Education, including school education, is widely understood as a fundamental part of a just-response to global climate and ecological crises. England and Scotland have distinctly different policy environments in relation to school based CCSE with Scotland having arguably a more comprehensive approach than England, with Learning for Sustainability (LfS) integrated through teachers’ professional standards and the standards for headship. We examined the practices of teachers based in England and Scotland relating to their teaching of climate change and sustainability education (CCSE). In a mixed-methods study, analysis from responses via a survey of teachers in England (over three hundred responses captured in 2022) and professional journals and interviews with teachers (over thirty completed during 2024-2025) in Scotland found that CCSE was realised through classroom teaching as part of the official and planned curriculum, including practices which were action and community oriented. Analysing data through a lens of curricula justice, we argue that justice-oriented CCSE has both knowledge at the centre and has educational outcomes which are guided by action for empowerment and flourishing communities. This framing of CCSE means that children and young people can dwell and become in places, live and learn as part of intergenerational communities, sustain an everyday and global connection to nature and, take action to achieve justice for present and future generations. Whilst Scotland has a more developed policy environment for CCSE through the LfS framework than that found in England, nevertheless we argue there is much still to do in relation to teacher professional learning and leadership education in the context of school-based education in both England and Scotland if justice-oriented CCSE is to move beyond the committed and enthusiastic individual to a place of collaborative practice and shared responsibility which extends across all educational settings.

The aim of this study is to explore stakeholder’s experiences of key benefits and challenges of multi-grade teaching and learning in one Irish primary school. The stakeholders included in this study are teachers, students, and parents / guardians. This qualitative study focused on gathering teacher’s (n=4) perspectives through semi-structured interviews, garnering student’s (n=16) experiences in interactive workshops and collecting parental (n=13) perceptions via an online anonymous questionnaire. Data was analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Findings displayed a suite of both benefits and challenges to multi-grade teaching and learning. Benefits included educational benefits, social benefits and pedagogical benefits. Challenges were namely, organisational challenges, behavioural challenges, time challenges, and emotional challenges. The subsequent discussion of these themes allowed for recommendations for future research and reflection on the wider implication of the results in terms of policy and practice. This study aligns with the 21^st ISATT Biennial Conference theme of ‘Quality Teaching for a More Equitable World,’ with particular significance to the subtheme of research on equitable teaching practices. This study explores the world of multi-grade classrooms, an everyday reality for many children, beyond the single stream classroom (Mulryan-Kyne, 2004). Multi-grade education is a ubiquitous delivery of education which there remains a lack of awareness of, and which is underexamined in modern day educational research (Kalendar and Erdem, 2021).

References

Braun V., and Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, pp. 77-101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Department of Education and Skills. (2016). Education Statistics Database.[online] Available: https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Statistics/Education-Statistics-Database [accessed 1 November 2023].

Mulryan-Kyne, C. (2004). Teaching and learning in multigrade classrooms: what teachers say. The Irish Journal of Education, 331, pp. 5-19. DOI: https://www.erc.ie/documents/vol35chp1.pdf

Kalender, B. and Erdem, E., (2021). Challenges faced by classroom teachers in multigrade classrooms: A case study. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 5(4), pp.76-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.2021473490

The Erasmus+ “Constructing a Green Wave in VET – A New SDG Perspective” project, aligns with the priorities of the new Erasmus+ program for environmental sustainability and UN objective 4.7, which aims to guarantee that all students acquire the knowledge and skills which are necessary to promote sustainable development as well as global citizenship. This contribution focuses on some results of the project; focusing on how the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be implemented in construction and education sector, University of Bari, in particular, had the commitment to elaborate a Pedagogical-didactic Model (PDM) to encompass Sustainability in Vet schools’ curriculum: as final output of the project, the creation of a common PDM across the European countries involved in the project, had the aims to explore and improve the integration of sustainable education in Professional and Technical Training (VET) contexts linking this need to the development of inner competencies of students: so the PDM bases its innovative character on one hand, stimulating the development of inner and critical skills, but also creative skills which are necessary to face the new challenges of sustainability, always placing students at the center of learning process; on the other hand, it offers an innovative teaching-model for teachers, aimed not only at the creation of new contents relating to sustainability but also at the development, in a metacognitive sense, of the pre-conditions that allow us to think and build sustainability, for both poles of the educational relationship, students and teachers. In this model the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) on one hand, the head-hands-heart framework on the other hand, are therefore addressed and developed, intended precisely as structural pre-conditions that futher allow the development of the skills of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Research aim
The aim of the article is to present the strategies of refugees from Ukraine staying in Poland in terms of completing their education and thus searching for ways to improve their situation on the labor market.
Theoretical framework
The main theoretical framework is Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus used to present the change in the situation of refugees and the decrease in their status due to the need to perform work below their qualifications. The consequence of this temporary degradation is the search for ways to improve their qualifications or obtain new ones by using the Polish education system.
Methods
The empirical material comes from 40 in-depth interviews with refugees from Ukraine staying in Poland. The supplementary material is data from reports on the situation of Ukrainians on the Polish labor market.
Findings
Refugees from Ukraine decide on the following strategies:
- Educationally passive - most often physical work below qualifications;
- Educationally active;
a) completing the education obtained in Ukraine in the Polish education system;
b) nostrification and improving competences in the Polish language;
c) taking up education in Poland and full or partial retraining
Relevance to the Conference theme and specific strand
The text addresses an important issue related to equality and inclusion of refugees and shows the opportunities, but also limitations, that refugees from Ukraine face in work and in the education system.

The study explores the integration of art tools into peacebuilding education, emphasizing its potential to transform teaching methods within the context of conflict resolution and social justice. Grounded in foundational theories, such as Johan Galtung's "positive peace," this study will evaluate the role of visual, performing arts, and other creative tools as pedagogical tools that transcend linguistic and cultural barriers, fostering emotional healing and promoting constructive dialogue (Galtung, 1969).

The research looks to identify effective creative artistic tools for teaching concepts of peace and reconciliation to refugee and internally displaced children, as well as those affected by conflict in the context of Azerbaijan. The project will utilize an art-based intervention approach alongside participatory action research (PAR) methods, that incorporate some creative methods like zine books, theatrical techniques, and sculpting, to uncover students' understanding of peace and reconciliation. The aim is to overcome language barriers and cultural misunderstandings, which often lead to conflicts. By observing how children convey empathy and emotions non-verbally, the study seeks to explore alternative pathways to understanding and reconciliation. By employing creative co-creation methods, participants will take on the role of active creators rather than mere interviewees, allowing them to choose the topics they wish to explore and share while controlling the depth of their involvement.

This research will help to leverage innovative approaches to address social justice and promote equity and inclusion through effective partnerships. By offering insights into the potential of art-based peacebuilding education, it will contribute to the ongoing dialogue on reconciling tensions in education and fostering global citizenship. The study can help educators and policymakers advance peace through innovative and inclusive educational practices.

Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of peace research, 6(3), 167-191. https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301

This study explores a school-based participatory action research (PAR) project in Iceland aimed at fostering transformative change towards equity inclusion. The project was conducted in a collaborative partnership between the school community and university researchers, who assumed the role of facilitators. The research built on the active collaboration of children and adults, emphasising children´s active participation and involvement in the process. The external facilitators critically examined their role and influence as well as the relationships they formed with the school community through various activities with children, school personnel, and administrators during the project. The data for this study was drawn from the facilitators’ research journals and reflective dialogue between facilitators and participants.

Findings indicate that the external facilitators provided valuable impulses for internal development, helping to ignite and guide the school’s transformation processes. Simultaneously, facilitators gained deep insights into the school´s internal workings, enhancing their understanding of inclusion and democratic practices. The research revealed supportive factors for inclusion and equity embedded in the school’s culture, policies, and practices, such as a strong sense of community, supportive leadership, flexible practices, and inclusive policies, which were further strengthened as children and adults actively identified and enhanced them.

The study highlights the essential role of collaborative partnerships between external researchers and school communities in driving inclusive school development. By integrating external expertise with internal knowledge and experiences, the research demonstrates how such dynamic collaborations can effectively support schools in achieving their inclusion goals. This project underscores the importance of fostering equity and inclusion through collaborative, participatory, action-oriented research, emphasising the mutual benefits of partnerships for transformative educational change.

Research aim

This self-study focuses on teaching #MeToo in graduate courses on critical feminist pedagogies. I ask, what can we learn from teacher candidates as well as high school students what the role of #MeToo is in English teacher education?

I examine one masters student’s initial discomfort about addressing #MeToo in the secondary English classroom. Using portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997), I trace this student’s initial reluctance to the moments where she challenged her own assumptions. I examine both my student’s writing as well as integrate my own self-reflexive account of #MeToo activism with high school students. This activism informs my current commitment to addressing sexual harassment in teacher education curricula, particularly for English and critical literacy teachers.

Theoretical framework and methods

Throughout this portrait, I use Ahmed’s concept of “complaint as feminist pedagogy” (2021). Ahmed argues that in making a complaint against sexual violence, students and faculty come up against institutional “walls” that silence and surveil. Even so, the complaint activism (Ahmed, 2021) that students and faculty engage in also have implications for curriculum and pedagogy.

I draw from Ahmed’s “complaint as feminist pedagogy” to analyze my student’s complaint that resisted and then embraced addressing sexual violence in schools. I also analyze my experiences as a teacher-activist who engaged in #MeToo activism with my former high school students.

