Conference Agenda

This workshop is a follow-up to the work started during ECER 2023 in Glasgow, on clinical methods for research in education and particularly on monographic writing.

This workshop focuses on a clinical research method centred on the analysis of professional practices in education and training. The monographic method will be briefly presented, in comparison with other research methods involving group writing (Stamenova and Hinshelwood, 2018; Orsenigo and Ulivieri-Stiozzi, 2018; Rustin, 2019).

The method we will use is inspired by works conducted in the ‘Institutional Pedagogy’ current (Vasquez & Oury, 1967), that authors of the proposal both practice since a few decades. The leaders of the device proposed during the workshop have been conducting this type of working group for more than twenty years with different publics in the field of education and training.

In this field, to write and to read monographs in group situations is a way to analyze the unconscious psychic processes potentially at work in professional situations and in educational relationships. The aim of those analysis is both to train professionals to take into account what is happening on a subjective level during educational situations and also to provide data for research focusing on psychical processes in the same field of education and training.

• In the first step, after a brief introduction to the workshop, the leaders will submit a monograph to the participants. This text will be read aloud and followed by a short time for understanding questions only, without comments at that stage.

• In the second step, each participant will be invited to write her/his reflections and/or associative thoughts, from her/his reception of the monograph with any possible links with her/his own experience as researcher and/or teacher.

• In the third step, the individual writings produced at step 2 will be openly discussed in one or two group(s). Wherever possible, we will arrange two groups of no more than eight participants each.

• In the fourth step, the participants will be invited to write short comments in small groups. The comments will be written up together in a common document which will be shared with the participants after the workshop.

The workshop will end with a closing session during which each participant will be able to say a few words about their experience.

Our analyses will focus mainly on the transferential issues at work in this kind of working group. The group is a place of transference, both onto the group leaders and between the participants. We consider the monographic writing group as a mediated device (Brun et alii, 2013) where the monograph – a written narrative of a lived professional experience – is a mediator object. This mediating object, in its concrete materiality, is also the object of transfers. A discussion period will be dedicated for evoking these transfers in the group with the participants.

The present study investigates parental involvement in learning processes while focusing on the parent-child helping relations in the context of learning at home. The theoretical framework of this study is based on integration of educational and psychological perspectives that examine the effect of a parent’s personal characteristics while giving assistance to the child in academic matters at home. Much attention has been given in recent years to family-school collaboration and creating a partnership (Addi-Raccah et al., 2022; Epstein, 2018; Sheldon & Turner-Vorbeck, 2019). Epstein (2010) conceptualizes family involvement as occurring on multiple levels, considers the overlapping spheres of influence that families and schools have on students and how those spheres interact, and calls for a greater overlap between roles than often exist in schools as well as for greater partnerships between home and school. Studies conducted in recent years have supported the importance of this collaboration (Sanders-Smith et al., 2020) which have encouraged learning-at-home activities and a strong relationship between the home and school arenas (Erdener & Knoeppel, 2018; Ihmeideh et al., 2020) and have demonstrated the variety of ways that families are involved in children’s education as well as the positive outcomes in terms of better performance, better attitudes toward school, and higher graduation rates (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2012; Henderson et al., 2007; Sanders-Smith et al., 2020).

The parent-teacher-student relationship has been examined from different angles. Epstein (2010) distinguished between parental school-based activities, such as volunteering, communicating, decision-making, and collaborating and home-based activities, such as parenting or learning at home. Accordingly, Medwell and Wray’s research (2019) indicates that the vast majority of teachers felt that practice and learning assignments at home promoted partnership between the school and parents in regard to their child’s learning.

In the present study, we focus on the involvement of a parent in their children's learning processes at home and specifically, in parental help-giving with learning assignments and academic matters at home. The main goal of the present study is to examine a parent’s personal characteristics that are associated with the type of help the parent provides to their child in academic assignments. We see importance in understanding the helping relations in this area because of the impact of different types of involvement which may contribute to encouraging effective and proactive assistance for the child, in addition to the understandable importance of parental involvement in their children's educational processes.

In an inclusive school, the parents are involved, in both the SEN and non-SEN students (Paseka & Schwab, 2020). Several empirical studies have examined the relationship between parental involvement (PI) and academic achievement (Domina, 2005; Driessen et al., 2005; Sheldon and Epstein 2005; Erdem and Kaya 2020; Naite 2020), however, neither the PI itself nor the relationship between the two factors is shared equally by the researchers in the studies (Boonk et al. 2018, Nyitrai et al. 2019). In families with low socioeconomic backgrounds, the PI volume is lower than in high SES families. Students with special educational needs are more likely to be impacted by the PI because of its relevance to them. We have a great deal of cross-sectional studies, which look at the school-family collaboration in families with low socioeconomic status and in the case of families with special needs students, but we have very little information about the longitudinal changes of the PI and its influence over time.

This study aimed to examine the association beetween the PI and the school sucess in inclusive classrooms using a longitudinal database. We aim to analyze how the PI has changed over time as the school years progress. In our analysis highlighted the low SES SEN students, whose parent’s are fare from the schoollife.

All students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in Hungary take part in a process called the National Assessment of Basic Competencies (NABC), which is a kind of census. From the years 2015-2019, we have merged the three based databases based on Student IDs and built a longitudinal database that covers the 6th through the 10th grade. During the four years of the school's existence, we want to analyse and understand how to change the PI and the variables that describe the success of the school for low SES and SEN students during the four years.

We found that students from low SES and those with special needs are at high risk of dropping out, but the amount of involvement they receive at school can help counterbalance this risk. When compared to the average population, the volume of the PI is higher in the case of the SEN students, but in the case of the low SES families with SEN students, the correlation is not valid. As a result, one of the main conclusions from the study is that access to the hard-to-reach parents is very important for the schools in order to improve the educational opportunities students have in their schools.

Research has pointed out the importance of participation in extracurricular activities (EA) in school achievement (Eccles, 2003; Linver, 2009; Meier, 2018), as well as in the development of skills that promotes children and youth wellbeing and social progress (Covay i Carbonaro, 2010; Vandel & col, 2020). It has also identified quality criteria that can substantially modify after-school activities outputs. Among them, we focus the on the capacity to adjust activities and program structures to the diversity of social contexts (Simpkins, 2017).

The literature indicates that social vulnerability significantly impacts children’s participation in organized leisure. A debate has emerged to explain the lower involvement of working-class families in extracurricular activities, attributed to material factors or to class culture patterns (Weininger, E. B., Lareau, A., & Conley, D., 2015). Research has also scrutinized exclusion mechanisms in leisure arising from peripheral conditions associated with poverty, such as mobility, job precarity, complex administrative procedures (Oncescu, J. & Neufeld, C., 2020). Specific barriers to participation in leisure activities arise from family migration status (Shuey, E. A., & Leventhal, T., 2018), becoming evident when we consider the significance of social capital in accessing information regarding activity availability and enrollment (Galindo, C. & Sanders, M., 2017).

The democratization of out-of-school educational opportunities faces specific challenges that are increased in today's scenarios of uncertainty, social polarization and mobility flows, particularly in urban schools. To address these challenges, policies aimed at expanding participation in out-of-school education require innovative, community-centric approaches rather than a narrow focus solely on child development (Bae, 2019). Public supply of extracurricular activities in urban schools offers a chance to mitigate the geographical and economic barriers, promoting collaboration between families and school stakeholders that goes beyond cultural and informational hurdles. However, the functioning of the school-based leisure provision model needs a nuanced approach that enables the identification of factors conditioning their potentialities.

In Barcelona EA supply has often been governed by marketisation logics (Termes, 2020)., which ends up by shaping a territorially unequal distribution of educational opportunities. Mapping studies on this issue (Termes, 2020, Palou, 2021) concluded that school-based EA in disadvantaged neighbourhoods were less divers and mainly tutorial and remedial type, while in other districts activities aimed at personal development were offered, such as languages, arts, science and technology. That is the reason why local administration develops new extended-school policies with the doble goal of fostering desegregation in after school times and spaces and improving equity in the access to EA (Sintes, 2018). On October 2022, the Arts and STEAM extended-school programme “Extra!-Extra!” is launched in 32 primary and secondary schools and 6 municipal facilities. It has the capacity of 2.100 participant. During the first year reaches a 66% of occupation, with significative gaps depending on the school and its surroundings.

This study analyzes the enactment factors of the new policy in schools that may have led to heterogeneous impacts on the overall school community.

"The brand St. Pauli FC is an identification mark. The totenkopf-t-shirt means that you share values with the club. Like me!" (Leni, social worker, Gemeinwesenarbeit (GWa) St. Pauli eV).

This presentation stems from an ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 2023 in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, Germany, where the local football club, St. Pauli FC, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga, is based.

