates. In this research, a transit educational route is classified into two types — completed transit (entering university immediately after community college graduation) and postponed transit (entering university some time after community college graduation).

This research study answers the following questions:

1. What is the likelihood of obtaining higher education by the age of 25 (entering the transitory trajectory) among those who have received vocational qualification, depending on their SES and academic abilities?

2. Does this educational trajectory result in higher wages for its graduates?

Scholarship underscores the pivotal role of teacher training in maintaining standardized education, primarily institutionalized via different sorts of learning communities (i.e., professional development programs materialized via professional learning communities (PLCs), communities of practice (CoPs), action research groups) within schools, arguably to enhance curricular content, instructional practices, and student academic performance (Nawab et al., 2021; Sullivan, 2020). However, in Western-centric contexts, efforts to enhance teacher-learning communities often prioritize reforms, policymaking, and empirical studies aligning with business-sponsored agendas rooted in neoliberal market ideologies (Giroux, 2019; Darling-Hammond et al., 2005). Unfortunately, these initiatives frequently lack meaningful participation from key stakeholders, hindering teachers’ professionalism and critical skills development for transformative education, social justice, and climate change awareness (Giroux, 2021). Against this backdrop, teacher-learning communities are often operationalized as socio-political and historical learning-as-training projects, neglecting the complexities of the educational experience and its axiological commitment to social change (Macedo, 2018).

This study builds upon educational experiences in the Americas and Europe, exploring transformative possibilities in teacher-learning communities intersecting with critical pedagogies. It aims to articulate critical pedagogy's conceptualization of practical hope and radical love (Freire, 2005; Goméz, 2015; Agnello, 2016) as community-oriented axiological-educational frameworks sustaining teacher learning communities, referred to as communities of praxis. This exploration may bring forth collectively crafted counternarratives anchored in relational engagements, dialogic encounters, knowledge co-creation, eco-justice ethics, and situated practices (Flecha, 2015). According to Freire (2005), critical educational counternarratives should be grounded in practical hope and radical love. Hope serves as a fundamental aspect of our human condition and educational practice, motivating collective intervention in shaping history. Love provides sustenance for the struggle against historical determinisms, promoting possibility, solidarity, humility, and openness—goals inherent in communities of praxis.

Studies addressing practical hope and radical love as educational frameworks are virtually nonexistent (Torres Olave et al., 2023) and even more limited through the lenses of teacher-learning communities. While addressing the research question (How may communities of praxis be enacted in schools?), my study aims to collect data documenting teachers’ dialogic interactions in small-group gatherings as they may co-construct pathways to develop a community of praxis, engaging in transformative experiences and unsettling dominant curricular-pedagogical approaches and sociopolitical-educational practices.

The theoretical-conceptual framework guiding this study integrates a critical theory/pedagogy of situated learning-in-practice (Lave, 2019; Freire, 2005), a relational-axiological embodied theory of cognition-knowing (Maturana, 2012) and the pursuit of transformative and emancipatory goals (Carr & Thésée, 2020).

Situated learning, as articulated by Lave, embraces the social nature of human existence where knowing is subject to practice as a relational process of constant becoming (identity formation as a continuum) among individuals in communities of practices situated in evolving sociopolitical-educational contexts. Critical pedagogy elaborates further on the nature of situated learning, underscoring the transformative potential of learning-in-place that occurs intertwined with sociopolitical practices in the multiplicity of voices in the world, shaping one's affect, senses, emotions, and emergent subjectivities. Enactivism introduces an embodied theory of cognition-knowing to learning, asserting that cognition arises from bodily experiences within broader psychological and cultural contexts, emphasizing how individuals co-construct knowledge and inner worlds articulating axiological dimensions. Transformative and Emancipatory Education (Carr & Thésée, 2020) advocates for the encounter of multiplicities when building learning communities, offering pathways to challenging systemic barriers through alternative constructs to conventional teacher learning-as-training within Western-centric educational systems. Altogether, these theories comprise a framework for the enaction of communities of praxis that points at practical hope as a sociopolitical-educational transformative project and at radical love as praxis to struggle against educational determinisms while exploring new possibilities in the contemporary landscape.

Recent decades have shown the progressive loss of social recognition of the teaching profession (Ianes, et al., 2019; Paletta, 2020; OECD, 2023). Argentin (2018), deepening what has already been highlighted by Colombo (2017), has demonstrated how teaching can be considered a "quasi-profession" as it contains only some of the elements that caracterize occupations considered “true” professions. Moreover, in the Italian case, we are faced, on the one hand, with a totally "flat" career (Eurydice, 2021) and on the other hand with the persistence of a real "taboo" on teacher evaluation (Guerrini, 2018). These aspects, to which are added the phenomena of high feminization and ageing of the teaching staff, represent a major challenge for schools and society (Gavosto, 2022). Many studies and researches have addressed these issues but, according to the literature review conducted so far, none have systematically investigated the point of view of those directly involved.

And it is precisely this gap that we aim to bridge by answering two research questions: what is the “sentiment” of Italian teachers with respect to career, valorisation and evaluation? Under what conditions would it be possible to introduce a teacher evaluation/appraisal system in Italy as well? The research hypothesis is that there is a growing interest and openness on the part of teachers to valorisation and evaluation. However it is a process to be built according to a 'bottom-up' logic and not a 'top-down' one as hitherto (Romei, 2000). Even though, Hattie (2016) states that having more and more inspired and passionate teachers could improve learning, this cannot be realised solely by relying on ideal and/or vocational elements, but also on structural-organisational, legal-economic aspects and prospects for real professional development and careers.

First at all, in order to answer the research questions, a critical review of the literature was performed through reading and analysing about one hundred texts of various types (monographs, articles, degree-master-doctorate theses, conference proceedings, national and international surveys, regulatory provisions). They are mainly in Italian (but also in English as regards the international surveys carried out by organisations such as Eurydice and OECD), published since 2000 (the year in which school autonomy was officially introduced – Presidential Decree 275/99). A specific consideration and evaluation was paid to all those passages presenting information and data on the opinions of Italian teachers concerning research topics; This was accomplished by setting the advanced search filters with at least one of the key words and concepts such as: Career - Valuing - Evaluation - Professional development - Social and economic recognition.

As no work or research was found that gives an up-to-date, complete and rigorous representation of the issues being researched, it is necessary to supplement the research project with an experimental part using the tools of the interview, questionnaire and focus group.

Reference-group effects are well-established within educational psychology. According to the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect (BFPLE) achievement-based school/class composition influences individuals’ academic self-evaluation. Controlling for individual achievement, higher group achievement is related to lower individual academic self-concept and vice versa (Fang et al., 2018).

Recently, efforts have been made to link the BFLPE to a variety of educational and occupational outcomes and to establish the long-term nature of these effects. Researchers found negative effects of average school achievement on educational/occupational aspirations (Nagengast & Marsh, 2012; Yuan & Olivos, 2023), expectations and attainment (Göllner et al., 2018; Marsh et al., 2023). In some studies, these effects have been found to persist multiple years after measuring group achievement (Göllner et al., 2018, Marsh, 1991; Marsh et al., 2023). However, research on the longevity of these effects remains scarce: Specifically, we only know of one study that examined the long-term BFLPE on aspirations (Marsh, 1991).

As aspirations have been shown to be a relevant precursor of attainment, increasing adolescents’ aspirations can have a significant positive effect on their life trajectories (Schoon & Polek, 2011). Hence, the first aim of our study is to analyse the effect of group achievement in secondary school on educational aspirations during tertiary education, i.e. two/four years later.

We decided to focus on a sample of students who start vocational education and training (VET) after school. VET students can profit strongly from an increase in their educational aspirations, as they are – compared to higher education graduates – disadvantaged in the labour market (Protsch & Solga, 2016).

Based on these considerations, we derive the following hypothesis:

H1: Holding constant for individual achievement, school average achievement in secondary school negatively affects students’ educational aspirations during VET.

Apart from that, examining a sample of VET students enables us to analyse how different reference-groups work together a) simultaneously and b) over time. While researchers acknowledge that in the school setting multiple reference-groups (e.g. classes and schools) influence educational outcomes simultaneously (Jansen et al., 2022; Yuan & Olivos, 2023; Zell & Alicke, 2009), it is unclear if this holds also true for the VET context. In the German VET system, students spend time in two separate learning contexts: VET classrooms and training firms. We suggest that both constitute relevant reference-groups. Therefore, the second aim of our study is to examine the BFLPE on educational aspirations in VET classes and training firms simultaneously. We assume the BFLPE to be stronger in VET classrooms than training firms due to the standardised nature of the school setting (Jansen et al., 2022).

H2: When controlling for individual achievement, a) VET classroom group achievement and b) VET firm group achievement negatively influence educational aspirations during VET.

H3: The BFLPE in the VET classroom is stronger than the BFLPE in the training firm.
While simultaneous reference-group effects have been researched in some detail, the effect of multiple reference-groups over time remains understudied. The recent focus on their long-term effects, however, calls for a further examination of these mechanisms. Therefore, the third aim of our study is to analyse how different reference-groups over time affect educational aspirations during VET. We believe that group achievement in secondary school still affects educational aspirations even after adding group achievement in VET classrooms and training firms as predictors. Furthermore, we argue that more recent reference-groups are more influential than less recent ones.

H4: The BFLPEs in secondary school remains after adding BFLPEs in the VET classroom and the training firm.

H5: The BFLPEs in a) the VET classrooms and b) the training firm are stronger than the BFLPE in secondary school.

What kind of process is career change? This study examines career changing in the Finnish context because it is interesting from a research point of view. Finland has a national strategy of lifelong learning and free education for all which makes it an interesting case for three reasons. First, with the help of Finnish case, we can study this phenomenon from a perspective that is not suppressed by extensive market forces but leaves more room for adults’ choices. Second, studying is flexible during all stages of life. Consequently, In Finland, career choices and the transition to adult education and training can be made at any stage of the career. The phenomenon of career change has been studied in the context of changing working life, but not from adult choices perspective. Career change here is defined as movement to a different job that is not part of a current career path. This study specially focuses to the voluntary turnover and vocational change.

In their integrated career change model, Rhodes & Doering (1983) present the determinants of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, which lead to career change. Experiencing dissatisfaction in one’s current job influences one’s thoughts about changing jobs or careers (Carless & Arnup 2010), and it also increases the intention to search for a new career (Rhodes & Doering 1983). There is a positive correlation between satisfaction with work and satisfaction with areas of personal life outside work (Martel & Dupuis 2006). A career change is undertaken because there is an expectation that various aspects of work life will improve after this change. Hess, Jepsen, & Dries (2012) argue that for specific career concerns to be translated into career change intentions, there must be a certain degree of self-perceived ability and opportunity to make those changes (Hess et al. 2012). The individual characteristics of career changers, such as openness to experience and general self-efficacy (Carless & Arnup 2010), are also considered explanatory career-change factors. In other words, self-efficacy is a belief in one’s ability to perform across a variety of situations (Chen, Gully & Eden 2004).

It is conceivable that a career is changed because of the variating needs of the working life, but also in pursuit of employee’s own wishes. Work standards change as working life changes, atypical and precarious work becomes more typical. Developments like this has led to need for constant retraining as people engage in learning trajectories (training, work, employment etc.) throughout the life course. (Glastra et al. 2004.)

Illeris (2003) claims, that adults must constantly re-engage with education and training, and those who do not, risk social and economic marginalization (Illeris 2003). Also, previous studies of Giddens (1990) and Scanlon (2008) have shown that all situations and individuals have horizons of possibility. That is, there are always limitations on the degree to which individuals can remake themselves through the process of change. From a sociological point of view, Giddens (1990) calls the process by which adults make recurring transitions as ‘self-authoring’. The key, of the self-authoring is reflexivity where individuals consider their biographies now and in the future. They make career choices, which are based on an analysis of their life circumstances, competences, and work-life requirements. In his theory of perspective transformation, Mezirow (1991) states that adults make intentional movements to resolve grievances in their lives. They are reflective and think things through critically and ponder things from different perspectives. Moreover, they evaluate the validity of the current view of meaning and examine the validity of other perspectives. Mezirow (1991) defines that meaning perspective is the frame within which meaning making takes place.

Problem-solving is an important part of the primary school mathematics curriculum. The purpose of problem-solving activities in the classroom is to apply abstract mathematical concepts to real-world situations. (Verschaffel et. al, 2000; Mellone, et. al, 2014) Riley et. al (1983) described the conceptual knowledge required to solve simple addition or subtraction word problems in terms of semantic relations residing between quantitative information existing in problem text: compare, combine and change.

For primary school pupils, comprehending word problems at the early stages of learning to read, is a difficult task. Despite their lack of understanding, some pupils still engage in the solving process, employing arbitrary strategies, such as randomly combining numbers existing in the problem into mathematical operations suggested by specific keywords in the problem i.e. “more” for addition and “less” for subtraction (Schoenfeld, 1991).

Research on mathematical reasoning evidenced that mental representations of abstract mathematical concepts appear to be visual, originating in one's visually sensed experiences. (Bishop, 1989) Arcavi (2003) described visualization as the ability, process and product of creation, interpretation, use and reflection upon pictures, images, and diagrams in our minds or paper or with other technological means to describe and communicate information, develop thinking, and advance understanding of new ideas. Dreyfus (1991) described visual reasoning in mathematics as a process of expressing verbal information in concrete visual representations that illustrate the relationships between mathematical expressions and concepts. By advancing the use of visual reasoning in mathematics learning, comprehension is translated into one's ability to use the given information to solve problems. (Mayer, 1989)

To improve pupils' problem-solving abilities, recent studies explored different methods of facilitating the understanding of mathematical relations in word problems. In his research, Glenberg et al. (2012) improved elementary school pupils' problem-solving performance by having them physically manipulate objects that recreated the problem situation, which supported forming accurate mental representations of the relations between quantitative information in the problem. Dewolf et. al (2017) investigated the effect of representational illustrations that accompanied problematic word problems in solving process, expecting to help pupils mentally imagine the situation and solve the problems more realistically by employing everyday life knowledge. The findings evidenced no positive effect on realistic problem-solving.

Research question/ hypothesis

The current study investigates the effect of visual reasoning on the solving process of a mathematical word problem which involves part-whole relations between sets of elements. To test our hypothesis, we worked on word problems commonly encountered in the first-grade mathematics curriculum, which required addition and subtraction operations to determine the problem solution. We also aimed to investigate and describe the correlation between students' reading comprehension abilities and their visual and mathematical reasoning performances.

We expect that visual reasoning will help pupils form accurate mental representations of the mathematical relations in the problem, improving their comprehension of the problem situation and increasing the number of correct problem solutions afterwards.

1. Is it possible to improve first-graders' word problem comprehension by asking them to create visual representations of the problem situation by drawing?

1. Will the number of correct problem solutions increase if pupils create correct visual representations of the problem situation, by drawing?
2. Will pupils with average reading comprehension abilities create accurate visual representations of the problem situation, by drawing and determining the correct problem solution afterwards?

We hypothesized that asking first-grade pupils to create visual representations of the problem situation by drawing will improve comprehension, determining an increased number of correct problem solutions.

We also predicted that pupils with average reading comprehension abilities would create correct visual representations of the problem situation leading them to perform the appropriate operations to determine the correct problem solution.

The question of how an optimal learning environment should be designed is probably as old as the building task itself. It has always been and continues to be a reflection of constantly changing educational, social, and technological conditions. Despite the small field of research, the scientific debate on the subject has gained attention since its beginnings in the 1920s, especially in the past decade. The fact that physical space can influence learning has already been proven several times (e.g. Rance et al., 2023; Baloch et al. 2021; Barrett et al., 2015; Walden, 2008). However, there is still no theoretical model that takes a holistic view of the architectural aspects of a learning environment and at the same time addresses current research and school development.

