Search Results (128)

International frameworks recognise Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) as both a right and an evidence-based necessity. This study explores how key stakeholders perceive its implementation in Greece, focusing on educational policy, teacher preparedness, barriers, and age-appropriate content, with the aim of informing future practice and addressing gaps in early-years provision. The research employed qualitative design, and data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, drawing on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders whose professional roles and institutional positions enable them to influence or inform educational policy. Findings indicate that the effective implementation of CSE in Greece requires addressing interconnected pedagogical, institutional, and sociopolitical challenges. Although stakeholders widely acknowledge CSE as crucial for children’s rights, health, protection, and inclusion, current provision remains limited and fragmented. Insufficient teacher training, social conservatism, political hesitancy, and the influence of the Church continue to undermine the establishment of comprehensive, evidence-based sexuality education. Full article

This paper presents the development and pilot validation of an enhanced water governance assessment tool developed within the European InnWater project. Grounded in OECD Principles on Water Governance, the study combines literature review, thematic framework development, and pilot validation with stakeholders. The tool expands existing governance assessment frameworks by explicitly integrating four cross-cutting dimensions that are often insufficiently addressed: circular economy, environmental resilience, local empowerment, and procedural equity with particular attention to vulnerable groups. The assessment framework is organised across five governance domains—mega-trends and resilience; policy, institutions and regulation; financing; data, monitoring and evaluation; and engagement and accountability—and operationalised through a structured questionnaire applied in selected European pilot sites. Insights from initial pilot applications illustrate the tool’s capacity to reveal institutional coordination gaps, capacity constraints, and barriers to inclusive and adaptive governance. The paper contributes a replicable, policy-relevant governance assessment methodology designed to support reflexive learning and institutional improvement in diverse European water governance contexts. Full article

Access to health care is a fundamental human right established in various legal frameworks worldwide. However, increasing evidence indicates that individuals with physical disabilities in rural Ethiopia continue to face barriers and disparities in accessing health care, leading to unmet needs and worsening health. Guided by Critical Disability Theory and Intersectionality Theory, this instrumental case study explored the barriers to accessing primary health care (PHC) for adults with physical disabilities in rural Ethiopia and examined how disability intersects with poverty, gender, and rurality to shape exclusion. Following purposeful sampling, we conducted 14 interviews and one focus group discussion (n = 7) with adults with physical disabilities, supplemented by PHC facility infrastructure observation. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified intersecting barriers across four domains: physical and environmental barriers, socioeconomic marginalization, socio-cultural stigma and attitudinal barriers, and systemic weaknesses in health service delivery. This revealed that disability-related barriers are rooted in structural ableism and intersecting inequities, underscoring the urgent need for inclusive policies and disability-inclusive practices. Such practices include enforcing accessibility standards, expanding community-based health insurance to cover disability-specific needs, supporting transportation, and providing disability-specific training for health professionals. Implementing these practices is essential to advancing disability rights and ensuring equitable health access in Ethiopia. Full article

Family caregivers provide up to 90% of care in Alberta’s communities and play an essential role in sustaining the province’s health and social care systems, yet they remain under-recognized and insufficiently supported. To address this gap, we co-designed the Alberta Family Caregiver Strategy and Action Plan (2024–2025), a provincial framework developed through participatory research and collective impact methods. Guided by principles of co-production, equity, and lived experience, the project engaged over 500 stakeholders, including caregivers, healthcare providers, educators, employers, and policymakers, through Phase 1 interviews (health/community leaders, n = 44; Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), n = 47; navigation experts, n = 9), Phase 2 co-design team consultations, and Phase 3 sector roundtables (n = 52). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four foundational caregiver strategies, Recognition, Partnership, Needs Assessment, and Navigation, and four enabling conditions: Education, Workplace Supports, Policy and Research and Data Infrastructure. These elements were synthesized into an eight-priority Alberta Caregiver Strategy and Action Plan Framework, a practical way to connect validated priorities with coordinated, measurable implementation across settings. Participants emphasized four key enablers essential to making caregiver inclusion more feasible and sustainable: education, workplace supports, policy infrastructure, and research and evaluation. Findings highlight strong cross-sector consensus that caregiver inclusion must be embedded into routine practice, supported by consistent policy, and reinforced through provincial coordination with local adaptation. The Alberta Family Caregiver Strategy provides a practical, evidence-informed plan for transforming fragmented supports into a coherent, caregiver-inclusive ecosystem that strengthens both caregiver well-being and system sustainability. Full article