In the project to which this fieldwork belongs, we examine how traces of formative intervention methods and interactions (bildung) become evident in private football organizations, and what significance this potential pedagogical work holds for the social and community anchoring of football clubs in the local neighborhoods. In this chapter, we are particularly interested in how St. Pauli, both as a district and a football club, leaves its mark on the people who inhabit the area and engage with the fan club or attend matches weekend after weekend. Here, we experience how the place is saturated with values that connote the local belonging of these individuals and become a form of formation that takes root in their bodies and consciousness, thus contributing to their corpus of understanding, their repertoires of action, and their way of being in the world. This is also why we approach our informants from a perspective of bildung when speaking with them.

This presentation seeks to unfold our analytical construct "Paulitics", understood as the seemingly underlying tone of left-leaning political values, constant lurking activism, apparent resistance to authority, and a stick-it-to-the-man attitude, which runs as a distinct community-building and highly diversity-bearing thread throughout the Altona/St. Pauli district in Hamburg. Paulitics is our own analytically constructed concept stemming from a theoretical foundation that understands social innovation as a collective purpose, which, through the reinforcement of social relations and a strong local community anchoring, creates less inequality and more social justice based on the unique history associated with the area (Moulaert, MacCallum & Hillier 2014, 31). Therefore, we understand Paulitics as a unifying collective approach to how the aforementioned social relations and local community anchoring act as a catalyst for the continuous development of communities and the significance of creating these communities for the residents of the local area and their opportunities to become, belong, and undergo formation through their interaction with the area's people, phenomena, ideas, things, and affairs (Rømer, 2019: 5; Tanggaard, 2021: 20, 23-24).

Rural youth face a significant decision at the end of their compulsory education – stay local and join the limited workforce or leave, even temporarily, for further education and qualifications. Often, students are conditioned through schools, parents, and community that leaving is required to be ‘successful’ (Corbett, 2007; Rönnlund et al., 2018), with policymakers ignoring the validity of aspiring to remain in their communities (Cuervo et al., 2019). There are ongoing tensions in rural communities around managing youth outmigration and concern for the future of those who stay (Alexander, 2023) set against a backdrop of uncertainty around the world concerning political, economic, and environmental instability. Alexander (2023) contends that relational connections in rural communities are important in youth’s decision-making regarding their lives post-school. This paper explores how, in Australia, the institution of the local sports club mediates these tensions, providing a point of stability and connection for their youth.

Australian sports clubs govern local teams (here, Australian Rules Football and netball) that participate in regional competitions and maintain facilities. At all ages, participating in sport as a player, official, volunteer, and/or spectator is a social norm in rural communities (Waitt & Clifton, 2015). By focusing on the role of the club, this paper offers new understandings of how these institutions support young people in post-school transitions.

International literature on rural youth transitions and aspirations has identified that community expectations and a sense of belonging are key influences on post-school decision-making (Alexander, 2023; Gore et al., 2022; Tieken, 2016). It is well-established that peers, family, and friends are critical influences on youth aspirations. Sports clubs in rural communities are a confluence of these factors, but its collective role in youth transitions has not been explored. As socio-economically diverse, inter-generational social institutions, these clubs are well-situated to share and build social capital that assists youth in their transition to early adulthood.

In many countries, there are concerns around rural youth having ‘low’ aspirations and their participation in tertiary education trails their urban counterparts (Ennerberg et al., 2022; Halsey, 2018) despite increasing school completion rates and policy interventions. A contributing factor is that rural youth may lack critical social capital to navigate transitioning to metropolitan living (Kilpatrick et al., 2021) where most universities and ‘successful’ careers are located. Existing literature explores school and employer partnerships, university-led outreaches, and normative discourses encouraging youth to leave (Cuervo, 2016; Kilpatrick et al., 2021). To counter the pressures to leave, Alexander (2022) developed a tri-dimensional model of belonging that included spatial, relational, and career considerations, which shape rural youth aspirations, to use in career guidance. This paper continues such push-back work against metro-normative discourses of ‘success’ by exploring how social capital necessary for participation in tertiary education and/or entering the workforce is circulated through involvement with the sports club.

Using Putnam’s (2000) social capital dimensions of bridging (ties between groups) and bonding (ties within groups), the question: how do rural sports clubs support post-school youth transitions, is addressed. The members of the club are a close group based on cooperation which builds bonding capital while the diversity of people coming through the club facilitates bridging capital accumulation. The findings of this paper offer further understanding of the complex phenomenon of the ‘stay or leave’ dilemma facing rural youth by focusing on the types of support (capitals) encouraged by a specific social institution, the sports club. While the paper reports on an Australian example, the role of a social institution in facilitating the building of social capital in local youth can be considered in other, international contexts with their own locally-relevant institutions (Herbison et al., 2019).

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many different changes in education. Outcomes of education have also been affected. IEA’s PIRLS2021 was the first of the large-scale international studies of education that measured 4th-graders’ reading literacy during and right after the pandemic. The results have brought surprises for many countries, for example, when compared with PIRLS2016, Finland has lost 17 score points (19 points since PIRLS2011) and there is also a decrease in average achievement scores for Latvia – a drop by 30 points since PIRLS2016. Some countries were not affected, for example, Ireland had gained 10 points since PIRLS2016 and 25 points since PIRLS2011; Lithuanian average achievement score had risen by 4 points since PIRLS2016 and 24 points since PIRLS2011 (Mullis et al., 2023). These four countries were selected for comparison because of their achievement characteristics – Finland was the top-performing EU country in PIRLS2011, and together with Ireland the top-performing countries from the EU in the PIRLS2016. In PIRLS2021 the roles in the international ranking table have changed - Ireland still being the first among EU countries, Latvia being the country with the largest achievement drop, Lithuania rising its achievement to the top 5 among EU countries, but Finland falling behind Lithuania.

The purpose of this study is to find out students’ personal, classroom, and home characteristics that differ between high and low-achieving students in all countries of comparison.

Previous studies have examined that student’s socioeconomic status (Eriksson et al., 2021; OECD, 2020a; Mullis et al., 2023) and intelligence (Roth et al., 2015; Kriegbaum et al., 2018) are the main factors influencing student’s achievement. Among the significant factors explaining achievement distribution often falls motivation (Mullis et al., 2023; Kriegbaum et al., 2018), attitude (Mullis et al., 2023), and confidence in reading or reading self-concept (Geske et al., 2021). It is common to address gender issues when researching reading achievement. There have been studies that claim that the gender gap in reading performance is present already upon students’ entry to school (Ferrer et al., 2015; Mesite, 2019). PIRLS and PISA studies provide evidence that girls outperform boys in reading in the majority of participating countries (OECD, 2020b; Mullis et al., 2023). At the same time – the gender effect on reading disabilities is questionable – some researchers conclude that males are more often diagnosed with reading disabilities (Berninger et al., 2008), but others argue that there are no differences (Shaywitz et al., 1990) or that females are just underdiagnosed (Limbrick et al., 2008; Quinn & Wagner, 2015).

Although PIRLS does not measure students’ intelligence or disabilities, other factors such as students’ personal, school, classroom, and home characteristics can be compared. The authors of this study compared the discrete values of following PIRLS2021 scales (Mullis et al., 2023):

- students’ sense of school belonging, bullying, engagement in reading lessons, and, disorderly behaviours in reading lessons as classroom factors,

- students like reading, students are confident in reading and performance in early literacy tasks as personal factors, and

- home resources for learning, socio-economic status, and parents like reading as students’ home factors.

The results of comparison showed the important role of the language students speak at home every day and their preschool education quality. On average only less than 2% of students who did not speak the language of test at home could perform at the advanced level. More than 90% of students in Ireland who performed at the advanced level before entering school recognized most letters in the alphabet very well, almost 60% of students could read a story and approximately 70% of students could write other words than their name.

Background and Objectives

The interplay between social background, educational attainment and life chances has long been an issue across Europe (d’Addio, 2007). Country-specific policy reform aimed at addressing inequities has largely failed to narrow educational gaps (Bénabou et al, 2009), which have become further entrenched by the socio-educational uncertainty engendered by national responses to Covid-19 (Blaskó et al, 2022). Social-reform policies have largely remained unchanged since the pandemic (Zancajo et al, 2022), causing concern for educational stakeholders who place equity at the heart of their practice.

However, there is cause for hope, where place-based approaches and local multi-disciplinary partnerships are developing in ways that prioritise equity in education. We refer to these approaches as research-practice partnerships (RPPs), a growing international movement (Coldwell et al, 2017; Farrell et al, 2022). RPPs tend to be situated within defined local contexts and grown through prolonged contact between school leaders, other educational stakeholders, local policymakers and researchers (Ainscow, 2023). Hence, they are well positioned to shape local enactments of national policy, and generate local policy endogenously, through sustainable relationships and mutual trust.

