Conference Agenda

As a young teacher and a graduate of Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University, I have returned to pursue further studies as a PhD student. My personal journey has sparked my interest in mentoring, particularly in the context of formal and informal mentoring programmes. Mentoring is a crucial aspect of professional development, particularly for novice teachers who require support and guidance as they show the complexities of the classroom.

Mentoring is a process that defines the relationship between mentor and mentee. Mentoring can take many forms, ranging from formal programmes to informal relationships that develop spontaneously between colleagues. The literature on mentoring is vast and varied, with empirical studies exploring the benefits and challenges of different mentoring approaches. As a young teacher, I have experienced the benefits of mentoring first-hand. I have been fortunate to have mentors who have provided me with guidance and support as I face classroom challenges. However, I have also encountered the limitations of mentoring, particularly regarding access to resources and the challenges of mentoring programmes.

Formal mentoring requires a short-term (one-year) formal programme (Inzer & Crawford, 2005). The mentors are usually assigned and protégés (mentees) are strongly encouraged to participate in this programme (Cotton, Ragins, & Miller, 2000). An informal programme, on the other hand, is defined as a natural process where the mentor and mentee are in a good relationship that contains personal and professional respect. The relationship is usually long-term.

However, in comparing formal and informal mentoring, Boyle and Boice (1998) found that participants of the formal mentoring programme reported high levels of satisfaction, considering better planning, organisation, systematic feedback, and the huge involvement of mentees in school activities. As discussed by the other researcher, Mathias (2005), teachers who just started their career, have a greater appreciation for the formal mentorship component. Furthermore, he follows that formal mentorship provided them with more in-depth support for professional growth, with the help of outside experts, invited to support the unique requirements of each department.

On the other hand, according to the study of Inzer and Crawford (2005), informal organisational mentoring is more advantageous than formal mentoring. They argue that more career development activities, such as coaching, giving difficult jobs, or raising mentees’ experience and reflectiveness, were performed by informal mentors. Positive psychosocial behaviours like counselling, social interaction assistance, role modelling, and friendship-granting were more frequently performed by informal mentors. Due to the ease of relating to one another, informal mentoring ties grow. As the mentee may seek to imitate the mentor's traits, and the mentor may recognise themselves in the mentee.

Consequently, informal mentoring is considered one of the most effective and useful strategies for mentees’ development, as it lasts longer and is based on both mentor and mentee satisfaction. It takes place in a relationship that both teachers voluntarily form, where friendship comes first, followed by education and career.

Although informal mentors excel in career development, they fail to acknowledge the structured programmes that formal mentoring might provide for skill enhancement. Moreover, emphasising how simple it is to establish ties in informal mentoring may have the possibility of prejudice or the absence of systematic supervision in these kinds of relationships, resulting in the mentor and mentee choice being based more on personal preferences than on objective standards of professional growth.

Therefore, the paper aims to provide a further review of the literature by comparing formal and informal mentoring programmes by highlighting the benefits and critiques that each type of programme faces.

The review addresses the following research questions:

1. What are the benefits and challenges of formal and informal mentoring?

Introduction, Research Objective, and Context:

Previous research (Vanlommel et al., 2017; Jager et al, 2021) indicates that when tailoring their education to differences in the classroom, teachers make instructional decisions based on various sources of information. Studies indicate (Educational Inspectorate, 2023; Van Casteren et al.. 2017) that teachers find adapting to differences challenging, as they make a significant number of decisions throughout the day (approximately 1500) (Mockler, 2022). This aligns with research indicating that differentiation is a complex process requiring knowledge and skills to systematically and consciously utilize these information sources to shape education (Van Geel et al., 2019). Additionally, research (Urhahne & Wijnia, 2021; Payne, 2008; İnan-Kaya & Rubie-Davies, 2022 ) suggests that urban environments exhibit a high degree of diversity in classes, contributing to the complexity teachers face when tailoring their education to differences. To gain a deeper understanding of teachers' pedagogical reasoning regarding dealing with differences among students, this qualitative research was conducted to analyze the thoughts of teachers in the Haaglanden region in more detail. Specific attention is given to the role of the student in this process, and potential differences between schools regarding the student population are explored.

Theoretical Framework:

Pedagogical reasoning (Loughran, 2019) refers to the thoughtful thought process underlying teachers' informed professional practice . It involves teachers' ability to make thoughtful and informed decisions about teaching their students. When the level of diversity in the classroom is higher, it means greater complexity for the teacher to tailor education to all students.

The use of information and data by teachers plays a crucial role in pedagogical reasoning (Keuning et al, 2017; Loibl et al., 2020, Park & Datnow, 2017). Teachers must effectively collect and analyze information to align their teaching practices with their students. When dealing with diversity, especially concerning students' backgrounds (Denessen, 2017), there are risks associated with the use of information and data . These risks can vary, and it is important for teachers to be aware of them to ensure a just and inclusive educational environment. Giving the student a voice in education can contribute to this (Hudson-Glynn, 2019).

Research Questions:

• How do teachers reason with their knowledge of their students to adapt their teaching to them?

• How do teachers involve students with different backgrounds in differentiation?

Scientific and Practical Significance of the Content Contribution:

By gaining a better understanding of what teachers do, teachers can be better supported in adaptive teaching to ultimately provide education to all their students, meeting all their educational needs while considering the socio-cultural background of the student or the school's location. This subject concerns all teachers, teacher-educators and educational researchers, not just in the Dutch context but it is internationally relevant to all educational professionals.

The overall aim of the ComeMINT research project is to design, implement and evaluate an adaptive, digitized teacher training course, available to pre-service and in-service teachers, to explore the potential of digital incremental scaffolds in biology education.

Teachers are often challenged when faced with individual learning needs, particularly in science education. The complex nature of biology education enhances the demands - particularly when considering the challenge of problem-solving tasks during experimentation (Stiller & Wilde, 2021). It has been shown that the complexity of such problem-solving tasks often leads to student overload (Schmidt-Weigand et al., 2008). These challenges for students are particularly strong in heterogeneous learning groups that include students with different levels of prior knowledge (Kalyuga, 2013). Previous studies argue that students with a lack of prior knowledge of content and methods struggle with problem solving tasks compared to students with a higher level of prior knowledge (Bekel-Kastrup et al., 2020). The perceived complexity of the task and the level of prior knowledge seem to play an important role when considering students' learning progress. These different preconditions are often not considered in lesson planning. One way to consider students' preconditions is to implement (digital) incremental scaffolds. The potential of these scaffolds is often underestimated, although the positive effect of adaptable instructions can be beneficial for low-performing learners (Großmann & Wilde, 2019; Kalyuga, 2013) as well as students with high prior knowledge (Stäudel et al., 2007). Incremental scaffolds mediate between instruction and independent learning by considering students' prior knowledge (Franke-Braun et al., 2008; Hänze et al., 2010; Schmidt-Weigand et al., 2008). Therefore, scaffolding tools can meet different learning needs and reduce students' cognitive load (Arnold et al., 2017). Incremental scaffolds consist of structured prompts and worked examples that allow students to receive as much help as they individually need to solve problems (Schmidt-Weigand et al., 2008). This concept is not only useful for students who need additional help to solve a scientific problem but can also stimulate the learning process for more advanced students by creating a challenging learning situation, especially in biology classes (Großmann & Wilde, 2019). When it comes to reducing barriers and improving inclusion in biology education, digital learning tools might prove helpful (Stinken-Rösner et al., 2021). The integration of digital tools enables access to biology education for students with individual needs and facilitates the integration of assistive tools into biology lessons and experiments (Abels & Stinken-Rösner 2022). Furthermore, the use of incremental scaffolds could support scientific thinking (Arnold et al., 2017) as well as conceptual and procedural knowledge (Stiller & Wilde, 2021).

The underlying research question revolves around the perceived behavioral orientation towards digital and heterogeneous sensitive teaching and the extent to which participation in our training influences the intention to implement the training content into the own lesson planning. A prerequisite for the implementation of digital scaffolding methods in the curriculum of biology teachers is curiosity about new technologies. Therefore, a pilot study will be conducted with pre-service biology teachers to investigate their readiness to integrate digital tools into their future teaching, as well as their prior knowledge of the available tools and their purpose of implementation through a questionnaire. As an intervention, these pre-service teachers will participate in a seminar to learn about inclusive technological applications and to generate their own teaching materials. A change in knowledge about suitable technologies and perceived readiness of conducting digitally enhanced biology lessons will be evaluated through pre- and post-questionnaires.

Introduction

The purpose of this small-scale study is to study a perceived effectiveness of Action Research methodology and tools by teachers in the context of the Student Engagement project conducted by the SHARE community schools.

The SHARE (schools hub for action research in education) is a community of 25schools located in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Share community was established in 2019 for collaborative study and implementation of the Action Research methodology to enhance teachers' pedagogical practices in classroom.

In 2023 the Share schools collaboratively conducted “Student engagement” project. This practice-led research was aimed to study student engagement in the classroom and included the following:

1. Data collection:

• Students survey
• Videotaping a lesson and then watching it with students and teachers
• Focus groups with cross-discipline teachers on how they engage students
• Focus groups with students attended the videotaped lesson

1. Data analysis

• Data transcribing
• Data coding and interpretation

1. Action plan

• Action plan collaborating
• Action plan implementing
• Observation and assessment of changes

Leaders of the SHARE community have developed the methodology of the 'Student Engagement' project. Throughout 2023, they supported project participants through in-service trainings and consultations. Additionally, the leaders provided participants with ready-made tools for project implementation, such as:

• survey,
• instruction for conducting the project,
• instructions for video recording and focus groups,
• an example of transcript and interpretation
• etc.

Each participating school independently utilized the knowledge and tools acquired from the leaders in their own school. Therefore, the project management processes and outcomes varied significantly, influenced by a wide range of factors such as:

• teachers' understanding of the Action Research methodology,
• teachers' assimilation and perception of the 'Student Engagement' concepts,
• each school's context and the specific choices of participating teacher-researchers and classes,
• character of collaboration among teachers in a separate school.

The factors influenced the focus and activity of teachers in applying tools. The current study aims to explore teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the Action Research methodology and tools, using the 'Student Engagement' project as an example.

The research questions:

• Do teachers consider the Action Research methodology effective for improving classroom practice?
• Based on the results of the Student Engagement project, which Action research tools teachers perceive as most effective and why?

Through an examination of these specific research questions, the research team also plans to better understand the context and factors influencing teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the Action Research methodology overall.

The aim of the study is to find out how beginning teachers experience the reality of education and how it changes the teacher's professional identity.

Research objectives:

1. To conceptualise the notions of neoliberalism, new public management, knowledge society, social reproduction and constructivism in the context of novice teachers experiences in the 21st century.

2. To investigate how the concepts described in the theory are manifested in the experiences of beginning teachers and how they affect the teachers' professional identity.

3. To investigate the pedagogical development and beliefs of novice teachers over a period of two years.

4. To determine what factors influence similar choices - to stay working in public educational institutions, to move to the private sector or to leave the teaching profession.

Research on the "reality shock" of beginning teachers (Veenman, 1984, Feiman-Nemser, 2001, Flores and Day, 2006, Tynjälä and Heikkinen, 2011, Morrison, 2013, etc.) proves the uniqueness of a teacher's professional beginning in terms of workload and responsibilities. Since it changes little over time, the novice teacher experiences the culture of the organization (and the field of all the educational system that affects him) quite thoroughly and intensively from the very beginning (it is not for nothing that the concept of "shock" is used).

The "reality shock" of beginning teachers, the change in beliefs, pedagogical attitudes and practice have been extensively studied in the second half of the twentieth century (Lortie, 1975 (2020), Corcoran, 1981, Veenman, 1984, etc.) It was found that the beginning teacher's beliefs are formed while she/he is still a student and these beliefs are usually teacher-oriented, based on behaviouristic ideas, which rely on response reinforcement, punishments, and rewards. Later, in the years of study, the acquired more progressive knowledge and attitudes diminish again when they find themselves in the real reality of education - they return to their pre-study beliefs. Because at the end of 20th century, in pedagogy, a constructivist approach has become very widespread, which claims that learning is an active process of knowledge construction, researchers assume that the experience of modern novice teachers has already changed, so previously conducted research loses its relevance (Voss and Kunter, 2020). However, already in the 21st century, studies conducted abroad still show that in the second and third years of teaching, teachers' beliefs migrate to the side of traditional didactics (Flores and Day, 2006, Hong, 2010, Voss and Kunter, 2020, etc.), but similar empirical studies conducted in Lithuania could not be found.

The theoretical part will aim to delve into the resistance of traditional education to more progressive education methods, its significance for student achievement in Lithuania, in connection with the concepts of poverty pedagogy and critical pedagogy (Tyack and Tobin, 1994, Mayer, 1996, Mayer, 2004, Haberman, 2010, etc.)

A wide range of influences affects teachers’ everyday life: politics, institutional traditions, culture, norms, etc. Teachers' inner beliefs and instructions dictated by reformers often do not match (Lasky, 2005, Ponomarenko, 2022). In the research conducted by the author of this project, the testimonies of the teachers of the "Renkuosi mokyti!" project revealed unacceptable aspects of education for them: prevalence of fabrications (documents do not correspond to reality), chasing results, heavy workload, etc. (Lebedytė-Mečionienė, 2022). With the help of the postmodern direction of thought and its theorists: Lyotard, Foucault, Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Bauman, etc. it will be aimed to further deepen and analyse the processes in education by connecting them with the results of empirical research by foreign and Lithuanian scientists (Ball, Želvys, Vaitekaitis, Duoblienė, Ponomarenko, Tumlovskaja, etc.)

Previously, extensive research has delved into service-learning and related methods, offering students the opportunity to not only grasp subject matter but also develop methodological and social skills through real-world interaction (Salam et al., 2019). In this poster presentation, we aim to examine service learning more closely. Specifically, we have crafted a service-learning experience, structured as a one-semester university course, for teacher education students with the objective of bolstering research skills and dispositions.

At the beginning of the course, in-service teachers share real classroom challenges with pre-service students. These challenges may vary from developing more effective and less time-consuming marking procedures (Froehlich et al., 2021) to experimenting with game designs to enhance OneHealth education (Hobusch et al., 2024). Throughout the semester, students work in groups, alongside the teacher, volunteering subject-matter experts, and the course facilitator, to develop research-based solutions to the challenges presented. At the end of the semester, the research projects culminate in the presentation of solutions to in-service teachers, providing them with a valuable service.

A student-centred, active and experimental teaching approach is recognized as effective in the development of research methods (Nind & Katramadou, 2023). And as social interactions are considered crucial to human learning (Eraut, 2007), our aim is to explore the effectiveness of service-learning in developing research skills and dispositions, and to identify the most significant learning interactions for students in this process.

When discussing learning interactions, the focus is on the interactions between students, in-service teachers and experts, including course facilitators. Additionally, content interactions are also considered, as students are exposed to the school challenges presented by the in-service teachers and supported by learning materials at each stage of the research cycle.

To achieve this goal, we have established an international longitudinal mixed-methods study, utilizing students’ reflections and questionnaire responses from various countries.

