Search Results (71)

The text analyzes interreligious organizations and movements in Brazil based on the concept of the pluralist principle. It aims to systematize, based on observations of practices and studies of documents from prominent inter-religious experiences in Brazil, the degree of incidence of efforts to deepen democracy; defend human rights and the rights of nature; provide citizenship; appreciate ethnic, sexual, and gender diversity; and other effective decolonial forms of counter-hegemonic social articulation in these groups. Among the results, we present theoretical bases that show that it is necessary, for social analyses, to pay special attention to the articulation of the intersection between religious groups’ capacity for dialogue and the challenges surrounding social agendas that reinforce decolonial socio-religious perspectives. The profile of some inter-religious experiences within the scope of the research is also indicated. Full article

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) reshapes society, digital leadership in education becomes crucial. This study explores teachers’ perspectives on high school principals’ digital leadership competencies in Oyo State, Nigeria, a region grappling with the digital divide. This offers a counterpoint to research in high-income countries. Using a quantitative, descriptive research design, 381 teachers across three senatorial districts were selected via multi-stage sampling. The study addressed one research question and tested two hypotheses. Data were collected using the High Schools’ Digital Leadership Standards Questionnaire (HSDLSQ). The reliability coefficients ranged from α = 0.85 to 0.91 across five domains: visionary leadership, digital learning culture, professional development, systemic improvement, and digital citizenship. Descriptive statistics (percentages, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test) were used for analysis at a 0.05 significance level. The findings revealed that high school leaders possess the skills to meet the ISTE-A digital leadership standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Female leaders exhibited slightly higher digital skills than males, though gender was insignificant in meeting the ISTE-A standards overall. The study underscores the importance of digital leadership in school management, offering practical implications for leadership practices, policy decisions, and future research. Although the ISTE-A standards are met, the emphasis on systemic improvement highlights how Nigerian principals adapt strategies to local resource constraints, differing from high-tech education systems. Recommendations include promoting the ISTE-A standards among school leaders, investing in digital leadership training, fostering digital literacy, and supporting adaptability to technological changes to advance digital transformation in education. Full article

This study explores hate speech in educational contexts, focusing on initial teacher training in Chile. It conceptualizes hate speech as a form of expression that promotes violence and exclusion, emphasizing the role of social media in its amplification. Drawing on the theories of Levinas, Arendt, and Žižek, the research highlights the importance of citizenship education in building inclusive and democratic educational environments. A quantitative, descriptive, and correlational design was employed, based on a survey conducted among history pedagogy students at Chilean universities. Using non-probabilistic sampling, the study applied statistical analyses, including Spearman’s correlation and Cronbach’s alpha (0.84), to ensure reliability. Key findings indicate that 51% of participants believe teacher training should explicitly address hate speech, while 70% expect the Ministry of Education to provide institutional support. A strong correlation (0.49) was found between social media usage and the spread of hate speech. Although students recognize the problem, significant resistance remains regarding the inclusion of hate speech and diversity-related content in teacher education programs. The results underscore the urgent need for public policies that integrate diversity, human rights, and critical digital literacy into teacher training, aiming to prevent discrimination and promote ethical and inclusive educational practices. Full article

Teacher education is paramount for nurturing democratic, critical, and participative citizenship. Educators should approach identity formation from an intersectional perspective, encompassing sex–gender, racial, and cultural diversities. This perspective highlights social inequalities and challenges the power structures that sustain them. Teachers play a crucial role in shaping and reflecting on these identities since their responsibilities extend beyond knowledge transmission. Their ability to incorporate intersectional perspectives into teaching influences students’ understanding of intersectionality, thereby supporting the development of inclusive identities and promoting democratic citizenship. This article opens with the results of research on how trainee teachers acquire competencies in feminist critical visual literacy. Following this review, we analyzed educational materials to examine stereotypes, racism, and the invisibility of racialized and cultural minority communities. We also addressed the identification and counteraction of hate speech targeting the LGTBIQ+ community as well as different gender-based violence. Comparative data from participating universities provide insights into the critical skills of pre-service teachers across international contexts. This study highlights an urgent need for further research into integrating intersectionality in teacher training, supported by educational policies that strengthen critical competencies through a holistic, gender- and race-sensitive approach aimed at social justice. These initiatives would promote an education system responsive to multifaceted diversities. Full article