This paper presents an illustrative case of a developing RPP in NB, a defined area within a post-industrial town in the North of England. Poverty is high in NB, with 50% children living in low income families. It has therefore been identified as a site for a ‘cradle to career’ approach, emulating aspects of the Harlem Children’s Zone in the USA (Whitehurst & Croft, 2010) by ‘joining-up’ local service infrastructure in ways that holistically support local children’s educational journeys in their home, school and community contexts. The NB RPP is currently working with eight local schools, a multidisciplinary team, and multiple voluntary/community sector organisations.

Our objectives in presenting this case are to understand intra-/inter-organisational relationships within the complex socio-educational landscape of NB, and to evaluate to what extent, and how, these might need to be redefined for the future.

We argue that RPPs are well-positioned to reimagine community relationships in ways that cohesively unite community members, including families, schools and other education-related services and stakeholders. This entails blending local, endogenous knowledge of neighbourhoods and communities with researchers’ more exogenous knowledge. In so doing, we directly address the Network 14 call for contributions on school-community relationships, considering how RPPs can be initiated and sustained to foster the development of more inclusive communities, especially at a time of change and uncertainty.

Research Questions

• What are the educational opportunities and challenges in NB?
• How do local schools and education-related organisations work together within the NB cradle-to-career approach to address these educational opportunities and challenges?

Theoretical Framework

We draw upon Putnam’s (2000) conceptualisation of social capital as the ‘connections among individuals … social networks, and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them’ (p. 19). These connections can be (i) bonding: the connections between local residents or intra-organisational actors, or (ii) bridging: the connections across and between diverse community members and inter-organisational actors. Mulford (2007) further proposes that social relationships can be understood as a resource to forge local policy and practice pathways, where reform agendas are filtered and enacted through the active participation of stakeholders in the local socio-educational landscape. He introduces a third form of social capital, that of linking: a relational pathway that unites communities, institutions and wider professional bodies in the creation of local, regional and national policy and practice. This is exemplified by the RPP (see also Ainscow, 2015, p. 3). Taken together, bonding, bridging and linking social capital provide a lens through which to understand the complex dynamics of NB’s socio-educational landscape.

This paper examines academic performance at top grades in public examinations relative to the national average between Scottish state secondary schools mainly serving young people residing in remote communities. This examination allows me to explore:

(1) how academic performance in those schools compares to schools serving young people residing in more urban areas and

(2) whether academic performance in schools with significant proportions of learners experiencing socio-economic disadvantages is weaker.

School attainment in Scottish remote areas is lower than that observed in more urban areas (Lasselle & Johnson, 2021; Scottish government, 2021). These patterns are similar to those observed elsewhere in the UK, Europe, Australia or the United States of America (Echazarra and Radinger, 2019; Gagnon, 2022; Schmitt-Wilson and Byun, 2022; Schmitt-Wilson et al., 2018; Tomaszewski et al., 2020). They may explain why youth residing in these remote areas are less likely to progress to higher education.

This paper shows that these patterns characterising remote Scotland need nevertheless to be nuanced when secondary school statistics are considered. On the one hand, schools serving remote communities with similar socio-economic status, i.e. similar proportions of learners experiencing socio-economic disadvantages, may have large discrepancies in academic performance at top grades in public examinations relative to the national average. On the other hand, schools with similar academic performance may have different socio-economic status.

In its conclusion, the paper discusses why this contextualisation of academic performance in terms of learners’ location and schools’ socio-economic status is important for policymakers and communities in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

Research shows that pupils with a low socio-economic status and/or migration background are less likely to receive extra support in Flanders when confronted with learning difficulties (Bodvin, Verschueren & Struyf, 2018; Struyf, Bodvin, Jacobs, 2016). This inequality concerns both the use of the available support at school as well as the use of out-of-school help (Bodvin, Verschueren & Struyf, 2019). Parents in socially vulnerable situations less often initiate care trajectories when their children are confronted with difficulties (Struyf, Bodvin, Jacobs, 2016). This can for example be due to a lack of familiarity with certain labels but also to inadequate informal support networks. Parents living in socially vulnerable conditions are not always taken seriously enough by educational professionals, for example when deviant behavior is explained as a problem of language, upbringing or culture. This mainly concerns non-Western parents who speak no or insufficient Dutch (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022). Research into cooperation between parents with a migrant background who have a child with autism and social workers indicates the prevalence of racism and discrimination in conversations with social workers, a superior attitude of social workers towards parents and a 'coercive, non-negotiable attitude' that makes parents feel that they are being put 'with their backs against the wall' (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022).

This research project aims to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of three types of actors that are involved in the process of accessing care and support for children growing up in socially vulnerable situations: the parents, the educational professionals but also the formal key figures in social work as well as the informal key figures in communities and personal networks of the parents.

The innovative character of our research project concerns firstly the confrontation of the perspectives of both parents and teachers and other educational professionals. Research shows that parental testimonies can be of great added value in training for professionals (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022). Secondly, the innovation concerns additionally the inclusion of the perspective of the formal and informal key figures, which is the focus of the presentation at EREC24. Although our research is located in Flanders, we hope to inspire other researchers in Europe regarding the importance of this third type of actor.

In Flanders, professional social workers with an explicit assignment to strengthen the relationship between parents and the school, are increasingly present in school. These ‘bridging figures' can fulfill multiple roles, including being a confidential figure for parents, a hub in the guidance to well-being, a networker, a mediator or supporter (Seghers, Mertens, De Maegd, 2022). Research into ‘social care infrastructure in the shadow’ (Schrooten, Thys, Debruyne, 2019) shows that in addition to these official ‘bridging figures’, there are other more informal actors who take a similar role which are particularly important for groups that experience barriers to regular social work, such as ethnic minority populations. Migrant- or grass roots organizations are strongly concerned with the difficulties children and young people encounter in the educational system (Thys, 2017). The research by El Boujaddayne & Berdai Chanouni (2022) confirms the importance of support figures in the informal network of parents with a migration background. These play an important role to facilitate the contact with care providers.

By discussing the perspective of formal and informal key figures in social work, communities and family network, we aim at shedding light on resources that are often underexposed in the academic reflections on the inclusiveness of care and support for children growing up in socially vulnerable situations.

Supporting parents can promote positive outcomes for children’s and families’ wellbeing (European Commission, 2013). Combining parenting support with Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services can positively impact children’s development (Sheridan et al., 2011; Turner et al., 2017). ECEC services have the potential to provide families with a sense of belonging and support (Garrity & Canavan, 2017). Quality ECEC responding to the needs of children and families can drive sustainable development through its multiplier effect on children and society (Bruckauf & Hayes, 2017).

Powerful Parenting is a parenting support model implemented within ECEC services. It aims to promote positive interactions between children and their environments, in line with Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological theory of human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). The model involves placing one Parent-Carer Facilitator (PCF) in each ECEC service, working with parents to identify needs, offer tailored support, and coordinate with other services. The support is offered to all parents accessing the ECEC services. The activities organised by the PCFs can include one-to-one meetings and group work, with parents only or parents and children. Parents’ and families’ needs inform the implemented activities, which can vary across the ECEC services. For this reason, Powerful Parenting is considered a model instead of a standardised, curriculum-based programme. It was developed by the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI), a non-governmental organisation, and has been implemented in eight ECEC services in the Dublin area, Ireland.

Powerful Parenting can be considered an innovative approach since it locates specific responsibilities and skills to a new role embedded within the ECEC system, that of the PCF, to support parents. Additionally, it combines centre- and home-based support, while many parenting support interventions in Europe and Ireland only include one of these modalities. Powerful Parenting includes elements that have been considered effective in parenting support: a focus on more than one area of need, easy access to support, continuity between universal and targeted provision, tailored support, and coordination with other services for children and families (Cadima et al., 2017; Molinuevo, 2013; Moran et al., 2004).

However, further research on factors affecting parents’ participation in supports, including those provided through ECEC services, and related outcomes, has been identified as needed (Britto et al., 2022; Cadima et al., 2017; Grindal et al., 2016). Exploring the views of parents accessing parenting support in ECEC services and the views of practitioners delivering it can contribute to informing how to promote parents’ participation and related benefits. This study aimed to collect the views of parents, PCFs, and managers of ECEC services about Powerful Parenting.

Around 80,000 young people are ‘in care’ in England at any one time, usually due to neglect or maltreatment within the birth family (Department for Education, 2023a). This figure has been rising steadily in recent years, meaning that around 3 per cent of young people will spend some of their childhood within the care system, for example, with foster carers or in residential settings. Advances in the data available to researchers has demonstrated that educational outcomes for children in care are substantially lower than the average for the general population (Berridge et al., 2020; Sebba et al., 2015). The reasons for this are complex, but include frequent school moves, low expectations from professionals (e.g. teachers and social workers), societal stigma, trauma and associated mental ill health. Attempting to address this inequality has been a government policy objective in England for over 15 years (Department for Education and Skills, 2007). This study is focused on England, but has relevance for all European nations as the existence of care systems is universal, albeit that the configurations differ markedly between nations.

