Search Results (2,296)

While existing curricula often focus on theoretical aspects of sustainability, they frequently fail to equip students with practical design skills required by the green industry. To address this disconnect, this study seeks to answer: How can a structured pedagogical framework effectively enhance students’ ability to translate abstract sustainability principles into concrete technical solutions? This study introduces a comprehensive CDIO-based framework reform for Embedded Intelligent Systems education, weaving sustainability throughout every phase. We put forward a “Sustainable CDIO Capability Model” that charts a progressive pathway—starting from basic resource awareness and advancing through to sophisticated sustainable system innovation. Our four-dimensional teaching strategy brings this model to life: first, project-based learning driven by real sustainability challenges; second, a hybrid ecosystem blending online resources, hands-on practice, and immersion in green industry contexts; third, hierarchical team-based pedagogy backed by personalized support mechanisms; and fourth, a multi-dimensional assessment system that weights energy efficiency, resource stewardship, and social value creation alongside conventional metrics. We implemented this approach with Intelligent Science and Technology majors at Wuhan Institute of Technology. The results show the model effectively bridges the persistent gap between dry technical content and the practical demands of green industry. Students made substantial gains not merely in core engineering capabilities—system architecture, hardware-software co-development—but crucially in sustainable design awareness and their capacity to untangle complex sustainability challenges. This work offers a readily transferable framework for embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into engineering curricula worldwide. It provides practitioners with a concrete, tested model for cultivating the next generation of engineers who naturally think and act with sustainability in mind. Full article

This study examined the place of care in early childhood education and the role of the state in the social organization of care in Chile. Official policy documents were reviewed, including the Early Childhood Education Curriculum Framework, Teaching Standards Framework (Marco para la Buena Enseñanza), Law 20.379, and Law 21.805. Following a thematic analysis of these documents, semistructured interviews were conducted with four early childhood teachers to triangulate the findings. The results, presented across three thematic categories, reveal an ambiguity in the state’s positioning, oscillating between its role as a guarantor of rights and a provider of targeted services. Care is also incorporated into the educational sphere in a fragmented manner—as a learning objective and a condition for achieving educational outcomes—without being fully recognized as a constitutive dimension of teaching work. This situation contributes to the invisibilization of teachers as care workers and the reproduction of gender inequalities. The study contributes to the literature by approaching care from an educational perspective, highlighting underexplored tensions and emphasizing the need to incorporate a feminist and intersectional perspective into educational policies to advance the recognition of care as a right and a central component of the teaching profession. Full article

Background/Objectives: Higher education requires students to communicate in complex academic and social contexts, including oral presentations, group work, help-seeking, assessment, and peer interaction. For students with developmental communication disorders, and communication-related developmental profiles, these demands may create hidden participation vulnerabilities that affect mental health, academic engagement, and belonging. This scoping review mapped empirical evidence among tertiary students, focusing on mental health, academic participation, social belonging, institutional support, and contextual influences. Methods: A scoping review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidance. Five databases, PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science, were searched for English-language, peer-reviewed empirical studies published from 2000 onwards. Eligible studies involved university, college, or tertiary students with developmental speech, language, fluency, pragmatic communication, or communication-related developmental profiles, who reported at least one mental health, academic, or social participation outcome. Data were charted and synthesised thematically, with methodological quality appraised using CASP-informed criteria. Results: Twenty-one studies were included. Evidence was strongest for stuttering and fluency-related participation, while research on developmental language disorder, speech sound disorder, pragmatic language impairment, cluttering, and mixed communication profiles was limited. Across studies, communication needs intersected with anxiety, depression, stress, self-efficacy, oral assessment, help-seeking, disclosure, stigma, accommodation access, and belonging. Key limitations included reliance on self-report, cross-sectional or retrospective designs, inconsistent diagnostic confirmation, and limited evidence for intervention. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that developmental communication disorders and communication-related developmental profiles can function as hidden participation vulnerabilities in higher education. These vulnerabilities are shaped by students’ communication profiles and by communication-intensive university environments. Universities may therefore need communication-accessible teaching, flexible assessment, visible support pathways, and coordinated support across disability services, counselling, academic support, and speech–language pathology. Full article