Inclusive education is at the forefront of transnational policy agendas. Yet, normative, deficit-oriented disability discourses and institutional gaps continue to shape how inclusion is enacted in schools, often displacing extensive and unacknowledged labour onto families, especially mothers. Drawing on feminist theories of invisible work, this article critically examines the everyday labour performed by mothers of disabled children as they navigate inclusive education systems in Alberta, Canada. Situated within a broader collective case study, this analysis asks: What forms of invisible work do mothers undertake in pursuit of inclusion within education systems labelled as inclusive? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine mothers of disabled children. Reflexive thematic analysis illuminated four intersecting dimensions of invisible work: (1) working within the system, (2) working to fit the system, (3) crafting system workarounds, and (4) working above and beyond the system. These forms of work reveal how inclusive education systems rely on mothers to bridge the gap between policy rhetoric and lived experiences. Findings illuminate how mothers’ invisible work simultaneously sustains, negotiates, and resists systemic ableism, highlighting the need to recognize and redistribute this work and reimagine inclusion as a shared structural responsibility rather than an individual, maternal pursuit. Full article

This paper presents the Living Lab Assessment Method (LLAM), a context-sensitive framework for assessing impact and value creation in Living Labs (LLs). While LLs have become established instruments for Open and Urban Innovation, systematic and transferable approaches to evaluate their impact remain scarce and still show theoretical and practical barriers. This study proposes a new methodological approach that aims to address these challenges through the development of the LLAM, the Living Lab Assessment Method. This study reports a five-year iterative development process embedded in Ghent’s urban and social innovation ecosystem through the combination of three complementary methodological pillars: (1) co-creation and co-design with lead users, ensuring alignment with practitioner needs and real-world conditions; (2) multiple case study research, enabling iterative refinement across diverse Living Lab projects, and (3) participatory action research, integrating reflexive and iterative cycles of observation, implementation, and adjustment. The LLAM was empirically developed and validated across four use cases, each contributing to the method’s operational robustness and contextual adaptability. Results show that LLAM captures multi-level value creation, ranging from individual learning and network strengthening to systemic transformation, by linking participatory processes to outcomes across stakeholder, project, and ecosystem levels. The paper concludes that LLAM advances both theoretical understanding and practical evaluation of Living Labs by providing a structured, adaptable, and empirically grounded methodology for assessing their contribution to sustainable and inclusive urban innovation. Full article

Every act of design tells a story about who belongs, who is seen, and who is heard. This paper looks at how participatory design-based research (PDR), practiced with relational care and reflexivity, can help shift interactions among marginalized youth from urban Indigenous and newcomer immigrant communities in Canada from othering toward understanding. Moving beyond surface-level celebrations of multiculturalism, the study frames design as a relational and ethical practice, one that surfaces assumptions, holds space for difference, and creates openings for intercultural dialogue. The study draws on a series of design circles (d.circles) in which youth co-created visual communication artefacts reflecting their lived experiences. These artefacts became catalysts for dialogue, enabling participants to challenge stereotypes, articulate concerns, and develop shared perspectives. Reflexivity was integral to the process, guiding both participants and the facilitator to consider power, positionality, and relational accountability throughout. Findings show that participatory design, grounded in Indigenous relational principles and participatory action research, can unsettle dominant narratives, foster mutual recognition, and support youth-led meaning-making. This work contributes to emerging conversations that position design thinking as a practice of ethical engagement rather than a tool for problem-solving alone. The learnings from this study show how critically practiced PDR can cultivate more inclusive and socially responsive pathways for intercultural understanding to take shape. Full article