European policy has made efforts to extend education and care resources and accessibility to Gypsies, Roma and Travellers. However, there is still seemingly low engagement with education and care services from the GRT population, this may be due to fundamental underlying problems that need systematic research to identify. Despite attempts by European policy to solve the lack of educational engagement and poor educational trajectories, 50% of GRT children in Europe do not complete primary education, and 25% complete secondary education (Council of Europe, 2020). The GRT population make up the most predominant ethnic minority group in Europe. There is a lack of conciseness to census data on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller population figures possibly due to their nomadic lifestyle, a non-representational choice of ethnicity to choose from, or distrust in reporting ethnicity at all in fear of discrimination (Rutigliano, 2020). Despite difficulties in census attainment across Europe, it is estimated more than 10-12 million individuals identify with being a part of the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller population (European Commission, 2020). This community has endured undeniable intergenerational trauma in the form of discrimination, racism, exclusion and unequal access to educational and care resources. Travellers and Roma people across Europe have historically been reported to have lower levels of attainment with higher levels of school absenteeism and school withdrawal. The European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights reports 36 % of GRT individuals have difficulty reading the national language of their country while nearly half (43 %) have difficulty writing it. Barriers that oppress and discourage GRT from engaging within education in the first place, such as lack of representation and bullying due to cultural differences must be addressed in order to understand how policy can be informed more accurately to improve uptake of education and care resources.

An important dimension of this systematic review is the emphasis on early childhood education and care engagement and uptake within the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller population. A family and child's early experience or past experience within an education system can set the tone on how willing the family is to engage with resources and opportunities presented. This systematic review will focus specifically on early childhood engagement within the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community across Europe. The first 3 years of life are an especially sensitive period of time for brain development. After birth a young child's brain rapidly produces synaptic connections based experiences of their external environment. A young child's brain reaches approximately 1,000 trillian synaptic connections by about age 3 which is double of what is present in an adult's brain (Halfon et al., 2001). This stage of early development presents a window of opportunity for expansive brain growth and lifelong foundational development. Care settings such as preschool and community settings along with family home life all possess points of interaction for the child's brain structure to produce and build skills in cognitive, social, attention and self regulation (Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Evidence points to a positive impact in young children, especially minorities, in engaging with quality early childcare services. Early childhood education can increase lifelong educational success rates along with narrowing poverty and equity gaps (Wilder et al., 2008). Yet the GRT participation rate in early childhood education is nearly half that of the majority mainstream population (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2016). Analyses conducted in this review will potentially be able to pinpoint recurring themes across GRT accounts that may be responsible for facilitators or barriers of engagement that can in turn inform policy and practice at the European level within early childhood education and care.

This paper presents empirical insights into the mechanisms that drive inequalities in young people’s educational trajectories in Austria. My research interest focuses on the transition patterns of immigrant youth (first and second generation) into and through upper secondary education. The empirical analysis is based on longitudinal register data covering a full cohort of students in the Austrian education system. These data allow for a fine-grained analysis of differences within the heterogeneous group of immigrant youth while paying attention to the context in which educational transitions are made. The following research questions are addressed: First, I explore how immigrant youth’s pathways into and through upper secondary educational tracks differ from those of their native peers, between girls and boys, and by country of origin. Second, I investigate the extent to which individual, school-level, and regional context variables can explain these differences in transition patterns.

Austria is an example of a highly stratified education system where students are tracked into different educational pathways at a young age. Adolescents who reach the end of lower secondary education (typically at the age of fourteen) may either pursue general education or enter upper secondary vocational education and training (VET). Moreover, the VET sector comprises different options of fully school-based versus dual (apprenticeship) options leading to different levels of qualifications. In this context, moving from lower into upper secondary education marks a decisive transition for young people’s educational outcomes and future employment prospects. The high level of differentiation as well as the important role of VET make the Austrian education system a particularly interesting case for analysis.

Conceptually, I rely on sociological theories of inequality in education and (immigrant) youth’s educational choices. Building on Boudon’s (1974) well-established distinction between primary and secondary effects of social origin, immigrant youth are assumed to attain lower average educational achievements than their native peers due to a lower socioeconomic status (SES) and additional barriers such as language skills (Diehl et al. 2016). At the same time, an immigrant background has been consistently associated with comparatively high educational aspirations (Kao & Tienda 1995; Rudolphi & Salikutluk 2021) manifested in ambitious educational choices (Dollmann 2021). Beyond the individual level, contextual factors such as school composition (Perry 2012) and regional opportunity structures (Becker et al. 2020) are also considered important determinants of young people’s educational opportunities and attainments.

Based on a full cohort of students and the comprehensive information provided through administrative data, my analyses contribute to the existing literature in several ways. For the transition into upper secondary education, previous studies consistently show that young immigrants are overall more likely to enter academic tracks and less likely to enter VET than their native peers, once prior achievements are accounted for (Glauser & Becker 2023; Jonsson & Rudolphi 2011; Tjaden & Hunkler 2017). However, the extent to which so-called ‘ethnic choice effects’ differ along dimensions such as gender, country of origin, or SES has not been conclusively explored. Furthermore, there is a gap in understanding how and why immigrant youth’s transition patterns vary depending on the context in which decisions to pursue different educational options are made. Finally, recent evidence suggests that immigrant youth’s ambitious choices do not necessarily translate into favourable outcomes, but are also accompanied by higher dropout rates at the upper secondary level (Birkelund 2020; Dollmann et al. 2023; Ferrara 2023). Covering a period of seven years, the analytical strategy applied in this paper gathers new empirical evidence on how immigrant youth’s educational pathways develop beyond the point of entry into upper secondary education.

The positive effects of parental involvement on students’ academic results are widely accepted by researchers worldwide. Over the last fifty years, psychologists and sociologists have paid close attention to the role of parents’ expectations in influencing children’s scholastic achievement. They have generally been determined to be crucial for children’s academic progress; however, due to the lack of comprehensive information on the vitality of expectations, academic performance tends to decline (Wilder, 2014).

Various research suggests that students with high expectations from their parents tend to fare better academically and perform higher on standardized tests than students with relatively modest prospects from their parents. It has previously been observed by Wilder (2014) that parental expectations, among other influences, had the greatest effect on children's scholastic achievement.

A Korean study revealed that, inversely, when opposed to parental participation, expectations had a relatively minor influence on a student’s self-efficacy (You et al., 2015). In addition, Gordon and Cui (2012) indicate that academic success in young adulthood was substantially correlated with adolescent gender, age, parental education, and family structure. These covariates are not accounted for in most studies, which limits their applicability.

According to Yamamoto and Holloway (2010), despite the vast research work that has been done on parental expectations, the majority has concentrated on European American, middle-class families, and the studies have typically neglected to account for the role of race or ethnicity in shaping the variables. This study also revealed that different ethnic groups do not have parental expectations as their predictor of a student’s grades, contrasting with other research. As such, it is indicated that not enough research has been done on various racial groups, with none of the research being conducted in a Kazakhstani context.

This research is being conducted to determine the difference in the GPA between students who have relatively high parental expectations and those who do not. The study aims to find a correlation between the variables collected through a survey, as well as to indicate how different social factors alter the results, specifically for adolescents in one NIS of Astana. It will also cover the effect of different types of expectations and the highest achieved results.

MRQ: To what extent do parental expectations affect the academic performance of 11th-grade students?

SQ1: How do factors such as a student’s gender, nationality, and parents’ education level impact parental expectations?

SQ2: Parents have expectations regarding their child’s highest level of education, as well as the student’s grades. Which type of parental expectations affects GPA the most?

SQ3: What is the optimal level of expectations required to maximize academic achievement?

This study will contribute to the educational research field of Kazakhstan. Furthermore, given the major influence of parental expectations on students’ academic success, exploring this topic is essential to ascertain the correlation between the variables in a local context. This will not only provide comprehensive information for parents to adequately set prospects for their children but also affect the academic achievement in the student’s future education and career.

Feedback Methods Used in the Teaching of Biology in International High Schools in the Czech Republic

Onyedika Emmanuel Okpala

Faculty of Education, Charles University, Magdaleny Rettigove 4, 116 39 Praha 1, Czech Republic.

Emails: nuelwinner@gmail.com

Despite the positive improvements reported in the Czech education system over the years, such as the increase of 16 percentage points between TALIS 2013 and TALIS 2018 in teacher engagement in professional development related to student assessment, evidence shows that improvement-focused teacher assessment still needs to be developed. For example, in 2015, only 34% of students were in schools where principals reported that student assessments were used to identify aspects of instruction that could be improved; this is lower than the OECD average of 59%. In addition, in the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018, students in the Czech Republic perceived teacher feedback on their learning to be among the lowest in the OECD, with index teacher feedback of -0.24 compared to an OECD average of 0.01[1]. Assessment can be defined as activities undertaken by teachers and their students, providing information that can be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning [2]. Effective feedback as a form of formative assessment encourages students to learn by enabling them to understand their strengths and weaknesses, leading to an improved outcome [3]. Evidence shows that participating in different formative assessment practices results in remarkable achievement in educational outcomes [4]. The main aim of this study is to investigate the feedback methods teachers use in teaching biology in Czech International schools. The study is theoretically informed by the work of sociologist John Meyer’s new institutionalism theory, published in 1977, and the Personal Practice Assessment Theory [5,6 ]. Qualitative research and multiple case studies will be used to investigate the teachers’ feedback methods. Four biology teachers will be recruited across four international schools in Prague, Czech Republic, with five student focus groups from each school. Primary data sources will include in-class observations, background or post-observation and student focus group interviews, while secondary data sources will include information from written assessments and the curriculum or syllabus for the course. All interviews (semi-structured) will be audio-recorded and later transcribed for further analysis. The data analysis approach will involve open, deductive coding. Software such as MAXQDA, which is used for qualitative data analysis, will be adopted for the coding. Triangulation of results, a qualitative research approach to evaluate the validity of research findings by the convergence of information generated from diverse sources, will be carried out. At the same time, the influence of bias and ethical issues will also be considered. The potential findings from this study will create the opportunity to discover the most frequent and best feedback method preferred by students in teaching biology and help modify or explore the theories and methods of feedback in teaching biology in high school.

Dissertation aims.

(1) To investigate the similarities and disparities in feedback methods used by biology teachers in the selected international schools in Prague, Czech Republic.

(2) To investigate the nature and frequency of feedback among teachers and schools from a biology perspective.

(3) To understand potential contextual elements or factors (internal and external) that may facilitate or create a barrier towards assessment by teachers.

Research questions (RQs)

RQ1 What are the similarities and disparities in feedback methods used by teachers within and across schools?

RQ2 What are students’ perceptions towards feedback?

RQ3 How do contextual elements (internal and external factors) hinder or facilitate teachers' feedback practice?

The integration of action research into the teacher appraisal system in Kazakhstan emphasizes the pivotal roles of teachers as “teacher-researchers” and “master teachers”. In 2019, the initiation of the SHARE (School Hub for action Research in Education) by the Mayor of Astana city provided teachers from 22 Astana schools with opportunities to actively engage in action research. The collaborative effort involved coordination with Professor Colleen McLaughlin, Kate Evans, and Dr Nazipa Ayubayeva. The Astana Department of Education Center for Education Modernization played a key role in coordinating and overseeing the project.

The main aim of this initiative is to engage teachers in action research in school settings. Embracing the perspectives by Stenhouse and Elliott (1983, 1991) the initiative recognizes teachers as knowledge generators, acquiring insights through self-directed research in collaboration with critical friends within the school community. Thus, teachers together with students are the primary audience for teachers engaged in action research. The process requires teachers to approach their work with honesty, open-mindedness, and a critical mindset. This involves a commitment to openly examining their own practices as well as those of their colleagues. The overarching goal in mind is to enhance teaching and learning for students through a continuous and reflective improvement process. Emphasizing teachers as initiators in this process is crucial for academic and professional growth. British educators Stenhouse (1981, 1983, 1988) and Rudduck (1988) stress daily research for teachers, stating curriculum study is their prerogative. Implementing change involves learning processes, challenging beliefs, and attitudes (Altrichter, 2005). Mills (2012) emphasizes teachers as decision-makers in research, creating conditions for their investigations. Mills' hypothesis asserts that if teachers, students, and administrators don't think independently about their actions, schools won't improve.

Hence, for the community of action researchers to sustain, it requires a recognition that the research teachers can thrive in an intellectually secure environment conducive to their work within the research domain (Samaras, 1950). The international literature highlights the importance of creating equitable conditions for teachers to voluntarily participate in action research. This involves clearly outlining intentions at the outset and maintaining transparency throughout the process, thereby enhancing the likelihood of realizing anticipated outcomes. Furthermore, it emphasizes the promotion of a teacher-driven process, empowering educators to take an active and leading role in shaping the trajectory of action research initiatives.

In the academic year 2022-2023, 22 SHARE schools conducted action research with a focus on student engagement in classroom learning. The action research was organized around the four key action research concepts: exploring how the action research methodology help teacher to learn about their own practices, investigating whether teachers engaged in action research foster teacher leadership qualities fostered, examining if there are observable changes in teaching and learning resulting from teachers’ engagement in action research, and finally, examining whether conducive conditions were established to facilitate active engagement in action research in participating schools.

Our team, representing three school-gymnasiums #74, #75, and #91, was assigned to explore conditions established for conducting action research on student engagement in classroom learning during the 2022-2023 academic year. Hence, the aim of this small-scale research is to provide insights into the conditions created by schools, teachers and community for the successful implementation of action research in the context.

Dual apprenticeship integrates classroom and work-based learning (WBL), promoting both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Proponents, such as Beer and Meethan (2007), highlight its strategic advantage in customising skills training for industry demands and reducing youth unemployment. However, Guile and Okumoto (2007) highlight the importance of preventing employers from designing 'restrictive' skills content. In contrast, a lifelong skills approach favours transferable skills. Lassnigg (2011) calls for a balance between specific and broader educational goals. Capsada-Munsech and Valiente (2020) emphasise the necessity of both technical and ‘soft’ skills for successful employment and social integration.

Central to the dual model is the assumption that WBL in competitive sectors confers an advantage in the labour market, aligning with Human Capital Theory (HCT) as championed by Becker (1962). HCT underscores education's role in developing individuals' skills and competencies to augment their "capital," an intangible asset of social and economic value, motivating individuals to enhance their capital for improved labour market positioning and increased earnings. A rationale for extending dual apprenticeship into earlier education levels emerges based on the perceived value of capital accumulation and the positive relationship between education, skills development, and labour market outcomes. Under this premise, participation in secondary-level dual apprenticeship allows individuals to build capital earlier, acquire practical skills, and gain industry-specific knowledge from a younger age, enhancing future employability and facilitating a more seamless transition into the labour market.

Aggregate evidence suggests initial gains for vocational education and training (VET) graduates in terms of employability and earnings (Chankseliani and Anuar, 2019), but these advantages fade once university graduates enter the workforce (Brunello and Rocco, 2017). Low-level analyses reveal tracking mechanisms, formal or cultural, which amplify impacts of background factors such as gender and prior academic performance, exacerbating educational inequalities (Simon and Clarke, 2016; Smith, 2010).

When the model moves to lower schooling levels, increased demand for WBL placements may give already privileged individuals an advantage, especially when employers hold the right to select apprentices since they may not be held to the same equality, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility standards as education bodies (Smith et. al., 2021).

My study focuses on Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) in Scotland. I assess who benefits most or least from apprenticeship, taking contextual factors into account. This inquiry tests HCT assumptions about capital accumulation and socioeconomic outcomes. Research questions (RQ1-RQ3) explore post-FA outcomes, socioeconomic variations, and sectoral differences, and compare with other (post)secondary options, addressing the impact of dual training on younger apprentices.