Findings

By initially making a complaint about my feminist curriculum, one teacher candidate comes to realize that the real complaint must be made against schools and institutions that silence women and girls from speaking out about harassment, not about the curricula that are designed to provide spaces for feminist pedagogy and activism in schools.

Relevance to the conference theme and specific strand

Equity and inclusion; social justice; reconciling tensions in teacher education. S-STEP strand; equity and inclusion; subject specific (English) strands.

Prevailing notions of scholarship in the academy position the work of faculty within the three general categories of teaching, research, and service. In terms of promotion and tenure across the ranks of assistant to full professorship, a cohesive agenda that links faculty research and teaching is expected, particularly in teacher education where research and teaching are co-constitutive. However, service is often an additional requirement that carries little weight in faculty evaluations. What faculty members do for service is often marginalized within the traditional power structures of the institution and, thus, faculty receive few resources (e.g., funding, mentoring) that support development in service positions. This exclusion is particularly problematic for faculty engaged in service that centers their social identities.This self-study, conducted jointly with a critical friend, draws on social identity theory and Archeology of the Self to examine one faculty member’s experiences navigating the tensions between her social identities and expected academic identities in relation to service work.Findings unpack how the specific context of the academy shaped how the focal faculty member worked to reconcile tensions between social and academic identities and in relation to the degree to which those identities were visible and/or invisible in service work. As a faculty member who centered the social identities of students in teaching, this reconciliation led to a (re)imagining of instructional practices supporting preservice teachers’ thinking about the relationship between their identities and instructional decision-making. Understanding how social identities visible in faculty work beyond teaching and research shape faculty agendas can more fully acknowledge and value who faculty are in relation to their whole selves, thus contributing to the construction of a new social contract in education that (re)envisions how faculty identities shape teaching practices within academic institutions.

In this self-study, we employed a critical appreciative inquiry process in teacher education to examine the creation of a research-practice partnership (RPP) with the purpose of increasing mainstream classroom teachers’ sense of preparedness to support a growing number of multilingual learners and their families. We focused on constructive and deconstructive forms of inquiry to reflect on our learning as teacher educators at the boundaries of research and practice within an RPP that centered the strengths and assets of educators, students, and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Ridley-Duff & Duncan, 2015). RPPs have the potential to further university-school collaborations by creating hybrid spaces to support teacher development when incorporated in teacher education (Sato & Loewen, 2022). In this self-study, we explored how teacher educators negotiated tensions between their beliefs, values, pedagogical practices, and the demands on and of their school-based partners. By reflecting on our data through a critical appreciative lens (e.g., teacher educator reflections, ongoing dialogues with the school-based team, planning for and debriefing of teacher professional learning), we cultivated a deeper understanding of culturally and linguistically responsive practices as they apply to both teacher education and PK-12 instruction in the United States. Focusing on learning at the intersection of research and practice for teacher educators (Farrell et al., 2022), we demonstrate how RPPs can disrupt dominant narratives that a) often portray teachers as passive recipients of external expert knowledge and b) vilify the values and cultures of students and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds given the deficient-based perspectives they tend to promote. This study underscores the importance for teacher education institutions, as communities of practice, to acknowledge the critical acts and tensions that must be negotiated in order to truly center the collective experiences and varying expertise of its members when establishing research-practice partnerships.

To offer quality teaching, teachers need specialized knowledge about sensing the effectiveness of their teaching in specific contexts, as well as the ability to improve it independently. This implies that prospective teachers should learn to establish personal criteria for effective teaching in various settings—differing from class to class, and from student to student—while being motivated to engage in lifelong learning throughout their professional careers, beginning during their pre-service training.

This type of knowledge is not something that can be simply taught; rather, it is constructed by students through reflection on their studies and practicum at university, and integrating these learnings and experiences within themselves. Two major challenges arise in this process. The first is theoretical: it involves clarifying the nature of knowledge that can adapt appropriately to individual contexts. While this may resemble wisdom, existing research suggests that professional wisdom is not attainable by everyone. Therefore, a "middle-range" wisdom, which provides adaptable knowledge suited to specific contexts, should be explored. The second challenge is practical: it concerns understanding how prospective teachers develop such knowledge, and how teacher educators can facilitate this development.

To address these challenges, this study employs a self-study approach, in which the researcher supports a student teacher conducting action research on his own process of professional identity formation through his practicum as a mathematics teacher at junior high school. Although the researcher is his supervisor at the professional development school of Hiroshima University in Japan, she also acts as a critical friend in guiding his action research, while receiving advice from colleagues who serve as her critical friends in the field of mathematics. The research takes place from April 2024 to February 2026, corresponding with the student teacher’s action research, and intermediate findings will be presented at the conference in July 2025.

Action research (AR) is commonly used in Australian independent schools as a structure for professional learning, with benefits stated as enhanced collaboration, greater understanding of students’ needs, and evaluation of interventions. This paper outlines the findings of a doctoral study through The University of Melbourne which sought to understand teacher-researchers’ experiences of undertaking AR projects in independent secondary schools. The study took a pragmatist standpoint as it sought to answer questions about practical, school-based usefulness. The study’s pragmatist standpoint informed “research design choices which cut across qualitative-quantitative divides” (Foster, 2024, p. 4). Using a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, the study used semi-structured interviews and a survey, with “collection and analysis of qualitative data followed by the collection and analysis of quantitative data” (Terrell, 2012, p. 264). The study delivered 10 key findings, including that:

• teacher-researchers expressed concern about gathering and interpreting reliable student data
• AR projects must be seen to have support from school leadership
• AR was seen as a mechanism for social support from colleagues and for collaborative construction of knowledge
• AR projects were considered more successful when they were small and focused
• AR was seen as a mechanism for identifying and working towards teacher practice goals
• improved student learning was not considered a direct outcome of AR.

The findings speak to conference themes of ‘Characteristics of quality teaching’ in considering AR as a mechanism for professional learning, and ‘Equity an inclusion in teacher education’ in the resounding finding that teachers see AR as a mechanism for social support and collaborative construction of knowledge. This paper considers these findings and their contribution to the literature about action research in schools. Although the study considered the experience of Australian teacher-researchers, the findings are broadly relevant in other international contexts with similar independent school structures and professional learning approaches.

This study explores the impact of the long-standing divide between mind and body in higher education. Given a traditional dearth of body-centered curricula in universities, the thesis analyzes how Theatre of the Oppressed (TO)—a collection of techniques first developed by Brazilian artist Augusto Boal—can be a useful methodology for implementing embodied education in universities and colleges. Such embodiment is crucial if we want to adequately address diverse ways of learning while favoring a holistic pedagogical experience for university students, thereby stimulating genuinely transformative education.

The research, which arises from a PhD co-tutorship at the University of Bologna and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, involved analyzing the implementation of TO in seven different contexts, as part of workshops from various disciplines and across three universities in Italy and Spain. Through analysis of the fieldwork, this cross-cultural case study finds that TO can be used as an embodied critical-pedagogical strategy to support anti-oppressive, socially just, and emotionally attentive higher education practices.

Informed by Freire’s critical pedagogy, this research concludes that it is necessary to re-evaluate the role of the body in university education and that universities should operate as spaces for students to practice active engagement in a democratic society. The findings suggest how—when incorporated into broader university curricula—TO could be a valuable approach for re-establishing a perception of the body and mind as mutually constitutive entities, fostering teaching practices that cultivate what writer Eduardo Galeano refers to with the term “sentipensante,” the ability to act without separating mind and body or reason and emotion.

This study investigated the influence mechanisms of job crafting on teaching and research engagement of county teachers among 698 teachers from compulsory schools in J county in western China.

Based on the policy background and the dilemma of large inter-school differences in county compulsory education, lack of resources in weak schools, lack of self-development motivation of teachers, weak enthusiasm of teachers to participate in teaching and research activities, and need to improve their job satisfaction and professional identity, this study pays attention to the following questions: (1) the relationship between the job crafting of county compulsory education teachers and their teaching and research activities engagement? (2) the relationship between the job crafting of county compulsory education teachers and their professional identity and job satisfaction? (3) do professional identity and job satisfaction play a mediating role in the influence of job crafting on teachers’ teaching and research engagement?

The main findings of the study are: (1) there are significant positive correlations among the variables; (2) teacher’s job crafting predicts teachers’ involvement in teaching and research through the incomplete chain mediating effect of professional identity and job satisfaction. In the adjustment of their own behavior and cognition, teachers can meet their needs, explore the sense of meaning, and generate higher professional identity and satisfaction, which will promote teachers to accept new work challenges.

Case-Based Learning (CBL) is a pedagogy made popular by Harvard Business School over 100 years ago and is used by management schools worldwide to educate business leaders. This paper aims to evaluate the impact on student engagement following the use of CBL in the Higher Business Management classroom and identify the elements of CBL that learners find most engaging. A literature review examines the current state of the research, drawing on findings from fields as diverse as healthcare, psychology, and mathematics - as well as levels as varied as postgraduate, undergraduate, primary school, and professional learning – to illustrate a thorough understanding of CBL and its researched impact on student engagement to date. A two-week intervention was then performed where 13 students were predominantly taught via case-based learning for two weeks. A mixed methods approach was then used by triangulating findings from both observation and survey results and comparing pre-intervention data with post-intervention data. Students became more cognitively engaged - with a self-reported increase in higher-order thinking – and more behaviorally engaged as learners participated more in discussion and reported an increase in work ethic. No significant change was discovered in emotional engagement. It appeared learners were most engaged by the opportunity to role-play as a business leader and work collaboratively, though became disengaged when they did not identify with the organisations in the case studies. Learners also appeared to enjoy the challenge of Case-Based Learning, though missed elements of traditional lessons. Specifically, the extensive reading in Case-Based Learning was less engaging than teacher exposition and modelling.

