Conference Agenda

In response to rapidly changing societal landscapes, curriculum reform policies have proliferated worldwide, demanding fundamental restructuring of schooling. Yet the successful implementation of such reforms cannot be achieved through explicit directives or institutional controls alone. Reform efforts often falter without less visible mechanisms—motivational strategies that immerse policy actors in reform visions and ideals. What moves policy actors (Lähdesmäki et al., 2020), therefore, depends not only on cognitive appeals to rational deliberation but also, and crucially, on affective dimensions.

Reform policies mobilize rhetorics that evoke particular feelings—such as hope, urgency, or moral responsibility—to encourage engagement (Zembylas, 2023a). Through rhetorical and representational devices that trigger and regulate affect, policies induce teachers and other actors to invest in reform ideas and to become their carriers in everyday practice (Moore & Clarke, 2016). From this perspective, the mobilization of affect operates as a constituent condition of contemporary education reform rather than a secondary or incidental feature (Zembylas, 2023b).

Influenced by the “affective turn” in the humanities and social sciences, recent policy research has increasingly attended to these dimensions (Matus, 2017; Zembylas, 2022). Affect is understood as “visceral forces beneath, alongside, or generally other than conscious knowing” (Seigworth & Gregg, 2010, p. 1)—vital, relational forces that shape movement, attachment, and orientation beyond linguistic meaning alone. Affect can attach to diverse bodies, including humans, objects, discourses, and norms (Sedgwick, 2003). Within policy texts, affect adheres to vocabularies, numerical data, visual representations, and best practices, circulating to steer policy actors toward particular reform trajectories (Matus, 2017). By making specific futures feel desirable, necessary, or inevitable, affect functions as a political force—a governing strategy that regulates thinking and conduct toward predefined goals.

Despite its centrality, affect has often been overlooked in curriculum policy research. Traditional studies have focused predominantly on the critical interpretation of explicit messages or on evaluating implementation outcomes (Webb & Gulson, 2012). Such approaches, however, risk neglecting how policy is enacted through what Masny and Cole (2009, p. 5) describe as “random collisions of affects.” Understanding the complex processes of policy formation and enactment therefore requires explicit attention to the affective registers embedded within policy texts and circulating through them.

Addressing this gap, this study aims to analyze the specific affects mobilized in curriculum reform policy texts and to examine their political operations. It asks: (1) What types of affects are circulated within policy texts to encourage engagement with reform? and (2) How do these affective technologies produce political effects in the enactment of curriculum reform?

Empirically, the study focuses on South Korea’s High School Credit System (HSCS), a nationwide curriculum reform fully implemented in 2025. By analyzing policy texts produced throughout the reform’s development, this study examines how affect is mobilized to compel participation and sustain reform trajectories. By foregrounding affective-discursive governance, the study extends critical policy research beyond analyses of content, ideology, and power relations, while offering transnational insights into how curriculum reforms are sustained amid contemporary educational crises.

Context: Research has consistently demonstrated that parents, teachers, and curriculum structures influence students’ attitudes towards mathematics (Clerkin & Gilligan, 2018; Quaye & Pomeroy, 2021; Pocalana et al, 2023; O’Meara et al, 2022; Saadati et al, 2023; Connolly et al, 2021). However, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of peer interactions in shaping students’ mathematical identities and self-concept as the curriculum is enacted in classrooms, particularly in Ireland. In Irish post-primary education, mathematics is a compulsory subject until the age of 18 or 19, and high-stakes assessment structures, including bonus points for Higher Level mathematics, position the subject as both valuable and anxiety-inducing (Prendergast et al, 2022). During this shared curricular experience, common global narratives such as “I hate maths” or “I was never any good at maths” persist among students and adults alike, suggesting that attitudes towards mathematics are socially produced and sustained. Amid new Senior Cycle Redevelopment, now more than ever, it is imperative that we explore peer influences on mathematical identity as we move towards a more student-centred approach to learning. While curriculum policy outlines intended learning outcomes, the lived curriculum emerges through everyday classroom interactions (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2015).

