Conference Program

Cultural awareness and expression – recognised by the European Commission as one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning – is fundamental to fostering democratic societies, strengthening community cohesion, promoting civic engagement, and encouraging respect for diversity (EC). To enable young people to become citizens who actively contribute to the development of a sustainable society, formal and non-formal educational contexts are increasingly required to become more participatory and inclusive (Giroux, 2011; Bourn, 2022). One approach to achieving this goal is the use of arts-based methods, which are also effective tools for fostering young people’s cultural awareness and creative expression (Chemi & Du, 2018; Ferrer‐Fons et al., 2022). By implementing arts-based pedagogies in diverse educational contexts, educators play a pivotal role as agents of social change, supporting young people in the development of the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to actively engage with social and cultural issues. Research indicates that dance, as an artistic practice, enables individuals to express personal experiences through movement, contributing to identity exploration and strengthening a sense of belonging, while also fostering cultural participation and intercultural dialogue (Sango & Pickard, 2024).

This qualitative study draws on empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews with dance teachers working with youth aged 16–30 as part of interest-based education in comprehensive schools and cultural institutions or organisations in Latvia. It examines teachers’ perceptions of the educational potential of dance, how cultural themes and democratic values are incorporated into teaching practices, and the contribution of dance activities to young people’s personal growth, cultural awareness, and creative expression.

The findings underscore the importance of interest-based education in dance, which extends beyond physical training to serve as a space for dialogue, exploration, co-creation, and creative expression. Teachers highlight the significance of collaborative practices in supporting learners’ awareness of cultural differences and shared experiences, stimulating intellectual engagement, and enabling young people to assume the role of meaning-makers. The results suggest that competences and skills (including creativity and reflection, cultural literacy and intercultural awareness, personal and shared cultural expression and collective agency and social responsibility) acquired or developed through such activities can contribute to transformative learning processes by fostering learners’ empathy, democratic engagement, and active citizenship.

This article is based on research conducted within the framework of the international project “Promoting Understanding and Lifelong learning Successful Education through the ARTs and culture” (PULSE‑ART), funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101178988. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The intensification of the climate crisis has fostered growing collective mobilization, giving rise to environmental movements that adopt heterogeneous strategies, ranging from institutional forms of protest to more conflictual practices. The scientific literature on environmental and climate activism outlines a complex landscape in which conventional forms of civic participation intertwine with more radical manifestations of protest.

Within this framework, the ELCRA project (Environmental Literacy in Higher Education Context for Preventing Violent Radicalization in Climate Activism) was developed by a consortium of five European universities between 2023 and 2026: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Klaipėda University, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the University of Coimbra, and the University of Siena. ELCRA is situated within the perspective of Transformative Education and aligns with SDG 4.7, aiming to train students capable of orienting their practices toward socio-ecological sustainability and preventing forms of violent radicalization within climate activism.

Building on this context, the contribution presents a case study of a project designed for students to foster processes of critical co-construction among future education professionals on environmental issues.

Following a literature review on environmental radicalization, the ELCRA project combined a multidisciplinary MOOC (10 hours) with COIL sessions (6 hours), involving students from the five European universities (n = 228 students for the MOOC and n = 50 for the COIL) in collaborative activities on topics such as sustainability, emotions and climate, critical thinking, activism, and environmental radicalization. The instructional design was grounded in the transformative learning approach originally developed by Mezirow and later expanded by Fabbri and Melacarne. Within this perspective, MOOC and COIL were integrated: the MOOC provided critical literacy on environmental issues, equipping students with the conceptual tools needed to interpret contemporary challenges; the COIL sessions, on the other hand, encouraged reflective re-elaboration of the acquired knowledge—also through a workshop-based dimension—with the aim of guiding students toward an awareness of their future professional roles as agents of change.