Legal protests are recognized as a legitimate form of civic participation. Illegal protests, on the other hand, are an effective form of civil disobedience, which, however, can take a rather excessive form. This article tracks the trends in expected participation in illegal protests of 8th-grade students using data from thirteen countries participating in all three cycles of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2009, 2016, and 2022). The results of the countries’ overall trends show that students’ anticipation for participation in illegal protest activities has increased in most participating countries. The general trend across the participating countries is that male students have a higher anticipation of participating in all cycles, although in nine countries, the gap between male and female students is shrinking over time, and in two countries, the trends are increasing for both male and female students. In general, students with an immigrant background have higher expectations to participate in illegal protest activities. These findings can inform the development of curricula and teaching strategies to promote critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and constructive civic engagement. The results also suggest that integrating lessons on peaceful advocacy, conflict resolution, and democratic processes can channel student activism into lawful and impactful forms of participation and engagement. Full article

This article critically examines De Cero a Siempre (DCAS), a cross-sectoral policy established in Colombia in 2016 to provide coordinated and comprehensive early childhood development services. The policy aims to promote optimal conditions for children from pregnancy to six years of age by addressing their nutritional, health, educational, and social needs while fostering participation and citizenship. Designed with a differential approach, the DCAS integrates and adapts services considering gender, culture, income, ethnicity, displacement, and disability. This study evaluates the DCAS policy through the human rights approach. First, we examine the conceptual definitions Second, we identify specific programs and services Third, we assess the implementation and effectiveness of these services using the official System for Monitoring the Comprehensive Development of Early Childhood. The findings reveal a strong policy framework that values human dignity and equity but highlights critical gaps in coverage, particularly in rural areas, due to geographical and social challenges. The current landscape of disability services reveals significant systemic limitations in addressing individualized developmental needs. Our comprehensive analysis exposes critical challenges in designing comprehensive intervention strategies for CWDDs. The article concludes with recommendations to enhance policy implementation and improve service delivery, ensuring equitable access for all children. Full article

This study examines the relevance of interpersonal relationships in the work environment, focusing specifically on analyzing associations between positive relational management, which refers to the use of relational resources that enable adaptation to the workplace, and key organizational variables such as flourishing, individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBis), and life satisfaction. Given the importance of this topic, a structural model is required for the possible relationship between positive relational management and other organizational variables relevant to occupational well-being. As a preliminary step, the Positive Relational Management Scale (PRMS) was analyzed and validated in a sample of 348 Spanish workers. The results revealed that the overall model has a good fit, with reliable and valid construct measures. Moreover, the three-dimensional structure of the model was confirmed, although gender invariance was not satisfied. In conclusion, the results confirm the simple mediation hypothesis, in which flourishing mediates the relationship between positive relational management and life satisfaction. In contrast, multiple mediations between the variables could not be confirmed. This study highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships for employee well-being in the workplace. Full article

This study explored the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal on Quality Education (SDG4), emphasizing its interconnectedness with the other SDGs. A proprietary algorithm and cocitation network analysis were used to identify and analyze the network of SDG features in GAI research publications (n = 1501). By examining GAI’s implications for ten SDG4 targets, the findings advocate for a collaborative, ethical approach to integrating GAI, emphasizing policy and practice developments that ensure that technological advancements align with the overarching goals of SDG4. The results highlight the multifaceted impact of GAI on the SDGs. First, this paper outlines a framework that leverages GAI to enhance educational equity, quality, and lifelong learning opportunities. By highlighting the synergy between GAI and the SDGs, such as reducing inequalities (SDG10) and promoting gender equality (SDG5), this study underscores the need for an integrated approach to utilizing GAI. Moreover, it advocates for personalized learning, equitable technology access, adherence to ethical AI principles, and fostering global citizenship, proposing a strategic alignment of GAI applications with the broader SDG agenda. Next, the results highlight that GAI introduces significant challenges, including ethical concerns, data privacy, and the risk of exacerbating the digital divide. Overall, our findings underscore the critical role of policy reforms and innovative practices in navigating the challenges and harnessing the opportunities presented by GAI in education, thereby contributing to a comprehensive discourse on technology’s role in advancing global education and sustainable development. Full article