Aim: The aim of this study is to capture student voice by exploring how peers interact during mathematical tasks and discussions, and how these interactions influence students’ mathematical identities and self-concept. A further aim is to explore how peer discourse shapes students’ confidence, self-belief, and sense of belonging in mathematics classrooms at a critical stage of early adolescence. To answer the question ‘How do peer interactions influence post-primary students’ self-belief and mathematical identities in the Irish education system?’ I will explore the concepts of identity, belonging, subjectivity, and self-concept. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and Social Learning Theory, this study addresses a gap in the literature by examining how peer interactions contribute to shared meanings about mathematical ability, confidence, and belonging as students engage with the mathematics curriculum (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).

Findings: Data will be analysed using a combination of Reflexive Thematic Analysis and Narrative Inquiry to capture both spoken discourse and underlying identity positioning. Emerging insights demonstrate how peer talk, comparison, humour, and silence contribute to the construction of mathematical identities and shape narratives about mathematical ability, influencing students’ willingness to engage, take risks, or withdraw from mathematical activity.

Implications: This study highlights the significance of peer culture as a powerful, yet often overlooked, influence on students’ mathematical confidence and identity formation.

In the context of modern education, the development of students’ functional literacy, critical thinking, research skills, and creativity is considered one of the key indicators of educational quality in the 21st century (OECD, 2018; Perkins, 2014). Traditional subject-based teaching methods are increasingly being supplemented by innovative pedagogical approaches that promote interdisciplinary learning and active student engagement (Freeman et al., 2014). Among such approaches, integrated teaching, team-based learning, and problem-based learning (PBL) play a significant role in shaping students’ holistic understanding of knowledge and preparing them for real-life challenges (Hmelo-Silver, 2004).

This work examines the effectiveness of integrated lessons implemented through team-based learning and the PBL approach in developing students’ cognitive, research, and creative abilities. The study was conducted based on an integrated lesson titled “Water-Related Risks,” implemented within the educational practice of the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS). The lesson was designed through interdisciplinary integration of Kazakh language, geography, homeroom studies, and arts, allowing students to explore the topic from multiple perspectives and connect academic knowledge with real-world phenomena (Beane, 1995).

The application of the PBL approach involved engaging students in a structured research process that included identifying a problem, formulating hypotheses, collecting and analysing information, and proposing practical solutions(Savery, 2006). This process encouraged students to take an active role in learning, shifting them from passive recipients of information to independent researchers. As a result, students demonstrated improved critical thinking skills, the ability to analyse complex situations, and readiness to make reasoned decisions. Furthermore, problem-based tasks stimulated students’ creativity by motivating them to seek non-standard solutions and present their findings in various formats, such as presentations, visual materials, and creative projects (Perkins, 2014).

The primary aim of the study was to determine the impact of integrated lessons combined with team-based and problem-based learning on the development of students’ cognitive, research, and creative competencies. The research focused on identifying how interdisciplinary learning influences students’ motivation, collaborative skills, and ability to apply theoretical knowledge in practical contexts (Beane, 1995; Le et al., 2018). Particular attention was given to teamwork, as collaborative learning environments adopt communication skills, responsibility, and mutual support among learners.

The findings of the study indicate that integrated lessons significantly increase students’ engagement and interest in the learning process. Students actively participated in group discussions, demonstrated the ability to justify their opinions with evidence, and effectively collaborated to achieve common goals (Freeman et al.,2014). The interdisciplinary nature of the lesson contributed to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and promoted the transfer of knowledge across different academic domains. Moreover, the integration of creative tasks supported the development of students’ imagination, initiative, and self-expression, aligning with broader conceptions of twenty-first-century competencies (OECD, 2018; Perkins, 2014). However, as a classroom-based case study conducted with a single Grade 8 cohort in one school, the findings have limited generalisability.

