Conference Agenda

This study examines how situationality, consciousness, and embodiment manifest in young adults’ experiences of social exclusion, as well as the coping strategies they describe. The research is framed within Lauri Rauhala’s (2005, 2014) theory of the regulative situational circuit, which provides a conceptual framework for examining how life situations and individual meaning-making shape lived experience.

Social exclusion among youth is a significant phenomenon across Europe, and understanding it from a comparative, international perspective is essential for informing education policies, youth support services, and mental health interventions. By focusing on peer-reviewed studies from both Finnish and international contexts, this research highlights cross-cultural similarities and differences in how young adults experience and respond to social exclusion.

The study addresses two central questions:

1. How do situationality, consciousness, and embodiment appear in young adults’ lived experiences of social exclusion?

2. What coping strategies do young adults use?

By combining a phenomenological lens with a European/international perspective, the study contributes to a broader understanding of youth social experiences in multiple societal contexts. The holistic approach allows for an integrated view of psychological, social, and situational factors influencing young adults’ engagement and well-being.

Research question:

This proposal covers a part of my PhD project titled “Human rights-based approach to critical media literacy: Youth perspectives on human rights in the digital environment.” For the poster proposal, the focus will be on one of the sub-research questions investigated in this dissertation project: “How do youth in Europe consider critical media literacy while engaging with human rights (issues) in the digital environment?”

Existing body of research tends to focus on the skills of youth in the digital environment and to draw conclusions regarding the perceived or actual risks and threats youth face, such as issues related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), challenges with disinformation, concerns about mental health, issues regarding data privacy among others. From such an angle, youth, to a large extent, are not seen as active and competent individuals, but as “more at risk of the assumed dangers of media exposure and use” (Higdon et al., 2024). This perspective results in a narrow and “alarmist” (Buckingham, 2020) narrative about youth participation and youth’s capabilities in the digital environment and has been criticised by scholars investigating empowering approaches to media education (Third et al., 2014; Livingstone, 2017). This poster proposal, therefore, acknowledges youth as experts (Fleming and Boeck, 2012) and aims to address this gap by actively seeking youth perspectives on critical media literacy (CML) and building the link between human rights and CML from their lived realities.

European dimension:

The target group of this research is youth from a European youth organisation, aged between 18-29, who are actively engaged in youth work as volunteers in 10 European countries. The selection is based on criteria such as interest in youth rights issues across Europe as well as familiarity with media and media literacy to allow them to act as experts in the field for this research. The rationale for selecting this target group is explained by the fact that youth in Europe appear as among the most connected in comparison to other age groups and regions, making them a particular demographic group, who are among the most affected as well as among the groups that benefit from the digital environment the most.

Theoretical framework:

The research is informed by three theories that speak to each other and considered as complementary in conceptualising human rights in the digital environment. These theories are: 1) Critical media literacy (CML) theory (specifically the conceptual understandings) by Kellner and Share (2019); 2) Ideal requirements for public sphere framework by Dahlberg (2001), which bases its foundation on Jürgen Habermas’ theory (1962; 2023); and 3) digital citizenship framework by Choi (2016).

CML theory guides the research in exploring human rights by focusing on critical consciousness and the agency of individuals in recognising, analysing, engaging and creating media and thus the ‘actions’ of youth. Secondly, the focus on digital environment as a public sphere provides a foundation to discuss youth’s perception on and understanding of democracy and democratic values online. Finally, digital citizenship framework offers a “multidimensional” (Choi, 2016) approach in analysing youth participation online, by focusing on the aspects of ethics, media literacy, critical resistance and participation/engagement (ibid).