Background/Objectives: Occupation shapes time use, physical demands, stress, and access to health resources, yet it remains an understudied axis of inequality among working women in low- and middle-income countries. This study assessed occupational-group disparities in lifestyle behaviors and adiposity levels among Peruvian working women. Methods: We conducted a pooled repeated cross-sectional analysis of ten Peruvian DHS/ENDES rounds from 2014–2019 and 2021–2024 among working women aged 18–49 years. The exposure was standardized occupational group, using professional/technical/managerial workers as the reference. Outcomes included five lifestyle behaviors and four adiposity indicators. Crude models estimated descriptive prevalence ratios (PRs) or beta coefficients; secondary adjusted models included age group, survey year, education, wealth, residence, natural region, and marital status. Results: A total of 40,726 women were included. Agricultural workers showed lower crude prevalences of almost-daily television viewing (PR 0.49; 95% CI 0.47–0.52), current smoking (PR 0.14; 95% CI 0.10–0.19), current alcohol use (PR 0.39; 95% CI 0.36–0.42), and heavy alcohol use (PR 0.17; 95% CI 0.12–0.27); these contrasts attenuated but generally persisted after adjustment. Insufficient fruit and vegetable intake exceeded 87% in all groups. Sales, domestic/household, services, and skilled manual workers had higher adjusted obesity than the reference group, with adjusted PRs ranging from 1.22 to 1.35. Conclusions: Occupation identifies relevant heterogeneity in lifestyle behaviors and adiposity levels among Peruvian working women. Lifestyle and adiposity profiles did not follow a simple social gradient, supporting occupation-specific strategies for noncommunicable disease prevention. Full article

This study evaluated a synergistic intervention integrating school social work and ethnic education for reducing dropout-related risk among male students in Zhuang vocational secondary schools in central Guangxi, China. Using a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design with baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up assessments, 457 students were enrolled and 435 were included in the final analysis. Compared with usual support, the intervention group showed a larger reduction in the dropout risk index at follow-up, β = −0.37, SE = 0.08, 95% CI [−0.52, −0.22], p < 0.001, and a lower likelihood of chronic absenteeism, OR = 0.56, 95% CI [0.34, 0.91], p = 0.020. The retention difference was positive but less precise, OR = 1.70, 95% CI [0.79, 3.67], p = 0.174. The intervention group also reported higher school belonging, β = 0.33, SE = 0.06, p < 0.001, and academic self-efficacy, β = 0.30, SE = 0.06, p < 0.001. Parallel mediation analysis suggested that these two protective factors accounted for part of the intervention-associated difference in dropout risk, with a total indirect effect of −0.20, 95% CI [−0.28, −0.12], p < 0.001. The findings suggest that culturally responsive practices, when combined with tiered case management and family engagement, may help strengthen protective processes and slow the accumulation of dropout-related risks. This study provides context-sensitive evidence for designing school retention interventions in vocational schools serving ethnic minority communities, while the quasi-experimental design warrants cautious interpretation. Full article