In conclusion, the results confirm that integrated teaching combined with team-based learning and the PBL approach is an effective pedagogical strategy for improving the quality of education. This approach not only develops academic achievement but also contributes to the formation of essential 21st-century skills, including critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving (OECD, 2018). Therefore, integrated lessons can be considered a valuable tool for improving students’ comprehensive development and preparing them for the demands of modern society.

Contemporary education policy often invokes “enjoyment” as though it were self-evident: a feature of learning assumed to support attainment. Yet this language is frequently instrumental and conceptually thin (Connolly, 2013, 2019). In England, “enjoyment” appears sporadically and tends to be positioned as a means to other ends; it offers little guidance on what enjoyment requires in practice (i.e., time, trust, creativity) (Connolly, 2013, 2019; DfE, 2011, 2014; Ofsted, 2019). It can also sit awkwardly inside measurement-driven accountability cultures in which performing the “right” affect becomes part of being recognised as successful (Ball, 2003; Connolly, 2019).

This poster presents findings from one strand of the broader Articulating Curriculum with Children project, focusing specifically on how young people conceptualise joy in relation to curriculum. Rather than treating joy as an individual emotional state or enrichment feature, we position it as a curricular question: a way of examining what curriculum-in-practice enables, constrains, and makes possible.
By “articulating curriculum with children”, we mean creating conditions in which young people are treated not merely as respondents to adult-designed questions, but as credible interpreters and co-theorisers of educational experience. Within this framing, joy becomes a way of examining how curriculum is made and lived through the intersections of time, relationships, knowledge, pedagogy, and assessment, and the extent to which students experience schooling as emotionally safe, meaningful, and creatively alive. We are not suggesting that all learning should be pleasurable all the time, nor that joy is the only educational aim. Rather, we use curriculum theory to ask what schooling implicitly designs children to feel and be, and what becomes visible when young people are treated as credible theorists of that lived curriculum.

Conceptually, our work draws on curriculum-as-social-practice (curriculum not as a static “plan” but as something enacted through agency and relations; Priestley, 2011), and on student voice/democratic participation traditions that take seriously children's roles in educational discourse and decision-making (UN General Assembly, 1989; Robinson & Taylor, 2007), including “radical collegiality” (Fielding, 2001). We also draw on care ethics (Noddings, 2005) and engagement-oriented accounts of learning (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) to understand joy as relational: an environmental quality marked by trust, cooperation, and imaginative possibility.

The overarching questions that this project explored include: 1) how children conceptualise “curriculum” and what they think curriculum should fundamentally include; and 2) what students reveal (conceptually and practically) when invited into speculative “what if” curriculum design through creative workshop methods (Costello, 2023).
This elicited a range of responses concerning what children felt curriculum should include, and how these priorities might be realised in practice. Arising from that we draw a set of findings that include curriculum through relation, curriculum for becoming, curriculum for presence, and curriculum for joy. In this poster we focus on this latter finding.
Our key research question here is: How do young people conceptualise joy in relation to curriculum, and what curriculum conditions do they identify as enabling or constraining it across contrasting educational settings?
Across Europe, wellbeing and learner agency are increasingly visible in policy rhetoric, while accountability pressures can narrow what counts as worthwhile learning (Ball, 2003). We offer a transferable, student-generated vocabulary for thinking about joy as a curricular question: not simply how to make lessons more enjoyable, but how to design curriculum that sustains meaning, agency, relational learning, and humane rhythms of life. We hope that the poster format will allow for discussions and reveal potential for collaboration to investigate these ideas in different European settings.