One important policy initiative has been the creation of ‘virtual schools’ for children in care – despite their name, these are not related to online learning. Rather, virtual schools are teams based within local authorities that have responsibility for the educational provision and outcomes for children in care in their area, spanning three main roles: (a) advocating on behalf of children with physical schools, local authority departments and other agencies engaged in their education and welfare, (b) administering the Pupil Premium Plus funding totalling around £154 million nationally, and (c) delivering educational enhancement services directly or indirectly to children (e.g. additional tutoring or equipment). Trialled in the late 2000s, the establishment of virtual schools effectively became a statutory responsibility from 2014 onwards (Berridge et al., 2009). They are generally led by an experienced headteacher and include a team of qualified teachers, but the exact configuration varies substantially between the 152 local authority areas in England.

There is good correlational evidence that virtual schools are collectively having a positive effect. Direct comparisons are difficult due to changing definitions and examination protocols, but there have been apparent improvements in outcomes for children in care at both age 11 and age 16 since their implementation (Department for Education, 2023a). There has also been a marked drop in permanent exclusions over this period. However, there are also marked disparities in outcomes for children in care between local authority areas that do not seem to correspond to wider deprivation or school attainment patterns (Department for Education, 2023b). Put another way, there are unexplained inequalities in the life chances of children in care living in different areas.

This paper will report findings from a study commissioned by the KPMG Foundation to determine why ostensibly similar young people can have very different patterns of educational outcomes and what steps can be taken to improve the effectiveness of virtual schools (Harrison et al., 2023a). The study was framed around the following research questions:

• RQ1: How do virtual schools understand effectiveness within their work, including markers of success at the organisational and individual child level?
• RQ2: How does the apparent effectiveness of virtual schools with respect to educational outcomes for children in care vary between local authorities?
• RQ3: What relationships exist between the environmental and organisational contexts of a virtual school and its apparent effectiveness?
• RQ4: What elements of effective practice in virtual schools can be identified?

Background: According to Canada’s 2016 census, approximately 1.36 million people, or about 4% of the population, report at least one of their ethnic origins as Ukrainian. About 112,000 Ukrainians have come to Canada between 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and 2016 (Stick and Hou, 2022). An additional 200,000 individuals, mostly women and children, have been approved to enter through the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Many find their way to Ukrainian heritage language community schools or ridni shkoly (RiSH) to maintain the academic levels of their children’s Ukrainian language competence. These diaspora institutions are symbols of community identity.

RiSh began with the first wave of Ukrainian immigration in the late 19^th century, are located across the country and have been revitalized with new perspectives with each of the six waves of immigration to Canada. Unlike some immigrant groups and despite their prevalence in Canada for over 100 years, Ukrainians have produced very few articles about their language schools, instructors or learners (Bilash & Soroka, 2014; Bilash, 2015).

Research question/Objective: The sudden arrival of children to RiSH doubled or tripled the enrolment in these schools, calling for new instructors, many from among CUAET arrivees. The resulting changing dynamics is the focus of the qualitative investigation of this paper.

Theoretical Framework: Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, capital and field are useful here in helping to explain how individuals think about, and react and adjust to, the social world in which they find themselves. Bourdieu (1977) defines ‘habitus’ as “a system of lasting transposable dispositions which, integrating past experiences, functions at every moment as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and action and makes possible the achievement of infinitively diversified tasks.” (p. 78) It is an individual’s accumulation of cultural and historically specific knowledge of the social world within which they operate, including values and dispositions. As a sociological tool, habitus allows Bourdieu to “access internalized behaviors, perceptions, and beliefs that individuals carry with them,” and which are often reflected in practices and the social worlds they inhabit (Costa and Murphy, 3-4). Further, Bourdieu argues that habitus is not static. Rather, he “emphasizes the potential for habitus to be reconstructed or changed in the event of encounters with the unfamiliar, such as resettling in a new country” and “learned, acquired and transformed, both through new experiences in one’s social environment and the process of socialization” (Jung, Dalton and Willis, 2017, p. 6). Habitus is thus “a complex interplay between the past and the present” (Reay et al, 2009, 1104).

“Field” is understood by Bourdieu as “a series of institutions, rules, rituals, conventions, categories…which produce and authorize certain discourses and activities” (Webb, Schirato and Danaher, 2002, p. 21). Education can be considered a field as it is able to set rules for behaviour, thus creating a social system that has an internal structure (Özçürümez et al, 2023, p. 5). Within a field, Bourdieu argues that individuals maneuver, compete and negotiate for power, which he calls “capital”. Capital goes beyond economic resources to include social and cultural resources, including networks and connections and symbolic assets, like university degrees, as well as patterns of accent, dress, or “taste” (Kelly and Lusis, 2006, pp. 833-34). Thus, social and cultural capital are reflected in the ways of thinking teachers use in a classroom, and their classroom practices, their ideological beliefs, all of which have implications for their students and their education (Özçürümez et al, 2023).

Across Europe many education systems struggle with continuous and strong performance inequalities between students form a minoritized and majority background. (Hadjar and Gross, 2016). Despite many policy actions to tackle these inequalities the latter seem quite persistent. What remains particularly puzzling in this regard is that ethnic minority students are generally highly motivated to perform well in education, yet their educational outcomes remain, on average, low. This is also known as the achievement-motivation paradox (Hadjar & Scharf, 2019; Mickelson, 1990; Salikutluk, 2016). Much time and effort have been spent researching this paradox and the causes of these inequalities, focusing on theories around the reproduction of inequality, capital theory and deficit thinking theory (Agirdag, 2020; Dewitt & Van Petegem, 2001; Triventi et al., 2022). Yet, this research has mostly focused on mainstream education institutions. The role and the agency of the ethnic-cultural minoritized communities to mitigate themselves the inequalities they are most affected by has been mostly overlooked. In addition, research in education initiatives beyond the boundaries of the mainstream institutions which produce or reproduce these existing inequalities has been limited until now.

One of these alternative forms of education are the supplementary or complementary education various ethnic-cultural minoritized groups organise for their youth. These community-based educational initiatives (CBEI) are bottom-up learning environments offering not only support for minoritized youth in their mainstream academic studies, but also providing (positive) recognition of their ethno-cultural identity and familial and community heritage (Baldridge et al., 2017; Steenwegen et al., 2022). These initiatives (which range from homework support and mathematics instruction, to language classes (Hall, 2002)) have been documented in ethnographic studies and serve as important examples of minoritized communities organising their own education specifically to fill in gaps they experience in their children’s education. This is particularly important in contexts where mainstream education often caters to the cultural (religious and linguistic) needs of dominant ethnic majority groups but fail to be as sensitive to similar needs among minoritized communities (Clycq, 2017; Van Praag et al., 2016; Yosso 2005).

Current research in this field has documented both the organisational nature of these CBEI and the motivations of minoritized communities to organise these schools (Steenwegen et al., 2022). Yet, the processes within these initiatives, the resources they provide, and the potential impact on the educational trajectories of minoritized youth, all remain largely unknown. Through extensive qualitative observations and interviews conducted with students, teachers, and organisers, across various CBEI, this research offers new insight into the educational organising various communities are involved in. It also shows how these initiatives serve as important networks of support for minoritized youth. We present these CBEI through the lens of the community-cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005) and offer an expansion of this framework with resources that contain the transnational nature of many of the CBEI included in this research. We also showcase the importance and impact of these (third) spaces through centring the words and experiences of minoritized young people attending these schools.

The research took place in Flanders, a particularly interesting context to study educational initiatives as this Flemish speaking region of Belgium is notably marked by one of the largest, and quite tenacious, ethnic achievement gaps in education in Europe (Jacobs & Danhier, 2017).

Ideas in the western world are changing about home-school relationships, and on how parents and teachers of school children communicate, collaborate and even build partnerships. Some changes are mainly because of development in our societies, for example due to growth in migration often from east to west in the recent two decades. Other changes arise from policy changes fuelled by increased individualism and liberalistic ideas that has had its impact on education.

This paper derives from the research project Language policies and practices of diverse immigrant families in Iceland and their implications for education, shortened to the LPP project. The objectives of the project are to explore language policies and practices of diverse immigrant families (Curdt-Christiansen, 2013; Spolsky, 2004), how these affect their children’s education and the relationships and interactions between these families and the children‘s teachers.

The research questions posed in this paper are:
How do principals and teachers percieve their relationships with migrant families?
How do they envision the possibilities to develop these relationships?

