Conference Agenda

Within university research training across European contexts, information and digital literacy curricula often emphasise fostering a “mastery” of bibliographic and database management tools. Designed to underpin students’ “digital competence”—a core lifelong learning requirement identified by the European Commission (2006; 2013)—this skill-based approach explicitly frames digital technologies as inert instruments to be used and controlled. Yet, in the “post-digital” era, where the digital is entangled with the assumed “humanity” of education (Jandrić et al., 2018), the complexity of digitally-saturated research must not be underestimated. Simple tasks needed for writing an essay require individuals to co-author the work with their laptops and merge themselves into digital gatherings; the unacknowledged power of algorithms, as Beer argues (2012), may draw agency away from human researchers and appropriate it as their own. As human consciousness is now enmeshed within its sociotechnological environment (Hayles, 2006), knowledge production no longer proceeds from an objective position of externality. It is thus both timely and significant to unravel how everyday human-technology relations are negotiated within academic knowledge production.

This paper, grounded in a posthumanist recognition of digital agency, aims to explore how digital technologies condition today’s research practices. Specifically, Zotero, one of the most used referencing management software, is examined as a knowledge co-producer. The study addresses a primary research question: In what ways does Zotero entangle with human researchers, and how does this shape the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced? To render the otherwise hidden agency of Zotero visible, this research employs a phenomenological design based on Adams and Thompson’s (2016) approach for “interviewing” digital objects. Three of their heuristics, including “gathering anecdotes,” “following the actors,” and “listening to the invitational qualities,” were deployed to observe and textually disclose the detailed network enacted between the researcher and Zotero.

Listening to the “whisperings” of Zotero, the paper disentangles a “loose” Researcher-Zotero network where social and material factors are constantly at play to redefine one another. These factors include the researcher’s prior knowledge and work environment on the one hand, and the specificities of Zotero’s offerings, on the other. Findings indicate that material features, such as “auto-save,” nudge the researcher toward an algorithmic logic of efficiency; yet, its failure to capture certain sources fosters digital exclusion that systematises knowledge hierarchy predicated on Zotero’s automated readability. Meanwhile, this process is not untethered from human agency. Throughout the interview, the researcher’s internalised criteria for “legitimate” scholarship functioned as an epistemic filter, whereby the manual deletion or editing of auto-saved entries served to reclaim agency from Zotero’s auto-collection logic. These factors consequently form a material-semiotic relation that extends beyond mere citation management to exert value-laden impacts on the process of knowledge production.

Arguably, Zotero is far from a neutral tool; it is a co-participant in the research process, who actively shapes the parameters of scholarship through its inherent architecture. Such findings suggest that the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced are being reshaped by invisible digital infrastructures whose logics are rarely scrutinised. Understanding academic knowledge production today therefore requires attention not only to the positionality of human researchers, but also to the constantly extending and diminishing networks researchers share with their digital technologies. For research training programs in universities across European contexts, the findings necessitate a move beyond technical proficiency toward a critical engagement with the digital materiality of academic labour.

Educational spaces are increasingly expected to support diverse pedagogical practices, flexible use, wellbeing, and inclusion as schools respond to evolving educational goals and pedagogical priorities. While research on learning environment design has expanded considerably, persistent methodological challenges remain in capturing how educational spaces are actually used in everyday practice. Conventional observation methods often privilege momentary interaction and instructional intent, providing limited insight into broader spatial rhythms, transitions, and patterns of use that shape learning across time. This paper addresses these challenges by demonstrating how different video-based methods are purposefully selected to investigate distinct educational phenomena.

Drawing on two empirical case studies from Australia and Finland, the paper illustrates how video serves as a goal-oriented data-collection method in learning environment research. Rather than treating video as a neutral or interchangeable research tool, the studies explicitly align methodological choices with specific research aims and the types of educational activity under investigation.

In the Australian secondary school case, real-time video observations were employed in pre- and post-lesson cycles within newly designed prototype learning environments. The research focus was on pedagogical practices, teacher–student interaction, and instructional decision-making. Video was selected because it enables fine-grained analysis of classroom interaction and teaching strategies as they unfold in situ. Video analysis supported examination of didactic and facilitative teaching approaches and served as a reflective resource for teacher professional learning, enabling educators to connect pedagogical intentions with observed classroom practice.

