Conference Agenda

Сoaching-Based Professional Development as a Tool for Improving Teachers’ Teaching Practice through Formative Assessment and Digital Educational Resources
(Action Research)

Introduction

In this context, one of the effective ways to support teachers’ professional development within the school environment is coaching-based action research. Over the past three to four years, approximately 20 young teachers have joined our school. To support their professional growth, experienced coach teachers have conducted coaching sessions. Coaching organizes collaborative professional learning and allows teachers to consciously analyze their practice. Based on school-based coaching experience, this study examines ways to improve teachers’ teaching practices through the use of formative assessment and digital educational resources.

The challenge of implementing formative and criterion-based assessment is particularly evident among novice teachers. While early-career teachers often demonstrate openness to innovation, they may lack sufficient assessment literacy and confidence to apply formative assessment strategies consistently and effectively. Additionally, the increasing availability of digital educational resources and online assessment tools presents both opportunities and challenges. Without targeted professional support, teachers may struggle to align digital tools with learning objectives and assessment criteria in a pedagogically meaningful way.

Professional development plays a critical role in addressing these challenges. Traditional professional development models, which are typically short-term and externally driven, have been criticized for their limited impact on sustained classroom practice. In contrast, school-based professional development approaches emphasize contextualized learning, collaboration, and reflection. Coaching, in particular, has gained increasing attention as an effective model for supp Grounded in sociocultural learning theory and the principles of collaborative professional inquiry, coaching creates opportunities for teachers to engage in shared reflection within their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978).

Research Problem

In school practice, assessment is often limited to summative assessment conducted at the end of instruction and is not fully used as a tool for improving teaching and learning. Due to the fact that 40% of the teaching staff consists of young specialists, certain challenges have arisen. During the study, it was found that young teachers tend to perceive assessment as a control mechanism or a means of comparing students. Such perceptions hinder students’ active participation in the learning process and their ability to take responsibility for their own learning.

In addition, formative assessment, criterion-based assessment, and digital educational resources introduced into the education system have not been equally integrated into all teachers’ practices. Especially for teachers accustomed to traditional teaching approaches, understanding and applying these methods requires professional support. Therefore, studying the impact of school-based coaching on teachers’ professional development is a relevant issue.

Research Question

The main research question of this action research is formulated as follows:

How does coaching-based professional development within a school influence teachers’ practical use of formative assessment and digital educational resources?

Sub-questions:

• How does experiencing the role of a student change teachers’ perceptions of assessment?
• How does collaborative discussion of criterion-based assessment shape understanding of assessment fairness?
• How does coaching based on Bloom’s Taxonomy influence lesson planning skills?

Theoretical Framework

The study is based on the seven modules of the educational program developed by the University of Cambridge. In particular, the modules Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning, Teaching Critical Thinking, Learning How to Learn, and Leadership were used as the theoretical foundation.

Formative assessment is considered by Black and Wiliam as an effective tool for improving the quality of teaching. Assessment should help learners understand their current achievements and identify their next learning steps. Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development explains collaborative professional learning among teachers during coaching. In addition, dialogic teaching and metacognition theories provide a basis for conscious reflection on teaching practice.

Across Europe and internationally, professionals working in complex organizational and innovation contexts are increasingly expected to navigate uncertainty, ethical tensions, and rapidly changing societal expectations. Research on professional learning and development has shown that sustainable professional practice cannot be reduced to competence acquisition alone but involves deeper processes of professional identity learning, professional agency, and meaning-making through reflection and reinterpretation of experience (Beijaard et al., 2004; Eteläpelto et al., 2014; Mezirow, 2000).

Building on this body of research, this paper examines professional identity learning as an ongoing and dynamic process situated within professional learning and development (Beijaard et al., 2004; Beijaard et al., 2023). The study focuses on participants engaged in a holistic, coaching-based innovation and entrepreneurship program in Vietnam. Participants occupy leadership and coordination roles across higher education institutions, innovation ecosystems, and industry-related contexts. Rather than approaching leadership as a positional attribute, the study conceptualizes leadership as an enacted outcome of professional learning, emerging through identity negotiation, reflective practice, and the development of professional agency and responsibility (Ibarra, 1999; Raelin, 2016; Biesta, 2020).

The paper addresses a gap in professional learning and development research by exploring how coaching-based educational designs support professional identity learning processes among adult professionals operating in high-pressure and polarized contexts. By focusing on identity-learning trajectories rather than predefined roles or competencies, the study contributes to international debates on how professionals develop reflective agency, purpose, and relational responsibility through learning.

The following research questions guide the study:

1. How do professionals participating in a coaching-based innovation program experience professional identity learning over time?
2. What forms of identity-learning processes are associated with increased reflective agency, purpose, and relational responsibility in complex professional contexts?

The theoretical framework integrates three complementary perspectives on professional learning.

First, professional identity learning theory conceptualizes identity as a dynamic and socially situated process shaped through participation, reflection, and dialogue (Beijaard et al., 2004). From this perspective, professional learning involves ongoing negotiation of who professionals are and who they are becoming in relation to changing work demands, roles, and expectations (Ibarra, 1999).

Second, transformative learning theory provides a lens for understanding how critical reflection and disorienting professional experiences can lead to shifts in meaning-making and self-understanding (Mezirow, 2000). Such transformations are particularly relevant in innovation and leadership contexts characterised by uncertainty, ambiguity, and competing value systems.

Third, perspectives on professional agency and practice-based learning frame learning as embedded in professional action rather than detached from practice. From this viewpoint, professional learning is understood as participation in and engagement with work practices shaped by social and contextual conditions (Billett, 2001). Research on professional agency further highlights how professionals develop the capacity to influence their work, relationships, and professional trajectories through reflective, purposeful, and contextually situated action (Eteläpelto et al., 2014).

Within this integrative framework, coaching is conceptualized as a pedagogical and relational learning mechanism that supports reflective dialogue, identity negotiation, and experimentation with new ways of being and acting professionally (Bachkirova, 2022; Garvey et al., 2018).

The international relevance of the study lies in its contribution to broadening professional learning theory beyond Western-centric contexts. Drawing on empirical data from Vietnam, a rapidly developing context shaped by globalization and local cultural traditions, the paper offers insights into how professional identity learning unfolds under conditions of systemic transition. These insights are discussed in relation to research on professional learning and development, inviting reflection on how identity, agency, and purpose might be more explicitly integrated into professional learning initiatives (Nguyen & Walker, 2024).

Teachers who recently received their diploma and just graduated from university in many education systems experience similar challenges as they move from their initial training into professional practice. These issues are often accompanied by low confidence in pedagogy, uncertainty in assessment, difficulties with lesson planning and a feeling of professional isolation. Such issues are not limited to particular countries or institutions but are reported commonly across the European and international contexts. As a result, an increased interest in school-based and collaborative models of professional development which provide ongoing mentoring and structured opportunities for reflection has grown.

This study examines the professional development of early-career teachers who are supported by the EduBridge Community, which is a mentor-led professional learning community that was created by experienced educators. It investigates the role of structured mentoring, collaborative learning and action research in professional development of teachers in their first six months of participation.

Research aim

The purpose of the study is to explore the effects of participating in a mentor-led professional learning community on the professional competence, reflective practice and instructional development of beginning teachers.

Research questions

• How does membership in the EduBridge Community affect beginning teachers' professional self-assessment in such key areas as lesson planning, formative assessment, and practice in the classroom?

• How do mentoring activities and professional learning interventions help support the development of reflective practice with beginning teachers?

• What preliminary student learning outcomes changes are observed in the period of implementation?

Theoretical framework

The study is theoretically based on the sociocultural learning theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and the concept of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). From this perspective, professional learning is conceived as a socially mediated process that takes place through participation in shared practice, dialogue and reflection. Mentoring is conceptualised as a type of guided participation, where experienced teachers scaffold the learning of novice teachers and support the movement of the novice teacher from peripheral to fuller participation as a professional.

Scientific contribution

The contribution of this study to the field of education is the combination of mentor-led professional learning communities and action research as a structured model for early-career teacher development. While the concept of mentoring and communities of practice have been a focus of much research activity, less is known about empirical evidence of the relationship between pre/post survey data, classroom observations, reflective artefacts and student learning indicators within a single research design. The study is relevant to European and international discussions in that it provides evidence from a school-based intervention that can be transferred to other educational settings who are seeking sustainable induction and professional learning models.

Teacher motivation and professional effectiveness are widely recognised as key determinants of school development and educational quality. In the modern education system, teachers are not only transmitters of knowledge but also central agents in implementing educational reforms, maintaining instructional quality, and supporting students’ personal and academic growth. Consequently, enhancing teacher motivation has remained a prominent focus of international educational research(OECD, 2014).

In the context of the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) included in the study, the relevance of examining early-career teacher motivation is particularly high. NIS aims to provide high-quality education for gifted students, which requires teachers to deliver innovative instruction, adopt new pedagogical practices, and contribute to a dynamic learning environment. Early-career teachers in these schools often face unique challenges, including adapting to advanced curriculum requirements, relationship with parents, integrating modern teaching technologies, and meeting high expectations from both students and administration. These challenges can affect motivation, professional satisfaction, and retention, which in turn impacts overall school performance. Therefore, understanding the factors influencing early-career teacher motivation within the NIS context is crucial for sustaining instructional quality, supporting professional growth, and ensuring long-term school effectiveness.

Research consistently demonstrates that motivated teachers are more inclined to engage in innovative teaching practices, participate actively in professional development, and respond positively to institutional change. For example, Leithwood, Steinbach, and Jantzi argue that highly motivated teachers play a crucial role in the successful implementation of reforms initiated by school leadership |(Leithwood et al., 2002). Similarly, OECD studies highlight the importance of supportive school leadership, a positive psychological climate, and access to professional learning opportunities in increasing teachers’ job satisfaction and professional commitment(Herzberg et al., 1959).

Motivated teachers, by contrast, are more likely to invest in continuous professional learning, apply innovative instructional strategies, and contribute to a positive school climate, ultimately leading to improved student outcomes. Recognising this, global empirical research identifies several effective strategies for supporting early-career teachers. Studies show that novice teachers who participate in such programs report higher job satisfaction, demonstrate improved instructional practices, and exhibit retention rates that are 35–50% higher than those of teachers who do not receive induction support (EdResearch for Action, 2025).

This study is based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation, which distinguishes between hygiene factors—such as workload, administrative support, working conditions, and salary—that prevent dissatisfaction and reduce the risk of psychological burnout, and motivational factors—such as recognition, responsibility, professional growth, and achievement - that enhance engagement and performance. This framework allows for a systematic analysis of how school policies, workplace support, and professional development opportunities affect early-career teachers’ motivation, effectiveness, and psychological well-being. Combined with evidence-based induction practices, Herzberg’s model provides a comprehensive lens for understanding the factors shaping teacher motivation, professional performance, and resilience to burnout (EdResearch for Action, 2025).

Understanding the factors that influence early-career teacher motivation is essential for effective school leadership, informed policy design, and the long-term retention of novice teachers. Based on the mission of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools - “To prepare and inspire intellectual potential leaders for lifelong learning” - this study aims to identify both barriers and enabling conditions, providing evidence-based recommendations to strengthen professional development structures, support systems, and school culture, ultimately enhancing teaching quality and student learning outcomes.

Research Question
What factors affect early-career teachers’ motivation in professional development in learning and teaching, and what interventions can improve their engagement and performance?

Objectives

1. To analyse the relationship between teacher motivation and performance outcomes in teaching quality.
2. To identify positive and negative factors influencing early-career teachers’ motivation.
3. To propose actionable strategies to enhance motivation, professional development, and job satisfaction.

This paper explores the effectiveness of the Time Round Robin cooperative learning strategy in geography education through a Lesson Study research approach. The study was conducted in lower secondary geography classrooms and focused on enhancing students’ active participation, subject-specific competencies, and spatial thinking skills. Within the Lesson Study cycle, lessons were collaboratively planned, observed, and reflected upon, allowing systematic analysis of student learning processes. The findings indicate that the Time Round Robin strategy ensures equitable student participation, promotes structured geographical discussion, and supports the development of analytical thinking and the use of geographical concepts. Students demonstrated improved engagement, increased confidence in expressing geographically reasoned arguments, and deeper understanding of subject content. The results suggest that integrating the Time Round Robin strategy into geography lessons contributes to the development of functional geographical literacy and represents an effective pedagogical practice for improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Across the world, countries are dealing with persisting teacher shortages and the state of the teaching profession is in steady decline (Kraft & Lyon, 2024). These shortages have played a major role in increasing demands and responsibilities of teachers and expectations towards them, forcing teachers out of the profession before retirement (Sutcher et al., 2019). The related teacher turnover hinders students’ achievement (Atteberry et al., 2017). Reasons why teachers leave their schools have been on scholars’ radar over the last decades, resulting in a clear picture of the factors contributing to teacher attrition (e.g., Pressley et al., 2026). Understanding about teacher well-being, negative effects of work load, and the importance of support is derived from these studies and has informed practice and policy. However, it is important to separate teacher attrition from teacher retention as different conclusions can be drawn regarding either, since retention is not only beneficial for shortages but also to improve educational quality (Sincock et al., 2026).

Considering this, research that considers why teachers are committed to and intent to remain teaching will provide understanding that facilitate the promotion of an inspiring work environment. Commitment is the strength of the bond with a given workplace target (Wang et al., 2021). In previous research, teachers who report higher commitment have lower turnover intentions (Moodie, 2025) and their students have higher academic achievement (Li et al., 2022). Committed teachers are driven by values to care for students and enthusiasm for the subject they teach (Fransson & Frelin, 2016). They are deeply motivated to provide quality education to their students and are motivated by interacting with them (Fransson & Frelin, 2016).

Over the years, theorists have proposed various conceptualisations to commitment (e.g., Klein et al., 2012; Meyer & Allen, 1991; Wang et al., 2021). The common denominator in these conceptualisations is the intention to continue the bond with a given target. Traditionally, this target would be the employing organisation, but in more recent research commitment is viewed as directed at any part of the organisation instead. Meyer and Allen (1991) proposed a multidimensional model with three distinct mindsets that reflected on an affective bond with the organisation, a sense of obligation to the organisation (normative), and a lack of alternatives but to stay in the organisation. Critics stated that the normative and continuance mindset are rather an influence on one’s intentions to stay in the organisation than commitment itself (Solinger et al., 2008). This laid the foundations for Klein et al.'s (2012) target-neutral approach to commitment as a psychological bond based on dedication and responsibility (Klein et al., 2012).

This symposium builds on the premise that understanding why teachers do not leave, provides input for continuous retention. Commitment is put forth an explanation for this, which provided the opportunity to look at the phenomenon of retention from various angles. Recently, commitment research is evolving from a primarily quantitative field to a field that acknowledges the relevance of more interpretive and person-centered methodological approaches. Building upon these developments, this symposium provides insights on how teachers are bonded to their work and how this relates to their intentions to provide quality education and remain in teaching. Here, we present first results from three large-scale and longitudinal studies, performed in different countries, in which we aim to understand teacher commitment throughout their career.

Teachers who intend to leave to profession state that this is related to a lack of support for their contributions to their schools (Pressley et al., 2026). To provide that support, understanding is needed about how teachers commit to their work and how that related to innovative work behaviour and turnover intentions. Commitment is a sense of responsibility and dedication for a part of one’s work (i.e., a target; (Klein et al., 2012). However, organisations consists of people with various values and goals, so commitment can be directed at various parts of teachers’ work (i.e., targets; (Reichers, 1985). As such, teachers have commitment in varying degrees for different parts and patterns are recognizable between teachers regarding this (i.e., (commitment) profiles; Meyer et al., 2025). Thus, instead of making general claims over a population, this person-centred approach facilitates looking how teacher have distinct commitments to their work. Consequently, a more explicit understanding at the relationship between teachers’ commitment and its outcomes is formed. As such. this study investigates the following research questions: which commitment profiles can be identified among teachers in primary, secondary, and vocational education and what is the relationship between these commitment profiles and innovative work behaviour and turnover intentions? For this study, 616 teachers filled in a questionnaire regarding the extent of their commitment towards 14 targets and their innovative work behaviour, continuous professional development, and turnover intentions. A latent profile analysis was conducted in R (package: tidyLPA) to identify the profiles, and subsequently, three one-way ANOVAs with pair-wise comparisons were conducted to find the difference between the profiles regarding the abovementioned outcomes. The results provide five commitment profiles: a (1) high, (2) moderate, and (3) low committed profile, a (4) locally orientated profile, and a (5) individualistic profile. Teachers in the individualistic and low committed profiles had the most turnover intentions, while teachers in the individualistic and high committed profiles reported the most innovative work behaviour. In short, the commitment profiles are distinct for each other regarding the extent to which one is committed to work in general and in teacher’s relationship with the school context. Further, teachers with a sole focus on teaching rather than also on their colleagues and school are more likely to leave to organisation.

Klein, H. J., Molloy, J. C., & Brinsfield, C. T. (2012). Reconceptualizing workplace commitment to redress a stretched construct: Revisiting assumptions and removing confounds. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 130–151. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0018 Meyer, J. P., Morin, A. J. S., & McInerney, D. M. (2025). Multi-target commitment profiles and their links to motivational orientation, turnover intentions, and personal adjustment: An investigation with Hong Kong teachers. Current Psychology, 44(4), 2594–2611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07235-3 Pressley, T., Marshall, D. T., Walter, H. L., Ganey, K., Rader, M. A., Creed, E., & Andre, I. (2026). Why teachers leave: Insights from teachers leaving or preparing to leave the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 169, 105285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105285 Reichers, A. E. (1985). A review and reconceptualization of organizational commitment. The Academy of Management Review, 10(3), 465–476. https://doi.org/10.2307/258128

Teacher attrition is a severe, global problem (e.g. Admiraal, 2025; Vu & Nguyen, 2025), but so far little research has been conducted from the perspective of pre-service teachers (PSTs) regarding their doubts or commitment to the teaching profession (e.g., Wang et al., 2021). Roberts (2012) stated over a decade ago that initial teacher training attrition and persistence are under-researched and under-theorized. This study focuses on Finnish and Austrian PSTs’ differing commitments to a teaching career. We present them through three cases from both countries, which are further analyzed using Kelchtermans’s (2017) framework of teacher attrition and retention as an educational issue, encompassing four distinct dimensions, which are: 1) agency; 2) meaningful interactions; 3) ethical, moral, or political dimensions; and 4) interpretive negotiations. The empirical data consist of transcribed qualitative thematic interviews with 13 Austrian and 12 Finnish PSTs carried out yearly during their studies. The longitudinal research material consists of annual interviews with 25 pre-service teachers, in which three types of orientations (Pop & Turner, 2009) toward teaching were identified: 1) fully committed, 2) conflicting commitment, and 3) career change. The results are presented in a two-dimensional way: firstly, we present one example case from each country according to the commitment category. Secondly, within each of the cases we show how the Kelchtermans’s (2017) dimensions appear in these PSTs’ stories, and how the commitment does (not) change longitudinally. We can summarize the main findings of this study into two points. First, PSTs’ commitments differ during the years of their TE studies: the commitment can strengthen because of the studies, fluctuate, or even diminish. The longitudinal data allowed us to see how the degree of commitment changed during the years. Second, Kelchtermans’s (2017) dimensions related to attrition are factors in the fluctuating commitment. The dimensions illustrate how personal and professional relationships, identity negotiations, values and policies, and working conditions may affect PSTs’ intentions to enter teaching. As Clandinin et al. (2015) argue, attrition process might begin long before it happens. Thus, it is important to detect the reasons for PSTs’ doubts and provide support early as possible. We found out that applying Kelchtermans’s (2017) theory to empirical data fits and is useful in international and comparative studies. The methodology of this study thus provides a model for future research in different TE contexts.

Admiraal, W. (2025). Attrition risk profiles of novice teachers based on their job demands, individual and school resources, and well-being. Teaching and Teacher Education, 162, Article 105070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105070. Clandinin, D. J., Long, J., Schaefer, L., Downey, C. A., Steeves, P., Pinnegar, E., … Wnuk, S. (2015). Early career teacher attrition: intentions of teachers beginning. Teaching Education, 26(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2014.996746. Kelchtermans, G. (2017). ‘Should I stay or should I go?’: unpacking teacher attrition/retention as an educational issue. Teachers and Teaching, 23(8), 961-977, https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2017.1379793. Pop, M. M., & Turner, J. E. (2009). To be or not to be … a teacher? Exploring levels of commitment related to perceptions of teaching among students enrolled in a teacher education program. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 15(6), 683–700. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600903357017. Roberts, D. (2012). Modelling withdrawal and persistence for initial teacher training: revising Tinto's Longitudinal Model of Departure. British Educational Research Journal, 38(6), 953–975. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2011.603035. Vu, H.Y. & Nguyen, X.H. (2025). Journey to becoming an English teacher. Teaching and Teacher Education, 165, Article 105166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105166. Wang, G., Strong, M., Zhang, S., & Liu, K. (2021). Preservice teacher professional commitment: a conceptual model and literature review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 104, Article 103373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103373.

Consistent with the global focus on teacher shortages as a policy concern (See et al, 2023), it has been a prominent concern in the Irish education system since at least 2012 when the Sahlberg report, which recognised “the high calibre of entrants to ITE in Ireland” (Sahlberg et al., 2012, p. 19), highlighted potential future difficulties around recruitment and retention. Today, over a decade later, these issues continue to be emphasised as urgent by teacher unions, principal organisations and managerial bodies (Conway et al, 2024; Harford & Fleming, 2025). The many challenges associated with teacher supply come at a time when teaching remains a widely respected profession in Ireland (Teaching Council, 2015) with teachers reporting a strong level of commitment (Smyth et al., 2016, p. 154). However, we know little about teacher commitment beyond these early years. The empirical data for this paper on teacher commitment is drawn the Teachers Professional Journeys (TPJ): The First Decade (2024-2030) a national accelerated longitudinal mixed-methods study focused on understanding the dynamics of teacher learning and development from the final year of initial teacher education (ITE) through the first nine years of teachers’ work within classrooms and schools in the context of the wider education system at primary, post-primary and further education (FE) sectors in Ireland. The overarching aim of the TPJ study is to understand beginning teachers’ professional journeys via a national population sample of the 2019, 2022 and 2026 teacher cohorts. Given the dominance of research in teacher education on the first two to three years, TPJ provides a unique opportunity to provide insight into teacher commitment beyond the first three years of teaching (Hourigan et al, 2025). For the purpose of this paper, we draw on two TPJ data sources from TPJ: (i) the extent to which and how teacher commitment has been addressed in longitudinal studies of teachers drawing from a scoping review of longitudinal studies of teachers (2000-2023) and (ii) the first wave of survey data from year four and year seven teachers in primary, post-primary and further education and training. Findings from the scoping review include the relatively low numbers of included longitudinal studies that address teacher commitment, the somewhat differing framing, measurement and designs to address teacher commitment. Survey administration is taking place in Spring 2026 and findings from the wave one survey will be presented at the proposed symposium.

Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Smyth, E., Calderón, A., Fitzgerald, J., Hourigan, M., & Ní Chróinín, D., Fitzpatrick, M., Zubareva, A. (2024). Teachers’ Professional Journeys during the first decade longitudinal study: Reviews of literature: Report No.1 , Limerick: University of Limerick. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34961/researchrepository-ul.28399763 Harford, J., & Fleming, B. (2025). Teacher supply in Ireland: anatomy of a crisis. Irish Educational Studies, 44(1), 41-54. Hourigan, M., Ní Chróinín, D., Fitzgerald, J., Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Smyth, E. & Fitzpatrick, M. (2025) The first decade of teachers’ professional lives: a scoping review of research in the Republic of Ireland, Irish Educational Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2025.2571034 Sahlberg, P., Munn, P. Furlong, J. (2012) Report of the International Review Panel on the Structure of Initial Teacher Education Provision in Ireland: Dublin: Higher Education Authority. https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/05/Review-of-Structure-of-Teacher-Education.pdf See, B. H., Gorard, S., Morris, R., & Ventista, O. (2023). Rethinking the complex determinants of teacher shortages. In The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research, 75-102. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Smyth, E., Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Darmody, M., Banks, J., & Watson, D. (2016). Review of the Droichead teacher induction pilot programme (Report). Dublin: ESRI. Teaching Council. 2015. Striking the Balance: Teacher Supply in Ireland. Maynooth: Teaching Council.

Establishing a career in higher education depends on several factors, key among them are an academic’s level of knowledge and expertise in their field as well as their research and teaching experience (Oliveira, Nada, & Magalhães 2024). Many HEIs value the research role above all others, due to the funding it usually is attached to, the publications and citations it produces, and the impact it can create for the institution and the academic at reputational and prestige levels. Therefore, becoming an academic necessitates research training to achieve a PhD academic credential (Oliveira et al. 2024). A PhD demonstrates that a doctoral graduate has reached a certain level of expertise in their field of study and has acquired skills that will allow them to be an independent researcher (IUA 2021). However, teaching related skills such as didactics and pedagogy often do not enjoy the same level of prominence among the professional skills early career academics need to be equipped with in order to be good teachers, even though it is the most visible role academics engage in (Cassuto 2022).

Due to the rapid technological advancements of the last few decades especially in terms of educational/assistive technologies, teaching has become more complex (Hyde, Clarke, & Drennan 2011). Despite academia’s best efforts to improve teaching, these efforts have been initiated largely by individual academic’s level, which has hindered the professionalization of teaching at HEI. It therefore comes as no surprise that academic teaching has been described as amateur in nature (Zimmerman 2020), which can be attributed to academics’ notion that good teaching is less about skills and more about personality and charisma (Cassuto 2022).

Universities in some countries have addressed the need for faculty training on teaching related topics and skills through formal programmes, Certificates, Diplomas or Masters in Teaching in higher education (e.g., UK, Ireland, Netherlands). In some cases, those (or comparable) qualifications are becoming increasingly expected from the HEIs. PhD training on teaching is unfortunately lagging, and few HEIs are requiring their PhD students to take a credit barring course on teaching (Rifkin, Natow, Salter, & Shorter 2023) even though doctoral students in some countries are expected to develop professional skills such as teaching and mentorship (e.g., IUA 2001 - Ireland). The case study presented in this paper is from a doctoral training programme at an Austrian HEI on didactics and pedagogy called “Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education”.

This paper presents the design and development of a teaching observation process that integrates professional, peer and student feedback, implemented in an introductory / foundational course of the Certificate. We will detail how the pedagogy and didactic experts (professionals) engaged with PhD students (aspiring lecturers) taking the foundational course through a three-step teaching observation process: pre-observation, session observation and post-observation reflection and debrief. This process was concurrently carried out by fellow PhD-students enrolled in the course, providing both student (peer) and lecturer feedback to the observee. This paper will elaborate on the process and the form developed to support the professional development and growth of both the observees and observers.

Classroom management (CM) is widely recognised as a key determinant of teaching quality, student engagement, and learning outcomes (e.g., Sabornie & Espelage, 2023). Decades of research in primary and secondary education demonstrate that effective classroom management extends far beyond maintaining order; it encompasses relational, instructional, and organisational dimensions that jointly shape classroom climate and learning processes (Wubbels, 2011). In contrast, classroom management in higher education (HE) has received relatively little empirical attention and is often treated implicitly or narrowly framed as a behavioural or procedural issue (Albayrak & Ateskan, 2022). This limited focus is partly rooted in persistent assumptions that HE students are autonomous, intrinsically motivated learners and that behavioural regulation is therefore less relevant in university classrooms. However, declining attendance (Credé et al., 2010), increasing digital distraction (DePryck et al., 2020), and heterogeneous student populations (Juang & Schachner, 2020) challenge these assumptions and raise questions about how HE teachers experience and conceptualise classroom management in practice.

The present study aims to identify and conceptualise the classroom management challenges experienced by higher education teachers and to examine how these challenges are structured in terms of perceived importance and perceived control. Rather than imposing school-based frameworks onto HE contexts, this study adopts an exploratory, participatory approach to capture teachers’ own perspectives. Using Group Concept Mapping (GCM), a mixed-methods methodology designed to structure complex, practice-based knowledge, we engaged HE teachers in generating, organising, and evaluating classroom management challenges drawn from their daily teaching practice.

Participants were 93 teachers from universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. In the GCM brainstorming phase, teachers generated statements in response to the prompt: “A classroom management challenge I face in my face-to-face or online classes is…”. After refinement, 82 statements were retained. In subsequent phases, a panel of content experts (N=7) sorted the statements into thematic groups, while a larger group of teachers (N=35) rated each statement on perceived importance and perceived control. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis produced visual concept maps representing the shared structure of teachers’ perceptions.

The analysis yielded five coherent clusters of classroom management challenges: (1) Relational dynamics, (2) Classroom diversity and complexity, (3) Off-task behaviour, (4) Attention and engagement, and (5) Disruptive behaviour.

Teachers perceived behavioural and ecological challenges, such as off-task behaviour and managing diverse classrooms, as most important, while relational dynamics and attention and engagement received comparatively less emphasis. Interestingly, teachers reported the greatest sense of control over disruptive behaviour, whereas challenges related to student attention and engagement were perceived as both less important and less controllable. Spatial proximity in the cluster maps further suggested that attention and engagement, off-task behaviour, and disruptive behaviour are closely interconnected, pointing to a continuum of engagement-related behaviours rather than distinct problem categories.

The data allows to perceive classroom management as relational regulation: a continuous process of aligning interpersonal, instructional, and environmental factors to sustain engagement and learning. This conceptualisation challenges the narrow, reactive framing of classroom management that currently dominates HE practice and highlights the underutilised role of relational teacher behaviour in preventing disengagement and disruption. By providing an empirically grounded map of classroom management challenges in higher education, this study contributes to bridging the gap between school-based classroom management theory and HE contexts. The findings have implications for teacher professionalisation, suggesting the need to explicitly address classroom management as a relational-didactic competence in higher education teaching development.

The spread of English as the dominant language of academia has increased demand for English proficiency, leading to rising enrolment in pre-sessional and in-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in English-speaking countries such as the UK (Hyland, 2018). UK universities rely heavily on fee-paying international students; therefore, tuition fees have become a central source of income, transforming EAP into a “major industry” (Hyland, 2012, p. 30) and increasing demand for EAP practitioners (Green, 2016; Ding & Bruce, 2017; Ding & Campion, 2016).

Despite its strategic and financial importance, EAP practitioners and their professional development remain under-researched (Ding & Campion, 2016; Kaivanpanah et al., 2021a; Fitzpatrick et al., 2022). In many UK institutions, EAP units are situated outside academic departments, for example within student services or libraries, reflecting their ambiguous academic status (Davis, 2019). Accordingly, practitioners’ roles, qualifications, career pathways, and access to professional development vary widely, and despite EAP’s recognition as a specialised field, entry routes remain informal, with many practitioners transitioning from general English language teaching backgrounds (Alexander, 2007).

Research on EAP practitioners’ professional development has largely focused on “expanding circle” contexts (Ding & Bruce, 2017), where English is taught as a foreign language (e.g., Kaivanpanah et al., 2021a; Kaivanpanah et al., 2021b; Tan & Tan, 2024). By contrast, empirical research in “inner circle” English-speaking contexts such as the UK remains limited (e.g., Fitzpatrick et al., 2022), and existing studies offer little insight into how professional growth is shaped, sustained, or constrained in institutional practice. Consequently, the professional trajectories of university EAP lecturers and the conditions that support or hinder their development remain poorly understood (Kaivanpanah et al., 2021b).

This study addresses this gap by foregrounding the largely absent voices of UK university EAP practitioners (Ding & Bruce, 2017). It examines how EAP lecturers experience professional growth, the forms of support available to them, and the institutional and interpersonal conditions shaping their development. Accordingly, the study is guided by the following research questions:

1. What drives university EAP lecturers’ professional growth in the UK?
2. How do these factors interact to shape UK-based EAP lecturers’ professional growth?

The study draws on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which explains human motivation and the innate tendency toward growth (Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT distinguishes intrinsic motivation, driven by interest and enjoyment, from extrinsic motivation, driven by external demands or rewards, and also accounts for amotivation, characterised by a lack of intention to act due to perceived incompetence, low value, or disconnection (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Extrinsic motivation comprises four regulatory forms: external and introjected regulation, which are more controlled, and identified and integrated regulation, which are more autonomous. Although the latter are not inherently enjoyable, they involve personal endorsement and choice, placing them closer to intrinsic motivation in terms of autonomy. Central to SDT is the claim that sustained motivation and high-quality performance depend on the fulfilment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Burn et al.’s (2010) model of professional learning highlights how professional growth emerges from the interaction between individual orientations and working environments, emphasising collaborative practices and personal factors. Building on this view, this study integrates Self-Determination Theory with Burn et al.’s model to examine how institutional structures and collaborative practices shape EAP lecturers’ experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and support sustainable professional growth in UK university contexts.

The proposal presented here is part of a broader research project: "Study of the initial training of education professionals at the University of Malaga: analysis and proposals for improvement" (funded by the University of Malaga's Plan Propio, 2022-UMAPR 00009), which is being carried out by the Institute for Research in Education Professional Training. The aim of this project is to analyse and understand the training processes of education professionals, with the intention of providing evidence for the process of improving and transforming their syllabus. To this end, we have worked with different groups within the centre: teaching staff, students, academic managers and graduates from the last five years.

In this paper, we present the work carried out with academic managers at the faculty at different levels of management: Dean's Office, departments and degree coordination. The institutional framework for this training, the University, offers a rigid and highly structured model in Spain, often far removed from pedagogical advances (Martínez Bonafé, 2018). In this context, the academic leaders of the faculties that train education professionals are subject to the tensions inherent in this scenario, exacerbated by their own pedagogical beliefs, which do not always coincide. These tensions are manifested in political changes (national and international) and their consequences for education and management models, the demands of international assessments and the conditions they establish for ways of governance, and the inertia of the individualistic, commercialised and utilitarian practices in which we are entrenched. Academic leaders thus translate this situation in particular ways, highlighting the different sources of pressure at work.

In this regard, it is important to question the exercise of democracy in the context of management, governance models and their performativity, the educational and pedagogical content of their actions, and their impact on the possibilities for generating alternatives for change and transformation of the system. Technical management would seem to lead us to immobility and the reproduction of political and/or administrative slogans, while participatory democratic management could guarantee processes of transformation.

We are therefore concerned with knowing, analysing and understanding the role that these academic leaders are playing in the construction of the institutional frameworks in which the training of education professionals takes place. From our point of view, little attention has been paid to this focus in research on teacher training. Rather, the focus has been on training processes, overlooking the institutional framework in which they take place. That is why, in this research, educational leaders constitute one of the relevant axes that is offering relevant elements for understanding the existing pedagogical model in education professional training centres. The current socio-political scenario requires addressing new complexities that largely fall into the hands of managers; or at least, they are not unrelated to their actions.

To this end, we have taken into account the three levels of management that operate in these centres. On the one hand, the dean's office, as the main management body, and the figures that comprise it. Mainly, the dean and the person responsible for organising teaching, the vice-dean of Academic Planning. Secondly, the department heads, as they are directly responsible for the teaching staff and the subjects in the curriculum. And finally, the degree coordinators, who are responsible for ensuring the proper development of the studies.

Teachers’ professional learning can be organized both formally, for example by external agents and informally between colleagues (Jansen in de Wal et al., 2020). A learning study, as in the current study, exemplifies collegial learning that is formal in that it is based on a specific theory, the Variation theory. Variation theory is briefly about how a phenomenon can be experienced in different ways and how these different understandings can be identified by teachers and used in teaching (Wood & Andrew, 2022). Collegial learning can take place within many frameworks and with different methods, and it is important that we gather knowledge about what different forms can contribute (Solis & Gordon, 2020). Developing within the profession is a necessity to achieve high quality teaching in different school types and in different school cultures (Jansen in de Wal et al., 2020). Teachers' collegial learning needs to constantly develop regardless of external circumstances and thus continued research in the area is a common international concern.

Previous research shows that teachers' motivation for continued learning is an important factor for students' development (Jansen in de Wal et al., 2020), and therefore principals need to strive for a school culture that promotes collegial learning and teachers’ participation in decision-making to motivate their learning (Gülsen & Çelik, 2021). A systematic literature review (Cong-Lem, 2021) also shows the importance of school culture that enables collegial learning and collaboration to influence teachers' individual development and agency. Haataja and Salonen (2025) highlight the socio-emotional aspects of collegial learning by filming teachers' eye contact during co-teaching in mathematics. They argue that short glances during the lesson, mainly in connection with emotional triggers, indicate the need for time for further interaction outside the classroom. Being able to have in-depth conversations with colleagues promotes learning (Blatti et al., 2019). Several different approaches in professional learning involve colleagues visiting each other's classes, which makes teachers vulnerable and therefore must be built on collaboration and a culture of trust (Mather & Visone, 2024a, b). The emotional work between colleagues is studied by Parks and McKay (2022) in a qualitative case study from a staff room which indicates that positive relationships are needed to promote collegial support. The emotional and teachers' sense of trust is also expressed as fundamental when examining collegial learning through a reflective inquiry process within various collegial learning frameworks. Shared reflection among teachers on approaches and possible changes in teaching practice is based on collegial support (Solis & Gordon, 2020). In addition to trust and relationships, prerequisites for collegial learning are mentioned such as time, resources, quality of collaboration, teacher autonomy and guidance (Schipper et al., 2020). Visone (2020) highlights in his study the importance of preparing for collegial learning through lesson visits. For example, by being clear about the purpose of the visit, negative thoughts about being evaluated can be counteracted.

The purpose of the present study is to increase knowledge about collegial learning. The research questions are

• What characterizes the phenomenon of collegial learning?
• How are those involved in collegial learning affected?
• What function does theory have in collegial learning?

Although this study uses empirical material created from a phenomenographic and variation theory framework, the study of collegial learning is conducted from the perspective of phenomenology and lifeworld theory. The lifeworld is the way people relate to and interact with the world around them. Lifeworld theory is used to focus on each participant's lived experiences of the phenomenon of collegial learning and thereby gain an understanding of what does not vary but characterizes the phenomenon.

In this study we examine the outcomes and products resulting from teachers’ day-to-day adjustments of their teaching and ask whether these can be understood as an essential aspect of teacher professional development (TPD).

Teacher professional development may be considered on a continuum ranging from highly explicit and organized to implicit and informal, including incidental and even “unconscious” elements (Evans, 2019). During the past two decades, teachers’ informal workplace learning has received increasing attention and is now widely acknowledged as an important and ubiquitous aspect of TPD (Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 2005; Ingvarson, 2003; Kyndt et al., 2016).

In the literature, teachers’ day-to-day classroom experience and experimentation are recurring as sources of workplace learning. Clarke and Hollingsworth (2002) included ”professional experimentation” as one of four components in their interconnected model of teacher professional growth. Moreover, they showed that this component was central in most sustained so-called “growth networks”, suggesting an extended cycle of enactment and reflection preceding any change in beliefs. Pedder (2007), using factor analysis, identified experimentation, reflection, and self-evaluation (Factor: “critical and responsive learning”) as one of four dimensions of teachers’ learning practices. Similarly, in a systematic review of research on teachers’ everyday professional development, Kyndt et al. (2016) found that most informal learning activities discussed in the literature were closely connected to classroom activity (p. 1122, Table 2). Taken together, the literature shows that teachers learn from their classroom practice through, for example, direct experience, trial and error, experimentation, and the implementation of materials and ideas from colleagues (cf. Kyndt et al., 2016).

To the extent that these continuous adjustments to practice have been analyzed, they have primarily been treated as processual factors—such as experimentation or trial and error—that influence teacher workplace learning. The actual changes in practice brought about through these processes have therefore largely been overlooked, as research has tended to prioritize learning as the main outcome of interest. This is the case even in studies that explicitly conceptualize TPD and professional learning as sustained inquiry into one’s own day-to-day practice (e.g., Ambler, 2016; Milton & Morgan, 2023; Salo et al., 2024). Yet it is entirely possible to imagine that an inquiry process may lead to outcomes whose value extends far beyond what the individuals conducting the inquiry learn—for example, within a research group. Indeed, in many contexts, the value of the results of an inquiry process is largely disconnected from individual or group learning as such. In this presentation, we argue that there may be significant gains in also paying attention to the concrete outcomes, or products, of teachers’ day-to-day inquiry into their practice. Our purpose is to explore whether teachers’ day-to-day adjustments of their practice result in interesting and potentially fruitful outcomes and products, and how these can be characterized. The research questions guiding the study are:

1. What different types of adjustments do teachers make in their classrooms?
2. Why do they make these adjustments?

Taken together, the answers to these questions provide an initial characterization of teachers’ day-to-day adjustments as constituting concrete outcomes (e.g., a new way of teaching about supply and demand) and products (e.g., a new scaffold for writing letters). As such, it constitutes a basis for discussing the potential significance of this type of continuous adjustments for teacher professional development and school development more broadly.

This paper presents findings from a Doctor of Education (Ed. D.) study conducted at Maynooth University. The study examines guidance counselling and school counseling roles within contemporary education systems and explores how professional agency is exercised through engagement with policy and professional frameworks in Ireland and the United States.

Guidance counsellors in Ireland and school counselors in the United States occupy complex professional roles encompassing educational, career and social and personal guidance within whole school contexts at post-primary level. In Ireland these roles are shaped primarily through Department of Education and Youth policy articulated through Circular 0001/2025 and Information Note 0001/2024 and is supported by the strategic direction of the National Strategic Framework for Lifelong Guidance 2024 - 2030. In the United States school counseling practice is guided through professional standards articulated by the American School Counselor Association, most notably The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs, as opposed to statutory national policy. Although operating within distinct governance arrangements, both contexts delineate normative expectations that shape role scope, programme enactment, and professional learning for guidance professionals working in post-primary school settings.

Existing research has largely examined policy frameworks, professional standards, and professional learning structures as discrete and analytically separate domains. Comparatively little attention has been paid to how guidance professionals interpret these frameworks in relation to their professional role, or to the ways in which professional agency is exercised in the enactment of role expectations in practice. This omission is consequential, given that guidance counselling constitutes a form of relational and contextually situated professional work, shaped through the interaction of school level contexts, systemic structures, and professional judgement, as theorised within policy enactment scholarship (Ball, Maguire and Braun 2012).

Drawing on a completed sequential explanatory mixed methods design this paper explores the interplay between policy and professional framework’s role expectations and professional agency. The study investigates how role expectations are articulated how they are reflected in professional learning experiences and how guidance counsellors and school counselors interpret and enact their role within diverse institutional contexts.

The central research question guiding this paper is:

How do guidance counsellors in Ireland and school counselors in the United States navigate the interplay between policy and professional frameworks, professional agency, and role enactment within their practice?

The analysis is informed by Ball’s theory of policy enactment which conceptualises policy as an interpretive process shaped by situated professional material and external contexts (Ball, Maguire and Braun, 2012). Kennedy’s framework for continuing professional development provides a complementary lens enabling examination of how professional learning structures align with role expectations and support professional agency reflection and sustained practice (Kennedy, 2014).

Through a comparative perspective this paper contributes to European and international discussions on guidance roles professional learning and practitioner agency. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of specific frameworks the paper foregrounds practitioner interpretation and sense making within guidance counselling and school counseling practice across two education systems.

Finland is a bilingual country with two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Due to this, there are two paralell school-systems in each language. In Swedish-medium schools in Finland, bilingual students partake in the native-level Finnish (NaFi) syllabus. National evaluations regarding the learning outcomes in Finnish as the second national language, clearly show a need for developing the teaching of bilingual students in different educational stages (Nummela & Westerholm, 2020). The aim of the study is to explore how one native-level Finnish language teacher's language didactic knowledge is developed within the context of a language didactic development project.

The research questions are:

1. How do professional development practices and everyday learning practices affect the teacher's professional learning journey?

2. What is it that constrains and enables a teacher's didactic choices when she is part of a professional development context?

We use the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et. al, 2014) and the theoretical framework developed by Salo et al. (2024) as a theoretical and analytical lens. The framework by Salo et al. (2024) deepens the understanding of professional learning both within and for practice. It conceptualizes professional learning as comprising three interconnected dimensions: everyday learning (EL), professional development (PD), and professional learning (PL).

It is the 30th anniversary of VETNET as network 02 at the ECER. Two research workshops are dedicated to this circumstance; one is looking back, one forward.

In this first workshop, we use VETNET publications from the last 30 years to reflect on emerging, lasting and disappearing themes, methods and impacts.

What made VETNET one of the largest networks at the ECER some years ago? Which topics coined it? And how does this relate to research at the boundary of learning and work (Gessler et al., 2021)? How did political agendas affect the research contents reflected in the VETNET contributions? How did research methods evolve?

For our discussion, we use publications from the first Proceedings from the ECER in 1998 in Ljubljana, edited by Martin Mulder, and the Proceedings of the ECER 1999 in Lahti, edited by Johanna Lasonen, Sabine Manning, Martin Mulder and Jan Streumer. These are to our knowledge the first papers published based on presentations at the ECER. Additionally, we rely on the collection of papers and presentations by Sabine Manning, and the series Trends in Vocational Education and Training, starting in 2018, initiated by Christof Nägele and Barbara E. Stalder. Moreover, we use data from a database with all abstracts from ECER since 1998 to extract topics and methods that were brought into and discussed within the network. The database is a project run by the EERA and ECER network 12, Open Research in Education.

Trends in Vocational Education and Traiing 2026 Tampere – 2025 Belgrade – 2024 Nicosia – 2023 Glasgow – 2022 Yerevan – 2021 Geneva – 2020Glasgow – 2019 Hamburg – 2018 Bolzano/Bozen

Across Europe, vocational education and training (VET) systems have become essential tools for managing migration and integrating labor markets—especially in response to skills shortages and labor market segmentation. These systems are deeply rooted in specific national cultures, labor market structures, and welfare regimes, leading to varied training pathways for migrant workers. These pathways are influenced by distinct institutional logics that create unequal access to skills development, recognition of prior learning, and opportunities for occupational mobility (Busemeyer & Trampusch, 2012; Cedefop, 2025). While comparative research has thoroughly examined VET systems and governance at policy and institutional levels, less focus has been placed on how migrant workers personally experience and navigate these pathways in different countries.

Existing studies indicate that migrants' engagement with VET is significantly affected by their legal status, migration history, biographical resources, and daily life constraints. This often results in deskilling, market segmentation, and differential inclusion (Kogan, 2011; Bauder, 2006; SKILLS4JUSTICE, 2025). Recent research calls for perspectives that go beyond policy-focused and functionalist views of integration, emphasizing migrants' lived experiences, agency, and interpretation of training and work-related institutions (Anthias, 2012; Schinkel, 2018). These perspectives highlight how migrants actively utilize their prior knowledge, reinterpret training opportunities, and develop strategies to navigate uncertainty and institutional barriers. They also reveal the limitations of skills-based inclusion policies, particularly for individuals with precarious legal statuses in hierarchical labor markets.

Building on these perspectives, this symposium unites comparative contributions on migrants’ skills development through VET pathways in four European countries: Lithuania, Italy, Germany, and Norway. This work combines an analysis of national VET systems and governance structures with a focus on the lived experiences of migrants. By prioritizing migrants' own perspectives, the panel moves beyond institutional and policy-oriented analyses to critically assess how migrant workers engage with, interpret, and negotiate VET pathways in varied national contexts.

Taking a cross-country comparative approach, the symposium examines how specific national VET regimes, labor market structures, welfare systems, and socio-cultural contexts shape VET pathways for migrant workers. At the same time, it investigates how factors such as migrants’ personal histories, legal statuses, life circumstances, and everyday realities affect their access to and experiences within training opportunities. Particular emphasis is placed on how migrants make sense of training provisions, leverage their prior skills and knowledge, and create strategies to address uncertainty, deskilling, and disjointed career trajectories.

The panel will address critical issues, including access to VET, recognition of prior learning and qualifications, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, and the underlying assumptions and expectations within training programs designed for migrant populations. By comparing institutional rationales with the meanings, aspirations, and actions of migrants, the symposium reveals the tensions between policy goals for labor market integration and migrants' lived experiences as they navigate often segmented and hierarchical employment systems.

Through a distinctly European lens, this symposium aims to contribute to broader discussions about skills development, migration, and social inequality. It challenges dominant narratives that portray migrant workers merely as adaptable labor resources and emphasizes their role as active social agents. Their experiences highlight both the opportunities and constraints of VET as a means for inclusion, recognition, and social mobility in contemporary Europe.

The findings of the quantitative and qualitative surveys of the migrant workers from the non-EU countries conducted in May - October 2025 in Lithuania disclose important challenges faced by the migrant workers in their skill formation and employment pathways. The migrant workers coming in Lithuania for the jobs which correspond to their acquired qualifications usually develop their skills on the job, and the work experience acquired in the Lithuanian enterprises contributes to their competence development. This is a typical case of skilled industrial workers, like welders, fitters, and construction workers. Similarly, high skilled professionals from the third countries working in the financial sector and ICT, also mostly develop their skills and competences at their work and enjoy broad opportunities of skills formation provided by employers. Low-skilled and unskilled employees from the third countries working in the food industry, cleaning services, seasonal jobs in the agriculture acquire the necessary skills on the job and do not include skill formation and professional development in the targeted goals of their emigration. Highly educated war refugees and forced migrants from the Ukraine treat skill formation and training as opportunity of smooth and fast employment. They openly and voluntarily accept the situation of over-qualification in the labour market of Lithuania, but struggle in finding training places in the market oriented and work-based training schemes for job seekers. These training pathways and accessibility regimes will be discussed by referring to the context of neoliberal reforms of the skill formation and employment systems and precautious immigration policy of the recently emerged net immigration country (Zwysen, 2019; Wickham, 2017; Lulle et al., 2021).

Lulle, A. Janta, H. Emilsson, H. (2021), ‘Introduction to the Special Issue: European youth migration: human capital outcomes, skills and competences’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 47(No.8), pp. 1725-1739. Wickham J (2017) International Skill Flows and Migration. In C Warhurst, K Mayhew, D Finegold & J Buchanan (eds) Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 625-645. Zwysen, W. (2019), ‘Different Patterns of Labor Market Integration by Migration Motivation in Europe: The Role of Host Country Human Capital’, International Migration Review, Vol. 53 (No.1), pp. 59-89.

Adult vocational education and training (VET) systems are increasingly recognized as vital components in the governance of migration and the labor market. By facilitating skill development and certification, adult VET aims to enhance employability, promote social inclusion, and foster the economic integration of migrants. However, mounting evidence suggests that training pathways do not consistently yield uniform outcomes and that their effects are significantly influenced by migrants’ legal, biographical, and socio-economic contexts. This paper examines how the governance of adult VET systems creates differential inclusion among migrant participants in Italy (Italian Government, 2018; 2023; Ambrosini, 2023). Drawing on qualitative data from 33 semi-structured interviews conducted as part of the Skills4Justice Horizon Europe project, the study explores the training trajectories and labor-market transitions of adult migrants enrolled in vocational and professional programs. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of these programs, the paper investigates the interplay between VET and migration governance and how these factors interact with migrants’ positions and personal journeys to produce unequal outcomes. The findings reveal that adult VET serves as an effective mobility mechanism primarily for migrants with stable legal status, ample temporal availability, and minimal caregiving responsibilities. Conversely, for other groups—especially those with families and precarious or irregular legal status—training seldom leads to upward mobility. Instead, it often results in the stabilization of participants within segmented, low-skilled sectors of the labor market, despite formal skill acquisition. The paper contends that adult VET systems act as mechanisms of differential inclusion, distributing opportunities unevenly based on migrants’ trajectories and the constraints of governance. By shifting the focus from individual employability to the systemic impacts of VET governance, the study contributes to broader discussions on VET cultures, migration, and social justice, underscoring how training policies may perpetuate rather than mitigate structural inequalities.

Ambrosini, M. (2023). Il decreto Cutro e le tre politiche dell’immigrazione in Italia. Social Policies, 10(3), 507-510. Caritas (2025). XXXIV Rapporto Immigrazione 2025. Giovani, testimoni di speranza. Fondazione Caritas Italiana. Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2014). Thematic analysis. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 1947-1952). Springer. Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Sage. Eurostat (2025). Migrant integration statistics - over-qualification. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migrant_integration_statistics_-_over-qualification#Over-qualification_rate_by_EU_countries_and_citizenship 08/01/2026. Italian Government (2018) Law No. 132/2018 (Decreto Sicurezza conversion). Disposizioni urgenti in materia di sicurezza pubblica e immigrazione. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, 01/10/2018. Italian Government (2023). Law No. 50/2023 (Decreto Cutro conversion). Disposizioni urgenti in materia di immigrazione e contrasto dell’immigrazione clandestina, sicurezza e gestione dei flussi migratori. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, 12/04/2023. Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (2025). XV Rapporto “Gli stranieri nel mercato del lavoro”. Roma: Dipartimento per le politiche sociali, del terzo settore e migratorie. Save the Children (2025). Traversing Danger: Cumulative Risks and Psychological Harm for Children in Migration. Save the Children. UNHCR (2019). Access to education for refugee and migrant children in Europe. Retrieved from: https://www.unhcr.org/media/access-education-refugee-and-migrant-children-europe 10/01/2026.