The paper builds on Bronfenbrenner‘s ecological systems theory (1979, 2005) and a further development of this by Schwartz (in press). The theory of Bronfenbrenner is useful to understand the relations between students, families, teachers and schools and how they are interrelated. Schwartz has furthered this well known model by bringing forth how different systems affect multilingual children‘s language identities. That brings attention to both overt and subtle influences a migrant background has on home-school relationships.

The theoretical framework also includes a family-school-community partnership model that is often attributed to Joyce L. Epstein (2011), who along with her colleagues formulated it and has led its development in collaboration with a group of researchers and teachers at all school levels. It describes how the three fields, that the title refers to, relate, and how important it is that family, school and society work together as a whole and thus support children in their development and education (Coleman, 2013).

Findings on home-school relationships in Iceland, deriving from a big data gathering for 10-15 years ago, showed that participants valued parental involvement highly as „Overall, about 99% of parents and school staff believed that parental support for the student was rather or very important to promote good academic results“ (Jónsdóttir and Björnsdóttir, 2012). Even so, findings reflected as well that there parents had different access to school. For example single mothers were more likely than other parents to feel that their voices were not heard at school when they needed support for their children (Jónsdóttir, Björnsdóttir and Bæck, 2017). During last two decades student populations in schools have become increasingly diverse in terms of languages and cultures. Therefore, many teachers are well aware of that they are facing new challenges such as cultivating relationships with all parents, and including diversity into their toolbox (Reykjavíkurborg, 2017). On the other hand, it seems that teachers are often hesitating in building relationships with families, especially with those of foreign origin. Teachers in secondary schools in Norway are reluctant to open the doors for parental involvement, but well educated, middle class parents of Norwegian origin are more likely to be accepted than migrant parents are (Melnikova, 2023).

Internationally, rural education leaders recognise the need to be attentive to their local and global context to lead effectively in and for their ever-changing communities (Brown et al., 2021; Wildy et al., 2014). While issues like the climate crisis, increased migration, and the pandemic are global, they manifest uniquely in every school-community. This paper considers a series of case studies from various contexts, in different types of rural areas, from different education and political systems to develop an adaptable toolkit for rural education leaders to become ‘place-serving leaders’ through these uncertain times.

The paper adds to the international body of knowledge regarding the two fields of ‘rurality’ and ‘educational leadership’. It builds on the field of inquiry into the significance of ‘adding the rural’ (Green, 2013) to all aspects of education, furthering the collective work by education researchers worldwide (Green & Corbett, 2013; Gristy et al.,2020; Roberts & Fuqua, 2021; White & Corbett 2014; White & Downey, 2021) keen to consider the impacts rurality has on aspects of teaching, education, and research. Continuing this work is necessary as it sharpens the understanding of those who live beyond the metropolis, for all.

We have taken an inclusive, collaborative definition of ‘leadership’, coining the term ‘leading rurally’ as an agentive stance to leadership in relation to what it might mean in, for and with rural contexts. To lead rurally is to be a ‘place-serving leader’, one who considers ‘place’ to be an active, equal partner. Considering place as an actor, highlights its many seasons and changing climate (physically, socially, and politically). Recognising place as sociologically, geographically, and politically contested is important for leaders in navigating these spaces; place-serving leaders need to understand and view their roles within these diverse socio-geo-political places.

We explore two contexts (US and Australia) to provide insights for the wider rural education research community. While the US and Australia have differences regarding rural education, there are important similarities impacting what it means to ‘lead rurally’, creating important insights for broader international applicability. Both contexts have experienced population shifts and decline in nonmetropolitan areas shaped by global economic and technological changes, increased population mobility, the globalisation of production, limited rural labour market demand, and aging rural populations (White & Downey, 2021). Demographic changes have serious consequences for the survival of rural schools, for example, as enrolments decline, they face pressure to close or consolidate, and/or they become more culturally diverse (Brown et al., 2021; Deunk & Maslowski, 2020; Gristy et al., 2020; Tieken & Auldridge-Reveles, 2019). Like many countries, the US and Australia have challenges in staffing rural schools and students often experience fewer opportunities for further education and career opportunities (Alexander, 2022; Gristy et al., 2020; White & Downey, 2021). The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of “leading rurally” through the stories of those who engage in this work providing insights, challenges, and innovations for others to consider.

Rural leaders are witnessing and learning to navigate the increasing political and ideological divides occurring in rural contexts. As tensions are played out publicly in hyperlocal places, effective leaders need to be able to hold such tensions and listen to diverse perspectives, honouring different views and ways of being. Working collectively across many alliances and considering insider-outsider positionality are some of the strategies discussed to overcome such tensions. While the stories are American and Australian, we contend that the insights and strategies proposed are useful worldwide since they are shaped by their local versions of global challenges faced in many contexts – which are well-documented and pervasive internationally (Gristy et al., 2020; White & Downey, 2021).

Across Europe many small schools have been closed or amalgamated and there has been a move from schools being in local small settlements to larger centres (Ribchester & Edwards, 1999). This movement has been influenced by many sociocultural factors, including the physical geography, historical influences, and characteristics of population (Kucerova, Meyer and Trshorsch,2020) The demand for education is dictated by population size, age structure and demographics (Barakat,2015). This brings uncertainty and issues regarding the sustainability of small rural schools.

Scottish Education has seen similar trends. The 32 Local Authorities in Scotland are responsible for the education pattern in each of their areas. The Local Authorities are required to deliver the services within a financial package, and this has seen greater uncertainty for communities as the pressure on the budgets escalates. Whilst there are statutory legal requirements for school closures within the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (Scottish Government, 2014) there continues to be uncertainty about the future of small rural schools. Scotland is currently going through a period of review of Education which has also caused a great deal of uncertainty.

In this difficult landscape it is important to understand the pressures for headteachers and leaders of small rural schools. Leadership is crucial. The researchers were involved in delivering a national programme (In Headship) for newly appointed headteachers in rural areas and were keen to ensure that the programme met the needs of small school leaders: to support school leadership during a time of uncertainty and provide hope and sustainability for the future.

Within the Scottish context the importance of landscape, flexibility and sustainability were key to ensuring the development of the national programme for rural school leaders enabled “people to live well and create a world worth living in” (Edwards-Groves et al. 2020, p 126)

The researchers asked the question: What did the national leadership programme require to meet the needs of small schools in a time of uncertainty?

They undertook collaborative action research with local authority employers and programme participants (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014), drawing on their wider work with leaders in small rural schools, to examine practice and to remodel the programme to provide support for sustainable leadership. The reflective analysis presented here is framed through the conceptual work of Bottery (2016) where leadership sustainability and unsustainability links to world sustainability and unsustainability.

Leadership sustainability is key for rural schools across Europe and is linked to the notion of preserving something that is valued. It is therefore appropriate to explore uncertainty for leaders within rural schools not only through the lens of sustainability of the school in the community but also through what is valued and brings hope for the future. The Brundtland Report (1987, P. 8) defines sustainability as “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. This reflects not only on the sustainability of the natural environment but also of the human world.

Based upon a belief that sharing narratives and histories can help people feel ‘known’ (Evangelou et al, 2009) and engender a community of practice. This paper will present the initial stages of a research project wherein the lived experience and narrative histories of school staff are used to create a ‘provocation’ (Malaguzzi, 1993) to co-construct opportunities to embed child and family ‘stories’ into the curriculum. Focused in Welsh curricula developments but drawing on International School practice, wherein high levels of diversity are the norm, this research aims to develop a research network between an international and Welsh school to explore the potential for community participation in the curriculum.

Welsh education has recently undergone significant educational reform with the development of the new Curriculum for Wales (Welsh Government, 2022a). The Curriculum for Wales, (CfW) is designed to be a responsive and flexible curriculum based around a broad framework centered on the ‘Four Purposes’, six ‘Areas of Learning and Experience’ and the ‘Cross Curricular Skills’. Within the parameters of this framework, schools are encouraged to co-construct their own curriculum according to the needs of their community, engaging with, listening to and acting upon the voice of the community within its development. Thus, the CfW has community involvement and participation at its very heart.

Central to this aim is the concept of ‘Cynefin’. This concept has been noted by many authors as difficult to define (Adams & Beauchamp, 2022; Chapman et al, 2023) but it is closely related to the concept of place and belonging. Within the Curriculum for Wales (CfW), it is defined as

“Though often translated as ‘habitat’, cynefin is not just a place in a physical or geographical sense: it is the historic, cultural and social place which has shaped and continues to shape the community which inhabits it” (Welsh Government, 2022).

Each school is encouraged to embrace and respond to their unique ‘cynefin’, both within the co-construction of their curriculum. Consequently, when considered in conjunction a long-standing commitment to children’s rights by the Welsh Government (2021), the development of the Curriculum for Wales (CfW) (2022) may be a perfect opportunity for Wales to embed participative rights and community involvement in education.