We describe an embodied multimedia normative case study on ethical reasoning used in an educational ethics and law graduate teacher education course as well as the processes and experiences of an interdisciplinary design team of educators. In the case study, teacher-candidates (TC) explore the case, examine the situation from multiple stakeholders, reflect on their values, consider and make decisions, connect their choices to their personal and professional identity, and ponder the dynamics and interacting levels of the decisions that stakeholders make. TCs engage with critical discourse and re-reflect upon their values.

This study examines the multi-media collaborative nature of the case study. The content of the written adapted script was translated into spatially oriented representation maps in order to establish a common visual language and represent the embodiment of multimedia content in the active learning space. Maps, copy decks, and other collaborative design strategies are discussed. The initial pilot study will be formatively and summatively evaluated in Fall 2024 to assess TCs' learning experience, growth in ethical reasoning, and professional identity development. Insights from our first cycle and reflections on feasibility and fidelity for future iterations will be shared.

Additionally, we are studying the processes of innovation in curricular design. Conceptualized as a multi-year iterative study, our co-design process is examined through meeting transcripts, reflective entries, and design artifacts to capture the complexities of developing curricular innovations. Our initial findings emphasize the impact of the interdisciplinary nature of the team each bring different disciplinary expertise within education and working from different positions: faculty, administrator, and graduate-student. We note the emotional tone in which the team worked and find the importance of curiosity, wonder, trust, struggle, and creative explorations brought to our inquiry-stance that supported the critical and ethical work of this innovation.

Strand: Equity and Inclusion in Teacher Education

Research Aim

Trauma-informed teaching is an essential component of preparing preservice teachers’ education. Trauma-informed teaching requires teacher-educator vulnerability. This study sought to investigate the following question: How can a teacher educator work to create a safe space for students to unpack trauma?

Theoretical Framework

A trauma-informed curriculum supports preservice teachers’ educational development (Perfect et al.,2016). Teacher educators need to work to create spaces where preservice teachers are supported and facilitated.

Methods

This self-study was conducted in a Guiding the Young Child’s Behavior class with four undergraduate preservice teachers and myself, a teacher educator. I role-modeled and supported students in class as they unpacked emotional memories and centered guidance strategies. Data included the teacher educator’s field notes and journal, as well as correspondence with a critical friend. Data was coded using the constant comparative method of analysis (Merriam, 2009).

Findings

This study found that the process of supporting preservice teachers as they unpacked childhood trauma was filled with barriers. I found that I struggled with role-modeling trauma and balancing my identities. In my journal, I wrote, “It is hard to share the painful memories of my childhood. It brings back painful feelings I am not ready for” (Journal, Fall 2023).

I processed my feelings by receiving support from a critical friend. She wrote, “You only need to share enough to get them started. You can then focus on listening and asking questions. You cannot center yourself or your identities. (Correspondence, fall 2023).” As we continued through the semester, sharing to open up the conversation and listening created a space for students to begin unpacking their trauma.

Relevance to the Conference

The study is relevant because it documents my struggles and barriers as I worked to create a space for trauma-informed teaching and productive strategies for quality teaching.

Teacher education plays an important role in preparing teachers for active participation in knowledge generation for their profession. In developing quality education within teacher education, we draw on art-based methods to create humanizing and dialogic spaces that encourage students to pursue their own lines of inquiry in our course on action research.

We are a team of four teacher educators at the University of Iceland infusing art-based methods in an action research course to enrich the learning experience of students, emphasizing empowerment and creativity to reveal dynamic patterns, and encourage the co-construction of students’ living educational theories.

The purpose of the study is how we as educators empower students to theorize their practice. The aim of the study is to explore how art-based methods in different modules of our course encourage students to co-construct their living educational theories.

Data were collected through spring semester 2023 (from January through May) and includes students’ art-based artifacts, research report and self-reflection on their research process, ticket out of the classroom, our research journals and recordings of preparation and analytical meetings.

The findings indicate that applying art-based methods disrupts students' presumptions about research. It increases students’ awareness of their potential as researchers and facilitates new and often deeper and unexpected perspectives on the value of researching own practice. We argue, that using self-study to explore living moments within our practice we identify how art-based methods allow students to develop the professional courage to articulate and reposition themselves towards knowledge generation.

This research project is relevant to the conference theme and specific strand - characteristics of quality teaching. It informs how using art-based methods as a pedagogy creates a structure for providing students with opportunities for developing their living educational theories. Thus, adds a piece in the puzzle of what qualifies as quality teaching.

Self-study, particularly through collaborative practitioner inquiry, offers teacher educators a meaningful form of professional learning by allowing them to investigate their practices while engaging with educational praxis—an intentional, morally guided enactment of theory (Kemmis & Smith, 2008). Given limited opportunities for formal learning opportunities for teacher educators, self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) provides a pathway for continuous development and critical reflection.

Research aim: To examine an ongoing collaborative practitioner inquiry - focusing on the democratisation of physical education teacher education (PETE) - involving four teacher educators who currently work in Canada and Australia.

Theoretical framework: Educational praxis (Kemmis & Smith, 2008) provides a foundation for examining how we, teacher educators, can bridge theory and practice to promote democratisation within our teaching contexts.

Methods: Over two years, we engaged in a collaborative practitioner inquiry to examine our experiences. Data included individual reflections on relevant topics (e.g. our positionalities, our personal definitions of democratic education), and group meetings. Analysis was primarily inductive, whereby codes and themes were identified within the data.

Findings: Collaborative and dialogic processes provided an enriching space for sense-making of concepts and actions associated with democratising PETE. Although we did not arrive at a point where we felt we had found ‘the’ answers to our problems of practice, we felt we engaged in a sustainable form of professional learning that addressed challenges we were facing in our respective practices. Our process and focus on democratising PETE helped us to better enable educational praxis and navigate ways to address broader societal issues in our classes.

This research offers insight into the value of collaborative practitioner inquiry for the professional learning of teacher educators, while also offering suggestions for ways that teacher educators can work toward understanding and enacting democratisation in their classes.

In the first semester of 2024, the course program for the English Language and Literature major at the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil) was updated. The present work is a self-study that critically analyzes the teaching practices carried out at the first offering of the mandatory subject “Comprehension and Production of Written Texts in English”. More specifically, the focus is on discussing the assessment methods that were carried out, as well as the pedagogical diagnosis they were able to reveal, by having the students' feedback as the main data source. The assessment method for the subject was divided into two fronts, simultaneous and continuous: one, aiming to work on reading skills (written comprehension), was developed from expository-dialogue classes, guided readings, and pedagogical practices, mostly carried out in groups; the other, aiming to work on writing skills (written production), was developed in three blocks, each with a writing proposal that was first produced by each student, then read and commented on by the professor, and, finally, rewritten by the students. As a result of such evaluative proposals, students' development could be closely monitored throughout the entire semester. At the end of the course, the professor asked for anonymous feedback from the students themselves, through an electronic form, and the results showed how important this continuous evaluation was during their learning process, as well as highlighted the relevance of teaching practices that can make collective assignments feel personally meaningful to each student. In conclusion, this work serves the discussion of how teachers can create a classroom where each student feels seen and heard, inspiring fruitful reflections upon more inclusive teaching practices in general.

The Centers for Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies have proven to be central in federal education institutes. They hold the responsibility of systematizing knowledge that contributes to the promotion of racial equity and education for ethnic-racial relations, with the perspective of overcoming racism, consolidating citizenship. The objective of this work was to share educational experiences, highlighting the context of coordinating the center at IFCE. Methodologically, we based our approach on two fields of biographical research: the (auto)biographical narrative, which allows the subject, through multiple languages, to establish meaning with their own existence; and “escrevivência” (writing life) in which each trajectory carries the community and ancestral history (Evaristo, 2008). An educational experience of a black teacher-researcher who coordinated the center from 2019 to 2021 was narrated. Regarding the theoretical framework, in his experiences, the teacher explains the view on how whiteness produces epistemicide (Carneiro, 2005) through daily demeaning discourses about the knowledge originating from black populations. The teacher narrates the silencing posture of non-black teachers against other black colleagues, aligning with hooks (2017) in highlighting the complicity among oppressors, reinforcing the narcissistic pact of whiteness (Bento, 2002). In the presentation and discussion of the results, we align with Ferreira and Coelho (2019) on the strengthening of affirmative action policies to increase the number of research projects focused on the theme. Through these projects, it becomes possible to disseminate experiences while contributing to the production of scientific knowledge. However, even after the teacher cited one of the reports developed by the IFCE extension pro-rectory, which points out the need for more than one pro-rectory to collaborate for the work to be truly significant, silence remains the policy that prevails among those who hold key positions in the institution. As final considerations, the teacher’s narrative dialogues with Carneiro (2023) about the device of raciality.

Practical work is an integral part of the science practicum. Numerous resources, such as the Gatsby Good Practical Science guidebook and the Improving Primary Science Report, prioritise practical work in teaching science, and research into practical work in schools is commonplace. However, research into how science teacher educators use or justify practical work is strikingly sparse.