Germany has a high need for skilled labour from non-EU countries in many sectors. Therefore, a legal framework (Skilled Labour Migration Act) was established end of 2023 to create transparency on potential education and labour migration pathways. Research on these new structures often follows economic perspectives and refers, e.g., to estimated effects (Adunts et al., 2024) or increased efficiency (PD, 2024). Recent migrant monitoring reports a high number of skilled workers ready to remigrate from Germany due to poor labour and life sufficiency as well as a lack of feeling welcome (Kosyakova et al., 2025). At the same time, the net migration to Germany is decreasing below calculated needs (Federal Statistical Office, 2026). Nevertheless, there is research on factors for belonging or social inclusion in international discourses which, however, seems to lack in the national public discourse on labour migration. This research closes a gap between a technical and humanistic perspective following the research questions: How do migrants describe and experience their way to Germany? What patterns can be observed? To what extent does the system provide differentiated support? Data collection took place from July to November 2025, applying a data triangulation of mixed empirical methods and a literature review (Flick, 2011). The quantitative questionnaire covered among others the dimensions ‘skills and qualification profile’, ‘recent employment and perceived skills mismatch’, ‘social inclusion in everyday life and at workplace’ as well as ‘justice and discrimination’. The qualitative inquiry based on the same dimensions, enriched by detailed reports about decision making and migration pathways, reflected feelings, attitudes and personal insights. The quantitative research reached a total of 105 participants (after cleaning the data set) and the qualitative 24 interviewees. The research included both labour migrants and refugees. One core finding within the German case is a clear difference between the two groups of forced and labour migrants. Main distinguishing indicators are on motivational level. Refugees were mainly interested in security and showed a tendentially stronger relation to their country of origin. In contrast to that, they showed high motivation to engage in German labour market and society to "give something back". Labour migrants were rather interested in high-quality education and career. They appear to have a more critical view on life and work conditions in the target country. Both groups report difficulties to access the local society. Overall, social inclusion was reported as much more important than, e.g., the match between qualification and current job.

Adunts, D., Ivanov, B., & Vallizadeh, E. (2024). Migrationswirkungen des 2020 in Kraft getretenen Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetzes [Effects of the Skilled Immigration Act 2020]. IAB-Forschungsbericht, 25|2024. Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung. https://doku.iab.de/forschungsbericht/2024/fb2524.pdf Flick, U. (2011). Triangulation: Eine Einführung [Triangulation. An introduction]. (3rd updated ed.). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92864-7 Kosyakova, Y., Olbrich, L., Gallegos Torres, K., Hammer, L., Koch, T., & Wagner, S. (2025). Deutschland als Zwischenstation? Rückkehr- und Weiterwanderungsabsichten von Eingewanderten im Lichte neuer Daten des International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) [Germany as a transit station? Return and onward migration intentions of immigrants in light of new data from the International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa)] (IAB-Forschungsbericht 15|2025). Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung. https://doku.iab.de/forschungsbericht/2025/fb1525.pdf PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH. (2024). Zentralisierung der Erwerbsmigrationsverfahren: Machbarkeitsstudie [Feasibility study on centralizing employment migration procedures] (Study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Homeland, in cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/resource/blob/2701890/73cacf96176766ccf3f4399bff5e7036/machbarkeitsstudie-langform-data.pdf Statistisches Bundesamt (2026). Wanderungen im Oktober 2025: Rückgang der Nettozuwanderung gegenüber dem Vorjahreszeitraum [Migration in October 2025: Decline in net migration compared with the same period last year]. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Wanderungen/Wanderungsueberschuss.html

Research consistently shows that migrants are far more likely than natives to report being under skilled—defined as needing additional skills to perform their jobs (Pellizzari & Fichen, 2013). Moreover, individuals who experience workplace discrimination are also more likely to report being under or over skilled, indicating that discriminatory environments distort job placement and restrict access to skill development (Rafferty, 2020). Under skilling is therefore not merely a skills deficit but also a marker of injustice: for migrants, self reported under skilling often reflects structural barriers and experienced discrimination rather than personal shortcomings. In Norway, labour immigration plays a crucial role, with immigrants composing over 20% of the active workforce. Yet, the Norwegian labour market demands high skill levels: more than half of all jobs require at least short term tertiary education (OECD, 2022). While most native born workers hold high skilled positions, immigrants remain concentrated in low and medium skilled jobs (OECD, 2022). Norway is therefore not exempt from global patterns described by labour market segmentation, discrimination, and social justice theories: migrants continue to experience documented discrimination that affects employment access and outcomes (Ims, 2024). Although the Nordic model offers a distinctive institutional framework, research suggests that it mitigates but does not eliminate inequalities. Studies report that while training access is broader in the Nordic context, it cannot fully counter structural disadvantages, high skill thresholds, and ongoing discriminatory practices (Birgier, Guðmundsdóttir & Brynteson, 2025). As a result, interpersonal and institutional discrimination persist and continue to shape migrants’ perceptions of justice at work. Against this backdrop, the present study examines how under skilled migrant workers perceive their skills development opportunities, justice at work, and discrimination, and compares these findings with those of migrants who do not report being under skilled. The analysis draws on data from the Norwegian sample of the Horizon Europe project Skills4Justice. Our survey (n = 251) includes labour migrants from 72 non EU27 countries across six continents, primarily Asia and Europe, collected online in autumn 2025. Under skilling, skills development opportunities, justice at work, and discrimination are all based on migrants’ self reports. Preliminary findings indicate that although under skilled workers generally report good access to skills development opportunities at work, they rate these opportunities lower than non under skilled workers. While a majority in both groups experienced justice at work and non discrimination, under skilled migrants reported significantly higher levels of injustice and discrimination than their non under skilled counterparts

Birgier, D. P., Guðmundsdóttir, H., & Brynteson, M. (2025). Labour market integration of migrants' descendants in the Nordic Countries. A Scoping Literature Review. Working paper. NordRegio. Cedefop (2011). Employment-related mobility and migration, and vocational education and training. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Ims, R. (2024). The association between work and integration in the Norwegian welfare context, and its implications for immigrants and social work practice: An integrative review. Nordic Social Work Research, 14:2, 253-268, DOI: 10.1080/2156857X.2023.2165534 OECD (2022), Skills and Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and their Children in Norway, Working Together for Integration, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/6109d927-en. Pellizzari, M., & A. Fichen (2013). A new measure of skills mismatch: Theory and evidence from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 153, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5k3tpt04lcnt-en. Rafferty, A. (2020). Skill underutilization and under-skilling in Europe. Work, Employment & Society, 34(2), pp. 317-335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019865

Collaboration between vocational education and training (VET) institutions and workplaces has been widely examined, for instance, from the perspectives of learning and pedagogy (e.g., Nykänen et al., 2022), VET relevance (Hiim, 2023), as well as regional and sectoral development (e.g., Buchanan et al., 2017). While cooperation between VET and the world of work is often regarded as self-evident in contemporary VET systems, this study takes a closer look at how policy documents frame both the need for such collaboration and the ways in which it is expected to materialise. Building on Weber’s (2015) view that formal, written documents function as key instruments through which modern bureaucracies define, stabilise, and legitimise institutional practices, analysing policy texts becomes essential for understanding how collaboration between VET institutions and workplaces is conceptualised and justified.

Europeanization refers to the process through which EU‑level goals, rules, and policy paradigms shape national policies, often leading to greater convergence across member states (see Loogma, 2016). However, European and national policy documents are shaped by distinct systems, which may frame and prioritise collaboration between VET institutions and workplaces in different ways. For this reason, the study examines policy documents at both the EU and national (Finland) level and addresses the following research questions:

RQ1) How is collaboration between VET institutions and workplaces conceptualised in European educational policy documents?

RQ2) How is collaboration between VET institutions and workplaces conceptualised in Finnish educational policy documents?

RQ3) What are the main (in)consistencies in the framing of collaboration between VET institutions and workplaces between Finnish and European policy documents?

The green transition and technological change are reshaping European labour markets. Automation is reducing routine and low-skilled work, while demand is growing for highly qualified workers with competences combining theoretical understanding and practical problem-solving (European Commission, 2023; Cedefop, 2025). Employers increasingly seek graduates who can apply knowledge flexibly in real settings (European Commission DG EAC, 2024). Against this backdrop, linear education pathways often don't provide sufficiently smooth transitions across sectors. Integrative training models that link vocational education and training (VET), higher education (HE), and company-based learning are therefore gaining attention. These models aim to reduce fragmentation and increase permeability across levels and sectors, supporting learner mobility and employability (Cedefop, 2022; Bjørnåvold & Pouliou, 2023).

Although the German education system remains sharply divided between vocational and general education, dual study programmes and vocational academies have become established routes for bridging this divide and enhancing the appeal of VET (cf. Wolter, 2019; Mordhorst & Jennert, 2023). In recent years, it has tested and expanded formats (e.g. apprenticeship-integrating dual HE programs and the HE-integrating apprenticeship) that explicitly combine VET, HE, and workplace learning, and innovation and transfer initiatives such as InnoVET (cf. Euler & Severing, 2017; Ertl, 2020). Hungary, under different institutional conditions, has also reformed VET to strengthen links between vocational and academic tracks and to increase labour-market relevance and cooperation with industry, particularly through the 2019 VET reform (Act LXXX of 2019; Ministry of Innovation and Technology, 2019). In both countries, stronger VET-HE-company collaboration is expected to reduce skills mismatches, improve employability, and support innovation.

Despite these shared aims and the continued importance of apprenticeship-based training, the institutional settings in which skills matching and recruitment pressures are addressed differ substantially (cf. Cedefop, 2023; Euler, 2023). In Hungary, demographic decline coincides with a reform trajectory marked by strong central steering and governance consolidation, alongside selective adoption of dual-training elements often associated with Germany (cf. Cedefop & ReferNet, 2024). Germany, by contrast, has pursued incremental development by combining the dual system with hybrid progression routes and programme-based innovation and transfer initiatives (cf. Cedefop, 2020; Ertl, 2020). These differences point to policy transfer without simple convergence and provide a strong basis for examining how multi-actor collaboration is organised to meet changing labour-market demands (cf. Ciantar, 2025).

In the initial phase of the study, this paper aims to explore how Germany and Hungary promote collaboration between education sectors and industry at the national policy level. By examining and comparing the regulatory frameworks, governance arrangements, institutional configurations, and financing mechanisms underpinning the tripartite collaboration of VET, HE, and companies, this study reveals differences in institutionalization and governance of the integrative VET-HE-Companies models between the two countries.

The analytical approach is grounded in the three-perspective model for international VET comparison developed by Cedefop (2023). The study conceptualises “integrative VET-HE-Companies models” as institutionalised coordination arrangements that link educational provision with labour-market participation and progression into HE through stable rules, actor relations, and resource commitments. Drawing on the Education System and Socioeconomic perspectives, institutionalisation is operationalised through: national VET aims and quality values; the organisation of VET and HE at programme and institutional levels; governance and coordination across education and work; provider autonomy within national standards; outcomes and access rights to occupations and further education; quality assurance arrangements; and the financing mechanisms for sustaining integration. Within this framework, integration is treated as a governance achievement that can vary across systems. To interpret cross-national differences, the study also draws on perspectives from historical institutionalism and collective skill formation, which explain how similar goals can lead to different institutional arrangements under corporatist versus state-led governance (Busemeyer & Trampusch, 2012).

Alternation between learning venues is a key principle of dual VET systems. By combining school-based learning and company-based training, it holds the promise of enabling learners to recontextualize knowledge across different settings, and to develop comprehensive occupational competences (Grollmann, 2018). While alternation is commonly underpinned by institutions such as training ordinances and VET-related legislation, research shows that this does not necessarily translate into active, sustainable cooperation between learning venues. In practice, VET schools and training companies engage in different ways (Gössling et al. 2025).

In the 1990s and early 2000s, a first wave of research developed models and typologies describing the cooperation of learning venues in Germany based on large empirical studies (Berger&Walden, 1994). The underlying theoretical approaches were mainly systems theory, neo-institutionalism, organisational theory, and action- or actor-centred approaches (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, 2005). Studies focused on organisational-technical aspects of cooperation and led to the formulation of policy recommendations and pilot projects to institutionalise closer cooperation between learning venues. In 2005, the principle of cooperation was introduced in the TVET law on Germany and subsequently, the topic almost disappeared from the research agenda. Since the 2020s, a revival of research on cooperation in VET can be observed in German-speaking countries(Schwede, 2025). During the past decade, the number and diversity of learning venues involved in German VET have increased due to digitalisation and more complex qualification requirements, making cooperation more complex but also more vital to ensure the quality of training (Dehnbostel, 2020;Freiling et al. 2022;Gössling, 2025). Moreover, in a context of demographic change, in which companies find it difficult to attract young talents and the VET system struggles to maintain its attractiveness, cooperation is seen as a means to make dual apprenticeships more attractive and to prevent dropout. Digitalisation also provides new means to enhance communication between different learning venues (Hackel et al. 2017;Seufert, 2025;Wagner-Herrbach, 2022).

Drawing on research on School-Workplace-Connectivity (Griffiths&Guile, 2003;Tynjälä, 2008), the concept of “boundary crossing” started to be used to examine cooperation in dual VET systems in Switzerland and Austria, and later in Germany as well (Aprea et al. 2020). Boundary crossing is theoretically grounded in Engeström’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). With CHAT, learning venues can be conceptualised as different activity systems with different but overlapping objects, artefacts mediating their interactions, contradictions and tensions relevant for cooperation. The argument put forward here is, that CHAT, rather than boundary crossing as a standalone concept, is particularly well suited to analyse how cooperation works and to identify points of action for strengthening cooperation both on technical-organisational as well as on pedagogical-didactical aspects (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, 2005;Euler, 1999).

Building on the empirical case of a pilot project focusing on improving cooperation between learning venues in German dual VET, this study develops an analytical framework based on CHAT to describe and understand cooperation between learning venues. The framework is applied to understand the pilot project’s theory of change (ToC) and to compare it to empirical evidence on success factors and barriers for cooperation. The research questions are:

- How can CHAT be operationalized to describe and understand the pilot project’s ToC and learning venue cooperation more generally?

- To what extent does the ToC fit with existing findings about cooperation processes between learning venues in dual VET?

The European relevance of the study is grounded in the further development of CHAT as analytical framework to understand cooperation between learning venues in VET and to develop targeted strategies and activities aiming at improving cooperation long-term. The relevance of insights gained is not limited to the German context but can be transferred to a variety of settings of alternance between learning venues in skill formation systems.

In an era marked by post-truth discourses, alternative facts, and increasing challenges to democratic institutions (Wikforss, 2019), a central task of education is to provide students with access to powerful knowledge i.e. subject-specific and disciplinary knowledge that enables them to understand, interpret, and critically engage with society (Young, 2008). This research examines how such knowledge is represented and operationalised in Swedish curriculum and national tests in the social studies subjects of civics, geography, history, and religion. In a later stage, it will investigate students’ knowledge manifested in responses in the tests. The curriculum and National tests can be understood as institutionalised expressions of a collective standard of knowledge (Bernstein, 2000; Lynch, 2021), defining what is considered legitimate, valuable, and assessable within a given education system. Because the social studies subjects address issues central to democratic participation such as governance, historical consciousness, spatial understanding, religion, ethics, and citizenship, they provide an important site for examining how knowledge standards are constructed and communicated. The overarching research question is: What views of knowledge, educational purpose and abilities are expressed in Swedish national tests in social studies subjects, and to what extent do the tests provide students with access to powerful knowledge? More specifically, the study asks: 1. What forms of subject matter knowledge and disciplinary reasoning are emphasised in syllabi and national tests in the social studies subjects of civics, geography, history, and religion? 2. What similarities and differences can be found between syllabi and questions in the national tests in relation to the analytical framework of the study? 3. What collective standard of knowledge and competence is communicated through the curriculum and test questions? The study is grounded in a social realist theory of knowledge, drawing primarily on the work of Young and Muller (2010, 2016) and their concept of powerful knowledge. From this perspective, powerful knowledge is characterised by its disciplinary structure, conceptual coherence, and capacity to transcend everyday experience. It is distinguished from generic skills or context-bound knowledge and is seen as central to educational equity, as it provides all students, regardless of background, with access to forms of understanding otherwise reserved for social elites. This research contributes theoretically by operationalising powerful knowledge as an analytical lens for assessment studies, and empirically by providing a systematic analysis of national tests in four social studies subjects. Disciplinary reasoning is treated as a key indicator of powerful knowledge. Tasks that require students to reason according to the epistemic norms of a discipline, such as historical causation, geographical interpretation of maps, ethical reasoning grounded in formal models, or political argumentation, are understood as expressions of a social realist educational tradition (Moore, 2013). In contrast, tasks that rely primarily on factual recall are associated with essentialism, while tasks drawing on personal experience or generic reasoning are categorized as social constructivist. The study addresses issues of relevance within European and international educational contexts. Across Europe, national testing regimes play an increasingly significant role in curriculum governance, accountability, and standard-setting (Au, 2011). Yet, questions of what knowledge is assessed, and how this relates to democratic education and equity, remain underexplored. By conceptualising national tests as expressions of collective knowledge standards, this study contributes to comparative discussions about how different education systems balance disciplinary knowledge, generic competencies, and accessibility. The findings are relevant not only to the Swedish context but also to other European systems grappling with similar tensions between competence-based curricula, disciplinary knowledge, and democratic aims of education. Moreover, the focus on powerful knowledge resonates with ongoing European debates about curriculum content, social justice, and the role of schooling in countering epistemic relativism (Deng, 2020).

This proposal presents findings and design principles from a European project (Project No. 2023‑1‑SE01‑KA220‑SCH‑000156400) initiative to develop a transnational in‑service training curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) professionals. The countries involved are Sweden (Municipality of Vänersborg), Italy (Sweden Emilia Romagna Network and Bambini Bicocca), Latvia (University of Liepaja), Belgium (Erasmus Hogeschool Brussels) and Spain (University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia). Specifically, this contribution presents the evaluation results from an international and local pilot course on school–family relationships held at UVic‑UCC (Spain). The proposal argues that sustainable educational change in ECEC depends on strengthening curricular coherence across system, school, and classroom levels, a point widely supported in European policy frameworks and research on the professionalisation of the ECEC workforce (European Commission, 2014; 2019). This emphasis aligns with scholarship showing that high‑quality ECEC requires a highly qualified, continuously developing workforce capable of responding to diverse pedagogical, social, and cultural challenges (European Commission, 2021). The curriculum model integrates shared European values—child‑centred and rights‑based approaches, inclusive pedagogies, and collaborative professional cultures—and situates Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as a process grounded in research on pedagogical leadership and situated professional learning (Fonsén & Ukkonen‑Mikkola, 2019). It incorporates methodological principles identified in comparative reviews of effective CPD, including the interweaving of theory and practice, collaborative reflection, and workplace‑embedded experiential learning (Jensen & Iannone, 2018). Research further indicates that continuous professional development correlates with improvements in learning environments, professional competence, and pedagogical quality (Peleman et al., 2018). The abstract also synthesises a recent review on partnerships with immigrant parents in ECEC, which identifies language barriers, power asymmetries, cultural disagreements, and structural constraints as frequent obstacles, while highlighting facilitators such as multilingual resources, translanguaging, respectful and proactive professional attitudes, recognition of parents’ perspectives, and practices that foster equality and shared goal‑setting (Norheim & Moser, 2020). These insights reinforce the need for CPD that equips professionals to design welcoming environments, enact culturally responsive communication, and organise time and institutional support for equitable partnerships (Norheim & Moser, 2020). Against this backdrop, the international UVic‑UCC course blended seminars, reflective dialogue, hands‑on workshops, and site visits, enabling boundary‑crossing learning and concrete transfer to practice. Participants reported plans to redesign welcoming spaces, apply pedagogical documentation purposefully, and create structured opportunities for collaboration among families and professionals. Trainers emphasised coherence between objectives, methodologies, and the development of reflective, competent practitioners. Situated within broader debates on the role of education research in times of rapid societal change, the proposal underscores the need to understand how knowledge is produced, translated, and enacted within professional communities, while maintaining high‑quality, rights‑based practices for children and families (United Nations, 1989; Siraj, Kingston, & Neilsen‑Hewett, 2019). Overall, the contribution lies in: (1) presenting a theoretically grounded, research‑aligned transnational CPD curriculum that emphasises curricular coherence; (2) offering empirical results showing that short, intensive, transnational courses can catalyse concrete professional changes (internationalization, diversity and inclusion, social and green sustainability, STEAM, and family participation); and (3) proposing an evaluation framework that supports schools in integrating teacher learning with organisational development, thereby strengthening ECEC quality across diverse European settings (Bove et al., 2018).

While multi-professional collaboration is an essential component of inclusion in many European education systems, co-teaching (also referred to as team teaching) is a central structural feature of inclusive education in only some of those systems. Despite extensive research evidence and strong policy commitments to inclusion, a persistent research–practice gap remains regarding how co-teaching is conceptualized, implemented, and sustained in everyday classroom practice. This symposium brings together scholars and practitioners from Finland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, and France to examine how co-teaching research is interpreted, contextualized, and enacted across diverse European educational systems. The symposium is chaired by an internationally recognized co-teaching scholar from the United States to facilitate cross-national dialogue and support comparative understanding across contexts.

Guided by the overarching research question—How is co-teaching conceptualized, supported, and implemented across European contexts, and what factors contribute to persistent research–practice gaps?—the symposium adopts a comparative, cross-national perspective grounded in inclusive education theory, sociocultural perspectives on collaboration, and organizational change frameworks. Methodologically, the symposium integrates qualitative policy analysis, comparative document analysis, surveys, case studies, classroom observations, and interview-based research.

The symposium consists of four co-presented papers, each intentionally pairing researchers from neighboring or culturally connected countries. Each presentation models collaborative co-teaching principles while examining empirical findings related to policy alignment, professional roles, leadership structures, and classroom practices. Together, the papers explore how co-teaching is legitimized or marginalized within national policy frameworks, how professional collaboration is structured in practice, and how educators experience the effectiveness of co-teaching for inclusive instruction.

• Session 1 (Finland & Sweden) examines differences in how co-teaching is represented in policy documents and research traditions, highlighting why the practice is formally established in Finland but remains largely absent in Sweden.
• Session 2 (Austria & Germany) investigates the tension between multi-professional cooperation and co-teaching, identifying structural and conceptual barriers within highly segmented school systems.
• Session 3 (Switzerland & Denmark) focuses on practitioner experiences, analyzing how policy frameworks either support or constrain sustainable co-teaching practices.
• Session 4 (Belgium & France) provides quantitative and qualitative evidence on implementation patterns and perceived instructional effectiveness of team teaching.

As chair and moderator, Dr. Wendy W. Murawski (2Teach Global; California State University Northridge) facilitates coherence across sessions and supports integrative dialogue. Dr. Bea Zumwald (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) serves as discussant, offering a European scholarly synthesis of the papers and reflecting on implications for future European research, policy, and practice.

This paper examines how co-teaching emerges, is interpreted, and is legitimized within Finnish and Swedish education systems through policy documents and research literature. In Finland, co-teaching between general and special education teachers has become increasingly established and is explicitly recommended in national legislation and the core curriculum as a means of providing group-based support. Research from Finland reflects this policy emphasis, documenting growing implementation and leadership engagement with co-teaching practices. In contrast, while Swedish policy and research strongly emphasize teacher collaboration, co-teaching as a distinct concept and practice is largely absent from both national policy documents and empirical research. This absence is notable given the substantial international evidence base supporting co-teaching as an effective inclusive practice. The study addresses the research question: How and why does co-teaching become institutionalized in Finland but not in Sweden? Using a comparative qualitative document analysis, the authors examine national legislation, curriculum frameworks, government reports, and peer-reviewed research from both countries. The analysis highlights differences in how professional roles, support structures, and special education responsibilities are conceptualized. Findings suggest that variations in historical policy trajectories, professional role definitions, and interpretations of collaboration contribute to divergent pathways. The paper offers Nordic comparative insights that deepen understanding of how co-teaching is positioned within inclusive education systems and provides implications relevant to broader European contexts seeking to strengthen collaborative instructional models.

Göransson, K., Lindqvist, G., & Nilholm, C. (2015). Voices of special educators in Sweden: A total-population study. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 30(3). Rönn-Liljenfeldt, M., Sundqvist, C., & Ström, K. (2024). Between vision and reality: Finnish school leaders’ experiences of co-teaching. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 68(4), 647–660. Saloviita, T. (2018). Inclusive practices among Finnish teachers. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22(5), 560–575. Statens offentliga utredningar. (2025). Delbetänkande av utredningen om en förbättrad elevhälsa. Sveriges riksdag. (2010). Skollag (2010:800).

This paper explores how the research–practice gap shapes co-teaching in Austria and Germany, focusing on both structural barriers and emerging opportunities. Following ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, both countries committed to inclusive education within highly segregated and federally governed systems. Policy reforms emphasize multi-professional cooperation, yet rarely address co-teaching as integrated, joint instruction. Drawing on theoretical distinctions between task-divided cooperation and co-teaching as equitable collaboration, the paper argues that prevailing medical and categorical approaches to special education limit the development of co-teaching. Support services remain tied to disability labels, constraining the possibility that two professionals jointly teach and support all learners. Empirical evidence from both countries demonstrates that while collaborative practices exist, co-teaching remains inconsistently implemented. The presentation synthesizes research findings, policy analysis, and examples of progressive practices from federal states, districts, and schools that are using their autonomy to advance co-teaching. These cases illustrate how structural flexibility, leadership commitment, and professional learning can enable movement beyond compliance-oriented inclusion. The paper contributes to European discourse by clarifying conceptual distinctions, identifying systemic barriers, and highlighting pathways for aligning policy and practice to strengthen inclusive education.

Arndt, A.-K., & Werning, R. (2018). Qualitätskriterien, Bedingungen und Entwicklungsprozesse inklusiver Schule aus Sicht von Lehrkräften, Schulleitungen und Eltern an Jakob-Muth-Preisträgerschulen. In. S. Laux & E. Adelt (Hrsg.) Inklusive Schulkultur: Miteinander. Leben. Gestalten. Grundlagen und Beispiele gelungener Praxis (p. 15-33). Waxmann. Cook, L., & Friend, M. (2004). Co-Teaching: Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics. Participants Guide. Paper presented at New Mexico Public Education Department Quarterly Special Education Meeting, Albuquerque. Santa Fe, NM: New Mexico Public Education Department. Gebhard, S., Wollenweber, K. U., & Castello, A. (2014). Rahmenbedingungen gemeinsamen Unterrichtens in inklusiven Unterrichtssettings. Zeitschrift für Heilpädagogik, 2, 60-65. Jurkowski, S., Ulrich, M., & Müller, B. (2023) Co-teaching as a resource for inclusive classes: teachers’ perspectives on conditions for successful collaboration. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 27(1), 54-71, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2020.1821449. Kunze, K., Petersen, D., Bellenberg, G., Fabel-Lamla, M., Hinzke, J.-H., Moldenhauer, A., Peukert, L., Reintjes, C., & te Poel, K. (Hrsg.) (2021): Kooperation – Koordination – Kollegialität. Befunde und Diskurse zum (multi-) professionellen Zusammenwirken pädagogischer Akteur*innen an Schulen. Klinkhardt. Lütje-Klose, B., Wild, E., Grüter, S., Gorges, J., Neumann, P., Papenberg, A., & Goldan, J. (2024). Kooperation in inklusiven Schulen. transcript.

This paper examines co-teaching practices in Denmark and Switzerland, focusing on practitioner experiences and policy contexts. Co-teaching is widely recognized as a promising approach for inclusive education and professional learning, yet persistent challenges remain, including role ambiguity, uneven workloads, limited preparation time, and inconsistent institutional support. Guided by the research question—What challenges characterize co-teaching practice in Denmark and Switzerland, and how do policy frameworks support or hinder implementation?—the study draws on qualitative classroom observations, interviews with teachers and school leaders, and policy analysis. Findings reveal that while both systems formally support inclusion, the translation into sustainable co-teaching practices depends heavily on leadership, shared professional language, and organizational culture. The analysis highlights the need for cultural as well as structural change, emphasizing collaborative norms, leadership engagement, and coherent professional development. Comparative insights offer implications for policy refinement, teacher education, and future international research on collaborative instructional practices.

Gulløv, C., & Murawski, W. W. (2023). How pedagogues support inclusion in Denmark. Journal of International Special Needs Education, 27(1), 36-46. Luder, R. (2021). Integrative support in Switzerland: An empirical study on the practical implementation of special educational support and promotion in integrative regular classes in Switzerland (Doctoral dissertation, University of Fribourg). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10246092 Mejeh, M., & Powell, J. J. W. (2018). Inclusive education in Switzerland: Between global norms and cantonal peculiarities. Bildung und Erziehung, 71(4), 412–431. https://doi.org/10.13109/buer.2018.71.4.412 Murawski, W. W., & Gulløv, C. (2024). Co-teaching og Universal Design for Learning: Differentierende og inkluderende undervisningsstrategier. Dafolo. Pool Maag, S., & Moser Opitz, E. (2014). Inclusive teaching: Fundamental questions and results of an exploratory study. Empirische Sonderpädagogik, 6(2), 133–149. https://doi.org/10.25656/01:9249 Pool Maag, S., & Widmer-Wolf, P. (2025). Strengthening multi-professional teams: Impulses for school principals. hep. Zumwald, B. (2025). Using co-teaching forms in a targeted manner: The potential of co-teaching forms at the depth level. Swiss Journal of Curative Education, 31(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.57161/z2025-01-02

This paper presents a mixed-methods analysis of team teaching implementation and perceived effectiveness in Flanders (Belgium) and western France. Quantitative data from a large-scale survey of 479 Flemish teachers across educational levels are complemented by a qualitative case study from a French secondary school with long-standing team teaching practices. Findings indicate that team teaching in Flanders is a relatively recent development, driven primarily by teachers’ desire to better support students and share expertise. Teachers report positive effects on student learning, lesson quality, and instructional flexibility. The French case provides longitudinal insight into how co-teaching practices evolve over time, illustrating flexible use of classroom space and differentiated instructional approaches. Together, the findings offer robust European evidence on implementation patterns and instructional benefits, contributing to research on effective collaborative teaching models.

Baeten, M., & Simons, M. (2014). Student teachers’ team teaching: Models, effects, and conditions for implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41, 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.03.010 Decuyper, A., Mariën, D., Simons, M., Vanblaere, B., Tack, H., De Weerdt, D., Meirsschaut, M., Vanderlinde, R., & Struyf, E. (2024). Teamteaching in Vlaanderen: De implementatie, beweegredenen en effecten voor leerlingen. (Team teaching in Flanders: Implementation, motivations, and effects on students.) Tijdschrift Voor Onderwijsrecht En Onderwijsbeleid. 2024-2025(1-2). 79-91. Decuyper, A. (2025). Effective teaching behaviour in team teaching : A large-scale survey study and a multiple case study with video observations. Ghent University. Janin, M., Moreau, G., & Toullec-Théry, M. (2021). Le coenseignement dans une classe hétérogène promeut-il une différenciation pédagogique ? Éducation et socialisation. Les Cahiers du CERFEE, 60, Article 60. https://doi.org/10.4000/edso.14674 Moreau, G. (2025). Coenseigner les mathématiques en contexte inclusif. Nantes Université. Moreau, G., & Perraud, C. (2024). Il faut coopérer pour une école inclusive. In M. Toullec-Théry & F. Lacroix, L’école inclusive (p. 85 101). Retz. Toullec-Théry, M., & Moreau, G. (2020). Co-enseignement et difficulté scolaire: Revue hybride de l’éducation, 4(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1522/rhe.v4i3.1038

This paper draws on a larger, ongoing action research project investigating how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST, 2018; Tobin & Behling, 2018) can be applied as a pedagogical and didactic framework to strengthen inclusion in vocational education, using the Danish Pedagogical Assistant Program (PAU) as a case. Across Europe, vocational education programs are characterized by increasing student diversity, including higher proportions of students with disabilities. In Denmark, vocational education has experienced the steepest rise in students requiring special educational support, particularly related to dyslexia, ADHD, and autism (EVA, 2023). While individualized support schemes reduce dropout risks for students who receive them, many students remain unserved due to lack of diagnosis or awareness, underscoring the need for inclusive approaches embedded in everyday teaching practice.

Despite strong political and legal commitments to inclusive education—reflected in the Salamanca Statement (1994) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)—teachers and support staff in vocational education often lack structured pedagogical tools for designing inclusive learning environments (VIVE, 2024). Responsibility for inclusion has largely been placed on individual teachers, and vocational education has not historically been subject to the same pedagogical competence requirements as other upper secondary or higher education programs.

The broader project addresses this gap by examining UDL as a structured approach to inclusive pedagogy. UDL is an internationally recognized framework that conceptualizes learner diversity as the norm rather than the exception and emphasizes proactive instructional design through multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression. While UDL has been extensively researched in primary and higher education, empirical research in vocational education—particularly in Nordic and European contexts—remains limited. The study is theoretically informed by inclusive and resource-oriented perspectives on learning and participation, which conceptualize inclusion as a contextual and relational process rather than an individual deficit (Ringø & Falster, 2025).

The overall project is guided by three research questions:

Research Question 1:
How can a UDL-focused intervention in the Pedagogical Assistants Education Program contribute to enhanced knowledge and competencies in inclusive pedagogy among vocational teachers and SPS counsellors?

Research Question 2:
How do students enrolled in the Pedagogical Assistants Education Program evaluate opportunities for participation in UDL-designed learning environments?

Research Question 3:
What specific opportunities and challenges arise in the implementation of UDL-designed learning environments in a vocational school context?

The focus of this paper presentation is Research Question 1. Drawing on preliminary qualitative data from teachers and SPS counsellors, the paper explores early professional reflections on UDL, emerging understandings of inclusive pedagogy, and perceived possibilities and challenges in applying UDL within vocational teaching. Student perspectives and broader implementation conditions are part of the larger project but fall outside the empirical scope of this paper.

By focusing on professional learning and pedagogical sense-making, the paper contributes empirically to European discussions on teacher professionalism, inclusive pedagogy, and the translation of international inclusion frameworks into vocational education practice.

Self-regulated learning research increasingly recognizes that learning is not an isolated process as students regulate their learning in classrooms that contain peers, norms, expectations, and relational structures. One of the clearest socially dependent SRL strategies is help-seeking, which requires learners to identify knowledgeable others, navigate social costs, and build relational capital. Yet, despite its inherent social nature, help-seeking is still predominantly studied through surveys and individual-level variables. In parallel, research in social network analysis provides robust tools to capture the structure of peer interactions, including who students turn to for help, who they trust, and how access to peers relates to academic success (Tabassum et al., 2018). This study brings these fields together by examining classroom help-seeking through network indicators, most centrally in-degree, representing how many peers nominate a student as a source of help. By embedding SRL processes within peer networks, we aim to better understand how students’ access to social resources supports or constrains achievement.

We focus on two aspects of social positioning: (a) being sought out for help (help-seeking in-degree) and (b) reciprocal friendship ties. These constructs allow us to investigate how peer structures shape learning outcomes, moving SRL theory toward a more socialized understanding of help-seeking.

2. Theoretical Framework

Zimmerman’s (2000) cyclical SRL model consists of forethought, performance, and self-reflection phases. Help-seeking is located in the performance phase as a resource management strategy. It includes adaptive help-seeking (seeking hints, explanations, scaffolds), instrumental help-seeking (aiming to understand, not just get answers) and peer-directed help navigation (selecting appropriate peers) (Gonida et al. 2019; Newman, 1994). Zimmerman (2000) emphasizes that successful self-regulators do not only rely on internal strategies but also on strategic use of environmental resources, including peers. Effective SRL therefore requires the capacity to evaluate who to approach, when, and how (Karabenick & Berger, 2013).

Studies (e.g. Fong et al., 2023) also show that students who engage in adaptive help-seeking demonstrate higher engagement, motivation, and achievement. However, help-seeking is constrained by classroom social norms; students with fewer friendships or lower social status may be less likely to seek help even when needed (Liu, 2017). Therefore, help-seeking should be understood as both a metacognitive and a relational process. However, typical SRL studies measure help-seeking as self-reports, largely missing its relational and social components. When help-seeking is conceptualized structurally, as patterns of nominations within a classroom, SRL becomes more aligned with actual learning environments. Our study operationalizes help-seeking as network in-degree, meaning the extent to which a learner is recognized by peers as a source of assistance. This view integrates SRL strategy use with social recognition and embeddedness.

2.2 Social Network Analysis and Learning

Social network analysis (SNA) examines social interactions as relational data rather than individual attributes. In education, it has been used to study academic support, friendship, collaboration, and sense of belonging (Mamas et al., 2019). Key SNA concepts relevant to this study include:

• In-degree centrality: number of incoming help nominations; a proxy for social visibility or perceived expertise.
• Reciprocated friendship ties: mutual recognition of friendship, often associated with trust, emotional safety, and open communication.
• Network interactions: combinations of multiple network features that may jointly influence learning outcomes.

Research shows that students who are central in academic support networks typically perform better, possibly due to increased access to explanations, feedback, and cognitive elaboration opportunities (Black et al., 2025; Saqr et al., 2022). Yet studies rarely connect these network benefits to SRL constructs such as help-seeking. By integrating SRL and SNA, we position help-seeking not merely as “asking for help” but as an embedded resource management strategy shaped by the peer ecology of the classroom.

This study examines how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is understood and enacted as Tier 1 instruction in Austrian secondary schools and how it can promote instructional flexibility and equity in increasingly diverse inclusive classrooms. Within this context, UDL is positioned as a universal foundation for classroom support in a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), emphasizing flexible pathways for access, engagement, and success for all learners ⁽CAST, 2023). Despite growing interest, systematic empirical research on UDL implementation and impacts in Austria remains limited, and European evidence on reliable effects is similarly scarce, indicating the need for clearer terminology, stronger practice-research alignment, and sustainable strategies that do not require additional resources. While initiatives such as the Erasmus+ TEP project (2018–2021) have promoted collaboration and teacher training, they do not replace broader, multi-level implementation and evaluation across the system.

The study is guided by three research questions: (1) To what extent is UDL applied as a Tier 1 instructional approach? (2) Which UDL principles—Multiple Means of Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression—are most frequently used? (3) What barriers limit effective UDL implementation? These questions respond to persistent practice-level challenges reported by pre-service teachers, who often conflate UDL with differentiation and tend to perceive it as a framework mainly for students with disabilities rather than a comprehensive approach for all learners. Accordingly, one core aim is to clarify UDL-related terminology and provide practical, feasible strategies that educators can integrate into everyday instruction. A second aim is to map patterns of use across the three UDL domains and examine whether their application differs in Austrian schools. A third aim is to identify barriers at classroom and system levels that constrain coherent Tier 1 implementation. More broadly, the study seeks to strengthen understanding and uptake of UDL as an inclusive framework that supports learning, instruction, and assessment for all students, not only for those with disabilities.

The rationale for this research emerges from noticeable gaps between theory and practice. Although UDL features in teacher education coursework, empirical knowledge about how it is interpreted and applied in daily practice in Austria is limited; reliance on literature from outside the Austrian context remains common due to the lack of local evidence. The study therefore aims to establish an initial empirical baseline that can inform teacher education, support student research projects, and serve as a foundation for future Bachelor’s and Master’s theses focused on UDL in Austria. By addressing both conceptual clarity and practical implementation, the study seeks to bridge the gap between theoretical discourse and classroom realities and to inform policy and practice aimed at inclusive, flexible, and equitable instruction.

Over the past decade, European education policy has increasingly positioned inclusive teacher education as a cornerstone of equitable and resilient school systems (Council, 2018). Rather than treating inclusion as a ‘specialised add-on’ linked to special educational needs only, recent policies frame the ability to teach diverse learners as a universal professional competence. At the level of the EU, the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training 2021–2030 establishes quality, equity and inclusion as central objectives and explicitly links these normative goals to strengthening the education profession through improved initial and continuing teacher education (Council, 2021). This orientation is to be strengthened by thematic recommendations aimed to translate inclusion into concrete pedagogical and organisational expectations. For example, the recommendation ‘Pathways to School Success’ of the European Council promotes whole-school and system-level strategies against exclusion, emphasising support and training for teachers and school staff to work with so-called heterogeneous groups of students (Council of the European Union, 2022). Furthermore, inclusive digital education has been highlighted as key for creating inclusive learning environments, calling for teacher training to enable pedagogues (European Commission, 2021). In parallel, broader equality agendas have strengthened the rights-based foundation of inclusive teacher education.

In line with this broader European policy agenda for inclusive teacher education, many European countries have taken efforts to reform their teacher education systems over the last decade. For example, a central aim of the latest reform in Austria was to support the transition from a segregated special-school oriented system towards more inclusive schooling by trying to ensure that every future teacher acquires basic competences in inclusive education. (Buchner & Proyer, 2020). Portugal’s inclusive education reform, implemented in 2018, repositioned mainstream teachers as responsible for all learners, embedding inclusion across curriculum, assessment and support structures rather than in separate special education tracks. This reform also included education opportunities for teachers, intended to deepen their understanding of the policy framework, core principles of inclusive education and Universal Design for Learning, as well as targeted approaches for particular learner groups, delivered through a combination of structured training programmes and more informal, practice-oriented learning opportunities. However, these efforts have been considered as risking a superficial compliance of teachers instead of the needed deep pedagogical transformation and sustained collaborative, reflective inclusive practices (Alves, 2020). Already these few examples seem to support the thesis that across Europe, teacher education reforms for inclusion share a common rhetoric but differ in structures, content and level of implementation. Some systems add isolated inclusion modules, while fewer redesign entire curricula around inclusive pedagogy (Florian & Camedda, 2020), such as in the case of Luxembourg in 2024.

Despite recent implementation, these reforms have been challenged in education policy discourses across Europe. The urge to return to more conservative approaches, such as a segregated professionalization for special education is being used by right-wing conservative parties – countering efforts to build an inclusive teacher education.

Our panel seeks to provide an overview of reforms having taken place since 2015 and challenges opportunities associated with the status quo of inclusive teacher education in Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Luxemburg, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The rather broad sample of countries from different European regions and developmental stages in inclusive education policies, allows for a contrasting comparison (Bray et al., 2014). Each presenter will provide a country case study on the focuses and structures of these reforms, recent education policy discourses as well as challenges and possibilities for inclusive teacher education. With our contribution, we aim to set the base for the first systematic comparison of inclusive teacher education in Europe.

Panel Discussion Theme Description: Inclusive Education in European and International Contexts

This panel discussion focuses on inclusive education as a key priority in contemporary European and international educational agendas. Inclusive education aims to ensure equitable access, participation, and learning outcomes for all learners, particularly those from marginalized or underrepresented groups, including students with disabilities, linguistic minorities, migrants, and learners from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Despite strong policy commitments across Europe and globally, significant gaps remain between inclusive education principles and their practical implementation. This panel seeks to critically examine these gaps through comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives.

The panel is guided by the following research questions:

1. How is inclusive education conceptualized and implemented across different European and international education systems?

2. What structural, cultural, and policy-related barriers hinder the effective realization of inclusive education?

3. How can international and European cooperation contribute to sustainable and context-sensitive inclusive education practices?

The discussion is grounded in a multi-layered theoretical framework drawing on inclusive pedagogy theory, social justice theory, and the capability approach. Inclusive pedagogy theory emphasizes teaching strategies that respond to learner diversity without marginalization. Social justice theory provides a normative lens for examining equity, participation, and redistribution within education systems. The capability approach, as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, enables analysis of how educational structures expand or restrict learners’ real opportunities to achieve valued outcomes. Together, these frameworks support a critical examination of inclusive education beyond access, focusing on participation, agency, and educational quality.

In terms of methodological approach, the panel adopts a comparative and mixed-methods perspective. Contributions draw on qualitative research, including case studies of inclusive school practices, policy document analysis, and interviews with educators, school leaders, and policymakers. Quantitative evidence from international datasets, such as cross-national surveys and European monitoring reports, is also incorporated to identify broader patterns and trends. This methodological diversity facilitates cross-country comparison and enables reflection on how inclusive education policies are shaped by national contexts while influenced by international frameworks.

The intended purpose of the panel is threefold. First, it aims to critically assess the current state of inclusive education by bridging theory, policy, and practice. Second, it seeks to identify effective strategies and transferable lessons that can inform educational reforms at both national and European levels. Third, the panel aspires to foster dialogue and collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, encouraging the co-construction of inclusive solutions that are contextually responsive and internationally informed.

The European and international dimension is central to the panel’s contribution. European policy initiatives, such as the European Education Area and the Council of Europe’s commitments to equity and human rights, provide a shared framework for inclusive education while allowing for national diversity. By situating European experiences alongside international perspectives, the panel highlights both common challenges and innovative practices across regions. This transnational dialogue strengthens understanding of inclusive education as a global concern that requires coordinated, evidence-based, and ethically grounded responses.

Overall, the panel offers a critical and forward-looking exploration of inclusive education, emphasizing the importance of equity, collaboration, and international exchange in shaping more inclusive education systems.

This paper examines how disability related support is organised, enacted, and constrained within school placement, a core and high stakes component of initial teacher education. Rather than focusing on individual beliefs or identities, the analysis examines organisational arrangements, support structures, and coordination mechanisms, framing inclusion as a design and implementation issue at organisational level.
While the study is situated in an Irish context, the issues examined are relevant to European teacher education systems characterised by shared responsibility between higher education institutions and schools (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2012).
European policy and research literature indicates that several education systems have strengthened inclusive education frameworks, yet the enactment of disability related support during school placement remains uneven across contexts (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2018; European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2012; OECD, 2012).

School placement emerges as a critical site where rights-based commitments to inclusion are either realised or diluted through fragmented provision across higher education institutions and schools (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2012). The paper argues that inclusion during placement should be understood as a systemic and organisational issue rather than an individual accommodation problem (OECD, 2012).

The analysis is guided by the following research question, how is responsibility for disability related support during school placement understood and enacted across institutional boundaries in initial teacher education, and what conditions enable or constrain inclusive practice in this space.

The study is grounded in a social model of disability, shifting attention away from individual deficit towards the relational, organisational, and structural conditions that produce disabling practices (Danforth et al., 2016). This is complemented by third space theory, which conceptualises school placement as a boundary space where professional roles, responsibilities, and forms of expertise overlap but are not always coherently aligned (Bhabha, 2004).

Research on deviance in schools has shown that teacher reactions, expectations, and institutional decisions shape how student behaviour is interpreted and managed over time. However, existing studies typically focus on single data sources, individual countries, or isolated stages of the process—such as classroom interactions, teacher perceptions, or formal diagnoses—thereby capturing only partial aspects of how deviant careers emerge and stabilize (Lehmann et al, 2017). As a result, we still lack an integrated and internationally comparative understanding of how deviance is progressively constructed across interactional and institutional levels and how similar behavioural phenomena are processed differently across education systems.

Drawing on interactionist research on deviance (e.g., Becker, 1963; Cicourel, 1968), we conceptualize deviant student careers not as outcomes of individual misconduct but as processual sequences of interactions, social attributions (prelabeling), and institutional decisions (labelling) that unfold according to a career-like pattern, in which each achieved stage increases the likelihood of subsequent developments (Thompson, 2014). Deviant behaviour is thus gradually defined as problematic, typified, and formally fixed through successive interpretative and organizational steps. To capture these dynamics, the symposium combines a comparative policy perspective with empirical analyses and draws on different data sources: cross-national institutional analyses (Contribution 1), quantitative classroom observations in two countries (Contribution 2), teacher interviews (Contribution 3), and student files (Contribution 4).

As a first step, the first contribution adopts a comparative and exploratory perspective to examine how institutional configurations shape the processing of deviant behaviour across national contexts (UNESCO 2020). Comparing Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), France, and Brazil, the authors analyse school laws, regulations, and official statistics on disciplinary practices and special educational needs. The findings indicate converging problem definitions but markedly divergent forms of institutional processing.

At the interactional level, the subsequent contributions analyse how deviant careers are enacted and stabilized within schools. Based on systematic classroom observations in Germany and Brazil, Contribution 2 examines teacher reactions and sanctions as initial markings of deviant behaviour. Disciplinary practices constitute a central element in the formation of deviant careers, as harsher practices may intensify rather than reduce disruptive behaviour (Amemiya et al, 2020). The study investigates how sanctioning practices develop over time and whether changes reflect students’ behaviour or emerging prelabeling dynamics grounded in teachers’ interpretations.

Contribution 3 focuses on prelabeling processes based on longitudinal teacher interviews in Germany, analysing how perceptions and interpretations precede formal labelling decisions on special needs. Over time, attention shifts from concrete behaviour to the person, who becomes typified as “conspicuous” or “problematic,” thereby increasing the likelihood of formal diagnoses (Rafalovich, 2005). Finally, Contribution 4 “examines student files as sites of institutional consolidation and compares the findings with an an analysis of incident reports from French schools (Hilbold & Gavarini, 2022). The creation of a file marks an organizational threshold at which behaviour becomes officially “case-relevant (Trace, 2002)” The findings indicate that in the student files alternative—particularly child-centred—perspectives are increasingly marginalized and pathologizing interpretations are stabilized. The child's deviance appears to be an individual phenomenon with causes that lie solely outside of school.

Taken together, the symposium seeks to stimulate further discussion on how deviant careers are institutionally produced and nationally patterned processes that unfold across interactional, interpretative, and administrative levels. By integrating comparative and multi-source evidence, the symposium offers an initial exploratory approach to examining the trajectories and structural patterns of deviant careers across different countries. As the data currently derive predominantly from Germany, the empirical findings are discussed at the end in light of the different national contexts by Lygia Hryniewicz (Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brazil).

Theoretical framework: Across many countries, discourses of behavioural difficulties and special educational needs increasingly draw on comparable conceptual frameworks and professional categories (UNESCO 2020), contributing to convergence in how rule-breaking behaviour and special needs are perceived and addressed in schools. At the same time, education systems differ substantially in their institutional arrangements, regulatory frameworks, and professional responsibilities. These differences suggest that similar behavioural phenomena may be processed in distinct ways and result in differently shaped deviant careers across national contexts (OECD 2019). Educational systems contexts play a substantial role in shaping how behavioural incidents are interpreted, sanctioned, and documented over time (Powell et al. 2021). Educational systems vary in how closely deviant behaviour in schools are linked to procedures for identifying special educational needs. Adopting a comparative and exploratory perspective, this presentation examines how such institutional configurations may contribute to the development of deviant careers. Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), France, and Brazil are selected as contrasting cases because they represent distinct constellations of school-system stratification, regulatory density, and responsibilities in dealing with special needs (Anastasiou & Keller, 2014). Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) exemplifies a highly stratified system and a continued organisational separation of special education through distinct special schools. France represents an integrated system with centralised regulation, in which students with special educational needs are primarily supported through specialised units (ULIS) located within selected mainstream schools. Brazil combines a formally comprehensive and inclusive school system—where students with special educational needs are mostly enrolled in mainstream schools—with pronounced social inequality and substantial regional and local variation in the provision of additional support. Methods: The study draws on a comparative analysis of school laws, decrees, and administrative regulations, complemented by official statistics, studies and policy reports on deviant behaviour, special education, and disciplinary practices. Results: The comparison points to converging problem definitions alongside markedly divergent forms of institutional processing. While international studies indicate rather high levels of perceived behavioural difficulties—reflected in teacher ratings, student self-reports in surveys, and rising use of medication across countries—the proportion of students formally identified as having special educational needs differs substantially. Formal diagnoses are most prevalent in Germany, less frequent in France, and lowest in Brazil. This suggests that cross-national variation in special educational needs reflects differences in institutional frameworks, diagnostic thresholds, and organisational pathways rather than differences in behavioural prevalence.

Anastasiou, D., & Keller, C. (2014). Cross-national differences in special education: A typological approach. In J. M. Kauffman, D. P. Hallahan, & P. C. Pullen (Eds.), Handbook of special education (2nd ed., pp. 347–363). Routledge. Powell, J. J., Pfahl, L. & Blanck, J. M. (2021). Sonderpädagogische Fördersysteme und inklusive Bildung. Handbuch Bildungs-und Erziehungssoziologie. OECD. (2020). Mapping policy approaches and practices for the inclusion of students with special education needs. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/600fbad5-en UNESCO. (2020). Global education monitoring report 2020: Inclusion and education - all means all. United Nations.

Theoretical framework and research goals Severe disciplinary practices of teachers can be early drivers of deviant careers. Visible and intensive sanctions increase the likelihood that students are labeled as deviant, narrowing teachers’ behavioral expectations and promoting escalating responses (Perez & Okonofua, 2022; Yang et al., 2018). From an interactionist labeling perspective, deviance arises not only from behavior but from teachers’ interpretations guiding pedagogical responses (Lanas & Brunila, 2019). Disciplinary sanctions can stigmatize students by labeling them as “troublemakers,” shaping future interactions (Caprara & Zimbardo, 1996). Teachers’ practices form a dynamic interaction process in which action options become increasingly constrained. Once students are perceived as deviant, teachers’ expectations narrow, and prior interpretations guide subsequent responses. Consequently, severe reactions may become more frequent even when behavior is stable (H1). Labeling theory also predicts feedback effects on students: sanctions may reduce positive interaction opportunities, increasing further deviance (H2). We assume that the institutional context of different countries has little to no influence on these interactional relationships (H3). Together, these processes create a self-reinforcing dynamic that stabilizes deviant labels across different institutional contexts. Methods The study draws on longitudinal classroom observations from primary schools, followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3 in Germany and Brazil. Across 70 (Brazil: 28) classroom observation occasions, 18,378 (7.453) instances of deviant behavior and 5,861 (2,210) corresponding teacher reactions were recorded. In each class in both countries, three to four consecutive lessons were observed, with an average of 3.5 visits per school year. Classroom disruptions and teachers’ immediate responses were documented with minute-level precision using standardized protocols. Deviant behavior was coded using established instruments (e.g., Shapiro, 2011) and an inductively developed coding system. Semi-structured teacher interviews provided information on formal and exclusionary disciplinary measures and behavioral diagnoses. Analyses used pupil-level proportions per wave, applying multilevel models with lagged dependent variables and propensity score matching to disentangle behavioral differences from labeling processes. Results Descriptively, preliminary results indicate that 53% (Brazil: 69%) of disruptive behavior elicited no teacher reaction, while only 6% (3%) involved severe reactions. Group comparisons show that sanctioned students display higher proportions of disruptive behavior and general teacher reactions than non-sanctioned peers, as well as more severe reactions. Disruption intensity, however, is comparable between groups. These relationships apply to both countries. The findings suggest that differences in teacher responses, rather than behavioral intensity alone, may contribute to the attribution of formal disciplinary measures, regardless of institutional context.