Coalitional communication is a dwelling amidst non-dominant differences that requires introspective, complex communicative philosophy and practice. My concern is with differentiation in hierarchies. They are understood and shaped by colonial modernity. They are historical logics and practices of settler colonialism, enslavement, and citizenship. My perspective is feminist, decolonial critiques of modern, capitalist social systems. The analysis is grounded in communicative philosophy in intercultural contexts where folks intend justice and equality. For example, in political democracies, localized social alliances actually harm one another being hegemonic by taking routes of familiarity through structures of linguistic and practical cultural systems. Communicative projects of liberation across oppressions (with monologic and single-axis perceptions) tend to miss intersections of our raced and gendered experiences. The result is unintelligibility among us. In this state, one can sense in the body the space of the liminal—with both a communicative impasse and opening. Rather than aligning liberation and domination in the impasse, I describe the creativity of liminal space as a communicative opening. The opening is a recognition of multiplicity and a refusal to assimilate each other’s lived experiences into familiar, complex codes of habituated thought and action. Examining communication hostilities in oppressed–oppressing relations is a necessary condition for coalition. Thus, coalitional communication is a call to engage a full sense of listening to one another as relevant. Ways that decipher codes and signals of resistance come to constitute the project of creating relevant intelligibility together. Praxis as critical, dialectical, and intersectional thinking is part of this method. Full article

The contents linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be introduced in studies in the field of education. This research analyzes the knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda among 477 participants from the University of Murcia and the University of Valencia in the Degree of Primary Education, Social Education, and the Master of Teacher Training in the Faculty of Education. A descriptive–comparative methodology with a quantitative approach was used based on an ad hoc questionnaire. The educational intervention included theoretical–practical modules on the SDGs and citizenship, with academic readings and case studies on the implementation of the SDGs in various sectors, which positively impacted future education professionals who were to be part of their initial training. The results showed significant differences in the knowledge of the SDGs between the experimental group and the control group at the end of the term, especially among the experimental group, which worked on the SDG concepts in the subjects taken. Greater knowledge was also observed among the students with a Social Education degree who took a subject related to this topic. Full article

This article draws on a twenty-year relationship of short-term interventions with Dalit communities living in informal settlements, sub-cities and urban villages in Mumbai, that have sought to create public theatre events based on research by and with communities that celebrate, problematise and interrogate sustainable urban living. In looking back over the developments and changes to our working methods in Mumbai, I explore how the projects priorities the roles of the community as both researchers and artists. I consider where a specific applied theatre project, which focuses on site specific storytelling with Dalit communities in Worli Koliwada and Dharavi, functions on a continuum of interactive, participatory, and emancipatory practice, research and performance. Applied Theatre practices should not and cannot remain static, they need to be constantly reformed and as practitioners and researchers we need to constantly re-examine the ways in which we work. This chapter poses two central questions: firstly, can this long-term partnership between practitioners, researchers and artists from the UK and India working with community members genuinely be a space for co-creating knowledge and theatre? And secondly, if so, is this Theatre-based Research or Research Based Theatre? I interrogate Applied Theatre’s potential to create a space of cognitive justice, which must be the next step for applied theatre, along-side its more widely accepted aims of searching for social and spatial justice and which places the community as both artists and researchers. The Dalit social reality is one of oppression, based on three axes: social, economic and gender. The chapter explores how working as co-researchers and the public performance of their stories has been a form of ‘active citizenship’ for these participants and is a key part of their strategy in their demand for policy changes. In looking forward I ask how working in international partnerships with community members can promote cognitive justice and go beyond a merely participatory practice. I consider why it is vital for the field that applied theatre practice includes partners from both the global south and north working together to co-create knowledge, new methods of practice to ensure an applied theatre knowledge democracy. In doing so I will discuss if and how this work might be considered to be Theatre-based Research. Full article