This qualitative study explores how four science teacher educators (1 primary and 3 secondary phases) from across England reflexively examine and justify their pedagogic use of practical work. Through a collaborative community of practice self-study methodology that utilises autobiographies, journal writing, critical incidents, direct observations and formal meeting recordings as research methods, we provide a detailed examination of the role of practical work within our praxis. We uncover and critique our historical assumptions about and use of practical work, evaluating how our teaching of experimental skills supports or impedes the pedagogic practice of our preservice teachers. In doing so, we examine shifts in our epistemic beliefs, refine our understanding of how science teacher educators use practical work as part of their pedagogic repertoire, and develop a pedagogy of practical work for science teacher education.

In response to the recently published Initial Teacher Education Early Career framework, our research provides a timely examination of how science teacher educators position practical work within curriculum design. By critically turning the lens inwards on ourselves, we reflexively problematise and refine our use of practical work in our teaching, providing an equitable teacher education programme that models the power and limits of practical work.

In this self-study, we borrowed Bateson’s (1994) metaphorical idea of “letting stories speak to one another” (p. 14). Examining our own research projects, we encountered moments that “talk[ed] across” (Stone, 1988, p. 2) narratives. We sought to identify particular insights these moments have afforded us as self-study researchers who conduct our investigations in the narrative inquiry vein in order to improve our work together and to enhance our work with others.

Our research framework includes overviews of self-study research, experience, narrative/story, metaphors, and how ideas travel from one person—and one study—to another. The mobilization of knowledge achieved through narrative experiences/exchanges will be discussed. That is the knowledge that self-study aims to contribute to the teaching profession.

This self-study is conducted via the narrative inquiry method (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Research tools included: broadening (characterizing the larger context), burrowing (digging deeply into individual stories), and storying and restorying (showing how change occurs). Using serial interpretation (Schwab, 1954/1978), we laid multiple studies alongside each other, seeking “encompassing idea[s]” (Schwab, 1954/1978) that “talk[ed] across” (Stone, 1988, p. 2) two or more studies.

Cross-study themes emerged as what we call “moments” that shifted/shaped our collaborative research and research agenda over the lifetime of our group. These included: contextualized knowledge/narrative authority; divergent thinking and metaphor; fruitful professional dialogue; and the intimacy of collaboration/critical friendship. Implications on engaging in collaborative research and challenges turned opportunities will be discussed.

The effectiveness of collaboration, and in particular collaborative research, is often dependent on how research teams build trust and relationship, land upon a research topic/agenda, and deal with divergence, conflicts, and potential power structures (Beeker et al., 2021). It follows that identifying individual moments as pillars to our collaborative research can support the efforts of teachers/novice researchers to collaborate effectively in their knowledge community (Craig, 2007).

Emerging educators need rich environments in which to process their lived experiences and find their voices as they develop critical consciousness of the world around them and articulate their reasoned stances on pedagogical issues. In this self-study, I examine my facilitation of an upper-level Philosophies of Education seminar, a course that uses texts in critical pedagogy to help education students develop their critical voices as emerging educators while doing significant personal work around the expectations they have internalized as high-achieving students at an elite university. This course comes during a poignant moment for both campus and country: the semester studied is during the 2024 American presidential election and only a few months after our university’s administration called on police to quell a student protest over institutional ties to the Gaza conflict, leading to the arrests of over 100 people and the hospitalization of a professor. How will I navigate student interactions in this discussion-based seminar, especially when contentious issues arise and events outside of our classroom intersect with course content? How might the identities present in the room – a class community with a majority population of students of color, low-income and first-generation students, and queer students – influence the course of our conversations? Further, how does my status as contingent faculty influence the choices I make in navigating a complex semester? To examine these questions, I will draw upon hundreds of pages of journal entries and transcripts from at least ten interviews covering the 6-month period of August 2024-January 2025. While findings are ongoing at the time of writing this abstract, this self-study project has a strong relationship to the conference themes of equitable teaching practices, particularly as regards the formation of emerging educators, as well as the reconciliation of tensions for a new social contract in education.

In this paper, we aimed to inquire how a professor’s writing practices facilitate graduate students’ needs and understanding of academic writing. We examined pedagogical practices used to dismantle graduate students’ narrative of deficit regarding their own academic writing while co-constructing knowledge about our lived experiences with teaching academic writing and our writing journeys. Self-study guided our inquiry and understanding of teaching, shifting identities, and dilemmas in the classroom (Pinnegar et al., 2020b). We positioned our inquiry in Vygotsky’s (1986) social constructivism to inquire how knowledge construction was generated through social processes and interactions among students and between the students and the co-author. Aiming to create equitable practices in academic writing communities, the co-author employed several strategies. These strategies include (1) developing inclusive environments to foster spaces where students feel valued and respected regardless of their background, (2) developing collaborative spaces for students to share ideas and resources, (3) establishing systems of mentorship to provide guidance, support, and encouragement to students, (4) implementing systems for providing constructive feedback for students present their research to peers and faculty, (5) providing access to writing mentor texts so students can examine and relate to similar writing, and (6) encouraging students to submit their writing to academic journals and institutional repositories to highlight their research. This research revealed how students’ needs for support with the academic writing process were addressed through shared experiences of inquiry and co-construction of knowledge. We studied ourselves in the context of a writing workshop to improve our practice, advance our understanding of academic writing and the teaching of academic writing, contribute to conversations about socially constructed learning, and examine how academic institutions can create a more equitable and supportive environment for all students.

Doctoral studies play a major role in preparing for academic work, and in the process certain factors can be crucial for the study to be successful, such as participation in a learning community. The purpose of this study was to respond to challenges and loneliness of PhD students and investigate how a professional learning community (PLC) can counteract scaffolding in their learning. The aim was to map aspects of a PLC of PhD students. The research question was: What characterizes the process of creating a collaborative supervision community for a group of PhD students?

Doctoral students face various challenges in their studies and have reported that their experience is not good if structure or professionalism in supervision is weak. A learning community approach affords interactions of different knowledge and skills, collaboration and influence the development of academic identities.

We two PhD supervisors in education, applied the methodology of self-study of educational practices. Data collection included recordings from PLC meetings, TOCs (Tickets Out of Class) and our critical reflection. Data analysis was ongoing as we responded to our interpretation planning for each meeting.
Responding to the lack of structure of doctoral supervision we organized a learning community in 2021. The PLC meetings occurred once a month on-line. The process in developing the PLC has been an adaptable and creative journey, as we have adjusted and responded to what participants share in TOCS. Benefits of working in the PhD learning community have emerged, with doctoral students of different nationalities and cultures, focusing on different topics, applying versatile research approaches adding complexity and depth to the understandings of issues in education.

The study presents potential ways of increasing quality in doctoral supervision and how collaboration of supervisors and doctoral students can help to create a constructive framework of trust and support.

Teacher educators learn to conduct research via exposure to research methods courses or through collaboration with more experienced researchers. Although novice researchers desire formal structures to learn what is an ambiguous process of scholarly inquiry (Roulston, 2019), learning research methods has been found to be best learned through the act of doing (Cooper et al., 2012). Self-study of teacher education practices, an increasingly used methodology among teacher educators, is one such method learned best by doing (Diacopoulos et al., 2022). However, much of the extant literature on how teacher educators learn self-study methodologies is conducted using self-study research methods (e.g., Butler et al., 2014; Diacopoulos et al., 2022; Foot et al., 2014; Gregory et al., 2017; Samaras et al., 2007).

Whereas previous scholarship into learning self-study was conducted using self-study methods, the authors of this study use case study methods to document to experiences of a group of university faculty learning and enacting self-study methods.

The participants of this study consist of four university faculty in the United Kingdom. They participated in an initial two-day workshop on self-study methods provided by the first author. In the workshop, participants learned about the history of self-study, its theoretical and epistemological foundations, and common methods and forms of data collection, analysis, and trustworthiness found in self-study. They also designed a collaborative self-study project they would enact over the following academic year. Participants were provided with on-going support across the year, completed period journal entries, and participated in interviews about their learning experience across the year.

Findings from this study will highlight the reasons why teacher educators engage in self-study research, the tensions experienced in the learning process, and the process of learning and enacting self-study research as novice self-study researchers.

Students from Pacific backgrounds in Aotearoa New Zealand are under-represented amongst those taking mathematics beyond compulsory levels. International testing suggests that Pacific students are under-served by the current mathematics teaching and assessment system. While researchers, teachers and policymakers debate why this may be, the voices of students themselves are not often heard. This study worked with 48 Pacific students of post-compulsory mathematics from five schools to understand their experience of mathematics teaching and learning. The research questions were:

What do Pacific students experience and value in senior secondary school mathematics classrooms?

How do they view their relationships with mathematics?

How would they change school mathematics teaching for it to work better for them?

The study uses Pacific framing for its theoretical basis, data collection and analysis. In this holistic view, Pacific students are seen as embedded in family and community, rather than as individuals. Co-construction and relationality are foregrounded. Talanoa, a way of sharing and relating, was used to understand the students' experience. The talanoa sessions were led by trained Pacific researchers, using cultural protocols.

Thematic analysis yielded eight teaching practices that the Pacific students felt would improve the experience of mathematics for them and for others. The eight practices were: plan opportunities for one to one, expect achievement, monitor pace, make it clear and relevant, make connections explicit, try another way if we don’t understand, recognise that we are good at mathematics, and understand that mathematics, and our achievement in mathematics, matters a lot to our families.

These actionable practices can be seen as describing equitable teaching from the perspective of the students. They can also be thought of as quality teaching practices for Pacific mathematics learners. The idea of considering quality and equity from the perspective of learners has applications for other groups and settings.