Caprara, G. V., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1996). Aggregation and amplification of marginal deviations in the social construction of personality and maladjustment. European Journal of Personality, 10(2), 79–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0984(199606)10:2%253C79::AID-PER249%253E3.0.CO;2-6 Lanas, M., & Brunila, K. (2019). Bad behaviour in school: A discursive approach. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(5), 682–695. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1581052 Perez, A. D., & Okonofua, J. A. (2022). The good and bad of a reputation: Race and punishment in K-12 schools. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 100, 104287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104287 Shapiro, E. S. (2011). Academic Skills Problems: Direct Assessment and Intervention. The Guilford Press. Yang, M.-Y., Harmeyer, E., Chen, Z., & Lofaso, B. M. (2018). Predictors of early elementary school suspension by gender: A longitudinal multilevel analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 93, 331–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.08.008

Research goals and theoretical framework This study investigates the construction of behaviour-related diagnostic labels in schools. It is prompted by the rising numbers of primary school children receiving be-havioural diagnoses across Europe, shown for example by the sharp increase of ADHD diagnoses among children and adolescents across European countries over the past dec-ade (Li et al., 2025) and by the exceptionally high approval rate in Germany of over 95% for formal assessments of special educational needs (Amrhein & Badstieber, 2025), highlighting the need to examine how teachers’ perceptions shape the formalisation of informal diagnostic judgements and how these perceptions are subsequently inscribed in individual students’ records. The analysis is grounded in labeling theory (Bernburg, 2019), with prelabeling (Rafalo-vich, 2005) serving as the key theoretical lens, and on special education research docu-menting the stigmatising effects of diagnostic labels (Franz et al., 2023) and persistent concerns about the quality of diagnostic procedures (Hennes et al., 2024). Methods The study draws on a qualitative longitudinal design, tracking 270 children in 11 classes across the first three years of primary school. Through criteria-based case selection (Mey & Mruck, 2020), we identified 12 pupils for whom behaviour-related special educational needs were formally determined by the end of the third school year. The dataset in-cludes 48 interviews with these pupils’ teachers (N=7) conducted three times a year across three years as well as student records (N=35) used in the formal assessment pro-cess. Both data sources were analysed using qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2024). Results The analysis conceptualises prelabeling as a multidimensional, longitudinal trajectory of teachers’ perceptions and practices. Prelabeling processes are structured by six core cat-egories: Description of symptoms, causal attribution, prognosis of development, teach-ers’ self-evaluation, allocation of responsibilities and disciplinary measures. Across three school years, symptom descriptions and causal attributions appear early and remain sta-ble, while perceived behavioural intensity increases. Responsibility is distributed more widely and disciplinary measures shift from instructional interventions in class toward sanction- and exclusion-oriented practices, while prognoses deteriorate and teachers report declining self-efficacy. The student-records capture prelabeling primarily in its later-stage form. Analysing teachers’ case representations in the files enables us to trace how their perspective de-velops over time and to compare it across two data sources: interviews and student rec-ords. The close alignment between interview-based perceptions and the content of the student records highlights student records as a key mechanism through which informal diagnostic assessments become formalised.

Amrhein, B., & Badstieber, B. (2025). Systemische Gesamtbetrachtung. In Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (Ed.), Gemeinsames Gutachten zum Bedarf an sonderpä-dagogischer Unterstützung – Langfassung (pp. 4-38). https://www.schulministerium.nrw/system/files/media/document/file/langfassung_wissenschaftlicher_pruefauftrag_sonderpaedagogische_foerderung.pdf/ Bernburg, J. G. (2019). Labeling theory. In M. D. Krohn, N. Hendrix, G. Penly Hall, & A. J. Lizotte (Eds.), Handbook on Crime and Deviance (pp. 179–196). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20779-3_10 Hennes, A.-K., Philippek, J., Dortants, L., Abel, M., Baysel, K., Dworschak, W., Fabel, L., Hövel, D., Jonas, K., Nideröst, M., Röösli, P., Schabmann, A., Stenneken, P., Wächter, J., & Schmidt, B. M. (2024). Son-derpädagogische Diagnostik im Feststellungsprozess: Eine Ist-Stand-Analyse und der Blick nach vorn. Zeitschrift für Heilpädagogik, 75(7), 288–302. Kuckartz, U., & Rädiker, S. (2024). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Umsetzung mit Soft-ware und künstlicher Intelligenz. Juventa. Li, X., Burn, E., & Guo, Y. (2025). DARWIN EU® – Trends in utilisation of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivi-ty Disorder (ADHD) Medications. Study report P3-C1-004 (2010–2023). DARWIN EU® Coordina-tion Centre. Mey, G., & Mruck, K. (2020). Handbuch Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie: Band 2: Designs und Verfahren. Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26887-9 Rafalovich, A. (2005). Relational troubles and semiofficial suspicion: Educators and the Medicalization of “unruly” children. Symbolic Interaction, 28(1), 25-46. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2005.28.1.25

Question: What is the social reality of a 'case', i.e. a pupil who, in the school's opinion, requires special treatment, as presented in pupils' case files? What is presented and established as social reality? And, in particular, which alternative presentations are omitted, which actors silenced? Different sources of information are compared: (1) the case constellation that can be deduced from interviews with pupils, teachers and parents, (2) the case constellation that can be deduced from pupils’ files, which are used as the basis for initiating a diagnostic procedure. Theoretical foundations: According to Zimmerman and Pollner (1970), the social world is constituted in everyday practices that must be investigated and should not be taken for granted. This approach has proven fruitful when analysing social deviance, particularly mental illness and how society deals with it. It has been applied in what are now considered to be classic studies (Smith, 1978; Cicourel, 1968). Our study aims to systematically compare levels of deviant career development in terms of dominant construction processes and the actors involved. This is linked to the broader objective of raising awareness of children's participation in the construction of the social world (Bühler-Niederberger, 2020; Tisdall et al., 2023). Method – data collection and evaluation: The data is collected through interviews (with teachers, children and parents) and through an analysis of student files. In analysing the data, we draw on Clark's (2005) situation analysis, which specifically seeks out silent voices, and on critical discourse analysis (Wodak, 2013; Wodak & Krzyanowski, 2008). As a relevant line of analysis, we interpret the German data through the lens of an analysis of incident reports from French schools (Hilbold & Gavarini, 2022). Results: In both, the children's and teachers' interviews, the disruptive pupils appeared as 'troublemakers' and as a problem characterised by 'open contradiction' (Goffman, 1959; Bühler-Niederberger et al., 2025). Teachers and children therefore perceive each other as interaction partners who do not take on the assigned roles, making it difficult or impossible for the other side to fulfil their own roles. And this view is confirmed by the parents. Teachers attribute this to the child's family of origin and even to physiologically interpreted illness. In the case files, a largely uniform discourse emerges in which the problems of interaction, as well as the children's perspective and voice, have disappeared. The child's deviance appears to be an individual phenomenon with causes that lie solely outside of school.

Bühler-Niederberger, D. (2020). Lebensphase Kindheit. VS Verlag, Springer Bühler-Niederberger, D., Dittmann, L., & Schuchart, C. (2025). „Being Nice” as Modus Vivendi in Classrooms: A Collective Behavior Approach to Deviant Behavior in Primary Schools. Symbolic Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.70004 Cicourel, A. V. 1(968). The Social Organization of J uvenile Justice. John Wiley Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational Analysis. Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. London: Sage. Goffman, E. (1959.) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Hilbold, M., & et Gavarini, L. (2022). Ordre et désordres scolaires, les enseignants à l’ère des « incidents » dans la classe. In: Le Normal et le Pathologique à l’école aujourd’hui. Presses Universitaires de Vincennes. Smith, D. (1978). “K is Mentally Ill” the Anatomy of a Factual Account. Sociological Review 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/003803857801200103 Tisdall. K., Davis, J., Fry, D., Konstantoni, K., Kustatscher, M., & Maternoswska, C. (Eds.) (2023). Critical Childhood Studies. Global Perspectives. Bloomsbury. Wodak, R. (2013). Critical Discourse Analysis. Vol. I. Sage. Wodak, R. & Krzyanowski (2008). Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan. Zimmermann, D.H., & Pollner, M. (1970). The Everyday World as a Social Phenomenon. In J.D. Douglas. (Ed.). Understanding Everyday Life. Toward the Reconstruction of Soiological Knowledge (pp. 80-104). Aldine Publishing Company.

The design and research of Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) have received considerable attention, particularly since 2013, when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a major report on the topic. ILEs can be defined as the merging of innovative technologies and spaces with innovative teaching and learning practices (Mahat et al., 2018). ILEs are typically characterised by open and flexible environments (Frelin et al., 2025) within the continuum proposed by Dovey and Fisher (2014), ranging from closed classrooms with corridors (type A) or street spaces (type B); classrooms with flexible walls (type C) or flexible walls adjoining street space (type D); to open-plan environments with adjoining rooms and street spaces (type E).

Learning environments (LEs) are expected to foster educational quality, equity, and inclusion (Kyriakides et al., 2019). In addition to influencing academic performance, LE design affects the wellbeing of the whole school community (Mäkelä & Leinonen, 2021). Furthermore, the sustainability crisis urges the extension of human, physical, psychological, social, and socioeconomic wellbeing towards planetary wellbeing and ecological, social, economic, and cultural sustainability in LE design (Mäkelä et al., 2025).

This double symposium presents multiple international and European studies focusing on LEs that foster innovation, sustainablity, academic excellence, wellbeing, and inclusion in a balanced manner:

1. We first present the Australian-led international Innovative Learning Environments and Student Experience (ILESE) research, involving participants from 19 countries worldwide, with a particular focus on European contributions.

2. This is followed by a multidisciplinary, multisite case study conducted in Nordic and Latin American educational, cultural, and geographical contexts. Results from photo documentation of spaces fostering the teaching and learning of transversal competences in Finland and Uruguay are presented.

3. Next, the focus shifts to a Nordic perspective on the impact of LE design on teaching, learning, and wellbeing. Supported by analyses of floor and furniture plans, photo documentation techniques were employed in case study schools in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland.

4. We then narrow the focus to Finland to reflect on how general learning space layout typologies have evolved in Finnish school buildings.

5. The next presentation puts together Nordic (Norway) and Mediterranean (Spain) teachers’ perceptions of transforming school spaces and pedagogies.

6. We continue exploring Southern European perspectives, beginning with Portugal. The presentation analyses a co-design approach to renewing a modernist heritage school to meet contemporary educational needs.

7. Then we will visit Italy, where pre-school teachers’ discussions of the design and potential changes to their rooms to enhance children’s free play and pedagogical work were analysed as part of the European CoReD project.

8. Finally, we reflect on current policies and system needs related to innovative and sustainable LEs across Europe. The concluding presentation focuses on results from the first phase of the ongoing “Collaborative Learning Communities for Redesigning Primary Education Towards Innovative and Sustainable Learning Environments” (ISLE) project, involving participants from Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Spain, and Sweden.

An internationally growing body of research on LE design, including the studies presented in this symposium, highlights the need for transdisciplinary collaboration between educational and architectural researchers and practitioners in the research-based LE design that merge innovative technologies and spaces with innovative teaching and learning practices, foster wellbeing, and ensure that LEs are environmentally, culturally, economically, and socially sustainable. The studies presented in the symposium also confirm that changes in the space design do not automatically lead to changes in teaching practices (Baars et al., 2023; Brøns, 2021). Educators need environmental or spatial awareness and competencies—i.e., the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to design and use versatile and adaptable, technology-enhanced physical spaces to support teaching, learning, and wellbeing (Bøjer & Woolner, 2024).

This presentation reports on the Innovative Learning Environments and Student Experience (ILESE) project, and Europe’s role in its development. Initiated in 2021 by Australia’s Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) collaborating with 120 industry, university and school partners across 21 countries, its objectives are critical also for European contexts; creating an accessible evidentiary database (ARGO) about what learning space designs work (or do not work) for all students regardless of capacities. ARGO allows complex analyses guiding infrastructure development and supporting schools’ effective use of learning spaces. Conducted across three Phases, the 1.5 year Scoping Study involved >250 learning space experts from industry, educational policy and practice, and academics, representing 21 countries. A parallel but quarantined n=35 Delphi Study cross-checked findings (Morris et al., 2023). A clear consensus emerged around the key research priorities for the future of LE design and use. There is a pressing need for: (1) robust LE evaluation, providing empirical evidence of their effectiveness; (2) understanding how LEs support 21st century skills and affective learning outcomes (e.g. collaboration, emotional development); (3) ensuring all learners—regardless of ability or background—can fully participate and benefit from the design of inclusive LEs; (4) focusing on learner engagement (participation) as a critical indicator of successful LE design, and (5) recognising that LEs must support academic achievement but also holistic development of learners; their overall wellbeing and mental health (Imms et al., 2023). Phase 2 translated these priorities into a validated research framework capable of capturing learners' lived experiences in all types of LEs. Central was development of the LEs and Student Participation Survey (LEaPS), adapted for an LE context from the Health Sciences Framework of Participation Related Constructs (Imms et al., 2016). A Pilot in 20 schools in 10 countries tested data collection strategies, ethical considerations, and accuracy of multilingual translations. A confirmatory factor analysis validated the tool’s psychometric properties. Phase 2 solidified a network of partner investigators across academic institutions worldwide. Phase 3 is now under development with recruitment of international Partner Organizations and submission of large-scale supporting grant applications. This presentation focuses on ILESE’s European contributions from five European countries (Finland, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain) including selected school reports. European representation in the ILESE has proved invaluable ensuring international validity of ILESE. Critical was universities' support across Finland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, the UK (Scotland and England) and Denmark. These partners ensured ILESE remained highly relevant to European needs.

Imms, C., Granlund, M., Wilson, P., Steenbergen, B., Rosenbaum, P. & Gordon, A. (2016). Participation, both a means and an end: a conceptual analysis of processes and outcomes in childhood disability. Developmental Medicine and & Child Neurology https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.13237 Imms, W. et al.(2023). What should be the focus of next generation learning spaces research? An international cross-sector response. The ILESE Scoping Study White Paper. LEaRN, The University of Melbourne. Morris, J. E., Imms, W., & Bradbeer, C. (2023). Gaps and priorities in future learning spaces research: A cross-sector Delphi response. LEaRN, The University of Melbourne.

21st-century schools are expected to promote a broad set of transversal competences, including collaboration, communication, digital literacy, and active citizenship (Finnish National Board of Education, 2016; ANEP, 2022; Voogt et al., 2013). These competences are increasingly recognised as essential for navigating complex societal challenges. At best, learning environment design (LED) can actively support the teaching and learning of these skills, and physical spaces themselves may function as tools that facilitate competence development (Mäkelä & Leinonen, 2021). This study investigated the potential of LED to afford, or offer “action possibilities” (Young & Cleveland, 2022), for supporting transversal competences. Through a cross-cultural lens, we conducted photo documentation (Fülling et al., 2024) during site visits to a total of 38 Finnish and Uruguayan schools. The schools were selected by a team of educational and architectural experts, based on their intentional design—or later modification—to support transversal teaching and learning goals. The selection included a variety of building ages, from newly constructed to century-old schools, and included both public and private institutions. A structured framework for LED that fosters transversal competences was used to guide the photo documentation process. Following the visits, the multidisciplinary research team collaboratively identified good practices from a shared visual database. The most illustrative examples were selected through several thematic workshops. In this presentation, we will share a curated selection of photographs illustrating LED affordances across key spatial typologies. These include spaces that promote collaboration and encounters between learners, educators, and the wider community. In both countries, we observed rich examples of environments supporting learning by doing, such as well-equipped art, craft, and science laboratories. Teaching kitchens were found in both contexts, though more systematically present in Finnish schools due to curricular differences. Spaces supporting cultural competence, expression, and multiliteracy—including areas for performance, exhibitions, and digital learning—were common across cases. Both formal and informal spaces for autonomous work were documented, with Uruguay offering more outdoor possibilities due to its climate. Furthermore, we identified environments that promote wellbeing, health, and safety, as well as those fostering environmental competences and sustainability. These included design elements enhancing nature connectedness and long-term adaptability. Multifunctionality and spatial flexibility were observed in both newer and older buildings. Future research could deepen this work by examining how educators use these spatial affordances in practice. From an architectural viewpoint, further analysis of floor plans is needed to understand how different space typologies interconnect and support transversal competences.

ANEP (2022) Marco Curricular Nacional, Administración Nacional de Educación Pública. Finnish National Board of Education (2016). National core curriculum for basic education 2014. Publications 2016, 5. Fülling, J., Hering, L., & Kulke, E. (2024). Mapping and photo documentation. Handbook of Qualitative and Visual Methods in Spatial Research, 7, 263. Mäkelä, T., & Leinonen, T. (2021). Design Framework and Principles for Learning Environment Co-Design: Synthesis from Literature and Three Empirical Studies. Buildings, 11(12), 581. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120581 Voogt, J., Erstad, O., Dede, C., & Mishra, P. (2013). Challenges to learning and Schooling in the digital networked world of the 21st century. Journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 403-413. Young, F., & Cleveland, B. (2022). Affordances, architecture and the action possibilities of learning environments: A critical review of the literature and future directions. Buildings, 12(1), 76.

Open and flexible LEs have been a prominent trend in school design internationally for over two decades, and are widely reflected in Nordic schools (Grannäs & Stavem, 2021; Niemi, 2021; Sigurðardóttir & Hjartarson, 2018). Open spaces are thought to facilitate cross-curricular collaboration, encounters, gatherings, and performances, which can enhance both learning and wellbeing. At the same time, acoustically and visually enclosed spaces are necessary for focused, autonomous work and for withdrawal and safety. A flexible design that enables the opening and closing of spaces potentially accommodates varying everyday pedagogical and wellbeing needs (Gislason, 2010; Kariippanon et al., 2019; Mäkelä & Leinonen, 2022). This study investigates the potential affordances (Young & Cleveland, 2022) of open, enclosed, and flexible spaces for teaching, learning, and wellbeing in Nordic schools. Educational and architectural researchers, together with municipal representatives and private consultants, purposefully selected one case study school for an on-site visit in each Nordic country, representing either recent construction or renovation, except for Denmark, where a school built in 2001 was chosen as an early exemplar of open-plan design. The data corpus includes floor plans, furniture plans, and photo documentation (Fülling et al., 2024). Floor plans were categorised according to Dovey and Fisher’s (2014) typology, ranging from traditional classrooms with corridors to open-plan spaces with adjoining areas. The on-site visits focused on the spatial affordances enabled by interior design and furniture, and photographs were systematically documented in a database, categorised as (a) open, (b) enclosed, and (c) flexible spaces. Representative images from each school were collaboratively selected for the final analysis. The methodological approach will be discussed. The visits showed many similarities in Nordic school architecture. Findings indicate that all schools contained open, enclosed, and flexible spaces with potential affordances to support teaching, learning, and wellbeing. Most schools included traditional classrooms with breakout areas. Finnish and Norwegian schools also featured flexible walls that could be opened or closed. Furniture configurations still commonly reflected teacher-led large-group instruction, but also allowed small-group and individual learning. “Public-together” spaces appeared more prevalent than “private-alone” spaces in all schools, but particularly in the Danish open-plan school. Photo documentation confirmed that all schools provided opportunities for collaboration, gatherings, performance, autonomous work, and withdrawal. Potential affordances do not, however, automatically translate into actual usage, underlining the importance of future observational and interview studies to understand how - and whether - these spaces are used as intended to foster teaching, learning, and wellbeing.

Fülling, J., et al.(2024). Mapping and photo documentation. Handbook of Qualitative and Visual Methods in Spatial Research, 7. Gislason, N. (2010). Architectural Design and the Learning Environment: a framework for school design Research. Learning Environment Research, 13. Grannäs, J., Stavem, S.M. (2021). Transitions through remodelling teaching and learning environments. Education Inquiry, 12(3). Dovey, K., & Fisher, K. (2014). Designing for adaptation: the school as a socio-spatial assemblage. The Journal of Architecture, 19(1). Kariippanon, K. et al.(2019). The ‘why’ and ‘how’ of flexible learning spaces: A complex adaptive systems analysis. J of Educational Change. Mäkelä, T., & Leinonen, T. (2021). Design Framework and Principles for Learning Environment Co-Design: Synthesis from Literature and Three Empirical Studies. Buildings, 11(12). Niemi, K. (2021). ‘The best guess for the future?’Teachers’ adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland. Education Inquiry, 12(3). Sigurðardóttir, A. K., & Hjartarson, T. (2018). Design Features of Icelandic School Buildings: How Do They Reflect Changes in Educational Governance and Daily School Practice? In Making Education: Material School Design and Educational Governance. Young, F., & Cleveland, B. (2022). Affordances, architecture and the action possibilities of learning environments: A critical review of the literature and future directions. Buildings, 12(1).

Finnish school building typologies for general learning spaces have evolved alongside the national curriculum, reflecting learner-centred pedagogy, versatile working methods, and differentiated instruction. Learning space design is expected to support curricular aims, yet national design guidelines remain limited. Research on Finnish learning space typologies is also scarce, particularly regarding how different spaces function in practice (Leinonen & Kuuskorpi, 2022). This qualitative study addressed this gap by examining how curricular priorities are supported within general learning spaces. Using an interdisciplinary architectural and educational approach, it aimed to inform school building design and renovation. In this presentation, we present typological characteristics of contemporary Finnish school buildings and explore the reasons behind their spatial diversity. We exemplify how national curricular aims are translated into varied spatial solutions through local interpretations, design processes, and contextual factors. The study investigated the building layout typologies of 15 schools, including both new and renovated buildings, distributed geographically all over Finland. General learning spaces were analysed using the typology classification tool developed by Dovey and Fisher (2014), with four schools selected for deeper analysis. Building layouts were compared with functional requirements and pedagogical plans. Teacher interviews and survey data were used to assess the alignment between intended and actual space use. The thematic analysis revealed that multiple space typologies often coexisted within the same building, alongside inconsistencies in the naming of similar learning spaces. Floor area per student varied considerably across schools. Teachers participating in the study recognised the significance of learning spaces in supporting teaching and learning, particularly multidisciplinary learning units. Adaptable furnishing and ease of modification were considered essential. In their view, versatile spatial structures enabled a broader range of teaching methods, while shared spaces, differentiation areas, flexibility, and spatial quality contributed to overall effectiveness. However, support and training for using spaces pedagogically were considered to have been limited. The study concludes that well-functioning learning spaces require careful planning grounded in pedagogical aims and active user involvement (see also Fisher & Dovey, 2016; Byers et al., 2014). Clear national design guidelines and research-based typological models are needed to support diverse, flexible, and pedagogically effective and inclusive school buildings, as well as ongoing evaluation of spatial usability during and after implementation.

Byers, T., Imms, W., & Hartnell-Young, E. (2014). Making the case for space: The effect of learning spaces on teaching and learning. Curriculum and Teaching, 29(1), 5-19. Dovey, K., & Fisher, K. (2014). Designing for adaptation: the school as a socio-spatial assemblage. The Journal of Architecture, 19(1), 43-63. Fisher, K., & Dovey, K. (2016). Plans and pedagogies: School design as socio-spatial assemblage. In The translational design of schools: An evidence-based approach to aligning pedagogy and learning environments (pp. 159-177). Rotterdam: SensePublishers Lehtonen, Sari & Kuuskorpi, Marko. 2022. Towards Typological and Spatial Diversities - Learning from the typological solutions of the Finnish comprehensive public-school buildings. Architectural Research in Finland, vol.6, no.1.

The symposium takes up the #ECER2026 theme and asks about changing ways of action and knowledge regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications from a Media Education perspective. Our primary focus of research is (digital) media and educational contexts. Thus we will be looking at AI as a mediating instance in different fields of educational research and practice.

The first contribution by Petra Grell will highlight a historical perspective on AI in Education focussing on central questions on socio-technical aspects of the systems, practices of hyping and how to unmask AI-technology so that “magic crumbles away” and practitioners are enabled for critical use.

In the second contribution, Klaus Rummler and Colette Schneider Stingelin will raise issues on the distribution of knowledge to ‘the public’ through scientific journals. Their current project focuses on transforming Open Access content to multimodal content, dedicated to lay audiences, transformed by on-premises LLMs (i.e., AI).

In the third contribution, Anne Mette Bjørgen and Yvonne Fritze will present a project focusing on students and academic staffs’ experiences from using AI and chatbots (CB) in study work and in teaching. Based on qualitative interviews, the intention has been to gain more insight into students' and staff's expectations of and experiences with AI and CB, how this is shaped in relation to expectations in and outside the educational context, and how this can change practice. Three examples involving the use of AI will be discussed

In the fourth contribution, Caroline Grabensteiner and Alexandra Totter will present a comparative review of three teaching media that are currently used but usually analysed individually: Textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OER), and AI-powered platforms. In a comparative approach (looking at the teaching media themselves as well as the scientific discourse about them), they ask how teaching is addressed and mediated as a knowledge practice on a technological, pedagogical and content level.

In the symposium we discuss AI ecologies in different educational fields to get a better understanding of how knowledge practices are shaped in interaction with technologies. In a historical, theoretical and practical perspective, we shed light on the ways in which knowledge and technologies are intertwined, how they make a difference and where to take a closer look in order to not only follow the hype but get to the core of current educational change.

Hyping the newest technology as an omnipotent solution for human affairs or particularly educational challenges isn’t a new thing. Any older researcher in media education can give a couple of examples how in their career lifespan a new tool or idea entered the spotlight of public attention and was easily forgotten when the next omnipotent technical solution entered the stage. Gouseti (2010) called this another circle of hype, hope and disappointment. And she – as others – reminded us that we are often focus the short-term technical aspects (potentials or threads) and tend to ignore the long-term social consequences. The current discussion about technology in education focusses on Artificial Intelligence (AI). And our observations during our latest literature review about AI in Education (unpublished yet) shows the same bias. Sloane, Danks and Moss (2024) highlight that “hyping”, the generating of excitement by simply claiming capabilities is an activity done by multiple agents. This kind of „AI hyping structurally hinders efforts to consider AI as the sociotechnical system it is “ (Sloane et al. 2024, p. 671). Another challenge is the public discussion about AI (and AI in Education) that triggers beliefs of magic. You can follow Clarke (1968) and phrase that: „Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“ (Clarke 1968; p. 255) However it was computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, who developed the well-known chat bot ELIZA, who reminded us, that it is our responsibility to unmask the programs, to explain “in a language sufficiently plain to induce understanding” and that “the magic crumbles away” once the technology stands “revealed as a mere collection of procedures, each quite comprehensible” (1968, p. 36). In my contribution to this symposium, I will provide a historical view on the discussion about AI in Education with a focus on three question: (1) In which way are the socio-technical aspects of the systems integrated (or ignored)?, (2) In which way can we identify practices of hyping? (3) In which way can we identify aspects to help practitioners to unmask and understand the technology so that “magic crumbles away”?

Clarke, Arthur C. (1968). "Clarke's Third Law on UFO's". Science. Vol. 159, Issue 3812, p 255. DOI: 10.1126/science.159.3812.255.c Clarke, Arthur C. (1973) Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination. Collection Profiles of the Future. 1962, revised 1973, Harper & Row Gouseti, Anastasia: Web 2.0 and education: not just another case of hype, hope and disappointment? In: Learning, Media and Technology 35 (2010), Nr. 3, S. 351–356. – URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2010.509353 Sloane, M., Danks, D. & Moss, E. Tackling AI Hyping. AI Ethics 4, 669–677 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00481-y Wanner, T.; Palmer, E. (2015): Personalising learning: Exploring student and teacher perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course. In: Computers & Education 88 (2015), 354-369 Weizenbaum, J. (1966). ELIZA—a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine. Communications of the ACM, 9(1), 36-45.

Klaus Rummler and Colette Schneider Stingelin will report from their Horizon Europe Project ‘MUTASK’, which will be led by Mikołaj Leszczuk (University of Krakow, PL) with partners from France and Switzerland. Relating to Media Education, one of the guiding questions will be, if it is possible to generate multimodal content from scientific Open Access journals targeted to lay audiences on different levels of comprehension with the help of Large Language Models (i.e., AI). Previous studies indicated that it is possible to generate lay abstracts from articles in scientific Open Access journals in coordination with the authors and editorial workflows (Rummler et al., 2026; Falkenberg et al., 2024; Stoll et al., 2022). Further studies indicate that lay audiences comprise of different levels of comprehension (c.f. Cousseran et al., 2024) that should be respected for the generation of content targeted towards them. Research at the interface between Communication Studies/Audience Research (Colette Schneider Stingelin) and Media Education (Klaus Rummler) will have to ask for ‘How to identify lay audiences and the different levels of comprehension’ for each selected scientific journal and ‘How do these identified audiences read and comprehend the presented educational content derived from those Open Access articles’.

Cousseran, Laura, Tausche, Sandrine, Jennewein, Nadja, Hadergjonaj-Strodthoff, Vanesa, & Schober, Maximilian. (2024). Fünf Fragen an die Erstellung von Personas. Im Rahmen des Projektes Digitales Deutschland. JFF – Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis. https://digid.jff.de/magazin/transfer/fuenf-fragen-an-die-erstellung-von-personas/ Falkenberg, LJ, Joyce, PWS, & Soranno, PA. (2024). How to write lay summaries of research articles for wider accessibility. LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY LETTERS, 9(2), 93–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10373 Rummler, Klaus, Schneider Stingelin, Colette, & Hüsser, Angelica. (2026). Lay-Abstracts als Element auf dem Weg zu Open Science. Ansätze für eine zugängliche und laiengerechte Wissenschaftskommunikation. Kommunikation@gesellschaft, Open Access – kultur-und sozialwissenschaftlich gelesen. Stoll, M., Kerwer, M., Lieb, K., & Chasiotis, A. (2022). Plain language summaries: A systematic review of theory, guidelines and empirical research. PLOS ONE, 17(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268789

Sub-paper had to be withdrawn

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Teachers’ knowledge practice is intertwined with a complex media ecology. In this contribution, we address this practice as media actions in the classroom (Totter & Grabensteiner, 2025) and lesson preparation, both aiming at supporting learning processes. Teaching media are created for assisting those processes, while at the same time mediating them. Teachers develop different practices towards technological, pedagogical, and content aspects in knowledge construction. TPACK is therefore a reference point for researching different aspects of teaching media and teachers’ media action (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). This contribution presents a comparative review of three teaching media that are currently used but usually analysed individually: Textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OER), and AI-powered platforms. In a comparative approach (looking at the teaching media themselves as well as the scientific discourse about them), we ask how teaching is addressed and mediated as a knowledge practice concerning technological, pedagogical and content affordances. - Textbooks have a long tradition and are a cornerstone of classroom teaching. They are typically oriented towards the curriculum and undergo governmental approval processes. Nowadays, textbooks are usually curated and edited by experts while produced and owned by commercial publishers. Currently textbooks undergo processes of digitalization. They are transformed from books to platform-based teaching resources or digitally extended via PDF-twins (Kastornova et al., 2023). - Open Educational Resources are based on the notion of “knowledge as a social practice” (Mishra, 2025, S. 305) and are produced by experts as well as teachers themselves. Initially developed for higher education, OER have been adopted in schools. They are published on OER platforms and predicated as teaching materials that are freely accessible, adaptable, community-created, and ready for immediate classroom implementation. - AI-Powered platforms for teachers combine both textbook views on teacher practice through ready to use materials, as well as creative uses of AI tools. Some literature calls for new measures of teachers’ practices and media-related competencies in AI-PACK (Lorenz & Romeike, 2023) or AI-TPACK models (Xu et al., 2025). This suggests that AI-powered platforms may offer yet another perspective on teachers’ knowledge practice, as AI may also act as an expert rather than a teaching medium. The literature review provides the basis for designing an empirical project investigating teachers’ knowledge practice in relation to the media ecology of (digital) textbooks, OER and AI-supported platforms.

Kastornova, V. A., Shikhnabieva, T. S., Mukhametzyanov, I. S., Polyakov, V. P., Roslova, L. O., & Kozlov, O. A. (2023). From a paper textbook to a digital educational resource. The evolution of requirements. In A. Arinushkina, A. Morozov, & I. Robert (Hrsg.), The impact of digitalization in a changing educational environment (S. 127–139). IGI Global. (from-a-paper-textbook-to-a-digital-educational-resource). https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-0433-4.ch010 Lorenz, U., & Romeike, R. (2023). AI-PACK – Ein Rahmen für KI-bezogene Digitalkompetenzen von Lehrkräften auf Basis von DPACK. Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI), 11–24. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x Mishra, S. (2025). A Review of Reviews on Open Educational Resources. Open Praxis, 17(2), 305–325. https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.17.2.851 Totter, A., & Grabensteiner, C. (2025). Digitales Lehrmittelhandeln als Medienhandeln zwischen Struktur und Agency: Eine Analyse medialer, zeitlicher und räumlicher Aspekte. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung, 103–128. https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/jb22/2025.11.26.X Xu, G., Yu, A., Gao, A., & Trainin, G. (2025). Developing an AI-TPACK framework: Exploring the mediating role of AI attitudes in pre-service TCSL teachers’ self-efficacy and AI-TPACK. Education and Information Technologies, 30(15), 22471–22495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13630-5

This study explores how school administrators and teachers experience the management, leadership and teaching in an inclusive education context which also includes refugee education in a public school located in Türkiye’s Central Anatolia region. The school represents a distinctive educational context in which refugee students are educated alongside students with special educational needs and those enrolled in mainstream classrooms. The coexistence of multiple student profiles within a single institution creates ongoing challenges related to leadership, communication, instructional practices, and organizational functioning.

The study addresses the following research questions:

What are the experiences of teachers and administrators working in a school serving refugee students? What challenges do teachers experience in working with refugee students?
What challenges do administrators experience in managing refugee education?
What characteristics and practices appear to contribute to students’ well-being, including adaptation, academic success, and communication?

This study is guided by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory, which conceptualizes human development as the result of dynamic interactions between individuals and multiple, interconnected environmental systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). From this perspective, refugee education should not be examined solely at the classroom level; rather, it must be understood within a broader ecological context that includes family structures, school environments, community conditions, cultural norms, and socio-political influences.

The microsystem encompasses settings with direct interactions, particularly family and school. In refugee education, classrooms represent critical microsystems where teachers play a central role not only in academic instruction but also in supporting students’ social and emotional development. The mesosystem refers to interactions between these settings, such as family–school relationships. Effective communication and cooperation among parents, teachers, and school administrators are therefore essential for supporting refugee students’ adaptation and well-being (McDiarmid et al., 2022).

The exosystem includes contextual factors that indirectly influence students’ development, such as parents’ employment conditions and access to economic and social resources. For refugee families, poverty, housing instability, and limited access to social services may negatively affect students’ academic engagement and emotional regulation (Kiessling et al., 2025). At the macrosystem level, broader cultural values, migration policies, and social attitudes toward refugees shape educational experiences and may generate tensions related to identity, belonging, and social integration. The chronosystem highlights the impact of change over time, including prolonged displacement and evolving socio-economic conditions.

In line with this ecological perspective, the study focuses on teachers and administrators as key actors within students’ immediate microsystems. While families play a primary role in child development, schools often assume compensatory responsibilities when refugee students experience disrupted family structures, trauma, or economic deprivation (Lembke et al., 2024). In such contexts, schools can provide stability, emotional safety, and continuity through supportive relationships and inclusive practices. Consistent with Bronfenbrenner’s emphasis on inter-system collaboration, schools are expected to work in partnership with families, fostering parental involvement that positively contributes to students’ academic and social outcomes (LaBahn, 1995).

Within the Turkish context, research on inclusive education highlights persistent challenges related to overcrowded classrooms, limited institutional capacity, and insufficient teacher preparation for diversity (UNESCO, 2020). Studies on refugee education in Türkiye indicate that school administrators and teachers play a crucial role in managing linguistic, cultural, and socio-economic diversity, often in the absence of systematic policy support or professional development (Emin, 2016). Management-related issues such as coordinating support services, engaging refugee families, and creating inclusive school climates remain central concerns in schools serving diverse student populations.

The study also draws on principles of multicultural education emphasizing equity, inclusivity, and critical reflection on power relations within educational settings (Shannon-Baker, 2018). This complementary lens enables an understanding of how schools and their leaders in Türkiye respond to diversity, particularly in contexts involving refugee and special education students.

Over the past decades, the research fields of trauma, forced migration, disability, and second language education have expanded significantly. Reported estimates of disability prevalence among refugees reach up to 23% (e.g., Tofani et al., 2025). While a recent meta-analysis reports high prevalence rates of mental health conditions among refugees worldwide - 31.46% for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Blackmore et al., 2020) - there are still no reliable national or international statistics on the living conditions and support needs of refugees with disabilities. What is evident, however, are substantial obstacles within medical, rehabilitative, and educational support systems, which are closely linked to legal and institutional frameworks, particularly asylum regulations (Lätzsch, 2021). These conditions significantly shape pedagogical practices in language education.

Building on the assumption that educational contexts do not engage with fully formed subjects, but that subjectivation must be continuously negotiated (Schmerfeld, 2019), processes of second language acquisition (SLA) can be understood as particularly salient sites of subjectivation and analytically distinguished from other domains such as family life or employment. From a sociological perspective, subjectivation in learning processes can be reconstructed through analyses of discourses and pedagogical practices. Subjectivation unfolds through engagement with pre-structured modes of action that temporally precede subjects and operate through social norms (Butler, 2024; Buchner, 2018). In contexts of forced migration, these processes condense into dominant forms of address aimed at producing the idealised figure of the “integrable refugee.” Bach et al. (2021) identify four central requirements embedded in these expectations: proficiency in the national language, labour-market-relevant skills, acceptance of dominant societal norms - particularly regarding gender relations - and a functionalist understanding of education. Language education thus becomes a key site in which inclusion, exclusion, and professionalisation are negotiated under intersecting legal and institutional conditions.

Extending sociological approaches through a psychoanalytic perspective allows subjectivation to be analysed at the intersection of discourse, institutional structures, and individual, psychic experience. Language is understood not only as a medium of communication but also as a psychic site in which learners respond to discursive forms of address through learning and meaning-making (Butler, 2024; Becker, 2025). In contexts of forced migration, these subjectivation processes must be understood against the backdrop of biographical vulnerability. Drawing on the concept of sequential traumatisation (Keilson, 1979), the study examines how traumatic experiences continue to shape learning processes and subject formation in post-migration educational settings (Zimmermann, 2016). Within field-specific discourses, language competence and “successful language acquisition” are frequently linked to individualised assumptions about successful or failed integration (Schlachzig, 2022). At the same time, language functions as a central medium of subjectivation: it positions learners through discursive forms of address while also enabling the articulation of thoughts, emotions, identities, and agency. Empirical findings show that refugees with experiences of disability actively negotiate negative social ascriptions and identify language learning and access to educational qualifications as key barriers shaping their biographies (Afeworki Abay, 2023).

Building on findings from a psychoanalytic-pedagogical participation study, the paper adopts an intersectional, multi-level analytical framework and addresses the following research questions:

1. How do learners with learning difficulties articulate social structures, norms, and discourses at the intersection of language learning, asylum law, and social policy?
2. Which institutional practices can be reconstructed through forms of address and interactional dynamics in inclusive language education?
3. What hypotheses can be formulated regarding the psychic dimensions of subjectivation shaped by the interaction of trauma and constrained language learning?

International student mobility has expanded rapidly, yet participation, wellbeing and academic outcomes remain unequally distributed across socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, language and legal status (Lomer et al., 2024). Empirical studies document intersectional disadvantages, including racialised microaggressions, precarity linked to visa dependence, and heightened exposure to gendered and sexualised harms (Fethi et al., 2023; Krsmanovic, 2022). However, the evidence base is frequently context-bound (single institution/small-N) and analytically segmented (single-axis or primarily micro-level), which limits cumulative explanation of how intersecting power relations are reproduced through institutional routines and policy regimes (Joshi et al., 2021; Peng, 2024).

This study undertakes a PRISMA-guided systematic literature review to produce a global map of how intersectionality is conceptualised and operationalised in research on international students in higher education. Objectives are to: (i) audit how studies invoke, define and theoretically anchor intersectionality; (ii) identify which identity/power dimensions are foregrounded or neglected and how they shape lived experience; (iii) synthesise intersectionality-based implications for higher-education policy and institutional practice; and (iv) consolidate conceptual, methodological and empirical gaps to inform a forward research agenda (Lomer et al., 2024).

Research questions

1. How is intersectionality conceptualised and operationalised in studies of international students in higher education?

2. Which intersectional dimensions of identity and power are foregrounded, and how do they shape international students’ lived experiences?

3. What intersectionality-based implications for higher-education policy and institutional practice are articulated in these studies?

4. What conceptual, methodological and empirical gaps emerge, and how might they inform future research agendas?

Conceptual and theoretical framework. Intersectionality, as articulated by Crenshaw (1989), is treated here as a theory of power and governance rather than an identity checklist. The review adopts a multi-level stance in which micro experiences (e.g., belonging, recognition, harassment) are interpreted as traces of meso- and macro-level mechanisms (Yao et al., 2019). To evaluate “intersectionality in use”, each study will be coded across five dimensions: explicitness (EX: whether intersectionality is justified and named), definitional depth (DEF: whether power relations are theorised rather than merely listed), anchoring (ANCH: how intersectionality is situated in relevant theoretical traditions), analytic level (LVL: whether claims trace micro–meso–macro linkages), and function (FUNC: how intersectionality is used—descriptive, explanatory, critical, methodological) (Joshi et al., 2021; Yao et al., 2019). Synthesised findings will be consolidated into an Intersectional Internationalisation Mechanisms Framework (IIMF) that specifies recurrent modules through which inequity is produced in internationalised higher education: governance and dependency (visa/legal status, funding, reporting and silence), discourse and whiteness (diversity rhetoric and whiteness as unmarked norm), raciolinguistic legitimacy (accent/language as proxy for competence and belonging), and mobility stratification (post/neo-colonial hierarchies and marketised internationalisation) (Buckner et al., 2021; Hou et al., 2023; Mittelmeier et al., 2024; Ploner & Nada, 2020; Yeo, 2024; Yao et al., 2019).

European/international dimension. The review is explicitly comparative and international, aggregating studies across countries, disciplines and mobility corridors to examine how intersectional dynamics vary under different institutional and policy regimes. This is vital for Europe, where internationalisation strategies intersect with heterogeneous immigration/residence rules, tuition and funding arrangements, and national EDI infrastructures, producing distinct configurations of advantage and vulnerability for international students. The synthesis therefore generates transferable insights for European higher education on how to design equity-oriented internationalisation in ways that build inclusion and safety, not merely scale recruitment (Buckner et al., 2021; Mittelmeier et al., 2024; Ploner & Nada, 2020).

Methodological approach. Searches in major bibliographic databases (e.g., Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest) screened using transparent inclusion criteria; eligible studies charted, coded and synthesised through structured mapping and conceptual integration. The output is a field-level diagnostic plus an integrative, mechanism-focused framework to strengthen explanatory adequacy and policy relevance for social-justice-oriented higher education.

Proposed Abstract: Action Research on Intercultural Sensitivity in Teacher Education

Title: From Attitudes to Action – Developing Intercultural Sensitivity in Teacher Education through Action Research

Dr. Ofer Gat: Kaye Academic College of Education; Beit-Berl Academic College

Background: In an increasingly multicultural educational landscape, this study examines the development of intercultural sensitivity among minority pre-service teachers. The project took place in Israel and focused on 16 Bedouin Arab teacher education students participating in a collaborative, mixed Arab-Jewish course designed to foster intercultural competence. By foregrounding the experiences of a marginalized group in a diverse academic setting, the research addresses how future educators navigate cross-cultural interactions and how educational

interventions can enhance intercultural readiness.

Findings: Two salient phenomena were identified among the Bedouin trainees: “intercultural personal struggle” and “intercultural distress.” These constructs capture a dynamic tension between maintaining protective cultural boundaries and desiring meaningful cross-cultural engagement. Participants initially exhibited mixed attitudes towards intercultural learning, ranging from passive reliance on institutional diversity initiatives to active engagement in culturally responsive practices. Key barriers hindering intercultural interaction were also noted – including language gaps, social segregation, and lack of prior preparation for mixed-group collaboration. Despite these challenges, over the course of the intervention many students showed growth in cultural self-awareness and willingness to collaborate across differences.

Innovation – The Intercultural Sensitivity Model: A major outcome of this project is the development of a novel six-step model for intercultural sensitivity in teacher education. This educational model translates intercultural attitudes into actionable teaching competencies. It progresses from building systematic cultural knowledge and acknowledging historical inequities, through fostering critical consciousness about social divisions, to implementing culturally relevant curriculum and engaging in practical cross-cultural projects. The final steps emphasize training future teachers to balance meaningful intercultural connections with maintaining professional boundaries in diverse classrooms. This structured framework is a theoretical and practical innovation, as it integrates insights from the participants’ lived experiences into a replicable strategy for teacher training. By moving “from attitudes to action,” the model helps educators not only understand cultural differences but also actively bridge them through pedagogy.

Conclusion and Significance: This action research project demonstrates how targeted pedagogical interventions can enhance intercultural sensitivity among teacher candidates. The findings suggest that providing guided intercultural experiences and reflection opportunities can transform initial discomfort or hesitation into growth in empathy and cultural competence. The proposed six-step model offers teacher educators a concrete tool to prepare culturally responsive educators capable of working in ethnically divided or diverse societies. This work contributes to the global and European discourse on equity in education by showing how research knowledge can inform actionable practice. In line with ECER 2026’s theme of “Knowing and Acting,” the study illustrates the changing conditions of educational research by actively involving participants in knowledge co-creation and applying research insights to foster more inclusive educational environments. The project’s implications extend beyond the Israeli context, providing a roadmap for other teacher education programs seeking to cultivate intercultural sensitivity and improve social cohesion through education.

Keywords: Intercultural sensitivity, multicultural teacher education, action research, Bedouin students, intercultural competence model, diversity and inclusion in education

ECER 2026 attends to the conditions that produce educational knowledge, and how such knowledge is able to make sense of, and react to, the global ‘poly-crisis’. A starting point for our symposium is the assumption that, in the face of the poly-crisis, Western (educational) knowledge is increasingly confronted with its own limitations, which often leads to an interest in other types of knowledge, especially Indigenous knowledges, and a desire to learn from them.

Indigenous theorists are wary of this desire and, along with postcolonial theorists, remind that modern/Western systems of knowledge are rooted in hegemonic and universalist assumptions that can make ‘learning from’ other knowledges politically and epistemologically problematic (e.g. Smith 2021; Spivak 1988).

In the realm of European educational studies, a legitimate desire to learn from Indigenous knowledges always carries the danger of “academic exploitation” (Owen 2008) One may ask whether it makes sense to attempt to transfer specifically local (i.e. Indigenous) knowledge to completely different contexts, and whether this is possible without repeating a colonial gesture—the ‘taking’ of others’ knowledge for the benefit of the takers.

The question of the (Western) desire for Indigenous knowleges poses several problems for Western educators interested in teaching (about) Indigenous knowledges. Do we learn from them? About them? Can we teach others’ knowledges? Some have pointed to the danger posed by non-Indigenous educators romanticising Indigenous theories, or ‘including’ them, or mis-understanding their ontological roots, or employing them to overcome feelings of guilt (e.g. Jones & Jenkins 2008; Hoskins & Jones, 2022, 2024).

The challenges associated with the relationship between Indigenous knowledge and non-Indigenous scholars, teachers and learners, are linked to questions of relationships, identity and solidarity. The challenges are always ontological, and relational and political. With these in mind, we consider the positive possibilities in the relationship.

In this symposium, the problematic and potentially productive aspects of a desire to learn from Indigenous knowledge will be discussed from different viewpoints. Te Kawehau Hoskins, an Indigenous Māori scholar and university leader from Aotearoa New Zealand, asks what it might take for non-Indigenous teachers and scholars to engage properly with Indigenous knowledges. Alison Jones, a New Zealand non-Indigenous (‘Pākehā’) educator and scholar with a long history in engagement with Indigenous students and researchers reflects on building relationships with oneself and with others in the context of a settler colonial country struggling with its history. Ingvill Bjørnstad Åberg and Bettina Fritzsche, education scholars from Norway and Germany respectively, discuss the consequences of a desire to learn from Indigenous knowledge and to build fruitful relationships in the context of European educational studies. Torjer Olsen, who teaches in the Master's degree program in Indigenous studies at the Arctic University of Norway will be the discussant.

Central questions discussed in the symposium will be:

• What does the relevance of establishing relationships (between people, ancestors, places, ideas, events, objects, culture and language) in Indigenous ontologies mean for a desire to establish connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and what are conditions for productive collective educational, social and theoretical projects in this context?
• What is the significance of relationality and place for European educators looking to engage authentically with Indigenous knowledges?
• How can a desire to learn from Indigenous knowledge in the context of European educational studies be described and legitimated?
• What are problematic aspects of this desire, to what extent is such learning possible and what are its ethical conditions?

What does an indigenous-Māori scholar and university leader from Aotearoa New Zealand want to say to European educationists and leaders interested in indigenous thinking and knowledges? Indigenous-Māori ontological approaches always begin with establishing relationships, with tracing/making connections between people, ancestors, places, ideas, events, objects, culture and language. These entanglements may have been forged by encounters, war, colonisation, marriage or the place of a grave (Jones & Hoskins, 2016). Re/establishing connections works to catalyse commitments and enliven relationships. A genuine and respectful interest in indigenous knowledges requires relationships with our own social identities, with indigenous knowledge holders and scholars, and must involve commitments to indigenous contexts and priorities (Hoskins & Jones, 2022; 2024). We are helped in relationship building by asking two simple questions: Who are we, and why do we matter to each other? These questions, asked iteratively, can open possibilities for shared and productive educational, social and theoretical projects.

Jones, A., & Hoskins, T. K. (2016). A mark on paper: The matter of indigenous-settler history. In C. Hughes & C. A. Taylor (Eds.), Post-human Research practices in education (pp. 75-92). London, England: Palgrave MacMillan. Hoskins, T. K., & Jones, A. (2024). What is ‘indigenising the academy’ and why attempt it?  Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2024.2363349 Hoskins, T. K., & Jones, A. (2022). Indigenous inclusion and indigenising the university. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 57(2), 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40841-022-00264-1

What might a ‘European New Zealander’ have to say to European educationists in Europe about their interest in Indigenous knowledges? Using autoethnography as method, I interrogate my tricky role as a non-Indigenous teacher of Indigenous knowledge and language to non-Indigenous people (Jones, 2012; 2020). My starting point is the New Zealand identity ‘Pākehā’, an ancient Indigenous Māori name for fair-skinned folk. This identity is deeply relational and located in place—two essential characteristics of Indigenous knowledges. My autoethnographic method makes use of philosophical concepts of ontology (logic of reality) and teleology (logic of purpose) to speak about the significance of relationality and place for European educators looking to engage authentically with Indigenous knowledges (Mead, 2025; Salmond, 2012). My 40-year experience as a Pākehā teacher and researcher in New Zealand provides a position from which to talk about two ontological worlds, and the complexity as well as necessity of a teleological understanding. Grounded in examples from my own experience, I argue that commonly-used terms like ‘different perspectives’, ‘inclusion’, ‘equity’ and ‘diversity’ can be antithetical to a proper engagement with indigenous knowledges (Hoskins and Jones, 2024).