It should be acknowledged that the study presents some limitations, particularly related to the difficulty of measuring transformative learning processes. Nevertheless, the reflection developed from this experience suggests that the integration of asynchronous learning environments and intercultural dialogue can represent a fertile context for activating processes of critical meaning-making. Within this framework, students were placed in conditions that allowed them to reinterpret the knowledge acquired in light of their personal experiences, their social contexts of belonging, and the different cultural perspectives involved, in line with a view that understands them as potential agents of change.

In response to multiple crises, debates increasingly link transformative education with civic education (e.g. Hoggan-Kloubert und Mabrey 2022) and education for sustainability (e.g. Sterling 2010). Scholars emphasized that citizens committed to living in a democracy must be open to transforming themselves and the world around them, as they should critically examine themselves, society, and the world, and align their own perspective on the world accordingly (Hoggan-Kloubert und Mabrey 2022, 169). Moreover, transformative education may support the collective search for answers for a sustainable future (Singer-Brodowski 2023, 20625), taking into account the handling of ambiguities, uncertainties, and controversies (Singer-Brodowski 2023, 20625; Pettig und Ohl 2023). Accordingly, educational settings are tasked with creating opportunities for educational practices at the intersection of these aspects of transformative, political, and sustainable education.

Despite these conceptual links, little is known yet about how they unfold in everyday educational practice. This presentation examines such moments of transformative education in schools as one of the most important educational institutions. Drawing on a practice perspective that includes the involvement of all participants and contextual factors (Breidenstein 2008, 110), the focus shifts to different actors in the field, including students and teachers. It also examines both planned and unplanned spaces in which transformative educational practices can occur.

Using ethnographic data from a project in German schools, the presentation analyzes situations in which political and sustainable aspects are addressed in routine school life. The presentation concludes with a discussion guided by the following questions, based on the findings:

• Which individual and collective actors are involved in transformative practices at school?
• In which everyday school situations do transformative practices occur?
• What constitutes the transformative core of these practices?
• How do transformative practices position and engage different actors as democratically and sustainably responsible citizens?
• How can everyday school practices enable students to contribute to democratic and sustainable societal transformation?

Contemporary schooling is increasingly shaped by global crises, including health emergencies, social instability, economic inequalities, and humanitarian challenges. These dynamics profoundly affect educational systems, redefining the role of schools not only as spaces that ensure learning continuity but also as environments that foster social cohesion, resilience, and democratic participation. Within this framework, educational emergencies should not be interpreted merely as disruptive events but rather as structural conditions capable of generating transformative pedagogical responses and stimulating creative educational communities. The present study aims to explore the educational meaning and transformative potential of emergency situations in primary education, focusing on teachers’ perceptions, practices, and professional identities. In particular, the research seeks to reinterpret emergency conditions beyond an alarmist perspective, highlighting their potential to stimulate reflective practice, collective responsibility, and pedagogical innovation within school communities. The study adopts an intercultural ethnographic research design and is grounded in qualitative methodology. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 40 primary school teachers working in eight public schools located in two distinct geographical and cultural contexts: Rome (Italy) and Freetown (Sierra Leone). The comparison between these two educational environments allows for a broader understanding of how emergency situations are experienced, interpreted, and addressed by teachers in different socio-cultural settings. Data analysis was conducted through an interpretative phenomenological approach, enabling an in-depth exploration of meanings, emotions, and professional practices related to emergency experiences. The findings reveal that teachers in both contexts tend to perceive emergency not as an exceptional event but as a permanent and structural condition affecting everyday educational practices. Despite contextual differences, educators demonstrate strong adaptive capacities, activating relational, emotional, and creative resources to cope with crisis situations. In both contexts, emergency conditions encourage the development of flexible teaching strategies, stronger community engagement, and a redefinition of teachers’ professional roles. Teachers emerge as key agents of resilience, capable of transforming critical situations into opportunities for educational reflection and innovation. While in the Italian context emergency is often associated with relational, emotional, and institutional challenges, in Sierra Leone it is more strongly linked to material and structural difficulties. Nevertheless, teachers in both contexts mobilize similar pedagogical resources centered on care, responsibility, and collaboration. The study highlights the need to move from an alarmist interpretation of emergencies toward a transformative educational perspective. Strengthening teacher education, promoting intercultural dialogue, and encouraging collective action appear essential for developing resilient school communities capable of turning vulnerability into learning opportunities. In this sense, the research contributes to a broader reflection on the civic and democratic mission of education in times of global uncertainty.