Teachers frequently ask questions in mathematics classrooms, and effective questioning enables teachers to better assess their students’ understanding. To explore how pre-service teachers' questioning techniques evolve with experience, we conducted a case study examining the progress of two pre-service teachers during their 8-week teaching practicum at a private university’s Online Laboratory School (OLS), which served students across Turkey during the pandemic. These two pre-service teachers were selected because they taught the same mathematics content each week.

This study investigates the types of questions the pre-service teachers asked and how the quality of these questions developed over the 8-week period during which they planned, taught and reflected on their own teaching. Specifically, our research was guided by two main questions: (1) What types of questions did the pre-service teachers ask? (2) How did the quality of the pre-service teachers' questions evolve from the first to the last lesson during the OLS experience?

The study employed a qualitative analysis based on "the questioning framework" developed by Weiland et al. (2014). Recorded lessons were transcribed, and the questions were coded by two independent researchers. Through collaborative decision-making, the questions were categorized according to the framework in the following way: protocol, repeat, clarifying, competent, instructing rather than assessing (leading or teaching and telling). In addition to the framework, inviting type of questions to facilitate participation of students emerged during open coding of the data.

The findings indicate that with appropriate guidance and practical experience, pre-service teachers can improve their questioning skills. Over time, there was an increase in the use of competent, thought-provoking questions, such as those encouraging students to analyze mathematical arguments or solutions, while the use of leading questions diminished. The results suggest that participation in OLS activities positively influenced the pre-service teachers' ability to ask questions that extended students' mathematical thinking.

Elementary teachers often have hindering beliefs about mathematics and how to teach. The impact on student learning is exacerbated in high-needs or historically disenfranchised schools. This project answers, what are the ways a program’s math methods courses impacted beliefs that restrict quality mathematics instruction? Using the mathematical wounds framework, we analyze teachers’ beliefs about mathematics, teaching and learning, and beliefs about themselves as a doer and teacher of mathematics. The mathematical wounds framework includes three approaches for addressing mathematical wounds: unpacking experiences in the mathematics classroom, engaging in the process of doing mathematics, and enacting high-quality teaching practices. This research is guided by the re(humanizing) perspective (Gutiérrez, 2018); using self-study I explore mathematics teacher educator practice to better understand how professional learning tools support early career elementary teachers engage in rich mathematical activities. While the re(humanizing) perspective attend specifically to the teaching of mathematics, for this research, it was used to guide research methodology and course design. This research employs self-study with collaborations between the professor and students, situated with a minority serving institution in the US. The program serves uncertified graduate students currently working in high-needs schools. Preliminary findings show that teachers experienced major shift regarding beliefs about mathematics and best practice for teaching and learning mathematics. Beliefs about themselves as doers and teachers of mathematics show more complicated findings. While many report greater confidence in their mathematics proficiency and their ability to teach, many still report anxiety over facilitating student-lead discussions where the teacher’s lack of understanding might be exposed. This project seeks to identify quality mathematics teacher practices that supports early career teachers working in diverse backgrounds and circumstances. I seek to present in the S-STEP strand within the sub-theme of characteristics of quality teaching.

The research aims to explore the impact on more deprived children of teachers’ attitudes to teaching maths. The presentation will outline the validation process of a Perceptions of Mathematics (POM) survey to help identify teachers’ attitudes when teaching maths, distinguishing between teaching which is more procedural versus more conceptual.

The overall approach is informed by critical realism and rooted in expectancy value theory. If we expect to do well and value a subject we are studying, we are more likely to succeed in that subject even accounting for prior attainment. Negative messages poorer children pick up about maths are often from their community and family. Compounding these negative attitudes may be a differential approach by teachers when teaching maths to more deprived children. Poorer children are more likely to be exposed to procedural maths rather than the conceptual maths they need to achieve at a higher level.

The Perceptions of Maths survey was completed by 136 primary teachers with the results analysed using Principal Components Analysis to determine whether or not it is possible to identify a two component structure within the survey distinguishing procedural and conceptual approaches.

The 20 items of the POM were then subjected to PCA which found a two component structure in the survey supporting the distinction between conceptual maths values and procedural maths values.

The research links to equitable teaching practices. Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes have a direct impact on children’s outcomes. The research aims to help teachers understand how their beliefs about maths and relatively more deprived children can have an impact on children’s outcomes.

Classrooms are dominated by teacher talk, which averages 70%-80% of classroom time. Therefore, teachers' language preferences, use of language, and communication with pupils in teaching are significant factors that affect pupils' classroom experiences. This is more apparent in teaching mathematics due to its technical nature. Investigating teachers' use of language can give us clues about the quality of their understanding of the subject and their noticing levels. In this study, we investigated the interrelations among teachers' language use, knowledge, and noticing levels in mathematics and modelled such interrelations. Our main research question is: How do teachers’ use of language when responding to a mathematical task requiring an analysis of a division situation inform us about their knowledge and noticing level?

The participants were 142 volunteered teachers (81 males, 61 females) teaching mathematics at different school levels in the public schools of the United Arab Emirates, representing 11% of the mathematics teacher population. We used proportional stratified sampling to identify schools and recruited volunteered teachers from those schools to participate in the study. The data came from an up-to-two-hour problem-solving session with these teachers. One of the problems asked participants to think about a division problem that can have the answers of 4 1/3 and 4R1, explain its rationale, and clarify the underlying mathematical ideas a student needs to know to make sense of it. We analysed the teacher responses to this question both qualitatively and quantitatively, considering the language they used (every day, meaning-making, technical), the knowledge they drew on (common content versus specialised content knowledge), and their noticing (four levels). Our statistical analysis resulted in a model explaining the interrelations of these components, suggesting that teachers’ use of language is a significant indicator of the quality of their knowledge, and richer language use leads to higher noticing levels.

Globally, skepticism surrounding professionalism in education has raised questions about how effectively teachers meet students' needs and their authority in doing so. Current initiatives to professionalize teacher education (TE) face challenges from neoliberal reforms that promote alternative teaching pathways and performance-based accountability measures. In light of such external pressures, this conceptual paper explores the future of TE while addressing complexities inherent to professionalism in education. To this end, two competing ideals of teaching are examined: the teacher as an expert clinician, reflecting expertise-driven professionalism, and the teacher as a democratic pedagogue, rooted in democratic professionalism. To support this argument, I review the literature discussing professionalism within teaching and TE. To explore the expert clinician ideal and its implications for TE, I draw on Abbott’s ecological perspective on expert labor and Bernstein’s concept of ‘recontextualization.’ To investigate the democratic pedagogue ideal, I utilize Biesta’s framework of ‘democratic professionality’ and concepts of democratizing teacher knowledge as foundational to the epistemology of democratic TE. The comparative analysis of these ideals is structured by three emerging features of teachers’ work and learning to teach that the two conceptions treat differently: (a) The goals of the teaching occupation defining teachers’ commitments and central tasks; (b) the nature of teachers’ professional authority; and (c) the epistemology of TE. By recognizing the limitations and clashing logics of both ideals, I propose potential ways to integrate these competing discourses rather than treating them as dichotomous ends. This integration aims to create a more nuanced and pragmatic approach to discussing professionalism in teaching and its implications for TE. Practically, I call for establishing venues for ongoing dialogue among stakeholders from the professional and academic bodies, governmental authorities, and the local community regarding the aims of education, the nature of teachers’ authority, and the epistemology of TE.

Homeroom teachers (HTs) in Israeli schools act as the pedagogical and administrative "managers" of their classes in addition to their role as subject matter teachers.

HT plays a significant role in students' achievements, sense of belonging, well-being, and ability to deal with stressful situations. However, there is no clear definition of the HT role. The present study aimed to illustrate HT's role through four dimensions: HT-student relationships, HT-class relationships, HT relationships with the school staff, and HT-parents relationships. The links between the four dimensions and students' self-esteem and sense of belonging (Jewish and Arab) in middle school were examined.

Data were collected from 1770 middle school students (1090 Jews and 680 Arabs) and 57 HTs (27 Jews and 32 Arabs). Students and HTs completed a questionnaire of HT's four dimensions. In addition, students reported on their self-esteem and sense of belonging.

Factor analysis confirmed the division into four dimensions of HT role dimensions. In addition, findings revealed a correlation between students' (Jews and Arabs) perception of the HT's functions and the student's sense of belonging and self-esteem. T-test analysis between Jewish and Arab students revealed differences in three dimensions (HT-student relations, HT-class relations, and HT involvement in the organization). In each of these dimensions, the Arab students gave their teachers a higher score than Jewish students. No difference was found in the HT-parent relationship dimension. Furthermore, among Jewish, correlations were found between students and HTs regarding the HT role dimensions.

Several conclusions emerged from the research: (1) students' perceptions of HT's function relate to their functioning in school. (2) Arabs and Jewish students and HTs differ in their perceptions of HTs functioning. (3) Teacher training needs to address the role of HTs in all four dimensions.

This paper explores the findings of a Delphi professional symposium, which was embedded in a research project funded by the Society for Educational Studies. The purpose was to examine the extent to which university faculty, associate faculty and school based mentors evaluating/assessing teacher candidates applied consistent patterns and criteria of judgment; drew on the similar observational strategies and voiced similar patterns of justification for such judgment. This element in the research brought together international respected authorities to explore in detail the preliminary findings from earlier phases, which drew upon Social judgment theory (SJT). This approach supported and informed the enquiry (Cooksey, 1998; 1996) and emphasised careful identification and analysis of the context of judgment and the cues and policies used by judges hence making it fit for an investigation into the judgments teacher educators make in coming to a judgement as to early career teacher efficacy. The preliminary findings emerged from an extensive literature review and a tri-nation (England, Wales, Scotland) study of the particular charcateristics of different categories of judges (university faculty/associatetutors/school-based mentors).