In contrast, the Finnish primary school case utilised time-lapse video as part of a post-occupancy evaluation of shared learning spaces. The research focused not on interactional detail but on understanding how space was used throughout the school day. By compressing extended periods of activity into analysable sequences, time-lapse video revealed recurring spatio-temporal patterns of use, including circulation, activity clustering, transitions between learning modes, and structural constraints linked to spatial layout and scheduling. These patterns were not readily visible through real-time observation, surveys, or interviews.

By placing these two cases side by side, the paper demonstrates that video and time-lapse video differ not only in temporal resolution but also in the kinds of educational knowledge they produce. Real-time video foregrounds micro-level pedagogical interaction and instructional intent, while time-lapse video makes visible macro-level spatio-temporal patterns that structure everyday educational practice. The paper argues that methodological choices fundamentally shape what can be observed, analysed, and known about educational space.

This paper provides a methodological reference point for studies on learning environment design, affordances, teacher roles, and spatial typologies. It contributes to Network 06 by demonstrating how purpose-driven, temporally sensitive video methods can strengthen evidence-informed research, evaluation, and redesign of educational spaces in response to the evolving goals, practices, and spatial demands of contemporary schooling.

Social media platforms have become central to educators' information seeking (e.g., Besa, 2024). However, the quality and evidence base of educational content on these platforms varies considerably, with AI-generated and unverified information proliferating alongside practitioner experiences. Education influencers occupy a unique position: they have both reach and credibility with practitioners, yet their relationship to research evidence remains underexplored. This study examines whether and how education influencers engage with scientific evidence, particularly research syntheses, when creating content for social media.

It is well established in international educational research that the uptake of scientific findings can contribute to improving school practice and student achievement. At the same time, significant challenges persist in educators’ reception, interpretation, and implementation of research evidence (Bauer & Kollar, 2023; Cain, 2016; Rycroft-Smith & Stylianides, 2022). In this context, research syntheses have been highlighted as a particularly valuable resource for bridging the science-practice gap. By consolidating empirical evidence, offering new perspectives on data, and enabling robust assessments of generalisability, they represent an efficient and credible form of educational knowledge (Gough & Thomas, 2016; Kerres et al., 2022; Wilmers, 2024).

While research syntheses offer a promising solution, critical questions remain regarding their communication: How must they be adapted for different audiences? Which formats and channels facilitate their uptake among practitioners? Empirical research on their use within contemporary knowledge transfer pathways – particularly through social media – remains scarce (Gorard et al., 2020).

At the same time, social media platforms are increasingly used by teachers internationally for professional exchange, including the sharing of experiential knowledge and instructional resources (e.g., Besa, 2024). Within these online environments, education influencers have emerged as key multipliers and opinion leaders (Carpenter et al., 2021; Jahn et al., 2024; Kühn & Reismeyer, 2021). Due to their substantial reach, they often engage audiences that academic researchers cannot easily access directly (Jahn et al., 2024). Education influencers may therefore shape other educators’ practices, philosophies, and professional identities (Carpenter et al., 2021).

Despite this growing relevance, research on evidence-informed content dissemination via education influencers remains limited. Yet education influencers and research syntheses represent a potentially powerful combination: syntheses provide compact, evidence-based knowledge; influencers are authentic intermediaries with established credibility in digital teacher communities.

Against this background, the present contribution examines the potentials and challenges of using research syntheses as a basis for social media content produced by education influencers, with the aim of strengthening science-practice transfer in education. The study addresses the following research questions:

1. What attitudes do education influencers hold towards using research syntheses in their social media content?
2. How is education influencers’ knowledge of and prior experience with research syntheses related to their attitudes to employ them in online knowledge sharing?
3. How do education influencers evaluate different design features of graphical abstracts as a transfer format for communicating findings from research syntheses?
4. How do education influencers assess various forms of support aimed at fostering their engagement in evidence-informed practice?