Data literacy has emerged as a fundamental competence for navigating societies increasingly shaped by data‑intensive technologies, digital infrastructures, and algorithmic decision processes. Within education systems, the capacity to collect, interpret, analyse, and ethically use data is essential for civic participation and for enabling students and educators to make evidence‑based judgments and decisions. Although related to statistical, digital, information, and AI literacies, scholarship contends that data literacy is distinctive because it integrates technical, cognitive, ethical, and communicative dimensions oriented toward purposeful uses of data in authentic contexts (Wolff et al., 2016; Knaflic, 2020). In schools, this conception goes beyond reading graphs and tables to encompass the formulation of meaningful questions, the production and curation of data, the critical appraisal of evidence, analytical decision‑making, and the ethical communication of findings. It also demands vigilance regarding risks of misuse—including surveillance, bias, stigmatisation, and inequality reproduction—highlighted in critical accounts of educational datafication (Mandinach & Gummer, 2016; Prinsloo & Slade, 2017; Williamson, 2017).

In Portugal, curricular reforms over the past decade have emphasised transversal competencies, interdisciplinarity, and project‑based pedagogies. Nevertheless, data‑related competencies remain unevenly distributed across subjects and cycles and often appear implicitly or as subordinate elements within Mathematics and Science. While the label ‘data literacy’ is rarely explicit in national curriculum documents, aligned practices and learning goals are visible at multiple levels—from early exploratory activities to formal statistical study in upper secondary—and are consolidating through pedagogical innovation initiatives, including the pilot subject ‘Literacies and Data.’ This landscape justifies a focused inquiry into how data literacy is conceptualised and embedded in the curriculum as written, and how it is understood and enacted by educational actors in everyday practice.

To guide this inquiry, the study poses two research questions that reflect its dual emphasis on curricular framing and practitioner perspectives: first, how and where data‑literacy‑related competencies are embedded—explicitly and implicitly—within Portugal’s compulsory education curriculum; and second, how teachers, school leaders, and other educational actors understand data literacy and perceive their readiness, practices, and challenges related to its implementation. Together, these questions connect system expectations with lived practices in schools, providing a lens to identify convergences, gaps, and opportunities for more systematic integration.

Conceptually, the study adopts a theoretical framework that synthesises three strands. The first is a multidimensional view of data literacy integrating domains as technical (collection, analysis, visualisation), cognitive‑critical (interpretation, argumentation), communicative (including data storytelling), ethical‑civic (privacy, fairness, accountability), oriented to authentic tasks and contexts (Wolff et al., 2016; Knaflic, 2020). The second draws on research into data‑informed educational decision‑making, which shows that educators’ engagement with data depends on professional knowledge, collaborative cultures, leadership, time, and tools; it distinguishes mere access to data from meaningful, practice‑proximal use that supports assessment, pedagogical differentiation, and school improvement (Datnow & Park, 2018; Mandinach & Gummer, 2016). The third incorporates insights from critical data studies, foregrounding ethical and justice‑oriented dimensions, supporting the systematic inclusion of privacy, transparency, and accountability (Prinsloo & Slade, 2017; Williamson, 2017).

By integrating these strands, the study conceptualises data literacy as a cross‑curricular, pedagogical, and ethical priority whose coherent progression depends on clear curricular expectations, practice‑proximal professional learning, and supportive organisational conditions. Situated within DATA‑READY (Empowering Education through Data Literacy Integration in Compulsory Education), ERASMUS-EDU-2024-POL-EXP-DIGITAL, No. 101195801, an European project that aims to develop a European Framework for Data Literacy to guide curriculum planning, teacher education, and inclusive educational policies, the present investigation examines the Portuguese case.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the “Creating a Language Environment” project implemented at the Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Kokshetau on the development of speaking skills among students learning Kazakh as a second language. The project was designed as a school-wide initiative aimed at increasing students’ exposure to Kazakh and encouraging its use beyond the classroom through structured and semi-structured activities.

The main research question guiding this study is: To what extent can the “Creating a Language Environment” project contribute to the development of students’ speaking skills in Kazakh as a second language? To address this question, the study explores three sub-questions: (1) how the project influences specific aspects of speaking skills, including fluency, vocabulary expansion, and the reduction of psychological barriers during public speaking; (2) which components of the language environment—such as Baskatyrgysh (Puzzles), Karaoke Time, Oqy Laid (Read Aloud), Kinotime (Movie Time), and Khabardar Bol (Stay Informed)—are most effective in motivating students to speak Kazakh; and (3) which factors should be considered when applying the findings of this study in other school contexts.