Methods: The Delphi method (Green, 2014) brought together nine (9) national and international experts in education to take up these findings in a full day of discussion and consensus building. Drawing upon a four phase, iterative process of questions interspersed with controlled feedback, the goal was to generate a reliable consensus opinion on the priorities afforded to different considerations in the judgement of new teachers’ practices, Each phase was afforded ever greater refinement of the categories of judgment.

Findings:

Some complex themes emerged, including;

the conflation of competence and judgment

the complexity afforded by stakeholder/democratic imperatives

accountability and power

translation problems between different constituencies

the clhallenge of con text and consistency

collaboration and consistency

challenges in maintaining an intergenerational conversation

emerging models and 'clinical' practice

In the 21st century, new social, expressed through the globalization of the economy, technological advancements, human mobility, and environmental concerns , are driving changes in educational systems, teaching practices, and teacher identity. The main research question is: how does the reconfiguration of teacher identity and teacher professionalization of teachers occur in response to these new social demands to achieve more equitable education? The general objective is to examine teacher identity and teacher professionalization, considering changes in basic education pedagogical practice in interactions with quality teaching for a more equitable world. The study methodology is based on narratives. Thirty testimonies from basic education teachers in Brazil were obtained. The study employs the Positioning Theory, the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2008); Analysis of Narratives and Narrative Analysis (Creswell, 2016), teacher identity theories (Marcelo, 2009), and the Multidimensional Adapted Process Model (MADP) (Metsäpelto, et al, 2022). Preliminary results indicate that teachers, most of whom are female, decide to pursue their profession due to family influence and continue to be enthusiastic about teaching. Regarding changes in their profession, the following were indicated: skills for the insertion of digital technologies, welcoming of inclusion students, pedagogical practices for collaborative learning and large-scale assessment. It is worth noting that this is a collaborative research project carried out with the participation of researchers from several countries: Brazil, India, Poland, Finland, Germany, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong. The interactions enable the sharing of knowledge and an expanded understanding of teacher training and professional performance.

As political and social structures continually frame teachers as either monsters or heroes,
teaching professionsals have used social media to share and strengthen their identities as
human beings and competent professionals. By examining the counterspaces teachers have
created on Instagram and TikTok, a team of international researchers investiagte how teachers
use social media to present multiple plotlines of identity in a shared space. By incorporating
global perspectives and the expansive social media environment, an important element of
teacher identity is more fully investigated through a grounded theory approach. This paper
demonstrates how social media community enactment allows teachers to rebel against
narrow, dualisitic images of self to expansive, holistic, and robust idenities that both support
and create practices, methods, and beliefs for a variety of teachers and disciplines.

Aim
This study aims to explore the challenges teachers face in cultivating self-compassion and to examine the strategies they use to enhance their well-being, ultimately contributing to quality teaching and equitable education.

Theoretical Framework

The study draws upon self-compassion theory and resilience frameworks, linking these concepts to teachers' well-being and their ability to cope with occupational stress. The research also addresses the novel concept of "compassion dissonance"—the gap between extending compassion to others versus oneself.

Methods

A qualitative-phenomenological methodology was used, involving semi-structured interviews with 34 Israeli teachers aged 25-63. Thematic content analysis uncovered key themes related to self-compassion, reflection, and resilience.

Findings

Three key themes were identified. First, Bridging the Compassion Gap: From Others to Self shows that teachers often prioritize others over themselves, struggling with self-compassion. Second, Challenging Complacency: Silent Reflection and Self-Prioritization describes how practices like mindfulness and self-reflection help teachers foster self-compassion. Lastly, Resilience Buffers: Positivity, Patience, and Acceptance highlights how self-compassion enhances resilience, enabling teachers to better manage stress and maintain a positive outlook.

Relevance

By addressing teachers' self-compassion, this study highlights an often-overlooked factor in promoting equitable education: teacher well-being. Teachers who practice self-compassion are better equipped to manage classroom demands, reduce burnout, and create inclusive environments that support diverse student needs, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. The findings offer concrete strategies for integrating self-compassion into teacher education and school systems as a tool for promoting equity. By linking personal well-being to professional practice, the research provides actionable insights into self-reflection, mindfulness, and resilience-building in teacher training. These practices improve retention and effectiveness while enhancing teachers' capacity to engage in equitable teaching.

Prioritizing teachers' holistic well-being can potentially help schools align more closely with the values of equity, inclusivity, and social justice, fostering an environment where both teachers and students can thrive.

I. Research Aim

This study aims to understand the complex inner landscape of Chinese teachers. Through the narrative study, it aims to provide a subtle picture of two Chinese high school teachers’ life. The study will focus on the emotional conflicts of the teachers on their professional identity and personal identity.

II. Theoretical Framework

This study takes John Dewey’s theory of emotion as theoretical perspective. In his early works, Dewey suggests that emotions “represent the tension of stimulus and response within the coordination which makes up the mode of behavior” (Dewey, 1894/1971, 174). In his later works, he further claims that “emotion is the conscious sign of a break, actual or impending” (Dewey, 1934/1987, 15). Dewey confirmed that emotion is cognitive and could be the object of intellectual inquiry.

III. Methods

This study takes the method of narrative inquiry. This method allows the researcher to understand the teachers’ life stories in the historical trajectory. Two high school teachers were invited and more than five rounds of narrative were conducted with the teachers.

IV. Findings

The study finds that teachers’ emotional conflicts could be positive for teachers’ development. It indicates the depth of teachers’ dedication to teaching. However, teachers also need to learn to critically reflect on their emotional conflicts and transform the emotional conflicts into love of teaching (Garrison, 1997). It suggests that teacher education program needs to provide more support on transforming teachers’ emotion into love of teaching.

V. Relevance to the conference theme

This study provides a close look on teacher’s inner landscape, focusing on their emotional conflicts of professional identity and self-identity. It provides a critical insight on how to understand teachers and evaluate teachers beyond the standards and academic performances. This is an important but often ignored perspective to seek equity and justice in teacher development.

This essay debates the changes produced by neoliberalism in education, with the use of technologies, such as Big Techs (Giants in Technology) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the ways in which such innovations resize education, work and subjectivity teacher. The main aim is to carry out a theoretical critique of these issues in order to identify strategies and procedures adopted in the production of this new rationality to be incorporated by the subjects, so that such identification is capable of pointing out possibilities for reaction. From a bibliographic review, an articulation was developed between classic and contemporary authors of neoliberalism, such as Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno, with those who address the technological invasion in the educational field, such as Safatle, Silva Junior and Neves, and those who analyze the impacts observed on the subject, such as Sagrado, Matta and Gill. The relevance of the discussion on neoliberalism, as a rationality that subjects the State and imposes its ways of being and acting on the individual, lies in the intention of rescuing the subject's autonomy, self-determination and non-acceptance. Since technological mechanisms applied to the educational field, via EDTECHs and AI, have transformed people into human capital through the use of technology and innovative approaches, it must be the subject of reflection with the aim of providing social justice in a world still marked by inequalities. This challenge affects teachers, as they have a central role to play and can be considered essential to achieving this promotion. To conclude, knowledge of the students’reality and the contexts in which they find themselves allows teachers to adopt measures capable of better promoting social justice and sustainable development in the multiple and diverse scenarios they find themselves in.

Research Aim

Students today are born into a world of technology, and grow up expecting information at their fingertips. Unfortunately, the internet is also full of fake news and social media is used by some to propagate false claims and rumours. In this paper I argue that nurturing curiosity will help students develop the skills needed to be discerning consumers of the internet. Peterson (2020) calls curiosity ‘…the desire to resolve a knowledge gap…’ (p. 7). Lamnina & Chase (2021) pointed out that curiosity ‘is an important construct to consider in classroom settings, because theory and research suggest that curiosity aids learning’ (p. 665). I use my own experiences growing up in a passive learning environment to interrogate how that affected me as a learner and educator.

Theoretical Framework

In this paper, I use autoethnography as my framework. As a student curiosity was never a part of my learning environment. Rather, I was expected to listen, accept, memorize, and reproduce the information in countless tests. Autoethnography provides a way to interrogate and recognize my personal experiences as part of my research process.

Method

I use storytelling to trace my journey as a learner who accepts into one who leans into curiosity to investigate and even disagree. Storytelling within an autoethnographic framework lets me accommodate subjectivity and acknowledge that emotions are part of my evolution as a learner and educator (Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011).

Findings and Relevance to Conference Theme

My findings will show the importance of nurturing curiosity. It aligns with the conference theme of quality teaching because a curious learner will seek to understand diverse viewpoints and recognize inequity. Racialized and marginalized students will learn to be confident in challenging these behaviours. My experiences underline the necessity for classroom practices that nurture perceptive and critical learners.

Student-generated questioning has great potential to offer inclusive and equitable teaching practices, such as offering opportunities to align student learning to individual prior knowledge, developing students’ self-regulating and metacognitive skills and fostering critical thinking (e.g. Eschach et al., 2014). However, student-generated questioning is rarely used by teachers, because initial student questions are often unfocused, poorly investigable, and therefore difficult to answer (Baranova, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if and how a conceptual tool could support teachers' professional learning to guide the quality of student-generated questions.