Several factors make the case of FA noteworthy. First, FA coexists with more vocationally oriented Modern Apprenticeships (MA), providing youth with a choice between more academic or workplace-oriented apprenticeship options. FA participants remain in school as students, while MA participants are classified as workers. Second, FA facilitates pathways into higher education, as its qualifications are recognised by Scottish universities. However, differences in the acceptance of sector-specific FA qualifications vary by educational institution.

My study raises questions aimed at assessing the effectiveness of dual apprenticeship in building capital and tests HCT assumptions associating capital accumulation with socioeconomic outcomes by controlling for individual characteristics. I ask:

1. How do post-FA employment and education outcomes vary across socioeconomic groups?

2. Are there sectoral differences?

3. How do these outcomes compare to those related to other education options?

RQ1 explores variations in post-FA employment rates, income levels, and destinations across gender, region, and socioeconomic status. RQ2 addresses potential sectoral differences, acknowledging that different industries may exhibit varying outcomes related to FA participation. RQ3 directly compares the outcomes of FA with those of other (post)secondary options, e.g., apprenticeships at International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) levels four and five.

It is since the time of the Sumerians (3500 BC) that the world has felt the need to pass on acquired knowledge in teaching and learning actions that have become increasingly structured and defined. A need that perhaps arose to make sense of the chaos of the outside world, to orientate, to delineate paths, and to educate the new generations so that they can make the world in which we live better. Undoubtedly the school represents, then as now, one of the pillars of the world and one of the elements that defines the quality of life in a country, and in our complex world, educational institutions are indispensable and necessary for everyone (Ingold, 2019). About quality, Elshaer (2012, p. 8) states: "Quality is a situation in which a set of intrinsic characteristics constantly satisfies the changing requirements of the organization’s customers and other stakeholders". And, if we want to relate this defining principle to the world of schools, we could say that school quality is what is achieved when the internal characteristics of the individual school under evaluation contribute to the satisfaction of the - constantly evolving - demand made on the school itself not only by students but also by society. But the picture of today's school appears dramatic. The data relating to access, attendance, and completion, as well as those relating to learning, scholastic well-being and teacher preparation, highlight numerous elements of weakness in the functioning of the world's schools. The UNESCO Statistical Institute (2022) states that 64 million children of primary school age do not attend school, most of them from marginalized groups, and of the 92% of children who start primary school, only 61% complete it (UNICEF, 2021). In addition to not being accessible to all, school also does not always teach. Even in countries with a high and medium level of economic development, the deficits in basic learning in reading, calculation and science are considerable. The results of PISA 2022, report that although about three out of four 15-year-old students demonstrate attainment of basic skills in reading and science in OECD countries, only 7% of students have attained the highest proficiency levels and only 69% of students are at least substantially proficient in mathematics (OECD, 2023).The data presented allows us to consider the needs and necessities for school intervention to improve the operations and direct the objectives in a new and changing society. Indeed, Sidorkin (2011) tells us that, at the crossroads where the world of mass education finds itself, we lack sufficient theoretical understanding to see where it can and cannot go next. Speaking about quality, the last theoretical aspect we wish to consider is the project Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN, 2015), with Goal 4: to provide quality, equitable and inclusive education, and learning opportunities for all. 2030 Agenda represents a milestone in the research, as it is the document that binds the four case studies selected, whose countries are signatories to the document, and is the script on which the research tools are based. The research we intend to present, therefore, aims to identify meanings and quality perspectives for the school of the future from the analysis of data collected in four case studies, which involved pupils, teachers, heads of school and families from four primary schools in the world, in comparison with the fundamentals of goal four of the 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015); and it has attempted to the tortuous but necessary path towards achieving a quality school by outlining some perspectives on quality for the future of schools.

This literature review presented in this paper was completed to fulfill the assignment for my PhD study. As an emerging researcher I am interested in teachers’ teaching quality and how it is assessed. Therefore, I would like to present in this paper the most interesting finding I have encountered in my literature review journey. I have looked at numerous conducted research, scholarly written articles and books related to international and Kazakhstani practice of teaching quality assessment. As I am from Kazakhstan, it was in priority for me to look at its performance in teaching assessment quality and how it could be improved. However, to have wide and diverse view and to discover teaching assessment practices by leading countries in education, I have selected six countries to compare with Kazakhstan.

There is an interesting argument that the school’s quality cannot exceed its teacher’s quality (OECD, 2014). The idea of the statement could be interpreted as a teacher’s quality is crucial in fostering positive outcomes in the classroom. If a teacher’s quality is important, then how to determine whether a certain teacher is well-qualified? There are frameworks practised worldwide known as teacher appraisal, performance appraisal, and teacher evaluation. In the Kazakhstani context, it was given the name of teacher attestation by the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES, 2000). Therefore, I will use the term teacher evaluation to refer to international teacher assessment systems while teacher attestation will be used in relation to Kazakhstan’s teacher assessment system.

According to Danielson (2007), teacher evaluation serves as a foundation for assessing, improving, and maintaining the quality of teaching. The Kazakhstani teacher attestation is defined by Pak (2020) as a periodical process which takes place to identify the level of professional and qualification training of teachers to determine the level of pedagogical skills. Although both teacher evaluation and teacher attestation are generally implemented for assessment and development of teaching quality, the aims and structure may vary. For instance, countries such as Finland and Singapore are often cited for having effective teacher evaluation systems. Teachers in Finland are urged to reflect and learn continuously (Sahlberg, 2010). Professional learning communities, mentoring, and an emphasis on collaboration among teachers are all included in Singapore's model (Ong Kelly et al., 2008). Every system seeks to address the teachers' continuous growth and development.

In case of Kazakhstan, the reviewed teacher attestation was introduced and implemented in Kazakhstan in 2000 and its aim was to assess teachers' competencies, subject knowledge, and adherence to educational standards (MoES, 2000). Therefore, it was implemented to enhance the quality of education and professional development among educators. This assessment often included the review of instructional practices, student outcomes, and professional responsibilities. However, changes in the policy of teacher attestation as well as in its aim is a frequent practice in Kazakhstan. Therefore, in Kazakhstan as well as in other countries, teacher attestation and teacher evaluation systems have faced and been facing challenges.

In this context, this paper provides a systematic review and analysis of scholarly written works, policy documents, and empirical research. The evaluation systems of countries such as Finland, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea were selected to be compared with the Kazakhstani teacher attestation. The paper is written to explore the aims of selected international teacher evaluations and Kazakhstani teacher attestation.

The systematic literature review aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the aims of Teacher Evaluation globally and in the Kazakhstani context?

There is substantial evidence supporting the importance of education and its significant positive effect on our lives. Specifically, it leads to higher income (Card, 1999), reduced crime rates (Machin et al., 2011), and better health (Conti & Hechman, 2010), and for women, in particular, it leads to lower birth rates and higher woman autonomy (Cygan-Rehm & Maeder, 2022; The World Bank, 2022). One of the common ways to assess the quality of education in a country, albeit subject to debate, is through standardized examinations. In the international arena, Kazakhstani students score lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) average on international tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), with an overall declining national average over time. To improve the quality of education at primary, basic, and general secondary education levels, the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan has implemented numerous educational programs in the past decade. However, there is little to no empirical evidence to support these programs and justify the allocated budget apart from success in the low-scale pilot studies. To address this challenge, I perform a policy evaluation of a shift to per capita funding in primary and secondary education levels, piloted in 2014 in partnership with UNESCO and launched in public schools in the capital Astana in 2018 and two other largest cities in the country, Almaty and Shymkent in the following year. Using the Difference-in-Differences, Synthetic Control and the newly introduced Synthetic Difference-in-Difference estimator by Arkhangelsky and colleagues (2021), I find no statistically significant evidence of the shift to per capita funding on the share of students who score below the threshold on a United National Testing (UNT) taken by high school graduates. While there certainly are limitations due to the data’s availability, the study’s short period, and the policy’s possible lagged effects, this paper is a significant step in using empirical research to inform policymaking and evidence-based social intervention in Kazakhstan.

Data as well as policy evaluation results indicate that the ratification of the CRPD – by Austria in 2007 and Germany in 2009 – can rarely make an impact on the implementation of the right to inclusive education in central European countries (EASNIE, 2020; KMK, 2022; Statistik Austria, 2022). A glance at the numbers shows that Germany represents the European average (7.02%) with 7.2% of students with SEN while Austria is below the average at 5.3%. This ranks both countries in the middle of the field regarding the percentage of students with SEN.

Like all European countries, Austria and Germany operate with assessment strategies to categorize students according to their abilities. The local school authorities organize the procedure to examine and assign eight to nine different SEN labels. A consistent and coherent examination strategy, nevertheless, is missing, but international classification systems like ICD-10 guide the diagnostic procedure (Buchner & Proyer, 2020; Gasterstädt et al., 2021). Thus, the organization of education and learning is shaped by traditional disability categories rather than an inclusive understanding guided by fostering participation, empowerment, and self-determination (Florian, 2014; Prengel, 2022). Based on an inclusive understanding, scholars and practitioners proclaim the organization of assessments that consider environmental factors, are conducted by multi-professional teams, and include inclusive classifications like ICF (Moretti et al., 2012; Sanches-Ferreira et al., 2014). This requires shifting the focus from diagnostics to pedagogics and thus administration with bottom-up rather than top-down approaches.

It results in the trilemmatic situation of administrating (inclusive) education regarding (1) the impact of (inter)national policies, (2) the bureaucratically top-down SEN assessment systems, and (3) attempts for inclusive bottom-up practices on the ground. This leads to the following question: What aspects constitute the research field of educational administration and inclusion in school education?

The paper contributes to the scientific debate on policy-making to implement inclusion in school education with a special focus on the role of educational administration in fostering social inclusion and diversity.

In Sweden compulsory education means that children must participate in education from the age of six, which includes one mandatory preschool year followed by nine years of compulsory school (The Education Act (2010:800) chapter 7 section 4). Children are also entitled, but not obligated, to take part in education, in for example preschool from ages 1-5 and upper secondary school.

Children who do not attend school is an increasing concern, both in Sweden and in other countries (Gren-Landell et al, 2015; Kreitz-Sandberg and Fredriksson, 2023; prop. 2017/18:182). There is a lot of focus on how to get children back to school but there is a lack of research about school´s legal responsibility in this area. In the general debate the school is highlighted as an important actor for children’s well-being. Research has shown that children with a history of problematic school attendance are at risk of early school leaving and run increased risks of weak connections to the labor market and poor health (Sundelin et al, 2023). To leave school with incomplete grades can also lead to social vulnerability and exclusion (prop. 2017/18:182). The project takes its starting point in these societal issues and investigates and analyses the legal responsibility for various actors regarding children´s fulfillment of compulsory schooling.

The right to education is a fundamental right which is protected by the Swedish constitution (The Swedish Instrument of Government), the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is a potential conflict when children with a right to education do not participate in school. In most cases it is not possible to opt out of the right to education when the child is also subject to compulsory schooling and therefore has an obligation to attend school. On the other hand, there is a risk that the right to education will not be upheld if the child does not participate in school.

The legal responsibility for children’s non-attendance at school is shared across several actors. For example, teachers, principals, the education providers, and municipalities. Except for the actors’ mentioned, student health also has a central role in the work with school absences. my goal is to elucidate the legal responsibilities of each party, examining both preventive and reactive measures. I will also investigate the legal regulations and analyse if the legal responsibility is clear as to when it starts and how extensive it is.

One part of the study is the focus in recent years on cooperation between schools and other authorities (prop. 2017/18:182; förordning (2023:179) om statsbidrag för personalkostnader för skolsociala team). When a child has problems with school absenteeism many authorities can be involved, not only internal cooperation with teachers, principals, municipalities, and students’ health. External cooperation with for example healthcare, social service and the police can also be relevant. There might also be a conflict between different actors concerning the purpose of preventive and reactive actions; Is the purpose for example, to focus on children’s long-term well-being or knowledge development? (Strandler and Harling, 2023). Depending on what role the actor has, it might affect the type of responsibility they have. The legal conditions for cooperation will therefore be investigated.

topic：

International schools in policy discussions face complexity within the network of globalization and national development strategy interests (Ball, 2012). Global South (GS) countries engage in the international education market to enhance international competitiveness with globalization, aligning with the 'competition state' concept that emphasizes economic performance and increased marketization within national borders (Cerny, 1997).

However, GS governments find themselves at a crossroads, as global capital's ascendancy challenges sovereign states' authority (Held & McGrew, 2007). Also, citizenship and national identity issues complicate the formulation of internationalized education policies (Hansen, 2012). Moreover, international school policies’ implementation simultaneously faces a democratic deficit, as noted by Brown (2000), where citizens are excluded from decisions on credential competition rules when international schools operate outside national systems.

Regulations on international schools delineate national education system boundaries (Komljenovic & Robertson, 2017), determining who can opt out of mainstream education for a market-oriented educational environment. One current international school policies’ primary objective is to manage market participation. Allowing local students access to international schools enables departure from the conventional education system and circumventing socialization’s significant aspects. This access may constitute a covert form of educational marketization, facilitating a quiet process that directly influences critical issues such as citizenship, inequality, national identity, and the country's strategy and position on talent in economic globalization context.

The convergence of economic globalization, Southern economic development, and middle-class growth, coupled with IB’s increasing popularity, marks a significant epoch. Through international school policies, GS nations strive to reconcile citizenship and stratification concerns with competitiveness. This confluence of economic forces and educational trends demands careful scholarly examination to comprehend global education’s evolving dynamics and its far-reaching societal implications.

Research questions & objectives：

Using evidence from four GS countries (China, India, Mexico, South Africa)，the research will compare and analyse their international school policy from following aspects:

Evolution of International School Policies Over Time:

• How have GS states' international school policies evolved over time in response to changing economic, social, and political contexts, and what patterns or trends can be identified in their development?

Strategic Positioning and Talent Development:

• How do GS countries strategically position themselves for talent development through international schools amid economic globalization, and what policies support or regulate this alignment?
• How do policies advocating international education align with or influence broader economic development strategies in GS countries?
• How do GS governments address challenges posed by the rise of global capital, especially in formulating and implementing internationalized education policies?

Impact on Education Systems and National Identity:

• How do international schools regulations impact national education system boundaries and determine mainstream education opt-out eligibility?
• To what extent does public intervention shape education marketization, impacting citizenship, inequality, and national identity?
• In what ways do international school policies in the GS reflect or challenge national identity facing increasing globalization? How does international education promotion align with or challenge national cultural values?

Theoretical Framework：

Policy Process Model (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1993) provides a robust theoretical framework for effective policy analysis of this research. This model is suitable for exploring policy evolution’s multifaceted dimensions, formulation, and implementation. Emphasizing the dynamic and complex nature of policy development, the Policy Process Model considers stages like agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation.

Several scholars argue for the Policy Process Model’s applicability in education policy analysis (Ball, 1994; McLaughlin, 1987). Sabatier (2007) emphasizes the model's capacity to adapt to changing economic, social, and political contexts influencing policy development. Using this model, researchers can systematically investigate the historical trajectory of international school policies in the GS, identifying patterns, trends, and influential factors at each stage of the policy process.