Nevertheless, this aim may be dependent on a deep understanding of each community and the recognition that participation depends on giving children and communities Space, Voice, Audience and Influence (Lundy, 2007). There is a possibility that a school’s interpretation of ‘cynefin’ could be dictated by dominant views of what it means to be Welsh, based on only a certain number of ‘histories’. However, this is not the agenda of the Welsh Government, which wants to emphasise the diverse histories within Welsh communities (Welsh Government 2022b, Williams, 2020). Furthermore, it necessitates an open mind to how children and communities view ‘cynefin’, which can be unexpected (Chapman et al, 2023) Finally, it requires a commitment to reflection, responsiveness and ongoing curricula change. Previous teaching experience indicates that the exploration of children’s and family narratives may satisfy only three out of Lundy’s four categories, in that, children may be given space, voice and an audience with their stories, but the potential to influence pedagogy may not be fully embedded within curricula design, a point supported by (Murphy et al, 2022). As an essential element of CfW, embedding responsiveness within the curricula is crucial, but may require additional scaffolding for it to become a reality.

Following a successful pilot study, wherein visual timelines were used to engender a shared ‘cynefin’ within the teaching staff of a climbing gym, the paper will explore the extension of this project into school settings.

UNESCO (2021) advocates for the need for a new educational contract that calls on civil society to become capital serving the school, as an indispensable tool to counter educational poverty and school dropout. Already in 1972, the UNESCO report Learning to be: the world of education today and tomorrow, identified in the concepts of lifelong education (éducation permanente) and educational city (cité éducative) (Aglieri and Locatelli, 2022; Cannella and Mangione, 2023) the basis of a new pedagogy of the contract whose intention was to collaborate all the parties involved in order to facilitate a responsible and autonomous appropriation of knowledge. This new social contract must strengthen education as a public commitment and common good, therefore make use of “pedagogical approaches that also cultivate the values and principles of interdependence and solidarity” and that connect “the assumptions of students” with wider systems, processes, and experiences, beyond their personal experiences" (UNESCO, 2021, pg. 54). In Italy, the social contract takes the form of “Community or territorial education Pacts” tools to realize the social contract and to establish proximity alliances between the school and its community. The alliances between school and territory are “privileged” mechanisms to address social and educational fragility and inequalities (Nast and Blokland, 2013; Valli et al., 2018) and can be attributed to different Constructs:

Construct 1. School as a stronghold of “social justice and cultural identity” also defined in terms of “reconciliation”. The school is understood as a “social glue”, as a space for the participation of the local community, as a consolidation of identity to promote actions that strengthen belonging to a community.

Construct 2. School as an expanded training system in which the territory is a “social artifact” in which to graft the space of educational experience (De Bartolomeis, 2018; Cerini, 2020).

Construct 3. School as an amplifier of “Societal Challenges” (Vranken, 2015), single actions oriented towards the generation of value that become participated territorial pacts and, generative of community (Equitable, Ethical, Sustainable)

Construct 4. School as a “regenerator of the territory” outpost for maintenance strategies in view of a community school. The evolutionary scenarios shift attention from the building heritage to the areas of relevance, to the spaces of proximity and context (Chipa et al, 2023)

Construct 5. School that feeds the “pedagogy of common action” (Puig, 2022) and overcoming its own isolation, multiplies educational experiences making them sustainable through attention to the partnership of a new “local educational ecosystem”.

INDIRE, through the realization of the National Observatory on Educational Pacts, has been analyzing this strategic tool for over a year and promotes moments of training and information to support schools and communities (Bartolini et al., 2022). In this contribution, through a pilot case in the territory of the city of Verona, the constituent elements of an educational pact will be presented, and some experiences will be re-read in the light of impact indicators built starting from the dimensions considered priority for a school that opens up and takes care of its community. The proposed case has the peculiarity of being born from the clear awareness on the part of the administration of the Municipality of Verona that the territorial problems concern the entire community and must be addressed in a synergistic way to try to find adequate and effective solutions. Thus, an alliance is structured at several levels: between the Municipality and other institutional actors (territorial pact); between the school institutes of the city of Verona and the institutions of the neighborhoods to which each belongs. The community educational pact is part of a systemic action on a large scale that embraces an entire territory.

Given the historical context of assimilation and the enduring impact of Residential Schooling in Canada, Indigenous families and communities continue to approach educational systems with a degree of uncertainty and distrust. Globally, education has been a significant tool for suppressing cultural differences and perpetuating dominant cultural norms and perspectives (Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018). In a time when Canadians are being called to action in addressing the goals outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada (2015), education also holds the power to “shift cultural privilege” (Government of Canada, 2018, p. 88) and foster a sense of belonging among marginalized groups. Chief Commissioner of the TRC, Senator Murray Sinclair posits, “Education got us into this mess and education will get us out” (CBC, 2015). This statement speaks to the importance of school environments to reflect the cultural values, identities, and practices of the specific Indigenous communities they serve (Donald, 2012). Going forward, it is imperative to adopt educational approaches that prioritize trust, inclusivity, respect, and collaboration with Indigenous peoples. These advancements in Indigenous education reflect a renewed effort for Indigenous peoples to take control of their knowledge production, confront colonial structures, and prioritize their sovereignty and nationalism (Andersen, 2014; Simpson, 2014). In our commitment to advance the educational goals of Indigenous peoples, we actively work towards reshaping the research relationship. Our current collaborative project with Indigenous students, families, communities, and leaders of the Fort Vermillion School Division in Northern Alberta, Canada, seeks to identify and implement educational experiences that reflect and reinforce Indigenous (Beaver, Métis, Cree, Dene) youths’ cultural identities, well-being, and future goals. Through the feedback we receive from the youth themselves, we examine how best to partner with the school division and local Indigenous communities to bring Indigenous knowledge and distinctive histories into the youths’ desired curriculum. Following the youths’ suggestions for language revitalization, cultural knowledge and career preparedness, we adopt educational structures that embody holistic approaches that are aligned with Indigenous ways of learning. We create a teaching workforce composed of Indigenous educators and teachers working in collaboration with local Indigenous community members. Our primary goal is to ensure that Indigenous youths’ learning experiences aid in the development of a robust self-image and a deep sense of pride and belonging. Embracing a strengths-based and community-engaged perspective, our approach is grounded in the principles of social justice and ethical Indigenous research practices. By adopting decolonizing methodologies, we are intentionally shifting power dynamics, dismantling privilege, and amplifying Indigenous voices as we honour their knowledge and traditions. Our research team practices "ethical relationality" as articulated by Dwayne Donald (2012). Ethical relationality seeks a transformative and respectful collaboration that acknowledges and upholds the inherent value of Indigenous perspectives. These concepts can also be applied outside of the borders of North America and outside of Indigenous communities. Youth around the globe face many challenges in education – often due to systemic inequalities and continued discriminatory practices. Access to quality and meaningful education remains a persistent issue, with economic disparities, geographic location, and cultural biases often standing in the way of marginalized youth from obtaining equitable learning opportunities. Community-based practices can aid educators in dismantling systemic barriers, promote inclusivity, and ensure that educational systems around the globe prioritize equity and diversity.

Small and rural schools often experience what is commonly perceived as inequality school curriculum towards urban schools due to bad connectivity and poor technological equipment, high teachers’ turnover or inadequate teacher training in the use of new technologies for innovative teaching, risking increasing levels of non-attendance in remote areas of our country (Mangione & Cannella, 2021). As De Bartolomeis (2018) has noted, the school is to be regarded as a learning system that needs to shift from an “integrated learning system” to an “extended learning system”. In current practice, learning in relationships with external settings is very modest and marginal. Not research but outings or visits, not observation with instruments prepared in advance and modified in the field but a superficial gaze, not interviews conducted as part of encounters but a few questions, not documentation but a few notes that are difficult to organize. The research activity carried out by INDIRE on the forms of diffused and extended schooling (Chipa, Mangione, 2022; Mangione, Chipa, Cannella, 2022; Mangione, Cannella, Chipa, 2021) has made it possible to deepen those experiences that make use of third-party spaces to build a “community ecosystem” (Teneggi, 2020). During the pandemic the learning experience of lower secondary schools in Reggio Emilia as “extended school in third spaces” has been financially supported by the local administration and carried out to extend the classrooms out of the school walls to guarantee the continuity of the educational offer. It involved 11 comprehensive schools of the city and 19 spaces outside the school starting from the 2020-2021 school year. The model has been observed and monitored to be transferred and small and rural school context.