We developed a conceptual tool, named the Question Compass, inspired by the Hypothetical Learning Trajectories of Simon and Tzur (2004) to help teachers think about, anticipate upon and find effective ways to foster the quality of student questioning for hands-on research. To explore if and how Question Compass contributed to the guidance of student question quality, we followed the professional learning of 32 primary school teachers who participated in four design teams, which worked independently in four iterative cycles of design, implementation, evaluation and reflection and redesign over a period of two school years. A multiple case study methodology was applied because this is particularly instrumental for evaluating phenomena in real-life contexts (Yazan, 2015).

Data from the teachers’ design and evaluation sessions was analyzed using the Interconnected Model of Teachers’ Professional Growth (IMTPG) of Clarke and Hollingsworth (2002). Findings show that working with Question Compass contributed to teachers’ professional learning by reducing complexity, fostering creativity, supporting the development of practical tools and their alignment to classroom needs, and offering a framework for development of shared meaning.

Enabling teachers to support student-generated questioning is expected to contribute to more inclusive and equitable teaching practices, as it will provide both opportunities for students’ voice and practice of lifelong learning skills.

The aim of this project is to investigate how we can increase awareness, exploration, and identification of actionable possibilities for transformative educational futures globally. A thriving future for education is predicated on a healthy educator workforce. The work of teaching is challenging and frequently isolating and inflexible. This is exacerbated by the default model of school – the one-teacher, one-classroom model – which asks teachers to possess universal competence from day one. Teachers are leaving for a variety of reasons; including stress, limited resources, and unfavorable conditions. Yet, even given these difficulties, there are bright spots. There are community members, educators, and researchers committed to students and willing to explore innovative possibilities. As Pendola et al. (2023) note, working through the complexities of challenges in the workforce is not only about addressing limitations, but leveraging the dedication of educators. In this presentation, we will highlight a new structure designed to elevate bright spots while growing a robust network of motivated educational actors, Possible Education Futures Labs (PEFL). PEFLs focus on transforming education for a better world through leveraging technology to connect people. PEFLs support participants in moving past tinkering with existing problems and toward becoming aware of, exploring and actively engaged with new possibilities. PEFLs are semi-structured, applied possibility thinking spaces that are collaborative, iterative, and sustainable. Cycle one launched in May 2024. Members of the network collectively choose to focus on; empowering alternatively certified teachers, AI and special populations, and English as a medium of instruction. This inaugural cycle showed the high level of interest amongst educational actors to work as a collaborative network, as well as the depth of innovative ideas and strategies available to the field. Our research addresses the conference theme "Transforming Education" by highlighting the potential of collaborative networks and possibility thinking spaces to drive educational innovation.

Western democracies invest great resources in disseminating programs concerned with resolving the national conflict in the Middle East. These programs, that are widely used in teacher training education in Israel, have been conceptualized in light of Western neo-liberal secular models that imagen a human being that is willing to differ from his groups' essentialist believes and identity for reaching shared goals and narratives with the "other". This approach was put to a test in a program for peace education that took place in a teacher trainee college in Israel in 2024. An ethnographic study conducted in a mixed Palestinian and Jewish class was supposed to follow the ways the participants’ positions are shaped in light of their national views. But the national was replaced, to a large extent, with references to faith and religion. Why God entered the classroom? Can religion serve as a bridge for inclusion and provide a basis for coexistence?

The findings suggest that the strengthened religious foundations (Judaization and Islamization) of the ethnonational conflict enabled participants to find a shared universal basis - faith. At the same time, differences in faith enabled to build stable-essentialist ethno-national borders that could not be crossed. Under these conditions, both sides were not fearful that they would be required to give up parts of their identity in the process of coexistence. Thus, religion enables to hold conversation between the opposing groups. Even though, this may not be an ambitious prospect promising to create a dramatic change, using religion allowed a discussion about the question of coexistence without being faced with impossible demands regarding one's own identity. Understanding these changes in peace education, and in particular the foundations on which the “religious discourse” organizes itself in relationship with the “liberal discourse”, provides insights to the ongoing fight for inclusion and coexistence.

Micro-teaching in the early 60s revolutionalised teacher education, future teachers were able to practice the art and science of teaching with a small group of ‘real’ students, however over time due to overcrowding of ITE curriculum and regulatory mandates it dropped from practice. Fast forward 60 years technologies provide ITE Micro-teaching 2.0 using Simulation and Mixed Reality Learning Environments (MRLE) where contemporary issues within and out of classrooms can be practiced including teaching, coping with irate parents, social justice issues and inclusive practices. This case study highlights three simulation platforms used in ITE to address a range of ‘difficult scenarios’ facing preservice teachers. Grossmans’ (2009) Pedagogies of practice and Scenario Based Learning (SBL) are used to frame the discussion and offer insight into the opportunities and challenges of simulation and MRLE for ITE. It captures the transformative pedagogical qualities of simulation platforms and calls for increased uptake of emerging technologies to target the everchanging needs of our future teachers.

We are three teacher educators operating in contexts that push against the things we value: educational equity, professional autonomy, personal well-being. We turn to self-study to examine the tensions we face individually, coming together in this presentation to consider how our personal attitudes toward teaching are problematized by the tensions we face in our professional capacities.

This work is grounded in our professional commitment to implementing and advocating for learner-centered pedagogies (e.g., Gay, 2018; Noddings, 2012) and educational equity (e.g., Hammond, 2014; Love, 2019). Our perspectives are frequently at odds with the positioning of education as a commodity, which pushes against these beliefs.

These three separate explorations use self-study methodology to collectively examine our experiences. Through reflective journaling, artifact analysis, and critical friends meetings, we consider our problems of practice, how those problems inform our teaching, and how our expectations are realized or disappointed. We will meet monthly in Fall 2024 to discuss interpretations of the ongoing data analysis, with studies concluded in Spring 2025.

Author 1 explores the situated tension of working in a higher education context that privileges measurable outcomes over personal connections and caring interactions that she values as necessary for meaningful learning.

Author 2 explores the tensions of advocating for progressive teaching practices her students perceive as unimportant despite her successful professional-development partnerships with diverse schools.

Author 3 explores the tension of navigating her preservice teachers’ study of equity-focused, ambitious science teaching in opposition to the teacher-centered, didactic science teaching of their clinical teaching experience.

We directly explore these tensions with the goal of reconciling how we persist within the confines of the new social contract in education, advocating for equity in a context that spurs its importance and compromises our longevity in the field.

In the contemporary educational scenario, the interconnection between emotions and cognition in the teaching and learning process is widely recognized. Cognitive neuroscience studies highlight the crucial role of emotions in the formation of memories and decision-making, directly influencing attention, motivation and learning (Pessoa, 2008; Immordino-Yang & Damásio, 2007). At the same time, there is a growing understanding of the relevance of socio-emotional skills for the integral development of students. Their inclusion in Basic Education curricula is driven by the perception of their importance for the academic, professional and personal success of students (Casuso-Holgado et al., 2020). In this context, the research question developed was: "How do future teachers in the Natural Sciences Area understand and learn affectivity as an integral part of pedagogical practice, especially considering the development of socio-emotional skills?" Nóvoa (2009) highlights the importance of training teachers who promote the socio-emotional development of students, advocating inclusive and welcoming learning environments. The research included the participation of 19 students from the Pedagogical Residency Program in the areas of Chemistry and Physics, as well as from the Supervised Internship in Chemistry at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil. The analysis of the responses to the discursive questions in the questionnaires made it possible to identify categories that reflect the participants' conceptions on the topic, presented below: Value and importance of affection in the teaching of Science; Affection as a facilitator of the teacher-student relationship; Affection as a stimulus to student interest and participation; Challenges and limits of affection in the school environment. The integration of socio-emotional skills in science teaching provides significant benefits, including the creation of an inclusive and welcoming learning environment, promoting student engagement and a positive atmosphere. In addition, the development of these skills prepares students to face real-world challenges, interact effectively, and cultivate a scientific mindset.

Research aim

This project explores experiences of Scottish secondary school students from a spectrum of rural to urban settings through the perspective of teachers. The aim is to understand geographical inequalities across secondary schools Scotland-wide, with a focus on practical chemistry education received by students.

Methods

To gain data and understand any issues with practical chemistry education, online surveys were created and delivered to both science faculty heads and chemistry teachers. The surveys contained a high number of open-ended questions to allow participants to provide detail and help to understand their perceptions as fully as possible.

Findings

The largest difference found between rural and urban schools is the lack of access to outreach opportunities for rural schools. The travel costs and transport links cause major issues, alongside their geographical struggles to attend or receive support from outside agencies. Urban teachers believed that rural teachers had the advantage of building better relationships due to perceived smaller class sizes.

Interestingly, the size of the school seems to have the largest impact on resources available for practical chemistry education. A larger school receives more funding and so often has more well-resourced laboratories. Although, there are more rural schools that are smaller in size, it is not their geographical location that is necessarily impacting their access to adequate resources.

Relevance to the Conference theme and specific strand

This is a preliminary study to help understand inequalities in the practical chemistry opportunities offered in national qualification classes across the rural/urban landscape of Scotland. Greater understanding of any geographical-linked challenges faced by teachers and the barriers faced by students entering higher education could inform policy and practice to support learning and transitions. This is the first time that the urban and rural setting has been considered, with these findings relevant to subjects beyond chemistry.

This study aims to explore teachers' perceptions of gamification in the context of an educational game focused on the Amazon Rainforest and its conservation. Specifically, it examines how continuous teacher training, essential for professional growth, can enhance teaching practices and foster appreciation for environmental education, particularly regarding the Amazon. The theoretical framework is based on how continuous education allows teachers to adapt to evolving educational demands, helping them incorporate innovative methodologies into their classrooms, and also on gamification, which uses game elements such as competition, challenges, and interaction to engage participants and increase student motivation and engagement in educational settings.