Hoskins, T. K., & Jones, A. (2024). What is ‘indigenising the academy’ and why attempt it? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2024.2363349 Jones, A. (2012). Dangerous Liaisons: Pākehā, kaupapa Māori, and educational research. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 47 (2), 101-113. Jones, A. (2020). This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 240pp. Mead, H.M (2025). Mātauranga Māori. Huia Publishers Wellington, New Zealand Salmond, A. (2012). Ontological Quarrels: Indigeneity, exclusion and citizenship in a relational world. Anthropological Theory, 12: 115 http://ant.sagepub.com/content/12/2/115 DOI: 10.1177/1463499612454119

In the wake of the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission report (2023), there is an upsurge of “reconciliation talk” among Norwegian authorities, from ministries to municipalities. However, both the TRC and my own research (Åberg et al., 2024) point to a gap in ambition between public authorities and Saami communities, leading to the question of whether the ambitions of the public sector may be limited to “inclusion” (Hoskins and Jones, 2022): superficial, tokenistic and not challenging majority self-understandings. Norwegian self-understandings have been described as characterized by exceptionalism and ideas of colonial and racial innocence (Loftsdóttir & Jensen, 2016). The premise for both Saami and other minority topics in education has been described as othering (Eriksen, 2018). While the TRC calls for a massive raise of general knowledge about the presence, history, culture and historical assimilation of Saami communities in Norway, what happens when “everyone” suddenly wants to “learn about the Saami” in the name of reconciliation – if the ambition is mostly limited to inclusion? This question is epistemological and ethical (as my symposium colleagues will also touch upon), and speaks to dangers of repeating colonial knowledge patterns and exploitative relations between academia and the Saami. The dangers are far from theoretical: In sheer numbers, Saami are in extreme minority in most parts of Norway, and knowledge-bearers are now facing a growing overabundance of requests to act as de facto teachers, stakeholder alibis and last-minute reference group members. This calls for allies to find their role in lessening the burden: how to teach about Saami issues without overstepping in terms of what questions to engage with.

Eriksen, K. G. (2018). Teaching about the Other in primary level social studies: The Sami in Norwegian textbooks. Journal of Social Science Education, 17(2), 57–67. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4119/jsse-875 Hoskins, T. K., & Jones, A. (2022). Indigenous Inclusion and Indigenising the University. New Zealand journal of educational studies, 57(2), 305–320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-022-00264-1 Loftsdóttir, K. n., & Jensen, L. (2016). Whiteness and postcolonialism in the Nordic Region: exceptionalism, migrant others and national identities. Routledge. Sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonen. (2023). Sannhet og forsoning - grunnlag for et oppgjør med fornorskingspolitikk og urett mot samer, kvener/norskfinner og skogfinner (Dokument 19 (2022-2023)). Åberg, I. B., Dankertsen, A., & Paulsen, M. (2024). Samisk medvirkning i en norsk fylkeskommune etter 40 år med rettighetskamp. Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift, 42(3-4), 207–229. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18261/nnt.41.3-4.2

As a non-Indigenous scholar in educational studies, who teaches at a German university and who is deeply interested in Indigenous theory, in my talk I want to analyse the reasons for such a desire. Referring to criticism in relation to a romanticisation (Jones & Jenkins 2008) and an exploitation (Owen 2008; Todd 2016) of Indigenous knowledge in the academic context I want to explore the explicit and implicit hopes associated with this desire and hint at its problematic aspects. Hereby I will especially refer to the poly-crisis and the limitations of Western thinking it made clear and will reflect on my own hopes as well as hopes connected with references to Indigenous knowledge in the context of discussions on education for sustainable development (e.g. Manns et al. 2025). On this basis I will work out, which of these hopes can be fulfilled and which cannot be fulfilled by an attempt to learn from Indigenous knowledge. In the end I will present some thoughts on the consequences of my analysis for the building of fruitful relationships and on the question, under which (ethical) conditions such a learning can be possible and fruitful.

Jones, A., Jenkins, K. (2008): Rethinking collaboration: Working the Indigene-Colonizer hyphen. In: N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.) Handbook of critical and Indigenous methodologies. Los Angeles: Sage, pp. 471-486. Manns, M., Heiss, J., Morohashi, J., & Loupis, L. (2025). Harnessing Indigenous Knowledge for Education for Sustainable Development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 19(2), 157-167 Owen, S. (2008): The Appropriation of Native American Spirituality. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. Todd, Zoe (2016): ‘An Indigenous Feminist’s Take on the Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ is just another word for colonialism’. Journal of Historical Sociology 29(1): 4-22.

As European societies become increasingly diverse and democracy faces growing pressure, early childhood classrooms play a crucial role in fostering inclusion and equal opportunities. Creating learning environments where children from different origins, national backgrounds, socio-economic contexts, genders, and abilities feel valued is essential for supporting their development and participation. Unacknowledged biases among educational professionals can negatively affect inclusion and diversity in education and may lead to creating a hostile learning environment in which children from certain groups are marginalized and deprived of equal learning opportunities, and stereotypes and prejudices are reinforced. Studies across Europe found, for example, that prejudiced teacher attitudes enlarge the achievement gap between ethnic minority and majority pupils (Costa et al., 2021); that educators’ biases can decrease their attention towards children with lower language skills or lower socio-economic status (Albers et al., 2013; Duthois et al., 2026) or children with special needs (Schell et al., 2025). While there is a consensus that greater inclusion and diversity in classrooms cannot be achieved without qualified teachers equipped with anti-bias competences, multiple studies have shown that practitioners often feel insufficiently prepared to teach in diverse contexts and require further professionalization (OECD, 2025).

These considerations have informed an ongoing research and development project, 'Anti-Bias Education for Early Childhood Teachers: Learning Through Video Coaching' (ABC4T), which will be the focus of this symposium. Conducted by researchers from Belgium, Norway, Poland, Austria and Spain within the Erasmus+ framework, the project aims to contribute to the strengthening of early childhood educators' anti-bias competences by constructing a professional development program (PDP) based on video coaching. The procedure employed is the Educational Design Research (McKenney & Reeves, 2012), comprising three phases: analysis, design and evaluation. Video coaching is a professional development approach in which educators record teaching episodes and engage in sustained, video-based one-to-one or group discussions under the guidance of a coach (van der Linden & McKenney, 2020). This procedure is promising in deepening early childhood educators' understanding of their own implicit beliefs and daily practices, thereby supporting learning about diversity and inclusion (Migliarini et al., 2019).

The objective of this symposium is to share and discuss the project's insights and preliminary results. The symposium comprises six papers divided into two sessions, guided by the following research questions:

• What are the needs of early childhood educators in Austria, Belgium, Norway, Poland and Spain in the field of anti-bias education? (Session 1),
• How can video coaching be employed in a professional development program to support educators’ anti-bias competences? (Session 2).

The three papers in the first session focus on the findings from the initial phase of the PDP project, in which the needs of early childhood educators regarding anti-bias education were assessed through quantitative (Paper 1) and qualitative (Papers 2 and 3) research with educators and student teachers in the five participating countries. The second session concerns the PDP design process, with a specific focus on video coaching as an approach to supporting teachers’ professional learning. The first paper discusses the findings from a scoping review of literature on video-based guidance in early childhood education. The remaining papers concentrate on the process of developing the PDP. Paper 2 discusses the results of a pilot of a video coaching program conducted in Belgium, while Paper 3 presents the development process and the preliminary version of a PDP constructed in the framework of the present international project in Belgium, Norway and Poland. Taken together, these papers offer a comprehensive overview of a novel approach to supporting educators in developing competences necessary for working in diverse classrooms, in the interest of social justice in early childhood education.

In this part of the symposium, we will present the quantitative analysis of the survey data collected for the Erasmus+ project 'Anti-Bias Education for Early Childhood Teachers: Learning Through Video Coaching' (ABC4T). The survey included early childhood educators, teacher assistants, school leaders, students of ECE university programs, and other professionals from five countries: Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Norway, Poland, and Spain. The aim of the survey was to explore how early childhood educators work with and understand diversity in classrooms, and how they assess their practice in relation to anti-bias education. In particular, we asked the respondents about what needs they have regarding: (1) knowledge development in key diversity-related subjects (e.g., cultural, religious, gender, (dis)ability, neurodiversity); (2) practical issues, such as the use of inclusive language, teaching children to recognize and respond to unfairness and to value diversity, as well as discussing diversity and bias with parents and colleagues; (3) educational, social and policy resources that would help them organize conversations or activities about diversity and anti-discrimination in ECE. The survey draws on conceptual frameworks (e.g., Derman-Sparks et al., 2020; Gawlicz et al., 2015) that inform our approach as an international team, and is in keeping with previous research on educators’ needs in this field (Banko Bal & Akman, 2024; Moses, 2024). Our presentation will highlight the results by country and by selected characteristics of respondents. We will also discuss methodological issues that we encountered during the study design and data collection phases, such as linguistic and conceptual aspects (cultural adaptation of the instrument) across the participating countries. Moreover, since the study is intended as applied research, we will also link the results to the overall practical objectives of the ABC4T project, namely, the design of the professional development program. Overall, in most countries, only about one-fifth of respondents indicated having received professionalization related to diversity and anti-discrimination (Norway being an exception, with two-thirds indicating so). The vast majority in each country were interested in learning more about this field. Cultural diversity was among the top three most frequently selected topics of interest in all countries, alongside diversity in (dis)abilities or neurodiversity, linguistic or religious diversity, and diversity in family compositions. On more specific and practical matters, apart from the need for concrete teaching materials, the respondents showed a particular interest in learning how to discuss diversity with children, teach them skills to value diversity, and recognize and respond to unfairness.

Banko Bal, Ç., & Akman, B. (2024). The impacts of culture and diversity considering anti-bias education: preschool teachers’ views and needs. International Journal of Early Years Education, 33(3), 610–628. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2024.2414995 Derman-Sparks, L., Olsen Edwards, J., & C. M. Goins. (2020). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Gawlicz, K., Rudnicki, P., & M. Starnawski (eds.). (2015). Dyskryminacja w szkole – obecność nieusprawiedliwiona. O budowaniu edukacji antydyskryminacyjnej w systemie edukacji formalnej w Polsce [Discrimination at school – unexcused presence: on building anti-discrimination education in the system of formal education in Poland]. Towarzystwo Edukacji Antydyskryminacyjnej. Moses, J. (2024). Better Together: Expanding Ideas of Anti-Bias Education Through Early Childhood Educator Professional Development [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1720385886635321

This presentation focuses on the results of a qualitative study of the experiences and needs of early childhood educators regarding diversity and anti-bias education in Belgium, Norway and Poland. The study was conducted as part of the first phase of the process of designing a professional development program (PDP) in the ABC4T project. In line with Educational Design Research principles (McKenney & Reeves, 2012), we began the process by exploring educators’ existing practices, perceived needs, challenges, and questions related to diversity and inclusion. Individual interviews were conducted with 30 educators, varying in age, work experience, and ethnic/national origin. The interviews followed a structured guide shared across the participating countries to ensure consistency. They were recorded with participants' consent, transcribed, anonymized, and translated into English. To increase reliability, two researchers in each country conducted a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). In the presentation, we will discuss the results of the comparative analysis of the interview data and demonstrate their application for the subsequent phases of the PDP development. Although early childhood educators in all participating countries have experience working in diverse settings, they often feel insecure and uncertain about how to carry out anti-bias work. In line with prior research (e.g., Daniel & Escayg, 2019; Van Lombergen et al., 2022), early childhood educators face dilemmas regarding how to address diversity, including whether such topics should be discussed explicitly with young children or approached more implicitly to avoid unintentionally stigmatizing certain individuals, and whether to take a proactive or reactive approach in guiding such conversations. Moreover, while educators stress the importance of parental engagement, they struggle to connect with parents from different cultural backgrounds. Across participating countries, educators lack both “general diversity knowledge” and “diversity pedagogical knowledge” (Dursun et al., 2021). There are some significant differences related to political, cultural and societal specificities among the three countries concerning the attention paid to specific areas of diversity and anti-bias practice. For instance, in Belgium, there has recently been greater focus on multilingualism; in Poland and Sweden, neurodiversity attracts significant attention among educators; and gender expression emerges more prominently in the narratives of Belgian and Norwegian educators than in those of Polish educators. While there are many similarities in educators’ needs across the participating countries, the differences identified pose challenges for designing a shared professional development program. In the presentation, we will reflect on possible ways to address these challenges.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE. Daniel, B. J. J., & Escayg, K. A. (2019). But, I don’t believe it’s about race’: Challenging fallacies of race and racism amongst early childhood educators in Ontario. Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education, 4(2), 14. Dursun, H., Claes, E., & Agirdag, O. (2021). Diversity pedagogical content knowledge: A new conceptual framework and assessment across different teacher education programmes. Multicultural Education Review, 13(4), 303–322. McKenney & Reeves, (2012). Conducting educational design research. Routledge. Van Lombergen, L., Devlieghere, J., Vanrobaeys, H., Roets, G., & Van Houtte, M. (2025). Preschool teachers’ beliefs and perspectives on gender in education: a qualitative study in Flanders. Gender and Education, 37(2), 244-260.

In this part of the symposium, we present research that employs discourse analysis (Foucault, 1972; Hammer, 2017) to explore the perspectives of ten Norwegian kindergarten teachers on anti-bias and diversity. The interviews reveal that competing discourses influence everyday life in kindergarten, at times creating tension and insecurity. These discourses enter kindergarten through the perspectives and practices of staff, parents and children. When it comes to gender, these competing discourses are visible in kindergarten practice and in the institution’s cooperation with parents, as seen elsewhere (Adriany, 2019). Many teachers express a professional stance aligned with the Norwegian Framework Plan for Kindergartens (Rammeplanen). Some parents, however, draw on a competing discourse rooted in a binary understanding of gender and traditional gender roles (Ekström, 2014; Jones & Aubrey, 2019). Interviews also show that such tensions are not limited to interactions with parents: competing discourses may arise among teachers. Some teachers navigate an internal tension as they shift between their own personal beliefs and the professional expectations articulated in the Framework Plan. Competing discourses also emerge around questions of cultural identity. The Framework Plan for Kindergartens states that teachers should respect diversity and support children in strengthening their identities by acknowledging their cultural heritage. Interestingly, the teachers report that many minority parents do not want kindergarten to focus on their child’s native language or cultural background. Their stance may be shaped by an assimilation discourse, in which learning Norwegian and “becoming Norwegian” are valued more than maintaining their language and identity (Lund, 2024). Teachers expressed uncertainty about culture, language and religion, fearing they might act inappropriately. These hesitations can be read discursively: teachers navigating an inclusion discourse promoted by the Framework Plan and an assimilation discourse voiced by some parents, alongside a professionalism as neutrality discourse. The resulting, often conflicting norms narrow what feels sayable and safe, producing uncertainty and avoidance. Racism emerged as the most avoided subject. We argue that this reluctance can be partly understood through the influence of “color evasiveness,” “egalitarian,” and “developmentalist” discourses. Within these discourses, acknowledging racism threatens the institution's and teachers' positive self-image (Loukola, 2023). Moreover, because developmentalism positions children as innocent, recognizing racism directly challenges dominant assumptions about childhood. The “professionality as neutrality” discourse further reinforces this avoidance: raising the topic introduces tension, obliges teachers and the institution to act, and risks offending parents or being perceived as taking a political stance.

Adriany, V. (2019). Being a princess: young children & negotiation of femininities in a Kindergarten classroom in Indonesia. Gender and Education, 31(6), 724-741 Belseth, K. (2021). «Han har ikke språk, han» – et fanoniansk perspektiv på flerspråklige barns posisjon i barnehagen Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift, 105(1), 55-69 Edström, C. (2014). Pedagogues’ Constructions of Gender Equality in Selected Swedish Preschools: A qualitative study, Education Inquiry, 5:4, 24618 Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). Pantheon Books. Hammer, S. (2017). Foucault og den norske barnehagen - introduksjon til Michel Foucaults analytiske univers. Fagbokforlaget Jones, C., Aubrey, C. (2019). How gender is constructed and experienced in the social world of the nursery school, International Journal of Early Years Education, 27(2), 153-169 Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2017). Rammeplan for barnehagen: Forskrift om rammeplan for barnehagens innhold og oppgaver [Framework Plan for Kindergartens]. Udir. https://www.udir.no/globalassets/files/barnehage/rammeplan/rammeplan-for-barnehagen-bokmal2017.pdf Loukola, S. (2023). "Not in Our Daycare"? Commitments and Obstacles to Antiracism in Finnish ECEC Early Childhood Education Journal Lund, H. H. (2024). "We try to give a good life to the children"-refugee parents and ECE professionals experiences of the early childhood education partnership in Norway Frontiers in Education, 9

Schools across Europe are undergoing substantial organizational and pedagogical transformations due to organisational, educational and societal changes. These developments reshape and expand professional roles (Squillaci & Hofmann, 2021) which may heighten concerns about teacher health and well-being.

The well-being of professionals in schools is associated to illness-related outcomes (Crain et al., 2017), affective organizational commitment (Sandmeier & Mandel, 2020) professional retention and turnover intentions (Wang & Hall, 2021). Staff well-being also affects the quality of educational practice and is linked to student performance (Madigan & Kim, 2021), as well as student well-being (Salmela-Aro et al., 2019). Well-being of professionals can therefore be understood as a critical resource for both individual health and the sustainable functioning of schools as organizations.

In line with the ECER 2026 theme, this symposium brings together conceptual, methodological and empirical perspectives to advance the understanding of how working conditions, collaboration, support structures and personal resources influence staff well-being. It aims to enhance our understanding of occupational well-being among the diverse professionals working in school settings, including teachers, special education teachers, and school leaders by combining individual perspectives with relational processes and school-level approaches. In line with job demands-resources theory (Bakker et al., 2023), we explore how school environments can foster healthy and sustainable working conditions. Contributions from multiple country contexts will help highlight both shared challenges and promising approaches across different educational systems in Europe.

Adopting a whole-school perspective, the first contribution analyses levels, trends and determinants of teachers’ occupational well-being using data from the HBSC Teachers Survey in Italy, examining organizational, interpersonal, personal and professional factors in relation to multiple well-being outcomes such as burnout and engagement. Drawing on cross-sectional data from 2026 and trend comparisons with the 2022 survey, preliminary results highlight organizational support, particularly principal support, as a key protective factor and provides evidence to inform systemic school health promotion efforts.

The second presentation presents longitudinal findings on job demands, job resources, work engagement and burnout among novice special education teachers in Switzerland, drawing on the job demands-resources theory and self-determination theory. Focusing on the early career phase, it examines how changing role expectations, workload, and role clarity shape engagement and emotional exhaustion among novice special education teachers.

The third contribution examines the role of interprofessional collaboration for teacher well-being in Finnish comprehensive schools within an inclusive education context. It identifies three distinct work engagement and burnout profiles (engaged, engaged-exhausted, burned-out) and shows that engaged teachers had the most positive experiences of interprofessional collaboration while burned-out teachers reported the most negative experiences. Furthermore, preliminary results from a second study involving 218 student welfare professionals show that teaching professionals report more positive perceptions of interprofessional collaboration, including higher motivation, more favourable leadership experiences, and stronger prerequisites for collaboration.

The fourth contribution examines which research designs are suitable for analysing change processes in schools, particularly in the context of occupational well-being and school-based health interventions and discusses the potential of a realist evaluation approach for understanding how, why, and under which conditions interventions contribute to change. It presents an integrated, theory-driven and context-sensitive design combining school improvement and organizational intervention frameworks, illustrated through a multiple-case study of four schools implementing a participatory organisational health promotion intervention.

Together, the contributions demonstrate how education research can generate actionable knowledge to support teacher well-being in increasingly complex school environments.

Schools are increasingly recognised as key settings for health promotion, as they are complex system continuously shaped by organisational, educational and societal changes (World Health Organization, 2021). From this perspective, the health and well-being of all members of the school community are central components of school health promotion (Langford et al., 2015). Teachers occupy a pivotal role: their work is marked by ongoing change and high emotional, relational and organisational demands, which may increase the risk of stress, burnout and disengagement over time (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Maslach et al., 2001). Despite growing evidence on the importance of school climate, working and organisational conditions (e.g. Collie et al., 2012), much of the literature still approaches teachers’ well-being primarily as an individual matter, with limited attention to school-level and contextual determinants. Adopting a whole-school approach, the present study investigates levels, trends and determinants of teachers’ occupational well-being using data from the HBSC Teachers Survey in Italy. Data come from the 2026 edition of the HBSC Teachers Survey and focus on teachers’ health and well-being. The survey is administered to teachers working in the same classes participating in the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Lombardy (Italy). The analyses will examine organisational factors (e.g., workload and working conditions), interpersonal factors (e.g., perceived support from school principals and relationships with colleagues and families), and personal and professional factors (e.g., teachers’ role identities) in relation to multiple well-being outcomes. Although the study design is cross-sectional, the availability of comparable data from the 2022 edition (approximately 6,000 teachers) allows us to describe trends in teachers’ well-being over the past four years. The study applies descriptive, trend, and multivariate analyses. Differences in burnout and engagement are further explored by schools’ participation in the Health Promoting Schools network. Preliminary results highlight the role of organizational support, such as principal’s support, as protective factors of teachers’ well-being. The study is expected to identify risk and protective patterns in teachers’ occupational well-being and to provide evidence to guide the development of systemic, whole-school health promotion policies and interventions.

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands–Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 Collie, R. J., Shapka, J. D., & Perry, N. E. (2012). School climate and social–emotional learning: Predicting teacher stress, job satisfaction, and teaching efficacy. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1189–1204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029356 World Health Organization. (2021). Making every school a health-promoting school: Global standards and indicators. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe. Langford, R., Bonell, C., Jones, H., et al. (2015). The World Health Organization’s Health Promoting Schools framework: A Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health, 15, 130. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1360-y Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397

Special education teachers play a central role in implementing inclusive education, yet research on how they experience their work, particularly during the transition into the profession, remains scarce (Squillaci, 2020). As education systems expand inclusive practices, schools undergo structural and pedagogical changes that reshape collaboration, role expectations and responsibilities, increasing work complexity and potentially heightening job demands with consequences for special education teacher’s health (Bettini et al., 2017; Gilmour et al., 2023). Cross-sectional studies, primarily conducted in the U.S., indicate that role ambiguity, role conflicts and workload are associated with well-being (Park & Shin, 2020). These demands are especially relevant for novice teachers (Bettini et al., 2017), who are most vulnerable to emotional exhaustion and early career attrition (Burger et al., 2021), a critical concern amid the ongoing shortage of qualified personnel in the education sector (Sandmeier & Herzog, 2024). Despite the relevance of these processes, longitudinal evidence regarding special education teachers, especially in Europe, remains limited. Drawing on the job demands-resources theory (Bakker et al., 2023), this study examines the longitudinal associations between job demands, job resources and well-being among novice special education teachers in Switzerland, analysing whether workplace factors (role conflicts, role clarity and workload) prospectively predict work engagement and emotional exhaustion, and whether interaction effects emerge. The study applies autoregressive models to capture how earlier levels of demands, resources and well-being predict later levels. The contribution will be presenting early results, aiming to discuss further data analysis and compare the results in the context of international research with a European focus. We expect that demands will increase exhaustion and decrease work engagement, whereas resources will show the opposite pattern and interaction effects will reveal booster and buffer mechanisms.

Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. (2023). Job Demands–Resources theory: Ten years later. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 25–53. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-053933 Bettini, E., Jones, N., Brownell, M., Conroy, M., Park, Y., Leite, W., Crockett, J., & Benedict, A. (2017). Workload manageability among novice special and general educators: Relationships with emotional exhaustion and career intentions. Remedial and Special Education, 38(4), 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932517708327 Burger, J., Bellhäuser, H., & Imhof, M. (2021). Mentoring styles and novice teachers’ well-being: The role of basic need satisfaction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 103, 103345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103345 Gilmour, A. F., Nguyen, T. D., Redding, C., & Bettini, E. (2023). The shifting context of special education teachers’ work. Remedial and Special Education, 44(3), 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325221113016 Park, E.-Y., & Shin, M. (2020). A meta-analysis of special education teachers’ burnout. SAGE Open, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020918297 Sandmeier, A., & Herzog, S. (2024). Maßnahmen gegen den Lehrkräftemangel in der Schweiz. Eine empirische Perspektive. Journal für LehrerInnenbildung, 24(01), 28–38. https://doi.org/10.35468/jlb-01-2024-02 Squillaci, M. (2020). Analysis of the burnout levels of special education teachers in Switzerland in link with a reform implementation. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 36(5), 844–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2020.1809802

Interprofessional collaboration has become an integral part of the operating culture and effective support practices of Finnish comprehensive schools, following the development towards an inclusive education system (see Ainscow, 2020; Honkasilta et al., 2024). In Finland, both the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education and the Pupil and Student Welfare Act presume school professionals to engage in interprofessional collaboration in matters related to students’ learning and well-being. However, there is limited knowledge about how interprofessional collaboration works in schools (see e.g., Timperi et al., 2024; Vainikainen et al., 2015) and how it is connected to professionals’ well-being. At the same time, there is ongoing concern about the increased teacher burnout (Pyhältö et al., 2021; Salmela-Aro et al., 2019). Our research aims to investigate whether interprofessional collaboration could enhance teachers' well-being and prevent burnout. Our study (Holmström et al., 2023), which surveyed 355 comprehensive school teachers (grades 1–9), showed that Finnish teachers have positive experiences of interprofessional collaboration in their work. The aim was to investigate teachers’ work engagement and burnout profiles and their associations with interprofessional collaboration. Three distinct profiles were identified: engaged (54 %), engaged-exhausted (33 %), and burned-out (13 %). Even though all profiles scored relatively high in all dimensions of interprofessional collaboration (i.e., student support, amount of collaboration, and operating culture), the results showed significant differences between profiles. Taken together, engaged teachers had the most positive experiences of interprofessional collaboration, while burned-out teachers had the most negative experiences. In our recent study, preliminary results from 218 student welfare professionals show that teachers and other teaching professionals have rather positive perceptions of interprofessional collaboration within student welfare teams. Teaching professionals demonstrated a strong motivation to collaborate, and they had favorable experiences of the leadership in welfare teams as well as the use of professional power in collaborative practices. Finally, they scored significantly higher in prerequisites for collaboration than other student welfare professionals. In light of the results presented, interprofessional collaboration might be an important factor in promoting teacher well-being, especially in an inclusive education system. While most teachers have positive experiences of interprofessional collaboration, there are also teachers who do not share this view and therefore are possibly predisposed to burnout. In order to keep teachers engaged with their jobs, we need successful interprofessional collaboration that meets the needs of both students and professionals.

Ainscow, M. (2020). Promoting inclusion and equity in education: Lessons from international experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587 Holmström, A., Tuominen, H., Laasanen, M., & Veermans, M. (2023). Teachers’ work engagement burnout profiles: Associations with sense of efficacy and interprofessional collaboration in school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, 104251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104251 Honkasilta, J., Pihlaja, P., & Pesonen, H. (2024). The state of inclusion in the state of inclusion?: Inclusion as principled practice in Finnish basic education. In H. Katsui & M. T. Laitinen (Eds.), Disability, Happiness and the Welfare State (pp. 83–110). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032685519-6

Organisational health interventions aim to improve psychosocial work environments by changing how work is organised, designed, and managed, with the long-term goal of enhancing occupational well-being, health, and staff retention (von Thiele Schwarz et al., 2020). Similar to broader school improvement initiatives, such interventions require flexible, context-sensitive implementation that reflects the complex and adaptive nature of schools as organisations (Koh & Askell-Williams, 2021). However, many evaluation approaches remain focused on linear cause–effect relationships and struggle to capture the dynamic, non-linear, and context-dependent processes through which change unfolds in real-world school settings (Ryan et al., 2024). Against this background, this methodological contribution addresses the question of which research designs are suitable for analysing change processes in schools, particularly in the field of occupational well-being and school-based health interventions. Building on the limitations of classical randomized controlled trial designs, the paper discusses the potential of a realist evaluation approach (Pawson et al., 2005) for understanding how, why, and under which conditions interventions contribute to change. The paper presents an integrated research design that combines the Comprehensive Framework for Effective School Improvement (Reezigt & Creemers, 2005) with the Framework for Evaluating Organizational-Level Interventions (Nielsen & Randall, 2013). This combined analytical perspective enables theory-driven yet context-sensitive observation of the interplay between contextual conditions, implementation processes, and stakeholders’ mental models and sensemaking processes, and relates these dynamics to observed change processes in schools. The strengths and limitations of this design are examined through its application in a multiple-case study of four schools implementing a participatory organisational health promotion intervention aimed at improving teachers’ working conditions. By systematically linking context, process quality, and stakeholder perspectives, the approach allows for a nuanced understanding of how occupational well-being initiatives are enacted and shaped within schools. Within the symposium, the paper provides a conceptual and methodological framework that complements the empirical studies by offering tools to interpret heterogeneous outcomes and implementation trajectories. It contributes to ongoing discussions on how educational research can more adequately evaluate complex interventions targeting the occupational well-being of professionals in schools.

Koh, G. A., & Askell-Williams, H. (2021). Sustainable school-improvement in complex adaptive systems: A scoping review. Review of Education, 9(1), 281–314. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3246 Nielsen, K., & Randall, R. (2013). Opening the black box: Presenting a model for evaluating organizational-level interventions. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 22(5), 601–617. Pawson, R., Greenhalgh, T., Harvey, G., & Walshe, K. (2005). Realist review-a new method of systematic review designed for complex policy interventions. Journal of health services research & policy, 10(1_suppl), 21–34. Reezigt, G. J., & Creemers, B. P. (2005). A comprehensive framework for effective school improvement. School effectiveness and school improvement, 16(4), 407–424. Ryan, A., Prieto-Rodriguez, E., Miller, A., & Gore, J. (2024). What can Implementation Science tell us about scaling interventions in school settings? A scoping review. Educational Research Review, 44, 100620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2024.100620 von Thiele Schwarz, U., Nielsen, K., Edwards, K., Hasson, H., Ipsen, C., Savage, C., Simonsen Abildgaard, J., Richter, A., Lornudd, C., & Mazzocato, P. (2020). How to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions for maximum impact: The Sigtuna Principles. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1–13.

National educational databases play an increasingly important role in educational research, policy analysis, and system monitoring. Across many countries, Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) now contain detailed longitudinal information on students, teachers, schools, and educational trajectories. While these systems were primarily developed for administrative and policy purposes, they are increasingly used for research. At the same time, substantial differences exist across countries with respect to data structure, accessibility, legal frameworks, and possibilities for data linkage. This session brings together contributions from several national contexts (Denmark, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden) to examine how education data infrastructures are used for research, and under which conditions they enable robust and policy-relevant analyses. The papers cover a range of educational systems, including national education registers, assessment databases, and links to international large-scale assessments, and illustrate both opportunities and constraints in working with large-scale education data.

A central theme of the session concerns data access and governance. Several contributions describe national arrangements for researcher access, including secure remote access environments, licensing procedures, and legal requirements related to data protection and privacy. Differences between countries highlight how institutional and regulatory frameworks shape what kinds of research can be conducted, and by whom. The papers also illustrate how anonymisation and pseudonymisation procedures affect analytical possibilities and raise methodological trade-offs between data protection and research quality.

A second theme is data linkage and methodological challenges. Many contributions demonstrate the analytical value of linking education data with other sources, such as national examinations, higher education registers, labor market data, or international large-scale assessments. These linkages enable the study of educational trajectories, persistence and dropout, inequalities, and policy effects over time. At the same time, the papers discuss challenges related to longitudinal consistency, missing data, hierarchical data structures, and the validity of administrative indicators, as well as the need for appropriate statistical models.

A third theme concerns the use of national education data for policy evaluation and system improvement. Several papers illustrate how administrative and assessment data are used to study educational inequalities, school effectiveness, student transitions, and dropout risk. The use of rich register data allows complex conceptual processes to be refined and examined empirically. Methodologically, the contributions range from descriptive statistical analyses to longitudinal modelling and quasi-experimental approaches addressing policy-relevant research questions.

Taken together, the session highlights both the research potential and the limitations of national education data systems. While these data offer unique opportunities for large-scale and longitudinal research, their use requires careful attention to data quality, governance, and methodological choices. By presenting experiences from different national contexts, the session contributes to a more informed discussion on how educational databases can be used responsibly and effectively for research and policymaking.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a large-scale international assessment designed to monitor student achievement in mathematics and science across countries worldwide. Its primary objective is to provide valid and comparable estimates of student achievement that can be generalized to clearly defined target populations, such as all Grade 4 students within a country. To achieve this, TIMSS employs probability-based sampling designs that allow for inferential statistics, provided that sampling assumptions are met and participation rates are sufficiently high. TIMSS employs a two-stage sampling design (Martin, Mullis, & von Davier, 2020). In the first stage, a random sample of approximately 150 schools offering the target grade is drawn from a national school sampling frame. In the second stage, one intact class at Grade 4 is randomly selected within each sampled school, and all students in that class are assessed. If all sampled schools and students were to participate, this design would yield unbiased estimates of population parameters. In practice, however, non-participation at the school level poses a serious threat to representativeness and may introduce bias into achievement estimates. To address this risk, TIMSS sampling procedures include the selection of two so-called replacement schools for each initially sampled school. If a sampled school declines participation, the first replacement school is invited, followed—if necessary—by the second replacement school. Replacement schools are selected to be similar to the original school with respect to observable characteristics such as school size, and public or private status. Despite the widespread use of replacement schools, it remains an open empirical question whether this procedure effectively mitigates bias. The fundamental challenge is that the key outcome of interest—achievement—is typically unobserved for non-participating schools. The assumption that similarity on administrative characteristics is sufficient to recover population parameters is rarely tested. This study addresses this gap by leveraging rich Danish register data. We combine TIMSS sampling information with administrative data from the Danish Ministry of Children and Education, including school-level achievement indicators based on grades and detailed measures of schools’ socioeconomic composition and well-being measures. First, we examine differences between participating and non-participating schools. Second, we assess whether replacement schools resemble non-participating schools in terms of achievement and social composition and thus whether they plausibly recover population parameters. By empirically evaluating the effectiveness of replacement schools, this study contributes to methodological debates on survey non-response, sampling validity, and bias mitigation in international large-scale assessments.

Martin, M. O., von Davier, M., & Mullis, I. V. S. (Eds.). (2020). Methods and procedures: TIMSS 2019 technical report. TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston College; International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Retrieved from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2019/methods/pdf/TIMSS-2019-MP-Technical-Report.pdf

In Finland, register data on education is comprehensively collected. The KOSKI database, maintained by the Finnish National Agency of Education, contains information on learners' study rights, study attainments and degrees completed at different levels of education. The organizers of education have an obligation to store information on teaching in the database that includes, among other things, final grades for basic education, grades for matriculation examinations and grade information for upper secondary school leaving certificates. It provides also information on support for learning and schooling. Each learner has their own ID, which can be used to merge data from the KOSKI database to Statistics Finland’s population-level longitudinal register data, which contain extensive information on, for example, the education, socioeconomic status and labor market outcomes of individuals and their parents. The register data provided by Statistics Finland can be accessed using the FIONA remote access system. It is a secure environment that allows for detailed, individual-level analysis of education-related research questions. There is a detailed catalog of available microdata, and researchers can also request merging external datasets with this microdata. Using the FIONA remote access system requires that researchers prepare a user license based on a research plan. In earlier studies, Statistics Finland’s register data have been used, for example, to study students’ academic success, educational choices and progression in further education (e.g., Helin et al., 2023; Helin et al., 2024) or the effect of special education and changes in special education system (e.g., Kirjavainen et al., 2016; Pulkkinen et al., 2020). In Finland, there are also examples of the linking register data on students’ school grades with PISA data to study correspondence between PISA performance and school achievement (Pulkkinen & Rautopuro, 2022). In this presentation, we will focus on the use of national register data and the FIONA remote access system for educational research. We will present how these were used in studying the correspondence of Finnish upper secondary school grades and high stakes Finnish Matriculation examination results. In our research, we used data covering the years between 2022 and 2024. We studied the extent to which subject specific grades given by the teachers correspond to high stakes matriculation examination results in Finnish as a mother tongue, mathematics, English as long foreign language, and history.

Helin, J., Jokinen, J., Koerselman, K., Nokkala, T., & Räikkönen, E. (2023). It runs in the family. Using sibling similarities to uncover the hidden influence of family background in doctoral education and academic careers. Higher Education, 86, 1–20. Helin, J., Koerselman, K., Nokkala, T., & Räikkönen, E. (2024). The socioeconomic background of PhDs across Europe. Työpaperi (vertaisarvioinnissa). Kirjavainen, T., Pulkkinen, J., & Jahnukainen, M. (2016). Special education students in transition to further education: A four-year register-based follow-up study in Finland. Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.12.001 Pulkkinen, J., Räikkönen, E., Jahnukainen, M., & Pirttimaa, R. (2020). How do educational reforms change the share of students in special education? Trends in special education in Finland. European Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 364-384. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904119892734 Pulkkinen, J., & Rautopuro, J. (2022). The correspondence between PISA performance and school achievement in Finland. International Journal of Educational Research, 114, 102000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2022.102000

This study examines the methodological and practical challenges of using Education Management Information System (EMIS) data for higher education research within the framework of the StdPerson - Student Persistence and Degree Completion in Higher Education: Theoretical and Empirical Models project. The study draws on large-scale microdata, notably the RAIDES database provided by the Portuguese Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), to move beyond traditional descriptive analyses based on aggregated indicators (Ferrão, 2023; Ferrão & Almeida, 2018, 2019a). A central methodological challenge lies in the hierarchical nature of educational data, in which students are nested within courses, departments, and institutions. This structure violates the independence assumption of standard regression models and requires the application of multilevel logistic and random coefficient models to properly capture variability across programs and institutional contexts. Longitudinal data integration constitutes another major challenge. Analysing student persistence and degree completion demands the linkage of pseudonymized enrollment records with graduation files across multiple academic years using unique identifiers. This process is technically demanding and must comply with strict data protection and GDPR requirements (Fazendeiro et al., 2025). Moreover, defining “dropout” is conceptually complex, as researchers must differentiate between students who permanently exit higher education and those who temporarily interrupt their studies, transfer between programs, or move across institutions—each reflecting distinct trajectories and determinants (Ferrão & Almeida, 2019b, 2021). Additional challenges include handling missing data, which often arise from alternative access pathways or incomplete academic records, potentially undermining model robustness. Finally, the StdPerson project underscores the limitations of single-institution analyses and highlights the value of integrating nationwide EMIS microdata to produce findings that are generalizable at the national level. By addressing these methodological constraints, the project establishes a robust empirical framework for identifying long-term predictors of student success—such as prior school failure and first-choice admission—thereby informing institutional policies aimed at promoting equity and the democratization of success in higher education.

Fazendeiro, P., Prata, P., & Ferrão, M. E. (2025). Subtle biases introduced in equity studies through data anonymization. PLoS ONE, October 8,. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0332441 Ferrão, M. E. (2023). Differential effect of university entrance scores on graduates’ performance: the case of degree completion on time in Portugal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 48(1), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2022.2052799 Ferrão, M. E., & Almeida, L. S. (2018). Multilevel modeling of persistence in higher education. Ensaio: Avaliação e Políticas Públicas Em Educação, 26(100), 664–683. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-40362018002601610 Ferrão, M. E., & Almeida, L. S. (2019a). Differential effect of university entrance score on first-year students’ academic performance in Portugal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(4), 610–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1525602 Ferrão, M. E., & Almeida, L. S. (2019b). Student’s access and performance in the Portuguese higher education: Issues of gender, age, socio-cultural background, expectations, and program choice. Avaliação: Revista Da Avaliação Da Educação Superior (Campinas), 24(2), 434–450. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1414-40772019000200006 Ferrão, M. E., & Almeida, L. S. (2021). Persistence and academic expectations in higher education students. Psicothema, 33(4), 587–594. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2020.68

We describe the education information system in Poland from the perspective of using it for research purposes. The system collects detailed information from school and other education providers, including data on students and teachers. While the main purpose of the system is to monitor the use of resources and collect statistical data, it can be also used to conduct research. We discuss existing and potential research possibilities created by linking the system data to examination results, higher education systems, and social security database. We also discuss how representative surveys can be linked to the system and how the system creates possibilities for conducting surveys and assessments online lowering costs, increasing reliability but opening ways for potential uses of research results.

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Large-scale assessments provide comprehensive data on the effectiveness of educational policies, allowing countries to evaluate the current state of their education systems. Fundamental elements such as the impact of instructional methods on students, learning barriers, and the contribution of curricula to student achievement are systematically examined through these measurement tools (Erkuş, 2012). In this context, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), serves as a critical international comparison tool that enables countries to review their policies and create strategic roadmaps (Ministry of National Education [MoNE], 2019).PISA assesses not only whether 15-year-old students can reproduce knowledge but also how they extrapolate from what they have learned and apply their knowledge in unfamiliar settings, both in and out of school (OECD, 2023). Beyond describing achievement patterns, large-scale assessments such as PISA play a central role in monitoring educational quality and informing system-level improvement strategies, particularly in periods of systemic disruption such as the post-pandemic era. In the PISA 2022 cycle, mathematics literacy was the major domain. Mathematics literacy is defined as the capacity to formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts to describe, explain, and predict phenomena (MoNE, 2023). According to PISA 2022 results, Türkiye ranked 39th among 81 countries with a score of 453; while this indicates an improvement compared to 2018, it remains significantly below the OECD average of 472 (Aksakal, 2024).

Social science research often involves investigating relationships between individuals and the environments in which they learn, live, and work (Hox et al., 2018). PISA data is inherently nested, with students clustered within schools. Consequently, traditional single-level analyses that ignore this hierarchical structure often disaggregate group-level variables to the individual level or aggregate individual-level variables to the group level (Hofmann, 1997). Such approaches violate independence assumptions and can lead to biased estimates (Julian, 2001; Muthén & Satorra, 1995). To address these methodological challenges, multilevel models provide a robust framework for simultaneously examining relationships at each level of the data hierarchy, thereby yielding more comprehensive and realistic results (Heck, 2001).

This study aims to examine the structural relationships between students' mathematics literacy and student- and school-level factors in order to provide evidence relevant to educational improvement and quality assurance processes in the Turkish education system. Furthermore, given that PISA 2022 was administered in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research seeks to uncover the variables influencing the education system during this extraordinary period. Specifically, the study addresses the following research questions:

1. Is there a significant difference in mathematics literacy among schools in the PISA 2022 Türkiye sample?
2. What are the student-level determinants of mathematics literacy?
3. What are the school-level determinants of mathematics literacy?
4. To what extent does the proposed multilevel model explain the variance in mathematics literacy, and what are the implications of these findings for system-level quality improvement?

The conceptual framework of the study is informed by ecological and multilevel perspectives on learning. From an ecological standpoint, student achievement is shaped by multiple, nested environments, including classroom and school contexts. Methodologically, the study is grounded in multilevel modelling theory, which explicitly accounts for the nested structure of educational data (Hox et al., 2018). Multilevel SEM extends traditional hierarchical linear modelling by allowing the estimation of latent variables, measurement error, and complex structural relations across levels simultaneously (Heck, 2001; Heck & Thomas, 2020). These features are particularly important when analysing PISA data, which rely on plausible values derived from item response theory and require the appropriate application of sampling weights to ensure valid population-level inferences.

Using Grade 4 data from the digitally administered TIMSS 2023 assessment, this study examines whether key instructional and motivational correlates of mathematics performance show similar patterns across education systems by comparing students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with students in four other GCC countries (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia).

Comparing the UAE with other GCC countries is informative because these systems share a broadly common regional policy context yet differ in how schooling is organized and resourced. Participation in TIMSS supports cross-system comparability in both achievement and questionnaire-based constructs (Mullis et al., 2021; von Davier, 2024). GCC countries nevertheless vary in reform trajectories and modernization efforts, which may shape how classroom experiences translate into competence beliefs and performance (World Bank, 2024). They also differ in demographic composition, such as the size and diversity of migrant and expatriate populations, which can influence school contexts and how self-belief measures function across settings. In addition, variation in digitalization and technology integration in schooling provides an important contextual background for interpreting how digital competence beliefs relate to learning outcomes (OECD, 2023). Overall, a UAE–other GCC comparison is both theoretically meaningful and policy-relevant for examining when digital self-efficacy and instructional clarity are more strongly linked to mathematics confidence and achievement.

The study focuses on three policy-relevant constructs available in TIMSS: instructional clarity in mathematics (students’ perceptions of clear and understandable instruction), digital self-efficacy (students’ perceived competence in using digital tools for learning), and confidence in mathematics (students’ competence beliefs). The conceptual framing relies primarily on Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1997), which emphasizes self-efficacy beliefs as key determinants of learning-related behaviors and achievement, and Expectancy–Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), which suggests that competence beliefs (expectancies for success) shape engagement and performance outcomes. In addition, the focus on instructional clarity is consistent with research on effective teaching and teacher clarity as a predictor of student learning (Hattie, 2009).

A multi-group mediation (path) model is used to test whether confidence in mathematics functions as a mechanism linking instructional clarity and digital self-efficacy to mathematics achievement, and whether the strength of these direct and indirect pathways differs across the UAE and GCC contexts. This mediation logic is aligned with contemporary methodological guidance that emphasizes estimating and testing indirect effects directly in path/SEM frameworks (MacKinnon, 2008; Hayes, 2018). Because cross-system comparisons can mask meaningful contextual differences, the study uses multi-group SEM to estimate group-specific structural relations and formally compare pathways across contexts (Byrne, 2016; Kline, 2016). Gender is included as a covariate predicting both confidence and achievement in each group to account for potential gender-related differences in competence beliefs and performance (Else-Quest et al., 2010).

Four research questions guide the study: (1) How do digital self-efficacy and instructional clarity in mathematics predict Grade 4 mathematics achievement? (2) To what extent does confidence in mathematics mediate the relationships between digital self-efficacy and achievement, and between instructional clarity and achievement? (3) Do the direct structural relations among digital self-efficacy, instructional clarity, confidence, and achievement differ between the UAE and GCC groups? (4) Do the indirect effects via confidence differ between groups? Corresponding hypotheses specify positive direct effects of digital self-efficacy and instructional clarity on achievement and on confidence, a positive confidence-to-achievement link, and cross-group differences in selected pathways.

This proposal leverages TIMSS 2023 to test whether instructional and motivational pathways to mathematics achievement generalize across education systems, and to identify where associations differ by context. Findings can inform the interpretation of cross-system comparisons and efforts to strengthen early mathematics learning.

This proposal examines which school-level conditions are most strongly linked to mathematics success in Türkiye in PISA 2022. It uses the PISA 2022 School Questionnaire and supervised machine learning to model school success from leadership practices, school climate, resources, and family–school relations.

Research question

Which school-level factors best predict whether a school in Türkiye is “successful” in mathematics in PISA 2022, and how well can a supervised model classify school success using school-level indicators?

Objective

The objective is to build an interpretable predictive model and to identify actionable predictors that school leaders and policymakers can strengthen, while keeping sight of schools’ historical and social mission, as emphasized by Guevara-Reyes and his colleagues (2025).

Conceptual and theoretical framework
The framework combines leadership, school climate, and structural equity perspectives:

· Leadership and administration. School leaders shape learning conditions by setting goals, managing resources, and building a climate conducive to learning. Leadership influences student outcomes directly and indirectly through teacher quality, instructional coherence, and equitable learning climates (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006; Robinson et al., 2008). In mathematics, instructional leadership, distributed leadership, and data-driven decision making are positively related to student performance (Hallinger, 2011). In developing countries, leaders often work under limited resources, unclear policy mandates, and fragmented teacher training systems, so leadership capacity matters for linking policy and classroom practices to improve attainment (Bush, 2009). Administrators can also support teacher collaboration and community engagement, which is an indirect predictor of mathematics performance (OECD, 2023).

· School climate. School climate (relationships, safety, and institutional values) shapes engagement and academic outcomes (Thapa et al., 2013). Self-Determination Theory and Stage-Environment Fit Theory emphasize how supportive contexts can meet students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness; positive teacher–student relationships can also buffer bullying and academic risks (Ren, Chen, & Zhao, 2025). Bullying undermines achievement by weakening students’ social bonds and sense of safety (Ren et al., 2025; Graham, 2016). International PISA evidence also shows that chronic absenteeism rose to 7.6% in PISA 2022, up from 4.7% in 2018 (OECD, 2023).

· Resources and equity. Cross-country PISA research suggests that school-to-school achievement gaps are smaller where resources are distributed more equally (Beese & Liang, 2010). School material resources and the quality of the learning environment show meaningful links to achievement in PISA-based studies (Trinidad, 2020). School-level safety, instructional leadership, and parental support also predict mathematics performance (Wardat et al., 2022; Tomul, Önder, & Taşlıdere, 2021).

European/international dimension

PISA is designed for international comparison, so identifying school-level predictors in Türkiye contributes to European and international discussions on equity, governance, and school improvement. The study defines school “Success” using an OECD-linked mathematics proficiency threshold used in OECD contexts (European Schools, 2022, p. 35), supporting interpretation across systems. The predictors prioritized by the model—parental involvement, disciplinary climate, technology use, leadership practices, student–teacher relationships, student absenteeism, and bullying—are widely relevant for equity-oriented school improvement efforts.

Method overview

The study analyzes 81 school-level features from 196 Turkish schools in the PISA 2022 School Questionnaire. To address class imbalance and small sample size, it applies Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE) and creates 3,564 balanced observations (Chawla et al., 2002). It tests supervised classifiers and reports logistic regression results; the final sample meets recommended minimums for stable modeling (Silvey & Liu, 2024). Generalizability is assessed using the training–test accuracy gap criterion (Géron, 2022).

Expected contribution

The study shows how interpretable machine learning can produce policy-relevant evidence from large international assessment data and highlight institutional levers linked to mathematics success (Acısıl-Çelik & YeşilKana, 2022; Erdoğan &Taştan, 2024).

Problem Statement

Large-scale assessments are standardized evaluations conducted at regional, national, or international levels with large student populations. They support teaching and learning by enabling cross-system comparisons and providing evidence for policy decisions such as curriculum reform, teacher professional development, and equitable resource allocation (Clarke & Luna-Bazaldua, 2021; Luo, 2023; Tan et al., 2024; Zhu et al., 2025). Among these assessments, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the OECD, is one of the most influential. Conducted every three years since 2000, PISA measures the reading, mathematics, and science literacy of 15-year-olds worldwide (Luo, 2023; OECD, 2023a; Tan et al., 2024; Zhu et al., 2025). The PISA 2022 cycle focused on mathematics literacy, defined as the ability to reason mathematically and to apply mathematics to real-life contexts (OECD, 2023a). Persistent cross-national differences in achievement suggest that mathematics literacy is shaped by educational systems, cultural orientations, and inclusion policies (Bertling & Alegre, 2019; OECD, 2023a).

Prior research has examined multiple predictors of achievement, including motivation-related factors (e.g., self-efficacy, self-concept, interest, anxiety), language background, health-related factors, socio-economic status, safety and bullying, family resources, and teacher-related factors such as guidance, fairness, feedback, and experience (Martínez-Abad & Chaparro-Caso-López, 2016; Tan et al., 2024; Wan et al., 2025; Wang et al., 2023; Zhu et al., 2025). However, multidimensional constructs such as immigration and language exposure, school culture and climate, ICT familiarity, assessment systems, teacher qualifications, and global crises remain underexplored despite their relevance for understanding equity and learning opportunities (Bertling & Alegre, 2019).

This study focuses on Germany, Switzerland, and Türkiye due to their cultural and linguistic diversity in PISA 2022. Switzerland’s multilingual structure and substantial foreign-born population create unique educational dynamics (Eurydice, 2023), while Germany and Türkiye face comparable challenges related to immigration, language integration, and inclusion. These issues gained additional importance after the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted learning globally and highlighted inequalities in access, preparedness, and instructional continuity (Maldonado & De Witte, 2021; UNESCO, 2022). The pandemic also increased the relevance of teacher-developed assessment practices and teachers’ digital competence for sustaining mathematics learning (Scherer et al., 2021; Wellberg, 2023).

Methodologically, PISA datasets are highly suitable for educational data-mining approaches because they include large samples, multiple countries, and a wide range of student, family, teacher, and school-level variables. Data mining, referred to as knowledge discovery in databases, involves identifying meaningful patterns, structures, and relationships within large and complex datasets (Kretowski, 2019).

The purpose of this study is to compare the predictive performance of selected educational data-mining algorithms in classifying students’ PISA 2022 mathematics literacy performance and to identify the most influential predictors across Germany, Switzerland, and Türkiye. Also, this study aimed to examine whether PISA 2022 background variables (immigration and language exposure, school culture and climate, beliefs and attitudes, ESCS, ICT familiarity, teacher qualifications and professional development, assessment practices, and global crises) contribute to predicting students’ mathematics literacy outcomes across Switzerland, Germany, and Türkiye. Accordingly, the study addressed (1) the classification performance of C5.0 decision tree, random forest, Naive Bayes, and artificial neural network algorithms in predicting students’ PISA 2022 mathematics literacy performance and (2) the most influential predictors across the three contexts.

Education for environmental sustainability has emerged as a critical global priority in response to escalating ecological challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion (UNESCO, 2020). Schools have a central role in advancing sustainability education, acting as arenas where knowledge and values are translated into behaviors and actions (Campfens, 2024). Teachers are key agents in this process, responsible for embedding the sustainability principles described in the curricula into the classrooms and fostering competencies such as critical thinking, action competence, and lifelong learning among students (Felix et al., 2025; Zarzycki, 2025). Students, in turn, are expected to develop not only cognitive understanding but also behavioral dispositions that support sustainable lifestyles (Ardoin et al., 2020).

The Nordic countries are recognized as leaders in environmental sustainability education (Kardyb et al., 2025; Nordic Council of Ministers, 2024). Across Finland, Norway, and Sweden, sustainability is embedded in national curricula and governance documents, reflecting shared commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015) as well as international frameworks such as UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development roadmap (UNESCO, 2020) and the UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2022). Despite these common policy orientations, the countries differ in pedagogical traditions and implementation strategies. Sweden has a long-standing emphasis on outdoor and experiential learning, Norway foregrounds democratic participation and interdisciplinary approaches, and Finland integrates sustainability through phenomenon-based learning and whole-school models (Kardyb et al., 2025; Nordic Council of Ministers, 2024).