This paper explores the rise of anticipatory governance by international organizations (IOs) and global technology corporations through the deployment of global agendas to govern education futures (Berten & Kranke, 2022; Miller, 2018; Poli, 2018). In recent years, international organizations have taken up the role of ‘guardians of the future’ through their work on education visions (Robertson, 2022). Simultaneously, the Covid-19 crisis not just accelerated global technology corporations to embed educational technology (EdTech) in the classroom but also to bypass national laws and security concerns (Williamson & Hogan, 2020). Thus, taken together, education visions and EdTech are global agendas that play an influential role in contemporary education policies and practice, particularly in the governing of futures in education. Global agendas are a broad term, and I follow the definition of Elfert and Ydesen (2023) that global agendas act “as a key instrument of the global governance of education and are global targets that aim at uniting all relevant actors – national governments, IOs, non-governmental organizations, and other non-state actors behind a supposedly universal agenda of critical significance” (p. 200). Therefore, in such scenario, global agendas in education can include agenda-setting initiatives such as Education for All (EFA), international large-scale assessments, Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Bandola-Gill et al., 2022), accountability mechanisms and other relevant agendas that function through the ‘politics of convergence’ (Elfert & Ydesen, 2023, p. 103).

In a time of uncertainty, IOs as well as technology corporations have resorted to imbue anticipatory mechanisms within their global agendas to exert their authority and gain dominance in the complex architecture of the global education landscape. In the spirit of the conference theme, this paper will investigate Google For Education (an EdTech service from global technology giant – Google) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international large scale assessment launched by the Organization of the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to understand how anticipation methods and tools are utilized in order to steer education futures. Therefore, this paper seeks to understand how anticipatory governance in global agendas in education attempt to influence contemporary education policies and practice (Flyverbom & Garsten, 2022). In order to understand this, I employ a combination of qualitative content analysis and technography, to capture the anticipatory practices imbued in both Google For Education (Solomon, 2023) and PISA. I also deploy the key concepts of ‘sustainable futures’ and ‘techno-solutionism’ as conceptual frameworks to further tease out how PISA and Google For Education leverage on these two key concepts to steer education policies and practices. Initial findings suggest that the anticipatory practices in both Google For Education and PISA have considerable influence in the reorganization of education policies and practices (Gulson et al., 2021). For example, Google For Education relies on micro-credentialing professional development courses rooted in the discourse ‘preparing teachers for the future of learning’ to perpetually expand itself within teacher organisations. As for PISA, the ranking of nation-states in a vertical table creates anticipation for future rankings. Therefore, this research concludes that anticipatory governance in global agendas is on the rise as international organizations and global technology corporations seek for authority in the global education space.

In today's world, pervasive alienation and detachment from democratic processes underscore the urgency of addressing political challenges, particularly the rise of populist rhetoric (Ruitenberg, 2009; Tryggvason, 2018). The potential decline in civic engagement and trust in democracy among students is linked to their limited exposure to lived democracy, often absent in decision-making processes at school; for instance, over 70% of Lithuanian students don’t believe that their voice can make a difference in decision-making (NVO Švietimo tinklas, 2017). This disillusionment often leads students to relinquish decision-making to authorities and detachment from institutions.

Despite the endorsement of children's participation by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, translating this ideal into practice poses challenges. Despite the school's routine featuring non-formal civic education situations related to conflicts, student voices, and school governance, negative attitudes persist (Lo, 2017). Mere adoption of a democratic formal system is insufficient; authentic democratic institutions flourish when rooted in a democratic culture with values, attitudes, and practices (Council of Europe, 2016). Consistently upholding these values within the school community is vital for fortifying democracy, embracing pluralism, and transcending mere imitation (Thornberg; 2009). This significantly shapes how students develop democratic competence, particularly as the younger generation, disillusioned with traditional political processes, seeks alternative ways to engage in and reshape democracy (Thomas & Percy-Smith, 2023).

Their evolving approach to school participation may align with agonistic democracy, as proposed by Chantal Mouffe. Arising as a reaction to global polarization and in contrast to deliberative democracy, agonistic democracy sees conflict not as a hazard but as a driving force for democracy (Mouffe, 2000, 2013). Shifting attitudes toward conflict and viewing them as opportunities for educating democratic citizenship in schools could bring transformative changes in student participation and learning processes (Lo, 2017; Ruitenberg, 2009). Understanding how students learn about democracy and develop attitudes toward democratic values in today's world requires exploring pupil participation from an agonistic perspective, with an emphasis on the positive role of conflict to foster a dynamic and participatory school environment.

Within the historical context of Lithuania, where democratic citizenship education emerged three decades ago following the restoration of independence, marking a departure from almost half a century of totalitarian rule, there exists a noticeable gap in the study of student participation in daily school life. Consequently, this research aims to address this gap by evaluating students' current participation in daily school life and, through participatory action research, identifying and exploring ways to instigate change, potentially by implementing approaches rooted in agonistic democracy.

Research questions:

• How do students express their participation in daily school life, and in what contexts and settings does this manifestation occur? What types of students actively engage in these participatory experiences?
• How do various stakeholders perceive agonistic participation in relation to fostering democratic education? What insights do students gain from this participation, and how do they reflect on their learning experiences?
• How do teachers either enhance or impede the seamless integration of agonistic perspectives into students' democratic learning experiences, and what measures could be implemented to improve this integration?

The presented study is based on the observation of the implementation of an intercultural project offered in secondary schools in Germany. Intercultural competence has been deemed as one of the possibilities to tackle the forces that broaden the gap between migrated and established members of society in a time of political and societal uncertainty all over Europe.The primary argument of the paper is however, that the intercultural education currently offered in schools is not an exercise in reducing individual stereotypes in order to strengthen societal unity; rather, it involves the active engagement with, utilization of, and reflection on social situations from the perspective of the societal diversity discourse which carries the danger of strengthening mechanisms of exclusion by reproducing not only differentiating categories but the idea of dividing difference which is embedded in a social imaginary no longer attuned to societal reality (Schmidt/Wächter 2023). Though the study is working with a program designed for a national context, conclusions for the improvement of intercultural education in a European context will be drawn.

The research was triggered when it became clear that teachers and instructors of the program reinterpreted situations of conflict brought up by students during discussions by applying the predominant categories of differentiation such as “migrational background” or “nationality” even when these categories were not initially invoked by the participants. This divide between the participants' narrated experiences and the interpretations by instructors and teachers suggests that the courses can be viewed as reinforcing the existing discourse and socializing students into it.

The central argument of this paper is that intercultural education in schools, at times, falls short of its stated objectives. Instead of achieving a deeper understanding as theorized by Bredendiek (2015) and Deardoff (2009), it often serves as an initiation of learners into the discoursive system that perpetuates societal differentiation. More specifically, the program engages in the addressing and discussion of categories commonly employed in public discourse to interpret social problems, thus training participants to argue along those lines. Consequently, participants become socialized into the discourse and the associated narratives, as well as the societal roles imposed upon them through the lense of social identities.

Throughout the program, participants attended three distinct sessions, wherein group dynamic exercises and discussions aimed to enhance understanding and acceptance among students of diverse backgrounds and identities. Despite the program's claim to be grounded in current research on intersectionality and the constructed nature of societal categories, it adhered to traditional methods and beliefs of intercultural education which are widely criticized by Mecheril/Rangger (2022) and Gogolin/Krüger-Potratz (2020). They characterize current intercultural education as it is performed in schools as accepting a seemingly ontological differentiation between "us and them," focusing solely on acceptance rather than understanding or deconstruction of differences. Despite its claimed departure from problematic traditions and Eurocentrism, the program seemingly faces the same pitfalls as similar predecessors. The observations reveal that participants, enrolled due to conflicts within the group as perceived by the teachers, seldom attributed the conflicts to the categories discussed by the program. Instead, it was the explicit discussion of categories such as nationality or culture that incorporated them into the participants' argumentative patterns. Often, it was the teachers or instructors who actively reinterpreted participants' discussions through the lense of discursive categories such as "culture" or "belonging."

In her book 'Belonging: a culture of space', bel hooks writes 'living away from my native place I become more consciously Kentuckian than I was when I lived at home' (hooks 2009/2019, p. 13). This quote shows the significance of places in relation to one's own feelings of belonging. This is exactly where my doctoral project comes in, in which I ask how students with a refugee background experience everyday life in secondary schools in Berlin (Germany). Based on a relational understanding of space, I differentiate between place and space (Löw 2001/2019).

The focus on space in this case becomes interesting when we understand space as a product of physical, mental and social elements where the physical cannot be seen in isolation from the social and relational (Lefebvre). Space therefore can be described as a combination of what is physically present and what is imagined (Soja). The relation between school and out-of-school spaces will be explored, as will the self-positioning of the students within everyday life at school - beyond the classroom. In this context, moments of agency and well-being that arise in the students' everyday life are of particular research interest.

Focusing on a young refugees' perspective can be understood as a form of 'strategic essentialism' (Spivak 1981), that serves to contribute to a systematic thematization of migration, which is still a young phenomenon in the academic landscape. At the same time it is intended to counteract the dominant discourse in which the connection between education and migration is discussed primarily in the context of successful integration (into the existing system) (Mecheril 2013).

In this paper I want to put a special focus on methodological topics around participatory and creative research with students with a refugee background in schools: Which personas do play a key role?, In which way is the research influenced by the structures of the school itself?, and one of the most important questions, how can the participants be recruited in a participatory manner?

Mentoring practice is a widely established practice in preparing students for professional practice in various professions (Peiser et al., 2018). This is translated into extended placements in the field setting with formal mentorship opportunities; providing the integration of theory and practice (Orland-Barak, 2010). Mentoring practice typically has set roles: the mentor as the experienced expert whose role is to support the student’s development, and the student as inexperienced professional who needs to build her/his professional and personal skills (Kram, 1985). Mentoring practice is therefore inherently hierarchical, with the mentor as powerful and the student as less powerful.

In uncertain times with changing roles, the roles of mentor and student, respectively, are also at a tipping point. It is true that the mentor exercises power, but, what is often overlooked is that the student also can exercise power: that in and by his/her speaking and acting s/he also directs the conversation and thereby influences the learning. In line with recent work (e.g., Ben-Harush & Orland-Barak, 2018; Mullen & Klimaitis, 2021) that urges to redefine mentoring, focusing on a more dynamic relationship and bidirectional learning; the purpose of this study is to uncover if and how students can (also) be powerful in mentoring practices and influence the focus of their learning.

To explore this, power was discursively conceptualized. This means that power is viewed as the effect of how actors interact with each other (Martín Rojo, 2001). Actors do power, resulting in a continuous flux of power in interactions (Hayward, 1998). Power is thus not conceptualized as something that an individual possesses (or lacks), but rather as something that is performed relationally. It is about 'power to' rather than 'power over' someone (Hayward, 1998).

Such a discursive approach to power is operationalized further using a combination of positioning theory (PT) (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999) and frame analysis (FA) (Dumay, 2014). Central to PT is the idea that actors continuously position themselves and others in interaction (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999). ‘Positioning’ entails a continuous dynamic, relational process wherein the actors assign specific rights and duties to themselves and others (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999). These positionings are then interpreted from the frame on which they are looking at the placement. Frames are defined as cognitive structures that actors bring to a situation but always evolve and develop in interaction with others (Dumay, 2014). Actors’ frames are linked to their prior experiences, informed by their beliefs and expectations for (mentoring) practice, and help them to explain and make sense of the situation they find themselves in. FA provides the tools to see how frames over time emerge, gain meaning, adapt, merge or clash. As such, the combination of PT and FA results in a better understanding of the flow of power dynamics.

This resulted in following research question: (How) Do students exercise power based on the confluence of positionings and frames, and how does this influence the focus of their learning?

The purpose of this research project, a three-year study funded by the Swedish Research Council (2022-2024), is to investigate how the mentoring of student teachers can contribute to the professional development of the mentor teachers themselves. Professional development in this study refers to teachers´ perceived experiences of growth in professional knowledge, skills and dispositions in connection to the mentorship activities they carry out with student teachers.

We conducted a large-scale survey study, through a questionnaire design based on the previous literature on mentoring, explorative interviews with mentors, and the thematic areas proposed in Activity Theory (Engeström, 1999). The participants include a nationwide sample of teachers who mentor student teachers enrolled in teacher education programs at the primary school level (Grades 4-6) in Sweden. Through the analysis of the data, we have built a model that demonstrates how mentoring activities and mentor teachers´ characteristics can be potential predictors of their professional development.

We conducted a number of analyses of the survey data:

1. We investigated the individual and contextual factors determining mentor teachers´ self-efficacy (SE) beliefs in their role mentoring role. Self-efficacy as a concept is derived from Social Cognitive Theory and is defined as “beliefs in one´s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1997). There is much research on teacher SE, yet SE in mentoring is little researched. High SE is found to be predictive for educators’ increased sense of identity, shared perspectives and job satisfaction (Andreasen et. al., 2019). However, because the determinants that contribute to higher mentoring self-efficacy beliefs remain unclear the data could provide us with some insights specifically about the SE of those who take on the role of mentoring.
2. Drawing on concepts from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT- Maton, 2014) which is concerned with how mentor teachers respond to the relations between who one is (being a mentor) and what one knows (having certain knowledge). LCT has provided insights into the dichotomy of tacit and explicit knowledge (or knowledge for-in-on practice).
3. We have identified mentors that have received formal training in mentoring and compared different variables to see how and what aspects of training has enhanced mentor perceptions of their own professional development.
4. Model development and testing – Our model was built drawing upon aspects of activity theory which enabled us to test our hypotheses in the data. Our model includes: independent variables such as mentoring activities, mentoring resources (i.e., tools such as curriculum documents, observation forms, discussion with university teachers); and, dependent variables such as professional development, school improvement and student development. Correlational and regression analysis were carried out to test the size and significance of the relations among these variables.

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is an impactful pedagogy in maths classrooms but it is rarely used, particularly in the younger years of schooling in primary maths classrooms (Luckin et al., 2017). OECD reports and PISA testing (Program for International Student Assessment [PISA], 2015) have highlighted the importance of both collaboration and problem solving as crucial 21^st century skills in diverse classrooms. Cooperative Learning (CL) is one type of pedagogy that helps to develop collaboration and by using CPS in classrooms, teachers can aim to develop their students’ social and cognitive skills. Cooperative learning is a pedagogy designed to ensure all students participate to meet a common goal and has five essential elements to ensure it is effective (Gillies, 2003; Gillies & Ashman, 1996; Johnson & Johnson, 1994). It enables students to develop the skills of collaboration and be a resource for each other’s learning, so provides the opportunity for students to collaborate in problem solving activities. Both collaborative and problem-solving skills are essential especially as teachers need to be “better at preparing students to live and work in a world in which most people will need to collaborate with people from different cultures, and appreciate a range of ideas and perspectives” (OECD, 2017, p.5).

The paper explores the importance of supporting teachers’ learning and practice with CPS. Theories of learning (Piaget, 1959; Vygotsky, 1978) have shown clearly that children learn through collaboration (Williams & Sheridan, 2006). Cooperative Learning (CL) is a pedagogical approach that reflects the importance of a collaborative culture which allows students to develop both cognitive and social outcomes (Gillies, 2003; Johnson et al., 1990; Slavin, 1995). Teachers need to therefore plan activities that require their students to be engaged in dialogue, consider different perspectives, encourage tolerance and respect and develop interpersonal relationships. Problem solving activities also promote these skills and this research project examines the issues around Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) as one type of collaborative activity in classrooms to develop these skills and competences as a best practice pedagogy in maths.

The PISA 2015 framework defines CPS competency ‘as the capacity of an individual to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution and pooling their knowledge, skills and efforts to reach that solution’ (Fiore et al., 2017, p.2). Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is composed of two main elements: collaborative, involving sharing or social aspects alongside knowledge or cognitive aspects. Thus, the primary distinction between individual problem solving and collaborative problem solving is the social component. This involves the use of communication, shared identification of the problem, negotiation and the management of relationships.