Educational practices are shaped not only by explicit pedagogical theories and institutional policies but also by conceptions, routines, beliefs, frames of reference, and cultural norms that often remain unexamined (Fives & Buhel, 2012 ;2015). These structures silently guide how teachers and educators interpret situations and make decisions. Because they operate below the level of conscious awareness, they tend to remain unquestioned, but they influence educational processes. Bringing these logics to the surface is therefore crucial for scholars and practitioners engaged in transformative education.

Drawing on the theoretical framework of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1997), this contribution conceptualises conceptions as embedded meaning structures that shape intentions and action within educational contexts. If left unaddressed, such logics can have significant consequences (Civitillo, Juang & Schachner, 2018): first, they may reproduce inequalities by normalising practices and expectations that privilege certain groups of learners while marginalising others. Second, they can limit innovation by constraining educators’ capacity to imagine and implement alternative pedagogical approaches. Third, unexamined logics may close epistemic possibilities, narrowing the range of legitimate ways of knowing and understanding within educational environments. Finally, they can constrain educators’ reflexivity and naturalise existing power relations, making hierarchical structures appear inevitable rather than historically and socially constructed.

Thus, making implicit logics visible becomes a central step in fostering transformative processes in education. Researchers and teacher educators have a particular responsibility to illuminate these often invisible mechanisms, supporting educators in recognising and questioning the assumptions that underpin their professional practice. This process requires creating structured opportunities for reflection and dialogue that enable practitioners to critically examine taken-for-granted perspectives.

To illustrate how unexamined logics emerge in educational practice, an example drawn from an empirical study on teachers’ conceptions and intercultural educational actions will be presented (Agostinetto & Bugno, 2020). The research adopted a qualitative design aimed at exploring how teachers’ conceptions influence pedagogical planning and classroom practices. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 46 in-service teachers, participant observation of educational activities, and document analysis of planning documents (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018). The findings revealed a broad and sometimes contradictory range of conceptions among teachers, as well as frequent inconsistencies between declared pedagogical intentions and actual practices. For instance, intercultural education was often interpreted through episodic activities (such as organising a “multi-ethnic lunch”) rather than through sustained pedagogical strategies integrated into everyday classroom practice.

Starting from the data collected in this first research phase, a further step of the study involved an attempt to re-conceptualise teachers’ conceptions through a series of focus groups designed as reflective meetings. These focus groups were intended to create a space where participants could critically engage with the empirical findings, reflect on their own implicit and unexamined logics, and collectively explore possible transformations of their practice.

This qualitative research represents an attempt to move from the identification of implicit teachers' conceptions toward their (re)consideration and possible re-conceptualisation. In this way, the contribution reflects on how research can contribute to opening spaces for reflexivity in teachers’ professional practice and to rethinking intercultural educational actions.

This abstract builds on the study “Terra di Futuro. Tra i sogni e i bisogni delle studentesse e degli studenti della provincia di Agrigento”, which aims to understand how younger generations perceive Sicily: their place of origin, yet one marked by a lack of opportunities. The research was developed within the Ma.Dre project (Mapping Dreams to Safeguard Students’ Choices) of the “Giuseppe Gatì” Study Centre, which seeks to map the expectations, ambitions, and factors shaping upper secondary students’ educational and career choices, in order to read the island’s future through their eyes.