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) incorporates environmental modules designed to capture key dimensions of students’ environmental awareness at the international level (Bookbinder et al., 2025). This approach is consistent with widely used conceptualizations of environmental awareness, which typically encompass students’ knowledge of environmental issues, their attitudes and values related to sustainability, and their reported behaviors or behavioral intentions (Bookbinder et al., 2025; Firmanshah et al., 2023). Informed by the Model of Ecological Values (Bogner & Wiseman, 2006) and the Theory of Ecological Attitude (Kaiser et al., 1999) the TIMSS framework operationalizes environmental awareness primarily through students’ environmental values and self-reported behaviors (Reynolds & Komakhidze, 2022).

To guide the present analysis, we adapted the dynamic model of educational effectiveness (DMEE) (Kyriakides & Creemers, 2009) to develop an environmental sustainability education framework. This adaptation focuses specifically on environmental sustainability in schools and operationalizes its multilevel structure by linking national-, school-, and classroom-level actions in sustainability education to student outcomes, such as environmentally responsible behaviors. Consistent with the DMEE, the framework assumes that environmentally responsible behaviors emerge from interactions across multiple levels of the education system.

Through the proposed framework and given the novelty and policy relevance of the environmental sustainability scales in TIMSS, this study examines cross-national differences among the Nordic countries in school emphasis on environmental sustainability, teacher emphasis on environmental sustainability, and student environmental awareness. The primary focus is on evaluating the factorial structure and cross-country comparability of these constructs.

Thus, the research questions (RQ) are:

1) To what extent do Nordic countries differ with respect to environmental awareness?

1. To what extent do Nordic countries differ with respect to school emphasis on environmental sustainability?
2. To what extent do Nordic countries differ with respect to teacher emphasis on environmental sustainability?
3. To what extent do Nordic countries differ with respect to students’ environmental awareness?

This paper examines the trajectory of research on educational accountability over the past three decades through a systematic review of 105 influential academic articles selected from the Web of Science database (1995–2024).

Educational accountability has been a central topic in educational research and policy over the past several decades. This concept—encompassing both the obligation to report and the responsibility for processes and outcomes within the educational field—has undergone a notable evolution. A wide range of studies have examined how accountability systems, particularly those of a performative or market-based nature, interact with education systems and influence student performance, teaching practices, school management, and educational equity, either positively or negatively (MacNeil, Butler & Schnellert, 2023).

Accountability is a mechanism with a long-standing presence in the structure of the state. As such, it has undergone various processes of evolution and change and has taken on different forms depending on how questions of what is being accounted for, to whom, and in what manner, are answered (Newmann et al., 1996). Despite these variations, some elements remain relatively constant. These are reflected in Bovens’ (2007) definition of accountability as “a social relationship in which an actor is obliged to explain and justify his or her conduct to another actor, who is entitled to pose questions, pass judgment, and eventually impose sanctions” (p. 450).

Public attention and academic interest have largely focused on performative or market-based accountability. This model is one of the ways in which accountability has been implemented in education systems, as outlined in the typology proposed nearly 35 years ago by Darling-Hammond and Ascher (1991), referenced in the previous chapter.

Highlighting this historical and conceptual context is essential, as accountability functions as a mechanism of public management that can be implemented through various perspectives and strategies. However, it is also a clear indicator of the political priorities and conceptions of the role of the state and citizenship in society (De Lissovoy, 2015). For this reason, it is important to stress from the outset that the emphasis on performative accountability should not obscure the existence of other designs and possibilities for implementing this mechanism.

In light of this conceptual context, this review aimed to identify the main emphases guiding the analysis of accountability and the kinds of results associated with its implementation. Within this framework, the review posed two key questions: What role has performative accountability played in the literature, given its dominance over recent decades? And to what extent have alternative accountability designs been explored across the period under study?

Background

Sustainable democracies rest on broad and inclusive opportunities for civic engagement and participation. Civic engagement can be understood in practical terms as active participation in society, but it also encompasses e.g. individuals’ beliefs in their own capacity to influence matters, perceptions of the effectiveness of personal involvement, and motivation to engage (see e.g. Schulz et al., 2017). It therefore extends beyond participatory actions in formal politics, to include various forms of connections within civic life and across different communities, both in-person and online.

Among young people, civic engagement prior to adulthood may be reflected in participation in, for example, school activities, that mirror civic actions in adult life. However, civic engagement becomes also evident as personal interest and taking stances in contemporary societal issues or matters of importance to young people. It may likewise be expressed through efforts to influence society by participating in, for instance, environmental organizations—contributing to shaping civil society.

Therefore, civic engagement is a multidimensional concept, encompassing various forms, such as behavioural and cognitive engagement, with special functions (see Reeve et al., 2025). Furthermore, higher levels of civic engagement are also positively linked to civic knowledge gained from formal school education. It has also been associated with enhanced well‑being and a stronger commitment to civic principles such as equality (Mužík et al., 2025). Correspondingly, a lack of engagement may accumulate at the individual level over time and develop into significant challenges to social belonging, as well as undermine the ability to participate meaningfully in fostering an equitable democratic society (Schulz et al., 2017). Therefore, fostering civic engagement among young people through school education is particularly vital, as students will ultimately become the adults responsible for shaping future societies.

In International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) 2016, civic engagement was investigated in detail in 24 countries (Schulz et al., 2017). In ICCS studies, civic engagement of 14-year-old students is measured through indicators encompassing e.g. civic participation in school, but also with anticipated future civic actions as adults, due to participants’ young age (see e.g. Damiani et al., 2025). However, expected behaviour can serve as a predictor of future civic actions and reflects also the engagement to civic issues at young age. Nevertheless, separate scales representing different dimensions of engagement are typically applied separately in ICCS studies (e.g. Schulz, 2024), and civic engagement is rarely examined as a unified construct. Therefore, this study draws on the civic engagement item pool from ICCS framework to consider all relevant indicators collectively, aiming to identify the underlying dimensions of civic engagement and to determine which components may be redundant or strongly interrelated. The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive measure of civic engagement to refine how its dimensions are operationalised within the current framework and within the broader field of civic and citizenship education.

Furthermore, civic engagement may vary across contexts, such as countries, and according to background characteristics. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the dimensions of civic engagement among young students using large-scale datasets grounded in a robust conceptual framework, and to examine how engagement differs across countries and demographic groups.

Aims

The study investigates the following research questions:

1. What types of civic engagement can be identified among young students in ICCS context?
2. Is civic engagement similar across different countries and genders according to ICCS 2016 results?

Official truth commission processes concerning the Sámi have recently concluded in Norway (2023) and Finland (2025), with Sweden’s due to conclude in 2026 (Szpak and Bunikowski 2021; Skaar 2024; Norlin et al. 2024). Across these contexts, inquiries have identified the historical role of education in assimilation policies and ongoing deficiencies in teacher preparation relating to Sámi histories, cultures, and languages, contributing to persistent intergenerational knowledge gaps (Olsen and Sollid 2022; Sønneland and Lingaas 2023; Drugge and Norlin 2023; Keskitalo and Olsen 2025). As a result, teacher education has emerged as a key site of scrutiny within broader truth and reconciliation agendas in the circumpolar north. These processes are generating new policy expectations, institutional pressures, and pedagogical debates, creating openings to critically re-examine how teacher education is structured, resourced, and enacted in Indigenous and minority contexts (Norlin et al. 2024)

This symposium brings together empirically grounded research from across the Nordic region to examine how discourses and processes of truth and reconciliation are being interpreted and enacted within teacher education. Adopting a comparative and cross-national perspective, the papers analyse teacher education frameworks, curriculum policies, institutional strategies, and pedagogical practices related to Sámi perspectives and Indigenous knowledges. Collectively, they address questions of curriculum framing, educator preparedness, institutional support, and the impacts of political backlash.

The symposium foregrounds research that operates at multiple levels—systemic, institutional, and pedagogical—and employs a range of qualitative and mixed methods, including interview-based studies, policy analysis, and curriculum research. By identifying both barriers and enabling conditions, the papers contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how teacher education functions as a site of historical redress, knowledge production, and political contestation in Nordic and circumpolar contexts.

The symposium aims to advance research-informed dialogue and collaboration across Nordic countries, while contributing conceptually to debates on truth, reconciliation, and Indigenous education beyond settler-colonial contexts. In doing so, it seeks to develop context-sensitive analytical frameworks that can inform future research, policy development, and practice in teacher education across the region.

Recent truth and reconciliation processes in Norway (2023), Finland (2025), and Sweden (2026) have drawn attention to the historical role of education in the assimilation of the Sámi and positioned teacher education as a key site for redress (Sønneland and Lingaas, 2023; Norlin et al. 2024). While official reports identify significant intergenerational knowledge gaps concerning Sámi histories, cultures, and languages, there remains limited research on how teacher educators themselves understand and enact the teaching of Sámi perspectives within contemporary teacher education. This chapter addresses this gap through a comparative qualitative study of 18 teacher educators working in Norway, Finland, and Sweden. Grounded in an interpretivist paradigm (Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 2013), the study examines how teacher educators make meaning of their responsibilities for teaching Sámi knowledges and shared histories, and how they interpret discourses of truth and reconciliation in relation to their local institutional, political, and community contexts. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically using an inductive, reflexive approach (Braun and Clarke, 2017). As a pilot study, the research does not aim for representative coverage, but instead seeks to identify common themes and points of divergence across national settings. The paper is structured around three comparative themes. First, participants described inflexible and crowded teacher education curricula as a key barrier to the meaningful inclusion of Sámi perspectives, though the nature of these constraints varied across countries. Second, persistent knowledge gaps among teacher educators, teachers, and the wider public were identified, alongside varied assessments of the capacity of truth commission processes to address these gaps. Third, participants across all three contexts described rising racism and political backlash. This shaped both institutional responses and individual educators’ sense of risk and responsibility when engaging with Sámi-related content. In conclusion, the paper calls for the development of Nordic- and Sámi-specific approaches supported by sustained institutional and systemic commitment.

Sønneland, A. M., & Lingaas, C. (2023). Righting Injustices Towards the Sámi: A Critical Perspective on the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 30(4), 588-616. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718115-bja10105 Norlin, B., Keynes, M., & Drugge, A.-L. (2024). Truth Commissions and Teacher Education in Australia and the Northern Nordics. Genealogy, 8(2) https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020068 Schwartz-Shea, P., & Yanow, D. (2013). Interpretive research design: Concepts and processes (2nd ed.). Routledge. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2017). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE

There is a well-documented gap in the systematic treatment of Saami Indigenous issues within Finnish teacher education. Despite national and international commitments to Indigenous rights, cultural sustainability, and educational equity, teacher education programmes in Finland rarely provide students with structured learning opportunities related to Saami history, languages, or pedagogical perspectives. This absence limits the development of culturally responsive teaching practices and undermines broader goals of educational justice. The present study investigates why Saami-related content is largely missing from teacher education and explores how such content could be meaningfully integrated. Our data consist of a group discussion with teacher educators affiliated with teacher education programmes. The discussion focused on three guiding questions: Why do we lack Saami Indigenous content in our program? What barriers prevent its inclusion? And what changes are necessary to ensure its systematic integration? The data are analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings highlight structural, epistemic, and curricular factors that contribute to the marginalization of Saami perspectives in teacher education, alongside concrete proposals for reform. By articulating educators’ perspectives on both the challenges and possibilities for curriculum development, this study advances current debates on how Finnish higher education institutions can operationalize their responsibilities toward Indigenous rights. The results offer actionable insights and potential strategies for embedding Saami knowledge and pedagogical models across teacher education programmes in Finland.

Alisaari, J., Harju-Autti, R., et al. (2023). Finnish teachers’ perspectives on creating multilingual learning opportunities in diverse classrooms. In V. Tavares & T-A. Skefsrud (Eds.), Challenges and Opportunities Facing Diversity in Nordic Education. (pp. 109–129). Lexington Books. Dahal, N., & Luitel, B. C. (2023). Collaborative Autoethnography: Emancipatory Research for Educational Researchers. Journal of Transformative Praxis, 4(1), pp. 1-8. Harju-Autti, R., & Mäkinen, M. (2024). Toward sustainable and linguistically responsive support measures for recently arrived language learners. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(8), 3258–3274. Heim, G., & Bergan, V. (2024). Braiding Sámi Diversity and Sámi Pedagogy into Early Childhood Teacher Education: An Example from Norway. Education Sciences, 14(11), 1212. Korte, S.-M., Paksuniemi, M., Keskitalo, P., Selkälä, A., Körkkö, M., Anderson, K., Sarivaara, E., & Joona, T. (2024). Finnish pre-service teachers’ knowledge about the Indigenous Saami people. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education. Advance online publication. Mattila, E., Lindén, J., & Annala, J. (2025). On the shoulders of a perfect stranger: Knowledge gap about the Indigenous Saami in the Finnish teacher education curriculum. Race Ethnicity and Education, 28(7), 1157–1173. Somby, H. M., & Olsen, T. A. (2025). Inclusion as indigenisation? Sámi perspectives in teacher education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 29(3), 259–273.

This presentation builds on a follow-up study of Olsen et al. (2017), in which we proposed a national competence strategy to develop a Norwegian teacher education system that integrates Sámi issues and perspectives in a sustainable and systematic manner. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in research activity focused on the inclusion of Sámi content and perspectives into the Norwegian education system. Importantly, teacher education plays a key role in the growing interest and progress in the field, as reflected in the rising number of master's theses on Sámi and Indigenous-related topics. This trend appears to be characteristic of teacher education institutions nationwide. What subject areas and topics are explored in the theses? What research questions are posed? What methods and approaches are employed? And what findings and outcomes emerge from the research? To answer these questions, we have mapped Sámi- and Indigenous-related master’s theses from various teacher education programs in Norwegian research archives spanning the period from 2010 to 2025. In the discussion, we integrate findings from different subject areas and disciplines, with a particular focus on the case of Norwegian subject didactics, language, and literature. This overview contributes to research-based knowledge on key developments in Norway and offers valuable insight into future opportunities and needs within the (teacher) education system in the field.

Andreassen, B.-O., & Olsen, T. A. (ed.) (2022). Urfolk og nasjonale minoriteter i skole og lærerutdanning (2nd Ed.), Fagbokforlaget. Berg-Nordlie, M. (2022). Norsk antisamisme i fortid og nåtid. In. C. A. Døving (ed.), Rasisme: Fenomenet, forskningen, erfaringene (pp. 94–106), Universitetsforlaget. Eriksen, K. G., Aamaas, Å, & Bjerknes, A.-L. (ed.) (2022). Å lytte til og å engasjere seg i fortellinger: Refleksjonsverktøy for arbeid med samiske perspektiv og urfolksperspektiv i lærerutdanningen, Dembra/HL-senteret. Figenschou, G., Karlsen, S. S., & Pedersen, H. C. (ed.), Ávdnet – samiske tema i skole og utdanning, Universitetsforlaget. Johansen, Å. M., & Sollid, H. (2023). Samisk i norskfaget – fra plan til praksis, Fagbokforlaget. Keskitalo, P., and T Olsen. (2025). “Review of Indigenous Education and Sami Pedagogy: Key Tendencies and Notions”. In Girjjohallat girjáivuođa - Embracing Diversity: Sami educa-tion theory, practice and research, edited by P. Keskitalo, T. Olsen, A.-L. Drugge, and R. Rahko-Ravantti. Brill, 35–58. Olsen, T. A., & Sollid, H. (ed.) (2022). Indigenising Education and Citizenship: Perspectives on Policies and Practices From Sápmi and Beyond, Scandinavian University Press.

Umeå University (UmU) is host to one of the largest and most central teacher educations (TE) in the northern Nordics. Like many other universities in Sweden, TE at UmU is not functioning as a single faculty or unit, but rather as an administrative hub connecting faculties, departments, disciplines, subject areas and teacher educators from across the university. This means that teaching competences and expertise from a wide variety of fields can be engaged in TE-programs, but at the same time also a latent organizational and disciplinary fragmentation, impacting basically all areas of knowledge that are supposed to be included in the training of future teachers. This presentation focuses on one such area, namely how knowledge about the Indigenous Sámi comes into TE-programs, and how the frame factors for organizing TE on different levels (systemic, institutional and individual) impacts how this is realized. The study expands on the concepts of fragmentation, framing, classification, and teacher agency, and includes a detailed mapping and examination of activities relating to the teaching about the Sámi across different faculties and departments involved in TE-programs. The overall aim is to strengthen knowledge about how frame factors on systemic, institutional and individual conditions interact in how this area of TE is realized, as well as about the implications on teaching and learning the current organization of it might have. Three research questions guide the study: RQ 1. In which specific parts of the teacher training can knowledge relating to the Sámi be localized, and to which specific academic disciplines, subject areas and course modules is this knowledge linked? RQ 2. What frame factors at systemic, institutional and individual level can be seen as decisive when it comes to how this knowledge can benefit the training of future teachers? RQ 3. What limitations and opportunities are there in terms of strengthening and creating more cohesive knowledge about the Sámi in this specific model for organizing teacher education? The authors are all involved in the organization of TE at UmU and draw on professional experience and knowledge.

Åstrand, B. (2017). Swedish teacher education and the issue of fragmentation: Conditions for the struggle over academic rigor and professional relevance, in B. Hudson (ed.), Overcoming Fragmentation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice. Cambridge University Press, 2017, 1, 101-142. Bernstein, B. (1990). Class, Codes and Control: Volume IV, the Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. Routledge. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity: theory, research, critique. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Drugge, A-L, & Norlin, B., "Teaching Sami Pasts and Presents: Complexities in Teaching Practice in Contemporary Swedish Classrooms", History Education at the Edge of the Nation: Political Autonomy, Educational Reforms, and Memory-shaping in European Periphery, Di Michele, A. & Colla P. S. (eds.) Global Histories of Education (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 221 – 244. Hudson, B. (ed.) (2017), Overcoming fragmentation in teacher education policy and practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lindensjö, B. & Lundgren, Ulf P. (2000). Utbildningsreformer och politisk styrning. Stockholm: HLS förl.. Norlin, B., Keynes, M., & Drugge, A.-L. (2024). Truth Commissions and Teacher Education in Australia and the Northern Nordics. Genealogy, 8(2).

The development of digital technologies has significantly influenced education, accompanied by the generation of large volumes of data (McCarthy et al., 2023). The use of data can help teachers to narrow academic performance gaps among students (Gullo, 2013). However, the challenges of teacher’s use of data in the classroom still exist (Reeves et al., 2016), including a struggle to effectively analyze data (Garner et al., 2017). These challenges highlight the need for structured approaches that support teachers in integrating data into their instruction. There is another significant limitation in the current research on data-driven instruction, which is the lack of a clear and unified conceptual framework to understand how teachers utilize data in their instruction and what kinds of professional knowledge or skills are needed. While scholars have explored teachers’ data use and proposed theoretical models concerning data literacy and data-driven decision-making (Gummer & Mandinach, 2015; Mandinach, 2012; Mandinach & Gummer, 2016), some crucial gaps still remain that present a comprehensive understanding of instruction. The lack of attention on the perspective of instruction design framework also leads to the neglect on what types of data actually used by teachers in instructional practice. Moreover, although contextual factors have been identified as influential to data usage (Huguet et al., 2014), these factors are rarely explicitly connected to the practice of teachers’ data-driven instructional practices. Therefore, the instruction design theoretical framework that employs systematic models and a broad set of principles to guide the planning and implementation of effective instruction is needed (Abuhassna & Alnawajha, 2023). The theoretical framework of instruction design can inform us of the various components of instruction, thereby facilitating the analysis of the instructional components of Data-driven Instruction Competence(DDIC). At the same time, this study will also be based on the competence theoretical framework of teachers. Competence is a multidimensional construct encompassing not only the knowledge and skills of teachers but also attitudes (Blömeke et al., 2015). Based on this framework, DDIC not only includes knowledge and skills, but also should possess attitudes or beliefs and so on. Specifically, this research will explore the following questions: (1) What is the definition of DDIC? (2) What types of data are addressed in existing studies when describing teachers’ data use in instructional practice? (3) What contextual factors influence DDIC? (4) What instruments are used to assess teachers’ DDIC? Based on the instruction design framework and the competence framework, this study focuses on primary and secondary school teachers, aiming to define the DDIC of teachers, analyze the specific data types that teachers adopt in their instructional practices, identify the factors that influence teachers’ DDIC in educational contexts, and explore the instruments used to assess teachers’ DDIC. This provides a more instructional and contextual perspective to understand how teachers’ use data in their instruction, thereby equipping teachers with targeted support to effectively integrate data into their instructional practices in educational contexts.

Across Europe and the OECD, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds remain persistently underrepresented in the teaching profession (Schleicher, 2014; Donlevy et al., 2016; Ingersoll et al., 2021). Despite extensive policy initiatives to diversify initial teacher education (ITE) recruitment, the teaching workforce remains strikingly homogeneous in its class composition across multiple national systems (Abawi & Eizadirad, 2020). This lack of diversity is especially concerning given mounting evidence that teacher diversity enhances outcomes for marginalised students and strengthens the profession’s capacity to challenge educational inequalities (Ingersoll et al., 2021).

Existing research has documented this underrepresentation and examined the experiences of working-class individuals who successfully navigate ITE pathways (Goodwin, 2020; Keane et al., 2018, 2020, 2022). However, we rarely hear directly from young people in disadvantaged schools about how they themselves view teaching as a possible career. Understanding why teaching does – or does not – appeal to these students is crucial if we wish to address workforce homogeneity at its roots.

This study asks: What factors attract or repel students attending disadvantaged schools from pursuing teaching careers, and how do these students understand the role of teachers and education in relation to social class and opportunity?

The research is situated within Ireland’s DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) system, which designates schools serving disadvantaged communities for additional support. DEIS is comparable to the UK's Pupil Premium initiative, French REP (priority education networks), and similar targeted intervention programmes across Europe. Eleven DEIS primary and post-primary schools participate in this doctoral study, enabling analysis across age phases and institutional contexts.

The theoretical framework draws on critical European social theory, combining Bourdieu’s account of social reproduction and cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990), Foucault’s analytics of power and governmentality, Marx’s critique of class relations and Freire’s critical pedagogy (1993). Within this transformative paradigm, education is conceptualised as a site of both oppression and potential liberation: the study examines how power operates through schooling to normalise class hierarchies while also exploring possibilities for consciousness-raising and emancipatory practice.

The study employs a critical pedagogical approach (Freire, 1993; Gandin, 2012; Giroux, 2011; hooks, 1994) through a series of structured workshops with participating classes. These workshops serve a dual role: they act as research instruments generating rich qualitative data, and create spaces for critical reflection on social class identity, conceptualisations of power (Harwood et al., 2014), the purposes of education, and the role of teachers as agents within social structures. Workshop activities encourage students to examine their own educational experiences, consider how class operates in schools, and reflect on whether teaching represents a viable or desirable career path for people from their backgrounds.

The study also draws on motivational scholarship, particularly the Four Phase Model of Interest Development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006) and Expectancy–Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), to analyse how interest in teaching careers develops—or fails to develop—among this student population.

This research contributes to European and international debates on teacher education by centring student voice in understanding recruitment barriers, offering methodological innovation in using critical pedagogy as both intervention and investigation, and providing evidence that can inform policy approaches to diversifying the teaching profession in contexts where class-based educational inequality persists.

This presentation describes a study based on a development project funded by the Swedish Cultural Foundation and conducted in collaboration between three universities. The project aims to develop educational pathways enabling Finnish Swedish-speaking generalist student teachers to achieve subject teacher qualification in music within the framework of their degree. Previous research shows that many Finnish generalist teachers experience music teaching as challenging due to limited training. The situation is particularly problematic in Swedish-language education. For example, there is substantial variation in the skill levels of Swedish-speaking generalist teachers, partly due to the lack of accessible study opportunities. Unlike Finnish-speaking student teachers, Swedish-speaking student teachers also lack functioning study pathways to enter further music studies. These challenges are particularly salient in light of current European Higher Education Area priorities, which emphasise coherent study pathways, student mobility, and the transparent recognition of studies through ECTS-based structures and flexible learning paths. Findings from the project’s survey data indicate a clear gap between existing musical competence and interest among Swedish-speaking generalist student teachers and their actual engagement in further music studies, suggesting that current study structures and pathways inhibit the translation of potential into concrete study choices. Research on initial teacher education shows that generalist teachers face high expectations to teach music despite limited training, and that institutional conditions and structural barriers shape student engagement, with implications for confidence, access to advanced and subject-specialist studies (e.g. major studies), and educational choices regarding further or deeper engagement in a subject, as well as for learning outcomes. Consequently, the project seeks to examine the current situation and to develop flexible study pathways and learning materials that support Swedish-speaking generalist student teachers in continuing their music studies towards full qualification.

This paper presents a dialogic inquiry design in teacher education for in-service part-time student teachers working in early childhood, primary, and special/inclusive education. The workshops are an integral part of a Teacher Studies module. Students first produce semi-structured interviews or self-interviews, and then, in groups, we work with selected anonymised fragments.

The starting point is a recurring tension visible in participants’ “experience texts”: institutional demands (curriculum, routines, accountability, and multi-actor coordination) meet lived dilemmas and burdens (uncertainty, boundary work, responsibility for others, and relationship tensions including collaboration with parents). Rather than treating interviews primarily as “data about teachers,” the paper analyses how student teachers work with interviews and self-interviews as experience texts, and how this workshop work supports professional agency and professional identity-in-the-making.

The conceptual framing draws on dialogic perspectives in which dialogicity is more than “talk”: dialogue is a way of organising meaning, learning, and social relations across multiple perspectives (Alexander, 2020; Wegerif, 2019). While research on classroom dialogue often focuses on interactional features of classroom talk (Howe & Abedin, 2013), this paper treats dialogicity not as a technique of speaking but as a structure of pedagogical action in which meaning, knowledge, and identity emerge in the tension of institutional norms, relational responsibility, situated experience, emotions, values, and competing obligations. Teachers continuously mediate between their own perspective and that of the learner; neither is sufficient for pedagogical decisions. Instead, decisions emerge through mediation that opens a potential “next step” in learning and participation, akin to a zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). In this approach, the inquiry object shifts from classroom talk to experience texts, which is especially useful in in-service part-time cohorts because it surfaces institutional constraints and lived tensions without requiring classroom video.

The central, author-designed practical tool is the Dialogic Analysis Board (a three-column workshop board/table) used to animate teachers’ work with anonymised interview fragments and to document the analysis's axial outcomes. The left column captures the institutional framing of the narrated situation; the right column captures the personal/experiential dimension (including emotional load and boundary work). The middle column supports dialogic analysis that goes beyond the interview’s explicit statements: it is a discussion of new and potential meanings that can be initiated or proposed. It negotiates between the ‘state of affairs’ (left and right columns), the tensions and contradictions between them, and new perspectives that participants bring in by referencing their own experiences and additional possibilities for involvement and action (Dewe et al., 1992; Bohnsack, 2020). Importantly, dialogic analysis already begins when participants negotiate what belongs in the left and right columns: multiple interpretations emerge and are often compared with participants’ own cases. The middle column then intensifies dialogicity by shifting from description to the projection of possible actions: participants generate hypotheses, identify contradictions, and propose mediations that expand the field of action by bringing “Others” (students, parents, colleagues, specialists, institutions) into shared sense-making and responsibility. This supports a trajectory from individual agency (“I must manage”) toward extended, relational agency (“we reorganise meanings, conditions and responsibilities with others”), consistent with ecological understandings of teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2015) and dialogic accounts of the agency–control contradiction (Rajala et al., 2016).

The paper contributes to NW10 debates by offering an empirically grounded and scalable design for linking professional knowledge, identity, and agency through dialogic inquiry with experience texts—particularly relevant for inclusive education and multi-actor professional contexts.

Reflective practices in teacher education have been widely adopted but are also questioned in research contexts that privilege standardisation, measurability, and external validation. Although reflective practices have repeatedly been shown to support preservice teachers’ (PSTs) learning and identity development, ambiguities remain regarding how reflective thinking should be conceptualised and evaluated. Thus, in the context of both current educational research and teacher education practices, clarifying the value of reflective thinking has become particularly important. Drawing on Williams et al.’s (2002) five-level model, this study examines how different levels of reflective thinking correspond to PSTs’ self-positioning as both students and novice teachers, as portrayed in their reflective discourse.

Feedback is a cyclical process amplifying a signal from e.g., an electric guitar, dependent on the interplay of guitarist, amplifier and distance (Deane-Freeman, 2025). In cybernetics, feedback is also cyclical, enabling control of a system by ‘reinserting into it the results of its past performance’ (Wiener, 1985:6). In most teacher education contexts, however, feedback devolves to a one-way process from a tutor/mentor to a student-teacher. This can occur even when a deliberately relational approach is taken (Heron et al., 2023). The cyclical aspect is often ignored in favour of relaying sufficient information to enable the student-teacher to ‘improve’ their practice in a short period of time. Hence feedback in ITE settings in England, for example, is couched in the simplified status-language of the Initial Teacher Training Early Career Framework (ITTECF: a ‘trainee receiving…mentoring, through structured feedback from expert colleagues…for improving practice’ DfE, 2024, p.7). Rather than cyclical, feedback becomes impartation or just ‘telling.’

Feedback in this context is fraught with issues of agency and power: it downplays discourse and privileges unidirectional ‘training.’ It reflects precisely how the ‘persons’ involved in feedback are understood: the tutor/mentor and the student-teacher are replaced, in the ITTECF, by their doppelgangers of ‘expert colleagues’ and ‘trainees’ respectively (Pierlejewski et al, 2025). The status hierarchy thus created means that feedback from one doppelganger to the other (‘expert colleague’ to ‘trainee’) cannot help but be unidirectional.

Distinguishing between hierarchy of status and a hierarchy of expertise enables us to reconfigure relationships assumed in feedback conversations (Biesta, 2025). Tutor/mentors function in a range of personal and professional roles as they develop skills and critical dispositions in teachers-to-be. Careful separation of real selves from their ‘doppelgangers’ is necessary to reconfigure the tutor/mentor, student-teacher and the learning-from-feedback in a fuller, more complex relationship to one another.

I argue from the work of Palmer (being both the knower and the known; Palmer, 1983), from Bakhtin (engaging the ‘excess of sight’ that enables the knower/known to see what the ‘other’ cannot; Bakhtin, 1993), the conceptions of self described in Butler (2005), Levinas (1981) and Wirzba (2021), and the discipline of ‘noticing’ in the work of Mason (2011), that there exist varying ways to reconfigure the relationship between the new knowledge provided by feedback, the participant providing the ‘feedback signal’ and the ‘other’ who ‘amplifies’ it. Either person can provide a signal or its amplification. That is the nature of feedback.

This has several practical applications to the reconfigured relationship between tutor/mentors, student-teachers and the learning the feedback conversation generates. These concern the requirement for a shared feedback literacy (Carless & Winstone, 2023), the use of feedback to unearth student criticality, to recast the pedagogy of feedback as fundamentally relational, to welcome excess of sight as a means to deeper learning and to equalise the status-hierarchy to a respectful one so that the experience and expertise of both actors comes into play.

The growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has significantly influenced how knowledge is produced, interpreted, and mobilized within teaching and learning processes (Luckin et al., 2016; Holmes, Bialik, & Fadel, 2019). In the field of teacher education, AI is predominantly discussed in relation to digital competence, instructional efficiency, and personalized learning environments, often emphasizing teachers’ preparedness to operate within increasingly data-driven and automated educational systems (Redecker, 2017; Williamson, Eynon, & Potter, 2020). While this body of research highlights the transformative potential of AI, it largely conceptualizes knowledge as a technical and instrumental resource, frequently detached from ethical, cultural, and social justice considerations (Selwyn, 2019; Akgun & Greenhow, 2021). As a result, the relationship between knowing AI and acting in culturally responsive and equitable ways remains under-theorized and insufficiently examined in teacher education research (Kizilcec & Lee, 2020).

Critical scholarship has increasingly problematized the assumption that AI technologies are neutral or value-free. Studies demonstrate that algorithms and data-driven systems frequently reproduce existing power relations, cultural hierarchies, and structural inequalities embedded in their design and training data (Benjamin, 2019; Noble, 2018). Despite these concerns, teacher education research tends to prioritize AI literacy and technological proficiency, with limited attention to how teachers are prepared to engage critically with AI as a cultural and ethical phenomenon. This creates a significant gap between knowledge production in AI-related teacher education research and the pedagogical actions required to promote equity and inclusion in diverse educational contexts.

Culturally responsive pedagogy offers a powerful framework for interrogating this gap. Grounded in the recognition of learners’ cultural identities and the moral responsibilities of teaching, culturally responsive pedagogy positions educational practice as inherently value-laden and action-oriented (Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995). However, existing literature suggests that even when issues of diversity and equity are acknowledged, they are rarely integrated into discussions of emerging educational technologies such as AI. Consequently, the literature reflects a persistent knowing–acting divide: while research increasingly recognizes the risks and biases associated with AI, it offers limited guidance on how such knowledge can be translated into culturally responsive pedagogical action.

The ECER 2026 theme, *“Knowing and Acting: The changing conditions and potentials of education research,”* provides a timely lens for examining this disconnect. In the context of AI and teacher education, this theme invites critical reflection on how educational research frames knowledge, whose knowledge is privileged, and how research contributes—or fails to contribute—to transformative educational practice. Yet, to date, no comprehensive review has systematically examined how AI-related teacher education literature conceptualizes the relationship between knowing and acting from a culturally responsive and ethical perspective.

Addressing this gap is essential for advancing both theory and practice. A critical synthesis of literature can illuminate dominant epistemological assumptions, identify silences and omissions, and foreground the conditions under which AI-related knowledge may support culturally responsive and socially just educational action. Such an analysis is crucial not only for teacher education research but also for broader debates about responsibility, equity, and agency in the age of artificial intelligence.

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly large language model–based tools, is reshaping educational practices across Europe (Cukorova et al., 2024), and these tools are transforming teaching and learning practices (UNESCO, 2023). Unfortunately, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) may be unprepared to equip teacher trainers and future teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to integrate AI into teaching and learning in an ethical and creative manner. Moreover, the inherent ethical and practical risks (Wieczorek et al., 2025) and national regulations set limits on how different institutions and schools can implement GenAI tools. Thus, teachers and teacher trainers face competing demands from various stakeholders and may struggle with conflicting pressures.

While recent research has begun to explore teachers’ AI readiness (Wang et al., 2023) and pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards GenAI (Gamlem et al., 2025), the role of teacher trainers remains under-theorised and under-examined, despite their central position in shaping both initial teacher education (ITE) and continuous professional development (CPD). Therefore, research-based approaches to integrating AI literacy into teacher training are needed. Unfortunately, despite rising scholarly interest (Liu et al., 2023; Cukorova et al., 2024), evidence-based pedagogical strategies for integrating ethical and creative applications of AI in teaching and learning remain limited.

This paper draws on data from EmpowerAId, an Erasmus+ Teacher Academies project involving ITE and CPD providers from eight European countries. The project aims to strengthen AI literacy and ethical awareness among pre- and in-service teachers by developing a European “Train the Trainer” programme and fostering cross-sectoral collaboration between teacher educators, policymakers, and education technology stakeholders. As part of the project’s needs analysis phase, qualitative interviews were conducted with teacher trainers to explore existing practices, institutional conditions, and perceived tensions related to GenAI integration in teacher education. By interviewing teacher trainers across different European countries, we aim to explore how AI is used in teacher training, what pedagogical value it offers, how policies or institutional structures affect training, and what differences exist between these countries.

Our research questions are:

1. How are teacher trainers across eight countries positioned in relation to GenAI?
2. What institutional conditions shape these positions?
3. What recurring cross-country tensions emerge?

The findings inform both institutional decision-making and policy development by foregrounding the voices and practices of teacher trainers as key agents in the AI transition in education.

In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the discourse on equipping future teachers with the needed technological skills to effectively navigate the evolving classrooms continues to be prioritized in different educational policy contexts. According to Ejjami (2024), “the educational system has to change to keep up with technological improvements by incorporating advanced learning tools, updating curricula to include AI literacy, and training educators to utilize these technologies in the classroom effectively” (p. 3). The integration of GenAI in educational practices during the past decade has been leading to various inquiries on what implications AI may have for teacher education preparation and the kind of complexities future teachers are anticipated to face in terms of teaching, assessment, and ethical practices (Aydarova, 2023; Mai, 2024; Niu et al., 2022; Zulkarnain & Yunus, 2023). Studies have shown that the use of AI tools may foster educational effectiveness for both teachers and learners including an enhanced personalized learning and the creation of more engaging and supportive learning environments (Mai, 2024). That said, educational effectiveness and future teachers’ readiness for AI-integrated classrooms calls for revisiting teacher education programs to understand the existing limitations and possibilities surrounding the adoption of GenAI in teacher education designs (Gupta, 2024).

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), various policies and directives have been issued to further advance AI in education with the recent announcement of the government’s initiative of introducing GenAI as a mandatory subject in all UAE’s public schools’ curricula from Kindergarten to grade 12 effective August 2025 (Education UAE, 2025). The aim is to develop students’ skills, competencies, and knowledge for a fast-developing and technology-infused educational landscape. In Canada, GenAI use among university students is on the rise. The latest 2025 Canadian Student Wellbeing Report showed that 78% of students use AI tools to assist with their assignments and studying (Studiosity, 2025). University students use GenAI for a variety of purposes, most of which are closely related to academic tasks. These tasks include drafting essays, proofreading, solving complex problems, and conducting research (Gracey et al., 2025). GenAI tools assist students in comprehending academic content and serve as a personalized learning aid that reduces academic stress by simplifying complex concepts (Lin et al., 2024). However, in a study by KPMG, Canada ranked 44th in AI training and literacy out of 47 countries, and 28th among 30 advanced economies (KPMG, 2025).

As limited comparative studies on GenAI in teacher education between Canada and the UAE exist, this study was sought to examine the perspectives of PSTs in both countries on AI integration in teacher education through a survey with open and close-ended questions. The study aimed to understand how PSTs in both countries, based on their situated context, conceptualize this integration of GenAI and its implications to their professional practice in the classroom. We were interested in answering the following research questions:

1. How do PSTs in Canada and the UAE view AIEd and its integration in teacher education programs?
2. What are PSTs’ perceived needs for AI-related training?

The OECD AI Literacy Framework (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) & European Commission, 2025) was employed as the study’s theoretical lens. It provides a definition for AI across four different domains namely Engage with AI, Create with AI, Manage AI, and Design AI. Engage with AI is about recognizing the use of AI and evaluating its outputs critically. Create with AI relates to collaborating with AI to generate ideas and assist in problem solving. Manage AI and Design AI are for how users can delegate tasks for AI and understand the principles of AI systems and impact respectively.

Changing political, technological, and methodological landscapes challenge established ways of understanding and legitimizing educational research. These developments make it increasingly important to examine how key educational constructs are conceptualized within this evolving ecosystem. Against this backdrop, teaching quality represents a central and widely debated construct. International interest in understanding and improving teaching quality has grown steadily, as reflected in major comparative initiatives and global reports (OECD, 2005; UNESCO, 2014). This attention is well justified, given that high‑quality teaching is theoretically assumed to be one of the most powerful classroom‑related factors influencing student learning and achievement (Kyriakides et al., 2021). Empirically, however, the evidence base is more nuanced: findings from teaching effectiveness research reveal mixed and sometimes inconsistent effects of teaching quality on student learning gains (Praetorius et al., 2025).

One explanation for the heterogeneous findings lies in the diversity of models used to conceptualize teaching quality across countries, research traditions, and educational systems (Charalambous et al., 2025). In the German-speaking research tradition, teaching quality has predominantly been framed using the Three Basic Dimensions of Teaching Quality (e.g., Klieme et al., 2006), which emphasizes classroom management, cognitive activation, and supportive learning environments as key dimensions of teaching quality. In contrast, the discourse in the US is largely shaped by the Teaching Through Interactions approach (Hamre et al., 2013) and its corresponding observation instrument: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (e.g., Pianta & Hamre, 2009), which focuses on emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. These examples illustrate that teaching quality is not a universally defined construct but one that is deeply embedded in cultural, institutional, and methodological contexts. Consequently, any attempt to describe or compare teaching quality must take into account how the construct is understood and conceptualized within the respective context (Praetorius et al., 2025).

One context that seems particularly relevant here is the school level (Blömeke & Olsen, 2019) as school levels differ systematically in a variety of relevant contextual factors, such as classroom composition. This is particularly evident in primary schools, which are characterized, for instance, by extremely heterogeneous classroom compositions. To be able to validly interpret studies on teaching quality in primary schools, it is therefore necessary to ask how teaching quality is conceptualized in these studies. While systematic reviews on the conceptualization of teaching quality already exist for secondary education (e.g., Appels et al., 2021) or for specific models of teaching quality (e.g., Praetorius et al., 2018), such reviews with an international perspective are still lacking for the primary school sector and the specific needs of this student population. This gap is noteworthy, given the unique pedagogical challenges and developmental needs of primary school students in a constantly changing world. Despite the growing body of research in this area, a systematic overview that synthesizes international conceptualizations of teaching quality in primary education has not yet been provided. This is where the present paper comes in, in which we conducted a systematic review on teaching quality in primary education. Our aim is to identify the conceptual models used in this literature and to examine how these models are translated into concrete dimensions and subdimensions within empirical studies. Based on this objective, the research questions guiding our review are as follows:

1. Which models are used to conceptualize teaching quality in international studies from the primary school context?
2. Which dimensions and subdimensions from the models are actually used in the studies?

Across contemporary education systems, competence-based curricular reforms increasingly emphasise higher-order thinking, argumentation, and research-oriented learning as essential outcomes of secondary education. International studies highlight that students’ success depends not only on content knowledge but also on their ability to interpret information, evaluate sources, identify causal patterns, and construct justified conclusions (Hattie, 2023; OECD, 2019). These competencies are particularly central in History and Geography, where disciplinary learning requires evidence-based reasoning, interpretation of multiple representations (texts, maps, graphs), and the integration of historical and spatial perspectives.

Diagnostic assessments conducted with Grade 12 students at a Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Kazakhstan indicated that many learners remained at a descriptive level when responding to inquiry tasks. Students experienced difficulty in formulating research questions, linking evidence to claims, and building coherent explanations grounded in sources. Classroom observations further revealed a reliance on intuitive reasoning rather than systematic argument structures. This suggests the need for structured cognitive scaffolding that can support learners in making analytical thinking visible and transferable across tasks.

This action research investigates the pedagogical potential of the Claim–Analysis–Evidence (CAE) framework as a structured reasoning tool designed to strengthen students’ research competence. CAE operationalises academic reasoning by requiring learners to (1) state a claim, (2) explain causal and analytical reasoning, and (3) support ideas with relevant evidence and examples. The framework aligns with principles of cognitive scaffolding, which supports learners in managing complex thinking processes through structured prompts, gradual release of responsibility, and explicit modelling.

The CAE approach also draws on disciplinary literacy and inquiry-based learning, which emphasise that students learn best when they engage in authentic disciplinary practices such as source evaluation, reasoning with data, and argument construction (Spires et al., 2020; Kostaris & Chatzakis, 2022). From an international and European educational perspective, CAE supports key goals in competence-based reforms by promoting critical thinking, structured argumentation, and academically responsible communication.

Research Questions

1. To what extent does the systematic use of CAE cards improve Grade 12 students’ research skills in History and Geography (e.g., argumentation, source-based thinking, analytical reasoning, and conclusion drawing)?
2. How do students perceive the CAE framework in relation to learning motivation and metacognitive awareness during inquiry tasks?

This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions to research on instructional quality in multilingual secondary science education.

First, it contributes to pedagogical research by providing empirical evidence on how structured, multilingual physics workbooks can function as an effective instructional intervention in upper secondary classrooms where subjects are taught through multiple languages. By integrating sequenced explanations, scaffolded problem-solving tasks, visual representations, and subject-specific academic vocabulary, the workbooks support students’ simultaneous development of conceptual understanding and disciplinary language. The findings extend existing research on CLIL and multilingual STEM education by demonstrating how carefully designed learning materials can reduce cognitive load and improve coherence between instruction, learning activities, and assessment.

Second, the study contributes to instructional quality research by highlighting the role of teacher-developed materials as a mechanism for improving lesson organization, pacing, and formative assessment practices. The workbooks provided a consistent instructional framework that supported alignment between curriculum objectives, classroom activities, and exam-oriented tasks. Teacher reflection data indicate that the structured design enabled systematic identification of instructional challenges and informed iterative improvements in teaching practice.

Third, the study offers a methodological contribution through the use of a classroom-based mixed-methods approach that combines learning outcome data with qualitative insights into instructional processes and student experience. This approach illustrates how practitioner-led research can generate robust evidence while remaining closely connected to classroom realities.

Finally, the study contributes practical value by demonstrating that low-cost, scalable instructional tools can meaningfully enhance teaching quality and student achievement in linguistically diverse contexts. The findings are relevant for teachers, school leaders, and education researchers seeking sustainable strategies to support high-quality physics instruction in multilingual education systems.

Spiritual formation—understood as a lifelong, biblically guided process of growth and transformation—has been associated with self‑control, prosocial behaviour, self‑esteem, and reduced risk behaviours across diverse faith backgrounds. Yet attendance at a Christian ethos school does not guarantee students’ spiritual development, and practices such as chapel or Bible classes are often insufficient to catalyse meaningful change. This submission advances a systems view integrating learning environment research with spiritual formation—positioning students’ perceptions of school and classroom climate as pivotal levers for improvement—and examines how a systems‑informed framework, such as the Supporting Spiritual Formation Framework (SSFF), can guide efforts to enhance spiritual formation.

Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological theory and informed by the Systems View of School Climate and cultural ecological perspectives, we introduce the SSFF. The framework conceptualises spiritual formation as emerging from dynamic interactions among nested systems: macrosystem (cultural values and Christian principles), community exosystem (board and church governance), school exosystem (policies and structures), school microsystem (students’ lived experience of school climate), classroom nanosystem (pedagogy and management), and relational nanosystems (teacher–student and peer relationships). Central to the SSFF is the premise that perceived reality—as reflected in students’ reports—should guide school improvement.

A literature‑informed synthesis identified twelve malleable factors within schools’ control that influence spiritual formation (e.g., psychological safety, curriculum integration, inclusion and respect, competent teaching, mission alignment, community partnerships, service learning). These informed the design of the Christian Education Health Check (CEHC), a 68‑item instrument with 13 scales mapping onto the SSFF systems (e.g., School Connectedness, Teacher Support, Peer Connectedness, Bible Teaching, Bible Teaching Across Subjects, Inspirational Teaching, Freedom to Question, Reporting and Seeking Help, Affirming Diversity, Learning to Live as a Christian, Understanding the World and Social Problems, Encouraging Engagement with Spiritual Disciplines, Practical Service). The CEHC has been administered to 2,196 students across five Christian ethos schools and demonstrates robust psychometric properties via exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

We illustrate research‑to‑practice translation through a case study of “Roseberry Christian School” (pseudonym; ~600 students, Grades EC–10), which implemented a six‑step, co‑designed improvement process extending established learning environment cycles through collaborative codesign and leadership‑driven system planning. Data included CEHC scales plus four outcomes (Christian spiritual formation, moral identity, resilience, hope) for 188 students (Years 5–10), complemented by focus groups (n = 54; Years 7–10). Descriptive analyses revealed strengths (Peer Connectedness, Adult Support, Bible Teaching, Learning to Live as a Christian) and areas for growth (Inspirational Teaching, World and Social Problems, Practical Service), alongside concerns about Reporting and Seeking Help. Disaggregation showed less favourable experiences for students preferring not to state gender. Structural equation modelling indicated spiritual formation was positively associated with Inspirational Teaching and Peer Connectedness, not significantly linked with Bible Teaching per se, and negatively associated with Reporting and Seeking Help and learning about World and Social Problems. Interviews explained these patterns: students valued authentic, meaning‑focused pedagogy and relational sharing by teachers; they reported few opportunities to explore complex social issues or translate learning into constructive action, and feared peer backlash when reporting concerns.

Co‑design workshops produced short‑ and long‑term actions (e.g., age‑tailored chapel, speaker diversity, student‑driven topic selection, professional learning on facilitating dialogue, redesign of Christian Studies), while leadership created two new roles to embed service learning and re‑envision chapel and Christian formation. The SSFF functioned as both conceptual heuristic and practical improvement guide. We conclude by advocating for longitudinal, multilevel, and generative designs to evaluate systems‑level change, and for sustained, relationally grounded practices that make room for questioning, reflection, and agency—across subjects, not only in Christian education.

This paper explores contemporary far-right imaginaries (specifically the so-called “Great Replacement”) as educational phenomena rather than simply as political ideologies or epistemic errors. The guiding claim I try to make is that such narratives function as pedagogical projects: they teach people how to see, how to judge, and how to experience time under conditions often described as post-truth. Their effectiveness lies less in the persuasiveness of their arguments than in their capacity to form habits of perception, credibility, and temporal orientation. In recent years, educational responses to the far right have largely taken the form of antifascist education, focusing on exposure, debunking, and moral denunciation. While ethically necessary, these responses appear educationally insufficient (and are kind of failing if we consider the widespread success of proto-fascist ideas). Belief in “replacement” narratives persists even when factual claims are challenged, and empirical research suggests that such beliefs often operate as coherent interpretive frameworks rather than as isolated false propositions. This persistence raises a distinctly pedagogical question: what is being learned, and how, when these narratives become compelling? I approach this question int his paper from a philosophy of education perspective, arguing that far-right discourses should be understood as competing educational projects, that is, projects that organize experience, not merely opinion. Drawing on pragmatist and post-critical traditions, I argue that ideas cannot be assessed only by their truth or falsity in advance of their circulation; they must also be examined in terms of what they do pedagogically: how they orient attention, distribute credibility, and render certain experiences intelligible while foreclosing others. My analysis focuses on two widely circulated texts by the French writer and activist Renaud Camus, The Great Replacement and You Will Not Replace Us! Rather than treating these texts as objects to be unmasked or debunked, I depart from adopting an immanent reading, tracing how they educate perception and temporality from within. This approach does not suspend ethical or political judgment; rather, it pays careful attention as a condition for educational critique. The question is not whether these ideas are objectionable (they are), but trying to understand how they become formatively effective and where are their flaws from the inside. A key concern of the paper is to clarify why conventional educational responses so often fail. Replacement narratives do not simply deny facts; they reconfigure what counts as evidence, how mediation is interpreted, and when deliberation is considered legitimate. They frequently transform the present from a space of inquiry into a space of urgency, where learning appears as weakness and hesitation as complicity. In this sense, the problem is not only epistemic but temporal: these discourses teach people how to feel time. The paper also clarifies the distinctive responsibility of education in relation to other public arenas. Political and journalistic responses are oriented toward decision, exposure, and urgency; education, by contrast, is responsible for cultivating the conditions of judgment, attentiveness, and shared criteria. From this standpoint, immanent (post-critcal) reading is not an indulgence but an educational necessity. If education is to respond meaningfully to contemporary fascist imaginaries, it must intervene at the level where these imaginaries work: the formation of habits, orientations, and temporal experience.

Contemporary educational policy and practice are increasingly characterised by the proliferation of “buzzwords” that purport to signal innovation, reform, and responsiveness to social change. Terms such as active citizenship, gamification, digitalisation, AI, 21st century skills, sustainable education, safe spaces, critical thinking, and well-being, have become ubiquitous across policy documents, research agendas, and professional discourse (Stenersen & Prøitz 2022). Such terms are also widely discussed within the philosophy of education, often from a critical standpoint and typically as individual cases (e.g., Biesta 2010). Rather than offering another review of existing critiques, this paper seeks to move beyond case-by-case analysis in order to interrogate the phenomenon of educational buzzwords at a more general level. It asks what is at stake in the contemporary circulation of buzzwords in education and how this phenomenon might be understood and addressed. To this end, the paper approaches buzzword discourse from three perspectives: conceptual, normative, and critical and post-critical (Hodgson et al. 2017).
Conceptually, the paper examines how buzzwords operate through semantic looseness rather than precision. Their apparent inclusivity allows them to accommodate competing interpretations while avoiding explicit normative commitments. This elasticity enables ideas with long and contested philosophical histories – such as autonomy, Bildung, or care - to be reintroduced under new labels, detached from their original ethical and theoretical frameworks. As a result, educational concepts are flattened into managerial or instrumental terms that prioritise measurability, adaptability, and policy alignment over educational meaning.
From a normative perspective, the paper argues that the repeated renaming of educational ideas raises significant ethical concerns. When familiar practices are rebranded rather than critically re-examined, opportunities for substantive normative debate about the purposes of education are foreclosed. Buzzwords tend to present themselves as self-evidently desirable, thereby limiting space for dissent and obscuring value-laden assumptions about learners, teachers, and society. In this way, buzzword discourse contributes to the depoliticisation of education, displacing questions of justice, authority, and responsibility with technical, motivational, or managerial language.
Finally, the paper situates educational buzzwords within broader traditions of critique concerning instrumental reason and the trivialization of educational thought. It argues that the rapid turnover of terminology produces an illusion of progress while reinforcing continuity in underlying power relations. The emphasis on constant conceptual renewal privileges adaptability and responsiveness over historical understanding and critical judgment, fostering a culture in which educators are expected to adopt new vocabularies rather than interrogate their implications. At the same time, the paper moves beyond a purely critical impulse that treats buzzwords solely as instruments of linguistic governance. It also approaches them as forms of cliché that, nevertheless, carry significant meaning. As Hannah Arendt (1994, 311) reminds us, we must “become very humble … and listen closely to popular language”, persistently returning to reality in an effort to understand what is truly happening.