CPS is different to from other forms of collaboration having a group goal that needs to be achieved with the solution requiring problem solving, needing team members to contribute to the solution, and evaluation required to see whether the group goal has been achieved. It is important to ensure that there are various roles as well as ensuring activities of the team members are interdependent so that a single person cannot solve the group goal alone. The collaborative activities therefore require communication, coordination, and cooperation.

This paper examines how a small teacher team developed effective collaborative problem solving (CPS) lessons in their primary maths classrooms. It explores the following research question: How are teachers able to explore the use of effective CPS maths activities in a Professional Learning Network (PLN) and explore their students’ cooperative skills using a proactive action research approach?

Mathematics teacher education has long been the focus of educational research. Much attention has been paid to university studies and training in schools in the early years (e.g. TEDS-M, Döhrmann et al., 2012). In recent years, the continuing development of teachers already working in schools has also become increasingly important. Professional development (PD) courses are crucial for advancing mathematics education, enriching teachers’ skills, and overall enhancing mathematics instruction (Prediger et al., 2022). Facilitators play a pivotal role in this process, significantly influencing teacher learning (e.g., Borko et al., 2011). Notably, facilitator expertise, particularly their ability to engage in noticing during PD courses, is instrumental in supporting teachers’ effective learning. Following van Es and Sherin's (2002) framework, noticing includes recognizing the significance of a situation, establishing connections between interactions and broader teaching principles, and using contextual knowledge to reason about interactions.

Facilitator expertise in PD settings, essential for navigating complex instructional scenarios, has been explored by Zaslavsky and Leikin (1999). However, recent research tends to overlook content-specific considerations while focusing mostly on generic aspects, relevant for different subjects (Prediger et al., 2022). To address this gap, our study focuses on content-related PD, examining facilitators' categories like pedagogical content knowledge on the PD level (PCK-PD) and general pedagogical knowledge on the PD level (GPK-PD). Particularly, we analyze how facilitators categorize a fictional PD situation.

The concept of noticing for teachers (van Es & Sherin, 2002) is also transferable to facilitators and PD settings. This transferability can be seen when aligning this framework with the PID-model proposed by Kaiser et al. (2015), which highlights situation-specific skills such as the perception of events, interpretation of activities, and making of decisions. In a PD setting, similarly to in a classroom situation, perception, interpretation, and decision-making are central processes of a diagnostic competence and skilled navigation of facilitation and teaching (Hoth et al., 2016).

In considering the expertise that facilitators bring to PD settings, frameworks for examining teachers’ expertise have been lifted to the facilitator level (Prediger et al., 2022). Specific to mathematics content-related facilitator expertise, Prediger et al. (2022) applied a content-related framework for teacher expertise (Prediger, 2019) to the facilitator level. The framework includes jobs as typical and complex situational demands that are connected to the facilitation of specific mathematics PD content. Furthermore, practices are seen as recurring patterns of facilitators’ utterances and actions for handling the jobs and are influenced by underlying categories, pedagogical tools, orientations, and situative goals. In regards to the knowledge that determines the facilitators’ categories or categorial perception and thinking that impacts the facilitators’ practices, this knowledge is connected to their pedagogical content knowledge for teachers’ professional development (PCK-PD). Such PCK-PD consists of the knowledge the facilitators have relative to teachers’ learning. More general pedagogical knowledge on the PD level (GPK-PD) refers to the knowledge facilitators have in relation to the management and instruction of PD courses such as related to motivational aspects (Prediger et al., 2022)

In considering these underpinning aspects concerning noticing and facilitator expertise, we pursued the following research questions as a way of examining the expertise and needs of the facilitators in a mathematics PD and qualification program, and specifically, as a means of examining the PCK-PD and GPK-PD that facilitators demonstrate when noticing:

1) How do experienced facilitators engage in noticing of a fictional PD situation?

2) How do less experienced facilitators engage in noticing of a fictional PD situation?

Two fundamental assumptions underpin the current research. Firstly, every learning interaction is inherently a literate interaction. This signifies that students are expected to proficiently and flexibly navigate various modes, both spoken and written, in order to convey thoughts and emotions, formulate ideas and opinions, defend arguments, present information clearly and concisely, and effectively engage in quality communication tailored to specific goals, circumstances, and target audiences (Berman & Ravid, 2008; Tolcinski, 2022).

The second assumption - every learning interaction encompasses processes related to Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) and Executive functions. SRL is essential in the learning process of students, as it enables them to manage and oversee their entire learning process (Jansen et al., 2019; Lichtinger & Kaplan, 2011; Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman et al., 2023). The self-regulation process consists of three phases: the preparatory phase, where students plan before learning; the performance phase, where students employ cognitive strategies to successfully complete tasks; and the appraisal phase, where students reflect on their learning, evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies, and consider adjustments for future study sessions (Jansen et al., 2019; Pintrich, 2000; Puustinen & Pulkkinen, 2001; Zimmerman et al., 2023). These processes also encompass executive functions, which are a set of higher-order cognitive processes necessary for directing goal-oriented behaviors and tasks that are not carried out automatically (Spencer, 2020). Executive functions are particularly important in performing complex tasks like reading comprehension and writing (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). Skilled readers, for instance, must exercise control over their reading process, ensuring comprehension and employing diverse strategies (Landi,2012). Written expression also necessitates organization, planning, control, and the ability to analyze task requirements, make decisions, and allocate attention (Flower & Hayes, 1981; Kaplan et al., 2009).

These fundamental assumptions are the basis for building the student's literacy resilience. In this study, resilience is examined from both a linguistic literacy and a metacognitive perspective. It focuses on the learners' ability to navigate educational tasks that demand both literacy skills and self-regulated learning (SRL). These skills collectively form the foundation for cultivating literacy resilience. When a student approaches a literacy task while applying meta-strategic knowledge, they will be able to unlock their literacy resilience and autonomously manage such challenges without requiring the intervention of a teacher. This approach is not contingent upon previous failures but is seamlessly integrated into the standard learning routine.

Hence, it is crucial to comprehend the concept of literacy resilience, the methods for constructing and nurturing it, and the implications of fostering literacy resilience on teachers' lesson planning, classroom discourse, and students' approaches to their assignments.

This study establishes a theoretical connection between linguistic literacy, Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) skills, Executive function and meta-strategic knowledge. In this article, a comprehensive definition of literacy resilience, will be presented. Additionally, an analysis will be presented to evaluate teachers' perceptions of their students' levels of literacy resilience.

The term "literacy resilience" (LR) is based on a theoretical connection between linguistic literacy, meta-strategic knowledge and self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. A combined definition of resilience is the ability to persevere in the face of challenges and cope with difficult situations through a set of processes that allow for better results despite the presence of significant threats / difficulties Linguistic literacy skills anchored in SRL are the cornerstones of the learner's literacy resilience (Amir & Heaysman, 2022).

Teacher learning and teacher professional development (TPD) are always key to educational reform (Edwards 2011). The effectiveness of teacher learning activities is one of the core concerns for TPD around the world. Billions of dollars annually have been invested in improving the quality of teachers’ skills and qualifications by developing their opportunities for TPD (Kraft, Blazar, & Hogan, 2018; DeMonte, 2013). However, research on TPD has generally yielded disappointing results with teacher professional learning activities often being characterised as ineffective (Sancar, Atal, & Deryakulu, 2023; Patfield, Gore, & Harris, 2023; Admiraal, Schenke, Jong, Emmelot & Sligte, 2021; Fairman, Smith, Pullen & Lebel, 2023; Merono, Calderón, & Arias-Estero, 2023).

The ineffectiveness of teacher learning can be attributed to the in-service training style in earlier stage of TPD. Traditional approaches of improving teacher learning emphasize annual credit hours for the sake of credentialing. The training was disconnected from authentic classroom contexts and teachers often passively engaged in these activities, and resulted in their limited motivation (Fariman, et al., 2023; Coldwell, 2017). In considering these drawbacks, much research has tackled this problem and proposed solutions. For example, some called for the need for a clearer definition of TPD and an articulation of its particular characteristics and frameworks (Sancar, et al., 2021). Researchers also proposed conditions to improve the quality of TPD. It would be better if the activities are more intensive, sustained, and practice-based, and if the participation is more active, collaborative, having buy-in from teachers, and subject-specific expertise from outside (Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021; Fairman, et al., 2023). However, several recent evaluations of TPD interventions which include all the characteristics have not found a positive impact (Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021). In other words, the consensus around the characteristics of effective TPD still lacks evidential warrant.

Clearly, the wicked problems of TPD remain. The questions researchers wondered over for two decades included: What are the conditions that support and promote teachers growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002)? How teachers develop professionally (Evans, 2011)? What are the contextual factors impacting it (Kang et al., 2013)? What TPD actually is and what effective TPD really entails (Sancar, et al., 2021)? How this TPD should be designed is somewhat less clear (Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021). As it currently is, researchers have a vague consensus in the direction of holisticity. Research needs to examine the TPD concept as a whole (Evans, 2014), and provide a meaningful and holistic perspective of TPD (Sancar, et al., 2021). If holisticity is highlighted, rather than exploring fragmented characteristics, features, and elements of TPD, a different research approach may be needed.

This study draws from Actor-network theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005) as a theoretical perspective and methodological approach to investigate TPD. The major difference between the ANT approach and other empirical researches in TPD is that learning is an effect of the relations within assemblages of human and non-human entities (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). ANT treats entities equally and focuses on relations and its effects. Specifically, learning is considered as relational, connected, and associated through which matter and meaning, object and subject, co-emerge (Mulcahy, 2014). Three conceptual tools of ANT guided this study: translation (Latour, 1987), assemblage, and matter of concern (Latour, 2004). The (in)effectiveness of TPD can then be re-conceptualized as investigating the network effect of TPD activities. By exploring a specific in-service teachers’ hands-on workshop, this study ask the question: how does teacher learning, as a network effect, happen?

Student questions have multiple benefits for teaching and learning (Chin & Osborne, 2008). However, to ensure that student questioning is effective for learning, teachers must ensure that students will find answers. A major obstacle for teachers in guiding questions to answers is that many initial student questions are unfocused, poorly investigable, and therefore difficult to answer (Baranova, 2017). Guiding unclear initial questions to more focused investigable questions, is a cognitively challenging and time-consuming process (Herranen & Aksela, 2019). Teachers would like more insight into how to guide learning questions to answers in the best possible way within the available time and resources (Kaya, 2018).

Our assumption was, that teachers would first need a clear view of the aspired quality of a question in order to identify the potential quality in initial student questions and to be able to use appropriate instructional strategies to foster that quality. However, we found that the participating teachers in this study found it initially difficult to identify the potential quality of student questions. They needed to develop a deeper understanding of which types of student questions and research activities would lead to hands-on research that is feasible for students and which will lead to deeper understanding of the core concepts of the subject under study. Smith et al. (2013) showed that teachers who guide the process of student questioning need to develop Pedagogical Process Knowledge. PKK refers to the teachers’ ability to diagnose the current state of students’ question quality and the ability to choose and employ the most effective instructional strategies to foster the students questioning process.

Smith et al. (2013) found that teachers could develop PPK in a community of practice by using conceptual models (cf. Bereiter, 2005). Unfortunately, a conceptual model to develop PPK about fostering question quality was not yet available. Therefore, we developed the conceptual model of Multiple Hypothetical Question-Related Learning Trajectories (MHQLT’s) for this study. MHQLTs are based on the Hypothetical Learning Trajectories (HTLs) of Simon and Tzur (2004) as a conceptual model to help teachers explore possible pathways that learners might take to reach a learning outcome. Simon and Tzur found that using HLTs to explore potential learning pathways helped teachers to anticipate on and use effective instructional strategies to support student learning. The HLT approach seemed promising for guiding student questioning, because this might help teachers to think about, anticipate upon and find effective ways to foster the quality of student questioning for hands-on research. The essential functionality of the MHQLTs -model is: a) to explore the different learning trajectories of various question-types based on for students feasible research activities, and b) to understand the patterns in the relationship between the formulation of different question-types, types of hands-on research activities and types of learning outcomes. To make working with the MHQLTs model more accessible for teachers we visualized and introduced it to them as the “Question Compass”.

The aim of this study was to determine the value of the Question Compass for teachers' professional learning of effective diagnostic and instructional strategies (PPK) to guide the quality of student questions. To determine if and how the Question Compass contributed to teachers’ professional learning, the value of the conceptual model was operationalized with Odenbaugh’s (2005) and Alonzo and Elby’s (2019) criteria for the quality of conceptual tools: generativity, flexibility, and robustness. Therefore, the main research question of the study was: In what ways was working with Question Compass as a conceptual model perceived as generative, flexible and robust for teacher learning about effective diagnostic and instructional strategies to support students’ question quality?

This paper aims to examine the Emotional Ambience (EA) in classroom interactions between teachers and students. During a Swedish lesson, students aged 13-14 work individually on writing assignments. The teacher attends to students who raise their hands and ask for assistance, leading to one-to-one interactions, also known as dyadic interactions, which are the focus of the analyses. Two video-documented interaction situations of different character are studied. The analysis focuses on the emotional coordination of various communication elements between student and teacher, including gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and tempo of speech.

In a recently published article, I introduce the concept of Emotional Ambience along with a three-dimensional model for examining collective emotions created in social situations (Droppe, 2023). The model outlines 1) the valence of collective emotions - ranging from pleasant to unpleasant, 2) their level of arousal - from low to high, and 3) the level of emotional entrainment or coordination - from weak to strong - among the actor’s emotional expressions in interactions. In this paper, I intend to apply the model of Emotional Ambience to empirical data.

The concept of Emotional Ambience complements Randall Collins' theory of Interaction Ritual Chains and his concept of Emotional Energy (Collins, 2004). Collins' theory elucidates the manner in which interwoven rituals of daily existence wield influence over social life. It outlines how collective actions and shared cognitive and affective orientations within a group can evolve into sentiments of solidarity and reverence for the group's symbols. Successful interaction rituals engender Emotional Energy (EE), marked by increased levels of confidence, enthusiasm, and proactivity. Conversely, unsuccessful interaction rituals deplete EE, prompting individuals to seek to reproduce interactions that enhance EE while avoiding those that diminish it (ibid.).

Emotional Energy resides within the individual as the enduring emotional outcome resulting from the interaction ritual. It extends beyond the immediate interaction and shapes subsequent interactions, thus forming interaction ritual chains. In contrast, Emotional Ambience is collective, arising from the emotions exchanged among actors during an interaction ritual. It dissipates once the interaction concludes.

This implies that there exists an intriguing dynamic between EE and EA as they mutually influence each other. However, it is not a simple linear relationship where a positive atmosphere yields emotional energy. For instance, during a funeral, where the emotional ambience is characterized by sorrow and sadness, emotional energy may arise as a consequence of mourners coming together and sharing their feelings during the ritual.

Collins' theory in combination with the EA-model underscores the importance of conjoined actions and shared focus in creating a sense of belongingness (Collins, 2004; Droppe, 2023). Applying this perspective to educational contexts offers insights into classroom dynamics between teachers and students. Emotional coordination drives social cohesion and is observable through participants' verbal and non-verbal language and expressions. This model enhances our understanding of collective emotions and their role in shaping social relations, especially in educational environments. In this context, this study contributes to the expanding body of research focusing on the importance of social relationships in educational settings. By shedding light on the social dynamics between teachers and students the study aims to enhance our understanding of how these relationships shape educational experiences.