This large cross-national study investigates the development of transversal skills in the context of open schooling—an educational approach integrating schools, universities, and communities to address real-world challenges—through the CARE-KNOW-DO framework. Utilising a mixed-methods approach across five countries, this research employs a novel validated self-report instrument to evaluate the perceptions of 12,074 underserved students concerning their learning experiences in open schooling environments. An exploratory factor analysis enabled us to explore quantitative insight into students’ skill development, while thematic analysis of 20 teachers’ reports contributed qualitative depth. The study identified six critical transversal skills: self-initiative, problem-solving, emotional engagement, scientific citizenship, authentic learning, and future prospects. Significant geographic, gender, and age-related variations were found, with notable disparities in skill perceptions among nonbinary students, indicating the need for more inclusive educational support. All countries showed high levels of perceived transversal skills, with 83% of Greek and 80% of Brazilian students leading, compared to 64% in Romania and the UK, and 62% in Spain. Trends suggest secondary students exhibit stronger global citizenship and authentic learning, although they report less confidence in problem-solving and self-initiative than their primary counterparts. These findings, viewed alongside 12 teaching competencies revealed through thematic analysis, underscore the effectiveness of open schooling, which is underexplored, in fostering key skills and call for pedagogical innovations that integrate real-life issues into the curriculum. The study contributes to Agenda 2030—quality of education by demonstrating the real-world applicability of the CARE-KNOW-DO framework for educational practice and policy towards equity and sustainability. Our comparative analysis of transversal skill development across diverse student populations, as well as teaching competencies, further advances the discourse on improving 21st-century education. Full article

This paper focuses on the discourse on Muslim women’s rights in India, aiming to trace how policies concerning Muslim women affect their constitutional rights to equality and non-discrimination. In doing so, this paper explores a colonial continuity of policies in the post-independence era and the subsequent governments. The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive and nuanced discussion on Muslim women’s rights in light of their historical evolution, the existence of personal laws, and the ongoing debates on a Uniform Civil Code. This article concludes that Muslim women continue to struggle for their rights to equal citizenship at the intersection of gender, religion, colonialism, and secularism. Full article

Today, sustainable development has become one of the most important goals for humanity. Higher education students and especially teacher candidates can play an active role in the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) for global citizenship. However, how some important issues such as how much students know about these goals can play a role in achieving these goals are not yet clear. This study aims to determine the awareness of SDGs and global citizenship among higher education students with a focus on teacher candidates and their understanding of the global citizenship concept. In addition, it is also aimed to raise awareness about sustainable development goals and evaluate the applicability of these goals to create a sustainable world for future generations. The study group comprised teacher candidates studying under the sustainable development foundations for future learning in the 2022–2023 academic year at the Faculty of Education, Near East University, Northern part of Cyprus. Five interview questions were prepared in the form of a questionnaire and delivered to participants, and data were analysed with the aid of thematic content analysis. Results indicated that global citizens must have the ability to understand world events and grasp cultural diversity, recognize that everyone has equal rights, stand against gender, racial, and social discrimination, and strive for social justice by understanding different cultures and global conflicts and evaluating different perspectives. Factors such as social justice and equality, selflessness, globalization and social values, sustainable future and responsibility, global citizenship education, and awareness and respect have been established in this study as essential elements that can contribute to the development of global citizenship. In conclusion, global citizenship has the potential to contribute directly to the SDGs, and these potentials can be better explored through global citizenship education programs that can integrate all the SGDs without prioritizing one over others for teacher candidates. Full article

Specific groups of Catalan citizens, in spite of them being socially and professionally integrated, suffer the risk of exclusion or segregation on grounds of identity, one example being those who identify with Islam. This study arises from a prospective research project centred on a case study with the Catalan Muslim Women’s Association. The main objective was to formulate public policy proposals on education, religion, and gender to be included in the Citizenship and Immigration Plan, through a process based on the women’s participation and testimony. The study was divided into two phases: the participatory research followed by evaluation of the applicability of the resulting proposals. It was conducted through semi-structured interviews (n = 37), a discussion group (n = 21), and a round table (n = 31). Oral and textual qualitative data were gathered and analysed using the Ivàlua logical framework. Results for education policy urge the creation of a new professional specialist mediating between all actors. Those for religion call for public spaces for religious practice. In relation to gender, participants continued to demand policies that do not discriminate against Muslim women. In summary, religion is a resource that supports identities, beliefs, and practices, with both empowering and disempowering effects. Full article