Today, we are faced with a fundamentally changed pedagogical understanding, even if some demands in this respect were already made at the beginning of the 20th century by the New Education Movement (Renz, 2016). Findings from educational research have influenced teaching methods and goals of education in the last decades: Lessons should include different social forms, be skills-oriented, and take individualised learning into account (Saalfrank, 2017; Corno, 2008; Helmke, 2007; Weinert, 2001). In addition, the role of schools has changed since the Emotional Turn in the 1990s, meaning the topic of well-being is receiving increasing attention (Hascher & Balloid, 2000). This also raises the question of social responsibility: to what extent can schools respond to the challenges of our time, such as inclusion, division of society, strengthening democracy, and the climate crisis? In addition to these pedagogical and social demands, however, there are also changing technological and construction-specific conditions (digitalization, climate-neutral buildings, resource conservation, etc.), which on the one hand call for increased responsibility, but also open up opportunities to find answers for the school building question.

In construction practice, this is usually based on the orientation of positive examples and building guidelines, but also increasingly through participation processes in which, for example, teachers and pupils are involved in the concept planning (Montag Stiftungen Jugend und Gesellschaft, 2017). Although this is fundamentally a positive development, it is also associated with the problem that this approach is tailored to the personal needs of individual groups at a specific point in time and therefore does not represent the whole. To date, an orientation towards Evidenced Based Design in (school) construction is hardly common (Hamilton & Watskin, 2009), which is due on the one hand to the common professional practice of architects, but also to the small field of research. Even here, the presentation of positive examples takes up a large space, and empirical research methods are still only used sporadically. What is more, the knowledge that has already been gained is seldom bundled and prepared for practical use – as a result, there is hardly any scientific communication. In addition to the problem of the very limited number of studies, there is also little cooperation between the various scientific disciplines, which means that architecture, educational science, and architectural psychology (which is generally underrepresented) usually act separately from each other.

This results in the need for an interdisciplinary approach that, on the one hand, maps the different aspects of a learning environment as comprehensively as possible and, at the same time, takes current pedagogical, social, and technological developments into account. It raises the question of how architectural-psychological and pedagogical requirements of the school learning environment can be mapped in a theoretical model – and thus serves as a basis for empirical research, as a planning aid, and for the evaluation of school buildings.

The development of creative skills (UNESCO, 2006) appears to be one of the most urgent challenges in today's complex (Morin, 2017) and 'fluid' (Bauman, 2007) society, characterized by uncertainty and instability. This is because creativity is not an adaptive response to needs and difficulties but an exactive (Vrba & Gould, 1982) opportunity to be in relation to the context. In fact, the concept of creativity has multiple definitions: it is a performative skill, a transformative process (Edwards, Grandini & Forman, 2017; Munari, 2017; Rodari, 2010), an improvisational attitude (Zorzi, 2020), a generative capacity (Tiozzo Brasiola, 2020), a political condition and a dimension of complex thinking (Lipman, 2005). Moreover, creativity is a higher psychic function present in all human beings since childhood (Vygotsky, 2010) and a process historically and culturally mediated. Creativity is a necessary educational condition to imagine otherness, to think in terms of differences, and to welcome the thought of the other (Santi, 2006a) to nurture open and democratic societies. Hence, schools are in charge of cultivating it, so that it becomes a different opportunity to relate with others and with the world.

If and how can creativity be taught? In the Italian language, the word "teach" comes from the Latin word "insignare" and means to put things into signs, to leave a mark. According to Peirce (1980), sign is a dialogical relationship between three semiotic entities: object, representamen and interpreter. The transition between them occurs through a creative mediation, which is possible only when the sign participates in the nature of thought. For this reason, creative mediation allows signs to always have other interpretations thus inserting them into a process of unlimited semiosis. What results is the generativity of the sign through thought. In this sense, sign, like creativity, is also uncertain, indefinite, never completely clear. As a result, teaching creativity understood as putting creativity into signs can only involve the dimension of thought.

According to Lipman (1988, 2005), creativity is one of the dimensions of complex thinking that can be finds expression in Philosophy for Children (P4C), an educational practice characterized by the dialogic-argumentative method and the didactic model of the research community (Santi, 2005). In the literature, there are many researches aimed at investigating creative thinking through P4C (De Puig, 2003; Sátiro, 2006, 2019; Santi, 2007), but no studies highlighting the possible link between generativity and creative thinking through signs in the perspective of complex thinking. Therefore, mobilizing generativity as an interpretative model to read an empirical investigation of creativity promoted through P4C can open a new pedagogical and didactic view of what has already been explored. The research aspires to give a generative reading of creativity, as an object of teaching, by investigating the horizon of generative didactics of creativity through PhilosophArt.

PhilosophArt is an educational-didactic practice that aims to generate creativity through art and dialogue in the community, taking into account the complexity of thought. It combines the dialogical-discursive method and the research community of P4C with the realization of community works of art through graphic signs (Kandinsky, 1968, 2005). P4C develops creative, critical and free minds in community members so that they can live in today's complex, unstable and uncertain society.

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; Zajda, 2006; Rizvi, 2009; Taylor et al, 1997). In the Latin American 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. For example, the latest national assessments on quality education reveal that 66.4% of children in Huancavelica (rural Peru) do not achieve the expected level of literacy for Year 2 (primary level). By contrast, in regions like Tacna (a predominantly urban region) 55.7% of children achieved the expected level (MINEDU, 2022). Moreover, the neoliberal model has served to marginalise the voices of rural teachers and their practices of social justice in Peru.

As teachers play a central role in educational process, the Peruvian scenario shows that rural teachers’ voices who are engaged in the praxis of social justice have not been sufficiently heard at the level of national debates or been part of large studies. The previous research have been largely focused on the analysis of Peruvian teachers’ policy including aspects of remuneration, quality, performance, among others (Cuenca & Stojnic, 2008; UNESCO, 2017; Montero & Uccelli, 2023). For instance, Cuenca (2020), has published a book of six Peruvian teachers’ stories by analysing aspects of teachers’ identities in the last ten years in the country. The author focuses on teachers' concept of work, the value they place on vocation and the way in which they recognise and are recognised as professionals (Cuenca, 2020). Although the author mentions aspects of critical pedagogies in one of the teaching typologies, the study does not will delve into these aspects through the teachers’ stories from a social justice perspective. And this is a gap in Peruvian educational research that this study seeks to fill in.

Thus, the main research question is: How do a group of schoolteachers in rural Peru conceptualise and practice their commitment to social justice through critical pedagogies within the constraints of the neoliberal policy landscape? As secondary questions:

What do a group of rural teachers in Peru understand by social justice and critical pedagogies?

How do they implement critical pedagogies through their practices as rural teachers?

In what ways could the praxis of social justice through critical pedagogies from these group of rural teachers run into tension within the neoliberal policies?

To discuss the above questions, the theoretical framework focuses on critical pedagogies by reviewing key Freirean concepts such as critical consciousness, problem posing and dialogue. For Freire, critical consciousness is integrated with reality where things and facts exist empirically in their causal and circumstantial correlations (Freire, 1974: 39). While problem-posing education is revolutionary in its futurity and its prophetic and hopeful ethos mediated by dialogue as an act of creation (Freire, 1970).

Although the study discusses the Peruvian case, this research sheds light on broader issues connected to discriminatory processes and injustices that affect educational spaces in European contexts. In particular, this study focuses on the role of teachers as key actors in promoting social justice transformations in highly diverse contexts such as Europe. This is an approach to transforming teaching practices, the construction of knowledge(s), the institutional structure and the material relations of wider society (Pica-Smith, 2018; Breunig, 2005).

Students in Indigenous societies worldwide often lack enthusiasm for traditional schooling, mainly due to the cultural clash between colonizers and Indigenous people (Battiste, 2002). In alignment with Indigenous communities in other countries, the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan have endured a history marked by both physical and symbolic violence, manifested through military subjugation, the dismantling of social structures, cultural suppression, and forceful assimilation (Sun, 2000; Pawan, 2009). This has left a legacy of colonization that fails to acknowledge or value Indigenous culture and knowledge in public education (Kawagley et al., 1998). With Taiwan's democratic transition and recent advocacy for Indigenous historical justice and transitional justice, the government has enacted several education policies such as Education Act for Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Languages Development Act, and Development of National Languages Act, safeguarding the education, language, and cultural rights of Indigenous communities. In 2019, amendments to the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples expanded its scope from Indigenous students to encompass all teachers, students, and citizens, marking the formal commencement of an “Indigenous Education for All” era.

While educational policies and regulations play a crucial role in preserving Indigenous languages and cultures and fostering reconciliation between Indigenous and Han Chinese communities, the success of policy implementation and curriculum transformation hinges on teaching and learning, as well as interactions between teachers and students. However, with the migration of Indigenous peoples from Homeland to urban and the significant increase in urban Indigenous students (Huang & Liu, 2016), coupled with the inclusion of Indigenous-related topics in the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-year Basic Education, which implemented in 2019 (Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2019), Han Chinese teachers often find Indigenous-related issues challenging to teach in classrooms with both Indigenous and Han Chinese students, posing challenges to building relationships and interactions with Indigenous students.

A substantial literature indicates that teachers’ perceptions of students influence their expectations, teacher-student interactions, and teaching method (Fang, 1996; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1993), thus understanding teachers’ perceptions of Indigenous students and how these perceptions may change is crucial in responding to the challenges they face. Like every human being, teachers harbor preconceived notions about members of different ethnicities, genders, social classes, etc., which are often stable and resistant to change (Tatto, 1996). While qualitative research on Han Chinese teachers’ perceptions of Indigenous students suggests that they may hold stereotypical impressions, adopt a cultural deficit perspective, and even exhibit cultural blindness(Chou, 2005, 2007), recent quantitative survey research on Han Chinese teachers’ knowledge about Indigenous students has identified discrepancies between teachers’ self-reported positive, open, and encouraging attitudes toward Indigenous students and their perceived cultural deficiencies in the students (Couch, Nesterova, & Nguyen, 2023). The authors of both researches argue that such phenomena exist due to teachers’ perceptions being shaped by the contextual environment in which they exist, and these perceptions often align with the mainstream societal views of Indigenous peoples. However, they could not explain the mechanisms through which the context influences teachers’ beliefs of Indigenous students.

Expanding on earlier studies, this research delves deeper into the influence of context on teachers' views of Indigenous students. The purpose of this study is:

1. To understand teachers' perspectives, expectations, and awareness of the needs of Indigenous students from different ethnic groups
2. To explore how structural contexts influence teachers’ perceptions of Indigenous students

Our study aims to enhance the practice of teachers in creating a safe learning environment and providing suitable opportunities for Indigenous students. Additionally, the research aspires to contribute to discussions on the construction of shared cultural interweaving spaces among different cultural groups.

In 2023 a Deans of Teacher Education panel was held at ECER in Glasgow. This six member panel was composed of deans and leaders of teacher education from around the globe, inculding Scotland, Ireland, USA and Australia. The panel discussion focused on current challenges for teacher education and how the deans can work collectively and collaboratively to influence policy and decisionmaking relating to teacher education, at a time when it is under increased scutiny and challenge in many systems. The session was very well attended and attracted local media interest.

This proposal builds on the success of this initial session, seeking to advance the discussion, involve more deans from across the ECER community and become established as an annual feature in the ECER programme for Network 10. It will be coordinated and chaired by Margery McMahon with inputs from deans attending ECER in Nicosia. This will draw from ECER members who are also members of the Global Deans of Education Network and the U21 Deans of Education group.

In many countries across Europe (and beyond) a relatively homogeneous body of teachers teaches an increasingly diverse group of students (Brunold et al. 2017). While this is widely discussed, we want to reflect on this matter against the background that educational institutions serve as one of the sites where identities are negotiated, contested, and defended (Martin & Van Gunten 2002). Although there is consensus on the importance of teacher identity in literature (Cochran-Smith, 2010), we still lack information on the content of teacher identity and its formation process, i.e., how they perceive themselves as teachers and what factors contribute to these perceptions (Beijaard et al., 2000). Teachers’ complex identities and their addressing in teacher education programs thus are particularly relevant. Moreover, also developments such as teacher shortages, increasing numbers of lateral entrants, and challenges related to retention pose further challenges to the diversity of the teaching body and its consideration in education programs.

This panel discussion consequently aims at discussing the intersections and complexities of teacher identities. The background of the session is the Circle U. funded WIIIDE project (Working on Inclusive Identities, Intersectionality & Diversity in Teacher Education) with partners from the Universities of Belgrade, Oslo, and Vienna. The panel thus includes teachers and researchers from Austria, Norway, and Serbia and invites other researchers and educators to engage in a discussion and reflection on the relevance of considering diverse teacher identities for inclusive education contexts.

At the core of the panel discussion lies the question of how we deal and how we should deal with teacher identities (e.g., regarding social class, race, gender, life stage, profession, training, and role) in teacher education across Europe and beyond. With current ever-growing relevance and impact of inclusive education, reflection spaces are necessary to explore their intersectionality with aspects such as democracy (in the age of climate and nature crises), special needs education (in times of performance pressure and unequal opportunities), and other intersectionalities that arise in the context of inclusive education.

To address these challenges and provide room for discussion and reflection, we recognize that individuals may share commonalities on one dimension but belong to different categories on another, thus contributing to the inclusiveness of our identities (Espinosa et al. 2018). Moreover, we must “first demonstrate that vulnerability ourselves” (Paz Ortiz et al. 2018) and explore how societal messages about different groups have shaped our views of ourselves and others, before asking students to be vulnerable themselves. For teachers to actively address oppression, it is thus necessary to become aware of the fluidity, interconnectedness and contextual situatedness of their identities (Alcoff 1988; Maher & Tetreault 1994).

One focus of both, the project and this intended exchange, thus lies in the discussion and reflection of valuable and innovative approaches that can be used in both research and teaching to explore identities, sensitize for the topic, and foster the reflection of one's own (teacher) identity (e.g., critical incident, narrative method, photovoice). Drawing upon experiences and exchanges during a three-day workshop with teacher educators, teachers, and teacher students from the three partner countries scheduled in June 2024 in Belgrade, we will share our responses to the following questions:

• What kind of teacher identities do we foster through teacher education?

• How do we consider teacher identities in current teacher education programmes?

• How could we tackle teacher identities in their complex and uncertain contexts through teacher education?

Moreover we will share questions and dilemmas that arose during the practice-infused workshop and aim to further explore and reflect on teacher identities in an inclusive and intersectional perspective with the panelists’ chair, authors, and attendants.

The unprecedented level of technological interaction that educators and teachers have been forced to engage in as a consequence of the pandemic has altered educational practices and how they interact with children and their families. During the height of the pandemic, staff members exhibited a lack of understanding regarding appropriate technology utilisation. They often turned to unregulated social media platforms to share educational experiences and communicate with families as part of what is considered pedagogical documentation (Restiglian et al., 2023).

Pedagogical documentation has a significant historical background in Italy, dating back to the Reggio approach to education (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998). Utilised primarily to record and recollect noteworthy occurrences and experiences, it also furnishes material to support the reflective practice of children and adults and facilitates the replication, comparability, transparency, and comprehensibility of educational practices (Biffi, 2019). By making the subjective and collaborative learning processes of both children and adults explicit, observable, and evaluable, documentation renders learning visible (Giudici, Rinaldi & Krechevsky, 2001).

After the pandemic, the academic staff endeavoured to reassess documentation, as well as their own professional conduct, in direct correlation with technological advancements. Nonetheless, this has contributed to a social situation in which many families' economic and cultural destitution has increased, resulting in a highly heterogeneous usage pattern that requires revised educational designs that require a paradigm shift relative to the employed tools. In regions with limited state intervention (via municipalities) and substantial variation in the quality of education provided—which is only partially regulated in all aspects—the present condition of nurseries is especially alarming. Lastly, in order to analyse an unconscious decision and a balanced application of technologies (especially social ones), knowledge of the European context is essential. Efforts are being undertaken to provide support for strategies about the ethical utilisation of AI and data, grounded in the AI Act and the GDPR (European Parliament, 2016; 2023). In order to safeguard the identities of European citizens and preserve digital sovereignty, European legislation endeavours to disclose the rationale behind the extraction of data and the psychosocial ramifications of algorithmic manipulation. With the exception of the ECEC system, therefore, circular and conscientious strategies must be implemented in all spheres of lifelong learning. Both the demographic changes taking place in the different Member States and the incorporation of this crucial developmental stage into the Lifelong Learning system contribute to the considerable emphasis on ECEC at the European level (2014) (European Document).

