Educational Space Research Articles

Systems Thinking as a Methodological Approach to Study Infrastructure Space in Architectural Design Education

In architectural education, urban-scale studies provide an opportunity for architectural students to study the challenges that cities confront and their physical and conceptual frameworks with a multidisciplinary approach. The design process necessitates the critical evaluation of the inputs that define, structure, and govern the cities and the acknowledgement of social, economic, ecological, geographical, and experiential conditions. The critical reading of the city also demands an understanding of its prevailing, speculative, and emergent conditions, which can be apprised through a cohesive structure of relations shaped by directives from various agents. Advocating for a novel methodological practice in architectural education, this approach fosters the engagement of architecture students with the networks, constellations, and associations of contemporary urban conditions. With this conceptual framework, the paper speculates on the potential of introducing systems thinking as a methodology for architectural education, which encourages the study of interrelations between different parties, in diverse scales, to design contemporary urban conditions. It subjects students’ works in the fourth-year architectural design studio, where systems thinking is acknowledged as a methodology to study the notion of infrastructure space. In these studies, infrastructure space is considered as the site of multiplicities, coexistences, and overlaps beyond its typical association with “physical networks for transportation, communication or utilities” (Easterling, 2014). Studying the infrastructure space through a systems thinking approach is believed to enable the integration of inchoate states and territories of local, trans-local, and global occurrences. To sum up, the paper will discuss the outputs of integrating systems thinking in architectural education, and the reconceptualization of ‘infrastructure space’ as an instrumental approach in dealing with the complex structure of cities.

Hypervisibility and erasure: parents’ accounts of transgender children in early childhood education and care and primary schools

ABSTRACT While much is known about transgender students’ experiences of high school, less research has explored their experiences in primary/pre-schooling settings. This paper presents an analysis of parents’ (N = 15) recounts of their transgender children’s (N = 12) experiences in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) and primary schools. The research is situated in a trans-emancipatory theoretical framework that recognises the impact of cisnormativity in educational spaces. We find that the early years play-based approach contrasts with primary school settings, where children are regularly organized by binary gender categories. Whilst early childhood settings are child centred and often celebrate transgender children’s individuality using a trans-accommodative approach, they can simultaneously reinforce cisnormativity through enforcing binary gendered norms. Binary norms erase transgender identities while, paradoxically, making the transgender child hypervisible. Findings can inform a whole-of-school approach to the inclusion of transgender identities and the wellbeing of trans children in ECEC and primary schools.

Subverting Racialized Mobility Regimes: Ethical Research with Migrant Youth in an Age of Securitization

In France, minoritized migrant youth—a term encompassing various legal statuses and migration trajectories—are subject to systems of surveillance that include racialized policing, school securitization policies, and programs to counter extremism. These institutional practices are complemented by hostility within everyday public spaces and broader systems of representation. Together, institutional and everyday forms of surveillance constitute racialized mobility regimes for migrant youth within and beyond educational spaces. For researchers who work with migrant youth, such landscapes pose ethical demands—what forms of critical awareness, anticipatory planning, and improvisatory practices are necessary to mitigate harms resulting from participation in their projects? Drawing upon an autoethnographic revisiting of a 16-month digital storytelling engagement with newcomer migrant and refugee youth in two French high schools, I discuss the creation of a “youth researcher” pass in anticipation of the racialized surveillance confronting migrant youth in France. Informed by the works of Walter Benjamin and Michel de Certeau on mobility, storytelling, and facsimiles, as well as political developments in France, I argue that in settings in which migrant presence is deemed a threat, researchers must unapologetically opt for an ethical stance that takes protection of participants’ humanity—rather than legality—as its core aim.

A study of the Donetsk People's Republic retail enterprises’ adaptive development landscape

Subject. This article considers the business environment of retail enterprises of the Donetsk People's Republic and discusses their development problems in conditions of uncertainty. Objectives. The article aims to identify key areas for the adaptive development of retail enterprises in the new Russian regions. Methods. For the study, we used the expert assessment and integral estimation methods, multivariate analysis, and graphic modeling. Results. The article finds that the landscape of adaptive development of retail enterprises of the Donetsk People's Republic is uneven, since it is formed under the influence of a wide range of factors, each of which has a multi-vector impact on their development. The implementation of preferential lending programmes for entrepreneurs expands the opportunities for attracting and using borrowed capital to ensure adaptive development. Conclusions. The active implementation of measures to integrate into the legal, economic, cultural, and educational space of Russia contributes to increasing the comfort of the landscape of adaptive development of retail enterprises in the region. Retailers of the Donetsk People's Republic are facing the urgent task of digital transformation of business processes.