Several decades of teacher effectiveness research show clear correlations between teachers' ability to adapt instruction to students' needs and students' learning gains. For teachers to develop this complex adaptive ability, however, at least 15 years of professional experience is often required (van den Hurk et al, 2016). At the same time, societal developments in the 21st century have resulted in teachers today encountering a highly diverging population of pupils, wherefore attempts to accelerate teachers' ability to adapt instruction to students' needs are considered urgent (Ibid.).

This study was carried out in Sweden, where operational responsibility for students’ schooling rests at the municipal level. Overall regulation is provided by the National Agency for Education (NAE) via curricula, grading criteria, and national tests, but local school professionals enjoy a high degree of freedom regarding the design of instruction and assessment. The last 15 years, however, the state has increasingly taken control of the substantive and methodological focus of instructional improvement efforts, by providing state grants to municipalities committing to work with national-scale teacher professional development (PD) programs in content areas designated by the state as particularly important. The most extensive efforts have been directed at mathematics and literacy instruction, with the expressed goal to strengthen Swedish teachers' ability to adapt instruction to students' varying needs. Within the national PD programs, teachers work according to a fixed cyclical model including text reading, testing given methods in the classroom, and discussing in 'collegial learning groups'. As these programs are linked to extra funding, their content and associated working methods have come to occupy a large part of Swedish teachers’ annually allocated PD time.

One of few research studies on the national programs' impact on students' results shows that the program aimed at mathematics instruction had a small but statistically significant impact on teachers' instructional practices but no effect for student achievement (Lindvall et al., 2022). Moreover, neither national grade statistics nor internationally comparative knowledge measurements show any increase in students' knowledge results to date (Skolverket, 2023). Thus, it can be questioned whether such efforts, given their enormous financial cost, are effective in raising teachers' ability to adapt instruction to students' needs. There is also concern that the dense flow of general solutions provided from school authorities risks reducing rather than strengthening teachers' agency and ability to analyse the needs of their own student base (Engström, 2022; Jahnke & Hirsh, 2021).

This study stems from a three-year R&D collaboration - involving three researchers and 170 teachers - initiated as a reaction to the development described above, where general prescriptions for instructional improvement are served top-down from school authorities. The collaboration’s overall design is grounded in the activity theoretical frameworks of Expansive learning and Transformative Agency by Double Stimulation (Engeström & Sannino, 2010; Sannino 2022; Vygotsky, 1997/1931). Since expansive learning implies that the collaboration taking place is about jointly learning ‘something not yet there’, the researchers' role is not to share a predetermined method for the participants to implement. Instead, double stimulation is regarded as a core mechanism to guide and strengthen the transformative agency of the actors working with the changes in practice. Hence, the role of researchers is to provide stimuli that evoke and contribute to maintaining a transformation process led and owned by the practitioners.

This study aims to contribute knowledge about teachers’ professional development through:

• Presenting a theory of action for teachers’ use of assessment information for needs-based instructional improvement that recognizes multidimensional professional knowledge and stimulates agentive action.
• Exploring how that theory is put into practice by teachers and what effects it potentially entails regarding students' and teachers' knowledge development.

Urban areas across Europe are characterized by increased diversity. This is reflected in the school populations in these areas with a high degree of heterogeneity and diverse learning needs (Smets & Struyven, 2020). Secondary school teachers are expected to adapt their teaching to the diverse educational needs of students through differentiated instruction (DI) (OECD, 2018; UNESCO, 2017). DI is seen as an important domain of educational quality and as an approach for providing equal educational opportunities for all learners (Brevik et al., 2017). According to Tomlinson and Imbeau (2010), the core of DI is the adaptation of learning content, process, product and effect in response to differences in learners' readiness, interests and learning profile. This involves teachers assuming different learning needs in their 1) lesson planning and preparation, 2) selecting materials, 3) lesson activities, 4) classroom organization, and 5) student evaluation and assessment (Prast et al., 2015). DI is included in teachers' competence requirements and part of the educational inspection framework. Most teachers recognize the different learning needs in the classroom and the need to adapt instruction, but few secondary school teachers actually put DI into practice (Inspectie van het Onderwijs, 2017). Letzel et al. (2023) found that teachers in upper secondary schools are more often than not low on the implementation of DI, and do not often implement DI. Several explanations are offered in the literature: Teachers indicate that they do not feel prepared to implement DI, that they lack knowledge and understanding of DI. They find differentiation too complex to incorporate into their teaching practice and doubt its feasibility (Gaitas & Alvas Martins, 2017; Whipple, 2012). Research shows that teacher professional development for teachers is warranted. Langelaan et al. (2024) identified characteristics of teacher programs for DI that were successful to some extent. They incorporated active learning, collaboration and reflection and were often longitudinal, comprehensive and addressed attitudes, knowledge and skills. Understanding of differentiation is cited as a prerequisite for being able to apply DI in practice and teachers' attitudes play a crucial role in their use of differentiated instructional practices (Wan, 2016). Educational innovation and improvement is generally seen as intricate: professional learning of teachers within the school is constantly influenced by the often complex school context in which it is implemented. Factors like the (national) curriculum, policies, various organizational factors, and numerous personal characteristics of teachers and students constantly interplay with school development processes. Dack (2019) found that knowledge about differentiation of candidates developed during a course and that participants integrated the newly acquired knowledge into their existing frameworks of knowledge about teaching and learning, which strengthened their beliefs about the importance of differentiation and their learning. At the same time, teachers are constantly trying to find coherence between their own personal frames of reference and those of the changing context during an innovation (Stollman et al. , 2022). As a result, educational innovations often turn out differently than they were intended by their developers. TPD programs for DI are often initiated and developed by external parties and facilitated by educational experts from outside the school (Dixon et al., 2014). Educational development and improvement driven by the school's own ambition may lead to more sustainable and lasting change (Geijsel et al., 2009). At the same time, the question arises whether schools have the resources, capacity and expertise needed . research question: how and to what extent does a school-led and school driven innovation for DI contribute to teachers conceptions, attitudes and classroom practices concerning differentiated instruction? The innovation was monitored during the course of one school year.

In a neoliberal society, individualistic and technical logics reduces professionals to consumers of development courses (Hardy, 2012). Principals’ professional learning has come to be about carrying through standardized methods on the initiation of school authorities (Aas & Blom, 2017). Such arrangements usually not lead to changes, due to difficulties of transferring content from one practice to another (Forssten Seiser & Söderström, 2022).

The aim of this study is to contribute with an empirical example of principals’ professional learning from a practice perspective, conceptualizing learning as the process of changing practices (Kemmis, 2021).

The theoretical framework used is the Theory of practice architectures (TPA) (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) and Ecologies of practices (Kemmis et al., 2012). According to TPA a practice are made up of sayings, doings and relatings. Related to these, the practice architectures consist of three kinds of arrangements prefiguring the practice; Cultural-discursive arrangements - the sayings of a practice, mediated through language and discourses; Material-economic arrangements - resources as the physical environment, human and non-human entities, schedules, money and time ; Social-political arrangements- shaping how people relate to other people and to non-human objects, mediated in the social space as rules, hierarchies, solidarities and other relationships. Ecologies of practices takes a wider perspective to focus on how the practices are related to each other in the complex of educational practices.

Principals’ professional learning is an essential practice within the educational complex (Kemmis, 2022). The aims vary depending on situation, time, and context, which also affects how schools’ owners make arrangements for principals’ professional learning. The professional learning we discuss in this presentation is a Master course designed as action research and planned in collaboration between a school superintendent in a Swedish municipality and two researchers (also authors of this text) in a Swedish university.

The school superintendent was the one who took the initiative and contacted the university with a request to arrange a Master course for interested principals in compulsory schools in the municipality. Initially, the superintendent contacted the person who was responsible for the regular Master programme, but for various reasons it turned out to be difficult to find a solution that fitted the needs in the municipality and the superintendent’s expectations. Therefore, the school superintendent took the question further, which finally resulted in contact with two action researchers who are also engaged within the national school leader training programs. In the continuing process, a specific professional learning course is organised especially designed to suit the school superintendent’s ideas and thoughts, and based on the researchers’ knowledge about action research and findings from a previous study on collaboration between school leaders and researchers (Forssten Seiser & Portfelt, 2022). In that previous study, the results reveal the crucial role of the initiation of this kind of collaboration, the prerequisite of co-ownership, and the importance of relations built on trust and respect for each other’s professions, knowledge, and expertise. The study also stresses the importance of setting the arrangements for the collaboration in good time before proceeding to the work.

The present study aims to explore the initiation process of the collaboration between the municipality and the university in the design of the first part of the course, and its influence on the principals’ professional learning in terms of their pedagogical leadership. The research questions are;

• What was the purpose of the course and the collaboration between the partners, and how was it developed in the collaboration practice?
• How was the initiation part of the course developed in collaboration practice throughout the first semester?
• How has the design of the first part of the course influenced principals’ professional learning about their pedagogical leadership and local school improvement so far?

These questions will be considered through the lens of the theory of practices architecture (Kemmis et al. 2014). The theory stresses that practices are human-made and socially established; therefore, it highlights the role of the participant in the practice and in the shaping of the practice (Kaukko & Wilkinson, 2020). According to Kemmis et al. (2014), a practice is constituted by the sayings, doings, and relatings that hang together in the project of a specific practice. These sayings, doings, and relatings are prefigured, but not predetermined, by practice architectures present in or brought into the site. Sayings are prefigured by the cultural-discursive arrangements in a site, doings are prefigured by the material-economic arrangements in a site; and relatings are prefigured by the social-political arrangements in a site.

This paper explores and discusses how process guides from OsloMet and teachers at partnerships schools can collaborate strengthening teachers’ competence to guide and develop collective models of guidance. Exploring collective models of guidance opens a space for teachers and guides from OsloMet to develop new knowledge and new forms of acknowledgements. Understanding how to develop guiding competence demands for teachers to reflect within different forms of knowledge, including knowledge not yet communicated (Grimen, 2008). Connecting theory and practice where subject-didactics, pedagogy, and theoretical understandings of didactics is seen in relation, is also a central goal for teacher training in Norway (Meld.st. 11 2008-2009). Learning more about the tacit knowledge of teachers (Argyris og Schôn, 1978) and by that making it possible to explore more about the competence to guide is thereby central. We seek understanding about how systematic participation in collective arenas of collaboration can contribute also for teachers to develop competence to guide student teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between leadership for learning and professional development, through the recognition of the importance of context and the ideas of inter-school collaboration, solidarity, trust and support (Swaffield & Major, 2019). The paper acknowledges the complexities and idiosyncrasies of educational contexts, both in terms of policies and practice, as well as in the ways they enable or hinder leadership for learning within inclusive learning environments. The study is qualitative in nature, and follows the development, implementation, and evaluation of an action plan on professional development at a primary school in Cyprus. Data collection takes place via policy analysis, semi-structured interviews to document the in-depth understanding of participants with the use of case study design, and the researcher’s reflective journal.

The research questions are designed to uncover the challenges and opportunities that teachers encounter, their perceptions of leadership impact, their preferences for professional development, and the potential benefits of engaging in collaborative practice. More particularly, the project aims to: a) identify challenges faced by teachers in relation to leadership and professional development within the current educational context in Cyprus, b) investigate how teachers view the impact of inclusive leadership on their professional development, b) the types of professional development that teachers find most beneficial, and d) the use and effectiveness of collaborative approaches to leadership, learning, and professional development.

If we cannot sit with the complexities within us, there is no chance we can hold space for the complexities around ourselves".

Vanessa Andreotti

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become a pivotal element of initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland, urging educators to foster self-awareness and social responsibility among learners. Anchored in the recognition of teacher educators (TEs) as policy actors who are mandated by Irish national policy to integrate GCE as one of seven core elements that must underpin ITE programs (Teaching Council 2020, p.14), this longitudinal study investigates the development, process, and scaffolding of an international Community of Practice (CoP) focused on enhancing TEs' self-awareness for GCE.

The theoretical framework informing this study is critical GCE. Critical GCE highlights the importance of learners reflecting upon their own knowledge and assumptions, and “exploring the implications of their own ways of seeing and being in the world in relation to power, relationships, and the distribution of labour and resources (Blackmore, 2016, p.39). It is rooted in social justice (Giroux & Bosio, 2021), as it invites learners to examine preconceived values and perspectives in local and global settings and reflect upon their understanding of the world (Bosio, 2020, 2023). Critical GCE, therefore demands a learner-centred, autonomous approach, where learners reflect and build upon their own experiences and social contexts to develop their knowledge and understanding (Leicht et al., 2018). Embracing these approaches creates space for plurality of perspectives rather than a pre-determined formula for what learners should do or think. Developing these dispositions to learning, and the competences associated with critical GCE, therefore requires continued and critical self-reflection (Blackmore, 2016). The research question driving this inquiry is: How do TEs experience professional learning aimed at fostering self-awareness in the context of critical GCE and social justice education? This question underscores the need for TEs to engage in reflective practices that illuminate their capacities and challenges in integrating critical GCE into their pedagogical repertoire.

Central to this investigation is the operationalisation of the CoP, which serves as a reflective space and a crucible for innovation in pedagogical strategies. Lave and Wenger (1991) define CoPs as ”a system of relationships between people, activities and the world; developing with time, and in relation to other tangential and overlapping CoPs” (p.91). CoPs are viewed as a powerful way to examine TE learning (Patton & Parker, 2017). This collaborative approach leverages shared resources and a repository of activities to foster a deep engagement with the 'self' (personal and professional), employing pedagogies that push the boundaries of comfort to promote genuine reflection and growth. The CoP's collective expertise in teacher education, coupled with its commitment to critical GCE and social justice, provides a rich backdrop for exploration and experimentation with various pedagogical prompts designed to enhance self-awareness for GCE. The shared resources form the backbone of the CoP’s collaborative efforts. These resources encompass a conceptual framework for exploring TE identity (from the perspective of the professional and personal self), professional learning needs, and the nexus of GCE and self-awareness. The repository also includes a diverse array of activities and prompts shared to stimulate discussion, encourage self and co-regulation, and foster relationality in the learning space.

The contribution of this study lies in its potential to illuminate potential pathways through which TEs can deepen their understanding of self-awareness for GCE. By examining the lived experiences and reflective practices within the CoP, this research aims to offer insights into how educators can navigate the complexities of their internal landscapes to better engage with the external challenges of global citizenship and social justice education.

The issue of professional learning community (PLC) has received considerable critical attention within the field of teacher continuing professional development (CPD). It is now well established from a variety of studies that PLC contributes greatly to teachers’ changes in practices, knowledge, beliefs, agency, and affective characteristics (Dogan, Pringle & Mesa, 2016; Long, Zhao, Yang, Zhao & Chen, 2021; Philpott & Oates, 2017; Tam, 2015).

In a narrow sense, PLC can be understood with the aim to facilitate school-wide improvement in teaching and learning and is usually linked to local school context where teachers work (Admiraal, Schenke, Jong, Emmelot & Sligte, 2021; Brennan & Gorman, 2023; Chen & Wang, 2015; Steyn, 2017). In a broader view, PLC is seen as a platform where a collective of individuals collaboratively examines and reflects on their practices in an ongoing, learning-focused, and inclusive manner, with the shared goal of promoting professional growth (Stoll et al. 2006).

