Search Results (196)

Battlefield preservation is commonly understood as a matter of heritage management, historical education, or cultural tourism. This article argues that its origins and enduring significance lie elsewhere. Modern battlefield preservation emerged as a direct consequence of the transformation of warfare between the late eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with the French Revolution and the levée en masse, military service became increasingly associated with citizenship, national identity, and mass participation, while industrialization provided the logistical and technological foundations necessary for warfare on an unprecedented scale. As warfare expanded, so too did its human consequences, transforming military death from the experience of a relatively small warrior elite into a shared social reality affecting entire populations. Drawing upon military history, memory studies, sociology, religious studies, and heritage scholarship, this article examines how mass warfare generated new forms of collective bereavement, ritual commemoration, battlefield pilgrimage, and historical preservation. Through case studies ranging from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War, Gettysburg, the World Wars, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, it demonstrates how expanding mobilization, industrialized conflict, and rising casualty rates produced enduring landscapes of memory. The article argues that battlefield preservation developed through a cumulative historical process linking mass warfare, mass casualties, collective trauma, commemorative practices, and the creation of commemorative landscapes. Preserved battlefields are not merely remnants of past conflicts; they are cultural institutions through which societies negotiate memory, identity, and meaning. As traditional sources of collective authority weakened in modern societies, battlefields increasingly acquired functions associated with ritual, pilgrimage, and civil religion. The expansion of warfare produced an expansion of remembrance, and the preserved battlefield emerged as one of the most enduring cultural responses to the human consequences of modern conflict. Full article

This study examines the mental health experiences of first-year university students at a regional university in Fiji that serves twelve Pacific Island nations. The study addresses a gap in Pacific higher education research, where student mental health has received limited systematic attention. This study uses an interpretive qualitative approach guided by sensemaking theory. It examines how first-year students understand the emotional, social, academic, and financial challenges of transitioning to university in a diverse Pacific higher education setting. Data was collected through three semi-structured group interviews with seventeen first-year students from different Pacific Island countries. Data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, supported by NVivo. Six interconnected themes were identified: homesickness and emotional separation; financial struggle and survival; academic pressure and feelings of inadequacy; identity reconstruction; social isolation and belonging; and resilience and coping. The findings show that students actively engage in sensemaking to interpret and manage disruptions to identity, relationships, and academic confidence. The study contributes to sensemaking theory by showing how it operates in a Pacific higher education context shaped by collective identity, cultural obligation, and, for many participants, Christian spiritual values. Full article

The transition from secondary school to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) higher education may be hindered when science is perceived as abstract or disconnected from everyday experience. This descriptive educational-practice report presents Beyond the Magic, a participatory science station implemented during the annual ConCiencia FACTA outreach event at the Faculty of Food Science and Technology, National University of Comahue, Argentina. Approximately 200 students aged 15–18 from eight regional secondary schools attended the event in October 2025. During approximately 45-min visits in groups of 10–15, students encountered eight short chemistry and physics experiences organized around prediction, observation, guided explanation, and discussion. Retrospective facilitator observations were organized into descriptive categories: predictions and alternative explanations, spontaneous questions, everyday-life connections, changes in willingness to participate, questions about university study and research, and participation by accompanying teachers. The facilitators perceived broader participation as each visit progressed. These observations were not counted, coded, independently assessed, or collected as contemporaneous transcripts, and no measures of learning, situational interest, STEM identity, or educational aspirations were administered. The contribution is therefore a replicable implementation design rather than evidence of educational effectiveness or changes in STEM pathways. Full article

This paper examines the concept of the culture of space in early childhood education and care (ECEC), building on contemporary perspectives that understand space as an active factor in children’s development, learning, and socialization. The study aims to identify and define the dimensions of the culture of space in relevant interdisciplinary literature and to examine their representation in national and international strategic documents related to ECEC. The analysis is based on socio-constructivist perspectives, the phenomenology of space, the concepts of place identity and sense of place, and the Reggio Emilia approach. The findings indicate that the culture of space comprises interconnected physical, social, symbolic, cultural, digital, and pedagogical dimensions that shape children’s experiences and support belonging, identity formation, cultural awareness, spatial competences, and sustainable relationships with the environment. International policy documents published by OECD, UNESCO, and UNICEF emphasize that well-designed learning environments and sensitivity to cultural context are essential indicators of ECEC quality. Space should be understood as a culturally and pedagogically constructed medium that actively supports children’s development, identity formation, and community building. Full article