Formation of a gender-sensitive environment in the innovative transformation of the scientific and educational space: the aspect of STEM education

In the conditions of martial law, the creation of a gender­sensitive environment in higher education institutions based on STEM is an urgent task. An important task of science and education at the moment is to provide favourable conditions for the subjects of education based on the state’s innovation policy (for example, STEM, artificial intelligence, robotics, etc.), as well as to provide feedback between the student and the teacher. Activation of the problem of the gender component, focusing attention on the concept of zero tolerance in the system of training personnel from the economic profile and developing a new methodology for building a gender­sensitive environment in this field will ensure the integrity of the process of forming intellectual potential among women and men, is the main goal of the author’s research. This is aimed at the rationality of the organization of the training of education seekers taking into account gender aspects on the basis of STEM. In the research, the authors outlined contextual levels and contradictions regarding the formation of a gender­sensitive environment, in particular: the context of the needs for social order (taking into account the equality of rights of women and men); the context of needs for science (pedagogical, engineering, technical, legal, physical and mathematical disciplines), taking into account transdisciplinarity and aspects of STEM education; in the context of the needs of pedagogical practice (development and implementation of innovative approaches in a gender­sensitive environment in the context of the formation of soft skills of subjects of education capable of implementing STEM technologies in the educational process). The purpose of the research is scientific substantiation, conceptualization and development of a gender­sensitive environment for institutions of higher education based on STEM. The object of research is the educational process in institutions of higher education. The subject of the research is the theoretical and methodological substantiation of the expediency of the formation and development of a gender­sensitive environment of a higher education institution based on STEM education.

Student wellbeing and academic support in higher education

This study reports on the synergistic liaison between student wellbeing and academic support in higher education. The study took place at a large, urban university in South Africa within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brief interviews were conducted between September and November 2021, with undergraduate students (n = 645, Mage = 22; SD = 2) from a variety of scientific fields. The guiding question for the brief interviews was, ‘What contributes to your wellbeing at the university?’ Responses were captured in statu nascendi (as it develops) by fieldworkers from the helping professions and then transferred to a comprehensive Electronic Data Sheet. The raw verbal response data were analyzed using an open coding process where major and minor themes were initially indicated. A theme emerged around the intricacies of academic support and intrapersonal processes that are central to the wellbeing of students in higher education. Academic support was apparent in the provisioning of resources for learning, quality communication from lecturers, peer-to-peer support, and collective positive student experiences. Beyond these external resources, intrapersonal factors including a focus on the self, a sense of responsibility, and ensuring mental balance, while sustaining a sense of accomplishment academically, emerged as critical to student wellbeing. Efforts to continually improve student experience are still paramount within the higher education space, and this can be accompanied by psychosocial interventions aimed at promoting a strong sense of positive selfhood. These interventions could be designed to promote internal resources that allow students to capitalize on institutional provisioning in the achievement of academic goals and wellbeing.

A Reparative Space: Theorizing Decolonizing and Freedom Pathways in Fashion Education

This critical autoethnography explored the experiences of a Black woman fashion graduate student who occupied space in fashion education for a decade. Observing and living within the movement of proposed diverse, equitable, and inclusive frameworks and action plans, she has managed to survive the complex sociopolitical terrain. Within fashion discourse, proposed shifts in sociocultural and political movements have motivated scholars to begin contemplating and theorizing pathways of decolonization as an attempt to eradicate colonial knowledge frameworks that amplify systemic oppressive structures. To practice a deconstructive, reflective process, she theorizes and demonstrates the importance of centering endarkened and Black feminist and womanist epistemology for enclosing the distance in differences and further developing fashion definitions. The authors determine that factors such as Black feminist and womanist thought, holistic education, the effect of history, honesty, and basic need factors are pathways toward decolonization and freedom. More than research, this study centers a contemporary and analytical narrative that offers directions and implications for the landscape of fashion education and the fashion-industrial complex.

Beyond pedagogy: the creative and humanising potential of writing in teacher education

ABSTRACT In this article, we argue it is time for discussions about literacy teachers’ experiences in education spaces to be pivoted away from externally-imposed priorities and toward an emphasis on the humanising and artistic potential of teacher education. Using Greene’s concept of wide-awakening and data generated as part of an international research collaboration, we present insights developed through analysis of a teacher-student’s experiences with writing during and after a university class. This particular teacher-student ultimately did not pursue classroom teaching. This rupture, while initially disappointing for our research purposes, made it possible to construct new understandings about writing experiences in teacher education as being full of potential beyond a narrowed focus on pedagogical outcomes. The questions produced through our new reading of this data highlighted how oversimplified future-focused discourses around the phenomenon of teachers writing may contribute to and reify a research and practical focus that centres pedagogical impacts and future outcomes. While rooted in literacy teacher education, we contend this analysis has implications for teacher education more broadly.