This dilemma is especially pronounced in nurseries in regions where the state's (via municipalities) authority is limited and where substantial variation exists in educational offerings that are only partially regulated by explicit and well-defined policies.

The critical significance of the professionalism exhibited by educators in tackling these concerns becomes evident. However, it is imperative that they are guided towards the arduous processes of societal transformation that we presently confront, given that the intricacy of technological and social progress often induces feelings of being overwhelmed (Raffaghelli, 2022).

Therefore, it appears crucial to prioritise transformative processes in continuing education and training by using a formative methodology that incorporates research and professional development. Our hypothesis is that this methodology contributes to shedding light on the inherent contradictions and tensions that emerge during the implementation of technology. As a secondary hypothesis we propose that technology could develop into an essential tool for facilitating documentation and, consequently, education for all parties involved (including parents, children, and toddlers). This is because technology is expanding its influence to an ever-increasing degree within the fabric of social reality.

Nowadays, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse due to demographic changes and worldwide policy initiatives toward a more inclusive educational system. With these increasingly diversifying student populations contrasting with teaching professionals whose demographics haven’t changed as rapidly, coupled with “superficial and partial” attempts at integrating intercultural perspectives in teacher education programs; today’s teachers are inadequately prepared to teach these diverse populations. As such, teacher education is challenged to equip future teachers with global perspectives preparing them to teach in today’s globally interdependent world. To put it differently, teacher education institutions are struggling to realize an international dimension in their curricula (Brown, 2015) and to educate future teachers with intercultural competencies. As such, teacher education is being challenged to increase internationalization and “begin preparing future teachers for the globally interdependent world in which they will work and their students will live, by opening the world to students through international experience and integrating a global perspective throughout the curriculum” (Kissock & Richardson, 2010, p. 89). Realizing internationalization is even more challenging for teacher education institutions (Kissock & Richardson, 2010) because of national educational legislation and local internship regulations.

In this paper, we present a concrete initiative to realize such an international dimension in teacher education aimed at empowering student teachers for tomorrow; by integrating international experiences and global perspectives throughout the curriculum and to “make room for real collaboration to occur” (DelliCarpini, 2009). This concrete initiative is a 3 ECTS-course developed by the European University Network ENLIGHT. ENLIGHT is a European University alliance of ten comprehensive research-intensive universities from 10 European countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland). All ENLIGHT teacher education institutions collaborate in the Teacher Education Network (TEN). This network has developed an international collaborative Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) to promote internationalisation in teacher education and to foster student teachers’ global citizenship competencies. BIPs are new Erasmus + formats for short-term mobility.

The BIP developed by the the ENLIGHT Teacher Education Network is structured around the principles of challenge-based education (CBE). CBE is an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology and resources they use in their daily lives to solve real-world challenges (Gallagher & Savage, 2023; Nichols & Cator, 2008). Based on this approach, the ENLIGHT TEN BIP was called “Teaching for Global Citizenship in European Classrooms: a challenge-based approach”. A total of 45 student teachers and 11 PhD coaches from the ENLIGHT partner universities participated in the first edition of the BIP (2023). Students from these different institutions worked together in an online and physical component via innovative ways of teaching and learning, following the different phases of the CBE approach.

The BIP consisted of an online pre-programme in which students are introduced to the concept of global citizenship. Subsequently, students went through an online learning path. Moreover, students from the same university engaged in online group discussions and prepared a presentation of their local educational system and the challenges it faces. In a second phase, the participating student teachers and PhD coaches physically met at Ghent University and followed a 5-day on-campus programme with both a social and an academic focus. During this week, students gained insight into the concept of global citizenship through the method of CBE. Concretely, students participated in mixed group assignments, group presentations and workshops, attended guest lectures, and went to visit local schools that are currently facing issues of global citizenship. In a third and final phase, students reflected on their BIP-experience in both an online meeting and a report.

The development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) has empowered and accelerated the process of education and teaching transformation. Although prior studies have examined the forms of integrating AI into education, insights into the effective factors impacting pre-service teachers’ AI assisted instruction intention (AI-AII) are rather limited. Considering this gap, this study constructed a structural model among AI-AII, AI pedagogical content knowledge (AI-PCK), AI technological knowledge (AI-TK), performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), and facilitating conditions (FC). Data were collected from 1391 pre-service teachers in China. Results of the modeling effort indicate that the pre-service teachers’ AI-PCK, EE, PE, SI, and FC positively predict their AI-AII. However, pre-service teachers’ AI-TK had indirect effects on their AI-AII. These insights are important for educators and policymakers to consider in designing teacher education and professional development related to foster pre-service teachers’ behavioral intention to use AI in teaching.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze research on doctoral education as a way to capture the intellectual and social organizing of educational disciplines in interaction with teacher education and teacher professionalization.

Doctoral education is regarded as a nexus in the formation and evolution of scientific disciplines (Kuhn, 1962) and professionalization. It joins together tradition and renewal of epistemic foundations with the development of competences and capacities to act within academic contexts as well as within a wider range of professional practices (Elmgren et al., 2016). In short, doctoral education can be seen as a mirror of the social and intellectual organization of a discipline (Whitley, 2000).

Previous international research has pointed to ongoing systemic transformations within doctoral education in general based on globalized political and societal demands, including expansion, effectivization, and internationalization (e.g., Shin et al, 2018; Yudkewitz, Altbach & de Wit, 2020). Research on disciplinary formation in general point to historically and contextually shaped variations in intellectual fields between countries (Whitley, 2000). Similar patterns have been identified within educational sciences (Hofstetter & Schneuwly, 2002; Whitty & Furlong, 2017), With reference to Kuhn (1962), Keiner (2019) argued that ‘rigor’, ‘discipline’ and the ‘systematic’ could be seen as standardizing and homogenizing forces as well as forces of diversification and fragmentation. Thus, ‘education science’ can hide a range of national differences when translated into English (Gross, Hofbauer & Keiner (2022). However, research on the role of doctoral education as a paradigmatic nexus, central in disciplinary formation seems to be more limited.

Furthermore, teacher educations and their connections with higher education institutions differ across the European countries (Whitty & Furlong, 2017).

Thus, doctoral educations are also differently constructed. For instance, it can be a research doctorate, it can be professional doctorate specifically aimed to satisfy the needs of teachers and professional groups outside the higher education institutions, and it can be a so-called joint doctorate (e.g., within the Erasmus Mundus Programme) (Kehm, 2020).

Given this, doctoral education in the formation of educational sciences and how this is interplaying with the professional education of teachers is the object of study in this research review. In order to deal with this we turn to bibliometric resources and analyses (Garfield, 1979) in order to identify research fronts and intellectual traditions at work in this field of research.

We put forwards the following questions:

- How is teacher education dealt with in research on doctoral education in educational science(s) and research?

- What research interests and intellectual traditions are at work in research om doctoral education and teacher education?

- Are there different ways to position educational research to teacher education over time and place?

To answer these questions, we turn to the resources of Web of Science with its possibilities and limits. As an analytical tool to identify networks and nodes of research we use VOSviewer (van Eck & Waltman, 2012),

We identified more than two thousand publications dealing with research on doctoral education where relation to different professionalization matters were identified. However, matters of paradigmatic aspects were infrequent. Our search identified a small number (n=56) that were combining doctoral education and teacher education. A closer analysis of these articles showed different research interests and intellectual traditions. These preliminary findings is presented and discussed in terms of an interplay between the Academy, the Teaching Profession, and Policymaking.

The definition of parental involvement has been frequently researched with many different methods (Epstein 2010). In most cases the studies found positive consequences: besides the improvement of the students’ grades there are also many other advantages (Boonk et al. 2018). According to international programs supporting parental involvement, beneficial changes happen not only in schools but in the students’ homes. Participating families reported on the betterment of parent-child relationships and the development in parents’ upbringing techniques (Goodall & Vorhaus 2011). OECD report (2019) highlights the positive effect on the teacher and the school culture. Parental involvement also benefits the school's reputation, its local relations with other institutions and its recognition (Goodall & Vorhaus 2011). Previous research has shown that the intensity of parent-teacher communication is below the expected leveli in Hungary (Bacskai 2020, Pusztai 2020). It is becoming increasingly important that the topic of maintaining contact with parents is also given a higher priority in teacher education. It is also particularly important how lecturers integrate good practice in relation to parental involvement into teacher education, helping to ensure that future teachers have appropriate and comprehensive knowledge. The relevance of the research is underpinned by the fact that parental involvement in schools is widely discussed internationally, but few studies have addressed the issue in Central and Eastern Europe. Our research goal is to examine the mechanisms of successful school practices and to form new processes that can be integrated into teacher training and postgraduate training, enhancing teacher–parent cooperation and strengthening parental upbringing competences. The aim of the research and development work is to improve the activities of teachers and the knowledge of student in teacher education about parental involvement through various workshops and trainings. During our development work, we focus on the use of board games in research. As higher education continues to evolve, incorporating innovative teaching methods such as board games ensures that lecturers are well-equipped to address the multifaceted challenges in the field of education. By merging the exploration of parental participation with interactive and engaging board games, teacher education programs can create a more comprehensive and impactful learning experience, better preparing future educators for the diverse and dynamic realities of the modern educational landscape (Perini et al., 2018). The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical background of the board game we planned, the development and creation process and the opinions of the teachers and students in teacher education who tested the game. Our board game is a serious games, because it is not intended for entertainment. These types of games can change students' behavior and attitudes for educational purposes and promote learning (Abt 1970). Cosimini & Collins (2023) point out that educators and researchers need to investigate the accuracy and methods and the content of educational games. To this end, all elements and mechanisms of the board game we developed are based on theoretical models and national and international research findings. Our board game is a typical cooperative game in which the players either win or lose together. It can be characterized by an advanced level of difficulty, as it requires more game mechanisms and a more serious mental investment. The character cards and scenarios make it a game that can be played multiple times. It can also be considered a symmetrical and thematic game, as the players have a common goal whose linked to strengthen parental involvement. The aim of the board game is for the players to cooperate with each other and solve the challenges in order to maintain contact between family and school during ten rounds, which symbolize a school year.

Proposal information

Our aim is to investigate the use of self-regulated study strategies among university students with dyslexia during the corona pandemic 2020-2021. We focus on the student´s´use of self-regulated study strategies in two different study contexts in higher education; traditional campus learning and digital distance learning.

Our research question is: To what extent did university students with dyslexia use self-regulated study strategies during the corona pandemic?

Theoretical framework
Dyslexia is per definition a specific learning disability that is characterized by difficulties with word recognition, reading and spelling, that can persist into adulthood (Lyon, Shaywich & Shaywich, 2003). Self-regulated study strategies are goal-directed cognitive processes and behavioral actions characterizing successful studying in specific contexts (Zimmerman, 1989).

More students with dyslexia are enrolled in higher education (O´Byrne et al., 2019). To overcome the challenges, self-regulation and strategic learning are supposed to be required (Andreassen et al., 2017).

Research shows that students with dyslexia in higher education are a heterogeneous group in terms of how much they still struggle with basic reading and spelling skills (Andreassen et.al., 2017; Jensen & Andreassen, 2017; Pedersen et al., 2016; Fink, 1998).

Research also shows that these students often seem to rely on certain compensational key strategies of visual, auditory, and social kind (Andreassen et.al., 2017; Jensen & Andreassen, 2017). A small range og study strategies among students might indicate that study strategies are not well known, or that the students have had few opportunities to experience study strategies in different study contexts in higher education.

In this study, we present an interdisciplinary work in the form of the First Lego League (FLL) and how this way of working aligns with changes in the Norwegian Curriculum (LK20). Through our research question, "How can an FLL internship contribute to strengthening the student's programming skills and formation of their own teacher identity?” we investigate the experiences teacher-students have after their FLL internship.

First Lego Leauge

First Lego League (FLL) has been organized in Norway since 2002, and every year a new three-part mission is presented; an innovative project, a robot competition, and a technology section. “In FIRST LEGO League, students engage in hands-on STEM experiences, building confidence, growing their knowledge and developing habits of learning. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics (First Lego Leauge, 2024)”. FLL practice aims to develop teacher-student identity by having students work on a project where students and teachers find their way together.

Programming in school

Norwegian and International governance documents highlight the population’s digital competence. In A New Skills Agenda for Europe, it is stated that almost half of Europe’s inhabitants lack basic digital skills, and both the business community and the individual citizen are encouraged to participate in a digital boost. Competence in programming is explicitly mentioned as one of the skills that both businesses and schools must invest in (European Commission, 2016). In a message to the Parliament of Norway, it says “There is a need to increase the competence of programming in schools” (Meld. St. 27 (2015–2016), 2016). LK20 is also the first curriculum with competence goals in programming and algorithmic thinking (Utdanningsdirektoratet (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training), 2021).”

Teacher-identity

Since educators first and foremost should concentrate on interaction with students (Spurkeland, 2011, p. 293), the internships become important arenas for such meetings, when education is described as a lifelong process where we are shaped through dialogue and in a meeting with ‘the other’ (Hellesnes, 1992). Our perspectives on education are influenced by digital development, and the goal must be to function in the best possible way in the knowledge society and to be able to relate to the technology that is woven into our culture (Erstad, 2010, p. 111).

Children are playful! Playing stimulates children’s development of creativity, imagination, self-confidence, and mastery (UNICEF, 2013). Spurkeland highlights educators’ ability to facilitate and lead teaching situations filled with play and creative expression as an important competence. He states that “creative processes bring people together” because “what we build together brings us together” (Spurkeland, p. 115).

Abstract

The use of modern, productive, and convenient technologies in pedagogical training is a modern requirement. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) strategy is an innovative physics–teaching model constructed to enhance students' creativity and critical thinking skills. This research aims to indicate the development of students' creative abilities such as experimental research skills and forming the ability to solve physics problems through a problem-based learning model with a heuristic approach to the physics lesson. The subject of this research is students of grade IX at the NIS school in Kyzylorda region in Kazakhstan. At the same time, this research was conducted as a "Lesson Study" in the teaching process at school. A mixed-method, namely qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this research. The results indicated that performance in the physics lesson was significantly improved concerning that of another previous term. PBL assessment via a heuristic approach to physics lesson results is reflected in those students' creative abilities increased after each LS activity. According to these results, it can be concluded that PBL through the heuristic method is effective in the teaching procedure in physics lessons in high school.

Principles of heuristic learning method:

• Principle of action;
• Principle of logical thinking;
• The principle of determining the unknown from the known concept;
• Principle of goal-oriented practice;
• Principles of independent thinking and learning

The aim and importance of the study

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the consequence of a problem-based learning model with a heuristic approach to the physics lesson. In addition, this research was conducted via a "Lesson Study" in the teaching process at school. Especially this research focuses on investigating the next principles of heuristic learning, such as principles of logical thinking, determining the unknown from the known concept, and independent thinking and learning during lessons.

Problem of Research

This research expresses the development of students' creative abilities such as experimental research skills and forming the ability to solve physics problems in the physics lesson.

For the sake of enhancing this aim, the next research questions were created:

1. What is the impact of heuristic learning on the quality of physics education in the classroom?
2. Do students' self-composing tasks and self-assessments help them remember information well?

Research Focus

The heuristic method involves the following steps:

• Solving problems - solve the problem, identify the problem, and come to a suitable solution;
• Achieving a specific result that observed and accepted values and the observed result is real.
• Summarize the conclusion hypothesis, identify, and come to a specific decision.

