Conference Agenda

In recent years, undesired loneliness has gained increasing attention as a major social and
public health concern across Europe and other global contexts. Once predominantly
associated with older age, loneliness is now recognised as a multidimensional phenomenon
affecting individuals across the life course, including children, adolescents, adults and older
people. Social fragmentation, demographic changes, digitalisation, increased mobility and
the weakening of traditional community structures have intensified experiences of social
disconnection, raising urgent questions about social cohesion, well-being and shared
responsibility.
This doctoral research addresses undesired loneliness as a social and educational
challenge, understood not merely as an individual emotional experience but as a relational
phenomenon shaped by cultural, structural and contextual factors. The central research
question guiding the study is: How is undesired loneliness experienced and understood
across different stages of the life course, and what socio-educational approaches can
contribute to addressing it from a relational and community-based perspective?
The main objective of the research is to explore the socio-educational dimensions of
undesired loneliness and to analyse how educational frameworks can contribute to its
understanding and future intervention. Specifically, the study aims to clarify the conceptual
distinctions between loneliness and social isolation, examine the factors associated with
loneliness across different age groups, and identify educational perspectives that may inform
preventive and community-oriented responses to loneliness.
Loneliness is conceptualised as a subjective experience resulting from a perceived
discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships, influenced by cultural norms,
social expectations and relational quality. The study engages with socio-ecological
approaches to loneliness, considering individual, interpersonal, community and societal
levels, and pays particular attention to the role of stigma, inequality and digital
transformations in shaping experiences of disconnection.
The research responds to growing policy and academic interest in loneliness as a cross-
national issue affecting social cohesion and well-being. By situating loneliness within broader social and educational contexts, the study seeks to contribute to ongoing debates on how
education and community-based initiatives can play a role in addressing relational
vulnerabilities and strengthening social bonds across diverse populations.

Lundy’s (2007) model for conceptualising Article 12 of the UNCRC has been hugely influential in research. It argues that “Space, Voice, Audience and Influence” are required for the fulfilment of children’s participation rights and forms the basis for many research projects on this topic.

This research project introduces a post-humanist theoretical approach to the research of children’s participation rights in UK schools, considering the explicit incorporation of the matter with which children interact at school, and by which they express themselves, to be an essential component of understanding how agency is produced. The addition of a relational-materialist perspective to the child-led, participatory, standard in modern social research of childhood encourages work which takes a nuanced perspective on agency and treats it as a starting point for understanding children’s social worlds, rather than a terminus (Prout, 2000). Child-led participatory research since Lundy’s (2007) model was devised often relies on attempts to give children platforms to express themselves which are separate from the daily interactions in which their participation rights are facilitated or inhibited. Children’s utterances in research encounters are often presented as the result of a capacity for agency inhered in the individual human, pre-existing the interactions in which they are housed (Jackson, 2003). The human agent who “knows who she is, says what she means and means what she says” is rejected in new materialist conceptions of voice, including those which research children’s voices in learning institutions (Maclure, 2009, no pagination; Harvey et al., 2021).

This perspective on social research, as well as other duties in the UNCRC such as the principle of ‘Evolving Capacities’ (Article 5) call for an expansion of Lundy’s (2007) model which encourages the participation of children without reliance on their ‘voices’ as conceived thus far, or on specialised participatory spaces (Varadan, 2019). By combining a rights-based approach with post-humanist social research in this project, the tenets of childhood studies and rights respecting research can be upheld, namely those which impel a duty to provide opportunity for active and agentive participation in research, while tempering these principles with the troubling of traditional humanist conceptions of matter and of the mind-body dualism in which voice “lingers close to the true and the real… seen almost as a mirror to the soul” (Alderson, 2012; James and Prout, 2015; Mazzei and Jackson, 2017, pgs.1090 & 1091).

I will present the methodology for this study, its early findings and its potential impact on understanding the enactment of participation rights in schools, as well as on theories of rights as they are applied to children. By demonstrating the affective force of the materials with which children interact in schools on the formation and expression of their views, I will argue that Lundy’s (2007) model for participation rights should explicitly address the material component of autonomy rights, encouraging a duty among researchers and educators to facilitate every-day, relational and co-produced agentic participation,outside of devoted participatory activities which are limited in their impact and accessibility. The value of increasing the accessibility of agentic participation can also be seen in the opportunities to promote “voice” in a way that is not dependent on language, increasing opportunities for international co-production and for easier engagement in UK schools by those for whom English is not their primary language.

The theme of “Controversial Topics in Children’s Rights and Education” in the main conference seeks to challenge established assumptions in research. This presentation may facilitate similar discussion in the emerging researcher’s conference about how children’s rights may be researched as co-produced, challenging the relied upon model of participatory research in the field of childhood studies.