What ethnic racialized perceptions do student teachers hold about ethnic minoritized pupils in schools? Where do these perceptions originate from? And how does teacher education (re)produce and/or challenge these perceptions throughout the education? These are the central questions I explore from an anthropological approach in a PhD project at the Danish School of Education. Despite political intentions to create a Danish public school grounded in values such as “freedom of thought, equality, and democracy” (Retsinfo, §3), research on ethnicity in education shows that pupils categorized as ethnic minorities continue to face unequal opportunities for participation in school. A key explanation is that many teachers –despite often good intentions – encounter this group of pupils through ethnically racialized perceptions (e.g., Staunæs 2004/2022; Gorski 2008; Gilliam 2009). The established research field thus points to a paradox: on the one hand, racialized perceptions appear to be deeply embedded in teachers, in teaching, and in school practices (e.g., Sleeter 2017; Jaffe‑Walter 2016), yet on the other hand, they often remain invisible and unspoken (e.g., Gillborn 2008; Capello 2012).

While previous studies have predominantly examined the practices of established teachers, this project foregrounds teacher education as the main analytical field. The aim is to move attention away from the question of whether teachers hold ethnically racialized perceptions of pupils, towards how such perceptions are constructed as part of student teachers’ professional becoming. International research on ethnicity and racialization identifies teacher education as a key actor in developing more equity‑oriented practices in schools for pupils across ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Sleeter 2013; Vachon 2022; Fylkesnes et al. 2025). At the same time, studies have shown that teacher education plays a decisive role in shaping children’s educational trajectories through the perceptions that student teachers develop during their education (e.g., Lander 2011; Abdullahi et al. 2024). In a Danish context, however, the role of teacher education in relation to social inequality and marginalization in schools remains largely unexplored. Drawing on an understanding of teacher education as a central site of cultural change within schooling (Vachon 2022), this project examines how teacher education functions as a distinct pedagogical space that actively constructs specific perceptions of ethnic minoritized pupils (McLeod & Yates 2003; Youdell 2003).

I approach racialization as a social process of categorisation in which bodily, cultural, and linguistic differences are ascribed with meaning and used to identify, interpret, and subordinate the Other (Hervik 2015). In my analysis, controlling images (Ferguson 2020) serve as the central analytical lens for examining how such (imagined) differences are actively produced and naturalised through stereotypical representations circulating within institutional contexts. This perspective shifts attention away from intentional racism and towards the ways in which professionals’ understandings of “race” and ethnicity are shaped by culturally embedded images that structure prospective teachers’ perceptions of pupils. By linking ethnicity and racialization, I examine how controlling images both legitimise and attach processes of racialization to specific ethnic groups. The aim is to capture and make visible the complexity and nuances that characterise these forms of social categorisation.

Drawing on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted at two teacher education programmes, this poster presents my initial analytical findings. The analysis indicates how teachers’ internal relations, social dynamics, and cultural logics contribute to maintaining exclusionary practices and negative perceptions of ethnic minoritized pupils. The analysis shows how school placements and student teachers’ encounters with experienced teachers and teacher educators are shaped by hierarchies of experience that, through processes of power, function as controlling images. These controlling images shape what is perceived as legitimate knowledge and truth within the educational context, thereby contributing to the reproduction of negative ethnic racialized perceptions about pupils

This study explores how teachers in rural schools in Kazakhstan design and lead Positive Peace Education (PPE) initiatives, and how these initiatives contribute to addressing direct, structural, and cultural forms of violence in their school communities. The study forms part of a wider 2.5-year international research project on PPE in Kazakhstan, and this particular paper presents one in-depth strand of analysis developed from that larger programme of research. While educational reforms in many contexts are often implemented through top-down policies and standardized programmes, this study focuses on teacher-led, bottom-up transformation through action research.

The main research question guiding this paper is: How do rural teachers enact agency through Positive Peace Education to identify and address direct, structural, and cultural violence in their school contexts?

This question is further explored through the following sub-questions:

1. How do rural teachers conceptualize and experience different forms of violence in their everyday school practices?
2. In what ways does PPE influence teachers’ pedagogical approaches, particularly in shifting from punitive to relational practices?
3. How does participation in PPE action research reshape teachers’ understandings of their professional role and agency?

By focusing on rural teachers’ lived experiences, the paper challenges deficit narratives that often position rural schools as lacking capacity and instead highlights teachers as key agents of peace-oriented change.

The study is grounded in Johan Galtung’s (1969) theory of positive and negative peace, which distinguishes between the absence of direct violence (negative peace) and the presence of social justice, equity, and supportive relationships (positive peace). Galtung’s conceptualization of direct, structural, and cultural violence provides the main analytical lens for understanding educational inequalities and everyday school practices.