This study explores how adult immigrants represent and position their mother tongue/heritage language (L1/HL) within their linguistic repertoires, adopting a heteroglossic perspective on bilingualism and situating the analysis within the autobiographical approach to language education. The research was conducted within the G.U.L.P. project in Naples and is based on a corpus of 268 language portraits produced by learners of Italian as a second language, complemented by oral presentations. Data were analyzed through an integrated quantitative and qualitative methodology, focusing on the spatial distribution of languages in the portraits and on the thematic content of the accompanying presentations. The results show that the L1/HL is most frequently positioned in cognitively and affectively salient areas, particularly the head and the heart, reflecting both rational and emotional conceptualizations of language. While no substantial differences emerge across biographical variables, some tendencies can be observed, including a greater association of the heart with female participants and variation across national groups. Overall, the findings highlight the central role of the L1/HL in learners’ self-representations and confirm the value of the language portrait as a tool for investigating linguistic repertoires and supporting the recognition of plurilingual identities in education, also with adult immigrants. Full article

This article examines the impact of the EU Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (2005/36/EC) on the development and strengthening of midwifery in countries that joined the European Union in recent decades, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Focusing on experiences from Croatia, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic, the paper explores how alignment with the Directive influenced education reform, professional recognition, and scope of practice. Drawing on the experiences presented, we argue that the Directive has functioned as more than a technical requirement for EU accession. By establishing minimum educational standards, it supported the transition from vocational to university-level education, facilitated pathways for the existing workforce to align with new qualification requirements, and contributed to the recognition of midwifery as a distinct regulated profession. It also provided a clear framework for defining midwives’ competencies and scope of practice within health systems, acting both as a protective mechanism, by safeguarding professional standards, autonomy, and professional identity, and as an enabling framework by supporting workforce development, educational reform, and the integration of midwives into health systems during periods of institutional transition. The lessons drawn from these national experiences can inform the ongoing update of the Directive, led by the EU Commission, by illustrating how legislative alignment can strengthen midwifery education and professional recognition, while also supporting countries undergoing or preparing for EU accession. Full article

The socio-cultural sustainability of heritage tourism depends in part on how historical memories and cultural meanings are communicated, interpreted, and passed on over time. However, the family’s role as a key socialization agent in shaping tourists’ interpretations of nationally significant heritage remains underexplored. This study examines the relationships among family historical communication (FHC), tourists’ subjective interpretation of heritage, and behavioral intentions. Using the case of sustainable heritage tourism in Dandong, China, the study conceptualizes tourists’ subjective heritage interpretation in terms of three dimensions: educational experience (cognitive), historical identity (affective), and inheritance value (evaluative). The study contributes by treating family historical communication as a pre-trip interpretive context that shapes heritage meaning-making and by proposing a multidimensional framework linking prior social experiences, subjective interpretation, and behavioral intentions. Survey data from 611 heritage tourists were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships and age-cohort moderation effects. The results show that FHC is positively associated with all three meaning-making dimensions as well as with behavioral intentions. The mediation analysis further indicates that the indirect effects of FHC on behavioral intentions are stronger through historical identity and inheritance value than through educational experience. In addition, significant age-cohort moderation is found only in the relationship between FHC and educational experience. By highlighting the family as an important bridge between national narratives and personal meaning, this study offers implications for the tourism-supportive and socio-cultural dimensions of sustainable heritage management and inclusive destination governance. Full article