Children’s food gardening: valuing experiential, intergenerational and multi-cultural learning

ABSTRACT Urban food growing has been promoted for its benefits of improved food security, governance and sovereignty, as well as providing opportunities for environmental education. Despite a resurgence of research into adults’ food-growing in urban environments, there is limited literature examining where and how children grow food, with whom, what it means to them, and what they want to know more about. Here we present the results of 20 focus groups with culturally-diverse urban primary school students (aged 5–11 years old) from across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, conducted as part of the 2022 Soilsafe Kids Three-Day Programme on soil education. We find that most often experiential gardening knowledge is passed on to children by older family members (typically parents), at home or at a family member’s residence. This study shows the significant value and importance of family/whānau-oriented learning, and of providing spaces for intergenerational gardening teaching and learning outside of school environments. It also points to the need for revised educational paradigms that enable culturally inclusive, intergenerational transfer of gardening knowledge in appropriate and non-extractive ways. Acknowledging that familial connections are stronger than school-based ones, we provoke an exploration of how school-based programmes can support and extend familial learning.

Early adolescents’ visions of the future: towards hopeful and sustainable futures?

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) particularly emphasises developing future-thinking competencies. Nevertheless, this line of thinking still represents a challenge for younger students, who tend to be left behind when deciding and visualising the future within educational spaces. Through a qualitative approach, our research attempts to explore early adolescents’ views concerning probable and preferable futures and how they are related to sustainable development dimensions. For this purpose, we asked 352 students in the fifth and sixth grades of primary schools in the province of Tarragona (Spain) to explain their visions regarding the probable and preferable futures of their city or town. We analysed the data through an inductive-deductive approach. Our findings indicate that the students’ pessimistic visions of the future require a special effort from an ESD viewpoint to educate them towards hopeful futures. Different degrees of complexity in their views of the futures were identified in relation to sustainability, denoting the need to design diagnostic tools that properly guide pedagogical approaches and interventions towards developing sustainability competencies.

Impacts of HVAC cleaning on energy consumption and supply airflow: A multi-climate evaluation

Energy-efficiency interventions are crucial for sustainable building operations to accommodate emerging indoor air quality (IAQ) criteria into their engineering life cycles. While several studies have addressed building energy consumption and IAQ considerations separately, few provide integrated analysis of these aspects in response to building hygiene practices. In response, this study evaluates the effectiveness of routine heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) cleaning on energy consumption and supply airflow patterns in non-residential public buildings. This study juxtaposes HVAC energy consumption and ventilation performance before, during and after routine HVAC cleaning, across buildings situated in four different climate zones, while operating in cooling mode. Each site had nearly identical HVAC systems serving similar architectural features and occupational loads; these were segregated into an intervention (cleaned HVAC system) that could be compared to an otherwise identically operating HVAC (control system), which was not cleaned. Following prescriptive cleaning, HVAC systems exhibited significant energy consumption reductions and delivered higher airflows compared to their uncleaned counterparts. On average, intervention systems saved between 41 % and 60 % on conveyance (fan/blower) energy, with one exception, and supplied 10 % and 46 % more airflow compared to their uncleaned counterparts. This research demonstrates how a new generation of low-cost HVAC system monitors can compile Internet of Things (IoT) archives to show immediate energy consumption benefits associated with cleaning HVAC components and their associated ductwork serving relatively high occupancy commercial and educational spaces.

Women (African/Black) in Theological and Education spaces, in search of a Decolonial Philosophical Perspective

Women (African/Black) in Theological and Education spaces, in search of a Decolonial Philosophical Perspective

The Significance of Intergenerational Collaboration as Young People Engage in Youth Activism in Educational Spaces

Youth Liberation Army (YLA) is a youth-led grassroots organization advocating for school abolition and addressing issues most concerning young people in schools and communities. YLA utilizes adult ally trainings to invite educators to work toward liberatory education. The transformative organizing practices of YLA are examined through a youth activism framework to discuss how young people and adult allies may collaborate to disrupt systemic injustices in schools and communities. Findings from a critical qualitative Project in Humanization are shared to examine the power and purpose of an adult ally training facilitated by YLA in a conventional teacher education program (TEP). Through critical listening and dialogic spiraling, reflections and implications on intergenerational collaboration are provided by a researcher-teacher educator and a participant-youth organizer. The dynamics between YLA, teacher candidates, and a teacher educator highlight the significance and possibilities of intergenerational collaboration when youth organizers are welcomed into TEPs as co-educators.