The aim of this study is to analyse the factors associated with sustainable entrepreneurship in Spain from a systemic perspective, highlighting the interaction between economic, cognitive, occupational and axiological factors that shape innovation and sustainability in digital environments. Using microdata from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Spain 2021, a Probit model is estimated to identify which variables are associated with TEA environmental consideration (TEA-EC), defined as the probability that early-stage entrepreneurs report considering environmental implications when making decisions about the future of their business. The results show that age, certain occupations (particularly part-time work, unemployment and self-employment), self-perceived entrepreneurial skills and values associated with social impact are the main factors associated with environmentally oriented entrepreneurship. Conversely, education, income, innovation, internationalisation and technological intensity are not significant, while gender is statistically associated with TEA environmental consideration (TEA-EC) in a context-dependent manner, particularly through its interactions with sectoral affiliation and social-impact orientation. Significant sectoral differences are also observed. The variables most strongly associated with TEA-EC are concern with social impact and the prioritisation of socio-environmental outcomes over profitability, each of which is associated with a higher likelihood of environmentally oriented decision-making among early-stage entrepreneurs by more than 23 percentage points. The study concludes that sustainable entrepreneurship in Spain is primarily associated with internal capabilities and pro-environmental values, rather than with structural incentives, offering key implications for the design of policies aimed at sustainable entrepreneurial systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Digital technologies and data-driven approaches are rapidly transforming healthcare practice and enabling more personalized and preventive care. As personal health data becomes increasingly embedded in healthcare systems, understanding how future healthcare professionals interpret these developments is essential for shaping responsive health education. This study aims to identify the factors that students in health-related programs consider important regarding the increasing use of personal health data in healthcare. Methods: An exploratory qualitative focus group study was conducted between March 2024 and July 2025 across five higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. Seven focus groups were conducted with forty students from health-related programs, including nursing, public health, occupational therapy, and social work. Participants discussed the use of personal health data in healthcare and reflected on short fictional future scenarios designed to stimulate discussion about possible developments in data-driven healthcare. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti. Results: Three overarching domains were identified: (1) personalization and prevention, (2) data quality and ethical considerations, and (3) organizational implications and conditions. Students described personal health data as a powerful tool for personalization, prevention, and informed decision-making. At the same time, they raised concerns about data reliability, overreliance on automated systems, patient anxiety, potential dehumanization of care, privacy risks, and emerging inequalities related to access to and representation within data systems. Overall, students appeared neither purely techno-optimistic nor technophobic, but articulated nuanced ethical, cultural, and professional tensions surrounding data-driven care. Conclusions: Preparing future healthcare professionals for data-driven healthcare requires integrating critical data literacy, ethical reflection, interdisciplinary collaboration and opportunities to critically engage with the societal and professional implications of data-driven technologies into health professional education, while ensuring that organizational conditions support the responsible use of personal health data. Full article

This article examines how Ecuadorian national digital newspapers represented adolescents and youth-coded young adults associated with crime during 2025, with particular attention to lexical labeling, moral attribution, visual framing, editorial prominence, news values and the near-presence or absence of educational discourse. The study is based on qualitative content analysis of Spanish-language digital press coverage published in El Universo, El Comercio, Extra, La Hora, GK, Primicias, Vistazo, El Mercurio and Expreso across seven journalistic genres: news, note, feature article, report, editorial, interview and chronicle. The article argues that media discourse does not merely describe youth violence; it actively constructs public intelligibility about who young people are, how danger is recognized and whether social responses are imagined in punitive, preventive or restorative terms. Grounded in media framing theory, news values, moral panic studies, child-friendly justice, critical sociology, school push-out scholarship and philosophies of education and human development, the article shows the inferential route from media representation to educational reintegration: when coverage individualizes adolescent violence, minimizes school interruption and masks structural conditions, it narrows the policy imagination through which young people are understood as educable, rights-bearing and recoverable subjects. The paper ultimately argues that the long-term reduction of violence in Ecuador requires not only security responses but also an integral reintegration agenda centered on education, dignified work, child-sensitive justice and restorative social policy. Full article

Background: Cardiometabolic diseases are shaped by complex interactions between biological and social determinants. While socioeconomic inequalities in cardiometabolic risk are well established, less is known about how these inequalities are distributed across multidimensional cardiometabolic phenotypes and whether they differ by sex. Objective: We aimed to examine sex differences in the socioeconomic gradient of cardiometabolic phenotypes using latent class analysis in a working-age population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 3108 adults aged 18–65 years undergoing occupational health assessments in the Balearic Islands (Spain). Educational level was used as an indicator of socioeconomic position. Cardiometabolic risk was assessed using obesity, insulin resistance (METS-IR), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (FLI), atherogenic index of plasma, and metabolic syndrome. Latent class analysis was applied to identify cardiometabolic phenotypes. Multinomial logistic regression models stratified by sex and interaction analyses were used to assess associations between educational level and class membership. Tests for linear trend and predicted probabilities were also estimated. Results: Four cardiometabolic phenotypes were identified: low-risk (40.8%), obesity-dominant (24.1%), dysmetabolic (19.3%), and high-risk multimorbid (15.8%). A clear socioeconomic gradient was observed, with lower educational attainment associated with a higher likelihood of belonging to adverse cardiometabolic profiles. This gradient was stronger among women. For the high-risk multimorbid class, the relative risk ratio comparing low vs. high educational level was 1.82 (95% CI 1.34–2.46) in men and 2.47 (95% CI 1.68–3.64) in women (p for interaction = 0.012). A significant linear trend across educational levels was observed in both sexes (p for trend < 0.001). Predicted probabilities further confirmed a steeper increase in high-risk profiles among women with lower educational attainment. Conclusions: Cardiometabolic risk is structured into distinct phenotypic profiles that are socially patterned. Socioeconomic inequalities are strongly associated with adverse cardiometabolic phenotypes, with a more pronounced gradient among women. These findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive strategies addressing social determinants to reduce cardiometabolic health inequalities. Full article