Background: In Turkey, meningococcal, rotavirus, and HPV vaccines are not included in the national schedule. We aimed to assess whether a face-to-face educational intervention could improve physicians’ knowledge about these vaccines and influence their subsequent counseling and recommendation practices. Methods: We used a two-phase intervention with pre/post assessment and a 4–6-week follow-up among family physicians. In Phase 1, participants received an in-person structured educational intervention on meningococcal, rotavirus, and HPV vaccines, and their knowledge was evaluated using identical true/false tests administered before and after the session. Phase 2, conducted 4–6 weeks later, measured changes in physicians’ self-reported frequency of providing recommendations about these vaccines, and whether they or their first-degree relatives had received any of the vaccines after the structured educational intervention. Differences in paired proportions were analyzed using McNemar’s test (p < 0.05). Results: Ninety-one physicians completed Phase-1; 70 from the same cohort completed Phase-2. Following the educational intervention, correct responses increased across multiple items: e.g., “Rotavirus vaccine is live” 89.0%→100% (p = 0.002); “Only humans are reservoir for meningococcal infection” 50.6%→96.7% (p < 0.001); “Meningococcal vaccine cannot be co-administered” (false) 70.3%→96.7% (p < 0.001). Phase-2 showed more proactive practice: for HPV, 52.9% reported recommending it “upon family request” and 27.1% “at every visit”; for rotavirus, these were 37.1% and 35.7%, respectively. Overall, 52.9% reported having administered one of the three vaccines to themselves or first-degree relatives after structured educational intervention; 62.2% rated the educational intervention’s influence on that decision as 10/10. Conclusions: A structured educational intervention improved family physicians’ knowledge and was associated with more proactive vaccine counseling and recommendation practices. Full article

Personal names carry cultural and linguistic identity, yet most African countries lack large-scale, structured name datasets suitable for natural language processing (NLP) research and computational social science. We present CongoNames, the first large-scale corpus of personal names from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), derived from publicly released national secondary-school examination palmarès (result lists) 8,053,983 published annually by the DRC Ministry of Education. The corpus comprises name records spanning 16 examination years (2008–2023) across 12 provinces and 304 sub-provincial regions, each enriched with a reported sex marker (M/F) and regional provenance metadata. We describe a fully deterministic, layered processing pipeline (bronze–silver–gold architecture) that converts raw protable document format (PDF) documents into structured comma-separated values (CSV) datasets without manual annotation or machine-learning-based inference. The dataset is validated against school-level census counts extracted from the same source PDFs, yielding extraction error rates below 2% for all years except 2023 (7.81%, flagged due to a layout change). Descriptive analyses document name length and token-count distributions, character-level n-gram profiles, provincial diversity indices, and inter-provincial name-inventory overlap, collectively establishing the dual linguistic origin—locally rooted Bantu components and Christian/French-origin components—that characterize modern Congolese naming practice. The dataset, processing code, and documentation are released openly to support research in African natural language processing (NLP), onomastics, and computational social science. Full article

The ongoing Palestinian conflict, particularly the escalation in Gaza since October 2023, has raised pressing concerns regarding human rights and international justice. This study explores how university students in northern Spain perceive the situation in Palestine, analyzing their levels of knowledge, emotional responses, and critical positioning. Using a mixed-method approach based on an online questionnaire and the Grid Elaboration Method, data were gathered from 147 students enrolled in education-related programs. The findings reveal three core themes in students’ representations of the conflict: resistance as a form of national identity, humanitarian suffering of civilians, and structural injustice perpetuated by global power dynamics. Gender and academic background influenced discursive emphasis, with Social Education students showing more politicized perspectives and women focusing more on Palestinian dignity and resistance. These insights underscore the potential of higher education to foster critical thinking, empathy, and engagement with international conflicts, and highlight the role of universities in cultivating a culture of peace and human rights. Full article

Taking the Liuyang branch of the Kong Clan in Hunan as a case study, this article examines how a migrant lineage associated with Confucian orthodoxy adapted to a heterogeneous local society and gradually transformed lineage identity into a broader sense of communal and national belonging. Drawing on fieldwork, genealogies, local gazetteers, temple inscriptions, and interviews, this study traces three connected processes. First, the clan used its recognized status as descendants of Confucius to obtain institutional protection, including tax and corvée exemptions, which helped stabilize population growth and local authority. Second, the Dahu Family Temple, sacrificial music, ritual dance, genealogy-airing practices, and modern clan activities show how Qufu-centered ritual codes were reworked through Huxiang architectural, musical, agricultural, and social rhythms. Third, in the modern period, practical statecraft, education, and revolutionary memory redirected lineage ethics from exclusive descent toward public responsibility. The case demonstrates that the consciousness of the Chinese national community can be generated at the grassroots level through the interaction of state institutions, local cultural adaptation, embodied ritual practice, and the reorientation of kinship memory toward inclusive patriotism. Full article