The Special Education 1 programme (Spesialpedagogikk 1) represents a primary official in-service teacher training offer in Norway. This programme is assembly-based (samlingsbasert) with lectures and group activities addressing a variety of themes within special education. Teachers participating in the programme serve in either public or private schools (from first to tenth grade) across Norway. During the six assemblies they are grouped into several small learning teams (basisgrupper) for collaborative discussion and group tasks around cases. This CPD arrangement is similar to the concept and practice of CSTT (Cross-School Teacher Team) Cederlund (2018) introduced and examined in her seminal study in Sweden. The CSTT represents a form of PLC where teachers from different schools across Sweden but with shared pedagogical interests meet each other physically/digitally for CPD. This study concluded that CSTT can provide a professional space of diversity, interdependency, visibility, and transparency in which local practices are reflected on and transformed collectively.

In our previous investigation on teacher motivation for CPD in special education, we found out that one main reason for the teachers to participate in this in-service teacher training programme is the desire for professional socialisation, that is, the thirst for learning together with others (Pan, Østby & Gudmundset, 2023). Drawing upon both the broader understanding of PLC and teacher motivation for CPD in special education in Norway, this study attempts to explore how CSTT is experienced in the Special Education 1 programme.

The theoretical framework adopted in this study is practice architecture (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). According to Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008), practice is complex and socially established. It is a cooperative human activity encompassing saying, doing, and relating. Saying refers to individuals’ expressions, allowing us to understand us, others, and the world. Doing means the actions and activities we take and undertake. Relating indicates identity and role shaped in relation to others.

The World Bank calls for the capacity development of developing countries due to their inherent socio-economic and political challenges (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2007). This has further resulted in calls to develop the capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries as this is a way to contribute to the economy and society by increasing human capital (Färnman et al., 2016; Pinheiro et al., 2016). Capacity development, via the educator, is the starting point of social change as educators have the propensity to concomitantly impact students, the HEI and society at large (Aragón & Macedo, 2010). Capacity development at HEIs has hitherto primarily been observed through cross-border offerings between HEIs in the North and the South (OECD, 2007; Sánchez-Chaparro et al., 2021). There is, however, a strong belief that the capacity development paradigm must be altered away from the dominant and unequal frameworks of North-South interaction (Pearson, 2011; Standing & Taylor, 2016). Therefore, it is not always necessary to import capacity from the North (Färnman et al., 2016) as developing countries can “tap into possible synergies” with other developing countries (Chaturvedi, 2016:3)

This study examined the viability of a South-South teaching collaboration between a partner HEI in South Africa and two recipient HEIs: one in South Africa and the other in Namibia. South Africa, as the partner HEI, was selected as the context of this study as it is a dichotomy; despite the presence of first-world convenience, significant levels of poverty prevail. Some South African universities are well-developed and encompass several distinguished research institutions, while others lack the facilities and Information Technology infrastructure required for relevant teaching. Data collection comprised questionnaires and interviews with recipient educators involved in the capacity development relationship to understand further their experiences and perceptions of the viability of a South-South teaching collaboration.

This study makes a twofold contribution. First, it responds to calls to examine South-South collaborations in building capacity in developing countries (Pearson, 2011). It does so by examining the capacity development relationship between educators at a well-developed HEI in South Africa and recipient educators at two less-developed HEIs in the region. This study gives voice to the Southern perspective, which is often not heard in the debate on North-South or South-South collaborations (Pearson, 2011; Adriansen & Madsen, 2019). Finally, the study contributes to the limited literature on teaching collaboration in capacity development relationships as prior studies have primarily focused on research collaborations (Brum & Knobel, 2018).

While this study examines the HEIs in Africa, this study will be of interest to an international readership. HEIs in South Africa and Namibia are uniquely positioned: some enjoy international recognition for their academic programmes, yet others face a variety of challenges typical of a developing context. Consequently, the findings of this study may resonate with HEIs located in other developing markets as more than 84% of the world’s population resides in the developing world (Bloom, 2020). As developing countries typically have a large number of universities, this study is of relevance for a large contingent of the world’s universities.

Collaboration is accentuated as one of the critical 21st-century skills students need to learn to be best prepared for their future professional and social lives. One reason for the emphasis on collaboration is that today's workplace is structured with teamwork as the basic structure (Deepa & Seth, 2013). A recent study focusing on 21st-century skills for higher education students in EU countries found that employees consider collaboration/teamwork skills one of the essential soft skills that graduates need (Crosta et al.,2023). In higher education, the focus on group learning to learn and develop collaboration skills is growing, and there is a wealth of different approaches, such as cooperative, collaborative, problem-based, and team-based learning (Davidson & Major,2014).

Cooperative learning (CL) is a pedagogical model that can support facilitators of learning to structure students working in small groups for academic and social gains. It is described as an instructional use of small groups where students work together to maximize their learning and others (Johnson et al., 2008). The pedagogical model has a long history and an extensive research base demonstrating its effects (Kyndt et al.,2013; Slavin 2015). Cooperative learning is proposed as suitable for improving university instruction as it is based on validated theory to mediate effective collaboration where the students learn through collaboration and learn to collaborate (Johnson et al., 2014). It is found that CL at the university level is effective for developing students' social skills necessary for teamwork (Mendo-Lázaro et al., 2018).

Johnson et al. (2014) accentuate a conceptual CL approach suitable for improving university instruction. The conceptual approach is based on social interdependence theory (Deutch, 1949), and five validated essential elements must be structured into the learning situation to mediate effective collaboration. The five elements are to ensure the group and its members have positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, appropriate use of social skills, and group processing (Johnson et al.,2014). The social interdependence theory, the five elements, and suggested CL procedures provide an integrated system for teachers to organize and design learning in small groups.

Despite the established benefits for students' learning, CL is considered complex, and teachers encounter difficulties implementing the method (Ghaith, 2018; Sharan, 2010). Besides, different group learning approaches are already used in university settings to organize students` working together. Instead of teachers implementing an integrated CL system to organize and design learning in small groups, we believe there is a potential for teachers to inquire into their existing group learning and teamwork practices through the lens of the five elements of CL. It is argued that understanding the five elements allows CL procedures to be designed and, in this way, gives faculty tools to support learning in groups (Johnson et al., 2014).

To our knowledge, there is limited research on how the five elements of CL can be used as a reflective tool to inquire into their existing instructional use of group learning and teamwork in higher education. Often, the focus is on implementing the pedagogical model with a focus on specific methods and CL structures. We believe there is an untapped potential for extending and applying CL as a theory in higher education by inquiring into existing group learning and teamwork practice with a reflective lens using the five elements of CL to support the development of collaboration and teamwork skills.

In this research paper, we explore:

In what ways can the theoretical model of cooperative learning as a reflective lens be used to support the facilitation of teamwork in higher education?

In recent decades people in almost every developed country have experi-enced many rapid changes in society; migration and rapid technological developments. These dramatic changes have influenced adults worldwide with respect to their participation in lifelong learning. As a result great emphasis has been put on adult immigrants to participate in various courses and learning activities (Van Tubergen and Van De Werfhorst, 2007). However, there is ample evidence to show that success in attracting participants from this target group is lacking. One of the challenges lies with women from the Middle East who are scattered around the work market and in society in general. Even though state policies have set out requirements, regarding education for immigrants, and determine the importance of embracing diversity so that immigrants find it easy to integrate to the society and access their chances of participation in daily life, there is a considerable group of adults women, of foreign origin, who has a limited role in participation in the educational activities on offer.
The main purpose of this research is to highlight factors which impede participation and successful completion of courses, among women from the Middle East in lifelong learning courses in Iceland and to investigate how best to meet the variety of these women´s needs, and thus to enhance their access to the community in order to establish a safer community for their children and descendants which allows for the integration of both the existing and new culture. These aspects are an important part of making future developments possible for these women regarding participation and coexistence in the new environment.
The research question is: How do women from the Middle East explain their limited participations in lifelong learning activities in Iceland?

Sociologists have often focused and drawn pictures of how culture, identity, goals, attitudes, values, communication and even what is most important to people in life can vary between cultural areas or periods. They often put specific labels on periods of history that are supposed to describe culture of a certain period and certain groups. Today's society is no exception here, but sociologists' analysis and interpretation of the societies immigrants and refugees enter can help us understand their opportunities, challenges and the way the society reacts toward these vulnerable groups. In this study I outlined the main theories used in the interpretation of the data and their relationship to the research and its subjects. Pierre Bourdieu's theories on social, cultural and economic wealth should first be mentioned (Bourdieu, 1997; 2007), but he believes that individuals within a society are never equal, but possess varying amounts of wealth. which affects their activities and capacity for activities/participation in the society in which they live. I have also relied on Gidden's theories about the importance of education and the responsibilities that lies on both individuals and societies (Giddens, 1998; 2000).

According to his theory, it is an individual's right to have choices and to make his/her own decisions. But they also have to stop and think about the consequences of their decisions. In order to better understand the life and situation of the adult learners and their various need for practicality, I have relied on Knowles' six assumptions about the characteristics of adult students,i.e. how and why some adults take active participations in lifelong learning (Knowles, Holton and Swanson, 2005). Finally, I have used Wlodkowski's ideas about adult educators, and how he considers and interpretes the responsibility and the role of instructors, educational organizers and lifelong learning sectors to make the learning interesting, motivating, effective and accessible to everyone(Wlodkowski, 2007).

The teacher's professional competence is crucial for supporting and developing the increasingly complex skills students need to succeed in a constantly changing society. Professional competence is linked to how teachers learn and how they apply knowledge in practice to promote pupils' learning (Avalos, 2011). In the last 20 years, the focus has shifted from individualized to collective professional learning (Vangrieken & Kyndt, 2020). Nevertheless, there are many indications that schools struggle to facilitate collective learning. The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) reports few changes to the collaboration among teachers from 2013-2018 (OECD, 2020), and the learning activities of teachers are mainly individual when they participate in school-based professional development (Solheim et al., 2018). Establishing professional learning communities in upper secondary schools is particularly challenging (Aas & Vennebo, 2021). This is linked to the size of the schools, which are often organized with more or less autonomous departments. The teachers are characterized by a large degree of autonomy and a weak tradition of cooperation (Huffman et al., 2016).

Desimone (2009) identifies five characteristics of teachers' learning: content focus, active learning, coherence, collective participation and that the development of competence takes place over time. Collective participation seems to be important, something that is also emphasized in the review study of Darling-Hammond et al. (2017). Collaboration and a positive collaborative climate are emphasized together with the use of modeling of effective practice, coaching, and expert support with opportunities for feedback, guidance and joint reflection. Thus, learning is strongly linked to content and context. Social participation as a learning process is central to Wenger's theory of learning (2003). Hargreaves & Fullan (2012) use the term social capital when they highlight the potential that lies in teachers cooperating and learning from each other. The social capital is the cornerstone in developing and changing the teaching profession, and can be developed by the teachers gaining access to the human capital of their colleagues. This means that arenas need to be created to develop collective learning communities. In that context, school leaders can support collaborative processes and promote the development of a professional learning community by focusing on content, clarifying roles and goals, and providing structural support (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Timperley et al., 2007). Robinson (2014) specifies five leadership dimensions that affect the school's results: establishing goals and expectations, strategic use of resources, ensuring quality of teaching, leading teachers' learning, and ensuring a safe learning environment. Sølvik and Roland (2022) shine a spotlight on the complexity of leading collective professional learning in schools and realizing management theory in practice. They argue that leaders must provide collective direction, systematically follow up and adapt collective learning processes over time. This involves systems thinking and sensitivity to the school context, which Paulsen (2019) also emphasizes when he uses the term strategic school leadership.

Based on the premise that workplace-based competence development is a collective form of learning with the potential to promote collective learning and school development (Hargreaves & O'Connor, 2018), we have in recent years had several major national initiatives in Norway. In this paper, we take one of these initiatives as our point of departure: "Yrkesfaglærerløftet. Strategi for fremtidens fagarbeidere. Kunnskapsdepartementet." (YFL) (KD, 2015). The intention of this initiative is to increase academic quality and strengthen the education. It is assumed that at least three teachers from each school take part in the same further education, and compulsory work requirements will contribute to knowledge sharing in their own collegium (Directorate of Education, 2016). We ask: How can participation in further education for vocational teachers contribute to promoting teachers' professional competence?

It has been established that effective professional learning does not exclusively rely on intentional and planned development opportunities. In fact, formal and traditional kinds of training, such as courses, workshops and conferences are well represented in almost all education systems, however, other forms of continuing professional development are “emerging with activities that are more peer-based, collaborative, less structured, and focused on grass roots involvement” (Eurydice, 2015: 12). According to Evans (2019), professional development is not limited to intentional initiatives and opportunities, but rather occur as part of everyday working life, within normal working environments and contexts.

Professional development empowers teachers to take ownership of their learning and professional growth, fostering a sense of agency and efficacy in their roles as educators. Effective approaches to professional development, which may be defined as what happens when teachers attempt new practices and processes in their work (Saunders, 2014), implies teachers’ professional commitment to learning, professional autonomy, with an active and reflective attitude, in which they are both learners and teachers (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Čepić et al., 2015). Reflection and research on teachers’ own teaching practice seem to be key aspects leading to continuous improvement in their professional practice.

A reflective teacher is someone who is able to reflect on their practice, question their assumptions and make informed decisions based on this. This reflection can take place during practice (reflection in action) or after practice (reflection on action) (Schön, 1992). Research seems to be closely connected with reflection, a concept that can be tied to the notion of teachers as researchers (Schön, 2000; Zeichner, 1993). Zeichner (2003) suggests that teachers should engage in research regarding their own practices as a means of professional development. By doing so, teachers enhance their skills and effectiveness, leading to an improved quality of learning for their students.

Nonetheless, the way teachers perceive research may be complex due to the different meanings and interpretations (Sousa et al., 2019). For example, there can be conceptions of research with an orientation toward external products where the intention is to produce an outcome and conceptions that are holistic and analytical with an orientation towards internal processes where the intention is to understand (Brew, 2003). Cain (2016) also delved into how teachers engage with research and identified two primary motives: intrinsic, driven by practical and professional needs like seeking solutions to teaching challenges, self-reflection, and knowledge enhancement; and extrinsic, including aspirations for career advancement, prompted by school leadership, or pursuit of further qualifications. According to Lopes et al. (2023, p.11) “research is related to knowledge about the practice and problem solving, but also with the empowerment of teachers’ ability to identify problems and interpret situations in the light of shared knowledge with the community of educational researchers. It corresponds to a ‘mature professionalism’, which is based on continuous professional development based on learning”.

Also, a distinctive feature of teachers' professional development is the fact that we refer to an occupational group whose professional status and working conditions vary from country to country, from context to context (Caena, 2014; Darling-Hammond, 2017). National specificity with regard to professional development and career regulation becomes an important variable when delving into studies related to the professional development of teachers.

Considering this background, this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the professional development journey of Portuguese teachers in the last 50 years and to inform on the factors enabling or constraining this process, namely personal, social, political, and institutional contexts.

Educational Design Research (EDR) emerged as a teacher professional inquiry approach in the 1990s (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). It is a process that involves teachers and researchers collaborating to research teaching and learning for the purpose of improving both teaching practice and theoretical understandings through cycles of experimenting and refining (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). EDR has proven effective for teacher professional learning (PL) in many contexts (e.g., Dunn et al., 2019; Lim, 2022), but it is relatively new to China.