Although Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly recognised as key actors in advancing sustainable development, sustainability efforts often remain fragmented across educational, social, environmental, economic and governance dimensions. This study addresses this gap by examining how sustainability can be institutionalised as an embedded organisational capability aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopting an integrative conceptual review approach, the study synthesises the interdisciplinary sustainability literature in HEIs to develop an Integrated Institutional Sustainability Framework. The framework explains how sustainability dimensions interact institutionally and identifies governance as the central coordinating mechanism enabling SDG operationalisation, strategic alignment and cross-dimensional sustainability integration. The findings suggest that governance operates as a central coordinating mechanism, enabling alignment between strategy, operations, education and stakeholder engagement, while education works as the basic enabling institutional capability facilitating the governance mechanism and long-term sustainability integration. The study also argues that sustainability institutionalisation within HEIs requires systemic organisational transformation in which governance, education and cross-dimensional coordination become embedded within institutional strategy, operations and decision-making processes. The paper contributes by proposing an integrated conceptual sustainability framework and highlights the need for future empirical research. Full article

The classic tripartite life-course model (education, work, and retirement) is under increasing pressure from rising longevity and structural labour-market change. This study examines how Millennials and Generation Z in Portugal conceptualise retirement and the life course, asking whether these cohorts adhere to a standardised, sequential logic or aspire to more fluid, multi-stage trajectories, and whether observed differences reflect generation or socioeconomic position. A cross-sectional survey of 234 participants aged 18–43 assessed perceptions of retirement, openness to non-linear life cycles, future concerns, preparation strategies, and orientations towards lifelong learning. Responses were analysed using non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis) and multivariate linear regression, with outcomes stratified by income, education, and occupational status. Participants showed a widespread preference for greater flexibility around the tripartite sequence rather than its abandonment, the statutory retirement age persisting as a reference point. Trust in the public pension system was low and cross-cutting, with over 70% doubting its capacity to ensure an adequate retirement, while Generation Z reported significantly greater concern about losing professional purpose. Socioeconomic position was a more consistent stratifier than generation for financial preparation, which rose with income and education; distrust, by contrast, was predicted by neither socioeconomic position nor generation in multivariate models. These findings indicate that biographical deinstitutionalisation may already be underway among younger Portuguese cohorts, with structural risks increasingly individualised, carrying implications for the redesign of life-course policies and social protection systems in an era of longevity. Full article

Achieving carbon-neutral cities requires innovative strategies that integrate technological carbon capture, sustainable urban infrastructure, and proactive public engagement. While microalgae-based systems have shown promise for CO₂ sequestration and resource recovery, their scalability remains constrained by high costs and energy-intensive photobioreactor (PBR) designs. Here, we propose the retrofit of existing urban fountains into high-efficiency microalgae cultivation systems—microalgae-enhanced fountain landscapes—as an integrated solution that bridges ecological function and social outreach. This approach capitalizes on ubiquitous fountain infrastructure to minimize deployment costs, employs advanced fountain-style cultivation technology to enhance biomass productivity, and leverages strategic locations in high-footfall urban zones to actively elevate public carbon literacy and motivate low-carbon behavioral shifts through immersive engagement—a vital step toward city-wide participatory climate action. We critically analyze the feasibility of this system, highlighting its potential for multi-stakeholder value creation across developers, municipalities, and citizens. Furthermore, we synthesize recent advances in suspended microalgae cultivation, building-integrated PBRs, and microalgae-informed landscape design to contextualize the development pathway of fountain-based systems. By uniting technical efficiency with civic education, this work establishes a replicable framework for scalable urban deployment—simultaneously advancing carbon mitigation, public awareness, and circular resource flows in the transition toward climate-resilient cities. Full article