This study examines how transnational Mayan youth in rural Nebraska preserved and developed their linguistic heritage through the Kematzib’ Project while maintaining digital connections to Guatemala. Using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) methodologies, K’iche’ and Q’anjob’al-speaking adolescents served as co-researchers, creating trilingual educational materials through poetry workshops and digital storytelling. Digital technologies facilitated both language preservation and transnational family connections, as participants utilized the same tools to create educational materials and maintain contact with their relatives in Guatemala. The collaborative creation of digital books that integrated Popol Wuj elements with contemporary transnational experiences helped students overcome linguistic shame, develop cultural pride, and build advocacy skills applicable across U.S. and Guatemalan contexts. This research illustrates how youth can activate transnational funds of knowledge while developing identities encompassing multiple national, cultural, and linguistic affiliations. Full article

This paper reveals a culture of opportunity for graduate STEM education as it delves into the experiences of Black-identifying graduate students who are members of a multi-institutional, national research project. Specifically, this study explores how their engagement in race-focused research with an all-Black team impacts their perceptions of Black identity, sense of belonging, community, and agency to continue this research endeavor. In-depth one-on-one interviews were collected from four graduate students. Data analysis used Cross’s (1994) Nigrescence Theory, particularly the Stages of Black Identity Development. Results indicate that Black graduate students’ engagement in this space positively impacts their perceptions of racial identity, sense of community, and agency. This space proved beneficial in providing resources, especially language, to navigate discourse around their Black and other identities without feeling isolated or othered. Results also indicate a shared appreciation for being in the community with and receiving mentorship from Black women faculty, facilitating space for support and career advancement. Implications for transforming graduate STEM education to better support Black students are provided. Full article

As global education steps into a new era marked by core literacy and sustainable development, teacher literacy has become a critical pillar for fulfilling United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and advancing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Guided by the Educator Spirit and based on the logical framework of dual professional roles and four professional relationships, this study constructs a teacher literacy model for Chinese teachers in the new era, which consists of seven dimensions: disciplinary literacy, general literacy, learning support literacy, holistic education literacy, communication and collaboration literacy, development and improvement literacy, and teacher ethics literacy. Adopting systematic literature review and international comparative research methods, this study integrates mainstream international teacher literacy frameworks issued by the European Union, OECD, UNESCO, the United States and Australia with China’s educational policies and practical experience to establish the proposed model. It further elaborates how the model directs sustainability-oriented teacher education, facilitates transformative teaching approaches, boosts interdisciplinary teaching practice, highlights social justice and global citizenship awareness, and embeds sustainable development principles into curriculum design and teaching practice. This model can effectively tackle prevailing practical dilemmas including teachers’ weakened professional identity, vague professional development paths, unitary evaluation systems, inadequate digital teaching competence, insufficient interdisciplinary integration capacity, deficient ESD literacy and inefficient collaborative education mechanisms. It can systematically support teachers in carrying out sustainability-oriented teaching, innovating curriculum design, conducting transformative teaching and promoting students’ sustainable learning while practicing social justice and educational equity and cultivating global citizenship awareness in educational scenarios. It also provides a theoretical basis and practical guidance for promoting the transition of Chinese teachers toward high-quality, professional and sustainable development, and also offers localized solutions with distinctive Chinese characteristics and universal international implications for the implementation of global ESD initiatives and the achievement of SDG 4. Full article

This paper examines the construction of the National Goods Bank in Nanjing as a case study to investigate the localization of modern architecture in China during the 1930s. Set against the backdrop of Nanjing’s capital construction period (1927–1937), it explores how professional architects utilized New-national architecture to effectively disseminate modern architectural principles while navigating the tensions between modernity and national identity. The study first reviews the historical context of the building’s design and construction, focusing on architect Xi Fuquan, a Chinese architect educated in the West, whose modernist orientation influenced the project. It then analyzes the building’s spatial organization, decorative elements, and construction methods. The findings indicate that the National Goods Bank represents a “professional-led” pragmatic modernism, offering a distinct counter-narrative to the state-led formalist Chinese Revival architecture. This case study contributes to a broader understanding of Chinese architectural modernity by illustrating how modern architecture was disseminated and localized through adaptive, professional-led practices in the early twentieth century. Full article