Structural violence refers to systemic inequalities embedded in social, political, and economic structures that limit individuals’ opportunities. In education, this includes disparities in school resources, teacher distribution, infrastructure, and access to quality learning, particularly evident in rural contexts. Cultural violence involves cultural norms, language, ideologies, and practices that legitimize or normalize inequality, exclusion, and symbolic harm, such as stigmatization of students or devaluation of rural knowledge.

Building on Galtung, the paper draws on the work of Cremin and Bevington (2017) and Cremin and Leighton (2022), who conceptualize Positive Peace Education as an educational approach that promotes empathy, care, inclusion, critical reflection, and active citizenship across multiple levels: inner peace (wellbeing), relational peace (interpersonal relationships), community peace (social participation), and ecological peace.

This framework allows the study to move beyond a narrow focus on conflict resolution and instead examine how teachers engage with deeper, often normalized forms of violence embedded in school cultures and structures. PPE is therefore understood not as a fixed programme, but as a relational and reflective process that enables teachers to recognize violence, question taken-for-granted practices, and enact context-sensitive change.

Although the empirical context is Kazakhstan, the study speaks to broader European and international debates on educational inequality, rural education, teacher agency, and peace education. Rural-urban disparities, deficit discourses around rural schools, and pressures of standardization are common challenges across many European education systems. The findings contribute to international scholarship by demonstrating how teacher-led, low-cost, and relational approaches can foster meaningful change in under-resourced contexts.

By foregrounding teacher agency and action research, this paper aligns with European priorities around democratic education, professional autonomy, wellbeing, inclusion, and social justice. It offers PPE as a transferable framework for educators and policymakers seeking sustainable, context-sensitive alternatives to technocratic or compliance-driven reforms, particularly in marginalized or rural settings.

What meaning do minority ethnic parents’ generational status, socioeconomic and ethnic background, and gender have for their parenting practices and home–school relationships? This question frames a newly initiated PhD project, which this poster presentation introduces.

Situated within a Danish educational context, the project aims to generate knowledge about how minority ethnic parents across generational position, social and ethnic background, and gender experience their relationships with the Danish public school. The project explores similarities and differences between first- and second-generation minority ethnic parents’ approaches to parenting, schooling, and their relationships with the school. According to the national objectives for the Danish public school, schools are expected to challenge all pupils to reach their full potential and to reduce the impact of social background on academic achievement. These objectives reflect politically defined visions of equal opportunities and participation for all pupils. However, qualitative research on minority ethnic pupils demonstrates that they experience unequal opportunities for participation, and that an important reason for this is that teachers—often contrary to their intentions—approach minority ethnic pupils through racialised understandings and low expectations.

The Danish Public School Act states that the school’s mandate must be fulfilled in cooperation with parents. Research on minority ethnic pupils’ school experiences can therefore not stand alone but must also include an examination of minority parents’ relationships with the school. There is broad agreement among researchers that strong home–school relationships are important for pupils’ schooling, development, and well-being. Accordingly, the project has a dual research focus: first, to examine home–school relationships across first- and second-generation minority ethnic parents; and second, to investigate whether similar racialising processes shape teachers’ relationships with parents.

Previous research on home–school relationships has primarily focused on first-generation minority ethnic parents and has often framed these relationships as problematic from the school’s perspective. Challenges have frequently been explained by reference to parents’ cultural background or assumed lack of resources and language skills. A growing group of minority ethnic parents in the Danish public school consists of second-generation parents—individuals who were born in Denmark or have lived most of their lives there. These parents are generally assumed to have stronger linguistic and cultural prerequisites for engaging with the school than the first generation. Nevertheless, there is a significant need for deeper insight into home–school relationships across both first- and second-generation minority ethnic parents if schools are to live up to democratic ideals of equal opportunities for all pupils and parents, regardless of background.