Russia’s 2022 invasion precipitated one of Europe’s largest episodes of forced academic mobility, compelling universities to shift from emergency access to durable inclusion. This article investigates how Ukrainian students are integrated into Romanian higher education through a qualitative case study at Ovidius University of Constanta, undertaken within the Erasmus+ EIUS project. We analysed a participatory focus-group workshop (“Building Bridges,” May 2024) involving 72 participants (15 Ukrainian students, 31 Romanian students, 26 academic staff). Transcripts were coded via reflexive thematic analysis and interpreted through a SWOT lens to connect lived experience with institutional strategy. Findings indicate that integration generates tangible pedagogical and social value—diversity enriches coursework, empathy strengthens peer collaboration, and exposure to multilingual classrooms catalyses instructional innovation. Yet systemic fragilities persist: language anxiety (“translation silence”), fragmented support pathways, and limited access to counselling shift emotional labour onto faculty and peers. Opportunities cluster around Erasmus+ infrastructures, bilingual materials, and co-created projects that transform access into participation; threats include latent prejudice, social isolation, compassion fatigue, and policy discontinuity as crisis attention wanes. We advance the concept of institutionalised solidarity—a multi-level inclusion model that couples emotional infrastructures (mentoring, trauma-informed pedagogy, counselling) with organizational infrastructures (integration offices, linguistic scaffolding, adaptive assessment). The study contributes an empirically grounded framework for moving from humanitarian reaction to sustainable academic inclusion and offers actionable guidance for European universities seeking resilience under protracted disruption. Full article

Second language acquisition (SLA) is critical for refugee integration and a determinant of health and health care access. Although numerous studies have examined language barriers and health communication, the reciprocal relationship between health and second language acquisition remains underexplored in public health research. This qualitative study draws on interviews with twenty Syrian refugees (nine men and eleven women, aged 22–65) resettled in Norway. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Two overarching themes were identified: (1) Learning under strain: health problems and post-migratory stressors constrained SLA; and (2) Relational support: reciprocal interactions with neighbours, colleagues, and volunteers enabled both language learning and functional health. These social arenas acted as low-threshold, health-promoting settings that mitigated isolation and strengthened belonging. The study highlights that language operates as a social determinant of health: inclusive, relational spaces facilitate both SLA and health by enhancing communicative participation and access to care. Refugee integration policy should therefore support accessible community spaces outside formal education to strengthen social inclusion, health literacy and refugees’ ability to navigate health and welfare services. Full article

Since its emergence two decades ago, podcasting has spurred a rapidly evolving body of scholarship examining its social, technological, political, and cultural impact. However, much of podcast theory relies on analytical frameworks derived from other media. Moving beyond the binary debate that positions podcasting either as a wholly unique medium or merely an extension of radio, this article proposes a podcast-specific theoretical framework that advances a third approach within podcast studies. Rather than treating these perspectives as mutually exclusive, this approach synthesizes their strengths, recognizing podcasting’s broad esthetic range and time-shifted consumption patterns alongside its narrative lineage in radio drama and longform storytelling. In doing so, it situates podcasting within the genealogy of longform documentary journalism, aligning it with the evolving structures of digital publishing. At the intersection of podcast and journalism studies, this historically informed paradigm foregrounds three defining characteristics of podcast journalism: intimacy (manifested in personal narratives and parasocial relationships), reflexivity (evident in metajournalistic transparency and postmodern approaches to evidence), and democracy (leveraging progressive inclusivity or its oppositional countercurrents). While these features may be adapted or subverted across different productions, they remain core conventions that distinguish podcast journalism as a unique form of narrative digital media. Full article

Living Labs have become key instruments for fostering sustainable and user-driven innovation, yet their conceptual ambiguity and fragmented evaluation practices limit their effectiveness. This paper synthesises academic and policy literature to develop a comprehensive qualitative framework for assessing Living Labs across nine dimensions: governance, user engagement, methods, infrastructure, outputs, scalability, sustainability, equity, and learning. The framework integrates a temporal perspective to capture short-, medium-, and long-term impacts. Exploring the INNOFEIT Energy Living Lab in Skopje, North Macedonia, through the lens of this framework demonstrates how a university-based Living Lab can function as both an experimental ecosystem and a policy instrument supporting the digital and green transitions. The findings reveal strong methodological and infrastructural maturity but highlight the need for deeper co-creation, broader stakeholder inclusion, and longitudinal evaluation. The proposed framework offers a practical tool for improving comparability, reflexivity, and institutional learning across diverse Living Lab contexts, ultimately strengthening their role in sustainable innovation governance. Full article