The relevance of this study lies in its focus on the role of a school-wide language environment in second language acquisition. International research has consistently shown that a rich language environment provides learners with comprehensible input and opportunities for meaningful interaction, both of which are essential for developing oral communication skills. In recent years, studies in linguistic landscape and schoolscape research have expanded this perspective by conceptualizing the school space as a holistic language resource. These studies demonstrate that visual displays, informal communication, extracurricular activities, and overall school culture increase learners’ exposure to the target language and encourage its use in authentic contexts.

However, most existing research has been conducted in contexts where English or other European languages are taught as second languages. In contrast, the teaching of Kazakh as a second language has received limited attention from the perspective of school-wide language environments. In Kazakhstani methodological literature, research predominantly focuses on classroom-based instructional approaches, while empirical studies that examine the entire school space as a language-learning environment remain scarce. This study seeks to address this gap by investigating a structured, context-specific project implemented in a Kazakhstani school setting.

The theoretical framework of the study draws on key concepts in second language acquisition. Long’s Interaction Hypothesis emphasizes that speaking skills develop through interaction that requires learners to negotiate meaning, ask for clarification, and reformulate their utterances. Such interaction enables learners to notice gaps in their language knowledge and refine their oral production. Swain’s Output Hypothesis further highlights speaking as a driving force in language development, arguing that learners develop linguistic accuracy and complexity when they attempt to express meaning and encounter limitations in their language resources. From this perspective, errors are viewed as a natural and productive part of the learning process.

Krashen’s Input Hypothesis complements these views by stressing the importance of comprehensible input slightly above learners’ current proficiency level (i+1). His concept of the affective filter underscores the psychological dimension of language learning, suggesting that low anxiety and a supportive environment facilitate more effective language acquisition. Together, these theories support the idea that a well-designed language environment should provide meaningful input, encourage active output, and reduce learners’ fear of making mistakes. This study applies these principles to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-wide language environment in developing students’ speaking skills in Kazakh.

In response to ongoing changes across all spheres of society, the education system is undergoing significant modernization. The primary task of teachers today is to provide high-quality education, which requires not only professional competence but also leadership, organizational, and innovative skills. Enhancing the professional activity of leading teachers is now a key focus, providing them with opportunities for self-development and the ability to implement new ideas through collaboration with motivated colleagues. This approach allows teachers to improve their knowledge and skills, even without holding formal leadership positions, by continuously studying innovations and integrating effective methods and techniques into their practice.

Modern educational methodology emphasizes planning lessons and curricula to ensure the quality of student knowledge. In this context, students actively participate in building their knowledge and mastering skills, reflecting the constructivist approach, while teachers guide and direct learning toward achieving the objectives of the discipline. Teacher professional growth occurs through active participation in research, experimentation with innovative methods, and reflection on practice.

Action Research is a key tool for improving teacher knowledge and research activity. In this process, teachers collaboratively plan lessons around identified problems, set expected outcomes, monitor and analyze lesson results, gather student feedback, and adjust teaching strategies accordingly. Such activities foster teamwork, trust, respect, and mutual support among colleagues, while promoting the adoption of innovative methods and the improvement of pedagogical practice.

The purpose of professional cooperation is to integrate theory and practice, exchange new ideas, and implement changes in teaching. Expected outcomes include increased research activity, joint lesson planning and teaching, systematic lesson monitoring, collection and analysis of data, discussion of results, adjustment of practices, and sharing of findings. This collaboration establishes professional networks, organizes joint seminars and training, and fosters continuous professional development.

To ensure professional continuity, teachers need to create an environment conducive to collaboration, sharing of teaching experiences, and collective problem-solving. In our experience, this began with forming a scientific community of teachers, developing an organizational plan, defining key groups and contacts, and establishing clear objectives and research topics. Steps included selecting participants, clarifying expected outcomes, and setting timelines for research activities.