Failing is an integral part of educational and pedagogical phenomena. When pursuing educational or pedagogical ambitions, there is no guarantee of success. Students and teachers, educational programs, and educational institutions can and often do fail to achieve their goals. (Bellenberg/Klemm 2000, Schäfer 1991). Education thus proves to be uncertain and risky.

In educational research, however, this aspect is often reinterpreted positively; for example, in the context of learning or “Bildung”, where negative experiences are regarded as productive for processes of formation or transformation of world-self-relations (Buck 1989, Rödel 2017, Koller 2023). Within these concepts failure refers not only to the failure of “old” notions and world-self-relations, as an event that initiates the process, but also to the possibility that nothing new replaces the old. Especially in relation to ‘Bildung’ failure characterizes a part of the process, insofar as the alienation of a former world-relation involves the risk of losing oneself (Humboldt 1793/1960). Yet despite these considerations, in most educational studies, failure and its effectstend to be overlooked (Rieger-Ladich 2013). Since ‘Bildung’ is an internationally discussed theorem, the findings of our paper are relevant to educational science and theory in general.

Therefore, in this paper we explicitly focus on failure and how it can be further understood. Rather than equating it with the mere non-achievement of predefined educational goals or reframing it as merely a learning opportunity, we understand failure as an integral moment of educational processes, practices and relations, that affects the subjectivity of those involved. It occurs when educationally relevant intentions or ambitions collapse in such a way that not only the intended goal is missed, but trust in one’s own ability is at least temporarily suspended (Rieger-Ladich 2013), and is therefore perceived as a loss of autonomy by those experiencing it (Junge 2004). This also means acknowledging that educational contexts are highly precarious, as from this point of view, failure is not merely a temporary setback but something that can lead to the loss of social status and “failed” biographies (Rieger-Ladich 2012).

To explore this blind spot, we turn to literary texts. Drawing on findings from our joint research project, which investigates the failure of pedagogical ambitions as reflected in contemporary literature, we argue that literary narratives offer access to dimensions of education that are difficult to capture using traditional research methods. As contemporary literary texts are not bound by the need for coherence or normative justification, they may express contradictory or morally ambiguous positions and explore what tends to be suppressed (Casale 2005). In this sense, they potentially reveal discrepancies between educational aspirations and the actual consequences of pedagogical engagement (Koller/Rieger-Ladich 2013). We therefore comprehend literary texts to be particularly well-suited to exploring failure within educational contexts. This turn toward literature is not without precedent. Over the last twenty years, the use of literary texts as the object of educational research has become more established (Koller/Rieger-Ladich 2005, 2009, 2013).

Following these contributions, we analyze literary texts regarding failure. The paper proceeds in two steps. First, we outline the theoretical and methodological principles guiding the analysis, referring to existing educational concepts of failure as well as prior approaches to the educational reading of literary texts. We then present a comparative analysis of selected novels, examining how the failure of pedagogically (relevant) ambitions is portrayed within these texts. Who or what fails under which conditions? How is this failure experienced and how is it dealt with?

Post-critical pedagogy has emerged as a response to the dominance of critique and ideological suspicion in educational theory (Hodgson, Vlieghe, & Zamojski, 2018). Rather than approaching educational practices primarily as carriers of hidden ideology to be exposed, post-critical work seeks to redirect attention to what practices make possible in and through their enactment. This shift has opened space for affirmation and for renewed attention to the intrinsic value of educational practices. At the same time, it raises a persistent philosophical challenge: how can questions of power, dependence, and emancipation be addressed without reverting either to ideological unmasking or to naïve affirmation that downplays constraint and domination?

This paper contributes to post-critical pedagogy by exploring the ontological implications of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) for educational thought (Harman, 2018). It argues that OOO provides conceptual resources to move beyond the opposition between critique and affirmation by reconceiving educational practices as a plurality of irreducible wholes whose reality exceeds both critical diagnosis and affirmative endorsement.

To explore this, the paper introduces a hypothetical classroom vignette. Two children, Yasmin and David, stand on opposite sides of an illuminated globe, naming countries and continents. From an OOO perspective, educational situations consist of a plurality of wholes. In this vignette, Yasmin, David, and the globe may each be understood as distinct wholes. These wholes, however, are not limited to physical representations. Activities, interactions, and emergent constellations may also be understood as wholes. With this ontological orientation in view, we return to the case.

As the interaction unfolds, Yasmin announces that she is the captain and David is a deckhand, and together they embark on an imagined journey to the North Pole. In this moment, the globe no longer functions merely as a representational object marked with borders and names, but participates in the enactment of an explorer world. The children are no longer only pupils, but sailors navigating risk, danger, and uncertainty. A new whole emerges—a globe-explorer world—that cannot be reduced to the children, the artefact, or their relations taken separately. This world has its own coherence, dynamics, and possibilities.

Central to OOO is the claim that wholes are irreducible and possess a withdrawn dimension: an inexhaustible reality that cannot be fully accessed, explained, or exhausted by interpretation, use, or critique. Educational practices, understood as worlds, therefore always exceed what can be said about them. Critique and affirmation are not properties of practices themselves, nor normative positions to be adopted, but modes through which pedagogical worlds may appear. A post-critical pedagogy grounded in OOO resists both critical reduction and affirmative closure, attending instead to how these dynamics emerge, interact, and recede within educational worlds.

From this perspective, the globe-explorer world illustrates how educational practices cannot be exhausted by either oppressive or emancipatory interpretations. Hierarchical roles such as captain and deckhand introduce asymmetries that organise participation and may reproduce relations of subordination. Yet this world simultaneously affords possibilities of inquiry, imagination, adventure, and risk that exceed the globe and the children as separate entities. Following OOO, these possibilities arise from the emergence of a new world. OOO, as a form of speculative realism, provides a way of approaching this hidden world without collapsing it into domination or liberation. What is educationally at stake is the world’s ontological surplus—an excess that withdraws from full access and therefore can only be approached speculatively, opening possibilities that resist prediction and control.

This ontological reorientation allows post-critical pedagogy to move beyond the opposition between critique and affirmation.

School assemblages (Bennet, 2010) with their communities of people, curricula, buildings, connections with services, financial resources etc are entangled with their localities. Generally, great emphasis is put onto the importance of schools for communities and the possibilities of reciprocal benefits-for example the OECD (2018) state ‘Schools do not operate in a vacuum. Successful schools depend on the resources and support of their communities and schools at the centre of their communities are often the most successful schools. In turn, schools are vital to the social health of their local communities.” (OECD, 2018. Valuing our Teachers and Raising their Status How Communities Can Help).

Schools may be seen as ‘assets’ to places (Forrester et al, 2020) and are often expressed as ‘hearts’ of communities (Fargas Malet & Bagley, 2024), as ‘anchor institutions’ (Townshend et al, 2022) or learning hubs, at the social centre of communities (Cleveland et al, 2023). However, with the disconnection of schools from their communities and localities through mobility of students and school choice, for example, school-locality assemblages may be much more complex than first imagined (Wilkins, 2018).

With a renewed focus on demographic changes in Europe and other parts of the world, the possibilities of school closures are higher on political agenda (Eddins et al, 2024). There is a great deal of talk about school closures and rationalisations across the world, contingent with contemporary global polycrises, which includes demographic changes including rural depopulation (for example in Japan and India, urban population shifts in the US and reducing birth rates (such as in England). Studies of the impacts of the closure of schools on their communities (and the injustices associated with these) are significant but remain primarily anecdotal and small and there has been little systematic exploration of the wider impacts of school closures on their communities (Sageman, 2022).

The contributions in this symposium will bring together the work of researchers interested in the educational, social, economic and environmental impacts of schools and their assemblages in and with their communities and localities, in these times of liquid modernity (Bauman, 2000). As schools and their networks are rationalised, closed or reduced in size in response to population decline and reorganisations, the human resources (teachers, school leaders, students etc) are impacted. This diverse collection of papers considers impact factors external to schools such as demographic change and associated policy development. The collection also includes studies focussed within schools, including a consideration of school leaders and the status and preparation for multi-age teaching and learning in combined classes, listening to those with lived experience.

Within Europe it has been recognised that school closures are a threat and often associated with “a policy bias which presumes that rural schools are somehow deficient” (Malet & Bagley, 2021, p. 830). It is important to understand the impact of this policy bias on the lived experience of rural primary schools and their communities. Through qualitative research a portrait of small rural school in its community in Scotland was developed. Research was carried out within a small rural primary school from August to December 2022. The school been part of previous closure consultations. The methodology of portraiture was utilised to paint a picture of the relationship of the school and its community to national policy. The portraitist aimed to “interpret the perspectives and experience” of the school community of Onloch Primary School and ‘document their voice, visions, authority, knowledge and wisdom of policy in action in the small rural primary school (Lawrence-Lighfoot & Davis, 1997, p xv). Data was captured through observation, discussion and semi- structured interviews with the children, staff and parents of the school to build a picture of the lived experiences and the daily life of the school. The day-to-day portraits of how policy impacted on practice were illustrated through the work of the Head Teacher, teachers and children. Their practice demonstrated their ability to develop different teaching approaches in a multigrade classroom (Cannella, 2020). They were also skilled actors of interpreting policy for their context utilising the learning environment, the place and space for the enactment of policy (Priestley and Philippou, 2018). The portrait conveys the story of how the school within its setting and context and challenges the deficit policy bias. There is a strong commitment to the outdoor environment and the role of the school in the community. The children were at the centre of their learning in context and were encouraged to ask, interogate, innovate and question their findings. Onloch Primary School demonstrated that it was a “community active” school (Solstad,1997) learning in the environment and gaining knowledge about sustainability locally and globally. However, there remains a challenge on how to sustain and support education in rurally isolated areas where the rolls may be small. The importance of the views and voices of the subjects within the portrait are important to the future of rural schools.

Cannella G (2020) Globalizing the local and localizing the global: The role of the ICT in isolated mountain and island schools in Italy. In: Gristy C, Hargreaves L, Kučerová SR (eds) Educational Research and Schooling in Rural Europe: An Engagement with Changing Patterns of Education, Space, and Place. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing, pp.217–235. Fargas-Malet, M., & Bagley, C. (2021). Is small beautiful? A scoping review of 21st-century research on small rural schools in Europe. European Educational Research Journal, 21(5), 822-844. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041211022202 (Original work published 2022) Lawrence-Lightfoot, S., and Hoffman Davis., (1997) The Art and Science of Portraiture, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Priestley, M., & Philippou, S. (2018). Curriculum making as social practice: complex webs of enactment. Curriculum Journal (London, England), 29(2), 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2018.1451096 Solstad KJ (1997) Equity at Risk. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press

In this abstract a small school is defined as a school with fewer than 50 pupils, often located in remote and sparsely populated areas and there are combined classes (see Peltonen & Kilpeläinen 2025, 2; Kilpeläinen 2014, 269). Community refers to the mutual belonging of people, the development of social solidarity and the recognition of genuine citizenship (Pentti 2003, 106–108). Its prerequisites are understanding partnership, bringing one's own strengths to common use, trust relationships and reciprocal networked activities. (Kilpeläinen 2010, 81) The presentation tells the special features of small schools communality. A psychosocial strength of a small school is a strong sense of community. This is reflected in the internal cooperation of the school, the educational partnership between the school and the home, and the cooperation between the school and the surrounding community. The close interaction between a small school and the surrounding community is one of the starting points for the formation of a school's sense of community and social capital (Kalaoja 2010, 178). The school's sense of community is seamlessly integrated with an atmosphere that is comfortable, safe and homely in a small school. It is said that a small school is like a big family, where everyone knows each other and life is successful through cooperation. Each small school has its own operating culture that supports the building of a sense of community. Qualified teachers are the builders of a small school's sense of community. A sense of community forms a safety net of adults and children of different ages around the child to support and promote the child's growth and learning. (Kilpeläinen 2010)

Kalaoja, E. (2010) Mitä yhdysluokkaopetuksella tarkoitetaan? In E. Korpinen (toim.) Eläköön kyläkoulu! (pp 102-104). Opetus 2000. Jyväskylä, PS-kustannus. Kilpeläinen, R. (2010b) Kyläkoulut Suomessa: Maaseudun pienet koulut opettajien kuvaamina oppimis- ja kasvuympäristöinä. Oulun yliopisto. Kilpeläinen, R. (2014) Kuka opettaisi kyläkouluopettajia?. Kasvatus: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen aikakauskirja, 45 (3), pp 269-273. Peltonen, T. & Kilpeläinen, R. (2025) Training of village school teachers in Finland: Multi-grade teaching and inclusion. International Journal of Educational Research. Vol. 133, 2025. Pentti, V. (2003). Turvallinen yhteisö - turvattu yksilö: Turvallisuutta kasvatuksen ja yhteiskuntapolitiikan keinoin. Helsinki: Yliopistopaino.

Japan has been working on regional revitalization since 2000 with the aim of revitalizing local communities. One initiative in the revitalisation programme is the promotion of integrated community schools and local school collaborative activities in the field of education. The underlying factors leading to the need for revitalisation are diverse, including structural changes in society, the need for community revitalization due to population decline (Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2024) and teacher workload reform. Furthermore, the need for a curriculum that is open to society, as dictated by the revised National Curriculum, is also an important factor driving the need for school-community collaboration. Community schools are schools where parents, local residents, and others participate in school management with a certain degree of authority and responsibility. They share a vision of the type of children they want to raise and the type of education they should aim for, and work together to achieve those goals. A deliberative organization called a school management council has been established (Uchidayoko, 2024) Community school collaborative activities involve a wide range of local residents, supporting children's learning and growth throughout the community, and involve various activities in which the community and school work together as partners, with the aim of "school-centred community development." Community school collaborative activity coordinators play a central role in promoting school educational activities and local revitalization through collaboration between schools and the community. While these activities are being promoted nationwide, they are particularly significant in rural areas (Ueda, 2025). This presentation aims to clarify two points, using the example of community schools and local school collaboration activities in Japan: 1. what impact collaboration between schools and communities has on school educational activities and community revitalization, 2. what conditions are necessary for this impact to occur. The research methods involve text analysis of policy documents and research reports. The research subjects include policy documents issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, 2025)) and the Cabinet Office in Japan, as well as research studies commissioned by MEXT and outcome reports published by local governments. Finally, case studies will be conducted with three local governments to examine the impact and conditions clarified from the analysis.

MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and technology – Japan) (2025). Principles Guide Japan’s Educational System https://www.mext.go.jp/ en/policy/education/over view/index.htm. accessed 2025 Statistic Bureau of Japan (2024) Current Population Estimates as of October 1, 2024 https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/jinsui/2024np/index.html#a15k01-a Uchidayoko（2024)CORE High School Network Initiative Small High School Network model research report. COREハイスクール・ネットワーク構想における小規模高等学校ネットワークモデルに関する調査研究：文部科学省 Ueda, M. (2025) Building School Networks to Achieve Sustainable Small Schools: Japan’s Challenge. BELMAS conference, Brighton

The impacts of the closure of a school on its communities remain primarily anecdotal and there has been little systematic research (Sageman, 2021). School closures contingent with demographic changes including rural depopulation (for example in Japan and India) and reducing birth rates (such as in England and Italy) are happening across the world; see for example Cedering & Wihlborg (2020) Sweden; Haynes (2022) Canada; Villa & Solstad (2021) Norway; Kearns et al (2009) New Zealand). This paper reports findings of a case study of a school closure policy in England and posits a research and practice informed model being developed to assess impacts of school closures on localities. It is generally assumed that the closure of a school will have a negative impact on its community and/or locality (but this is not always the case) and there may be rules around assessing the impact of closing (or rationalising networks) of government funded schools. For example in Finland the decline in school numbers, particularly schools in villages in rural areas is well documented (See for example Lehtonen, 2021) and there are sets of rules guide local government plans for school network reorganisations, consolidations etc. The fast moving waves of school closures seen in other countries such as Poland (Kloczko-Gajewska, 2020) appear to have been primarily driven (as in many other countries) by economic rationalisation. In England there are a set of policies and actions that the organisation running the schoool (local governent) or academy/ trust is required to follow before a school can be closed or ammalgamted with another school. These are primarily based on pupil numbers and assessment of ‘viability’. Only in the case of schools designated as ‘rural’ is there a requirement to consider impacts on the local community. This paper reports a scoping literature review regarding the research evidence for the impacts of school closures on communities. There is also a detailed analysis of the ‘Opening and closing maintained schools Statutory guidance for proposers and decision makers- England’ (DfE, 2024). With a view to developing measures for systematic assessment of the impacts of school closure on communities and consideration of social and spatial dimensions. The author posits a research and practice informed model, drawing on research informed impact measurement in social and environmental sustainabilty contexts.

Cedering, M. & Wihlborg, E. (2020) Village schools as a hub in the community - A time-geographical analysis of the closing of two rural schools in southern Sweden, Journal of Rural Studies, 606-617. DfE (2024) Opening and closing maintained schools Statutory guidance for proposers and decision assets.publishing.service.gov.uk Haynes, M. (2022). The impacts of school closure on rural communities in Canada: A review. The Rural Educator, 43(2), 60-74. Kearns, R., Lewis, N., McCreanor, T. & Witten, K (2009) ‘The status quo is not an option’: Community impacts of school closure in South Taranaki, New Zealand, Journal of Rural Studies, 25 (1)131-140. Kloczko-Gajewska, A. (2020) Long-Term Impact of Closing Rural Schools on Local Social Capital: A Multiple-Case Study from Poland. European Countryside 12(4):598-617 Lehtonen, O. (2021) Primary school closures and population development – is school vitality an investment in the attractiveness of the (rural) communities or not? Journal of Rural Studies, 82. 138-147 Sageman, J (2022) School Closures and Rural Population Decline Rural Sociology 87(3), 960–992. Villa, M., Solstad, KJ. & Andrews, T. (2021) Rural schools and rural communities in times of centralization and rural–urban migration, Journal of Rural Studies, 88, 441-445

Schools have always been central to community life, but in an era in an era marked by intersecting and cascading crises, these critical social institutions and infrastructures have become more important than ever. Crises can no longer be treated as exceptional interruptions to be managed, but are instead defining conditions of twenty-first century schooling worldwide. This paper seeks to reframe crisis as both a political condition and an educational challenge. It defines education crisis under two overlapping umbrella terms of material—those that directly affect physical and social infrastructure—and epistemic crises, or those which unsettle shared values and contest the purpose of education itself. Across both, schools emerge not only as sites of vulnerability but as essential social infrastructure for community resilience. In doing so, we contend that crisis can be a productive concept for educational change when it fosters adaptability, relational leadership and practical wisdom among educators and policymakers. Recognising schools as anchors of care, coordination and recovery requires new frameworks for research, policy and practice that positions education in the centre of twenty-first century education and social policymaking. We argue that there needs to be an opening up to a broader international dialogue between educators, young people, families and communities, education leaders, policymakers, and researchers, to develop resilient and sustainable futures for schools and their communities in times of crisis.

In recent years, schools have moved beyond being primarily sites of academic instruction to becoming “multi-functional” ecosystems where the psychosocial needs of students, families, and staff are increasingly visible, and where crises (e.g., disasters, violence, loss/bereavement, social tensions, behavioral health risks) can directly disrupt everyday functioning. The poly-crisis perspective highlights that education is shaped not by a single disruption, but by multiple, intertwined crises operating simultaneously at macro levels (policy, resources, inequality) and micro levels (classroom routines, teacher resilience, student safety). Galvin et al. (2023), examining teacher education responses in Europe, shows that high-level regulatory shifts-such as changes in legislation and funding-often occur only after problems have accumulated and become visible, producing delayed effects that can persist in classrooms. In the context of ecological transformations, Bohn et al. (2025) argue that school policy and knowledge production must be reconnected through approaches that overcome conventional decision-making barriers to address urgent environmental challenges. Similarly, Homer (2024), drawing on post-pandemic Malaysia, illustrates how global shocks reconfigure school regulations and everyday teaching practices, underscoring the complex linkage between macro decisions and micro learning environments.

Within this context, Psychological First Aid (PFA) has gained prominence in schools as an early post-crisis support framework grounded in the principles of “rapid, practical, and do no harm” (Brymer et al., 2006). In school settings, first contact, immediate support, and referral practices during crises are often coordinated by school counselors in interaction with teachers, administrators, and external stakeholders (Kılınç Çelebi, 2025; Şahin Yoluk, 2023; Kılınç Çelebi, 2019; Long et al., 2018). This makes it essential to understand not only whether PFA knowledge is “known,” but under what conditions it becomes actionable in real time. At the same time, knowledge production and circulation in education and mental health is increasingly digital: online platforms, professional networks, document sharing, social media, and generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini) can accelerate access to information while intensifying concerns about credibility, verification practices, ethical responsibility, and “epistemic trust” (whom/what we deem trustworthy). The transformative role of digital platforms in education and mental health in the post–COVID-19 period is particularly evident (Maqsood et al., 2021).

Evidence on new teachers’ preparedness for emergency procedures indicates the need for “pre-crisis readiness” among school staff (Mruk, 2025). Because teachers may function as first responders, crisis intervention/PFA literacy becomes a school-wide competence rather than a counselor-only skill set. The emotional load and sense of “constant high pressure” in trauma-informed practice further indicate the need for both skills training and self-care/peer support for counselors and teachers (Kılınç Çelebi, 2025; Şahin Yoluk, 2023; Kılınç Çelebi, 2019; Long et al., 2018). Reviews of school-based mental health interventions also foreground the tension between evidence-based approaches and local adaptation (Watson, 2023). Additionally, concerns that youth behavioral health crises may be “criminalized” through school policing highlight ethical and systemic barriers and the role of advocacy in school crisis response (Morabito et al., 2025). From an environmental and sustainability perspective, Kagawa (2022) calls for climate-responsive, crisis-sensitive, and “nature-positive” educational frameworks, reinforcing the policy relevance of poly-crisis debates.

Against this backdrop, the present study asks how PFA knowledge in schools is produced/learned and circulated, through what tensions it becomes actionable in practice, and how digital ecosystems facilitate or hinder this transformation. Specifically, from school counselors’ perspectives, it examines the sources and channels of school-based PFA knowledge, the conditions under which it becomes “actionable knowledge” during crises, tensions between standardized indicators/procedures and contextual-professional judgment, and the role of digital tools (professional networks, platforms, generative AI) in these processes.

Navigating Crisis: The Role of School-Based Psychological First Aid in Knowledge Production and Digital Ecosystems for Educational Practice and Policy

Educational inequalities persist as a structural challenge within the German school system, where students' achievement and participation are closely tied to factors such as their socio-economic background, migration history, parental education, and regional context (Maaz & Lörz, 2024). These disparities are particularly evident in disadvantaged urban areas, where cumulative risks, selective transitions, and less stimulating learning environments can restrict educational and life prospects (van Ackeren et al., 2021). Large-scale assessments, including PISA 2022, confirm the enduring influence of social background. The German 2024 Education Report also highlights ongoing participation disparities relating to poverty, parental education, and regional context (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung, 2024).

In this context, school development is increasingly being conceptualised as a strategic response to spatially concentrated inequalities. Research emphasises context-sensitive processes, inclusive and visionary leadership, and integrating schools into their local communities (Arnoldt et al., 2023). The Perspektivschulprogramm in Germany implements this approach by allocating extra resources to schools in disadvantaged areas, supporting multidisciplinary teams, full-day programmes, and local partnerships. Similarly, the concept of schools as community hubs, through 'school–community partnerships' and 'community schools', illustrates a strategy for promoting learning, social support, and equity across Europe and beyond (Becks, 2023; Forell et al., 2023).

As has been pointed out, a key strategy of this framework involves systematically integrating external perspectives and resources into school development. Partnerships with families, social services, and cultural organisations allow schools to address complex learning and life challenges (Valli et al., 2016). Oakes et al. (2017) identified four core pillars of successful community schools in a systematic literature review:

1) Integrated student support to reduce social and health-related barriers to learning;

2) Expanded learning time and opportunities to provide additional free educational offerings;

3) Systematic family and community engagement to actively involve disadvantaged parents;

4) Collaborative leadership practices to foster shared responsibility, participation, and sustainable network structures.

Building on this, our study examines how school leaders (SL) at Perspektivschulen implement community-oriented development in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. The following research questions are addressed:

RQ1: How do school leaders shape regional education partnerships as part of community-oriented school development?
RQ2: What strategies do they use to sustain these partnerships over the long term?

Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 school leaders, this study examines the practical implementation of these pillars, the institutional embedding of partnerships and how leadership fosters equity-focused development. The findings contribute to European and international debates on justice-oriented school leadership, demonstrating how schools in disadvantaged contexts can promote learning, participation, and social inclusion. The study also emphasises the pivotal role of educational governance in fostering sustainable, context-sensitive and justice-oriented school development. It emphasises the potential benefits and difficulties of community-oriented strategies when combined with capacity building and systemic support at local and regional levels (Ainscow, 2020; Brücher et al., 2024).

According to the Finnish National Curriculum, schools are obligated to collaborate with parents to support children’s comprehensive well-being and learning (FNBE, 2016). Student welfare intends to promoting student’s learning and comprehensive well-being both in individual and communal levels, and includes interagency collaboration between teaching staff, health and social care professionals, as well as students and parents (Student Welfare Act, 2013). Effective home-school collaboration has been found to support student’s learning and well-being (Smith et al., 2020), as well as parents’ needs (Berg et al., 2021), but parent’s perspectives on functional collaboration between home and student welfare personnel have been studied only little.

Previous studies indicate that interaction between parents and school personnel have a meaningful impact on effective interagency collaboration. Home-school collaboration is needed for parental support, and low threshold for contacting is important for engaging dialogue between home and school (Berg et al., 2021). Most of the contact between home and school takes place via electronic applications, but parental attitudes towards digital communication varies (Kuusimäki et al., 2021), parents may expect availability and quick responses through these channels (Hedlin & Frank, 2022), and one-directional communication through platforms may seem negative or disrespectful for parents (Lutovac et al., 2024). Good home-school relationships can prevent conflicts and support the child’s development (Berg et al., 2021), and building trust between home and school requires mutuality and appreciation (Ovesen et al., 2023).

In this study, we are interested in parental empowerment in interactions with school professionals throughout the Finnish comprehensive school. The research question is: What kind of empowering factors can be recognized in interactions between parents and school professionals? Empowerment is seen as a process in which an individual's beliefs in their own abilities, influence, and agency are strengthened through interaction with their environment (Zimmerman, 2000). Empowering becomes possible when the professional’s role is more like an equal collaborator than a guiding expert. Individual empowerment consists of intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral components that reflect the individual’s beliefs on their participation, control, and critical awareness over their lives (Zimmerman, 2000).

Schools in challenging contexts are often located in regions shaped by “socio-economic polarisation and segregation processes” (Bremm et al., 2016, p. 325, own translation). They are characterised by a heterogeneous and predominantly socially disadvantaged pupil body, whose families often have low educational qualifications, are unemployed, receive social benefits, or have a migrant background. Family support in terms of encouragement and learning guidance can therefore be limited (Sacher, 2022). At the same time, school staff perceive pupils’ needs as increasingly diverse, which places high demands on educational practice. Challenges include, for example: unfavourable learning conditions, limited parental involvement, behavioural problems among pupils, and gaps in expertise in addressing special educational needs (Enssen et al., 2024; Wübben Stiftung Bildung, 2023).

To meet these challenges, school administrators are increasingly focusing on school development that is geared towards the needs of pupils (Enssen & Michalla, 2025). Multiprofessional cooperation is widely recognized as a promising approach to improve learning conditions and provide heterogeneity-sensitive support. However, systematic implementation in everyday school practice remains difficult (Hochfeld & Rothland, 2022). This gap between theoretical 'knowing' and practical 'acting' requires specific, science-based impulses to guide development processes in challenging contexts and to support capacity building (Proskawetz et al., 2023).

Within the federal-state initiative “Schule macht stark” (2021–2025), which addressed schools in challenging contexts, collaboration between educational research and practice was structured through workshops with a focus on “extracurricular learning and social space orientation (ALSO; german)”. The workshops supported schools in developing and continuously improving their multiprofessional structures, focusing on collaboration with families and the strengthening of vocational orientation as a cross-sectional task in school. These workshops informed the creation of the Toolkit: Actively Shaping Multiprofessional School Development (hereafter, the toolkit), which “provides conceptual and practical guidance on planning and implementing multiprofessional school development tailored to individual school needs” (Enssen et al., 2026, p. 137, own translation).

Although the tool was co-developed with schools based on their needs, other schools require guidance and support to implement the insights effectively, highlighting broader challenges in education research regarding the transfer, adaptation, and scaling of evidence-based practices in diverse and complex school contexts. The use of the toolkit continues within the nationwide “Startchancen program” (approximately 4000 participating schools, 2024–2034), with a Train-the-Multiplier model being developed to scale the insights gained from the workshops and the toolkit for wider implementation. With the transition from “Schule macht stark” into the “Startchancen program” the research focus shifts towards the changing conditions of educational support. A central goal of the programme is to increase the effectiveness of the support system in the education sector. For this reason, a training concept for multipliers is being developed as part of the scientific support so that they can actively support schools in their multiprofessional school development process. This reflects the core potential of education research: transforming field-tested tools into scalable structures.

The presentation addresses the question: How can research-practice partnerships be used to develop needs-based support tools for multi-professional school development in challenging contexts and scale them up for nationwide transfer?

To answer the question, the presentation focuses on the research-practice-workshops and the resulting toolkit for multiprofessional school development, illustrating their processes, outcomes, and practical applications, with an outlook on scaling the insights through a Train-the-Multiplier concept in the “Startchancen program”.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a research study focused on a partnership between a rural university and a school to find solutions to a pressing local problem on school belonging (Goodenow & Grady, 1993) through teacher collaborative inquiry research. The study, in partnership with a local school, was funded by a Government of Canada Social Sciences Research Council Partnership Engage Grant (SSHRC PEG). Cultivating a sense of belonging amongst adolescents is a global issue in schools (OECD, 2020). In this study, we worked with Grade 9 teachers to look specifically at Grade 9 students (age 14-15) who were part of a secondary school housing grades 9–12. As part of the study, using a play-based learning lens, participating teachers engaged in a collaborative inquiry action research cycle into their own pedagogical practices to foster school belonging among Grade 9 students.

Our study had four objectives that were determined in collaboration with the school leadership team: (1) to identify ways in which Grade 9 students experience school belonging; (2) to document Grade 9 teachers’ play-based pedagogies; (3) to document student responses to play-based pedagogies; and (4) to articulate a shared understanding of pedagogical practices, inclusive of teachers and students, that reflect actions to enhance school belonging amongst its Grade 9 community.

We root in literature from the following two areas to inform our paper: (i) the importance of school belonging; (ii) the benefits of play-based pedagogy.

Belonging is integral to an individual’s identification of who they are amongst others in particular contexts and is a vital feature of psychological performance (Allen et al., 2018). As schools offer opportunities for students to experience and understand how others might belong, school belonging is a conspicuous presence in the research literature. School belonging is commonly defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow & Grady, 1993, p. 80). School belonging is linked with academic development (Li et al., 2020) and motivation (Allen et al., 2018) and future aspirations for life beyond school are shaped (Cuervo et al., 2019). When adolescents feel little belonging at school, learning deteriorates, attendance suffers, and bullying is likely present (Li et al., 2020). While much research acknowledges the importance of school belonging for youth, consensus on how school belonging is cultivated and how teacher pedagogy leads to such conditions is limited.

With play-based pedagogy, teachers purposefully attend to curricular learning goals, while scaffolding opportunities for students to direct their learning (Allee-Herndon et al., 2021). Play-based pedagogy cultivates conditions in which students reflect on themselves as learners in how they draw upon their strengths in response to disciplinary puzzles and content (DeLuca et al., 2020). Much research has focused on play in early childhood contexts (Pyle & Bigelow, 2015) and the connections between play and language-learning in elementary classrooms (Brownell, 2021). As children progress through school, free choice is important and linked to excellent academic performance and positive perceptions of learning (Burrell & Beard, 2018). Knowledge of the impacts of play on adolescents is limited. Finding ways to encourage a sense of school belonging, and for Grade 9 students to engage in behaviours associated with deeper learning, emphasizes the connection between teacher play-based pedagogy and inquiry through action research. In this paper, we focus on teacher participants and the professional learning that emerged in response to the collaborative action research cycle.

This presentation outlines the assumptions and preliminary results of a two-year (2024–2026) traditional research project entitled 'Flying School of Student Internship' (FSSI), implemented at The Maria Grzegorzewska University in Poland within the framework of the Science for Society programme, funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Our partnership fits into the RPPs model of design research partnerships (Schlicht-Schmälzle et al., 2024, p. 9), which are focused on developing and improving specific interventions in collaboration with schools, regardless of their geographic location.

The main idea behind this partnership was to foster collaboration between a teacher training university and a school to establish a community of practice — a school-university partnership (Day, 2008) — by creating a learning community (Smith & MacGregor, 2009) and facilitating learning through reflective practice (Schön, 1984). The main goal was to overcome the divide between theory and practice (Fischer-Schöneborn & Ehmke, 2023) and improve the link between them.

The project was created in response to the questionable quality of professional practice in teacher training courses. It was a research and application project involving the implementation of teaching practices by students – pre-service teachers in primary school years 1–3 – in deliberately selected primary schools (public and non-public), together with academic mentors. The research aims to analyse the professional experience gained by the students. Educational action research (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005; Heck, 2024) was used as the research method, with the research material obtained through in-depth interviews and reflection journals. The analysis focuses on shaping professional pedagogical knowledge through practice.

The analysis focuses on the process of shaping professional pedagogical knowledge through practice and interactions with academic teachers, among others, during internships in schools, involving the joint negotiation of meanings and the creation of a learning community. Three people (four from the academic community and two from schools) played the role of brokers, providing the link by integrating perspectives and translating and transforming knowledge from one world to the other.

Action Research (AR) is widely recognized as a powerful approach for fostering professional learning, promoting evidence-informed practice, and building collaborative school cultures (Mills, 2011, Darling-Hammond, 2006). Literature highlights its potential in enhancing teacher agency, critical reflection, and problem-solving capacities (Carr & Kemmis, 2003), while a lack of such collaborative structures has been linked to teacher isolation and burnout. With this in mind, partnered with a UK organization, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS), a leading educational organization in Kazakhstan, launched the NIS/SHARE project.

The project aims to foster a culture of inquiry across ten NIS schools and ten mainstream schools offering a platform for professional learning and collaborative research, with teachers receiving training and ongoing mentorship in AR methods. It also seeks to disseminate the knowledge and research expertise accumulated within the project to the broader educational community. Five members of each school were recruited for the project: a principal, a deputy principal, and three teachers.

This study aims to explore the perceived impact of the NIS/SHARE project on teachers’ professional development, classroom practices, and school-level change. The research seeks to answer the following questions: (1) How has the project influenced teachers’ research skills and professional growth? (2) How have teachers used AR to inform and transform their teaching? (3) What changes, if any, have occurred in school culture or practices as a result of the project?

Using a mixed-methods case study design, data collection is currently underway. The first phase involves survey responses from school staff, followed by interviews and focus groups with principals, deputy principal, and teachers. In addition, training materials and project outputs are being analyzed to trace learning trajectories and evidence of change. The findings will inform recommendations for sustaining and scaling AR practices within and beyond the participating schools. By sharing early insights from this ongoing study, we aim to contribute to conversations on how school-based AR can drive meaningful, systemic change in diverse educational contexts.

Research partnerships in Indigenous education have historically begun from power-imbalanced arrangements and epistemological hierarchies that have traditionally undermined Indigenous self-determination. These approaches have been known to be narrowly transactional, exemplified with consultations or as communities to be studied and reported on, with knowledges to be extracted.

Recent research models show a move towards frameworks which are grounded in the “Four R’s” of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991), OCAP® principles of data sovereignty (Schnarch, 2004), and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN General Assembly, 2007). These frameworks now guide such partnerships, emphasizing relational accountability and community rights in knowledge creation.

Knowledges filtered through Western theories and perspectives, lead to a loss in meaning, “research through imperial eyes with views of colonisation, power imbalance and epistemic dominance” (Smith, 1999). Over the past few decades, Indigenous scholars and allies have worked to invert this dynamic through a reconceptualisation of partnerships by foregrounding relationships of trust, respect and shared responsibility rather than transactions.

Using Bourdieu’s (1989; 1986) concepts of habitus, field and cultural capital, and evidence from Australia and internationally, this session explores how theoretical influences can be a lens to examine the progression from transactional research approaches to relational, collaborative and co-designed approaches which disrupt the “field” of educational research by redistributing capital and authority, thereby elevating Indigenous cultural capital, shifting institutional habitus, and redefining the doxa (norms) of what counts as valid knowledge.

This session presents an evolving framework illustrating how to build long-term, responsible, relational and transformational educational research practice for non-Indigenous researchers and allies working in Indigenous education.

A decade ago, the Council of the European Union released a recommendation to EU-member states to create access to upskilling pathways for adults with basic educational needs, providing them the opportunity to acquire basic literacy, numeracy, or digital competencies, or other skills necessary for participating in the labor market and wider society ​(Council of the European Union, 2016)​. Considering the latest results from the latest PIAAC-Survey, that suggests that more than 20 % of adults across 31 participating countries lack basic competencies in the domains of literacy, numeracy, and adaptive problem solving respectively (OECD, 2024), providing access to basic education and upskilling pathways appears to be as relevant as it was ten years ago. In line with the council’s recommendation and the Basic Education Pathways funding guideline of the German Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, ten joint networks, based in different regions of Germany are currently working on building basic education and upskilling pathways for various target groups. The project aims to increase participation in continuing education among adults with basic education needs, and to ensure inclusive and equitable quality adult learning and lifelong learning opportunities for all. Target populations include adults with low literacy skills, young adults transitioning from school to the labor market, adults with a migration background, unemployed adults, workers with low formal qualifications, and workers in precarious employment. The project requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders from academia, policy, public administration, and educational practice to develop sustainable adult basic education programs in Germany.

An important aspect of the Basic Education Pathways is the scientific monitoring and support of the joint networks. For this purpose, the meta-project Competence Center Basic Education Pathways (CCBEP) has been established. Meta-projects in educational research aim to systematize scientific findings, identify research gaps, and strengthen the links between research and practice. To do so, the CCBEP supports the ten regional projects in developing and implementing basic education pathways. The meta-project conducts research and evaluates the work within the funding guideline. Moreover, the meta-project facilitates knowledge transfer among different stakeholders from academia, policy, and practice, including the transfer of results from the research conducted. However, establishing a meta-project presents specific challenges, such as organizing and networking various actors with sometimes differing interests and objectives, including funding bodies, organizations of public administration, and educational institutions. Unlike individual research projects, meta-projects operate within the tension between acquiring knowledge relevant to research, predetermined research assignments, and the acceptance of research results by respective project partners. As the CCBEP conducts research on both the stakeholders of basic education networks and the target groups, i.e., adults with basic educational needs, instead of following a pre-defined research plan, the work of the meta-projects only develops through and in cooperation with others. This includes considering diverse interests and areas of expertise, utilizing diverse resources, and obtaining feedback from project partners.

Considering these unique conditions, the aim of this presentation is therefore to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by a meta-project researching the establishment of basic education networks. The focus will be on the following two research topics:

• Collaboration among stakeholders with different objectives, resources, and decision-making power

• Educational decisions of the target groups of adults with basic educational needs

Potentials, limitations, and particular challenges of this type of research will be reflected upon at the meta-level in terms of collaboration with common or competing interests, possible biases, the recruitment of survey participants with various backgrounds, and strategies for knowledge transfer between stakeholders.

The educational research landscape shows a multitude of collaborative approaches to innovation in schools. These approaches have been proven to be more effective than those developed only by a single leader or organisation, as creative ideas arise from bringing together diverse knowledge resources (Chesbrough et al., 2013, Pietsch, Cramer et al., 2023). Such collaborative innovation approaches are well-suited to solving complex and crucial problems (Kharazmi & Dartoomi, 2023), for example in school improvement attempts, and can impact learning and teaching methods as well as student outcome (Azorín, 2022; Muijs et al., 2011). These innovation and transformation processes in schools are inevitable and often long overdue (Pietsch et al., 2023) in a time schools face multiple challenges as the ongoing digital transformation, the general shift into information age as well as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Educational institutions worldwide are in need to adapt and overcome long-established routines and cultures in order to educate young people to navigate today’s economy, life and society effectively (Khan et al., 2025; Serdyukov, 2017). However, with a growing number of collaborative innovation formats it becomes increasingly difficult to understand and distinguish each of them, as the terms are often not clearly rendered or definitions are overlapping (Aastvedt & Higdem, 2022). Consequently, it is difficult for school leaders and other change agents who want to participate in transformation processes to pick the innovation instrument or approach that matches the individual needs of one school.

This paper provides an overview on existing collaborative innovation instruments in school. The aim is to develop a typology of the different collaborative innovation formats currently used in school improvement processes. On the one hand, this helps schools to pick the most suitable instrument for their innovation process to face profound challenges now and in the future. On the other hand, a typology of the innovation instruments can be used in educational research to identify potential for new innovation tools. By this means, this paper is intended to addresse researchers as well as practitioners, bridging the gap between these two realms.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) presents both opportunities and challenges for its use within school settings. Central to this guidance is the principle that AI should support and enhance education rather than undermine professional judgement or replace the role of the teacher. The use of AI must be transparent, purposeful, and clearly justified where required.

Curriculum planning and lesson design are complex and time-consuming aspects of teaching, particularly within contexts that demand inclusive practice and responsiveness to diverse learner needs. Teachers are increasingly required to design curricula that are ambitious, coherent and adaptable, while also managing workload and wellbeing. Within this context, AI has the potential to function as a supportive tool that enhances efficiency and pedagogical decision-making. This article explores how AI can be used to aid curriculum planning and lesson design, with a particular focus on geography education.

AI can be utilised in three primary ways to support curriculum development. First, AI tools can assist in the creation and refinement of schemes of work by supporting curriculum sequencing, mapping learning objectives, and identifying opportunities for progression across key stages. For example, in Geography, this may include structuring thematic units, integrating substantive and disciplinary knowledge, and ensuring alignment with national curriculum requirements. When used critically, AI can help teachers devote greater attention to curriculum and subject-specific pedagogy.

Second, AI can support the creation of teaching and assessment materials, including lesson presentations, worksheets, formative and summative assessments, and mark schemes. This has the potential to reduce planning time while enabling greater differentiation and consistency across departments. In the Computer Science classroom, AI-generated resources may include virtual environment scenarios, data analysis tasks, or enquiry questions tailored to specific topics or ability ranges. However, such resources require careful evaluation to ensure accuracy, relevance, and pedagogical coherence, particularly given the dynamic and contested nature of computational knowledge.

Third, AI can augment instruction both within and beyond the classroom by contributing to adaptive learning environments. AI-driven platforms may provide personalised feedback, scaffold learning, and offer targeted practice opportunities, thereby supporting learners with varying levels of prior knowledge and confidence. Research suggests that, when used appropriately, such tools can promote more inclusive and learner-centred approaches, supporting engagement and addressing misconceptions (Baidoo-Anu and Ansah, 2023; Luckin et al., 2022; Perrotta and Selwyn, 2020).

Despite these potential benefits, the integration of AI into curriculum planning and lesson design presents several challenges. Overreliance on AI-generated materials risks diminishing teacher autonomy, professional creativity, and critical engagement with subject knowledge. There are also significant ethical considerations, including data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the responsible use of pupil information. Furthermore, while AI may reduce certain workload pressures, its implementation must be carefully managed to avoid increasing cognitive or administrative demands on teachers.

This article argues that AI should be positioned as an assistive technology that complements teacher expertise rather than replacing it. When embedded thoughtfully and ethically, AI can support more flexible, responsive and inclusive curriculum design. In the geography classroom, this approach has the potential to enhance both teaching practice and learner outcomes, while preserving the central role of the teacher as curriculum designer and professional decision-maker.

Graduate education aims to raise independent researchers. However, many graduate students, particularly in education-related programs across European higher education contexts, experience statistics anxiety and low self-efficacy in quantitative research methods and statistics (Faber & Drexler, 2019). Similarly, challenges in research methodology education, including passive teaching formats and limited active pedagogical practices in multiple European higher education systems (Kniffert et al., 2025) highlight the need for instructional design in quantitative methods in education-related graduate programs.

Although previous research examined the predictors of achievement in quantitative research methods and statistics, including statistics anxiety and self-efficacy (e.g., Hadfield, 2023; Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003), findings remain inconsistent and rarely focus on graduate-level. Recent studies have examined technology-enhanced tools and platforms to support quantitative research methods and statistics learning. However, they focus on basic statistics, isolated tools instead of integrated learning environments, lack design guidelines combining theoretical frameworks and literature, and rarely incorporate students’ perspectives into the design (e.g., Ritzhaupt et al., 2020).

This necessitates a theory-driven online learning environment for graduate quantitative methods, particularly for European graduate programs with varying instructional traditions in the field of education. The study proposes an online learning environment design combining pedagogy, design principles, and graduate insights to support transferable design decisions across European higher education.

The pedagogical foundations are grounded in Sociocultural Theory and Situated Cognition, conceptualizing learning as a socially mediated process shaped through interaction, collaboration, and reflection (Nathan & Sawyer, 2014). Knowledge is co-constructed through peer interaction, and collaborative learning environments promote conceptual understanding with cognitive conflict and social negotiation (Savery & Duffy, 1995). This is particularly relevant to graduate education in Europe, where collaborative inquiry is central.

Building on these pedagogical foundations, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison et al., 2000) has been adopted as a design framework in this study to structure the online learning environment. CoI emphasizes the interplay of cognitive (CP), social (SP), and teaching presences (TP) in supporting meaningful learning within a shared-goal community. SP fosters communication and group cohesion, CP reflects the inquiry process from problem identification to resolution, and TP focuses on the design and facilitation of meaningful learning.

To operationalize the CoI framework, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is employed as the instructional design strategy. Established PBL models (e.g., Barrows, 1996; Hmelo-Silver, 2004), share characteristics including student-centered learning in small groups, instructor facilitation through questioning, and real-life-based and cross-disciplinary ill-structured problems. In PBL, students analyze a problem scenario, identify key facts together, form hypotheses about possible solutions, and realize their learning gaps, which underpin self-directed study. After independent research, students apply new knowledge to test and refine their hypotheses. Through this cycle, learners develop problem-solving skills, metacognitive awareness, and deeper conceptual understanding.

This study focuses on the learning environment design and explains how design decisions, informed by graduate students’ needs while learning quantitative research methods through interviews, were operationalized into problem-based narratives and tasks. These tasks were systematically aligned with specific CoI presences and grounded in the statistics education literature.

Research Question
What design principles emerge from the iterative development of a graduate-level online quantitative research methods course informed by PBL, the CoI framework, learner needs, and statistics education research?

Sub-Research Questions

1. How do learner needs and experiences inform the design decisions of the course?
2. How are principles of PBL operationalized and refined while designing narratives and tasks within the online quantitative research methods environment?
3. How does the CoI framework shape the design of cognitive, social, and teaching presences within the narratives, tasks, and environment features of the course?
4. How does the quantitative research method education research inform the narratives, tasks, and environment features of the course design?

The emergence of new technologies and innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and their introduction to education has brought new opportunities to explore in education and also to rethink and question our understanding of learning and education in general. For instance, the use of AI in education has been drastically transforming the landscape of education by changing the way learning is designed, delivered and evaluated. Especially, with the introduction of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, we observe more individualized learning strategies emerging and it inevitably transforms learning experiences ( Verdú et al., 2017; Dever et al., 2020; Aristanto et. Al., 2023). For instance, now learning can be adapted to each student’ interest, learning style, pace and preferences. Besides making learning more personalized, AI also helps creating more inclusive learning experience for students with specific needs (Rakap, 2023). As a result, increasing number of educational researchers have been examining the use of AI in education. For instance, the recent study by Crompton and Burke (2023) showed that departments of education were the affiliations of the most authors investigating the use of AI in education (28%) followed by computer sciences (20%). While the interest in AI in education is following an upward trend, one of the main debate is on whether the use of AI improves learning experiences by supporting or hindering learners’ critical thinking (Ahmad et al., 2023; Chaparro-Banegas et al., 2024).

With all these discussions going on around the use of AI in education, we argue that first of all, we, as educational scholars, need to question and rethink how we understand education and learning and the very nature of them. At the end, our educational paradigms and our understanding of the aim of education will shape how we use AI in education. From a critical perspective, learning is “a process of challenging truth claims and arriving at a critical consciousness that these are not universal truths but claims that serve the interests of some at the expense of others (Kilgore, 2001, p.59). In other words, learning and education in general have to provide learners with an opportunity to question and be critical with what they learn. We argue that it is not the use of AI that hinders learners’ critical thinking, but our understanding of learning and education in general shaping our practice including our use of AI in education. Departing from this point, the paper examines the use of AI in education and how it hints the educational beliefs behind it. This papers also open a discussion on how the use of AI in education is reshaping and narrowing our understanding of learning and education with great focus on academic achievement as a sole aim of education.

Context. For nearly two decades, The Handbook of Research on New Literacies (Coiro et al., 2008) has provided foundational leadership in shaping scholarship around key issues, theories, and interdisciplinary research in what was then an emerging field. Its widely cited dual-level theory of new literacies (Leu et al., 2013, 2018) has been especially influential in describing the evolving nature of literacy, instruction, and assessment for scholars worldwide.

Research grounded in new literacies theory (Leu et al., 2017) has largely focused on how students make sense of online informational texts in school settings. Yet today’s rapidly shifting digital landscape calls for broader perspectives, constructs, and contexts—including cross-boundary connections—if education is to be inclusive and just (Barzilai et al., 2018; Mills, 2015). Digital literacies research therefore requires cross-cutting collaboration among scholars from diverse social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds to better reflect global contexts and support all learners (Hagerman, 2019).

As co-editors of The International Handbook of Research in Digital Literacies (Authors, forthcoming 2026), we have taken up the challenge of creating a new handbook that honors this history while also questioning and reimagining what is known and unknown. The volume offers a multidimensional portrait of priorities, methods, and approaches to digital literacies research, shaped through global collaboration and centered on criticality. Collectively, the chapters weave an inclusive tapestry that pairs deep analyses of established scholarship with emerging voices that illuminate new directions and issues in the field.

Session Purpose. Amid rapid social, political, economic, and technological change worldwide, this symposium shares what we, as co-editors, have learned about advancing digital literacies research through international collaboration, sustained dialogue, and shared commitments to criticality, humanistic values, and transformational change. The three papers document our collective learning as we confront disparities in digital access and examine both the risks and possibilities of digital literacies research. Together, they also explore how digital literacies, when developed and applied with human-centered purpose, can foster human growth and well-being, strengthen democratic participation, and advance justice and equity.

The first paper traces key trends and scholarly critiques in digital literacies research over the past two decades and offers a shared vision for its future. The second highlights the diverse topics, methodologies, and approaches represented across the volume, showing how scholars worldwide envision the future of digital literacies through their varied positionalities, theoretical perspectives, and sociocultural contexts. The final paper examines the core values and processes that shaped our development of this open-access volume, including our efforts to question traditional assumptions about what handbooks are and how they are created.

Structure. After a brief introduction to the Handbook and its objectives by the session chair (an editor of the Handbook), contributing authors from each of three papers will present their work (18 minutes each). The discussant will comment on how this collection of scholarship is advancing the field of digital literacies research from Nordic and cross-national perspectives (10 minutes). The session will conclude with 20 minutes of audience discussion with the presenters.

Significance. A global perspective on digital literacies is essential amid the rapid evolution of teaching, learning, and research in the digital age. This session features the work of digital literacies scholars from diverse international contexts. Together, the papers, and the broader volume that informs them, offer distinct perspectives on how digital literacies has been studied over time while presenting strong, evidence-informed directions for research that centers more inclusive, relational, and emancipatory practices.