The project is theoretically grounded in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of education and his concepts of field, habitus, and capital. These concepts are used to analyse the conditions that first- and second-generation minority ethnic parents bring into the school, as well as the taken-for-granted assumptions and unwritten norms embedded in the school as an institution that may shape unequal opportunities for parental participation. Intersectional perspectives are integrated into Bourdieu’s framework to account for how multiple categories—such as gender, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity—intersect in shaping parents’ conditions for participation in home–school relationships.

1. Relevance of the Topic: Inclusion and Participation in Cooperative Learning

The Global Sustainability Goals call for inclusive, equitable, and high-quality education for all (Reich, 2018). Inclusion is “an unending process of increasing learning and participation for all students” (Booth & Ainscow, 2002, p. 2). Yet it is still a long way to go: Empirical research not only shows that learning results depend on students’ social background (e.g., OECD, 2023), but also that classroom participation is often unequal: Students with low peer status or cultural capital participate less frequently (Black, 2004; Cohen et al., 1999). Cooperative learning methods are considered promising for reducing these inequalities (Thäle, 2019). Yet, empirical studies on how and under what conditions cooperative learning actually involves all students in cognitive activity and engagement with the subject matter are lacking. Our research project addresses this gap by analyzing the micro-level of co-constructive interaction processes in classroom discussions.

2. Defining Participation: A Didactic and Instructional Perspective on Cooperative Group Research

Participation is understood here as necessary involvement and opportunities for co-creation within classroom interaction processes (Frohn et al., 2019). As a reference, the “Didactic Model for Inclusive Teaching and Learning (DiMiLL)” emphasizes two dimensions:

Subject-didactic: Enabling societal participation through learning content concerning societal key issues (Buck & Breidbach, 2019; Klafki, 2007).

Instructional Perspective: Active involvement of all students in co-constructive interactions, e.g., through cooperative learning methods (Buck & Breidbach, 2019; Klafki, 2007).

Our study examines student participation in a cooperative group investigation setting (Sharan & Sharan, 1990) focusing on sustainability in a social studies class at a German comprehensive school (lower secondary education).

3. Research Questions: Exploring Participation in Co-Constructive Interaction Processes

The poster will present the background and study design as well as findings from the first step of our analysis of the video data and focus on the following key research question:

• Who participates how, when, and why (not) during classroom discussions in an 8th grade social science class?

Thus, we aim to uncover not only the patterns of participation in classroom discourse, but also the deeper mechanisms and contextual factors that shape students' engagement in collaborative learning environments.

Gender education in higher education is often confined to specialized courses or treated as an abstract social issue detached from students’ everyday experiences. In contrast, tourism and travel are widely perceived as leisure activities, rarely recognized as pedagogical resources for critical reflection. This study explores an interdisciplinary general education course that brings gender education and cultural tourism into dialogue, positioning tourism experiences as meaningful learning materials for gender awareness and social reflection.

The research is situated in a team-taught general education course that integrates gender studies and tourism studies. The course was designed around a photo-narrative pedagogy, encouraging students to engage with gender issues through their own tourism-related experiences. Students were invited to document cultural tourism sites through photography and to construct narrative reflections that articulate their observations of gender roles, stereotypes, power relations, and social inequalities encountered in tourism contexts. These photo narratives were further discussed through structured classroom dialogue and peer interaction, allowing students to collectively reflect on how gender is socially constructed and performed within cultural and touristic spaces.

The study addresses the following research questions:
(1) How does an interdisciplinary “gender × tourism” general education course contribute to students’ gender awareness and reflective capacity?
(2) How do students construct and articulate gender-related meanings through photo-narrative learning activities based on tourism experiences?
(3) What pedagogical possibilities and constraints emerge when photo-narrative methods are integrated into gender education within general education curricula?

Conceptually, the study draws on theories of informal and experiential learning, viewing learning as an interpretive process emerging from lived experience, dialogue, and reflection rather than from content transmission alone. Gender is understood as socially constructed and continuously negotiated through everyday practices, including tourism and leisure activities. By situating gender learning within tourism contexts, the course seeks to bridge students’ personal experiences with broader social structures, enabling gender education to move beyond abstract concepts toward embodied and situated understanding.