The global context of the crisis of democracy has been recorded in recent reports by various international organizations (IDEA, 2024; 2025, Nord et al., 2025). Thus, the 2025 Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) report notes that the world has fewer democracies than autocracies for the first time in more than 20 years, with three out of four people living under authoritarian rule. Furthermore, it is reported that current average democratic levels are on par with those of 1985, with Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia being the most affected by a “wave of autocratization,” although there is also democratic weakening in Latin America, Western Europe, and North America. Likewise, the decline in freedom of expression in 44 countries during 2024 (Nord et al., 2025) is alarming, which is validated by the 2025 IDEA report that identifies freedom of the press and expression as the most affected rights in at least 25% of the countries participating in the study (IDEA, 2025).

Faced with this landscape of democratic uncertainty, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has developed guidelines and recommendations for school communities to strengthen democratic and civic education (UNESCO, 2019). Specifically, one of the focuses is the implementation of education for global citizenship, within the framework of the 2030 agenda, which promotes a culture of democracy, human rights, peace, and non-violence (UNESCO, 2023). Thus, the main aim is for students to value human dignity, cooperation, and dialogue, with a focus on developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes that foster tolerance, empathy, and respect for the diversity of cultures and opinions. Achieving this goal requires teachers who are strongly committed to the exercise of democracy and citizenship education.

Likewise, various studies have highlighted the importance of teachers' beliefs regarding teaching and learning processes, as well as pedagogical and didactic decision-making (Estévez-Nenninger et al., 2014). In this sense, what teachers believe and mean has a direct impact on their daily practices and, as a correlate, on student learning (Trigwell & Prosser, 1991). Similarly, what teachers do—or teach—would be a direct consequence of what they actually think. This is where the importance of investigating the ideas and beliefs that teachers express about democracy lies: it allows us to better understand the practices and possibilities of approaching democratic education in schools in line with the urgency represented by the current context of democratic fragility.

This presentation is based on the initial results of doctoral research that seeks to understand the conceptions of democracy and democratic education expressed by teachers of various subjects and school levels in two regions of Chile. On this occasion, the findings to be presented and discussed relate to the conceptions of democracy held by the participating teachers, specifically their definitions, characteristics, and diagnosis in the context of democratic fragility. Some preliminary results show that teachers conceive of democracy from political perspectives linked to the exercise of participation and choice in various areas of social life, with an emphasis on decision-making. Likewise, the diagnosis of a democratic crisis linked to hate speech on social media, disappointment, and mistrust of society due to political corruption, among other issues, is highlighted.

Despite the long history of the studies on the nature of science (NOS), debates continue about what exactly the NOS means, and which approach should be used to learn and teach it. Among the various approaches proposed in science education literature, the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach (RFN) has gained increasing attention. RFN addresses NOS in a holistic and inclusive way and integrates science under two interconnected systems: the cognitive-epistemic and the socio-cultural systems.

The adaptation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory of ‘family similarity’ (1953) to NOS (Irzık & Nola, 2011; 2014) is forming the basis for RFN. By claiming that, science is presented as being more grounded in real-life practice; encompassing different scientific disciplines as a whole, like members of the same family; and expressing science not only as a science of experiments but also as a social, cultural, historical, politic, financial and institutional activity. The adaptation of this theory into education led to the birth of Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science, namely RFN (Erduran & Dagher, 2014).

While the literature on RFN frequently addresses theoretical frameworks, instrument development, informal science education, and curriculum analyses across diverse contexts such as Italy, Turkiye, Ireland, US, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, empirical studies focusing on educational interventions remain limited. As highlighted in a recent review by Cheung and Erduran (2023), such intervention studies have largely concentrated on pre-service teachers and students. Research on in-service teachers, by contrast, has primarily been confined to assessing their understanding of NOS and examining lesson plans. As a result, the practical implementation of RFN in real classroom settings with practicing teachers and real students remains underexplored.

Given the aforementioned gap and the fact that incorporating and imparting scientific knowledge of teachers into understanding the world is one of the ultimate aims of teacher professional development programs, examining in-service teachers’ learning experiences and challenges during RFN implementation will inform future researchers, the design of professional development programs, and instructional practices. Moreover, the researchers’ reflexivity about this specific case of teachers may offer valuable implications for policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve NOS implementation strategies.

The current study aims to document in-service science teachers’ learning during the implementation of a teacher professional development program based on RFN. Also, it highlights the researchers’ learning journey focusing on teachers’ challenges and reflective insights. This study is guided by the following research questions:

1. Which challenges did in-service science teachers encounter when planning and implementing lessons through a teacher professional development program based on RFN?
2. What forms of learning emerged for in-service teachers as they engaged with and responded to these challenges?