Defining digital literacies is critical for designing meaningful research-informed pedagogies, policies, and assessments that support methodological imagination and invite learners into diverse learning contexts. Shifting conceptions of digital literacies, shaped by social, cultural, and political contexts, make this work challenging. In this presentation, we review conceptualizations of digital literacies in the research community over the past two decades, identify key scholarly critiques of this research, and offer a shared vision of essential priorities for future digital literacies scholarship. Our review of 39 literature reviews of digital literacies published between 2020 and2025 identified five key patterns relative to conceptualizations of digital literacies; these reflect evolving terminology, a broadening spectrum of contexts and uses, growing multidimensional complexity of digital literacies approaches, increasing attention to social contexts, and a stronger emphasis on contextual and cross-disciplinary connections. The compilation of complex research methods and multi-disciplinary approaches to understanding digital literacies has uncovered important implications for cross-sectoral work across academic, governmental, social, and business sectors (Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2022). Our review also surfaced five major concerns about the gaps, silences, and problems that persist within digital literacies scholarship. These include an overemphasis on cognitive skills and tools rather than situated, relational meaning-making practices (Nichols & Stornaiuolo, 2019; Pangrazio & Sefton-Green 2022); the need to move beyond older, narrower frameworks toward more complex and contextualized ones (Lee & Fanea-Ivanovici, 2022; Marin & Castaneda, 2023); insufficient attention to persistent and layered digital divides (Ilomäki et al., 2023); limited focus on criticality, identity, and agency (Mirra & Garcia, 2021; Pangrazio & Sefton-Green, 2022); and a call to cultivate learners’ critical consciousness (Freire, 2021) and future-oriented imagination (Garcia & Mirra, 2021) so that digital literacies can support meaningful participation and social change. Looking ahead, we can no longer separate design and economic drivers of digital systems from the literacies practices they enable and constrain. We must also firmly reject any uncritical, systemic impositions that undermine students’ rights to thrive, to grow up healthy, and to be literate. Grounded in these research-based concerns and further inspired by authors in this edited volume, we conclude by providing five hallmarks to help anticipate the future of digital literacies scholarship. By opening space for dialogue centered on advocacy, critical, ethical relationality, and action, we hope these hallmarks will serve as conversation starters for the next rounds of work that we might take up collectively.

Garcia, A., & Mirra, N. (2021). Writing toward justice: Youth speculative civic literacies in online policy discourse. Urban Education, 56(4), 640–669. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920953881 González-Pérez, L. I., & Ramírez-Montoya, M. S. (2022). Components of education 4.0 in 21st century skills frameworks: Systematic review. Sustainability, 14(3), Article 1493. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1493 Ilomäki, L., Lakkala, M., Kallunki, V., Mundy, D., Romero, M., Romeu, T., & Gouseti, A. (2023). Critical digital literacies at school level: A systematic review. Review of Education, 11(3), e3425. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3425 Lee, Y. T., & Fanea-Ivanovici, M. (2022). An exploratory study of digital literacy frameworks: A comparative analysis. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4088293 Marín, V. I., & Castaneda, L. (2023). Developing digital literacy for teaching and learning. In Handbook of open, distance and digital education (pp. 1–20). Springer. Mirra, N., & Garcia, A. (2021). In search of the meaning and purpose of 21st‐century literacy learning: A critical review of research and practice. Reading Research Quarterly, 56(3), 463–496. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.313 Nichols, T. P., & Stornaiuolo, A. (2019). Assembling" digital literacies": Contingent pasts, possible futures. Media and Communication, 7(2), 14-24. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i2.1946 Pangrazio, L., & Sefton-Green, J. (2021). Digital rights, digital citizenship and digital literacy: What’s the difference? Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 10(1), 15–27. https://link.springer.com/article/10.7821/naer.2021.1.616

With this Handbook (Authors, forthcoming), we sought to create an open‑access volume that showcases the rich, complex, and diverse understandings of digital literacies across the globe. We also considered whose expertise should be centered and contemplated how we could ensure this book would be accessible, inclusive, and available to more people. Within the book, readers will discover contributions by colleagues working to develop new lines of research across many areas of expertise alongside contributions by colleagues who have made significant advancements in digital literacies research through their long careers. Although many contributors are across institutions in the United States, scholars from Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have also contributed to this project. In this presentation, we trace the diverse topics, methodologies, and approaches represented across the Handbook’s five sections, showing how scholars worldwide envision the future of digital literacies through their varied positionalities, theoretical perspectives, and sociocultural contexts. Specific focus will be given to five themes which mirror the sections of the Handbook itself. First, we describe the theoretical landscapes of digital literacies, showing how multidisciplinary perspectives (e.g., cognitive, sociocultural, critical, and post‑humanist) have shaped the field. Chapters illustrate how digital technologies expand information, expression, participation, and critical reflection. Second, we describe lines of scholarship that offer novel and expansive directions in digital literacies research. Topics include computational and data justice literacies, critical maker literacies, queering digital literacies, positioning theory, and gaming. Third, we explore how people make meaning in and beyond digital systems, while also addressing justice, post‑digital realities, and transnational policies surrounding digital surveillance. Chapters highlight diverse lived experiences and call for relational, critically engaged, and inclusive approaches to research and design. Fourth, we examine digital literacies instruction across the lifespan, highlighting diverse learning contexts and topics such as inquiry, critical reading, play, coding, and teacher support. Chapters emphasize culturally grounded, student‑centered pedagogy shaped by families, communities, and educators. Fifth, we outline diverse approaches to researching and assessing digital literacies. Topics include innovative methods and equitable assessment practices that reflect learners’ lived experiences, and using multiple theoretical lenses to connect methodology and assessment across disciplinary and educational contexts. By tracing the contributions of author teams, this paper invites deep engagement with this collection of work and with our global community of digital literacies researchers.

Authors. (forthcoming). International handbook of research in digital literacies. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

In this paper, the six co-editors of the International Handbook of Research in Digital Literacies (Authors, forthcoming) reflect on the values and processes that guided how the Handbook was created, how a vibrant virtual community grew around it, and ways the community was sustained. Three priorities this paper discusses are : 1) documentation of the generative, collaborative dialogue that occurred in the visioning of the Handbook, 2) reflection on the future of digital literacies research, and 3) description of intentional community building among international scholars. In developing the Handbook, the co-editors created spaces for connection by convening conversations virtually, at academic conferences, and through dialogic exchanges (Authors, 2023, 2024, 2025). Because traditional handbooks are static and often lose relevance as technologies, research methods, and theoretical lenses rapidly evolve, we aimed instead to create a ‘living’ handbook that centered community; one that could grow through international dialogic interaction aimed at capturing emerging issues and new developments in the field of digital literacies. In response to the varied contexts in which digital literacies develop, and to mark various educational and societal shifts in research, the co‑editors integrated cross‑cutting scholarly voices representing a broad range of stances, methods, and research traditions across social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. The Handbook sought to weave together a tapestry of ideas that paired deep analyses of established scholarship with new insights into evolving topics in digital literacies. Thus, the Handbook, and the dialogic interactions that surround it, brings together international perspectives, traditions, and diverse theories of learning while recognizing that digital literacies are fast moving, global, and multidisciplinary. The building of a community invites shared co-visioning of groundbreaking, cross‑boundary, and critically informed efforts to improve digital literacies research, practice, and policy. In building a digital literacies scholarly community, we have worked intentionally to support, evolve, and advance the field into the future. Four core values that guided this work include: 1) supportive scholarship, 2) critical reflection, 3) inclusive and diverse voices, and 4) a commitment to quality and comprehensiveness. By creating sustained spaces for gathering and collaboration, we affirm our commitment to ensuring that the Handbook functions as both a community‑driven and community‑building effort; one sustained through ongoing dialogue. We argue that strengthened connections among colleagues extend well beyond this single publication. Through this paper, we offer an open invitation to join us in fostering generative, collaborative digital literacies scholarship now and for years to come.

Authors. (2023, December). Literacy Research Association 73rd Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, United States. Authors. (2024, April). American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States. Authors. (2025, April). American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, United States. Authors. (forthcoming). International handbook of research in digital literacies. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

This session examines international efforts to narrow reading instruction by focusing on component parts (e.g., phonics, phonemic awareness) at the expense of helping children develop multi-dimensional reading processes that recognize and operationalize multiple forms of information and processes. As an international team of literacy researchers, we focus on a particular reading of reading research promoted as research-based by a small group of academics, and bolstered, popularized and disseminated by conservative thinktanks, commercial publishers, media pundits and politicians. Specifically, we ask: How have narrow views of reading been disseminated globally and how are these discourses being taken up in four countries?

As scholars working in Australia, England, Canada, and the United States, we problematize key aspects of Science of Reading reforms, particularly the focus on programs and curricula over children, under-recognized financial motivations, and the failure to value the expertise, professional judgement, and capabilities of teachers, literacy specialists, and reading scholars. We track discourses across time through analyses of major policy and media reports.

Global flows of information are ubiquitous in modern global society (e.g., Luke, 2005; Marginson & Sawir, 2005; Singh and Doherty, 2004). Appadurai (1996) explored how circulating information, ideas, and resources impact and are impacted by local and global histories, languages, politics, and actors. He identified multiple landscapes/scapes as the “building blocks” of “imagined worlds. . . constituted by the historically situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe” (p. 33). Stornaiuolo and colleagues (2017) proposed a transliteracies framework to track how literacies are “threaded across the material world in dynamic and unpredictable ways” (p. 75). Their tools included emergence, uptake, resonance, and scale, which were used to examine the international circulation of science of reading discourses.

Through our analysis of four historical documents (Department for Education and Skills, England, 2006; Department of Education, Science, and Training, AU, 2005; National Reading Panel Report, USA, 2000; Ontario Ministry of Education, 2003) and four contemporary documents (Department of Education, England, 2023; Grattan Institute, AU, 2024; Hanford, USA, 2023; Ontario Human Rights Commission, CA, 2022), we track discourses related to directive/scripted lessons, and the conflation of phonic skills with reading, and an almost exclusive focus on phonics, phonemic awareness. Historical texts included seminal texts and reports published during the early to mid-2000’s that significantly informed reading instruction in each country. The second set of texts are more recent and were selected to represent current thinking influencing policy and practice widely in each country. All texts were selected by the respective scholar for each country based on the following criteria:

• widely available and promoted as an educational resource,

• commissioned by, supported by, referenced extensively, or disseminated by people with political or lobbyist interests, and

• contributed to legislative actions at state, provincial, and/or national levels.

Based on our reading of these documents, we assembled a list of terms that we collectively noted as relevant to current conversations about the Science of Reading. These terms/references included:

• Fidelity
• Multi-sensory
• Decodable Texts
• The use of pictures
• Cues/Cuing systems
• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

Search/Find functions were used to locate these terms to examine how these terms were used in historical and contemporary texts and track changes in frequency and use. Finally, a scholar from each country analyzed each text to attend to how science of reading constructs were represented in each contemporary document. Papers in this session share the theorization and methodology described above. We close by discussing the significance of this international circulation and invite our discussant to speak before inviting questions.

This paper explores the United States within the global flow of Science of Reading discourses. Specifically, we ask: In what ways has the United States of American participated in the global flow of Science of Reading discourses? Public debates around reading instruction have deep historical roots. In 1955, the publication of “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” Flesch brought these controversies to the American public. Like current accounts, Flesch critiqued reading experts, describing the Dick and Jane readers as “horrible, stupid, emasculated, pointless, tasteless” (Lauritzen, 2007, p. 315) and proposed phonics as the solution for ensuring that all children become readers. Using the methodological approaches described in the session introduction, Author analyzed the National Reading Panel Report (2000) which written in response to a 1997 request from the USA Congress to convene a national panel to review research-based knowledge related to reading. To capture more recent discussions, she analyzed Sold a Story (Hanford, 2022) – an independent investigative journalism podcast produced and disseminated by American Public Media and funded by several private foundations. The National Reading Panel Report (2000) presented a meta-synthetic analysis focused on the five pillars of reading making tempered claims about the efficacy of phonics-based approaches for early reading instruction. The report maintained that phonics instruction should be systematic, but that a wide range of systems for organizing phonics instruction were valid and useful. The report rarely used language associated with the Science of Reading. The words fidelity is only used once in regard to classroom instruction, and the word multi-sensory in never used in relation to teaching reading. Decodable texts are discussed 17 times, but generally as a direction for future research; the authors lament that “The stories in such books often involve pigs doing jigs and cats in hats” (p. 2-137). To explore more recent USA reading discourses, Author focuses on the Sold a Story podcasts (Hanford, 2022). We chose this document based on the substantial impact it has had on the teaching of reading worldwide. Assumedly due to its non-professional audience, the podcast series never mentions fidelity or multi-tiered levels of support. There are five references to decodable texts with most of her attention being devoted to the “problematic” use of pictures as a means to identify words (n=27) and her critique of three-cueing system (n=88 references). She blames cueing systems for children’s reading failure and advocates that politicians “outlaw three cueing” (see Bonus Episode 2).

Flesch, R., & Sloan, S. (1955). Why Johnny can't read: And what you can do about it. William Morrow Paperbacks. Hanford, E. (September 10, 2015). A vision for a new kind of public school in America, APMReports. Accessed on 1/24/2026 at https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2015/09/10/a-vision-for-a-new-kind-of-public-school-in-america National Reading Panel Report, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, USA.

This paper presents the Canadian analysis from the larger study on the restrictive circulating discourses on global literacy. It explores the participation of Canadian educational systems in the global movement of Science of Reading discourses. We ask: In what ways has Canada participated in the global flow of Science of Reading discourses? The theoretical framework, methodology, and methods are as explained in the description of the larger study. Our analysis of science of reading discourses in Canada focuses on two documents, the first published in 2003, Early Reading Strategy: The Report of the Expert Panel on Early Reading in Ontario and the second, Right to Read: Public Inquiry into Human Rights Issues Affecting Students with Reading Disabilities, in 2022. Both reports are from the province of Ontario, as jurisdictionally, education is managed provincially rather than nationally. Ontario has the highest provincial population in Canada, thereby influencing the most children. Notably, the Right to Read report influenced the growth of Science of Reading throughout the country. The analytic procedures described in the overview were used to analyze Canadian documents. Each Canadian text was analyzed to attend to how Science of Reading constructs are represented and taken up in a Canadian context and how the reports contributed to the movement of Science of Reading throughout provinces and internationally. The findings reveal the impact of journalist, Emily Hanford’s (2022) Sold a Story on Canada classrooms. The narrow views of Hanford’s reporting are evident in Ontario’s Right to Read report as means to support children with reading difficulties. The Right to Read report is in reaction to the principle that learning to read is a fundamental human right, not a privilege, with which we do not disagree. The issue is that neither Sold a Story nor Right to Read considers the individuality and diversity of learners. The Right to Read report brings forth unsubstantiated claims that all students experience difficulties reading because instruction is based on a balanced approach (Cummins, 2022). While the language in the 2003 Early Reading Strategy clearly leans toward whole language, the Right to Read (2022) embraces the science of reading by recommending “all references to cueing, cueing systems” (p. 222) be removed from the teaching of reading. It also requires “direct instruction of foundational reading skill, including phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding” (p. 222) demonstrating structured reading instruction. Again, a dramatic shift in the so-called Reading Wars (Pearson, 2004).

Cummins, J. (2022). Ontario Human Rights Commission right to read report: Sincere, passionate, flawed. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 16(1), 85-92. Hanford, E. (September 10, 2015). A vision for a new kind of public school in America, APMReports. Accessed on 1/24/2026 at https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2015/09/10/a-vision-for-a-new-kind-of-public-school-in-america Ontario Human Rights Commission (2022). Right to read: Public inquiry into human rights issues affecting students with reading disabilities. Government of Ontario. https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/book/export/html/3087 Ontario Ministry of Education. (2003). Early Reading Strategy: The Report of the Expert Panel on Early Reading in Ontario. Queen's Printer for Ontario. Pearson, P. D. (2004). The reading wars. Educational Policy, 18(1), 216-252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904803260041

This paper considers the emergence and uptake (Stornaiuolo et al. 2017) of science of reading discourses in England, and how this ‘imagined’ literacy landscape (Appadurai, 1996) has reverberated globally. Drawing on the methodological approaches described in the session introduction, the author analyzed the Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading (2006), written by Jim Rose and commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Also known as the Rose Report, the review best foreshadows the Science of Reading. Rose argued strongly that synthetic phonics be “taught discretely” (Rose, 2006, p.70) and be the sole method to teach early reading in schools. However, a politically expedient, selective analysis of reading research resulted in a flawed report. This is captured, for example, in the conflation of “the systematic approach” with “'synthetic’ phonics” (p. 4). This is in direct contrast to the National Reading Panel Report (2000), which argued for the use of “various types of systematic phonics approaches” (p. 2-132), not solely synthetic approaches. This is a significant shift in perspective across the four historical documents and the four countries. The Rose Report was harnessed as a tool for the Conservative party whose ideological position was underpinned by a return to traditional teaching and testing regimes, and a mistrust of researchers and teachers. Synthetic phonics became mandated through political measures like the statutory Phonics Screening Check, funding for phonics schemes, requirements in teacher standards, and Ofsted recommendations (Bradbury and Wyse, 2025). The second document analysed is The Reading Framework (DfE, 2023) which reveals the increasing entrenchment of synthetic phonics (Torgerson et al., 2019). Although both the Rose Report (2006) and The Reading Framework (2023) reference fidelity, decodable texts, the use of pictures for decoding, and the use of cueing systems one to seven times in each report, the major change was in attention to decodable texts. This increases from 4 relevant references in the Rose Report (2006) to 37 relevant references in The Reading Framework (2023). Contrasting decodable texts with texts in which children are “forced to guess from pictures” (p. 54), the report noted that “Decodable’ books and other texts make children feel successful from the very beginning.” (p. 54). However, a recent RCT reports on the statistically insignificant benefit of the most popular commercial phonics scheme, RWI (Molotsky et al., 2022). Despite strong research critiques, England’s phonics centred approach remains firmly embedded and globally influential.

Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press. Bradbury, A., & Wyse, D. (2025). The dominance of synthetic phonics in reading policy in England. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 33. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.33.8942 [ucl.ac.uk] Department for Education and Skills. (2006). Independent review of the teaching of early reading: Final report. London: Department for Education and Skills. Department of Education. (2023). The reading framework: teaching the foundations of literacy. London: Department for Education. Molotsky, A., Dias, P., & Nakamura, P. (2022). Read Write Inc. Phonics and Fresh Start: Evaluation report. Education Endowment Foundation. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/ production/documents/projects/Read-Write-Inc-and-Fresh-Start-Final.pdf?v=1758788026 National Reading Panel Report, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, USA. Stornaiuolo, A., Smith, A., & Phillips, N. C. (2017). Developing a transliteracies framework for a connected world. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(1), 68-91. Torgerson, C., Brooks, G., Gascoine, L., & Higgins, S. (2019). Phonics: Reading policy and the evidence of effectiveness from a systematic ‘tertiary’ review. Research Papers in Education, 34(2), 208–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2017.1420816

This paper presents one dimension of the larger study on the restrictive circulation of discourses on global literacy by focusing on the Australian context. Australian education has always engaged in policy borrowing from its imperial cousins, particularly the United States and England, and more recently has also been engaged in reciprocal practices of policy lending. In this paper, Author explores the participation of Australian educational systems in the global movement of science of reading discourses, to ask the same question addressed by the broader research project, but located within the Australia context: In what ways has, and is, Australia participated/ing in the global flow of Science of Reading discourses? The analysis focuses on the two-decade period between the publication of the final report of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (Rowe, 2005) and a more recent document - the 2024 Reading Guarantee (Hunter et al., 2024) published under the banner of a conservative independent think tank, the Grattan Institute. This recent document is currently informing – some may say constraining – current education policy in the teaching of reading across education contexts in Australia (Hunter et al., 2024). Drawing on the theoretical framework, methodology, and methods detailed in the symposium description of this proposal, Author began by analyzing the report of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (Australia) (2025), which was called for in the wake of the National Reading Panel Report (2000) from the United States and rearticulated many of the same messages, resulting in a loud call from the media, a small group of education psychologists and special education advocates for systematic phonics to be taught in classrooms and a policy refocus away from literacy as meaning making and critical aspects of literacy which had been a feature of State curriculum for many years. This analysis of science of reading discourses in Australia focuses on tracing the intertextual links from the 2005 Inquiry report across two decades to the Reading Guarantee (Hunter, 2024). The analysis demonstrates how the science of reading discourses layer producing an evidence base to support claims that have little evidence. The paper provides insight into the logics of science of reading, and considers how claims about decodable texts and systemic phonics are morphed into undeniable facts when dressed up in an equity cloak.

Hunter, J., Stobart, A., & Haywood, A. (2024). The Reading Guarantee: How to Give Every Child the Best Chance at Success. Grattan Institute. National Reading Panel Report, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, USA. Rowe, K. (2025). Teaching Reading: Report and Recommendations. Department of Education, Science, and Training (Australia).

In recent years, China has continued to reform its Physical Education (PE) and Health curriculum, with growing attention being directed to the primary context. A key milestone in this process was the 2022 national PE and Health curriculum standard, which introduced a competency-oriented framework, outlining dimensions such as physical ability, health behavior, moral literacy (MoE, 2022). While clearly articulated in policy, how these dimensions are understood by teachers as part of their everyday practice remains unclear. This is significant in light of the Outline of the Plan for the Construction of China into an Education Powerhouse (2024–2035), which emphasises the role of primary PE (CPC Central Committee & State Council, 2025). Given these shifts in curricular priorities and the national emphasis on primary PE, it is both timely and important to explore how primary PE teachers understand the purpose of the PE and Health curriculum and what they prioritise in its implementation.

In the wider PE literature, continuing attention has been paid to the role of teachers in translating policy into practice. Curriculum enactment is understood as a process shaped by interpretation and adaptation, rather than as direct implementation (Ball et al., 2011a, 2011b; Lambert & Penney, 2019). Research also points to the ways in which teachers exercise professional agency, navigating between policy expectations and local conditions to make situated decisions about content and teaching (Priestley et al., 2015; Penney & Alfrey, 2022). Extending this line of inquiry to primary contexts, recent work highlights that teachers’ curriculum decisions are influenced by various structural conditions (e.g., Griggs & Randall, 2025). These studies offer important insights into how curriculum policy is interpreted and enacted in local school contexts. It is therefore relevant to explore how teachers in the Chinese context make sense of PE and Health curriculum purposes and priorities in their daily practice.

In the Chinese context, research has largely focused on policy level development or student outcomes (e.g., An et al., 2022; Yang et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2021). While valuable, these approaches offer limited insight into teachers’ perspectives as a key actor in day-to-day curriculum delivery, particularly at primary level. To address this gap, the presentation draws on survey data from primary PE teachers in Hunan province, aiming to explore how teachers understand curriculum priorities, experience structural conditions, and approach their professional learning needs.

Three research questions guided this study: (1) How do teachers understand and interpret the purpose and value of the PE and Health curriculum, and what priorities do they report in enactment? (2) Which structural conditions (constraints and supports) do teachers perceive as shaping their space for curriculum enactment? (3) What are teachers’ professional learning needs, and which content areas and support formats do they prioritise?

Teacher professional learning has increasingly been conceptualised as a situated, ongoing, reflective, and practice-based process rather than a linear accumulation of knowledge or skills (Han et al., 2025). Within this thinking shift, practitioner inquiry has been widely recognised as a well-established, effective, and evidence-informed approach for supporting teachers’ professional learning (Goodyear et al., 2013). Research has indicated that practitioner inquiry can facilitate teachers’ professional learning by critically examining practice, challenging taken-for-granted assumptions, prompting pedagogical change, and generating context-sensitive knowledge (Gilchrist, 2018; Luguetti et al., 2025).

In physical education (PE) field, practitioner inquiry has gained increasing attention as a means of supporting PE teachers’ professional learning and pedagogical development (Alfrey et al., 2017). For example, practitioner inquiry has been employed as a powerful tool to promote PE teachers’ understanding and enactment of social justice pedagogies (Philpot & Ovens, 2025), Teaching Games for Understanding (Casey & Dyson, 2010), and cooperative learning (Casey et al., 2009). However, much of this research has tended to position practitioner inquiry as a methodological tool or intervention, focusing primarily on outcomes, effectiveness, or teachers’ perceptions and experiences. As a result, practitioner inquiry is often portrayed as an individual or technical endeavour, rather than as a socially and materially situated practice shaped by the everyday conditions of PE teachers’ work. This outcome-oriented framing risks overlooking how practitioner inquiry is enabled, constrained, enacted, and sustained within specific practice contexts.

From a practice-based perspective, changes in teachers’ practice through practitioner inquiry cannot be understood as linear or straightforward processes. Teachers’ engagement in inquiry is shaped by multiple, interrelated conditions embedded in their everyday professional environments, including school cultures, organisational structures, material arrangements, time constraints, professional discourses, and power relations ( Goodyear et al., 2013). While teachers may recognise the value of practitioner inquiry for professional learning, limited time, heavy workloads, restricted access to resources, and uncertainty about what constitutes “research” can constrain their sustained engagement (Ellis & Loughland, 2016; MacPhail et al., 2025).. At the same time, collaborative relationships with researchers and colleagues, as well as access to supportive conceptual and theoretical resources, can enable teachers’ confidence, agency, and participation in inquiry processes (Philpot & Ovens, 2025). Although existing studies acknowledge that practitioner inquiry is shaped by such conditions, there remains limited research that systematically examines how these conditions interact to shape practitioner inquiry as a situated practice, particularly within the Chinese PE context.

To address this gap, this study draws on the theory of practice architectures to examine practitioner inquiry as a socially and materially embedded practice (Kemmis et al., 2014). The theory conceptualises practices as configurations of sayings, doings, and relatings, which are prefigured by three interrelated sets of arrangements: cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political (Mahon et al., 2017). These arrangements shape what is sayable, doable, and relatable within a given practice, thereby enabling or constraining what becomes possible in practice. From this perspective, practitioner inquiry is not treated as an individual method or technical procedure, but as a practice that unfolds within a complex micro-ecology of cultural meanings, material conditions, and social relationships.

Taken together, this study explores how three Chinese PE teachers’ engagement in practitioner inquiry, in collaboration with three university-based researchers, unfolds within their everyday practice contexts. By foregrounding the conditions that enable and constrain practitioner inquiry, this study contributes a nuanced, context-sensitive understanding of practitioner inquiry as a practice-based change process and offers insights into how practitioner inquiry might be more thoughtfully designed and supported within PE teacher professional learning in China and beyond.

Middle school physical education in China is increasingly shaped by Zhongkao related fitness testing and score-based evaluation (Weng and Xie, 2024). Zhongkao pressure does not only change what is assessed. It also reshapes physical education pedagogy by influencing how lessons are organised and managed in everyday practice (Meng et al., 2020). This paper examines how exam pressure becomes visible in lesson organisation through four priorities: order, safety, efficiency, and measurable performance. Rather than explaining participation mainly through individual factors, it focuses on how routine pedagogical decisions, including task sequencing, grouping, spatial organisation, monitoring, and feedback, shape participation conditions.

Zhongkao is a high stakes transition point in Chinese schooling, and physical education has become embedded within this broader assessment and admissions system through fitness testing and score based outcomes (Wu, 2015). The Zhongkao physical education test marked an important shift by integrating a compulsory non written assessment into the junior secondary admissions system (Weng and Xie, 2024). It is typically scheduled several months before the written examinations, often producing the first tangible score in the Zhongkao cycle (Chen and Brown, 2013). This score contributes directly to the total admission score, with weighting varying across locations (Yang et al., 2025). Because admission to selective senior high schools is determined by the cumulative Zhongkao score, the physical education component can materially affect placement, particularly for students near cut off points (Weng and Xie, 2024). In this context, students, parents, and schools often intensify their focus on measurable physical performance, especially in the final year, when preparation becomes more structured and time sensitive (Weng and Xie, 2024). Although test formats and weightings vary across locations, the shared feature is that students’ performance is rendered visible and comparable through standardised indicators, which encourages a narrow emphasis on what can be measured and verified (Luo and Yang, 2025). In school physical education, this assessment environment can encourage lesson designs that prioritise demonstrable results within limited time, for example through repeated practice of test related tasks, tight pacing, and frequent checking of performance (Meng et al., 2020). It can also heighten concerns about disorder and accidents, because incidents may interrupt preparation and create accountability risks for teachers and schools (Meng et al., 2020). These conditions make Zhongkao pressure an important context for sports pedagogy research, because they raise questions about how assessment priorities travel into everyday teaching and how routine lesson organisation shapes participation opportunities and the terms of legitimate engagement for girls.

By positioning Zhongkao pressure as a pedagogical influence rather than only a policy context, the paper contributes to sports pedagogy scholarship on assessment, lesson organisation, and gendered participation. It also provides a basis for identifying feasible leverage points for improving participation within exam pressured constraints, while avoiding deficit narratives that locate the problem primarily within girls themselves.

Qualitative research has long privileged language as its primary medium of knowledge production. Interviews, transcripts, fieldnotes, and textual analysis remain central to how meaning is generated, analysed, and communicated. Yet this linguistic emphasis often renders invisible the embodied, emotional, and sensory dimensions of research practice. This conference contribution examines the role of the body in qualitative inquiry, tracing a conceptual and methodological movement from disembodied knowledge production toward corporeal praxis. It argues that qualitative research can more fully account for lived experience by recognising embodiment not as an add-on, but as a foundational condition of knowing, interpreting, and relating.

Drawing on phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions, the session is grounded in three interrelated premises: first, that human understanding is fundamentally embodied; second, that language is inherently inaccurate, incomplete, and unable to fully capture experience; and third, that communication is deeply metaphorical, relying on embodied meaning-making even when expressed in words. These premises challenge conventional assumptions about data, rigor, and reflexivity, and invite a rethinking of how qualitative knowledge is produced, analysed, and disseminated.

The session conceptualises the body in qualitative research as the lived experience (shaping how participants encounter and interpret the world) and as the researcher’s own body in the field (how positionality, emotion, fatigue, discomfort, and affect inform interactions, interpretations, and ethical decisions).

By acknowledging these dimensions, the contribution demonstrates how embodied approaches can help researchers transcend the limitations of language and engage more fully with the complexity of qualitative data.

The session also foregrounds the role of emotions in qualitative research. Although emotions are central to how the world is experienced and understood, researchers’ emotional responses are frequently marginalised, treated as bias, or relegated to brief reflexivity statements. This contribution reframes emotions as epistemically productive, offering insight into meaning-making, power relations, and ethical complexity. Through embodied and creative techniques, delegates are invited to explore practical strategies for attending to emotions, capturing reflexive insights, and negotiating the movement from private notes and embodied awareness to public scholarly accounts.

Drawing on concrete examples from my own research, the session interweaves theoretical grounding with experiential learning. Delegates will be invited to participate in short practical exercises designed to heighten awareness of embodied modes of knowing and to reflect on their own positionality, assumptions, and beliefs. In doing so, the session invites researchers to reimagine qualitative inquiry as a practice of embodied understanding, where meaning arises not only through words, but through movement, interaction, emotion, and the lived body itself.

In recent years, international migration has presented new and complex challenges for the university system, which has been required to respond promptly and sensitively to the needs of asylum seekers and refugees. Access to university enrolment is only the first step in a much more complex process, involving not only the acquisition of academic skills but also the creation of welcoming, equitable, and inclusive environments capable of supporting the full social and cultural integration of these students (Dryden-Peterson 2016; Unesco 2020). In this context, universities are increasingly becoming key actors in promoting human rights, valuing diversity, and building more just and cohesive societies, offering opportunities for personal and professional growth to those forced to leave their countries of origin (Unesco 2019; EUA 2019). Through targeted projects and effective reception practices, academic institutions are helping to transform the challenges associated with migration into opportunities for mutual enrichment and sustainable development for the entire community (Crul, Schneider, Lelie, 2013; Bloch & Hirsch 2017).

In the Italian context, due to various migratory flows, universities have had to address the challenges posed by asylum seekers, refugees, and those who arrived in Italy through specific resettlement programs (e.g., Afghans, Syrians, and Ukrainians).

Indeed, the possibility of achieving good results in each educational path requires integration into society as a whole. Experiences gathered in several Italian universities highlight the extent to which welcoming, integrating, and supporting students from conflict areas, with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, can occur when a network of stakeholders, both public and private, works together. Supporting these particular students helps universities to better understand the importance of developing networks with all institutions, NGOs, and ethnic and religious associations involved in supporting migrants in their inclusion pathways: refugees and, more generally, those who arrive in Italy with a student visa under UNHCR programs (e.g., UNICORE) without any local ties are at risk of dropping out and wasting potential human capital.

In today’s increasingly globalized world, mobility has become more pronounced than ever before. People from different cultural, social, and economic backgrounds are traveling and relocating for education, work, or better opportunities. This surge in international movement has led to the rise of multicultural societies where various cultures coexist. Such diversity fosters a broader understanding and appreciation of different worldviews, contributing to a richer, more interconnected global community. Multiculturalism has thus become essential not only for economic and social development but also for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and innovation. Universities stand at the heart of this dynamic, serving not merely as centers of academic learning but as critical laboratories where multiculturalism is lived and experienced daily. As hubs for global talent, they host students from diverse backgrounds, preparing a new generation to collaboratively tackle global challenges. This educational environment is essential for cultivating culturally responsible perspectives, where cross-cultural dialogue and fresh viewpoints, especially those of international students, are invaluable assets.

Yet, as universities worldwide, including those in Turkey, grow more diverse, a pressing need arises to truly understand and support this international cohort. However, a persistent gap exists between such inclusive policy rhetoric and the on-the-ground reality for many young people, particularly international students who navigate complex academic and social landscapes. In Turkey, these students often encounter significant challenges, including language barriers in both daily life and academic settings, difficulties in social integration, and cultural adaptation. Academically, they may face skill-curriculum mismatches and lower achievement levels, while socially, they deal with communication gaps and feelings of exclusion, sometimes leading to self-segregation (Akgöz & Dağyar, 2023). Research indicates that language deficiencies are a key factor in dropout rates (Kılıç, & Gökçe, 2019). and while some achieve basic Turkish proficiency, many lack the advanced competence required for academic success (Spencer-Oatey, et al., 2017)

This study, conducted within the framework of a European Union funded Horizon project, YOUROPE, employs the communicative methodology of research and action to bridge the gap between policy and lived experience by centering the voices of youth themselves. It align with The European Union’s Youth Strategy 2019-2027 which underscores that meaningful youth participation for sustainable societies.

The study seeks to answer the core research question: "What are the primary academic and social challenges faced by international students in Turkey's higher education system?" By collaboratively examining these obstacles the research generates grounded, participant-driven insights. Understanding these perspectives is vital for developing effective, context-sensitive institutional strategies, such as enhanced literacy programs and structured peer-learning initiatives aimed at improving academic performance and well-being (Huda, et al. 2025). Ultimately, this European Union supported investigation contributes to fostering a genuinely inclusive academic climate, ensuring that universities not only host global diversity but actively empower all young people to participate fully in democratic and social life.

The Nordic countries are frequently portrayed in cross-cultural value research as sharing a distinctive cultural profile characterised by egalitarianism, social trust, secular-rational orientations, and strong commitments to individual autonomy (Bréchon & Gonthier, 2017; Inglehart & Baker, 2000; Schwartz, 2006). While these value orientations are well documented among adult populations, considerably less is known about how contemporary Nordic youth understand, prioritise, and ascribe meaning to such values. This gap is significant, as value formation during adolescence is highly dynamic and shaped by generational conditions rather than reproducing adult cultural repertoires (Antoci, 2020; Inglehart & Baker, 2000). Today’s Nordic youth are coming of age in a context marked by global crises and uncertainty, including climate change, economic precarity, political polarization and instability, and the social disruptions following the COVID‑19 pandemic (Kutsar & Kurvet-Käosaar, 2021; Shah et al., 2021).

This paper presents an exploratory mixed‑methods study of core values among Nordic youth, combining large‑scale survey data (N=1,982 students in grades 7–9) from five Nordic countries with longitudinal, in‑depth interviews with 25 young people. Drawing on Schwartz’s theory of cultural value orientations as a comparative backdrop (Schwartz, 1999; Schwartz, 2006), the study adopts a critical age‑cultural perspective that treats youth culture as a distinct meaning‑world rather than a derivative of adult norms (Christopher et al., 2014).

Methodologically, the study utilises a value card interview approach—designed to elicit reflective and situated articulations of values—with reflexive interviewing techniques that foreground participants’ meaning‑making and researcher responsiveness. This design, combined with quantitative analyses of value co‑selection patterns, enables the analysis of both the prevalence of values and the meanings young people attach to them.

Findings: Quantitative analyses identify family, friendship, health, freedom, and wellbeing as the most widely shared values across Nordic youth, alongside education, sport, love, happiness, wealth, and peace. Using multidimensional scaling, we demonstrate that these values cluster into four interconnected domains: cognitive–affective values (knowledge, education, wellbeing, happiness), socio‑emotional values (friendship, sport), socio‑material values (family, love, health), and personal prosperity values (freedom, peace, wealth). These domains appear across national contexts, suggesting a shared Nordic youth value landscape, while still allowing for meaningful internal variation.

Qualitative analyses deepen this structure by illuminating how young people interpret these values in their everyday lives and future aspirations. Across countries, Nordic youth emphasise close relationships as sources of emotional security and belonging, echoing recent findings on post‑pandemic youth priorities (Shah et al., 2021; Ungdomsbarometern, 2024). Education is framed pragmatically as protection against vulnerability while also being associated with personal development, autonomy, and participation in society. Freedom and wealth are primarily understood instrumentally, valued for the opportunities they afford rather than as intrinsic goals, while peace is articulated both as a global ideal and as a condition for inner calm and relational stability.

Overall, the study contributes a systematic mapping of contemporary Nordic youth values that foregrounds relationality, embodied wellbeing, and future‑oriented autonomy. Methodologically, it demonstrates the analytical potential of combining value card interviews with common space analysis to bridge quantitative patterns and qualitative meanings. Substantively, the findings suggest that Nordic youth values represent age‑specific reinterpretations of Nordic cultural ideals shaped by uncertainty, realism, and a strong commitment to social connectedness.

Currently, doctoral education finds itself in a crucial situation, which requires intense scrutiny over its general purpose, its design and organizational structures and its contributions to the higher system in general (e.g. Cardoso, et al. 2021; Nature, 2024; Rathenau, 2024a).

The doctorate system, through the Bologna process (1992) considered as the third cycle in the bachelor, master, and PhD-system, is in transition along various dimensions. From a strictly academic issue, doctoral education has moved to a matter of international and national concern, which legitimises several political reforms and initiatives aimed at its regulation and reconfiguration (Cardoso, et al., 2022). We see a steady increase in numbers of PhD-candidates and graduations, and more variety of trajectories, such as the professional doctorate.

Because of the worldwide, prime importance of doctoral education, for our knowledge economy and as major contributor in the development of science and its (future) labour market, global debates on the best practices of delivering this education are ongoing (Yudkevich, Altbach, de Wit, 2021).

Whereas the PhD-system is increasingly studied, and publications concerning its various aspects are currently widely available, as well as information concerning facts, numbers and graduation rates (Rathenau 2024a, b, PNN, 2025) these generally focus on the individual level, whereas more profound discussions about how the system as a whole are lacking. It is my intention to provide a more fundamental basis and new structural impetus for these discussions.

Since the Berlin conference 2003 the PhD-trajectory has been acknowledged by the education Ministers of the Bologna countries. These ministers declared that “we need to ensure that the European higher education system acquires a world-wide degree of attraction equal to our extraordinary cultural and scientific traditions.”

More recently, internationalization, massification, the development of Artificial Intelligence (Bearman et al., 2022) and public management reform, encouraged by several initiatives such as the Bologna Process and the foundation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) had extensive impact on the doctorate system (e.g. Schäfer, 2021). EU agendas for higher education stimulated increased investment in research and development (European Commission, 2015; OECD, 2020, 2024), to ensure the future supply of research talent for the knowledge economy (Enders and de Weert, 2004; Neumann and Tan, 2011), which resulted in substantial rising numbers of PhD-candidates and graduates.

Main issues involve the misalignment with the labor market for professionals, with many PhD-graduates pursuing careers outside academia. Other issues involve structural inequities, for example considering gender, ethnicity and class disparities. Additional aspects involve the supervision and assessment of the PhDs trajectory.

Fresh, evidence-based insights are required to create an input for a novel, inclusive structuring of the doctoral system and post-PhD career perspectives that recognize and support diverse forms of knowledge and research outputs. Main subtopics involve the reconsideration and critical reflection of doctoral education, (post)PhD-careers and inequalities. How can we create a more sustainable system of doctoral education, inclusive and with a fit for the future labour market?

Diversity in the research workforce fuels creativity, brings new perspectives to science, and accelerates innovation (Hofstra et al.,2020). Key breakthroughs have emerged when individuals from a variety of backgrounds have contributed to the underpinning research (Díaz-García et al., 2013). However, diversity in the research workforce needs nurturing. This presentation presents the findings of an OECD Expert Group, bringing together experts from 18 different countries to examine diversity and excellence. Studies of national research systems have provided evidence of disparities in opportunities across all stages of research careers, highlighting gaps in career entry, advancement, pay, support and funding. These studies indicate that gaps are not due to differences in the quality of the individual candidate but can be explained by a set of interconnected relational, structural and systemic barriers (Ginther et al. 2011, Kozlowski et al., 2022; 2024; Larivière et al.,2013). Policymakers are taking action; research‑performing organisations are pivotal, yet bridging top‑down mandates and bottom‑up initiatives remains challenging. Guidance is needed to design interventions so that researchers, regardless of starting point or personal circumstances, can contribute to scientific progress. To this end, we draw on the concept of inclusive excellence in research, which affirms the necessity of public policy intervention to actively promote a diversity of perspectives and the participation of individuals from different backgrounds to accelerate the advancement of science. Inclusive excellence requires working conditions that make success equally probable regardless of differences in starting points and circumstances, thereby embedding equity and ensuring equal opportunities in research, education and training, career advancement and promotion, as well as in the allocation of resources. While recognising that the notion of “excellence” is socially constructed, we developed a framework to implement inclusive excellence in research with four pillars, each pillar including findings from the analysis of current practices in participating countries: · Pillar 1. Leveraging evidence to systematically identify and address barriers · Pillar 2. Supporting accessibility to research careers by addressing cost-barriers in the entry to research careers and inclusive curricula for research training · Pillar 3. Reducing the uncertainty of research careers in the public sector · Pillar 4. Ensuring equitable access to funding opportunities The presentation will include experts from multiple countries and researchers’ union representatives who will examine key issues for each pillar and highlight good practices.

Díaz-García et al. (2013), “Gender diversity within R&D teams: Its impact on radicalness of innovation”, Vol. 15/2, pp. 149-160, https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.5172/impp.2013.15.2.149. Ginther, D. et al. (2011), “Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards”, Science, Vol. 333/6045, pp. 1015-1019, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1196783 Hofstra, B. et al. (2020), “The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 117/17, pp. 9284-9291, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915378117. Kozlowski, D. et al. (2022), “Intersectional inequalities in science”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 119/2, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113067119. Kozlowski, D. et al. (2024), “The Howard‐Harvard effect: Institutional reproduction of intersectional inequalities”, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 75/8, pp. 869-882, https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24931. Larivière, V. et al. (2013), “Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science”, Nature, Vol. 504/7479, pp. 211-213, https://doi.org/10.1038/504211a. 5. country/national perspective(s) OECD countries, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, South Korea

Sweden, like other European countries, has a long tradition of cooperation in development aid-funded doctoral programs with universities in Africa. The idea is that graduates of these programs will contribute to national development by way of establishing a knowledge society (Samoff, 2004). Nevertheless, there is a plethora of research that indicates African researchers with doctoral degrees struggle to contribute to global knowledge production and progress in research careers, both within and outside of academia (Bezzaoucha et al., 2014; Du Toit & Koorsen, 2022). Although challenges like insecure employment situations, underfunding, and structural inequalities are recognized, there remains limited systematic evidence of the conditions that contribute to the research career outcomes of doctoral holders in African countries. The question is “How do broader systems, institutional environments, and individual circumstances contribute to researchers’ career development in Africa?” We review existing research to identify the structural, institutional, and individual-level conditions that contribute to shaping research careers and to map the methodological approaches that have been used to study researcher career development in African contexts. To provide contextual depth to the findings of this literature review, we will also present preliminary results from a case study of four doctoral programs at an Ethiopian university that are supported by Swedish development aid. Our analytical starting point is Castells’ (2001) contribution to the sociology of universities in development. Castells (2001) indicated several organizational reasons to explain the underdevelopment of research and categorized these as structural conditions (e.g., limited national resources for university research, uneven global scientific development) and institutional conditions (e.g., difficulty in managing scientific activity with other university functions, research infrastructure, policies, mentorship). While Castells (2001) recognized that researchers who are integrated in global scientific networks are among the most needed resources for a university in development, his work did not focus on individuals. Considering the vast literature emphasizing individual conditions, like gender, motivation, discipline, researcher identity, collaboration and networks, and commitment to serving society, we included individual-level conditions in our analysis (Kay & Karmowska, 2025; Musiige & Maassen, 2015). The findings from the literature review and case study point to an emphasis on institutional and individual-level conditions contributing to research career development, while structural conditions have been emphasized to a lesser extent. This raises critical questions about how doctoral education, particularly programs embedded in development aid, are designed to support research career pathways after doctoral education and how they could be reformed.

Bezzaoucha A., Atif, M., Bouamra, A., El Kebboub, A., & Benzerga, M. (2014). Algerian medical teachers’ research output and its determinants during the 2000–2009 decade. Revue d'epidemiologie et de sante publique, 62(1), 33-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respe.2013.08.005 Castells, M. (2001). Universities as dynamic systems of contradictory functions. In J. Muller, N. Cloete, & S. Badat (Eds.), Challenges of Globalisation. South African Debates with Manuel Castells (pp. 206-224). Maskew Miller Longman. Du Toit, D. & Koorsen, G. (2022). How useful is post-graduate education in biochemistry for entry into the South African labour market?. Biochemisty and Molecular Biology Education, 50(4), 354-359. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21627 Kay, S. & Karmowska, J. (2025). Personal factors in the career development of early career researchers in Kenya and implications for models of mentoring practice. Higher Education, 90, 1105-1122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01368-x Musiige, G. & Maassen, P. (2015). Faculty perceptions of the factors that influence research productivity at Makerere University. In N. Cloete, P. Maassen, & T. Bailey (Eds.), Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education (pp. 109-127). African Minds. Samoff, J. & Carrol, B. (2004). The promise of partnership and continuities of dependence: external support to higher education in Africa. African Studies Review, 47(1), 67-199. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1514799

Doctoral education must bridge academia and society to address labour market misalignment and structural inequities, fostering inclusive (post)academic careers (Biesta, 2019; Jasanoff, 2004). Yet, traditional structures limit societal engagement, creating gaps in career preparation, supervision and diverse knowledge validation. This paper examines a Portuguese FCT-funded doctoral project linking university, municipalities and migrant communities, contributing to the symposium theme "Inclusiveness and future of the doctoral system". The project operates through FCT's non-academic environment line (550 grants awarded in 2025), placing doctoral researchers in boundary spaces where knowledge is co-produced with societal actors (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, 2025a, 2025b). Proximity between universities and public administration enhances innovation networks (Runiewicz-Wardyn, 2020), while Jasanoff's co-production framework reveals how scientific knowledge and governance mutually constitute each other in migration policy research. We address two research questions: 1. How does FCT funding enable co-construction of knowledge between academia and society in migration/language education? 2. How do municipal partnerships and co-development workshops reshape doctoral projects as boundary spaces for inclusive career futures? Methodologically, participatory design combines ethnographic fieldwork in schools/municipalities, documentary analysis of linguistic policies, and co-development workshops negotiating research questions and policy briefs with stakeholders. Institutional mobility across sites serves as an analytic lens. Expected findings reveal how boundary spaces support context-sensitive interventions and teacher training while exposing tensions in authorship, evaluation and career uncertainty. Municipal co-development workshops validate diverse knowledge forms, reconfiguring doctoral identities beyond academia. We propose a framework for inclusive doctoral education with four pillars: · Pillar 1: FCT funding structures enabling boundary spaces · Pillar 2: Co-development workshops as knowledge co-construction sites · Pillar 3: Municipal partnerships translating research into governance · Pillar 4: Career pathways recognising transdisciplinary doctoral work Publicly funded boundary spaces demonstrate how doctoral education can systematically nurture societal engagement, validating dialogic trajectories as legitimate career futures.

Biesta, G. J. J. (2019). Obstinate education: Reconnecting school and society. Brill Sense. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. (2025a). FCT awards 1550 new studentships for doctorates. https://www.fct.pt/en/fct-atribui-1-550-novas-bolsas-de-investigacao-para-doutoramento/ Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. (2025b). Specific line of application in a non-academic environment. https://www.fct.pt/en/concursos/concurso-bolsas-de-doutoramento-2025-linha-de-candidatura-especifica-em-ambiente-nao-academico Jasanoff, S. (Ed.). (2004). States of knowledge: The co-production of science and social order. Routledge. Runiewicz-Wardyn, M. (2020). The role proximity plays in university-driven social

Amid accelerating technological developments, ideological tensions, and global crises such as climate and demographic change, educational research is increasingly marked by epistemic uncertainty—where the boundaries of knowledge, methodologies, and legitimacy are continually shifting (Biesta, 2010; Murris, 2022). This uncertainty is particularly evident in the experiences of international PhD students in Germany, whose doctoral work takes place within an expanding and internationalised higher education system. Their research trajectories are shaped by disciplinary traditions as well as by institutional ambiguities, supervisory arrangements, and the broader transformation of doctoral education. In this study, qualitative data including in-depth interviews and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), reveal the strategies doctoral researchers employ to claim epistemic agency despite institutional constraints. Key findings indicate that mentorship, interdisciplinary exposure, and research autonomy are crucial factors in fostering agency, while institutional barriers—such as rigid disciplinary boundaries, bureaucratic obstacles, and unequal access to academic networks—can hinder students’ ability to fully assert themselves as knowledge producers. The findings show that doctoral students undergo identity reconstruction, balancing prior educational norms with Germany’s independent research culture (Boutiuc-Kaiser et al., 2025). Initial uncertainty related to institutional adjustment, language barriers, and unclear supervision echoes earlier research (Wu, 2017; Schneijderberg & Teichler, 2018). Over time, students develop coping strategies, build peer networks, and adapt their study habits, gaining broader academic perspectives and increased agency (Bilecen, 2013). As educational research seeks to address the uncertainties of the future, this study contributes to ongoing discussions about the inclusivity of higher education, the impact of mobility on academic careers, and the structural dynamics that shape educational trajectories. These insights contribute to transdisciplinary debates on inclusive and globally connected higher education, while critically examining how the inflation of academic titles further accentuates epistemic uncertainty.

Biesta, G. (2010). Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy. Routledge. Bilecen, B. (2013). International doctoral students as knowledge brokers: Reciprocity, trust and solidarity in transnational networks. Discussed in research on PhD adjustment and identity reconstruction. Boutiuc-Kaiser, A., & Symeonidis, V. (2025). Internationalising doctoral education: International PhD students’ experiences of academic mobility in Germany. Academia, 0(38), 25-48. doi: https://doi.org/10.26220/aca.5074 Murris, K. (2022). Navigating Epistemic Uncertainty in Educational Research: A Posthuman Perspective. Routledge. Schneijderberg, C. & Teichler, U. (2018). Doctoral education, supervision practices, and socialisation processes Wu, R., Pan, X., Huang, X., & Zhai, Y. (2025). The impact of international academic mobility on doctoral students’ research collaboration and publication output.

Curriculum is one of the key concepts in higher education because it defines where the students have access and what they eventually gain from higher education (Barnett and Coate, 2005). Through the curriculum, the core of the disciplinary & professional field is put into practice in teaching (Bernstein, 2000). However, several studies show that curriculum is not a shared concept in higher education institutions and communities. For some, curriculum is a narrow, technical instrument to direct the study process to reach relevant contents or competencies, whereas for some others, curriculum is a broad concept that includes student’s personal growth, epistemic agency and transformational process through which they could contribute broadly to the world (Ashwin, 2020; Beres, 2025; Fraser and Bosanquet, 2006).

Curriculum is a crossroad where different stakeholders, interests and educational purposes meet. Also today we face negotiations about what it should include or what to exclude, and how it should be implemented, those discussions being connected to values, epistemological choices and power relations. Curriculum enables negotiations of the individual and collective interests; the relation between teaching, research, and students' engagement with knowledge; the administrative, scientific, and pedagogical practices and cultures in different institutions; and, the internal and external objectives for education (Annala, 2023). It also brings forward topical questions: what stance curriculum should take to face the questions of equity, diversity and inclusion, decolonisation of knowledge, and preparation for working life in a world with several challenges like climate change, wars, generative AI, divided societies with fake news and post-truth bubbles. Thus curriculum making always takes place in a certain cultural, historical, societal, economical and political environment (Pinar, 2004).

Currently we are able to identify several interests and tensions shaping higher education curricula (Krause, 2020; Wheelahan and Moodie, 2025). The local and global political and economic forces, through their funding policies, direct which fields of research and teaching are seen of value and which not, raising concerns about autonomy and freedom in teaching. The shift or return to the emphasis of (industry-aligned) learning outcomes raise questions about the broader educational task of higher education for an unknown future (’bildung’). The move towards a more generic curriculum, interdisciplinary programmes and fragmentary microdegrees, raise questions about the lack of systematic disciplinary knowledge that has been a specific feature of higher education.

Additionally, the widening access to higher education with a more heterogeneous student body brings forward the question: are all students offered epistemic access to systematic knowledge? In parallel the expectations for efficient study tracks entails the questions of meaningful learning and student’s journey that may be a messy process with struggles and moments of immersion, that cannot be rushed and should not be mechanized (Hou, 2025; Sarauw, 2023). Within this context student-staff co-creation in and of curriculum (Bovill & Woolmer, 2019) has been featured as a way of avoiding the risk of perpetuating hegemonic forms of knowledge and creating irrelevant curricula that exclude student perspectives.

In this symposium, we discuss these questions by presenting recent studies, including both broader and context specific papers on curriculum, implemented in HE institutions of different types, and in various country contexts. Authors of the papers come from Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK, and the discussant is from Ireland.