This experience of the “extended school in third spaces” which went on up to nowadays, involved teachers of the schools, experts working for the different cultural spaces and non-teacher educators to renew the educational contract, to create around the teacher a necessary support for the realisation of an extended educational system and provide to the students a situated learning experience on a daily basis in order to avoid situation of cultural and social exclusion due to a poor curriculum experience. The collaboration among teachers, non-teacher educators and experts defined in term of interprofessional collaboration opened new opportunity for learning to the students, redefined a new alliance between school and the local community and started a new social contract for teachers to professional learning. The schools opened the school walls, re-organise timetable and curriculum content to connect to their communities, foster ever-changing forms of learning, civic and social engagement (LABSUS, 2023).

This experience offers the opportunity for analysing forms of inter-professional collaboration working in which children and families work with frequently changing combinations of professionals (Edwards, 2012). The conceptual framework that underpins the interprofessional collaboration is the activity theory, which offer object-orientated analyses of complex, radically distributed work settings from diverse expertise over extended periods of time. The interprofessional collaboration have been observed and monitored to three primary schools out of 11 involved in the extended school in Reggio Emilia, in three different learning environments (a school in cultural spaces, a school in outdoor spaces and a school in exploration spaces).

Interprofessional collaboration between teachers and non-teachers educator could be approached as a drivers to promote renewed school-community relationship, to start a new alliance between the different expertise to improve the quality of the curriculum and could be applied to all those learning environment that suffer social isolation.

Facing an uncertain future, there are many reasons to embrace, and indeed develop, participatory approaches to planning and decision-making. In this symposium, we present three papers from separate projects, addressing different local concerns in a range of countries and contexts, but all support the participation of people who might otherwise be overlooked in understanding and developing educational settings. Moving from a focus on the classroom, to the school and then the city itself, we share an understanding of these spaces as undeniably physical and material, but with these more tangible aspects intertwined with, and made meaningful through, their social and cultural features.

The papers present methods and approaches that have succeeded in including children and young people, teachers and other school staff in place-based and spatial decisions. We demonstrate how, through these processes, people develop relationships that reduce feelings of uncertainty and build a greater sense of communal belonging and empowerment. The results of these initiatives include not only tangible changes to space and places, but also enhanced understandings of the contribution community-members of all ages, backgrounds and roles can make. Such collaborative approaches have the potential to create landscapes of collaborative democratic decision making, turning spaces of learning within and beyond the school into welcoming, inclusive places of belonging, caring and community.

Yet, in this symposium, we intend to look beyond immediate or local successes. We question what these experiences reveal about the relationship between such participatory approaches and the wider landscape of democracy, which itself appears under threat in these uncertain times. In the examples we present, local participation and wider democracy appear productively entwined (Percy-Smith, 2015), each contributing positively to the development of the other. We return to Arnstein (1969) and Hart’s Ladders of Participation to interrogate our own experiences.

Arnstein (1969) and Hart (1992) show how low levels of participation can reveal an absence of democracy. A Ladder of Participation model helps expose situations where those involved are fed a story of involvement while subject to ‘manipulation’ (Arnstein, 1969: 217). However, our research shows how we must also consider what is happening at the higher levels of participation in these models, and why it is happening.

Our findings illustrate how more equitable participatory processes seem sometimes to depend on the pre-existence of more democratic approaches in areas such as governance, pedagogy and curriculum. Yet, on other occasions, the participatory activity itself impacts positively on the development of democratic processes and places. Our research thus highlights the importance of focusing on the process of participatory decision-making, as well as the outcomes (Harris and Goodall, 2007). Reciprocal learning between professionals and those often excluded from place and space based decision making processes is a powerful tool in the development of place-making as a more relational, collaborative endeavour.

Thus, even when higher levels of participation in particular projects are achieved, perhaps supported by local democratic systems, there is a need to recognise the larger eco-systems at play and how these policies and practices may disempower not only the participants but also the organisers of the participatory activities.

Many researchers and practitioners working with educational systems will have experienced such issues, where our interests in research or engagement must be balanced, and may be in tension with, other expectations and intentions based on ‘thin consumer driven and overly individualistic forms’ of democracy (Apple, 2013, p.49) rather than “thick” collective forms of democracy based on consensus and community. We will draw on the diverse experiences presented in our paper to explore the challenges presented by such contested conceptualisations of democracy (Foner, 1998) and participation, and how these might be navigated.

The importance of good indoor environmental qualities (IEQ) for wellbeing and learning in schools is well-researched, though mostly framed, measured, and treated technically (e.g., Haverinen‐Shaughnessy et al., 2011; Minelli et al., 2022). Less explored is the relation between pedagogical practices, physical school spaces, and IEQ and how these are intertwined and potentially improved through teacher training and collaboration (Bøjer & Rasmussen, 2024). In this paper, we do a close examination of a small but exemplary project, where a recreation centre teacher, through minor physical and pedagogical interventions developed in collaboration with colleagues, transforms a malfunctioning computer space with bad acoustics and air quality into an engaging, inclusive, and caring space for both teachers and students. The analysis will draw on socio-spatial perspectives of space and educational practice for an analysis of how aspects of IEQ (acoustics and air flow) and materiality (computers, walls, and chairs on wheels) entangle with the pedagogical practices and organisations of the room (Carvalho & Yeoman, 2018; Lai et al. 2020; Mulcahy et al., 2015). Moreover, it is framed by a literature review conducted in the research project (Bøjer & Rasmussen, 2024). The analysis will exemplify how IEQ may be considered and supported pedagogically through teacher training, which would offer a more collaborative and participatory alternative to the dominant technical approach to IEQ in schools. The paper is grounded in a Danish action research project connected to a new supplementary teacher training program aiming to educate teachers in matters of pedagogy, space, and IEQ and their interrelations. The paper will be based on qualitative data including visual and written material from presentations and reports about the teacher projects, observations and interviews with teachers, and quantitative IEQ measurement. The project demonstrates the interrelated link between pedagogy, space, and IEQ and how thinking about and working with this interplay as collaborative, interwoven and interdependent can empower the teachers and thus create better and more democratic learning environments. Today, IEQ is mainly controlled by the school’s technical personnel, thus being unapproachable by teachers and students. Enhanced spatial competencies provides the teacher with more agency to (re)think space and IEQ pedagogically and make the required changes to secure a more aligned and democratic learning environment.

Bøjer, B. & Rasmussen, L. R. (2024). The interplay between pedagogical practices, physical spaces, and indoor environmental quality in schools: A scoping study. (Manuscript submitted for publication). Carvalho, L. & Yeoman, P. (2018) Framing learning entanglement in innovative learning spaces: Connecting theory, design and practice. British educational research journal 44(6), p.1120-1137 DOI: 10.1002/berj.3483 Haverinen‐Shaughnessy, U., Moschandreas, D., & Shaughnessy, R. (2011). Association between substandard classroom ventilation rates and students’ academic achievement. Indoor Air, 21(2), 121-131. Lai, C., Huang, Y. X., & Lam, T. (2020). Teachers' socio-spatial practice in innovative learning environments. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(4), 521-538. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2020.1736003 Minelli, G., Puglisi, G. E., & Astolfi, A. (2022). Acoustical parameters for learning in classroom: A review. Building and environment, 208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108582 Mulcahy, D., Cleveland, B., & Aberton, H. (2015). Learning spaces and pedagogic change: Envisioned, enacted and experienced. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 23(4), 575–595. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2015.1055128

The life of a school involves complex interactions of a diversity of people, acting sometimes as individuals and sometimes as groups, within a physical space. The connection between physical school settings and the activities that take place is not simple (Blackmore et al., 2011; Duthilleul et al., 2021), with the totality of the educational environment depending on organisational and social aspects, as well as physical and material resources, and the relationships and interactions these all support (Gislason, 2010; Woolner et al., 2022). This is why collaborative investigation of school space, its use and design, can be beneficial. By raising awareness of the physical environment and sharing experiences of their activities within it, school communities can develop shared understandings that can improve cohesion and contribute to ideas for the future (Parnell, 2015). Using shared experiences of physical spaces to generate ideas is clearly suitable, drawing as it does on the practice of site visits in architecture, but research and practice also demonstrates the success of desk-based visual-spatial methods, using plans and images of school space (Woolner et al., 2010). In this paper I will present methods developed through the CoReD project (project ref.: 2019-1-UK01-KA201-061954, 2019-22, https://www.ncl.ac.uk/cored/ ) to support such participatory approaches to understanding and developing school spaces. These activities, moving within spaces or discussing images, enable experiences to be shared and support the development of knowledge of the setting, perhaps opening minds to the potential of the specific site. Through considering the use of the methods (Bøjer and Woolner, 2024; Coelho, 2022; Sigurðardóttir et al., 2021), in a range of educational contexts, I will explore how the methods facilitate progress from initial recognition and articulation of experiences to the development of shared ideas. I will then begin to consider the external circumstances that are needed to support the participatory design process through these stages. A key issue is what, if anything, in the material and social setting changes as a result of the collaborative approach. In relation to outcomes, it is notable that these processes occur within the constraints of existing structures, cultures and funding within the school and across the wider society.