Many countries have experienced difficulties in attracting and maintaining effective teachers, for instance, Australia and the United States as well as European and Latin American countries (e.g. Jugović et al., 2012; Lin et al., 2012; Richardson & Watt, 2006; Said-Hung et al., 2017; Watt et al., 2012). In order to improve teacher recruitment efforts, a better understanding of prospective teachers´ motivations and perceptions is needed. Watt and Richardson (2007; Richardson & Watt 2006) developed the FIT-Choice scale, an internationally acknowledged instrument that offers the opportunity to examine teaching motivations and perceptions about the teaching profession.

The scale was applied internationally, translated into several languages and adapted to various cultural contexts. The original English language FIT-Choice scale comprises 58 items that are rated on a 7-point Likert Scale. Measured motivation factors include “social influences”, “positive prior teaching and learning experiences”, “perceived teaching abilities”, “intrinsic career value”, “personal utility values” (“job security”, “time for family”, “job transferability”), “social utility values” (“shape future of children/adolescents”, “enhance social equity”, “make social contribution”, “work with children/adolescents”) and the negative motivation of having chosen teaching as a “fallback career”. Measured perceptions of the profession include perceived “task demand” (“expertise” and “difficulty”) and “task return” (“social status” and “salary”); also assessed are experiences of “social dissuasion” and “satisfaction” with the choice of teaching as a career (Watt & Richardson, 2012).

In cross-cultural studies, including samples from Australia, the United States, Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland (König et al., 2013; Watt et al., 2012), motivation factors were found to be more similar than different across countries. Perceptions about the teaching profession showed greater variety, as they tend to reflect objective country differences. However, variations in motivations appeared for individuals from countries with a more distinctive cultural context such as Turkey and Indonesia (Kılınç et al., 2012; Suryani et al., 2016). It is therefore assumed that cultural dimensions produce differences in teaching motivations and perceptions.

Hofstede (Hofstede et al., 2010) developed a model of national culture consisting of six dimensions (individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence) that can be used to distinguish countries from each other. Each dimension is expressed on a scale that runs from 0 to 100 (Hofstede et al., 2010). The dimension individualism is described as the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. Individualism means that a person’s self-image is defined in terms of “I” and that individual choices and decisions are expected. In collectivist societies, life is socially determined and a person’s self-image is defined in terms of “we” (Hofstede, 2011). According to Hofstede Insights Associate Partners (2021), individualism is highest in the United States and Australia. Countries such as Spain, Austria and Iran lie around the middle, and the lowest scores on the individualism dimension are found in Latin American countries.

The present study aims to bring together FIT-Choice findings from around the world and to investigate motivations for teaching and perceptions about the teaching profession in terms of cultural dimensions. The principal question guiding this research is: Are there differences between individualistic and collectivist countries in regard to motivation and perception factors of prospective teachers? It is hypothesised that prospective teachers from collectivist cultures rate the altruistic-type “social utility value” more highly. Also, the motivation factor “social influences” is assumed to be more important for prospective teachers from collectivist than individualistic settings since those living in collectivist societies are more influenced by their fellow citizens (Hofstede, 2011). However, the motivation factor “intrinsic career value” is assumed to be more dominant in individualistic countries, in which individual aims and interests are superior (Kılınç et al., 2012).

The initial years of teaching are a critical period for professional development and career pathways (Vos et al., 2017). For a considerable time, there has been a focus on studying the challenges faced by teachers when they first encounter the realities of the profession (Veenman, 1984; Almeida et al., 2018). This early stage of professional practice is characterized by a combination of survival and discovery (Huberman, 1989). Beginning a teaching career can bring about various positive experiences, opportunities for professional growth, and positive emotions, such as the development of classroom management skills (Voss et al., 2017), enjoyment (Aspfors & Bondas, 2013), positive relationships with students, and inspiring learning and teaching situations (Aspfors & Bondas, 2013).

The induction of new teachers is not only conceptualized as a phase of learning to teach but also as a process of socialization, where beginners acquire an understanding of the organization's norms, values, and objectives (Flores, 1999). It is during this process that they establish relationships through which they can access resources and receive support. Besides the interactions between formal mentors and new teachers, emerging evidence suggests that the social context in which teachers are situated, particularly within their schools, can significantly impact their induction into the profession (Nechsler et al., 2010). Mentoring programs play a crucial role in the development of novice teachers, as they are designed to assist them in navigating challenges within the classroom and the school environment (Roff, 2012). Through mentoring, beginning teachers benefit from support, collaboration, and the development of knowledge and skills, which ultimately leads to the improvement of their teaching strategies.

Teaching induction and mentoring are terms that have often been used interchangeably in research. Teacher induction encompasses a range of professional development activities, involving support from various personnel, participation in study groups, and receiving strong administrative support. On the other hand, the mentoring process offers a nurturing and supportive environment for a minimum duration of one year, particularly for those who require it the most. Previous research by Brannon et al. (2009) has highlighted that mentoring programs address crucial survival skills for new teachers, such as familiarizing them with school procedures, enhancing behavior management techniques, facilitating parent communication, and providing a foundation in basic curriculum. Through mentoring, novice teachers can adapt to their roles, cultivate a sense of belonging, and ultimately remain in the teaching profession.

Several countries have implemented induction programs with different approaches, including variations in mandatory versus optional participation, socialization versus professional development focus, informality versus formality, and emphasis on training versus evaluation The success of these programs seems to be influenced by factors such as institutional support, the quality of mentors, training focused on professional activity, self-training ability, collaborative work with peers, and school climate.

In Portugal, the support for new teachers lacks structure, and there are no regulations regarding the induction period. This results in a lack of structured support and guidance for novice teachers. Typically, school administrations assign teachers with more years of experience to support colleagues with less than five years of service who join the school. Additionally, research studies in this field are limited in the Portuguese context.

This study aims to understand the conceptions that experienced teachers have regarding their role in initiating novice educators into the profession. The research questions include: i) the goals of experienced teachers, ii) the strategies implemented to ensure successful induction of novice teachers, and iii) the challenges encountered along the way. The study will provide valuable insights into the induction process and contribute to the existing knowledge on this topic.

Regardless of the level of education, it is widely known that early career (EC) teachers are faced with challenges during their transition from their university education and training to their everyday teaching practice. When prospective and early career teachers are placed in real classrooms, they get “shocked”, which in turn forces them to try to “survive” in the new reality. They discover new things on a daily basis and act as if the information and knowledge they have gained during their university education and/or preservice training has “disappeared.” This is known as the “washing-out” phenomenon (Korthagen, 1988; Zeichner & Core, 1990).

Aiming at strengthening the transition from education to practice, in this study we investigated the current transition practices of teachers within the educational system in Cyprus, specifically seeking to investigate the need for supporting teachers to face the diverse and inclusive learning environment they face. Towards this, we investigated the challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of EC teachers in Cyprus during the transition from the academic environment to the real–classroom environment. Following a case study approach, we have adopted a multi-perspective approach, including prospective teachers with internship experiences, EC teachers, and teacher educators.

The teacher profession is a profession in that “the full pedagogical and legal responsibility is given as soon as the teacher enters the school with a formal qualification” (Tynjala & Heikkinen, 2011, p.12). Because of that, the main challenge teachers face is that they need to be proficient in a variety of teacher knowledge fields and skills from the first day of their career (Kealy, 2010). Having in mind these particularities of the profession, one would expect that the teacher education systems worldwide would have developed strategies to support EC teachers deal with these challenges. While some countries use e.g., mentoring systems, study groups, or extensive induction programs for EC teachers (Bickmore & Bickmore, 2010; Devos, 2010), there exist countries that do not acknowledge EC teacher's challenges, adding more burden to EC teachers by asking them to teach more hours and have more responsibilities on their first years of practice (Howe, 2006).

As a result, there is a strong debate between the scientific and educational communities about redesigning teacher education programs in order to support this transition. The main concern is the weight that theory and practice have on the university curriculum and the connection between the two (Roussakis & Botsoglou, 2003). On the one hand, one approach places more emphasis on pre-service teachers spending time in real classrooms with in-school trainings, whereas on the other hand, another approach expands professional in-service training to better prepare teachers for the “reality” of teaching (Wideen et al., 1998). Darling-Hammond (2000) suggests that the extent and quality of teacher education play an important role in teachers’ effectiveness.

The OECD states that teachers are central to the quality of the work done in schools, but to achieve this, it is important to ensure that motivated and competent individuals aspire to become teachers. To attract the best candidates to the profession, the same document is clear in stating that decent salaries alone are not sufficient (OECD, 2014). According to the document, salaries demonstrate society's respect and value for teachers, but it is also necessary to provide teachers with the conditions to become autonomous and competent professionals in building a quality school for all students. Consequently, the initial training of young teachers is crucial, but it is unthinkable to consider that this period is sufficient, given the diversity of contexts and students that a teacher encounters in their professional life.

The literature recognizes that it is essential to retain early-career teachers in the profession (Frederiksen, 2020). In fact, the first five years in a school pose multiple challenges for teachers starting out in the profession, and it is during this period that some opt for another profession, exacerbating the teacher shortage experienced in many countries. Accompanying younger teachers at school by an experienced colleague is a strategy that many school boards have adopted to overcome this real difficulty: retaining teachers in the education system.

However, it turns out that this is not the best solution because young teachers perceive it as dispersed and dependent on the teacher selected by the school management to accompany them (Flores, 2021). Induction programs are therefore a potential solution for providing support to novice teachers, but also for allowing teachers with more years of service to reflect on their practice, creating a learning community with positive consequences for the retention of new teachers in the school.

The first aim of this paper is to analyze a structured program for mentor teachers developed as part of a European project. A second objective is to assess changes in the perceptions of mentor teachers when they undergo this program. The research question is how the training of mentors according to a structured induction program translates into changes in the perceptions of mentor teachers about their role with young teachers.

The research problem of the study is undergraduate training and preparedness of social sciences teachers with a focus on philosophy. The main research objective is to analyze how future and beginning teachers of philosophy evaluate the benefits, content and sufficiency of their undergraduate training in the field of philosophy (as a partial social science discipline) in relation to their pedagogical practice. The paper is a partial output of the author's dissertation, where other objectives are to define key terms with regard to recently published professional theoretical and empirical studies from the Czech Republic and abroad. Furthermore, the aim is to map the form and content of undergraduate training at two types of faculties – education and philosophy, and to identify the variables that have an impact on the evaluation of the preparation. Additionally, undergraduate training is analysed from the point of view of developing desirable specific competencies. Last but not least, we synthesize recommendations to improve the training.

According to the OECD definition (2024), a teacher is a person whose profession involves imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes (i.e. competencies) to students that are specified in a formal curriculum. In the Czech environment, the teaching profession is defined legislatively by Act No. 563/2004 Coll., on Pedagogical staff. Unlike abroad, in the Czech Republic, the teaching profession cannot be considered a full profession because it still does not exhibit certain characteristics of a profession (e.g. the existence of a professional chamber, high social prestige and economic status, ...) (Gore & Morrison, 2001; Guerriero & Deligiannidi, 2017). Spilková et al. even describe Czech education policy as de-professionalising and de-qualifying, despite the fact that trends of increasing professionalisation of teaching can be observed worldwide (Spilková, 2016, 2023; Spilková & Štech, 2023).

Undergraduate training is understood as the first stage of the development of a teacher's professional career (Průcha, 2002) and is viewed as a process of developing professional competencies, which is in line with the document Competence Framework for Graduate Teachers (MŠMT, 2023). In the Czech Republic, future teachers are mainly prepared at pedagogical or philosophical faculties, and their (teachers of 2nd level of elementary school and grammar school) takes the form of a three-year Bachelor's degree and a two-year follow-up Master's degree. The goal of undergraduate training is to equip the graduate with pedagogical and professional knowledge and skills (European Commission, 2020), but going through a formal education process does not make a graduate a great teacher.

In this paper, we see student preparedness as a subjective perception or feeling. According to the authors Janišová & Strouhal (2023), being prepared for the teaching profession means being prepared for the change and variability that accompany teachers on a daily basis and can be viewed from different perspectives.

The research focuses both on students and their preparedness, but also on beginning philosophy teachers and their teaching. These are qualified teachers with a social sciences approbation with less than 3 years of experience teaching philosophy as a part of the school subject Basics of Social Sciences at grammar schools (Zhong, 2017; Chudý & Neumeister, 2014). Subject didactics of philosophy is only slowly developing in the Czech environment and foreign inspirations are very valuable (e.g. the competence-based approach by Tozzi or Tiedemann). Philosophy teaching in the Czech Republic takes place mostly in one year of studies at grammar schools and this issue is not a well-explored field in the world or in the Czech Republic, therefore we consider this study to be beneficial for both subject didactics of philosophy and subject didactics of social sciences, which is also not firmly anchored.

Teaching for creativity (TfC) is highlighted worldwide due to its crucial role in students’ learning motivation, creative performance, and academic achievement (Craft et al., 2008; Davies et al., 2013; Gajda et al., 2017). A line of research in the field of management has found that psychological capital (PsyCap) has a close relationship with individual creativity in many service settings (Huang & Luthans, 2015; Li & Wu, 2011; Rego et al., 2012; Sweetman et al., 2011). To date, few studies in education have explored whether and to what extent teachers’ PsyCap is related to their TfC behavior. To address the discussed research gaps, this study was designed to investigate the relationship between teachers’ PsyCap and their TfC behavior, by first examining the links between each of the four components of PsyCap—efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism—and teachers’ TfC, and then by analyzing the differences in these links between urban and rural teachers.

TfC emphasizes the development of creativity in students through their empowerment in the learning process. (Jeffrey & Craft, 2004; National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, 1999).

Luthans (2002) defines PsyCap as “positively oriented human resources strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement” (p. 59). From this perspective, Luthans, Avolio, et al. (2007) advanced four positive psychological resources as constituting PsyCap: efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience.

The relationship between efficacy and TfC can be addressed in three ways. Based on the previous literature, we postulated a positive relationship between efficacy and TfC.

Conceptual work backed by empirical evidence indicates that hopeful individuals are apt to welcome creativity. Zhou and George (2003) argued that creativity-related performance at work requires a willingness to explore despite the possibility of failure. From this literature, we anticipated a positive association between hope and TfC among teachers.

Resilience is the ability to adapt to changing contexts and life stressors, to bounce back from failure, uncertainty, and adversity, and even to move beyond resilience to achieve success (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Given that failures and challenges are inherent in creative tasks (Amabile, 1983) as well as the cultivation of student creativity (Bereczki & Kárpáti, 2018), feeling at ease in abnormal situations and persevering despite failure are prerequisites of creativity-related behavior. We postulated that the positive association between resilience and creativity found in this literature would be also applicable to TfC.

Optimism refers to an individual’s generalized positive expectancy for, and attributions of, success (Scheier et al., 2001). Empirical studies have also found that optimism can enhance flexible cognition, trigger intrinsic motivation, and promote creative thinking and creativity-related performance (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002; Sweetman et al., 2011). Based on the theory of optimism and the attendant empirical studies, we predicted that a positive association between optimism and TfC.

In China, due to community poverty, isolation, and distance from the centers of political, economic, and cultural life (Sargent & Hannum, 2005), rural teachers in under-resourced schools may exhibit different features of PsyCap and face distinct challenges in TfC. we predicted that the structural relationships between efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism to TfC are invariant across urban and rural teachers.

This research grew out of a change in pre-service teacher (PST) placement practice on one undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme in the Republic of Ireland because of changes made during the Covid-19 pandemic and as a response to Teaching Council policy and guidance documentation (2020a; 2020b, 2021) during that period. The Year 1 PST placement experience over the period from 2020-2022, moved from a video-recorded microteaching experience (Allen and Ryan, 1969; Arsal, 2014) teaching students from a local school in the University setting, followed by a primary school placement, to an online synchronous peer teaching placement experience (Teaching Online Programme 1 - TOP1).