In the inaugural issue of Studies in Higher Education, Michael Thompson (1976) articulates two contrasting ideologies underpinning curriculum design. The dominant collection curriculum is associated with Homo Hierarchicus, characterised by hierarchical relationships and strong disciplinary boundaries. In contrast, the integrated curriculum aligns with Homo Aequalis, emphasising more egalitarian teacher–student relations and blurred disciplinary divisions. Nearly fifty years later questions of power, equity and the organisation of disciplinary knowledge within curricula remain pressing. What has changed, however, is the societal and global context in which these questions are posed. Massification, international harmonisation, and policy-driven funding regimes have reshaped higher education values and priorities (Alves and Tomlinson 2021; Brøgger 2019). These shifts are manifested in curriculum reforms, which reveal what is deemed valuable and worth preserving, and what is targeted for change, also reflecting changing conceptions of the educational purpose of higher education (Ashwin, 2022; Kandiko and Blackmore 2012; McArthur 2011). The curriculum is inherently value-laden and shaped by educational and political epistemological choices and power relations (Barnett 2009; Barnett and Coate 2005; Bernstein 1996). How the curriculum is researched offers insights into how higher education is influenced, transformed or made resistant to change by educational and political actors. This paper analyses curriculum-related research published in Studies in Higher Education over five decades, from 1976 to 2025. A longitudinal thematic review is conducted to provide a comprehensive overview of curriculum topics and trends across different decades, paying particular attention to how they reflect the educational task of higher education, past debates and future directions. The main research question is: What does research on the curriculum tell us about higher education? The thematic review includes 62 articles approached through linguistic ethnography, exploring what we can learn from scholars’ interpretations of the curriculum in what they write about higher education. The results highlight the breadth of research on the curriculum. The employability, skills, and work readiness agenda has received more attention over the years, but the critique of narrow and technical approaches to the purpose of higher education has also increased. Most articles appear to have local and limited knowledge of theoretical curriculum approaches, and students’ perspectives are often ignored. Broader societal aims, including an inclusive and sustainable society, students’ growth through the curriculum, a decolonising perspective and uniting multiple purposes like employability and sustainability, emerge as new openings in curriculum research.

Alves, M. G., and M. Tomlinson. 2021. “The Changing Value of Higher Education in England and Portugal: Massification, Marketization and Public Good.” Higher Education Policy 34 (2): 171–191. DOI: 10.1177/1474904120967574 Ashwin, P. 2022. “The Educational Purposes of Higher Education: Changing Discussions of the Societal Outcomes of Educating Students.” Higher Education 84: 1227–1244. Barnett, R. 2009. “Knowing and Becoming in the Higher Education Curriculum.” Studies in Higher Education 34 (4): 429–440. DOI: 10.1080/03075070902771978 Barnett, R., & K. Coate. 2005. Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. McGraw-Hill Education. Bernstein, B. 1996. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. London: Taylor & Francis. Brøgger, K. 2019. “How Education Standards Gain Hegemonic Power and Become International: The Case of Higher Education and the Bologna Process.” European Educational Research Journal 18 (2): 158-180. DOI:10.1177/1474904118790303 McArthur, J. 2011. Reconsidering the Social and Economic Purposes of Higher Education. Higher Education Research & Development 30 (6): 737–749. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2010.539596

In higher education, ‘curriculum’ is a term that is as ambiguous in meaning as it is ubiquitous in use. However, few educational researchers have sought to trouble these differences in conceptions held by those working in higher education institutions, and even fewer have examined these differences among those working most closely with the curriculum: the academic staff responsible for teaching it. Often, when this topic has been examined, research has focused on conceptions of subject-specific curriculum rather than on curriculum as a broader concept. This paper examines the various conceptions held by instructional staff teaching in various fields and programs across four polytechnic institutions in Alberta, Canada. Polytechnic institutions occupy a unique space within the higher education sector in Alberta, Canada, offering a range of programs that include vocational, technical, and baccalaureate credentials. This broad range of programs requires an equally broad range of instructional staff credentials, from applied trades journeyperson certificates to technical diplomas and master’s and doctoral degrees. Phenomenographic analysis of transcripts from 18 interviews with instructional staff yielded a hierarchically structured, inclusive outcome space comprising five qualitatively distinct categories of conception that outline the different ways in which curriculum is conceptualized in this unique higher-education setting. Further qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that while there was no apparent relationship between the academic background or teaching experience of the instructional staff and the degree of complexity of the conceptions of their expressed curriculum statements, there were notable differences in their statements made when describing their teaching experiences than when making prescriptive statements about what curriculum should be. These differences indicate a lack of awareness of the breadth and complexity of curriculum amongst instructional staff, as demonstrated by the simplified and limited prescriptions they express when asked directly about curriculum. Formalized curriculum language, codified through curriculum policies and processes, is presented as a critical influence on instructional staff's conceptualizations of curriculum, acting as a barrier to developing a more complex understanding of curriculum and resulting in negative impacts on student learning and growth through a focus on simplified, prescriptive understandings of curriculum. Professional development directly related to curriculum theory and applied curriculum development is recommended to address this truncated understanding of curriculum.

Annala, J., Lindén, J., & Mäkinen, M. (2016). Curriculum in higher education research. In J. M. Case & J. Huisman (Eds.), Researching Higher Education (pp. 171–189). SHRE Society for Research into Higher Education & Routledge. Beres, J. (2025). Faculty Conceptualizations of ‘Curriculum’ in Canadian Polytechnics. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. Lancaster University. Blackmore, P., & Kandiko, C. B. (2012). Strategic curriculum change: Global trends in universities. Routledge. El-Astal, M. (2023). What is Curriculum? Building a Broader Understanding of the Term. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 12(6), 188–196. Fraser, S.P. & Bosanquet, A.M. (2006). The curriculum? That's just a unit outline, isn't it? Studies in Higher Education, 31(3), 269–284. Krause, K.-L. D. (2022). Vectors of change in higher education curricula. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 54(1), 38–52. Le Grange, L. (2006). Curriculum: A neglected area in discourses on higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 20(2), 189–194. Mäkinen, M., & Annala, J. (2010). Meanings behind curriculum development in higher education. Prime, 4(2), 9–24 Tight, M. (2023). The curriculum in higher education research: A review of the research literature. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 61(2), 315–328.

In the last decades, the student-centred teaching model became a central element within the changing aims and contents of curriculum in higher education, namely by placing an increasing emphasis on student learning outcomes. In fact, that model is a key element on the higher education policy agenda after the Yerevan Ministerial Summit of the European Higher Education Area in May 2015 (Klemenci, 2017), underlying intended reforms towards enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. In Portugal, the idea of student-centred learning has been paramount since the inception of the Bologna process, given the predominance of the teacher-centred model in the country (Almeida et al., 2024). The widespread of the student-centred teaching model entails the need for further examination of the meaning and significance attributed to a primary focus on student and on learning, instead of on the teacher and on teaching. Is that primary focus aligning with a model of higher education that prioritises students as rational investors in educational credentials and consumers of a service provided by teachers (Alves & Tomlinson, 2021)? Is that primary focus ensuring higher education students' right to learn interlinked with teachers' duty to develop autonomy and critical thinking skills of students (Macfarlane & Han, 2024)? On the one hand, the desired prevalence of the student-centred model might induce a model in which higher education's role is mainly to maximize human capital ensuring private benefits for graduates, namely in what concerns their employability. On the other hand, the prevalence of such a model might mean a broader understanding of higher education outcomes valuing both individual and collective benefits, not only related to employability but also to literacy and citizenship. The tension between these two logics underpins an analytical framework to better understand the changes in higher education (Alves & Tomlinson, 2021). Using that analytical framework, current trends in higher education curriculum in Portugal will be explored. The proposed paper adds to previous research by discussing the meaning and significance of the student-centred model that has been advocated in Portuguese higher education in the last 20 years. To scaffold that discussion, content analysis of both national laws and higher education institutions’ documents concerning undergraduate degrees will be conducted. This approach is expected to clarify if and how the student centred teaching model is as central element within higher education curriculum.

Almeida, L; Gonçalves, S.; Ramos do Ó, J.; Rebola, F.; Soares, S.; Vieira, F. (2022). Inovação Pedagógica no Ensino Superior: cenários e caminhos de transformação. Lisboa: Agência de Acreditação e Avaliação do Ensino Superior. Alves, M. G., Tomlinson, M. (2021). The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good. European Educational Research Journal, 20, 2: 176-192. Brogger, K. (2019). How education standards gain hegemonic power and become international: The case of higher education and the Bologna Process, European Educational Research Journal, Vol. 18(2) 158–180 Klemencic, M. (2017). From Student Engagement to Student Agency: Conceptual Considerations of European Policies on Student-Centered Learning in Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, 30: 69–85. Macfarlane, B.; Han, X. (2025). The duty to explain: a positive defence of academic freedom in the social sciences, Teaching in Higher Education, 30, 5: 1208-1220

This contribution reports on a four-year collaborative project involving a consortium of eleven Dutch Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). The project aims to identify principles for designing and implementing sustainable educational configurations that foster transdisciplinary co-learning among students, teachers, and external stakeholders. Transdisciplinary education extends beyond multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches (De Greef et al., 2017). Whereas multidisciplinary approaches bring together disciplinary perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches synthesize disciplinary knowledge, often excluding experiential or non-academic knowledge, transdisciplinary approaches emphasize joint knowledge co-creation across academic and societal domains. Here, students, teachers, and stakeholders collaboratively engage with complex societal challenges, by shaping knowledge, technologies, behaviors, and social structures needed to address these issues (e.g., Fortuin et al., 2024; Knickel et al., 2019). In this project, each participating HEI collaborates with one of its transdisciplinary learning environments (TLEs). In these environments, students work with societal partners across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, bringing diverse perspectives to local, regional, and global challenges with the ambition to contribute to real-world change. Designing and embedding such configurations into existing curricula is challenging, partly due to differing interests, values, and expectations among participants. The central research question guiding the project is: What principles support the design and implementation of sustainable educational configurations that enable and scaffold transdisciplinary co-learning among students, teachers, and stakeholders, with the aim of contributing to societal transformations? Using a cyclical educational design research approach (McKenney & Reeves, 2012), the project investigates three core challenges: (1) enabling co-learning, (2) scaffolding transdisciplinary learning, and (3) embedding transdisciplinary education sustainably within higher education curricula. This symposium contribution presents results from three phases of the project: Phase 1: Development of a tentative framework of design principles, informed by a literature review, an inventory of national and international initiatives, and participant feedback. Phase 2: Application of the framework in six in-depth case studies of existing higher education configurations. These cases were analysed, adapted, and compared through qualitative and quantitative methods, resulting in a more refined framework. Phase 3: Redesign, enactment, and evaluation of the refined framework in the same six cases, supplemented by six additional higher education cases to further validate and elaborate the design principles. Through iterative cycles of analysis, redesign, and evaluation, the project works towards a validated, context-sensitive framework that identifies effective strategies for fostering transdisciplinary learning across diverse higher education contexts.

De Greef, L., Post, G., Vink, C., & Wenting, L. (2017). Interdisciplinary education: A practical handbook for university teachers. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Fortuin, K. P. J., Gulikers, J. T. M., Post Uiterweer, N. C., Oonk, C., & Tho, C. W. S. (2024). Developing a boundary crossing learning trajectory: supporting engineering students to collaborate and co-create across disciplinary, cultural and professional practices. European Journal of Engineering Education, 49(2), 212–235. Knickel, M., Knickel, K., Galli, F., Maye, D., & Wiskerke, J. S. C. (2019). Towards a reflexive framework for fostering co-learning and improvement of transdisciplinary collaboration. Sustainability, 11(23), 6602. McKenney, S. & Reeves, T. C. (2012). Conducting educational design research. Routledge.

The focus of this study was to synthesise the research on how engineering HE, in collaboration with industry, supports student transitions to work life. Recent studies have emphasised the significance of collaborative efforts between HE and industry (Arcelay et al. Citation2021; Arthur-Mensah Citation2020; Husin et al. Citation2022; Romero-Gázquez, Cañavate-Cruzado, and Bueno-Delgado Citation2022), which can promote knowledge exchange, leading to advancements in innovative products, research and development (R&D) projects, and services (Ankrah and Al-Tabbaa Citation2015; Bastos, Sengik, and Tello-Gamarra Citation2021; Zhang and Chen Citation2023). Other benefits include students’ practical work experiences, improved learning outcomes, study motivation, and preparedness for the transition to work life (Bennett, Knight, and Li Citation2023; García-Aracil, Monteiro, and Almeida Citation2018; Sabry, Gardner, and Hadgraft Citation2021; Thune and Støren Citation2015). Moreover, work life experience during studies may reduce dropout rates for students who struggle to see the relevance of their studies by helping them apply theoretical knowledge in practical settings, increasing their comprehension and interest (Hovdhaugen Citation2015).
The transition from HE to ever-evolving work life can pose challenges for graduates, as it is often marked by competition, mismatches, and instability (Alpaydin and Kültür Citation2022; De Schepper, Clycq, and Kyndt Citation2023; Figueiredo et al. Citation2017; Grosemans, Coertjens, and Kyndt Citation2017; Tomlinson Citation2023). Enhancing the transition phase and improving the employability of engineering graduates through stronger HE–industry collaboration can include internships, on-the-job training, capstone projects, and work-integrated learning opportunities (Brooks and Youngson Citation2016; Ford et al. Citation2019; Jackson and Bridgstock Citation2021; Winberg et al. Citation2020). The transition from HE to work life represents just the beginning of a graduate’s career path (Karaca-Atik et al. Citation2023). Moreover, transition processes vary among graduates; for example, in fields with high employee demand, there is a growing expectation for students to start working before finishing their degrees (Béduwé and Giret Citation2021; Hovdhaugen Citation2015). Thus, the aim was to explore various collaborative approaches that could help students transition into work life. To achieve this goal, the following three research questions (RQs) are addressed:
RQ1. What is the current state of research and scientific research networks on HE–industry collaboration in engineering education?

RQ2. In what ways is collaboration between HE and industry manifested?

RQ3. What are the benefits and hindering factors of collaboration for the stakeholders (students, HE institutions and staff, and industry)?

The civic mission of universities has been subject to ongoing debate, with growing calls for higher education institutions to strengthen their engagement with local communities. Despite this imperative, universities face significant challenges in developing genuinely community-centered initiatives amid competing institutional priorities (Hartley et al., 2010; Wegemer et al., 2020). Service-learning (SL) has gained prominence as one pedagogical response to this challenge, positioning itself as a mechanism to connect academic work with community needs (Santos Rego et al., 2023). However, a critical question remains unexamined: Do university SL projects foster authentic reciprocal partnerships with community organizations, or do they function primarily as experiential learning opportunities that benefit students while serving communities in more peripheral ways?

To examine this question from the community perspective, our research addresses:

• To what extent is SL integrated into entities' strategic planning and organizational vision?
• What degree of reciprocity characterizes university-entity relationships from the community perspective?
• What barriers prevent authentic reciprocal partnerships, and what improvements do entities propose?
• How do initial expectations align with actual outcomes experienced by community partners?

Specifically, this study aims to:

• Analyze the nature of university-entity relationships within Spanish SL projects from the community perspective.
• Examine the strategic integration of SL methodology within social entities' organizational frameworks.
• Assess the degree of perceived reciprocity in university-community partnerships.
• Identify gaps between entities' expectations and actual partnership outcomes.
• Synthesize community recommendations for strengthening university-entity collaboration.

Our analysis is grounded in Holland (2001) framework for evaluating SL from a community perspective, which emphasizes:

• Capacity to fulfill the entity's mission and introduce new activities or services.
• Economic impact through new funding streams.
• Perception of reciprocity, particularly whether entities propose objectives for the partnership or participate in setting goals for the university and students.
• Partnership sustainability, understood as mutual trust.
• Entity satisfaction, especially regarding intentions to continue collaboration.

Building on this foundation, we incorporate Gelmon et al. (2001) dual-focused framework that examines both tangible partnership outcomes and relational dynamics. The outcomes dimension addresses entities' capacity to fulfill their organizational missions alongside social and economic benefits realized through collaboration. The relational dimension explores partnership quality itself, encompassing interaction patterns between community and university, partner satisfaction -with particular emphasis on reciprocity- and the continuity of collaborative arrangements.

This theoretical framework allows us to move beyond student-centered evaluation, the predominant focus in SL research, to examine whether these partnerships genuinely serve community needs or function primarily as experiential learning opportunities for students. The literature suggests that authentic SL requires mutual benefit, co-creation, and sustained engagement, yet preliminary findings indicate a gap between this ideal and current practice (Rodríguez-Izquierdo, 2023).

Adopting a community-first analytical lens, this study addresses a significant gap in Spanish and international SL research on partnership dynamics.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has become an increasingly prominent feature of higher education policy and practice, both in Sweden and internationally (Areskoug Josefsson et al., 2025, 2025). Framed variously as educational content, pedagogical approach, or organizing logic, WIL operates simultaneously as both policy and practice within universities’ educational and research activities. As a research field, WIL has traditionally focused on learning in and through work and on the interaction between education and working life, drawing primarily on interdisciplinary social science traditions such as adult education and working life studies. In recent years, the field has expanded in terms of disciplinary traditions and analytical orientations, encompassing both normative approaches aimed at developing WIL practices and more critical perspectives that interrogate WIL as a policy idea.

Alongside its development as a research field, WIL and the parallel concept of Work-integrated education (WIE), has gained increasing prominence as a pedagogical approach in higher education in several national contexts (Billett, 2025).

In policy and practice, WIL and WIE are often presented as a means of integrating theory and practice and strengthening the relationship between higher education and the labour market (Jackson & Dean, 2023). However, the defining characteristics of WIL are rarely made explicit. As a result, WIL is interpreted and enacted in multiple, and sometimes divergent, ways (Areskoug et al., 2025). This conceptual ambiguity constitutes a central point of departure for the present study.

From a policy-sociological perspective, WIL can be understood as a form of governance through which higher education is mobilized to address politically constructed societal challenges, particularly those related to labour market needs and national competitiveness. Within this logic, higher education is positioned as a mechanism for the efficient provision of labour market-relevant knowledge and skills. In the Swedish context, work-integrated practices have developed over several decades through policy reforms emphasizing workplace-based learning, lifelong learning, and closer relations between higher education and professional life. More recently, WIL has been formalized as an explicit policy instrument, particularly within professional education and teacher education, through targeted funding and regulatory frameworks.

This study examines how WIL is interpreted, recontextualized, and shaped within a Swedish university with an explicit WIL profile. The university was established in the early 1990s in a context marked by political ambitions to strengthen collaboration between higher education and working life. From an early stage, work-integrated models such as cooperative education were developed, and WIL was strategically articulated as the university’s defining profile. Over time, WIL has been institutionalized through the formalization of a dedicated research environment, the establishment of doctoral education, and a range of pedagogical initiatives. One central example is the introduction of a comprehensive WIL certification process for all educational programmes (including both professional and theoretical programmes) between 2018 and 2024, aimed at aligning educational practices with the institution’s WIL profile.

Adopting a policy enactment perspective (Ball et al., 2012), the study focuses on the intersection between top-down policy discourses and bottom-up academic practices in both research and education. By analysing how WIL is enacted in the local institutional context, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of WIL as a policy-practicing approach and highlights its implications for knowledge production, professionalism, and the relationship between higher education and working life.

Despite increasing calls for diversity across sectors (Teixeira et al., 2016), higher education curricula often lack systematic approaches to fostering diversity competence, although universities are both responsible for preparing students for heterogeneous work environments and are becoming more diverse themselves (Braun et al., 2020). There is a growing need for teaching formats that deepen students' understanding of diversity while linking theoretical content to real-world problems. Problem-based learning (PBL) has gained recognition for promoting critical thinking and professional skills through applied, student-centered learning (Brondani et al., 2024).

As part of the DiveHack project, funded by Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre, we conceptualize, implement, and evaluate a problem-based teaching model within a business and economics course at a German university. Students apply their diversity knowledge to real-world challenges, developed in collaboration with regional partners from the private and public sectors. These challenges are addressed during a 24-hour hackathon (Avila-Merino, 2019). To examine the consistency and development of learning outcomes over time, we will conduct this intervention across two consecutive summer semesters (2025 and 2026), enabling us to analyze trends in students' diversity competence development.
The theoretical framework draws on constructivist learning theory and Hmelo-Silver's (2004) PBL learning cycle, which emphasizes student-centered problem identification, hypothesis generation, and knowledge application. Hackathons represent a form of "Short-Term PBL" (d'Escoffier & de Rezende, 2024) that compresses intensive learning into 24-48 hours while maintaining core PBL principles of authentic, ill-structured problems and collaborative learning. Diversity competence, in this context, refers to the ability to work effectively across differences and is increasingly recognized as a key skill for navigating heterogeneous environments (Karagiannakis, 2024).

Thus, we ask the following research question: How does problem-based learning through hackathons contribute to the development of diversity competence in higher education?

The hackathon format engages students in developing solutions to real organizational diversity problems provided by external regional partners. On day one, partners present their problems, students form interdisciplinary teams, and begin developing solutions. On day two, teams refine their ideas and create video pitches presenting their recommendations. Faculty serve as facilitators rather than instructors, supporting student-directed learning processes.

Initial findings from summer 2025 demonstrated measurable increases in perceived diversity competence. Pre-survey data revealed that 73% of students reported low prior knowledge of diversity management before the intervention. Post-survey results showed that 100% of participants found the hackathon helpful for understanding diversity, with 81.8% rating it as very helpful. All participants (100%) expressed satisfaction with the hackathon format. Qualitative data from focus groups and written reflections revealed that students particularly valued the practical application of theoretical knowledge, interdisciplinary collaboration, and direct engagement with real organizational challenges.

The summer 2026 implementation allows us to examine whether these positive outcomes are replicable and whether implementation refinements based on 2025 feedback lead to enhanced learning outcomes. By comparing two independent cohorts, this trend study provides stronger evidence for the effectiveness of PBL-based hackathons in developing diversity competence. The longitudinal approach enables us to identify stable patterns in learning outcomes, distinguish intervention effects from cohort-specific variations, and refine our teaching model based on evidence from multiple implementations.

As a field of research, Higher Education Research (HER) has historically been thought about either as a discipline or an interdiscipline. This paper tries to overcome such dichotomies by reconceptualising contradictions still alive in the field by looking at HER as it develops when enacted in/through research. To that end, we develop a theoretical account of epistemic interfaces – relational sites where individual epistemic thinking engages with socially distributed epistemic norms and practices – to examine how HER and individual researchers can advance reciprocally. Drawing on social epistemology (Goldman, 2011), we address uncertainty about HER’s disciplinary status by theorizing how epistemic plurality and friction (c.f. Medina, 2013) condition possibilities for research development beyond accumulation alone, understood as the linear integration of findings into unified frameworks. In acknowledging the scarcity of theoretically focused research conceptualising the development of HER, we identify conceptual contradictions scattered in the field. By integrating and differentiating theoretical strands, we seek to reposition the need of epistemic plurality and friction in the making of HER.

From a social epistemological perspective, knowing is fundamentally an activity of individual epistemic agents, yet one that is unavoidably shaped by social arrangements, norms, and institutions that condition successful inquiry (Goldman, 2011). Epistemic thinking (Barzilai & Zohar, 2014) is therefore neither arbitrary nor idiosyncratic. Rather, it is shaped by what Castorina and Faigenbaum (2002) describe as internal and external constraints. Internal constraints refer to the epistemic commitments, habits, and interpretive resources individuals bring to inquiry, largely analogous to epistemic thinking, whereas external constraints refer to the normative, methodological, and conceptual structures of the domains in which knowing is enacted. Following this, we consider disciplines as mid-level epistemic systems, non-deterministic sets of external constraints that may be more or less ‘well-structured’. From a relational perspective (Castorina & Faigenbaum, 2002), individual epistemic thinking develops through repeated engagement with externally structured practices, with such practices themselves being sustained and transformed through the activity of individuals over time.

This is particularly salient in HER, which is widely recognized as a plural, even a-theoretical, discipline that draws on other established disciplines, especially psychology, sociology, and economics (Lovakov & Yudkevich, 2023; Tight, 2004; Orona, 2021). Researchers engaging with HER are often shaped by various disciplinary backgrounds and encounter external constraints that are comparatively weakly standardized. Consequently, results often serve to restate prior conceptual frameworks (Ashwin, 2012) and fail to make use of methodological resources available in HER (Huisman, 2024). However, interdisciplinary research and epistemic diversity perspectives foreground plausible advantages of engaging within joint epistemic spaces (Talbi & van Woerden, 2025). Although not all the epistemic goods that individuals bring in light of their epistemic commitments are negotiable, the potential of such spaces lies in the way differing constraints become visible when emergent friction is engaged (Medina, 2013). In this, interdisciplinary development can be considered at not only the between- and above-disciplines level (Talbi & van Woerden, 2025), but as grounds for individual epistemic change as well (Bendixen & Rule, 2004).

Even so, developments at different levels are considered reciprocally related but asynchronous. Although changes in individual commitments are understood to be “slow” (Bendixen & Rule, 2004), they are comparatively faster than changes at the level of an epistemic system (cf. Popkewitz, 1997). In the context of HER, this perspective opens analytic space for examining how epistemic plurality functions not merely as a challenge to the coherence of the field, but as a condition under which different forms of research development may become intelligible.

Academic writing is a central component of higher education, both as a means of demonstrating knowledge and as a practice through which students develop disciplinary understanding, critical judgement, and participation in academic knowledge communities (Lea & Street, 1998; Wingate, 2006). Undergraduate thesis writing is commonly understood as a culmination of students’ academic literacy development, requiring competencies that are expected to be cultivated and progressively developed throughout programmes. It is well documented that students enter university with very diverse experiences of literate practices typically required for university studies and different levels of confidence in relation to complex writing tasks (Nallaya et al., 2022). This variation is particularly consequential in programmes where the thesis functions as the most comprehensive and demanding assignment, requiring students to formulate a research problem, engage critically with previous research, justify methodological choices, and present findings in a coherent academic text.

Despite the central role of the thesis in undergraduate education, limited attention has been paid to how students perceive their preparedness for these demands and how such readiness develops across the course of a programme. Moreover, relatively little is known about what forms of pedagogical support students themselves consider important in preparing for thesis work. Therefore, this study examines students’ perceived readiness for academic writing and thesis work, with particular attention to how such perceptions vary across stages of study and what forms of pedagogical support students identify as valuable.

Rather than treating thesis writing as a skill to be acquired in the final thesis course, this study approaches academic writing development as a longitudinal, programme-level pedagogical responsibility (Murray & Nallaya, 2016; Wingate, 2018). This perspective is consistent with research on academic writing in higher education, which has increasingly moved from viewing writing as an individual study skill towards understanding it as a situated academic literacy practice embedded in disciplinary, institutional, and feedback contexts (Bassett & Macnaught, 2025; Lea & Street, 1998; Lymer et al., 2024; Wingate, 2006). Studies also continue to show that students experience academic writing as challenging, particularly when they must develop argumentation, critical engagement with sources, genre awareness, and the capacity to use feedback productively (Fernsten & Reda, 2011; Little et al., 2024; Teng & Ma, 2024; Wei & Liu, 2024).

The following specific research questions were formulated:

1. How do students perceive their readiness for academic writing and thesis work?

2. Which aspects of academic writing and thesis preparation do students perceive as most challenging?

3. How do perceptions of readiness differ between students at different stages of their programme?

4. Which teaching activities, feedback practices, and learning resources do students identify as most helpful for developing academic writing and thesis-related competencies?

The study contributes to research on academic literacy and higher education pedagogy by focusing specifically on students’ perceived readiness for academic writing and thesis work. Perceived readiness is seen as a pedagogically relevant construct, since students’ self-assessments may influence motivation, help-seeking behaviour, engagement with feedback, and their capacity to make use of writing-related learning opportunities. Theoretically, the study connects academic literacy research with work on feedback, self-assessment, and student-centred learning, thereby framing perceived readiness as a diagnostic resource for curriculum design.

This study aims to explore how participation as observers in community-based premarital psychoeducation programs shapes graduate students' professional identity development and their understanding of family dynamics theories. Furthermore, another question of concern was how this university-municipality partnership model contributes to bridging the gap between academic knowledge and community mental health practice across diverse European and international contexts.

The current study is grounded in experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) and reflective practice (Schön, 1983), which emphasize that professional competence develops through cycles of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Within family studies, this study integrates family systems theory (Bowen, 1978; Minuchin, 1974) and relational-cultural theory (Jordan, 2010) to understand how graduate students observe and interpret couple dynamics.

The study also draws on the communities of practice framework (Wenger, 1998), positioning the university-municipality collaboration as a legitimate peripheral participation model where students transition from observers to practitioners. This aligns with European Higher Education Area (EHEA) recommendations for competency-based learning and community engagement in social sciences education.

Premarital education represents a critical preventive mental health intervention recognized across European and international contexts (Markman & Rhoades, 2012; Halford et al., 2017). However, significant gaps exist between academic training and community practice, particularly in non-Western contexts. Türkiye's position as a bridge between European and Middle Eastern family systems offers unique insights into how cultural contexts shape both couple dynamics and professional training needs.

European studies indicate that experiential learning in family therapy training enhances clinical competence (Carr, 2019), yet few programs systematically integrate community partnerships into graduate curricula. This model addresses calls from the European Association for Psychotherapy and the International Family Therapy Association for innovative training approaches that combine theoretical rigor with practical application.

This study contributes to international discourse on:

• Innovative pedagogies in family studies graduate education
• University-community partnerships for preventive mental health
• Cultural considerations in applying family theories across contexts
• Professional identity development in helping professions
• Scalable models for experiential learning in resource-diverse settings

The findings will inform curriculum development across European and international family studies programs while providing evidence for policy discussions on integrating experiential learning in higher education.

Background Context

Higher education has undergone significant transformations in recent decades, shaped by globalisation, marketisation and increasing accountability measures (Marginson, 2000; Olssen & Peters, 2005). Framed by the promissory logic of neoliberalism (Beckert, 2019), these shifts have fostered "academic capitalism" (Jessop, 2017), where academic labour is increasingly assessed by profitability and output (Slaughter & Leslie, 2001). This phenomenon is prevalent in European and other university systems across the globe, reflecting the transnational nature of contemporary higher education (Djerasimovic & Villani, 2020; Siekkinen et al., 2020).

Consequently, academics worldwide now navigate a complex terrain of competing demands, shifting identities and evolving notions of scholarly work (Henkel, 2005; Archer, 2008). They face intensifying workloads, pressure to secure funding, demands for 'excellence' and the need to demonstrate impact (Tight, 2010; Watermeyer, 2015). These pressures, compounded by employment precarity and eroding academic freedom (Courtois & O'Keefe, 2015), have cultivated an affective environment of instability, burnout and self‑doubt (Brunila & Nehring, 2023).

Within this turbulent context, academics negotiate their professional identities, balancing personal values against institutional imperatives (Clegg, 2008). The emotional labour involved is significant yet often overlooked (Constanti & Gibbs, 2004). Discourses of overwork and exhaustion have become normalised and sometimes valorised as "heroic" (Skea, 2021; Kidman, 2020), while many academics experience a "passion trap" of simultaneous pleasure and exploitation (Luczaj, 2020). These experiences, though locally specific, share common threads across global contexts and deeply affect academics’ emotional and experiential lives.

This presentation considers how printmaking can render these complexities legible, using a series of woodblock prints to evoke tacit meanings, emotional registers and paradoxes of identity that often elude textual accounts.

Objectives

The objectives of this study are to:

• Produce a curated suite of woodblock prints that explore and communicate the affective landscapes and material realities of academic work through visual metaphor and printmaking practice.
• Demonstrate and theorise arts‑based approaches as rigorous analytic practices within higher education research, showing how creative production can function as data, interpretation and scholarly output.
• Create an integrated visual–textual portfolio that engages with international debates on accountability, professionalism and policy, fostering critical reflection and dialogue about how systemic forces shape academic identities and labour.

Research Question / Problematic

The problematic underpinning this inquiry is:

How can a series of woodblock prints that weave personal and collective narratives illuminate the affective and paradoxical dimensions of academic life and engage diverse audiences?

This question is framed to:

• Examine how material and compositional choices in woodblock printmaking function as analytic practice, generating insights into academics’ affective and paradoxical experiences.
• Translate individual narratives into collective accounts that address debates on accountability, professionalism and policy.
• Explore modes of presenting and sharing the visual–textual ensemble with diverse audiences (scholars, policymakers and the public) to provoke reflection, dialogue and potential impact.

Conceptual / Theoretical Framework

The framework for this project integrates theories of academic work with arts‑based inquiry, using the carnivalesque as a bridging concept. It draws on supercomplexity and academic capitalism (Barnett, 2000; Slaughter & Leslie, 2001) to contextualise higher education's contested nature, and on 'cruel optimism' (Berlant, 2011) to explore academic identity negotiation. Arts‑based research (Barone & Eisner, 2012) and printmaking as research (McMordie & Stempel, 2023) legitimise aesthetic inquiry and embodied experience in research. The carnivalesque (Bakhtin, 1984) and world‑travelling (Lugones, 1987) enable critique through humour, inversion and perspective‑shifting.

These lenses inform both the making processes (material and compositional choices) and the interpretive aims (translation of personal narratives into collective forms and dissemination to varied audiences). The project treats printmaking not merely as illustration, aiming to provoke scholarly and public engagement with the affective realities of academic labour.

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is still ongoing as in times of writing. Despite the destruction of educational facilities, forced displacement of universities from occupied regions, and the lack of funds, Ukrainian universities continue to function, persevering in teaching and learning. The full-scale invasion had a dramatic effect on all Ukrainians, including university teachers, who are responsible for upholding higher education and preparing future specialists.

The existing research documents challenges faced by the University teachers: feelings of depression (Lavrysh et al., 2022), psychological problems (Fiialka, 2022), emotional exhaustion (Tsybuliak et al., 2023a) and decrease in family income (Tsybuliak et al., 2023b). However, the research has rarely discussed how the realities of war impacted university teachers’ everyday practice. Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) are symbolic of the nation's resilience to Russian occupants as they continued to work, firstly, by returning to distance education, mastered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lately by resuming face-to-face instructions. The proposed presentation aims to highlight, describe, and reflect upon university teachers’ experiences in their own words. The research question, who the presentation will answer, is How has the professional experience of Ukrainian university teachers been since the full-scale Russian invasion?

Here, we understand professional experience as a sum of teaching and research/scientific activities that Ukrainian HEIs’ teachers undertake in their respective universities. This study adopts interviews as a method for gathering research data, as the aim is to prompt the participants’ reflexive thoughts (Dewey, 1991) on their practice. Instead of focusing on what happened, reflexive thought fosters considerations of how something happened, for what reasons, and how a person felt and positioned themselves in it, as it is spontaneous and real thinking (Clarà, 2015).

We further connect reflexivity with dialogue, as the interviews with participating Ukrainian university teachers are conducted by the fellow Ukrainian university teacher, the first author. Dialogue looks simultaneously towards individual thinking and reflection and the constitution of cultural practices at a specific historical moment (Renshaw, 2004). As such dialogue provides a space for a deeper reflexive thought, stimulated and co-constructed through each others’ utterances, since, as Wells (2007) writes, when individual understanding becomes powerfully enhanced when realised in dialogue the stamps from inquiry and knowing-together. Hence, in dialogue the research is done with the participants, and not on them.

The first author, who conducted the interviews, shares cultural and professional identity, language, and experiential base with the research participants, which makes them an insider researcher (Asselin, 2003; Dwyer & Buckle, 2009). Being an insider researcher allowed to prompt more reflexive thoughts, as there was no necessity for establishing the context. Being an insider researcher also brings ethical and methodological challenges as it might be difficult to detach personal from experiences of the participants and to not to impose own ideas on the participants (Pillow, 2003; Finefter-Rosenbluh, 2017). During the interviews, it was important for the authors to provide a space for teachers’ agency without imposing and including ourselves in their stories through engaging in open and respectful dialogue. Overall, recognising and critically reflecting on affordances and challenges of the authors’ positionality, the authors approach interviews as dialogue to provide space for the participants’ authentic self-expression and reflexive thoughts.

The rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in higher education has triggered a profound socio-professional disruption, particularly within Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS; Ferret et al., 2025). While institutional discourses often frame this transition through a techno-pedagogical lens, emphasizing innovation, adaptation, and assessment transformation, our longitudinal study reveals a deeper psychosocial crisis. We posit that GenAI does not merely challenge pedagogical methods but fundamentally destabilizes the professional identity of HSS scholars, whose expertise is grounded in the authenticity of writing as proof of critical thought.

This paper proposes a social psychology of “augmented” education, exploring how academic communities regulate the epistemic uncertainties introduced by GenAI. We define epistemic uncertainty as the radical incapacity to distinguish human from synthetic authorship, leading to a breakdown in both the didactic contract and interpersonal trust within the academic community. Unlike previous digital transformations, GenAI introduces a creative agent capable of producing scholarly outputs that challenge the traditional distinctiveness of academic expertise (Pasonen, 2025; Brynjolfsson et al., 2025).

Research Questions:

1. How does the intrusion of GenAI into student production affect the professional identity and epistemic beliefs of HSS scholars at micro (individual), meso (organizational), and macro (institutional) levels?
2. What social regulation strategies (resistance, securitization, re-territorialization, identity work) do academic communities develop to cope with this “augmented” uncertainty?
3. How do institutional mediation devices (training, guidelines) interact with grassroots regulation processes in facilitating or hindering collective identity renegotiation?

Theoretical Framework:


Our integrated framework articulates three complementary psychosocial dimensions:

1. Identity Process Theory (Breakwell, 1986; Vignoles et al., 2011)

We analyze the crisis through threatened identity principles. Following Endacott (2021) and Pasonen (2025), we hypothesize that GenAI attacks two core dimensions: the distinctiveness of the scholar (if AI writes like a human, what constitutes scholarly expertise?) and self-efficacy (loss of evaluative control). The demand for detection software, despite its technical unreliability, is interpreted not as naive technological solutionism but as a coping strategy to restore professional integrity and boundary work (Nelson & Irwin, 2014).

2. Social Representations of Professional Knowledge (Moscovici, 1988; Jodelet, 2008)

We investigate the conflict between competing representations: the institutional view of AI as a “cognitive partner” requiring pedagogical adaptation versus practitioners’ representation of AI as a “viral threat” to the central nucleus of their profession being the evaluation of authentic authorship. This polarization reflects what Wallin et al. (2022) identify as the dual potential of digitalization to either support or undermine professional identity.

3. Collective Efficacy and Identity Work (Bandura, 2000; Watson, 2008)

We examine how the academic community shifts from individual distress (“paranoia,” isolation) to collective identity work and normative reconstruction (Pasonen, 2025). By creating new local norms (oral exams, hybrid writing assignments, ethical charters) and deliberative spaces (general assemblies), the community attempts to rebuild “vicarious mastery” over technological disruption. This transition mirrors the movement from professional identity flux to strategic re-territorialization documented in creative knowledge work (Golgeci et al., 2025).

Objectives:


This study moves beyond the binary “pro-innovation versus anti-cheating” debate to document the hidden psychosocial costs of digital transition. It highlights the specific vulnerability of HSS disciplines, where writing style is inextricably linked to critical thinking, and proposes a model of “augmented professionalization” that integrates epistemic anxiety as a legitimate component of professional development rather than mere resistance to change. By adopting a multicausal perspective (ie. integrating micro-level identity threats, meso-level organizational mediation, and macro-level institutional discourses) we aim to provide actionable insights for supporting academic communities through this socio-professional transformation.

This presentation explores how the publicness of public education is increasingly being scrutinized and undermined by the growing interventions of non-state actors in education governance. By non-state actors, we refer to a diverse range of entities, including long-established international organizations such as the OECD and UNESCO, supranational organizations like the European Union, as well as new actors such as edu-businesses, NGOs, think tanks, and philanthropic foundations (Edwards et al., 2021). Our focus is on what coordinates these actors: a shared aim to influence both public policy and private decision-making in ways that promote adherence to their preferred educational topologies (Grimaldi & Ball, 2021).

Our central argument is twofold.

First, we start from the observation that the ongoing succession of crises (financial, environmental, health, populism, armed conflicts, and war) has increased the complexity of policymaking (Kushnir, 2021), prompting renewed debates about the role of education in addressing emerging challenges. In public policy discourse, these crises are often framed as opportunities to initiate or justify education reforms (Cone & Brøgger, 2020), as these crises intersect with a range of persistent issues already present within education systems: the teaching profession, cyberbullying, school violence, school dropouts, segregation, and discrimination. Education seems to be perceived through its ‘pathologies’ - like a patient in need of a cure - rather than as a common good that can promote the well-being of future generations (Lingard, 2023). In this context, the intervention of non-state actors becomes welcomed as a means of addressing the crisis facing education systems.

Second, while these actors encompass a wide range of organizational types and operate on multiple scales, their intervention in education governance has been analyzed both as a consequence of, and a contributing factor to, the growing centrality of a globalized education policy discourses (Rizvi et al., 2022; Robertson et al., 2012; Hultqvist et al., 2018). Building on this perspective, we will examine the effects of their interventions on public schools in Denmark, France, and Portugal in interconnected dimensions typically advocated by non-state actors (Lubienski et al., 2022): 1) the use of international large-scale assessments, and 2) the triad of accountability, datafication, and digitalization in education.

This presentation emerged from a self-reflexive conversation of the co-authors in a collaborative writing project for a book chapter about decolonial directions in global governance of education. Major intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank, currently dominate the production, gathering and distribution of education knowledge across the globe (Baek & Steiner-Khamsi, 2025; Zapp, 2017). They represent the education problem in the ‘Global South’ narrowly as a ‘learning crisis’, with insufficient attention to context and the colonial legacy, including understanding colonialism, decoloniality and the decolonial project. Colonial thinking continues to affect not only Indigenous peoples of colonised countries, but the legacy persists in the countries that instigated the colonisation process, generating a worldview that systematically privileges those who are White, wealthy, cis-male, heterosexual, and able-bodied.

Our collaborative Foucauldian analysis and decolonial writing project reveals the shift, from seeing a world made of things to seeing a world that is open and made up primarily of relationships, as implicit in moving from unitary ways of thinking to more heterogenous systems of understanding the world. The relational intra-active worldview with connectedness of all entities, challenges the five layers of modernity, namely, capitalism, racism, liberalism, positivism and Christianity.

Our questions include: What tensions arise in shifting from modernity to a decolonial and relational understanding of knowing and being? How can self-reflexivity as genealogy help us move from binary thinking, through nuance to relationality?

We assume that how we understand and access knowledge, informs the way we act as researchers, practitioners and citizens. Different discourses create different lived effects in terms of how we construct or understand ourselves and each other in everything we say and do. We analyse how privileged onto-epistemologies can be contested in current shifting conditions. We address power relations in global education governance policy and the contestation of dominant policy discourses. We offer the on-going process of response-ability (Bozalek & Zembylas, 2023) as one possibility towards cognitive justice in education. This practical and ethical reframing of research knowing and acting cultivates attentiveness, rendering one another capable and open to encounters that redistribute epistemic authority and policy agency. The transition about what is real and possible constitutes a primary challenge in navigating decolonial futures. We offer a provocation to prompt debate and invite conference participants to join us on this journey to reconsider the nature of knowledge, data and evidence as we put self-reflexivity as genealogy to work.

The expanding Global Education Industry, GEI, offers lucrative opportunities for private actors to participate in the provision of education products and services to generate profit (Verger et al. 2016). In addition to products and services, knowledge and policies are also created, exchanged and commodified in the GEI (Verger et al. 2016). Education export generally refers to all education‑related business activities for which a foreign entity pays for a specific product or service. This symposium explores how education export from one national context is framed and with what implications when imported to varied global contexts. The context on focus is the Finnish education system, which, due to its past PISA fame, has become an attractive solution to various educational ills globally. For Finland, the interest toward its education was an opportunity for branding and business (Schatz et al. 2017) and the state has indeed promoted structures that are favorable for the education business and especially for education export (Seppänen et al.2023).

Three of the papers discuss how the Finnish education is framed, in and by policy (Kuortti), by edubusinesses (Ahmed) offering services and products for global consumption, and in schools that exemplify what gets exported (Nishimura-Sahi). In his paper, Kimmo Kuortti presents an analysis of European Commission education export-themed ERDF funded projects proliferated in Finland during the programme period 2014 - 2020. The paper studies how education is produced as a hybrid sphere where public education becomes projectized, integrated into temporary structures and governed through the logic of regional economic development. The fundamental question Kuortti poses is “what is education” in these education export initiatives. Afsheen Ahmed again focuses on the edubusinesses involved in education exports. Her paper examines how Finnish Education Export Companies discursively construct and market Finnish basic education for global audiences, with particular attention to how values such as equality, inclusion, and learner autonomy are reframed within market-oriented narratives. Drawing on post-structural and postcolonial perspectives, she critically analyses how Finnish basic education is positioned as a transferable solution to global educational challenges and what ethical and epistemic implications these representations produce. Following Japanese participants visiting Finnish schools, Nishimura-Sahi describes how affective technologies, comprising words for feeling (e.g., happiness, well-being, slow living in Nordics) and objects of feeling (e.g., school interior), operate in the context of education export and consequently contribute to assembling a global model of ‘good education’. In the final paper Salokangas and Kiesi, drawing from two data sets: one involving ethnographic fieldwork in a Finnish international school in South Asia and interviews with Finnish International school teachers from Eastern Europe and South Asia, and another involving a discourse analysis of internet documents produced by edubusinesses discuss central tension prevalent in export activities. Working with postcolonial theory, the paper demonstrates how export initiatives in varied local contexts contribute to racialised and economic hierarchies, prioritise western knowledge over local knowledges, and commodify public education for scalable private profit.

The symposium has broad European and international relevance by discussing how European policies contribute to local interpretations of export from Finland, and again how this export manifests in as diverse contexts as Japan, South Asia, and Eastern Europe. By revealing the generic, hollowed out and idealised nature of the export product, and casting light on the implications of export activities in varied global contexts, the symposium contributes to the field by posing critical epistemic and ethical questions concerning the content, means and implications of export activities.

In this paper I examine how education export is discursively institutionalised through European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projects in Finland during the funding period 2014 - 2020. While previous research has predominantly focused on national-level education export policy, less attention has been paid to how these policies become interpreted through project-based funding instruments. Drawing on discursive institutionalism (Schmidt 2010) and Foucauldian governmentality (Foucault 1991, Gordon 1991), this study conceptualises ESF/ERDF project summaries as institutionalized discursive acts that both reflect and reproduce dominant education export rationalities. The data consists of ESF and ERDF project summary documents related to education export, complemented by previously analysed (Kuortti 2024) national education export policy documents. Rather than treating project documents as neutral descriptions of implemented activities, the paper analyses them as discursive sites where institutional ideas about education, competitiveness, and public value are articulated, normalised, and rendered actionable. Analytically, the paper focuses on how cognitive ideas (what education export is and how it functions) and normative ideas (why education export is desirable and legitimate) are realized in project-level discourse. The analysis shows how education export is consistently framed as an economic opportunity, a regional development tool, and a solution to perceived challenges in public education funding and relevance. Through this framing, ESF/ERDF projects operationalise national education export policy by translating political objectives into institutionalised development practices. Foucault’s concept of governmental rationality is used to illuminate how project discourse constructs education as a governable and exportable resource, while simultaneously shaping subject positions for educational institutions, regions, and educators as entrepreneurial and globally oriented actors. The research indicates that the project documents frame public education at all levels from kindergarten to higher education as a partner in business creation. The findings suggest that ESF/ERDF projects do not merely implement education export policy but actively contribute to its institutional consolidation by stabilising particular discursive understandings of education’s public purpose. The paper contributes to education policy research by demonstrating how project-based EU funding operates as a key mechanism in the discursive institutionalisation of education export, thereby extending analyses of education export beyond national policy texts to the level of institutional practice and governance.

Foucault, M. 1991. “Politics and the Study of Discourse.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 53–72. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf: The University of Chicago Press. Foucault, Michel. 1994. Power. Essential Works 1954 – 84: Volume Three. UK: Penguin Random House. Gordon, Colin. 1991. “Governmental rationality: an introduction.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 1–51. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf: The University of Chicago Press Schmidt, V. A. 2010. Taking ideas and discourse seriously: Explaining change through discursive institutionalism as the fourth ‘new institutionalism’. European Political Science Review, 2(1), 1–25.

This paper examines how Finnish basic education is presented and marketed in global education export by Finnish Education Export Companies (FEECs). Finland’s comprehensive school system is internationally recognised through its core values such as equality, inclusion, autonomy, and education as a public good. Together with Finland’s strong performance in international PISA rankings, these values have contributed to the increased global demand for Finnish education and its positioning as an exportable good/service. While previous research on education export has focused largely on policy frameworks, national branding, and higher education, less attention has been paid to how private education export companies present Finnish basic education and how its values are framed for global markets. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how FEECs discursively construct Finnish basic education as a solution to global educational challenges in export contexts. The study draws on post-structural and postcolonial perspectives. We apply Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) approach, guided by a Foucauldian discourse analysis and informed by Andreotti’s postcolonial critique of global education. This framework is used to examine how educational problems are defined, what assumptions support these definitions, which perspectives are foregrounded or silenced, and what effects these representations produce. The empirical material consists of marketing content collected from the websites of six FEECs in May 2025, including service descriptions, company introductions, and promotional texts related to basic education exports through school benchmarks and franchising. The analysis focuses on how the importer education systems are portrayed by the FEECs, how Finnish education is positioned as a transferable solution, and how values such as equality and inclusion are communicated within market-oriented narratives. Preliminary findings suggest that marketing texts frequently portray education systems in export destinations as lacking quality, expertise, or future relevance, while presenting Finnish basic education as optimal, scalable, and universally adaptable. At the same time, structural inequalities and ethical tensions related to the commercialisation of education and the connection of the Finnish system with the local education systems are largely absent. From a postcolonial perspective, these discourses risk reproducing epistemic hierarchies by privileging Western educational norms and positioning Finnish education as globally normative. The paper contributes to international and comparative education research by highlighting how educational models and values are reshaped through market logics and by advancing critical discussions on the ethics of education export.

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This paper explores how affective engagements—such as aspirations for ‘happiness’ and ‘well-being’—shape global education policy movements (e.g., Edwards Jr. et al., 2024) , focusing on their role in education export. Empirically grounded in a Finnish case of education export, this paper explores how ‘words for feeling, and objects of feeling’ (Ahmed, 2004, p. 14) circulate and generate effects: specifically, it observes a tour to Finnish schools targeted to international (Japanese) visitors to describe how affective technologies, comprising words for feeling (e.g., happiness, well-being, slow living in Nordics) and objects of feeling (e.g., school interior), act upon individuals’ thoughts and actions, and consequently, contribute to assembling a global model of ‘good education’. In so doing, the paper seeks to shed light on the affective dimension in the analysis of policy movement, a perspective largely overlooked in prevailing global education policy scholarship (e.g., Phillips & Ochs, 2004; Rizvi et al., 2022; Steiner-Khamsi, 2021). The central pillar of the conceptual framework of this study is affect theory (e.g., Gregg & Seigworth, 2010), particularly Sara Ahmed’s work on the politics of emotion (Ahmed, 2004, 2010). Affect theory is employed to analyse how feelings, emotions, and atmosphere serve as a technology of mobilising individuals for transnational policy transfer (Rappleye, 2012) or policy borrowing and lending (Steiner-Khamsi, 2021), and what the outcomes of such affective transfer are. To that end, I conducted observations during a two-day tour to a daycare centre (päiväkoti) and three schools in south-western Finland in autumn 2025, and interviewed the Japanese participants (N = 11) two months after the tour. I then analyse the collected data to illustrate the process through which ‘Finnish education’ is constituted as an ideal model of education, drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005; Law & Hassard, 1999). The sociomaterial approach informed by ANT enables an analysis of how affect emerges in the constitution of ‘Finnish education’. In this analytical framework, ‘Finnish education’ is conceptualised as an assemblage of material objects, bodies, and an ideal of ‘good education’. The paper explores how affective technology, in the process of making ‘Finnish education’, contributes to shaping educational ideals, desires, and actions, which in turn brings about change in global education movements. By empirically investigating the elusive domain of the politics of emotion (Ahmed, 2004), the paper seeks to advance both theoretical and methodological discussions in studies of globalisation and policy movement in education.

Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. Routledge. Ahmed, S. (2010). The promise of happiness. Duke University Press. Edwards Jr, D. B., Verger, A., McKenzie, M., & Takayama, K. (Eds). (2024). Researching global education policy: Diverse approaches to policy movement. Policy press. Gregg, M., & Seigworth, G. J. (2010). The affect theory reader. Duke University Press. Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2004). Educational policy borrowing: Historical perspectives. Symposium Books. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford University Press. Law, J., & Hassard, J. (1999). Actor network theory and after. Bloomsbury Publishing. Rappleye, J. (2012). Educational policy transfer in an era of globalization: Theory–history–comparison. Peter Lang. Rizvi, F., Lingard, B., & Rinne, R. (2022). Reimagining globalization and education. Taylor and Francis. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2021). Policy-borrowing and lending in comparative and international education: A key area of research. In T. D. Jules, R. Shields & M. A. M. Thomas (Eds.), The Bloomsbury handbook of theory in comparative and international education (pp. 327–344). Bloomsbury Publishing Pls.

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