The research utilized a course on gamification involving school science teachers from the North, Northeastern and Southeast regions of Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven participating teachers after the course, to gain insights into their experiences and perceptions on gamification’s effectiveness, implementation challenges, relevance to Amazon education, and professional development impacts. The analyses were conducted using discourse analysis of the collected interviews, allowing for a deeper understanding of the teachers' views and experiences.

The findings indicate that while teachers are enthusiastic about incorporating gamification into their teaching, they face several challenges. Some struggle with the technological aspects, particularly in regions lacking adequate technological resources. Additionally, teachers outside the Amazon region often have a limited understanding of the rainforest's realities, which hinders their ability to convey accurate information. Conversely, teachers within Amazon bring pratical, real-world perspectives to their classrooms but frequently require ongoing support. This highlights the need for continuous education tailored to each teacher’s context, along with further investment in infrastructure. These efforts are crucial as teaching about the Amazon has a global impact, raising awareness about its conservation and the critical role it plays in regulating the Earth's climate and preserving biodiversity.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a cultural revolution has been taking place and influencing the culture of learning: new information technologies, together with other sociocultural changes, are opening space for a new culture of learning. Science Education in the 21st century enables the education of citizens, with equity, who can learn how to learn, acquire knowledge, as well as develop cognitive and socio-emotional skills and abilities to make a critical reading of the world (POZO; CRESPO, 2009; SENNA, 2019; TENREIRO-VIEIRA; VIEIRA, 2021). In this context, during the discipline “Updated Technological Approaches for Teaching Chemistry” of the Master's Degree in Chemistry at UFV, the Guided Reflection Process (ABELL AND BRYAN, 1997) was developed with a view to promoting several studies on the teaching of Chemistry for 21 students. The qualitative research was initiated by the students' conceptions about Science and Technology. Among the concepts expressed, the most evident was the concept of empirical-inductive and atheoretical (CACHAPUZ et al, 2005). Conceptions about the characteristics of innovative teachers were investigated, with strong agreement on characteristics such as: carrying out group work; knowing how to propose and solve problems; seeking to learn continuously; sharing knowledge and good practices. A task was requested to answer the research question: How to develop Scientific Literacy from a STSA approach for teaching Chemistry? Everyone answered the question very well, developing Didactic Sequences (SANCHEZ BLANCO et al., 1997), with different themes - Water; Energy; Batteries; Oils and Fats; Gases; Soap and Oil; Garbage; Cell Phones - using several TDIC studied during the discipline, such as: Mentimeter; Padlet; CK-12; PhET Colorado; Wordwall; C-Map Tools; Google Classroom, Forms. From the Guided Reflection Process, important skills were developed aiming at the professional development of the teacher, with autonomy, dedication, self-confidence, new visions, creativity and the ability to take risks.

The Global Network of Deans of Education (GNDE) is an association of Deans of Education bringing together leaders of teacher education to facilitate cooperation and exchanges of information and knowledge among national and regional associations of Deans of Education, as well as convey the views of teacher educators to various global initiatives and UN agencies. In this roundtable, GNDE members will discuss aspects of the recently published UNESCO (2024) Global Report on Teachers: Adressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession. Selected case studies will be introduced by participating Deans outlining how issues of teacher recruitment and retention; curricula for teacher education; accreditation, scrutiny and inspection of teacher education are being addressed in their contexts. These will be used to facilitate dialogue and interaction amongst attendees which is a key purpose of this roundtable.

Relevant links

https://www.education-deans.org

https://teachertaskforce.org/what-we-do/Knowledge-production-and-dissemination/global-report-teachers

This symposium is interactive and has been organized because of a concern by leaders in the narrative research community such as editors of educational journals and book series (e.g. Journal of Teacher Education, Frontiers Teacher Education, Studying Teacher Education, Emerald Insight) and reviewers for journals, conferences, and books. It focuses on the need for researchers using narratives or story in their research to have stronger skill in analysis. By developing versatility and strength in their analytic skills, researchers will be able to produce more nuanced and trustworthy accounts and will increase the trustworthiness and insights that research based on narrative data can provide. The purpose of this symposium is to enable researchers who are using or desire to use narratives in research new understandings of the variety of narrative analysis tools available or stronger skill in analytic tools they already utilize in their research. The objectives of the session are (1) Participants will engage in hands-on activities that enable them to either hone or strengthen their skill as narrative researchers. (2) Participants will be able to develop or increase strength in analytic skills they may not be familiar with. (3) Participants will have materials that they can use as they design and implement research projects using narrative as data. The session begins with an overview of theoretical underpinnings for analyzing narratives and descriptions tools that can be used. Participants will then engage in two 30-minute (out of six) hands-on workshops (Handouts, and other materials will be provided as well as opportunity for practice). Included are workshops on using visual tools, condensing huge data sets into vignettes, basing studies in narrative beginnings, analysis using literary elements, memory work, multicultural analysis, using serial interpretation. The session ends with an open question forum to examine lingering questions.

In a rapidly changing educational landscape, collaborative learning communities have gained prominence as spaces for shared knowledge construction. Audiovisual production, often underutilized in pedagogical practices, has the potential to enhance these communities by fostering engagement, creativity, and co-construction of knowledge. This study aims to explore how audiovisual production can act as a catalyst for the development of learning communities, particularly in educational settings involving pre-service teachers and international collaborations. The methodology integrates qualitative narrative research with hands-on audiovisual workshops, engaging participants in the production of a short film as a collective, interdisciplinary effort. This process enable the observation of how collaborative dynamics unfolded, and how these dynamics contributed to the formation of a learning community. An audiovisual production project was conducted with educators from various countries, culminating in the creation of an original short film. The intention of the experiment was to reflect on the idea that collaborative cultures among educators, when engaged in audiovisual projects, tend to evolve into learning communities where teaching knowledge is collectively enhanced and redefined. The theoretical framework draws on audiovisual knowledge (Tirard, 2006), collaborative culture and learning communities (Flores & Ferreira, 2012; Ávila, 2012; Craig et al., 2020), narrative research and Story Constellations (Craig, 2007), and educational experience (Garcia, 1998; Day, 2004; Dewey, 2011; Tardif, 2014). Preliminary observations from the Portuguese experience suggest that the collective audiovisual project fostered collaborative culture, laying the groundwork for the development of democratic learning communities. These findings highlight the potential of audiovisual media as a powerful process in educational settings, especially in fostering engagement and co-construction of knowledge among educators. This research is supported by CAPES, FAPEMIG and CNPq.

Higher education institutions are to teach advanced thinking skills that help students process information, make judgments, and justify associated beliefs. Such skills are necessary for reflective judgment according to the reflective judgment model (RJM). The purpose of this study was to explore whether engaging undergraduate students in classroom discussion surrounding ill-structured problems impacted these advanced thinking skills. It implemented a quasi-experimental, posttest-only control-group design using the validated semi-structured Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI) protocol to score reflective judgment skills of sixteen undergraduate students. The RJM and its RJI protocol, developed by King and Kitchener (1994) categorizes thinking into three main areas: prereflective (Stages 1-3), quasireflective (Stages 4 & 5), and reflective thinking (Stages 6 & 7). On average, undergraduate students score within Stages 3 or 4. The Openness to Diversity and Challenge Scale (ODCS) was also used to identify existing openness to diversity and challenge. A least squares regression analysis of the RJI stage and the ODCS score found that there is a significant correlation between the two. Overall, results indicated that fostering discussion of ill-structured problems in a college classroom might help students advance into higher levels of reflective thinking, thus helping to fulfill a key purpose of higher education. Further research should explore these connections using a larger sample for a longer time period.

This research brings forward a theoretical framework that applies to modern issues of divisive politics, civil unrest, and social injustices affecting democratic societies. Engaging our students in healthy debate and discussion surrounding comlex problems may be a pedagogical practice to help develop new generations of thinkers who can evaluate information, develop judgments, and better accept ideas that are different from their own. This paper aims to support this conference sub-topic: Addressing social justice by leveraging technology and innovative approaches.

Controversial and thorny issues arise unexpectedly in the classroom requiring teachers to make in-the-moment decisions to address or dismiss them. The decision to address such issues is a morally motivated response influenced by various elements. Teachers make split-second decisions in response to these situations, so that the underlying reasons for their decisions are not always immediately evident and can sometimes be difficult to describe due to their complexity. In this study, we asked a random sample of teachers (n=60) from the European Union to recall an unplanned issue that they had addressed and to apply a model developed in previous research, to articulate their reasons for choosing to address the issue. The model captured the multifaceted nature of teachers’ decision-making in these scenarios, including their past experiences, future orientation, personal and professional beliefs, emotions, task perception and the wider context in which the teachers’ work is located. We employed a grounded theory approach to identify recurring themes to better understand the complexity inherent in such moments. Preliminary results indicate that teachers' reasons often aligned with a commitment to fostering social justice and enhancing students' democratic competencies. Rooted in strong personal values and their past experiences, teachers realised the broader implications of their decisions. We found that they chose to engage with these issues because of their belief in the potential for a better, more equitable future. However, teachers sometimes found it difficult to clearly articulate their reasons, although they indicated that the model helped them to better understand and articulate the reasons behind their decisions to address unplanned issues, strengthening their capacity for reflective practice and intentional interventions. For that reason, we argue that the model can be used to enhance initial teacher education and professional development.