Post-Covid, the programme academic team re-evaluated the placement experience. Team research had found that while the TOP “offered …[a chance to build] knowledge in a safe environment where risks could be taken … with technology that might not be attempted in the classroom” (Doyle et al., 2021, p.61), it was also the case that “some student-teachers … missed the real encounter with pupils in the classroom” (Doyle et al, 2021, p.58). Considering these findings and research published in response to online teaching during Covid-19 (Donlon et al., 2022; Giner-Gomis et al., 2023; White and McSharry, 2021), the team designed and implemented a re-imagined form of PST placement practice in Year 1 of the academic year 2022-2023. The research question for this qualitative study asks: What is the process that led beginning pre-service teachers to the moment of embodiment in becoming a teacher? It is concerned with the threshold moment in the becoming of a PST as experienced in this re-imagined placement experience and how this might inform PST placement practice internationally. We acknowledge that there are many different types of PST experiences across the globe, however, this research will transfer to the becoming of a teacher whatever the format (Newman, 2023).

The conceptual framework for this study comes from the concept of becoming as suggested in the work of Deleuze and Guattari (2003). They define becoming as “a threshold, a middle, when things accelerate” (p.25). We will argue that year one of ITE is such a threshold or middle. There is no beginning with becoming, only middles and muddles (St Pierre, 2013) as the PST already has images and ideas of who and what a teacher might be. However, becoming is a process in which any given multiplicity “changes nature as it expands its connections” (Deleuze & Guattari, 2003). Sellers (2013) clarifies that becoming involves a dynamic process, through/with/in which an assemblage (PST) is constantly changing through connections it is making. ITE offers a variety of spaces for the pre-service teacher to make and expand these connections both on site in the university, online and in the classroom.

The concept of becoming offers the concepts of multiplicity and difference which are significant in this framework. They will help interrogate how the pre-service teacher becomes something new through the inter and intra-connections of these concepts. This understanding undercuts the importance of identity and being and disrupts the thinking of a human as stable and rational, who experiences change but remains the same person. It also undercuts the search for an “identity” for the pre-service teacher and points rather to process, movement, expansion, and confluence. Stagoll (2010) suggests “one’s self must be conceived as a constantly changing assemblage of forces, an epiphenomenon arising from chance confluences of languages, organisms, societies, expectations, laws and so on” (p.27). This study will map how teacher placement works for the first-year pre-service teacher and how it acts as a threshold for the initial embodiment of their becoming as teachers.

Networks hold a meeting during ECER. All interested are welcome.

School actors, especially teachers and pupils, are faced with the challenge of meeting different demands associated with various functions that a school as an institution fulfills (Fend, 2006). This does not always work smoothly. Teachers have to deal with structural tensions and constantly make decisions, such as in which situations they are more likely to follow a subject logic or turn to the needs of the pupils (Helsper, 2021). Pupils must find a way to deal with the demands they are confronted with while they go through processes of identity development, learning and Bildung, in which peer milieus have an effect (Breidenstein & Jergus, 2008). Neither teachers nor pupils are determined how they will deal with such tensions. However, they have to make decisions and thereby have to deal with uncertainty, or, in Luhmann’s term, with double contingency (Vanderstraeten, 2002).

Uncertainty is a central feature of communication and interaction in the classroom. On the one hand, when teaching contents and skills, teachers cannot predict with certainty what consequences their actions will have for their pupils. On the other hand, dealing with topics and requirements that are new to them includes the potential for uncertainty for pupils and they must learn to deal with the freedom of choice they are given.

Research shows that teachers and pupils develop routines and habits that enable them to deal with uncertainty and contingency (Hinzke, 2018). Routines are characterised by the fact that no decisions have to be made. Instead, established solutions to problems are used, which is often based on implicit, habitualised knowledge (Kramer & Pallesen, 2019). At the same time, it is a requirement of the professionalism of teachers to constantly reflect on routines for their appropriateness. Routines are also evident in the classroom when a stable social practice is formed through repeated procedures and a more or less fixed organisational framework.

The Documentary Method is a research method allowing to analyse empirically this mixture of uncertainty on the one hand and routines and habitus on the other. This method is based on the Praxeological Sociology of Knowledge (Bohnsack, 2018) – a methodology that goes back to Karl Mannheim's Sociology of Knowledge but is also based on Harold Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus and theorems of System Theory of Niklas Luhmann. Against this background, the Documentary Method distinguishes between communicative and conjunctive knowledge. While the former can be explicated, e.g. by teachers, conjunctive knowledge cannot be explicated so easily. This knowledge is implicit, has partly sunk into the body and structures the thoughts and actions of school actors. The Documentary Method makes it possible to reconstruct implicit knowledge via the interpretation steps of formulating and reflecting interpretation (Bohnsack et al., 2010). In the context of school research, one of the questions of interest is which implicit knowledge underlies the perception of uncertainty and how school actors and prospective teachers deal with it.

The aim of the symposium is to present the Documentary Method and the Praxeological Sociology of Knowledge, as it has been increasingly developed for school research in recent years, especially in German-speaking countries (Hinzke et al., 2023), to a European audience, to demonstrate the opportunities and limitations of the method using exemplary research projects in the field of school research and to discuss connections to other (qualitative) research strategies used in Europe. To this end, a basic introduction to the methodology and method of the Documentary Method will be given before three current research projects demonstrate the results that the method can produce in the field of school research. The discussant opens a transnational conversation.

Dialogic teaching is more than talk; it embodies a unique dialogic approach to knowledge, learning, social relationships, and education (Alexander, 2020). In this line, Wegerif (2016) argues that educational theory should transcend the dictionary and epistemological level of dialogue analysis and expose the ontological status of the dialogue as a mutual transformation of the person and the world. Nevertheless, the reconstruction of dialogic teaching is still dominated by the analysis of classroom talks and interactions (Calcagni et al., 2023; Hennessy et al., 2021). The presented reconstruction of dialogic teaching exceeds the analysis of situationally separated and interactively explicit dialogues. The documentary reconstruction of teachers' praxeological knowledge (Bohnsack, 2017; Bohnsack et al., 2010; Krzychała, 2019) made visible the dialogical structure of pedagogical performance extending over a long-time process of teacher-student interaction. The dialogical structure arises primarily from the sociogenesis of the interplay of teaching and learning processes rather than the mere fact of conducting a discussion. The study included narratives (12 group discussions and 54 individual in-depth interviews) collected in an already completed research that addressed the implementation of the Wroclaw Tutoring Programme between 2008 and 2016 (Krzychała, 2020). Dialogical teaching was not the subject of the study, but in the reflecting interpretation of the interviews, the initially latent polyphonic structure of pedagogical activity became explicitly evident. Two categories of descriptions of tutor-tutee interactions can be distinguished in the data: (1) interactions in the short term, related to working on a specific problem or goal set by the student; (2) relationships developed in the long term, covering the entire school period. In all cases, as will be shown in the presentation, dialogicity is not readymade from the beginning, even when teachers and students are already talking and interacting. A germ form of dialogic teaching emerges when educators experience a tension between their own professional perspective and the revealing perspective of their tutees. The teachers remain aware of the separateness and insufficiency of these perspectives and create space for a new transformative experience: "The dialogic relation of holding two or more perspectives together in tension at the same time always opens up an unbounded space of potential perspectives" (Wegerif, 2007, p. 26). In the 2023/2024 school year, the results of this analysis are tested in a pilot study by two physics and mathematics teachers for designing and evaluating classes.

Alexander, R. (2020). The dialogic teaching companion. London: Routledge. Bohnsack, R. (2017). Praxeological sociology of knowledge and documentary method. In D. Kettler & V. Meja (eds.), The Anthem Companion to Karl Mannheim (199–220). Anthem Press. Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N., & Weller, W. (ed.) (2010). Qualitative analysis and documentary method in international educational research. Budrich. Calcagni, E., Ahmed, F., Trigo-Clapés, A. L., Kershner, R., & Hennessy, S. (2023). Developing dialogic classroom practices through supporting professional agency. Teaching and Teacher Education, 126, 104067. Hennessy, S., Kershner, R., Calcagni, E., & Ahmed, F. (2021). Supporting practitioner‐led inquiry into classroom dialogue with a research‐informed professional learning resource. Review of Education, 9(3), 85. Krzychała, S. (2019). Professional Praxis Community in a Dialogical Perspective: Towards the Application of Bakhtinian Categories in the Documentary Method. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, 20(1), Art. 17. Krzychała, S. (2020). Teacher Responses to New Pedagogical Practices: A Praxeological Model for the Study of Teacher-Driven School Development. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 979-1013. Wegerif, R. (2007). Dialogic Education and Technology: Expanding the Space of Learning. Springer. Wegerif, R. (2016). Dialogic Education. In R. Wegerif (ed.), Oxford research encyclopedias. Oxford University Press.

As Luhmann (2002, p. 149 [transl. KP]) points out, pedagogical practice contours as an unspecific "mediating role" which centers around an intended transformation through learning – "from uneducated to educated". Against the background of a lack of direct intervention, this takes place under conditions of uncertainty. In consequence, the knowledge of the professions consists less in rules than in the availability of a sufficiently large number of complex routines (ibid.). It is precisely that underdetermination which characterises professional practice and which creates the space for appropriate actions with a view to the pupils’ (learning) needs. Herein the interaction system of teaching gains its complexity. As Bohnsack (2020, p. 38 [transl. KP]) exposes, this interactive practice is contoured in difference to its environment with its norms. On the other hand, however, these norms are brought back into the interactive system – as an "orientation framework in the broader sense". While the handling of the tension between norm and interactive practice, between propositional logic and performative logic, is a characteristic of every situation, this is exacerbated in areas with the claim of professionalised pedagogical action, since here – in addition to the general norms and expectations – the programs codified by school as well as the identity and role expectations processed therein must also be dealt with (ibid., p. 39). Further intensification arises when teaching practices are organised in the co-presence of two or more professionals. For this case, Bohnsack (2020, p. 21 [transl. KP]) highlights the challenge that "in cooperation in the area of professional acting with its compulsion to decide, there can ultimately only be one joint practice that routinely 'enforces' junctions". The present contribution uses the empirical data collected within the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) supported project "Primary Schools Caught between Inclusion and Educational Standards” (“Primarschulen im Spannungsfeld von Inklusion und Bildungsstandards”) (2020-2024) to analyse how this (cooperative) practice takes shape. Based on classroom video recordings, which are being analysed as part of a dissertation project (Papke, 2021) and using the Documentary Method (Bohnsack, Pfaff & Weller, 2010; Sturm, Wagener & Wagner-Willi, 2024), the aim is to examine how (regular) teachers, special needs teachers and social pedagogues jointly deal with the above-mentioned tension in situ. This will be pursued against the background of the programs of educational standardisation and inclusion/integration implemented in the area of Northwestern Switzerland (Köpfer, Wagner-Willi & Papke, 2021; Papke & Wagner-Willi, 2024).

Bohnsack, R. (2020). Professionalisierung in praxeologischer Perspektive. Zur Eigenlogik der Praxis in Lehramt, Sozialer Arbeit und Frühpädagogik. UTB. Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N., & Weller, W. (eds.) (2010). Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Research. Budrich. Köpfer, A., Wagner-Willi, M., & Papke, K. (2021). Dokumentarische Methode und inklusive Schulentwicklung. In E. Zala-Mezö, J. Häbig & N. Bremm (eds.), Die Dokumentarische Methode in der Schulentwicklungsforschung (p. 77-96). Waxmann. Luhmann, N. (2002). Das Erziehungssystem der Gesellschaft. Suhrkamp. Papke, K. (2021). ‚Organisierte Inklusion?‘ Description of the dissertation project. Available under https://bildungswissenschaften.unibas.ch/de/phd/doktorierende/katharina-papke/ Papke, K., & Wagner-Willi, M. (2024). Professionalisierte Unterrichtsmilieus. Zur Herstellung und Bearbeitung einer konstituierenden Rahmung in unterrichtlichen Kooperationen. In R. Bohnsack, T. Sturm & B. Wagener (eds.), Konstituierende Rahmung und professionelle Praxis. Pädagogische Organisationen und darüber hinaus (p. 135-162). Budrich. Sturm, T., Wagener, B., & Wagner-Willi, M. (2024). Inclusion and Exclusion in Classroom Practices: Empirical Analyses of Conjunctive Spaces of Experience in Secondary Schools. In G. Rissler, A. Köpfer & T. Buchner (eds.), Space, education, and inclusion. Interdisciplinary approaches (p. 142-160). Routledge, Taylor & Francis.

Teachers in Europe are faced with a variety of tasks: migration and flight of refugees, multilingualism, digitalisation and education for sustainable development are some of the current challenges that require a change in teaching. One condition for being able to tackle the new and the uncertain in a productive way is the development of an inquiring attitude among teachers. Inquiry-based learning is a didactic concept that is increasingly being implemented in university teacher training programmes in Germany and internationally (Pedaste et al., 2015). At its core, it is about "learners (co-)designing, experiencing and reflecting on the process of a research project [...] in its essential phases" (Huber, 2009, p. 11 [transl. JHH]). Various goals are associated with inquiry-based learning, including the development of an inquiring attitude. Such an attitude can be summarised as a critical questioning stance, which represents a disposition that must be acquired and is effective in the long term (Huber & Reinmann, 2019). There are connections to the structural theory of professionalism, in which an inquiring attitude is associated with a scientifically reflective habitus. Such a habitus is part of the professional habitus and refers to the systematic acquisition of knowledge and reflection on professional practice (Helsper, 2008). Previous research produced ambivalent findings. Several studies indicate that some student teachers show aspects of an inquiring attitude, others not (e.g. Feindt, 2007; Artmann, 2020; Paseka et al., 2023; internationally Smith, 2005; Han et al., 2017). However, there is a lack of studies analysing the development of an inquiring attitude in a longitudinal way by comparing different university locations. Such studies would provide a better understanding of the conditions under which an inquiring attitude develops. Against this background, the results of a study will be presented that examines the extent to which an inquiring attitude develops throughout inquiry-based learning courses. The study is based on the ReLieF study, funded by the German Research Foundation, in which 15 group discussions were conducted at the universities of Hamburg and Bielefeld at two points in time. The results, generated by using the Documentary Method (Bohnsack et al., 2010), revealed three orientations at the beginning of the courses and two orientations at the end of the courses in terms of how the student groups negotiate research and inquiry-based learning. The types exhibit different relationships to an inquiring attitude, which can be defined in more detail by, among others, forms of reflection.

Artmann, M. (2020). Forschen lernen im Forschenden Lernen. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung, 15(2), 69-88. Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N. & Weller, W. (eds.) (2010). Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Research. Budrich. Feindt, A. (2007). Studentische Forschung im Lehramtsstudium. Budrich. Han, S., Blank, J. & Berson, I. R. (2017). To Transform or to Reproduce: Critical Examination of Teacher Inquiry within Early Childhood Teacher Preparation. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(4), 304-321. Helsper, W. (2008). Ungewissheit und pädagogische Professionalität. In Bielefelder Arbeitsgruppe 8 (eds.), Soziale Arbeit in Gesellschaft (p. 162-168). VS. Huber, L. (2009). Warum Forschendes Lernen nötig und möglich ist. In L. Huber, J. Hellmer & F. Schneider (eds.), Forschendes Lernen im Studium (p. 9-35). UVW. Huber, L. & Reinmann, G. (2019). Vom forschungsnahen zum forschenden Lernen an Hochschulen. Springer VS. Paseka, A., Hinzke, J.-H. & Boldt, V.-P. (2023). Learning through Perplexities in Inquiry-Based Learning Settings in Teacher Education. Teachers and Teaching. Pedaste, M. et al. (2015). Phases of inquiry-based learning: Definitions and the inquiry cycle. Educational Research Review, 14, 47-61. Smith, M. S. (2005). Helping Preservice Teachers Develop Habits of Inquiry: Can It Be Done? Reading Research and Instruction, 45(1), 39-68.