Background/Objectives: In recent years, Narrative Medicine (NM) has gained prominence in the context of neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, offering tools to understand the subjective experience of illness and to improve the care relationship. Methods: This scoping review, conducted following the PRISMA guidelines, analyzed the scientific literature from PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and Medline, encompassing 10 contributions focused on NM and patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Results: The analysis identified three main themes: 1) narrative, memory, and personal identity, highlighting the role of narrative in preserving a sense of self; 2) personalization of care, oriented towards person-centeredness; 3) the use of narrative in a formative and reflective function as a tool to promote empathy, clinical awareness, and observation skills in the training of health professionals. Conclusions: NM confirms itself as a relational and reflexive paradigm, capable of humanizing care and promoting therapeutic pathways that are more inclusive and sensitive to the patient’s subjectivity. Full article

Background: Population aging has led to a rise in dementia prevalence, increasing the demand for innovative care models. Telemedicine offers an opportunity to improve access, continuity, and caregiver support for older adults with cognitive impairment. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted at the Geriatrics and Gerontology Service of Cassiano Antônio de Moraes University Hospital (HUCAM-UFES), Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 11 caregivers of older adults living with dementia who participated in telemedicine consultations. Data was analyzed thematically using a reflexive thematic analysis approach. Results: Caregivers considered telemedicine useful, accessible, and safe, facilitating the continuity of care and strengthening the caregiver–professional relationship. The main limitations were the absence of physical examination and occasional technical difficulties. Most caregivers favored a hybrid care model, combining remote and in-person visits. Conclusions: Telemedicine proved to be a feasible and well-accepted strategy for the care of older adults with dementia, improving caregiver support and communication with healthcare teams. Public policies should foster digital inclusion and training for both caregivers and professionals, consolidating hybrid, person-centered models of care. Full article

There is a growing demand for digital innovation to facilitate authentic communication during the learning experience at Australian Universities. Student’s communication is considered ‘authentic’ in various ways, from using discipline-specific professional language to expressing personal values through honest self-reflection. Enhancing authentic rational decision-making during social learning online is one priority area now available for students developing clinical reasoning skills. Using a Design-based Research (DBR) methodological framework, 34 students, 26 educators, and 5 learning designers from Torrens University Australia provided iterative feedback on the development and implementation of a simple digital decision wheel tool, aimed at supporting independent and collaborative decision-making. Three DBR phases were implemented, encompassing an initial pilot and development stage with 3 subjects, and two subsequent phases with an additional 17 subjects that were incorporated using a decision wheel tool for independent and problem-based learning. Data were generated through 44 semi-structured interviews and 20 focus groups across twenty undergraduate subjects delivered in various learning modes across five 12-week DBR action cycles. Reflexive thematic analysis and bounded rationality theory guided analysis. Outputs reveal that a simple digital tool contributed positively to making authentic learning moments visible and promoted inclusive and formative dialogue. Benefits included development of psychological authenticity when preparing to make authentic industry decisions. The initiative aligns with broader educational goals for resourcing and developing tools to scaffold a ‘critical pause’ before articulating authentic thinking when engaging with humans and machines. Full article

This paper considers Helen McClory’s 2021 novel Bitterhall as one that self-reflexively engages with Scottish Gothic literary traditions, interrogating its own relationship with James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) and expressing authorial concerns around influence and the production of derivative pastiche. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick offers a specifically queer reading of Confessions, and this article finds a parallel with Bitterhall, suggesting Tom’s anxiety about his sexuality is what makes him vulnerable to the power of a mysterious diary. Drawing from Timothy C. Baker’s exploration of the found manuscript, this paper further considers Bitterhall’s relationship with time and temporal disruption as queer, indicating how the novel’s cyclical narrative style and collapsing of past and present disrupt linearity and indicate a history of queer identities. This paper argues for McClory’s inclusion in wider discussions of contemporary Scottish Gothic and indicates the potential for fresh engagements with Scottish literary traditions. Full article