Launched in 2024, the study involves 1,363 students (aged 14–19) from six “partner” schools in the province of Agrigento, using an anonymous questionnaire with 24 closed- and open-ended questions and a mixed-methods design: statistical analysis for structured responses and thematic analysis for the written texts. The broader context is a region affected by depopulation, territorial inequalities, and fragile public services, where the idea of restanza (choosing to stay) is framed as an active and transformative choice rather than resignation.

Findings reveal a widely shared sense of disadvantage: nearly four in five respondents believe there are fewer opportunities in Sicily than in other Italian regions or abroad; only a very small minority think the opposite. Quality of life is also often imagined as better elsewhere, although a significant group values climate, the sea, relationships, and a sense of belonging. After completing upper secondary school, most students wish to continue studying; however, only a small share expect to remain in their own town, while many envision moving within or outside the island, and a substantial proportion remain uncertain. Here, the future enters as a central protagonist: the higher the school grade, the more critical—and less optimistic—the outlook tends to become.

Across the data, three key issues emerge: inequalities (including gender inequalities), perceptions of “civility”/development, and the central role of climate and environment in shaping choices. Overall, the report advocates for a public use of data: not to add yet another “Greek lament” (even if with charts), but to mobilize schools, institutions, and communities to build real conditions so that staying becomes a genuine possibility, not an act of faith.

Transformative Education (TE) calls for pedagogical approaches that encourage learners to critically engage with social realities and develop the knowledge needed to participate in democratic societies. In alignment with SDG 4.7, TE emphasizes global citizenship, awareness, and critical reflection through innovative educational practices. Within higher education, experiential and place-based pedagogies offer ways to connect these goals to students’ engagement with real-world contexts. At a time when policy constraints in parts of U.S. higher education have limited how certain social topics may be addressed, educators are increasingly exploring approaches that focus on participatory knowledge production through experiential engagement with communities. This presentation examines two community-based learning projects grounded in City as Text methodology, both implemented in lower-income communities in Florida, United States, characterized by large immigrant populations. Both projects involved undergraduate students: one including students from multiple academic majors, and another implemented in a teacher education course.

City as Text is an experiential learning approach that invites students to engage with communities as sites of inquiry through critical observation, dialogue, and reflection (Braid & Long, 2010). The methodology shifts students from passive recipients of knowledge to active co-creators of their learning experiences (Braid, 2021) and situates knowledge production within real-world contexts by connecting academic concepts with lived community experiences (Clavijo Olarte et al., 2023). Engagement with place supports reflective observation and meaning-making, key elements of experiential learning processes (Kolb & Kolb, 2017).

Using this approach, students interpreted the community as a “text.” In the first project, students explored public spaces and local institutions while reflecting on language use and identity. These experiences prompted students to reconsider their perceptions of the community and connect local dynamics to broader contexts. In the teacher education course, the methodology was adapted as Community-as-Text, where teacher candidates conducted observations across local sites and analyzed how community environments might influence educational experiences for multilingual learners. For many participants, this represented their first sustained engagement with communities different from their own backgrounds, prompting reflection on how social contexts reflect values and shape lives, including educational opportunities and practice.

Drawing on Transformative Learning Theory (Mezirow, 1997) and critical place-based education (Gruenewald, 2008), this presentation examines how experiential engagement with communities fosters participatory knowledge production and encourages students to reconsider prior assumptions about communities, language, and education (Dewey, 1998; Freire, 2000; Kolb & Kolb, 2017) and to critically consider intentions for action (Mezirow, 1997). Preliminary analysis indicates that immersive engagement with local environments deepens awareness of community dynamics and their connections to broader global contexts. Across Community-as-Text projects, additional insights emerged regarding multilingualism as an educational resource, roles of community institutions in supporting learning, and the value of recognizing family and community knowledge as assets for teaching.

By linking experiential learning with critical reflection, these course-based projects illustrate educators as agents of change by designing pedagogical experiences that promote democratic participation, community understanding, and engaged citizenship. Community-based experiential learning thus offers a pathway for preparing students to recognize community knowledge as a resource for more inclusive and democratic educational practices.