During lesson planning and analysis, we adhered to principles such as: choosing methods and techniques aligned with the identified problem, searching for solutions to unresolved questions, ensuring rational lesson design, maintaining trust and cooperation, reflecting on outcomes, accepting and providing constructive feedback, motivating students, and fostering idea generation.

Historically, Action Research has been recognized since the mid-20th century, with Kurt Lewin describing it as a combined approach of research, action, and problem-solving. It provides a modern framework for teachers to assess and improve their own practice. Depending on the scope, Action Research can involve individual teachers, groups, or entire institutions. Its essence lies in the professional growth of teachers through the practical resolution of specific challenges encountered in the teaching process.

In conclusion, professional cooperation through Action Research allows teachers to enhance their skills, adopt innovative methods, improve lesson quality, and foster collaborative problem-solving. This approach strengthens teacher research activity, develops new strategies, and contributes to high-quality education. By engaging in continuous reflection, planning, and collaborative practice, teachers create a dynamic environment that benefits both professional development and student learning outcomes.

A central challenge in civic and legal education lies in enabling learners to move flexibly between abstract legal principles and concrete cases. International research identifies this movement—often termed the “transfer bottleneck”—as a persistent barrier in students’ legal reasoning, particularly when textbooks provide dense conceptual definitions but limited epistemic pathways for repacking knowledge. From a subject-didactics perspective, this study examines how semantic waves, as conceptualised in Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), mediate these transitions in high-school civic education textbooks. While Taiwanese civic education curricula emphasise authentic problem-solving and the integration of principles with real-world contexts, little is known about how the authorised textbooks actually organise legal knowledge to support such transitions. The present study addresses this gap by mapping semantic gravity (SG) and semantic density (SD) shifts within the Legal Domain units of four major textbook publishers—Nani, Hanlin, Lungteng, and Sanmin—in Volume II of the national curriculum.

The study is guided by three research questions: (1) How do civic education textbooks structure the movement between legal principles and cases through SG/SD variations? (2) What semantic wave patterns characterise the Legal Domain explanations across different publishers? (3) How do these patterns enable or inhibit knowledge transfer, particularly the upward movement required for repacking legal concepts? These questions are situated within broader discussions in ECER 2026’s theme, “Knowing and Acting,” by examining how curricular artefacts shape the epistemic conditions under which students can act with disciplinary knowledge.

Theoretically, the study draws on LCT’s semantic dimension (Maton, 2013), which conceptualises how knowledge is strengthened or weakened in abstraction and density. Semantic waves—oscillations between SG+/SD− and SG−/SD+—are considered necessary for learners to connect context-free knowledge with context-dependent situations. Prior studies have applied semantic analysis to science, history, and higher education but seldom to civic and legal textbooks. Legal knowledge, characterised by high abstraction and layered reasoning, provides a rich site for operationalising semantic movements and identifying structural barriers to transfer.

Preliminary analysis across the four publishers reveals a dominant pattern of downward semantic waves: textbooks frequently begin with decontextualised principles (e.g., rule-of-law values, constitutional protections), descend into simplified or illustrative cases, yet rarely return upward to re-generalise the concepts. In other words, legal knowledge often ends in “case-bound” explanations that illustrate but do not reconstruct conceptual understanding. While this downward movement can support initial contextualisation, the absence of upward repacking limits students’ ability to apply principles to novel situations. Such patterns may inadvertently reinforce rote reading of examples rather than cultivating flexible legal reasoning.

This study contributes to curriculum theory and textbook research by identifying how authorised civic textbooks structure epistemic access to legal reasoning. It also offers methodological contributions through a systematic SG/SD coding scheme adaptable to comparative textbook studies. Practically, the findings inform the design of principle-case instructional cycles, suggesting ways to strengthen upward movements to support transfer. In line with the “Knowing and Acting” theme, the study argues that attention to semantic design is crucial for building curricular materials that enable learners to act with disciplinary knowledge, not merely recognise definitions.