Blackmore, J.et al.(2011) Research into the Connection between Built Learning Spaces and Student Outcomes, Melbourne, Victoria. Bøjer,B and Woolner, P.(2024) Creating ‘perfect’ new learning spaces: collaboration to align design and use In: AR. Costa and R. Cooper (Ed) Design for Education. Coelho,C.et al.(2022). Survey on Student School Spaces: An Inclusive Design Tool for a Better School. Buildings, 12, 392. Duthilleul, Y: Woolner,P: Whelan, A.(2021) Constructing Education: An Opportunity Not to Be Missed. Paris: Council of Europe Development Bank, Thematic Reviews Series. Gislason, N.(2010). Architectural design and the learning environment: A framework for school design research. Learning Environments Research, 13, 127–145. Parnell, R.(2015) Co-creative Adventures in School Design. In P. Woolner (Ed) School Design Together, London: Routledge Sigurðardóttir,A.K.; Hjartarson,T.; Snorrason, A.(2021) Pedagogical Walks through Open and Sheltered Spaces: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of an Innovative Learning Environment. Buildings, 11, 503 Woolner, P., Hall,E., Clark,J., Tiplady,L., Thomas,U. and Wall,K.(2010). Pictures are necessary but not sufficient: using a range of visual methods to engage users about school design Learning Environments Research 13(1) 1-22. Woolner, P., Thomas,U. and Charteris,J.(2022). The risks of standardised school building design: Beyond aligning the parts of a learning environment, European Education Research Journal, 21(4): 627–644

Following the global pandemic, there has been increasing recognition of the levels of uncertainty facing children and young people and the urgent need for our national and local governments to become more responsive to the interests of the young, as demonstrated by initiatives such as the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2021). Drawing on findings from a 45-month international comparative research study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, this paper suggests that although it is children and young people’s fundamental right to participate in matters that affect them (UN, 1989) this is often overlooked. The study indicates that policy making with children and young people at local and national level require the creation of spaces and places of belonging and collaborative, democratic decision making for our youngest citizens in their schools and local communities and shows how a Relational Toolkit can help. The research took place across four case studies; learning spaces from Barcelona, Berlin, New York and Rio de Janeiro. The case studies come from diverse spaces and places, yet all their approaches clearly illustrate the belief that education is place making and vice versa, with a deliberate blurring of the boundaries between formal spaces of education and the students’ daily lives and experiences in their wider community. Their approaches show the potential for children and young people as expert decision makers and collaborators for fairer places. The study uses relational theory (Holland et al, 1998, Warren et al, 2009) to better understand participant identities and the associated notions of power and positionality that emerge in times of uncertainty in urban education contexts. This paper highlights how socio-educational relationships can generate the type of ‘relational goods’ (interpersonal trust, emotional support, care and social influence) (Cordelli, 2015) required for more reciprocal relationships between policymakers, communities and children and young people. One of the key findings of the research was the need to develop decision making spaces and places where children and young people have a feeling of “communal being-ness” (Studdert, 2005, p.5) now in the places where they live. As a result, the Relational Toolkit was developed. Using evaluation activities based on identifying relational outcomes, and a Ladder of Engagement adapted from the work of Arnstein (1969) and Hart (1992), the Toolkit deliberately challenges traditional conceptualisations of children and young people as future citizens and instead repositions them as power-full (Ralls et al, 2022) Citizens of Now.

Arnstein, S., (1969) A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35, 216–24 Cordelli, C. (2015), Justice as Fairness and Relational Resources. J Polit Philos, 23: 86–110 European Commission (2021) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: EU strategy on the rights of the child Brussels, 24.3.2021 COM(2021) 142. Hart, R. (1992) Children’s Participation: From Tokenism To Citizenship. Florence: UNICEF Holland D., Lachicotte W. Jr., Skinner D., & Cain C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural Worlds. Cambridge:H.U.P. Ralls D, Lahana L, Towers B, Johnson L. (2022) Reimagining Education in a Pandemic: Children and Young People as Powerful Educators. In: Turok-Squire R, ed. COVID-19 and Education in the Global North: Storytelling and Alternative Pedagogies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-35 Studdert, D. (2005) Conceptualising community; beyond the state and the individual, London: Palgrave Macmillan United Nations Children’s Fund UK. (1989). The United Nations convention on the rights of the child Warren, M. R., Hong, S., Rubin, C. H., and Uy, P. S. (2009). Beyond the bake sale: A community-based, relational approach to parent engagement in schools. Teachers College Record, 111(9), 2209-2254

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

This paper will consider play-based methods utilised to explore young children's experiences of family life as means for documenting children's voices. Family is a universal concept and experience for children across national borders. Much of the research around family conducted with children focuses on family composition and membership (e.g. Castren and Widmer 2015, Mason and Tipper 2008), but less is known about family-as-activity (Clark and Kehily 2013) and as a verb (Morgan 2011) where the practices of and within the family provide meaning and insight into how families relate and not just who they are related to. This paper explores such practices from the standpoint of young children, aged 3 to 4 years old, focusing on what families do on a day-to-day basis, on the everyday and the mundane. The research took place in three early childhood settings in the North of England, UK. Through sensory play-based activities with loose-parts resources children engaged in recreating what they do with their families, activating conversations about family practice. Children’s sense of self within the family and their positioning was documented by developing 'I-poems' using the Listening Guide (Gilligan 2015).

The research reported in this paper builds on existing early childhood practice and resources familiar to young children to offer novel ways of listening, documenting views and experiences. The research aim was to develop, test and disseminate innovative methods for listening to young children. This was achieved by enabling young children to articulate their understandings and experiences of family practice through play-based research methods and working in partnership with the participating early childhood settings to embed methods for listening to young children into practice alongside focus on (re)building partnerships with families following the Covid-19 pandemic. Children were supported to express views for themselves through play-based methods and a process of analysis foregrounding their voices.

The ability of a child to overcome difficulties and maintain their wellbeing is in part dependent of the systems that they are part of (Masten, 2021), including the schools, the communities, and the neighborhoods that they live in. However, little research takes an interdisciplinary approach to understand which factors support children’s wellbeing. Therefore, this research takes a transformative approach and seeks to research and to find ways to implement change (Mertens, 2017). We seek to uncover the multifaceted resources within neighborhoods that positively influence the wellbeing. The study is motivated by critical gaps in the literature, notably the prevalence of deficit-based approaches, the overlooking of children's perspectives, and the limited exploration of neighborhood resources and the complex ways in which they interact in fostering wellbeing within the school and beyond.

The neighborhoods in which children grow up impact their educational opportunities and may impede equality across their lifespan (Minh et al., 2017). At the same time, neighborhoods, which schools are a part of, may hold potential resources for children’s resilience (Ungar & Theron, 2020), or their capacity to adapt successfully to challenges (Masten & Barnes, 2018), and can possibly counter structural processes of inequality. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, children living in more cohesive and safer neighborhoods fared better than others in terms of physical and mental health (Robinette et al., 2021). After-school programs, community initiatives, and accessible meeting points can offer opportunities to offset possible threats to children's wellbeing and positively impact their educational outcomes. Overall, cohesive neighborhoods with a strong collective efficacy have a robust positive effect on children’s adjustment (Yule et al., 2019). Yet, our knowledge about which resources can be accessed and the ways through which these can be accessed remains rather limited with no in-depth explorations of how young people evaluate such resources.

How the complex ecosystems surrounding a child may support their positive adjustment remains unclear with some significant gaps in the current state of the literature. First, research tends to take a deficit-based approach and focus on the ways in which children are disadvantaged. Second, the perspective of children and their own experience of the resources they rely on is mostly overlooked. And third, research investigating the resources that support children’s resilience, or their capability to overcome difficulty, tends to mainly focus on the interpersonal networks in their families from a psychological perspective, on the relationship between teachers and pupils from an educational perspective, or on the social capital accessible to them, from a sociological perspective. In this project, we hope to go beyond this fragmented state of the literature and explore the resources that children rely on in their networks from the children’s own perspective. The research question we hope to answer is: “Which factors in the neighborhood their school is embedded have the potential to positively impact the children’s wellbeing, from their own perspective”. The research adopts an asset-based lens, which marks a departure from conventional deficit-oriented paradigms. By examining neighborhoods through the eyes of the children themselves, the focus is on identifying and understanding the diverse resources and strengths present within their immediate social and physical environments that foster resilience.

Central to the research question is the exploration of neighborhood and community factors which influence the capacity of children to overcome challenges. This extends beyond traditional educational perspectives and includes after-school programs, community initiatives, and accessible meeting points within the community. Our study seeks to uncover how these unconventional resources foster children's resilience and positively impact their educational outcomes and aspires to contribute to a transformative understanding of the ecosystems surrounding children in diverse and changing European cities.