In recent decades, internationalization has become considerably more important for universities in general and for teacher education in particular. In Europe, bilingual and multilingual regions, the integration of labor markets and the increasing mobility of citizens require the inclusion of an international perspective at different levels in education systems. For students, the Erasmus program has served as a hub for international exchanges among higher education students across Europe since 1987. From 1995 to 2020, the Comenius program supported student, student teacher and teacher exchange. Since 2021, Erasmus+ has merged both program lines, providing future teachers the opportunity to study at international universities. The EU’s (2018) study on the effects of exchange programs highlighted that, at the student level, positive changes occur in terms of their personal development, social engagement, professional perspectives and intercultural openness. However, no explicit remarks are made on student teachers. The overviews by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD 2020), also do not separately list the student teacher cohort. Thus, our understanding of this cohort is limited.

Beyond these physical mobility programs, concepts of "internationalization@home" hold potential to make international experiences accessible to those students whose financial and/or time constraints, or other life circumstances, hinder them from pursuing study-related stays abroad – without intending to replace them. This describes a perspective on internationalization that goes back to the Swedish scientist Bengt Nilsson and considers, among other things, the implementation of an international university campus with corresponding language-related offers, the internationalization of curricula and of courses (e.g., digitally enabled joint courses) (cf. ibid., 1999). Nilsson hoped that this form of internationalization would promote transnational, or cultural, sensitivity and competence. Internationalization at Home can foster broader discourse about target dimensions and associated prerequisites for the internationalization of higher education institutions, moving beyond the administrative level (Nilsson, 1999). However, research on the potential of such ideas for the professionalization of teachers is still rare.

Accordingly, the symposium will cover a wide range of topics relating to internationalisation and mobility in teacher training. Firstly, the level of education policy and the practices of recognising qualifications and certificates for the international mobility of teachers will be presented. Against the background of three teacher education systems in Canada, Iceland and Germany, challenges and conditions for success are presented. This is followed by considerations on partnerships between universities for the exchange of students: What conditions must be met to enable an exchange between students?

The organisation of exchanges between international and culturally diverse partners in higher education in South Africa and Germany will be examined as an example. The organisation of an international exchange is associated with the expectation that students will not only benefit personally, but also acquire specific skills that are essential for their future careers. The last two contributions will therefore focus on student perspectives. Contribution three presents the initial results of a longitudinal study on exchange programmes in Bachelor's degree courses, looking at motives and hurdles for studying abroad and on how students can be addressed effectively.

The last contribution describes a trilateral approach on internationalisation of teacher education based on an exchange and research program. This program offers bi- and trilateral exchanges for students in Germany, North Carolina an Ghana, which will be highlighted in specific case studies and discussed against a common developed research framework.

In conclusion, the symposium aims to present and critically discuss key aspects of internationalisation in teacher training.

The internationalisation of teacher education has been increasingly investigated within the context of internationalisation of higher education and in connection with the preparation of teachers for global awareness and global citizenship education, including the challenges of the strong framing of teacher education by the requirements of national school systems (e.g. Koh et al. 2022). Another relevant strand in the research into the teaching profession is dedicated to international teacher migration and the diversification of the teacher workforce, encompassing the recruitment of migrant teachers (Caravatti et al., 2024; Terhart & Rosen, 2022). These developments are also closely associated with the expectation of enhancing teachers’ competencies in addressing the needs of culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse pupils (Marom et al., 2021). However, the discourses on the internationalization of teacher education and international teacher migration seem hardly interconnected in research so far, even though there are common issues and challenges related to differences in the structures and content of teacher education, recognition of academic achievements earned abroad, languages of instruction, and the development of teacher professionalism and identity (Rakhkochkine & Flötotto, 2020; Rakhkochkine, 2024, in prep). The presentation addresses the question of how the internationalization of teacher education influences the policies and practices of recertification of internationally trained teachers (ITTs). The authors answer this question from a comparative perspective. They explore the policies and practices concerning ITTs in Canada, Germany, and Iceland, and examine their connections to the national and international discourses on internationalisation of teacher education. The presentation is based on the analysis of research and policy documents related to the recertification of internationally trained teachers and internationalisation of teacher education in the respective countries and on the (secondary) analysis of qualitative interviews from author’s research projects. Through this examination, the authors contribute to the development of a more comprehensive theoretical framework for measuring the effects of internationalization programs including long-standing effects on the notion of the teaching profession.

Caravatti, M.-L., McLeod Lederer, S., Lupico, A., & Van Meter, N. (2014). Getting teacher migration and mobility right. Education International. https://www.eiie.org/en/item/25652:getting-teacher-migration-and-mobility-right Koh, A. Karen Pashby, K. Tarc, P. & Yemini, M. (2022). Editorial: Internationalisation in teacher education: discourses, policies, practices. Teachers and Teaching, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2022.2119381 Marom, L., Locher-Lo, C., Martin-Ko, A., Shank Lauwo, M., Sun, Z., & Yaro, K. (2021). Conclusion: Teaching and teacher education in an era of superdiversity: Challenges and opportunities. In G. Li, J. Anderson, J. Hare, & M. McTavish (eds.), Superdiversity and teacher education: Supporting teachers in working with culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse students, families, and communities (1st ed., pp. 299–316). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003038887 Rakhkochkine, A. & Flötotto, M. (2020). International Conference „Internationalisierung der Lehrerbildung und internationale Lehrermigration/ Internationalisation of Teacher Education and International Teacher Migration“. https://www.interedu.phil.fau.eu/2020/05/08/international-teacher-education-and-migration/ Rakhkochkine, A. (2024). Internationalisation of Teacher Education and International Teacher Migration from the Perspective of Comparative Education. In. Rakhkochkine, A., & Flötotto, M. (eds.). (in prep.). Internationalisierung der Lehrerbildung und internationale Lehrermigration. FAU University Press. Terhart, H., & Rosen, L. (2022). Editorial: The diversification of the teaching profession in Europe and beyond. Ambivalences of recognition in the context of (forced) migration. European Educational Research Journal, 1–12.

Against the backdrop of worldwide social, political and economic transformations internationalization represents a substantial requirement in higher education according to Maassen et al. (2023). This is particularly important in teacher education where such processes can provide global competencies and agency which can broaden the notions of being a global citizen in an age of uncertainty. To integrate an international perspective in the structures of (initial) teacher education in a meaningful, inclusive and sustainable way, resilient collaborative partnerships are required. In this presentation we highlight lessons learnt from a collaborative process between two institutions within the context of global north and global south. Such partnerships are important and successful if they are based on corresponding cultures, understandings and goals (Meyer et al 2007, Coombe 2015). However, there is a paucity of research dealing with the advancement and achieving of this kind of partnership process. We address the question of how a collaborative interaction, embedded in the context of an international inter-institutional partnership was developed. We employed collaborative auto-ethnography (Campbell 2016) as research method and methodology to document and understand our personal experiences and used complexity theory (Clarke & Collins 2007) to interpret the data. Key findings indicate that partnership development operates as a complex system that needs time and complex interactions to produce meaningful and successful partnerships.

Campbell, E. (2016): Exploring autoethnography as a method and methodology in legal education research. Asian Journal of Legal Education, 3(1), 95-105. Clarke, A./ Collins, S. (2007): Complexity science and student teacher supervision. Teaching and Teacher Euducation, 23 (2), 16-172. Clarke, A./ Collins, S. (2007): Complexity science and student teacher supervision. Teaching and Teacher Euducation, 23 (2), 16-172. Coombe, L. (2015): Models of interuniversity collaboration in higher education - How do their features act as barrieres and enablers to sustainability? Tertiary Education and Management, 21 (4): 328-348, DOI: 10.1080/13583883.2015.1104379. Maassen, P./ Jungblut, J./ Stensaker, B./ Griffith R./ Rosso, A. (2023): Navigation competition and collaboration - The way forward for universities [online] https://koerber-stiftung.de/site/assets/files/28887/navigating_competition_and_collaboration_complete_study_maassen_et_al__2023_web.pdf [11.10.23] Meyer, J. W./ Ramirez, F. O./ Frank, D. J. & Schofer, E. (2007): Higher Education as an Institution, In: Gumport, P. J. (Ed.): Sociology of Higher Education. Contributions and their Contexts. Baltimore, 187-222.

Tricontinental Teacher Training (TTT) is an exchange and research program at the faculty of education, Universität Hamburg, funded for five years by the DAAD. Structure: TTT offers bi-& trilateral exchanges for students from three partnering universities in Germany, North Carolina (USA), and Ghana, and entails intensive coursework. The exchange program is framed with preparatory seminars at the participating universities and an integrated buddy program in which all participating students are involved. In Germany a continuing seminar and a reflection seminar follow after the first part of exchange. The other partners developed different post sojourn concepts. After the prep seminar (winter semester 1) 10 students travel for mentored and supervised internships to Ghana and 10 to North Carolina, combined with reflection seminars at the University of Education, Winneba respectively at the University of North Carolina. During the German continuation seminar (summer semester) a study camp with all involved students takes place at the UHH, again consisting of internships and reflection seminars. Excursions at all three locations with different topics like commemoration complement the exchanges. For the German students the program ends in the following winter semester 2 with a research workshop. Content: The students navigate new cultural spaces and education systems and thus deal with uncertainty and alienation. To prepare for and reflect on these experiences and their awareness two main content dimensions were developed: • uncertainty as a dimension of pedagogical action based on the sociology of knowledge approach and • post- and neo colonialism and transcultural sensitivity These approaches are introduced in the preparatory seminar. Oriented on the research method of autoethnography personal experiences during the exchange reflection takes place based on these main content dimensions too. Research: The main research perspective focusses the impact of a trilateral internationalization project for the participants. We collect qualitative data in pre-, continuation- and post-interviews as well as reflective journals. By using reconstructive methods and analysis, we ask about their learning outcome, the personal means for the participants and their suggestions of the impact for their future careers as educators.

Andreas Bonnet, Uwe Hericks (2019). Professionalität und Professionalisierung als biographische Bearbeitung der Spannungen zwischen Norm und Habitus. In: Kramer, Rolf-Thorsten & Pallesen, Hilke (Hrsg.). Lehrerhabitus. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 101-126. Chwialkowska, Agnieszka (2020). Maximizing Cross-Cultural Learning From Exchange Study Abroad Programs: Transformative Learning Theory. In: Journal of Studies in International Education, 102831532090616. DOI: 10.1177/1028315320906163. Evers, Henrike (2016). Bildung durch interkulturelle Begegnung. Eine empirische Studie zum Kontakt von Austauschstudierenden mit deutschen Familien. Bremen: Springer VS. Wilken, Anja & Bonnet, Andreas (2022). Transformative Learning and Professionalization through Uncertainty? A Case Study of Pre-Service Language Teachers During a STIE. In: G. Barkhuizen (Ed.). Language Teachers Studing Abroad: Identities, Emotions and Diruptions. Multilingual Matters (PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING: 17). Yilmaz, Sezen Merve & Iwers, Telse (2021). Entwicklung eines reflexionsorientierten Umgangs mit heterogenitätsbedingter Ungewissheit. Zeitschrift: Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO). 52 (4). S. 659-669. DOI: 10.1007/s11612-021-00597-3

National governments and international organizations have made expanding access to well-prepared, effective teachers a central focus in national educational reforms (Akiba 2013). The U.N Sustainable Development Goal #4 makes providing students with access to highly-trained, professional teachers a global priority. Teacher education is now often scrutinized by national policy makers who often look to other nations for models that can be replicated e.g. (Sahlberg 2011). Yet, in the end, such policy borrowing often fails to achieve the goal of profound change in teacher education. Reform efforts are typically stymied by deeply institutionalized national differences in national public school organization, university structure, or cultures of instructional practice (Baker and LeTendre 2005; Tahirsylaj, Brezicha et al. 2015) In addition, the politicized nature of teacher educational reform (Tatto and Menter 2019), and the complex forces that affect teacher education policy debates (Wang, Odell et al. 2010; Earley, Imig et al. 2011) often means that the reforms must be sufficiently robust to survive contentious and rapidly changing political environments.

In this session scholars from Norway, Sweden and Hungary will present papers that document changes in teacher education in that originated from collaboration with the iSTEP (Inquiry into the Stanford Teacher Education Program) Institute. They will show how the iSTEP Institute served as a reform catalyst that embedded and transformed key institutional components (universities, classrooms and school governance) of teacher education in each nation. The analysis from these three nations provides a new approach to transforming educational institutions in order to reform and improve teacher education. Each of the three national case studies demonstrates the diversity of national educational environments in which the iSTEP Institute network has spread. They show how local actors used the network to transform heterogenous sets of institutions and allowed the core principles to be effectively instantiated in teacher preparation and professional development. Within each national case study, the authors address key points regarding the restructuring of teacher education, the influence of national political contexts around teacher reform, and the unintended issues that arose in adapting the program.

In addition to the three national case studies, one paper will provide background on how the iSTEP Institute was designed. This includes a foundation of key principles of powerful and effective teacher preparation developed over several decades by scholars such as Darling-Hammond (Darling-Hammond 1997; Darling-Hammond 2012; Shulman 1986) and others (Ladson-Billings 1995; Oakes, Lipton et al. 2018). During meetings and workshops of the iSTEP Institute participants explored the knowledge base of effective teacher preparation in their nations, including the key design features, while simultaneously utilizing the in-situ practices of the Stanford Teacher Education Participants were encouraged to consider the application of the fundamental theory- and research-based propositions to their own local, regional, and national contexts. For the teams from Norway, Sweden and Hungary, this inquiry and collaborative reflection resulted in the development of a set of norms and processes for transforming teacher preparation in their home institutions. They identified organizational linkages in anticipation of the need for local accommodations, while preserving core processes of change based on a shared value orientation around educational equity. This unique functioning of the iSTEP Institute stimulated us to refine the theory of a reform catalyst. Theory-driven transformation in teacher education is not new (see McLaughlin and Mitra 2001) but a true catalysts imbeds and transforms. Rather than requiring fidelity to the diffusing innovation (see (Rogers 1995), the network supports ongoing research that allows the innovation to evolve and to produce the kinds of visible improvements so critical to engaging teachers in change efforts (Hattie 2012).

This paper locates the iSTEP institute within the broad literature on global educational reform (e.g., Baker & LeTendre, 2005; (Darling-Hammond 2010) and teacher education (Tatto and Menter 2019). The transnational diffusion of the of the iSTEP Institute follows a collaborative, “grass-root” pattern, and the success of this diffusion suggests that efforts to reform teacher education need to be centered on key principles that are identified by both research and practice and are then elevated to a central theoretical status, leaving room for practical variation based on local conditions, national policies, and other contextual factors. We document that engagement of local practitioners as active researchers is critical to successful change efforts. As Kim, 2019 wrote: “In many ways, however, the ubiquitous challenge of bridging the divide between a controlled efficacy trial and a real-world effectiveness trial compels scholars to rethink the role of practitioners in experimental research.” However, this alone is not a sufficient condition for diffusion. The explicit focus on equitable access to learning for all students provides a unifying vision as well as a central metric to assess implementation success. The genesis of the iSTEP Institute and its founding principles focused participants on key pedagogical choices and decisions which they then applied to their own national context. Members began to connect with teacher educators around the world, and the evolution of a loose network of participant collaborators further opened up insights about how to adapt and apply the principles in differing national contexts. This ongoing, trans-national interaction sparked the realization that there is, in fact, a foundational set of principles of powerful teacher education (PTE) that draw from a substantial (yet evolving) body of research that can be applied globally. But that the instantiation of the core principles in practice requires a set of processes in order to adapt material and address differences in culture and the organization of schools as well as professional learning in different local and national contexts. This paper distinguishes between principles, processes, and practices and the relevance and influence of context, providing examples of how the broader project dealt with conflict or concerns about changes wrought by local adaptation.

Baker, D. and G. LeTendre (2005). National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling. Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press. Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The Flat World and Education. New York, Teachers College Press. Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers. New York, Routledge. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy." American Educational Research Journal September. Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish Lessons. New York, Teachers College. Shulman, L. (1986). "Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching." Educational Researcher February 4-14. Tahirsylaj, A., et al. (2015). Unpacking Teacher Differences in Didaktik and Curriculum Traditions: Trends from TIMSS 2003, 2007, and 2011. Promoting and Sustaining a Quality Teacher Workforce. G. LeTendre and A. Wiseman. New York, Emeral: 147-195. Tatto, M. and I. Menter, Eds. (2019). Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Teacher Education. New York, Bloomsbury Academic. Wang, J., et al. (2010). "Understanding Teacher Education Reform." Journal of Teacher Education 61: 395-402.