China has made significant strides in its curriculum and teaching reform by implementing the New National Curriculum Standard. This updated national document provides a comprehensive framework for curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. One of the most prominent concepts in this framework is large-unit teaching, which has become a trend and marks a significant change in teaching. As a result, there is a pressing need for an effective approach to help teachers learn how to design their lessons based on the large-unit concept as per the New National Curriculum Standard.

Accordingly, this study aims to research EDR in the Chinese context and examine whether it is an effective approach to help Chinese teachers adapt their lesson design to the trend of large unit design and the requirements of the New National Curriculum Standard. The goal is to bridge the literature gap and address the reality need for teacher professional learning in the Chinese context and other contexts within the broader global background of curriculum reform. The anticipated outcome of this study is to promote a better understanding of teacher professional learning and contribute to how EDR supports it in general.

A particular focus of this study is placed on understanding the characteristics and process of teacher change that occurs as a result of EDR and how the dynamic interplay of external and internal factors affects teacher learning in EDR. This focus formulates the research questions: (1) What changes in teacher teaching practice, knowledge, perspectives, and emotions occur during the different phases of teacher participation in EDR? (2) How does the dynamic interplay of external and internal factors affect teacher learning in EDR?

The first theoretical framework is the model of teacher professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002). It proposes that teacher change occurs naturally in a professional community dealing with four domains — external domain, personal domain, domain of practice, and domain of consequence, mediated by enactment and reflection. It resonates with EDR in that it involves teachers and researchers collaborating throughout the process to study teaching and learning in a specific subject area, for the purpose of improving both teaching practices and theoretical understandings through cycles of testing and refining. During the process, a single sequence or change network should capture dynamic changes across domains.

The second theoretical framework is teacher learning mechanisms by Sims et al. (2022) in their systematic review. They reviewed the conditions for teacher learning in professional development and proposed a series of teacher learning mechanisms targeted at developing teachers’ insights, goals, techniques, and practices (I/G/T/P). This provides a plausible framework for this study to examine what combinations of causally active components EDR involves. From the first framework, we already know the external factors and their interactions with teachers and their practice, but little about the working mechanisms. Therefore, this framework is used to explore how external factors connected with EDR interplay with teachers’ internal factors, thus influencing their learning.

Background

This international research project views critical reflection on teaching practice as a vital capability for university lecturers. Critical reflection supports continuous development of teaching academics as facilitators of learning experiences who manage the constant change and complexity of the teaching profession (Mathisen & Bjørndal, 2016, p. 230). We use the term ‘Collegial Intervision[1]’ to synthesise the practices of peer observation, collegial discussion, and critical reflection that occur within professional development programs for lecturers at the three universities. The terminology emphasises that participants work together to gain clarity and insight into their practice and philosophy of teaching. The aim is to foster horizontal rather than hierarchical relations between peers (Wenger, 2011), where participants are positioned as co-learners who reflect together.

Comparisons and continuities – three international cases

Our three universities in Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland are connected through offering peer group collegial dialogues as foundations for professional development of university teachers. This study investigates structured dialogues aim to promote critical reflection as a common practice, seeking to elaborate previous research that documents a variety of beneficial outcomes from peer mentoring groups (de Lange and Wittek, 2023; Gardner et al, 2022). The effects may include professional unity and supportive collegiality, which can stimulate reflective discussions around teaching and supervision in addition to participants’ own peer discussions, informed by different peer mentoring frameworks (de Lange and Wittek, 2023, p. 187).

Despite the benefits, empirical research evaluating learning and development in structured collegial dialogue in academic development programmes is scarce. In our project we focus on participants’ experiences of change in their daily teaching practice – considering if they experienced any change. We are interested in how they themselves experience the learning and possible change. Our work is guided by the following research questions:

• Do participants experience any significant changes in their teaching practice after taking part in Collegial Intervision groups during university pedagogy courses?
• Do they experience changes in their reflective practice on their teaching?
• Do they perceive changes in how they talk about their teaching with colleagues?

These questions were explored through interviews and focus groups in the three countries. At each of the universities, individual and focus-group interviews have been conducted with participants who attended the programmes one to three years ago.

The data analysis is informed by Mezirow’s concepts of critical reflection and thoughtful action with reflection (Mezirow, 1991, p. 109). Currently, we envisage a convergent approach, where data from each country will be interwoven into a nuanced understanding of critically reflective practice.

Proposed panel discussion – untangling unresolved tensions in academic development

The concluding discussion aims to focus on some of the key tensions and questions that recur in our research group conversations:

1. Method: how do/can/should we evaluate participants’ learning in academic development programmes? What methods are suitable for understanding ‘impact’ on learning and development?
2. Shared understanding: across three countries, we practise similar development programmes but still struggle to define key terms in a way that is both general and context-specific (e.g. critical reflection, peer mentoring, SoTL, collegial counselling). How can this be negotiated in a way that allows shared understanding and local responsiveness?
3. Future research: we see value in the inclusion of cross-disciplinary efforts as an explicit part of research design (de Lange and Wittek, 2023). There is a need for better understanding of how such project-based collaborations evolve, not just as part of the Intervision practises among peers, but also to expand our understanding of academic and joint professional development processes and learning in higher education.

[1] The meaning of Collegial Intervision is directly translated as ‘collegial shared clear sight’

Research into teacher professional learning is a sub-field of education research that has been growing steadily over many decades but has shown an exponential increase in recent years. This is illustrated by the growing number of articles in peer-reviewed academic journals (Halinger and Kulophas, 2020), the growth of professional enquiry to generate research-based practice (Clayton and Kilbane, 2016), and the change in terminology from INSET through to professional development to professional learning, as indicated in recent discussions within Network 1 of EERA (EERA, 2019). This panel discussion will take as its stimulus the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of the journal Professional Development in Education (PDiE). PDiE was established in 1974 in recognition of the fact that the continuing professional learning of qualified teachers needed to be considered more seriously in the academic world. The panel discussion will provide stimulus for discussion about the state of research in the area by tracing back the early development of research in teacher professional learning, considering how professional learning has evolved across a range of European countries and anticipating where research in this area might go next.

Three presentations will be offered as a stimulus for discussion:

1. The first presentation will look back at research in teacher professional learning, policy and practice over the past 50 years, drawing on an overview of the articles published in Professional Development in Education since 1974. It will provide an analysis of the ways in which perspectives and polices have changed and developed at individual, institutional, national and international levels (Jones & O’Brien, 2024), illustrating how the influence of changing educational and societal contexts have impacted on professional learning policy and practice. The presentation will consider the types of studies published, using Lee’s (1997) distinction between policy-focused analyses and empirical research into the impact of professional learning episodes and programmes and events, it will highlight the move to non-linear, complex interpretations of ‘effective’ professional learning (Strom and Viesca, 2021; Asterhan and Lefstein, 2024), and invite participants to identify similarities and differences in the professional learning journeys from their own national, local and personal experiences.
2. The second presentation will look at professional learning research across Europe, drawing on the recently published research across five European countries (Ostinelli and Crescentini, 2021) and the edited volume ‘Innovation in teacher professional learning in Europe’ (Jones, Ostinelli & Crescentini, 2024). Through a comparative analysis of a number of different national contexts, the presentation will highlight new thinking and changing policies across Europe, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Torrance et al., 2023).
3. The final presentation will look forward, identifying the burning research questions that still remain unanswered, despite 50 years of research on teacher professional learning. It will consider, amongst other things, the implications of increasing globalisation, the mainstreaming of Artificial Intelligence and the potential for genuinely transformative professional learning (Kennedy & Stevenson, 2023). This final presentation will also consider contemporary debates on what approaches might prove most revealing in researching teacher professional learning, taking forward debates about the relative use of randomised control trials versus qualitative approaches, as well as considering previously under-used approaches and methods.

Participants will be invited to discuss the extent to which research on teacher professional learning in and beyond Europe has served us well to-date, and to work together to identify a future research agenda that will offer us greater power to theorise professional learning in ways that can contribute to enhancing practice.

In teachers’ lifelong professionalization, informal learning represents a core aspect of continuous professional development in addition to organized in-service training. Informal learning opportunities that are usually initiated and controlled by the teachers themselves include, among other things, obtaining teaching-related feedback from students and colleagues, which is considered to be extremely effective for teachers’ learning (e.g., Hattie & Clarke, 2019; Ridge und Lavigne, 2020). In contrast to surveying the frequency of participation in continuing education and training courses, it has been difficult so far to measure the use of informal learning opportunities as comprehensively as possible, since many survey instruments list activities that are considered to be conducive to learning in a more or less random manner (Dobischat & Gnahs, 2008). For the teaching profession, Kwakman (2003) identified a variety of informal learning opportunities in a qualitative interview study, which in a multi-step process finally led to the development and validation of the Teachers’ Professional Development at Work (TPD) survey instrument (Evers et al., 2016) with the dimensions ‘Experimenting’, ‘Collaborating for School Development’, ‘Collaborating for Lessen Development’, ‘Keeping Up-to-date: Reading’, and ‘Reflecting and Asking for Feedback’. This study tests a German adaptation of this originally Dutch instrument and examines the relationships between the informal learning opportunity dimensions and exemplary demographic, dispositional, and job-related characteristics that are highly relevant for the use of learning opportunities (Cerasoli et al., 2018; Richter et al., 2011). The following research questions are addressed:

RQ1: Can the dimensions of the use of informal learning opportunities identified in Evers et al. (2016) be confirmed in a German translation of the instrument?

RQ2: How often do teachers in Germany use different dimensions of informal learning opportunities?

RQ3: To what extent do age, gender, the lack of a qualification for the teaching profession, general self-efficacy, and the takeover of tasks in the extended school leadership show effects on the frequency of using informal learning opportunities?

Brief Abstract
This empirical study investigated Ukrainian elementary schoolteacher perceptions of their professional flourishing within the current education environment in Ukraine. It involved 12 teachers from different parts of the country and explored the relationship between professional and personal flourishing. In addition, the research attended to the contexts of state and society within conditions of ongoing neoliberal education reform since Ukraine declared independence in 1991. Teacher opinions were also solicited about the relationship between professional flourishing and continuous professional development (CPD) in this dynamic climate. Their views were elicited as well about a preferred educational future for the evolving democracy of Ukraine under the impact of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion in 2022.

Main Research Question and Sub-Questions
1. What does it mean to flourish professionally for Ukrainian elementary school teachers?
a. What do they feel might enable or impede their sense of professional flourishing?
b. What are their views about continuous professional development (CPD) in relation to professional flourishing?
c. How do they see their role evolving under democratic reforms in Ukraine and what is their ideal vision for the country's educational future?

Theoretical Considerations
To better understand contemporary Ukrainian elementary school teacher views on their flourishing as professionals, the concept of flourishing (Turban & Yan 2016; Huta & Waterman, 2013, 2014) and, with it, the related notion of capabilities (Nussbaum, 1988, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2011; Sen, 1979, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1999), were reviewed and applied as a theoretical frame. In conjunction with this, the paper also considers how neoliberal thinking and policy technologies have impacted education (Lebovic, 2019; Rustin & Massey, 2015; Olssen & Peters, 2005; Harvey, 2005)—and education in Ukraine, in particular—in the shift from the Soviet to Western political space; following which ensues a discussion of teacher professionalism and professionalization as brought about by neoliberalism, with emphasis on the post-Soviet space and Ukraine, specifically, through the lenses of globalization (Savage, 2017; Rizvi, 2007) and Europeanization (Fimyar, 2010; Gawrich et al., 2010; Creed, 1998).

Knowledge brokering’ illustrates how knowledge can move between research communities and contexts outside of academia (Olejniczak, 2017; Ward et al., 2009). The term is also present in governmental documents in Norway, most recently in National Strategy for Research on Education 2020-2024 (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2020) and the state budget for 2023 (Finansdepartementet, 2022). In the strategy, the Norwegian Ministry of education states that “[…] all activities that promote the use of research can be labelled knowledge brokering” (p. 15, our translation). Based on this, it is hard to see how the concept of knowledge brokering differs from terms like knowledge transition (Kumar & Ganesh, 2009; Lavis et al., 2003), knowledge mediation (Montalt-Resurrecció & Shuttleworth, 2012), and knowledge transaction (Patsarika & Townsend, 2022). To understand what knowledge brokering entails, it becomes necessary to study the term conceptually.

The ability to apply knowledge in contexts outside of its domain of origin is an epistemological challenge (Leppälä, 2012). Still, this is required in professional school and kindergarden development and projects driven by research-based decisions. We will focus on knowledge brokering between academic institutions and primary schools, considering school development.

Conceptual framework

When it comes to development in the educational sector, it is not possible to point our finger at something as the result of the process, as we work with immaterial objects. These objects must be constructed socially. Through situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and sociocultural approaches (Säljö, 2007), it becomes apparent that language plays a definite role in meaning-making and is understood as a medium by which we construct the objects we work on.

Statement of the problem

What can ‘knowledge brokering’ entail in the relationship between academia and primary schools, regarding professional development in both sectors?

The Dutch Educational Network “Sprong Voorwaarts [“Jump Forward”] aims to contribute to knowledge utilization related to future-oriented education. In total, 13 partner organizations participate in the network varying from primary and secondary schools, teacher education institutes, and an academy for community and talent. Within this network teachers, teacher educators, and researchers collaborate in ‘Knowledge Labs’ (KL) to develop knowledge products for daily practice. The network aims at finding possible solutions for future challenges in education related to four overarching themes (1) developing teacher behavior, (2) developing teacher identity, (3) developing leadership and (4) developing organizations. This workshop focuses on the output of the Knowledge Lab: ‘Agency of Educational Professionals’ which is related to the theme of developing teacher behavior in the context of innovations in education.

Agency is defined as "the conscious and purposeful exercise of influence, making choices, taking advantage of opportunities or adopting a proactive attitude resulting in changes in the work situation and/or in one's own professional development (Eteläpelto et al., 2013). Agency is seen as an important part of the professionalism of teachers and teacher educators especially in relation to the continuous changes in education (Oolbekkink et al., 2017). Researchers have indicated that teachers’ professional agency is a key capability for advancing student learning, and for their continuing professional development and school development (Toom et al., 2015). Agency is “practiced when teachers exert influence, make informed choices in a way that affects their work within and beyond schools, and/or their professional identities (Eteläpelto et al. 2013, p. 61).” In relation to the role teachers can play in educational innovations they are sometime referred to as change agents. A study by Van der Heijden et al. (2015) indicates characteristics of change agents pertaining to lifelong learning, mastery, entrepreneurship and collaboration.

However, how to effectively promote professional agency of teachers is still uncharted territory, especially because knowing what agency is, does not automatically gives professionals the capacity to develop their agency within their professional contexts (Oolbekkink et al., 2017). Research suggests that professionals are more likely to develop professional agency, when they: a) involve themselves in acts of agency fitted to their professional contexts, b) choose acts of agency that are within their zone of proximal development, c) when they discuss together which actions are most suitable in specific contexts for them to develop agency, and d) when they reflect on the impact of these actions on the development of their agency (Van der Heijden et al., 2015). These insights were used to develop a knowledge product for practice: the serious game Super Agent in the Knowledge Lab.

The Super Agent game is built around ‘Super Agents’ who all represent a specific quality that supports agency (for example Socrates is the Super Agent that represents “reflection” in the game). All the qualities that are related to change agency characteristics are operationalized in concrete actions that can be undertaken in daily educational practice. After playing this game, the participants are expected to have gained insight in their own agency and they will have taken a next step on their path of lifelong learning.