Digital financial services have expanded rapidly across emerging economies and are often presented as tools for advancing women’s economic inclusion. However, the extent to which digital finance is associated with lower gender inequality depends on the broader structural conditions in which women live and work. This study examines the relationship between digital financial participation, labor market integration, and gender inequality in Brazil using nationally representative microdata from the 2025 Global Findex survey. Three outcomes are examined: digital account ownership, use of any digital payment, and engagement in merchant digital payments. Multivariate logit models show moderate gender gaps at early stages of digital financial participation. However, these gaps are not uniform across the population. The interaction results show that gender differences are concentrated mainly among individuals outside employment and among those without internet access. Among employed and digitally connected individuals, the gender gap becomes small and statistically insignificant across the three outcomes. A nonlinear decomposition shows that observable socioeconomic characteristics explain only a small share of the aggregate gender gap, especially for account ownership and any digital payment use. Additional robustness checks using probit and complementary log-log models support the main pattern of results. This suggests that the gender gap cannot be explained only by differences in education, income, employment, or internet access, and may also reflect unobserved household, institutional, or social constraints. The findings suggest that digital finance alone does not equalize participation. Rather, women’s digital financial participation is closely associated with their position in the labor market and their access to digital infrastructure. Because the analysis is based on cross-sectional data, the results should be interpreted as conditional associations rather than causal effects. Digital financial expansion is therefore more likely to support gender inclusion when it is linked to broader policies that strengthen women’s labor force attachment, digital connectivity, and economic autonomy. Full article

There is increasing recognition of the need to integrate sustainability education (SE) into school curricula, and assessments such as PISA 2025 emphasise the importance of pupils’ ability to apply sustainability knowledge in authentic contexts. Because sustain-ability issues require social, environmental, and economic perspectives, transdisciplinary real-world approaches are recommended. However, many teachers find SE challenging, and initial teacher education (ITE) students often feel unprepared. This study investigates how a transdisciplinary approach can prepare students for sustainability teaching. Fifty-four fourth-year students participated in a two-week transdisciplinary sustainability project. Working in groups, they explored a self-selected local sustainability issue, engaged with community actors, and proposed solutions. The data consist of individual reflection notes describing how the project supported their understanding of transdisciplinarity, authenticity, subject integration, and teacher preparedness, which were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the project strengthened students’ preparedness for sustainability teaching and, through transdisciplinary approaches, offered a concrete model of best practice for SE. Engagement with authentic, local issues fostered emotional involvement, relevance, and deeper understanding, while collaborative work enhanced insight into distinct disciplinary perspectives on SE. Students further emphasised the need for clear subject expectations and strong pedagogical framing. Full article

This article describes the use of dialogue, through the format of critical conversations, as a creative and reflective anti-racist tool to develop understanding of departmental values of anti-racism, equity and social justice with colleagues across academic, technical, and leadership roles. The project focused on the development and facilitation of spaces for dialogue between staff members employed in an education department in a university in a city in the Southwest of England. Making use of concepts from Smith and Lander’s critical pedagogy and critical race theory as well as philosophy for children (P4C), we developed a framework used by adult participants to encourage the development of racial literacy through reflexive practice. More than seventy staff members were invited to attend five sessions over a six-month period. During each session, staff members were given pre-prepared stimuli designed to encourage ‘epistemological shudders’ that stimulate dialogue in relation to professional roles and responsibilities of anti-racism, equity and social justice within our working context. Each session was facilitated by two colleagues, given the agency to make use of the stimuli within the sessions in any way they chose, together with their participants. Feedback from each session was non-mandatory and informal. In this article, we capture our reflections on the processes of developing and adapting P4C within a university education department. We believe that this evolving model acts as a valuable tool for dialogues, particularly when attempting to encourage discussion of topics perceived as providing professional risk due to their sensitive and controversial status within education and more broadly. Full article