Several national evaluations have pointed to severe challenges in Norwegian teacher education, particularly regarding fragmentation and disconnect to practice (Norgesnettrådet 2002, Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education [NOKUT] 2006, Lid 2013, Finne, Mordal et al. 2014, Advisory Panel for Teacher Education [APT] 2020). To meet these concerns, in addition to the restructuring reforms referred above, during the last years, several reforms have been implemented in Norwegian teacher education. At present, there are four main pathways to become a teacher in Norway. All pathways have a designated national curriculum, but common for all Norwegian teacher education is the emphasis on programs that are “integrated and relevant for the profession, and research- and practice-based” (i.e., national curriculum for 5-year integrated secondary master’s program (KD 2013). In this paper, we will focus on the University of Oslo which provides two of the national pathways to teaching in Norway, the 5-year integrated lower and upper secondary master’s program, as well as the one-year add-on program. In the time leading up to the reform, the programs at the University of Oslo met substantial critique from its candidates, echoing national and international critique on teacher education, and arguing it was too fragmented and disconnected to the profession. The critique was uttered in internal seminars and evaluations, but culminated in 2010, with several pamphlets in public university newspapers. Faculty at the teacher education program at the University of Oslo had been considering reforming the program, and a visit to iSTEP in 2010 provided the catalyst needed to begin the reform work. In the years leading up to reform, and through the reform implementation, faculty worked to redesign their overall program and its constituent parts. This included developing an international comparative research project looking at coherence and linkage to practice in teacher education. The group who attended iSTEP included faculty from pedagogy and subject didactics, teacher candidates, and school partners who jointly developed a pilot model for teacher education which was implemented in the fall of 2012. This process also served as a starting point for professionalizing teacher education. As a result of the iSTEP process, faculty developed the CATE study (Coherence and Assignments in Teacher Education) which was funded by the Norwegian Research Council in 2012-2017 and investigated eight teacher education programs around the world.

Advisory Panel for Teacher Education [APT] (2020). Transforming Norwegian Teacher Education: The Final Report for the International Advisory Panel for Primary and Lower Secondary Teacher Education, NOKUT. Finne, H., et al. (2014). Oppfatninger av studiekvalitet i lærerutdanningene 2013 [Perceived study quality in teacher education 2013]. Trondheim, Norway, SINTEF. KD (2013). Forskrift om rammeplan for PPU for trinn 8-13. Norgesnettrådet (2002). Evaluering av allmennlærerutdanningen ved fem norske institusjoner. Rapport fra ekstern komité. Norgesnettrådets rapporter. Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education [NOKUT] (2006). "Evaluering av allmennlærerutdanningen i Norge 2006. Del 1: Hovedrapport [Evaluation of general teacher education in Norway 2006. Part 1: Main report]." from http://www.nokut.no/Documents/NOKUT/Artikkelbibliotek/Norsk_utdanning/Evaluering/alueva/ALUEVA_Hovedrapport.pdf.

The reform context in Hungary was affected by the Hungarian government movement to reduce the number of early school leavers to less than 10 percent by 2020. The University of Miskolc took part in the Project EFOP-3.1.2-16-2016-00001, entitled “Methodological renewal of public education to reduce early school leaving” project that supported the measures to reduce early school leaving. This project focused on renewing the content of teacher training and in-service training to facilitate a change in pedagogical approach. Within this project, researchers focused on “methodological training of teachers to prevent early school leaving without qualification.” One major professional development aspect was Complex Instruction (CI). Complex Instruction sought to implement the specific professional content of interventions according to the needs of institutions. Complex Instruction supports the prevention of school leaving via a rich set of professional tools and services. Complex Instruction helped to improve the organizational culture of schools and, on the other hand, to increase the student retention capacity of schools by expanding the methodological repertoire of teachers. This led to the initial connection with the iSTEP program. Hungary provides an example of how the iSTEP Institute worked as a catalyst in a country characterized by a fractious political environment and contentious debates about university curriculum. It provided commitment to embedding the principles into a program context. The iSTEP Institute provided a new focus on practice-based teacher education that served as a catalyst for advancing practice-based teacher education throughout Hungary. Despite the challenging socio-political context, the focus on equity -- derived from the foundational Complex Instruction Program -- was retained. Faculty began working to establish strong relationships with schools – a novelty in the Hungarian context and indicative of the power of the network to transform existing institutional arrangements. The Institute also served to elevate a norm for high-quality PD for teacher mentors and strengthen coherence between the university curriculum and teaching practices in schools.

Project EFOP-3.1.2-16-2016-00001

In Sweden, university-based teacher education programs have been the dominant path to teaching since the late 1970s. In 1977, a period of higher education reform transferred teacher education from teacher education colleges to higher education institutions (Furuhagen et al., 2019). In January 2020, teacher education programs were offered by 27 out of a total of approximately 50 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Sweden. The majority of HEIs are public authorities. There have been frequent teacher education reforms in Sweden—program structure and curriculum were reformed in 1988, 2001, and 2011 (Åstrand, 2017). The reforms are founded on different ideas on “the contents and aims of teacher education” (Furuhagen et al., 2019, p. 795). The 2001 reform was based on an ideal of a general teacher while the 2011 reform resulted in separate programs and degrees for class (grades 1-3 or 4-6) and subject teachers (grades 7-9 and upper-secondary schools). Sweden faces a shortage of certified teachers and there is a demand for alternative routes to teacher certification. Within this reform context, the University of Gothenburg began by establishing an innovative teacher education program with the neighboring municipality, the City of Gothenburg. A key element of success was the establishment of a joint commitment to integrating the work of schools and the university. Representatives from municipal government became involved in facilitating connections between the university and schools where teacher education candidates were placed. The partners evinced a depth of commitment to subject matter pedagogy and to the continued evolution of teacher education policy and reform in Sweden. In reflection, iSTEP catalyzed a promotion of the principles of powerful teacher education and helped to integrate these into policies and practices in the Swedish context. The collaborative project documented in this chapter was designed to build a teacher education program guided by the core principles of a program vision, coherence and opportunities to enact practice. It is our understanding that these principles, as elaborated by Klette and Hammerness (2016), mainly refers to conceptual coherence as defined by Hammerness (2006). A basic assumption in our work is that collaborative institutional arrangements—structural coherence—facilitate conceptual coherence, i.e. support the establishment of a program in which faculty, teachers and principals have a common understanding of good teaching and learning and where students’ opportunities to enact practice are strong and lively.

Åstrand, B. (2017). Swedish teacher education and the issue of fragmentation: Conditions for the struggle over academic rigour and professional relevance. In Hudson, B. (Ed.), Overcoming fragmentation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice (pp. 101-152). Cambridge University Press. Furuhagen, B., Holmén, J. & Säntti, J. (2019). The Ideal Teacher: Orientations of Teacher Education in Sweden and Finland after the Second World War. History of Education, 48(6), 784–805. Klette, K. & Hammerness, K. (2016). Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Qualities in Teacher Education: Looking at Features of Teacher Education from an International Perspective. Acta Didactica Norge, 10(2), 26–52 Hammerness, K. (2006). From Coherence in Theory to Coherence in Practice. Teachers College Record, 108(7), 1241–1265.

Abstract:

At the core of establishing a European Education Area by 2025, lies the need to improve social cohesion and, “experience European identity in all its diversity” (European Commission, 2017, p. 2). To this end, “giving more support to teachers'' becomes a central objective of the European Education Area (ibid, p. 11), as well as ensuring that “Member States take action to support the teacher educator profession” (European Commission, 2013, p. 6) in recognition of their central role in every stage of the teacher’s career. These quotes from key European policy documents underscore the growing awareness at policy levels of teacher education’s crucial role in developing more equitable education systems. This aligns with recent research that emphasises the potential impact of teacher educators in reducing inequalities and leading transformative change (a.o. Forlin, 2010; Ponet et al., 2023). However, caution is warranted, as research identifies a lack of competences among teacher educators in teaching for equity and diversity (Florian & Camedda, 2020), and perceptions that diversity issues are something beyond their professional expertise, and therefore, professional responsibility (Beaton et al., 2021). Many countries also grapple with a demographic and cultural mismatch between teacher candidates and students in schools (Ladson-Billings, 2005), and insufficient attention to “systemic policies that reproduce inequity in the first place” (Cochran-Smith & Stringer Keefe, 2022, p. 9). This session connects with these observations by mapping and evaluating the current state in four European countries (Germany, Flanders, the Netherlands, Portugal) across two key areas: (1) policies and practices in initial teacher education for teaching pre-service teachers to teach for equity and diversity; and (2) policies and practices for upskilling teacher educators’ equity and diversity competencies.

The four papers are connected by a cohesive methodological framework, derived from a large-scale EU-funded project. In every country, the policy web around teacher education for diversity was mapped by reviewing and interpreting official documents and policy statements on the national (macro) and institutional (meso) levels. In a second stage, this document analysis was enriched with understandings of what happens ‘on the ground’ (micro-level) via focus group interviews with a sample of programme leaders and pre-service teachers in each country. This systematic and multi-level approach allows for qualitative comparison across countries, hence delivering a unique understanding of cross-national strengths, gaps, and priorities in teacher education for diversity.

Objectives:

This session aims to map and evaluate the extent to which existing teacher education policies and practices in four European countries address issues of equity and diversity. Specifically, we target three objectives:

1. deliver a rich account of provision for pre-service teachers and teacher educators in the participating countries, with a primary focus on the national (macro) and institutional (meso) levels;

2. identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps in existing provision in each country;

3. define key priorities for the professional development of teacher educators on the European level.

Session Overview:

The Chair (10 min) starts by contextualising the objectives of the session, and describing the research approach that guided data gathering and analysis across participating countries.

Then, presenters from the four countries will deliver focused 10-minute presentations each, offering headline findings related to equity and diversity provision for teacher educators and pre-service teachers. These presentations will include a critical analysis of identified gaps and priorities within their respective contexts.

The Discussant will take the analysis beyond the borders of the individual countries and actively engage the diverse experiences and perspectives present in the audience. Attendees will be invited to contribute their insights, amending and refining findings from the research. The goal is to collaboratively shape and co-create an agenda for the professional development of European teacher educators (40 min).

Portugal’s education system has evolved greatly over the last five decades of democracy (1974-2024). Teacher education has also accompanied such a movement which is visible in research and publications in the field. Amongst other issues, inclusion has been identified as a key feature. In fact, Portugal’s inclusive education framework is among the most comprehensive of OECD countries (OECD, 2022). The same report highlights the programmes, resources and support structures developed in the Portuguese context “to meet the needs of all students and to promote educational equity and inclusion more broadly”. In 2018, following the publication of Profile of the Student at the End of Compulsory Education (12 years), – which identifies the set of principles, values and competencies for curriculum development – two key policy documents were issued: Curriculum Autonomy and Flexibility (Decree-Law nº55) and Inclusive Education (Decree-Law nº54). The former stipulates a set of principles and orientations according to which schools are granted greater autonomy to manage the school curriculum. In turn, the Decree-Law nº54 focuses on Inclusive Education and is based on the notion that all students have learning potential, as long as they receive adequate support. This is achieved through a multilevel approach which includes universal measures, selective measures and additional measures. These policy initiatives are important to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in Portuguese schools. Issues of flexibility, autonomy and collaboration among the stakeholders are key in this context. This comprehensive framework has implications for teacher education for equity and diversity. In fact, a new policy for teacher education was issued in November 2023 (Decree-Law nº112/2023). While the main reason for this restructuring process stems from the need to solve the problem of teacher shortage, the new policy stipulates inclusive education as one of the topics to be covered in teacher education curriculum. Although teacher education for inclusion has been identified internationally, there is room for improvement in this field (e.g. Florian & Camedda, 2020; Alves, 2020). In this paper, an analysis of the macro-level of the policies in Portugal is explored focusing in particular on teacher education for equity and diversity following the recent publication of the new policy. A look at the meso level is also included in order to explore how institutions are dealing with the new policy taking into consideration the perspective of the stakeholders, namely programme directors and teacher educators. Implications of the findings for teacher educators’ development are discussed.

Alves, I. (2020). Enacting education policy reform in Portugal: The process of change and the role of teacher education for inclusion. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(1), 64-82. Decree-Law no. 112/2023, Diário da República, 1.ª série, N.º 231, 29th November 2023 Decree-Law no. 54/2018, Diário da República, no. 129/2018, Series I from 2018-07-06, 2918-2928. https://data.dre.pt/eli/dec-lei/54/2018/07/06/p/dre/pt/html Decree-Law no. 55/2018, Diário da República, no. 129/2018, Series I from 2018-07-06, 2928-2943. https://data.dre.pt/eli/dec-lei/55/2018/07/06/p/dre/pt/html Florian, L., & Camedda, D. (2020). Enhancing teacher education for inclusion. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(1), 4-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1707579 OECD (2022), Review of inclusive education in Portugal, Reviews of National Policies for Education, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a9c95902-en.

Effectively addressing diversity in education, converting it into enrichment and strength, is a complex challenge. The Flemish educational system, like many others, grapples with this complexity (e.g., Siongers et al., 2020). Recent PISA results highlight ongoing educational inequalities in Flanders linked to students’ socio-economic status (OECD, 2023). Furthermore, the absence of demographic representation among pre- and in-service teachers, signals a deficiency in responses to diversity and inclusion (SERV, 2020; Flemish Government, 2021) and only 17.0% of teachers report feeling prepared to teach in multicultural classrooms (Siongers et al., 2020). While national policies are slowly taking shape, there is a simultaneous emergence of civil society organisations in Flanders (see LEVL vzw, 2022; Teach for Belgium, 2023). These organisations offer professional development to teachers and urge policymakers to keep the change process towards inclusion and equity on the agenda. However, the role of initial teacher education programmes should not be disregarded. To prepare the next generation of teachers capable of shaping an inclusive educational system, these programmes must put equity in the centre of their organisation (Cochran-Smith et al., 2016). Prior research in Flanders already explored how the curriculum (Dursun et al., 2023) and modelling of diversity-responsive practices by all teacher educators can contribute to this objective (Ponet et al., 2023). This paper extends this exploration by mapping the current provisions in Flemish national policy and teacher education institutions. It aims to enhance the preparation of pre-service teachers for equity and inclusion while stimulating professional development of teacher educators in the matter. This study employs the methodology of the broader EU-project. Preliminary findings confirm the lack of national policy to ensure adequate preparation for equity and inclusion of both pre-service teachers and teacher educators. In the absence of national-level-policies, most programmes develop their own policies and guidance addressing this matter. However, delving deeper into the data reveals that many of these policies are not well translated into concrete actions that foster targeted professionalisation of teacher educators on the one hand, and cohesive curriculum development for pre-service teachers on the other hand. Consequently, many teacher educators are individually sorting out what practises for inclusion and equity they could implement, feeling little support or incentive to do this. To affect change in Flanders, there is an urgent need to address this lack of commitment on both national and institutional fronts, while providing tailored professional development for all teacher educators.

Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Grudnoff, L., Haigh, M., Hill, M., & Ludlow, L. (2016). Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center? Teaching and Teacher Education, 57, 67-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.03.006 Dursun, H., Claes, E., & Ağırdağ, O. (2023). Coursework, field-based teaching practices, and multicultural experiences: Analyzing the determinants of preservice teachers’ ethnocultural diversity knowledge. Teaching and Teacher Education, 126, 104077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104077 Flemish Government. (2021). Nulmeting herkomst leerkrachten in het Vlaamse onderwijs. Departement Onderwijs en Vorming. LEVL vzw. (2022). Diversiteit in het onderwijspersoneel. LEVL vzw. OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 Results (Volume I). Ponet, B., De Clerck, A., Vantieghem, W., Tack, H., & Vanderlinde, R. (2023). Uncovering the role of teacher educators in the reduction of inequalities in education: A critical discourse analysis. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09818-7 SERV. (2020). Diversiteit binnen het onderwijzend personeel. Commissie diversiteit. Siongers, J., Spruyt, B., Van Droogenbroeck, F., Bongaerts, B., & Kavadias, D. (2020). TALIS 2018 Vlaanderen - Verdiepend rapport diversiteit (p. 84). Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Teach for Belgium (2023, 5 December). Inclusieve leraarskamers: een werk van en voor iedereen. https://teachforbelgium.be/nl/elementor-26562/.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the first models of collaborative learning for students with and without special educational needs were informally developed in Germany, particularly in Federal States such as Hessen, Bremen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, and Baden-Württemberg (Ainscow, 2021). The legal obligation for Germany to establish an "inclusive education system at all levels" has been mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) since 2009 (UN, 2006, Article 24). This convention, aligning with the understanding of disability as a disadvantage faced by marginalised groups, emphasises the consideration of inclusion and exclusion processes in the educational context, recognizing various dimensions of heterogeneity (Ainscow, 2021). In response to these challenges, the Ministry of Education in Baden-Württemberg has adapted its teacher education program to include competencies required for inclusion, integrating inclusive topics into the curriculum (HRK & KMK, 2015). Initiatives like the "Inclusion and Diversity" module, starting in 2018/2019 as part of a joint Master of Education of Albert-Ludwigs University and University of Education Freiburg (Freiburg Advanced Center of Education, FACE), aim to equip pre-service teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge for dealing competently with diversity in their future professional roles. These changes align with recommendations from expert commissions, emphasising the development of essential skills for inclusion in future teachers (Köpfer & Rosen, 2024; Frohn & Moser, 2021; Liebner & Schmaltz, 2021). The paper examines the promotion and understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion in teacher education policies and programs in Germany, with a specific focus on the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Policy texts, including national and regional education acts, curriculum frameworks, and teacher standards, are analysed. The research also extends to the meso-level, exploring teacher education programs of 10 teacher education institutions in Baden-Württemberg that address diversity, equity, and inclusion in response to recent policy developments, supported by two focus group interviews with program directors and pre-service student teachers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the professional development of teacher educators.

Ainscow, M. (2021). Inclusion and equity in education: Responding to a global challenge. In Köpfer, A., Powell, J. J. W., & Zahnd, R. (Eds.). International handbook of inclusive education (pp. 75–88). Opladen and Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich. Frohn, J., & Moser, V. (2021). Der Stand der inklusiven Lehrkräftebildung in Deutschland. Zeitschrift für Inklusion-online.net, 1/2021. Köpfer, A., & Rosen, L. (Eds.). (2024, in print). Inklusion als Querschnittsthema der Lehrer:Innenbildung - (Inter-)nationale Einblicke und Perspektiven. In Rosen, L., Bastian, P., Friedrich, J., Gericke, E., Hopmann, B., Köhler, S.-M., & Köpfer, A. (Eds.). Crossing boundaries: Methodische und methodologische Reflexionen zur Praxis der Inklusionsforschung. Tagungsband der 5. Jahrestagung der AG Inklusionsforschung in der DGfE. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto. Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK) & Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK). (2015). Lehrerbildung für eine Schule der Vielfalt. Gemeinsame Empfehlung von Hochschulrektorenkonferenz und Kultusministerkonferenz. Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 12.03.2015/Beschluss der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz vom 18.03.2015. Liebner, S., & Schmaltz, C. (2021). Teacher training for inclusive education in Germany: Status quo and curricular Implementation. Goldan, J., Lambrecht, J., & Loremann, T. (Eds.). Resourcing inclusive education: International perspectives on inclusive education (Vol. 15, pp. 33-146). London: Emerald Publishing Limited. United Nations (UN). (2006). UN-Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Available at: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml [29.01.2024].

Although Dutch society is as diverse in nature as most European countries, this is not automatically translated into systematic attention to diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities for all, in teacher education. Schools are urged to address educational inequalities, which become apparent in national and international reports (NPO, 2023; OECD, 2023). Policy makers focus on topics such as teacher shortages that add to these inequalities on various levels. For example: teacher shortages are highest in schools that cater for students who are highly diverse on social-economic status, cultural background, or special needs; leading to bigger class sizes or employing non- or underqualified staff. Meanwhile, research points at the importance of addressing diversity and inclusion, and to focus on equal opportunities in all levels of the educational system. Addressing these leads to optimal development of individual students, and to the development of society as a whole, in particular when the stance is that diversity in a class is enriching for all students and, subsequently, that a diverse society is enriching for all citizens. In this study we report on the policies and practices regarding teacher education in order to see whether and how diversity, equity and inclusion are taken up. We focus on teacher education for the primary and secondary education levels. For the present paper, we analyzed policy texts on the national and local level, such as the National standards for teachers, and for teacher educators (e.g., Rijksoverheid, 2016), and several teacher education programmes. First results point at a lack of systematic attention for all facets of diversity, equity and inclusion in teacher education. It is not part of the national standards for new teachers, and because of the teacher shortages, teacher education programmes are urged to focus on “the bare minimum” of being a starting teacher. Everything else (such as diversity etc.) can be learned “on the job”. However, some teacher educators are advocates for the topic, and find ways to address it. It seems that attention for diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities in teacher education programmes depends on a small group of dedicated teacher educators, who put a lot of effort in sometimes elective courses to help student teachers in their preparation to a growing diverse pupil population, building on the growing body of research in this area. We see these practices as a good starting point for building the expertise to address this systematically in teacher education.

Rijksoverheid (2016). Bekwaamheidseisen leraren. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/werken-in-het-onderwijs/bekwaamheidseisen-leraren NPO (2023). National Programma Onderwijs: Vierde voortgangsrapportage. The Hague: Ministry of Education. OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 Results (Volume I).

Our education is continuously confronted with the challenges and opportunities of the rapidly changing society. Whether these changes concern technological developments, varying political landscapes, economic fluctuations, or global pandemics and war, they bring uncertainties to our students, teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders in education. To aptly train teachers for their increasingly difficult teaching task, Fenstermacher (1986) already pointed out that the development of sound reasoning is vital in teacher education. More recently, Loughran (2019) described the importance of overtly articulating teachers’ pedagogical reasoning for teachers’ professionalism.

Teachers’ reasoning or pedagogical reasoning is broadly defined as the why underlying teachers’ educational practice. Research studying pedagogical reasoning therefore reveals the underlying thinking of teachers when making decisions during their teaching. The concept was originally described by Shulman (1987) as the pedagogical reasoning and action (PR&A) process where content knowledge (CK) is transformed to teachable elements. Through this process, the individual teacher uses as well as builds their professional knowledge. Since then, research has taken different perspectives towards this complex concept and investigated it in a variety of contexts, using a variety of conceptualisations and operationalizations.

In this symposium, we’ll take you through three recent papers involving pedagogical reasoning within varying contexts to highlight the importance yet complexity of the concept. First, a scoping review on the conceptualizations of pedagogical reasoning in publications between 2000 and July 2023 will be discussed by Lotte Schreuders (PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Next, Ottavia Trevisan (PostDoc, University of Padova, Italy) and Anneke Smits (Professor, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands) will present their work on different qualities of preservice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning when confronting the complexity of the job through their internships. Finally, Bram Cabbeke (PhD candidate, University of Ghent, Belgium) will focus on the importance of PR in the context of technology integration by presenting a study focused on exploring how and when pre-service teachers adopt PR when collaboratively designing ICT-rich curriculum materials.

During the symposium, we wish to inform fellow researchers about the importance of pedagogical reasoning in education, especially in these times of uncertainty. We hope to inspire them to give more attention to this concept and join us in our quest to gain more insight into teachers’ PR.

One way to gain a better understanding of teachers’ everyday practice is by studying teachers’ pedagogical reasoning (PR). Studying PR, or the thinking that underpins teachers’ practice, provides insights into the why underlying teachers’ informed decisions. The concept was originally described by Shulman (1987) as pedagogical reasoning and action (PR&A), a process where content knowledge (CK) is transformed to teachable elements through a cyclic process involving six steps: (1) comprehension, (2) transformation, (3) instruction, (4) evaluation, (5) reflection and (6) new comprehension. Since then, the concept of pedagogical reasoning has been used by many researchers in various research fields and educational contexts resulting in varying conceptualisations. In an attempt to untangle the current conceptual unclarity, this scoping review aims to provide a synthesis of the various conceptualisations of PR in literature between 2000 and 2023. A systematic search across four online databases (ERIC, PsychInfo, Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection) yielded 1,026 results on July 4th, 2023. After deduplication, the remaining publications (n = 549) were subjected to a title and abstract scan. Publications had to meet the following five criteria to be subjected to a full-text screening: (1) the publication was published between 2000 and on July 4th, 2023; (2) the publication appeared in a peer-reviewed journal; (3) the publication was written in English; (4) the publication had an explicit focus on professional or pedagogical reasoning and; (5) the publication focused on the professional or pedagogical reasoning of pre- and/or in-service teachers. From the remaining 148 publications, we were able to retrieve 146 which were subjected to a full-text screening. Here, a sixth inclusion criteria was applied to assess the relevance of the publications, namely: (6) the publication conceptualizes pedagogical reasoning. During a preliminary analysis of the remaining 92 articles, we identified two main theoretical perspectives. The first stream defines PR as a cyclic process where teachers use knowledge to make a decision, reflect on the outcomes and expand their knowledge. With that, this stream often follows or builds upon the original work by Shulman (1987). The second stream separates reasoning from decision-making in their definitions and focus on the content, depth, or richness of PR. For example, the values to explain teachers’ favorite technology tools or the depth of reasoning required to stimulate students’ mathematical reasoning. During the symposium, we’ll discuss these theoretical perspectives, their differences, and implications for research in detail.

Andrews-Larson, C., Johnson, E., Peterson, V., & Keller, R. (2021). Doing math with mathematicians to support pedagogical reasoning about inquiry-oriented instruction. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 24(2), 127–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-019-09450-3 Gotwalt, E. S. (2023). Putting the purpose in practice: Practice-based pedagogies for supporting teachers’ pedagogical reasoning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103975 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.009 Holmberg, J., Fransson, G., & Fors, U. (2018). Teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and reframing of practice in digital contexts. International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 35(2), 130–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-09-2017-0084 Hughes, J. E., Cheah, Y. H., Shi, Y., & Hsiao, K. H. (2020). Preservice and inservice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning underlying their most-valued technology-supported instructional activities. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(4), 549–568. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12425 Kavanagh, S. S., Conrad, J., & Dagogo-Jack, S. (2020). From rote to reasoned: Examining the role of pedagogical reasoning in practice-based teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102991 Loughran, J. (2019). Pedagogical reasoning: the foundation of the professional knowledge of teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 25(5), 523–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2019.1633294 Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1).

This study targets the connection between preservice teachers' pedagogical reasoning quality and early indicators of reality shock during their field internships. Teachers' pedagogical reasoning (PR&A) refers to their ability to make informed decisions about instructional strategies, content selection, and classroom management based on their knowledge, beliefs, and understanding of educational theory. It plays a crucial role in shaping their teaching practices and can greatly impact instruction effectiveness. We investigate this process when it first emerges in future teachers: at the time of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Reality shock refers to the disorientation and stress experienced by newly qualified teachers when they face the stark contrast between their teaching expectations and the actual challenges they encounter in the classroom. We argue that early indicators of reality shock are already visible in the late stages of ITE when preservice teachers perform field internships. Field-based internships within ITE aim to bridge the theory-practice gap and potentially mitigate reality shock while fostering high-quality pedagogical reasoning in future teachers. Nevertheless, a gap remains in understanding the relationship between preservice teachers' PR&A quality and their experiences of reality shock precursors during internships. The research aims to elucidate these connections. The overarching goal is to provide insights into how preservice teachers' PR&A quality correlates with their experiences of tension during internships. This will serve as a potential indicator of teaching quality and susceptibility to reality shock as they transition into the profession. By identifying and addressing this relationship, ITE institutes can refine their programs to better prepare future teachers. This will improve retention rates and teaching quality as teachers navigate demanding early career years. Utilizing a qualitative methodology with convenience sampling (N=38), the study delves into preservice teachers' interpretations and descriptions of recent teaching experiences during their internships. The research uses a PR&A normative framework to appraise preservice teachers' reasoning quality through the dimensions of core concepts of the professions and pedagogical orientations. Four distinct pedagogical reasoning quality profiles were identified: Naïve, Emerging, Evolving, and Substantiated. Each of these PR&A quality profiles displays different signs of reality shock precursors, as well as different coping strategies. The study underscores the need to customize ITE programs, addressing specifically the link between pedagogical reasoning development and reality-shock precursors. Developing awareness of reality-shock precursors and reasoning skills among preservice teachers could help them navigate the challenges of the early-career "survival stage".

Blömeke, S., Hoth, J., Döhrmann, M., Busse, A., Kaiser, G., & König, J. (2015). Teacher change during induction: Development of beginning primary teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and performance. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 13(2), 287–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-015-9619-4 Hanna, F., Oostdam, R., Severiens, S. E., & Zijlstra, B. J. H. (2022). The development of the relationship between professional identity tensions and teacher identity: A quantitative longitudinal study among Dutch primary student teachers. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 75, 101199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2022.101199 Loughran, J. (2019). Pedagogical reasoning: The foundation of the professional knowledge of teaching. Teachers and Teaching, 25(5), 523–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2019.1633294 Kvam, E. K., Roness, D., Ulvik, M., & Helleve, I. (2023). Newly qualified teachers: Tensions between needing support and being a resource. A qualitative study of newly qualified teachers in Norwegian upper secondary schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 127, 104090. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104090 Trevisan, O., & Smits, A. (2023). Probing the quality of preservice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning & action (PR&A) in internships. Teaching and Teacher Education, 125, 103983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103983

The rapidly changing educational landscape, characterized by superdiverse classrooms and rapid technological advancements, has underscored the imperative for teachers to attain adequate digital competences. Regarding this, the European DigCompEdu framework serves as an example of these growing digital competency demands. However, preparing student-teachers for technology integration is a complex endeavor, as students should learn that integrating technology in practice goes beyond the mere addition of a tool into an existing teaching activity, but requires making informed decisions about technology based on sound pedagogical reasoning (PR). However, little is known about students’ adoption of PR during their technology integration efforts. During this symposium, we wish to present a study focused on exploring the technology-related PR that student-teachers adopt when collaboratively designing ICT-rich learning materials. A 10-week Teacher-Design-Team intervention was implemented at a Flemish teacher training institute during the academic year of 2021-2022. The intervention consisted of 7 sessions of 3-4 hours each (an introductory lesson, 5 design sessions, and a microteaching). Grouped in design teams of 3/4 students (N = 23), students designed ICT-rich curriculum solutions for authentic pedagogical problems experienced by an in-service mathematics teacher (context: secondary school). Throughout the sessions, design teams explored and determined which tools to use, brainstormed solutions, designed and developed materials, and tested, evaluated, and revised their materials. A qualitative case study approach was employed to analyze the design talk of three design teams. In total, 56,5 hours of audio data were transcribed and analyzed. With the design talk of the TDT as the unit of analysis, this study applied three phases of coding: (a) identifying the design activity in which a technology-related design discussion (TRDD) emerged (analysis, design, develop, implement or evaluation); (b) discerning what type of reasoning was at the basis of a TRDD (pedagogical, practical, or external); and (c) coding the level of inquiry present in the TRDDs (no-depth; sharing ideas; collaborative). At ECER, we aim to showcase how and when students engaged in PR. Overall, findings indicate that students engage in PR, but that the extent and depth of students’ PR in TRDDs (1) varies between design sessions and activities and (2) is often short-circuited by decision-making based on pragmatic or external reasons. The findings and implications of this study will inform (teacher) educators and researchers about the importance of PR in the context of technology integration.

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