Exploring the Adoption of Robotics in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Institutions

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a prevalent part of many businesses, including higher education. AI is progressively gaining traction as an instrumental engagement tool in higher education institutions (HEIs). The premise underlying this trend is the potential of robots to foster enhanced student engagement and, consequently, elevate academic performance. Considering this development, HEI’s must probe deeper into the possible adoption of robotics in educational practices. This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive exploration into the adoption of robotics in teaching and learning in the higher education space. To provide a holistic perspective, this study poses three questions: what factors influence robotics uptake in HEIs, how can robots be integrated to improve teaching and learning in HEIs, and what are the perceived benefits of robotics implementation in teaching and learning. A bibliometric analysis and comprehensive review methodology were employed in this study to provide an in-depth assessment of the development, significance, and implications of robotics in HEIs. The dual approach offers a robust evaluation of robotics as a pivotal element needed for the enhancement of teaching and learning practices. The study’s findings uncover the increasing adoption of robotics within the higher education sphere. It also identifies the challenges encountered during adoption, ranging from technical hurdles to educational adjustments. Furthermore, this paper offers guidelines for various stakeholders for the effective integration of robotics into higher education.

“A new or false hope?” practice and policy on teaching–research linkage in contemporary Cambodia’s higher education

PurposeThe teaching–research nexus (TRN) has assumed a prominent role in global higher education systems. However, the connection between the two domains has been subject to diverse interpretations within well-developed higher education systems. Little is known about translating TRN into policy and practice in diverse higher education spaces. In this regard, this article examines the recent trajectory and challenges associated with integrating research and teaching in Cambodia.Design/methodology/approachTo analyse the current development of TRN and its associated challenges, this article consolidates two sets of data: recent research papers and government policy documents on TRN in the last 10 years or so.FindingsThe analysis shows that the connection between teaching and research appears to be patchy in practice, as evidenced in previous studies. The recent government policies and interventions, although potentially fostering progress in research activities, pose dilemmas regarding the orientation and feasibility of linking these two domains.Research limitations/implicationsThis article focuses on enhancing TRN in Cambodia, one of the developing higher education contexts, thereby offering insights into the strategies and concerns within such environments. Policymakers in similar higher education contexts might benefit from considering the concerns and solutions highlighted in this article.Originality/valueResearch on policies and strategies for strengthening TRN in developing higher education contexts remains limited in the literature. This article contributes to our collective knowledge of TRN by looking at Cambodia's contemporary reality and strategies.

On the crossroads: Gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee

Background: Research in gender and sexuality studies focuses on the experiences of LGBTQI communities and how they are discriminated against in societies. Research on career transitioning has focused on how employees navigate their world of work, with fewer studies focusing on career transitioning with transgender employees in the workplace.Objectives: This article aims to provide a unique perspective by delving into the career transition journey of a young transgender male-to-female employee. By exploring her experiences in the workplace, I hope to shed light on the challenges and triumphs of her journey.Method: This article presents a qualitative, phenomenological case study exploring the lived experiences of Angel (pseudonym), a young transgender employee at an educational space, as she navigates gender identity and career transition crossroads. The study employed a face-to-face semi-structured interview as a data collection method.Results: This article shows how Angel struggled to find and become herself in the workplace while navigating her gender and career transition. It demonstrates her lived experiences, the multiple faces of gender and career transitioning, and her journey of being at the workplace.Conclusion: The findings reveal significant challenges faced by transgender employees, including discrimination, microaggressions, and systemic barriers. Training about transgender people and workplace inclusivity should be a strategic priority for organisations.Contribution: This case study contributes to our understanding of the complex intersections between gender transition and career development, highlighting unique challenges faced by transgender employees through discrimination, identity navigation, and systemic barriers. These insights can inform inclusive workplace policies and practices.

ТЕКСТОВІ ЗАДАЧІ ЯК ЗАСІБ ФОРМУВАННЯ У ЗДОБУВАЧІВ ПОЧАТКОВОЇ ОСВІТИ ЗНАНЬ ПРО БЕЗПЕЧНУ ПОВЕДІНКУ НА УРОКАХ МАТЕМАТИКИ

The article substantiates the relevance of the problem of preserving educational institutions as safe spaces for learning and education. A number of regulatory and legal acts of Ukraine were announced, detailing the content, forms and methods of organizational and educational work in the relevant direction. It was established that the formation of knowledge about safe behavior among students must be carried out directly and indirectly ‒ by means of special educational disciplines and interdisciplinary integration. A number of studies of Ukrainian scientists were noted, in which the problem of forming the basics of safe behavior among students of education is raised. The scientific work of Ukrainian and Polish scientists regarding the integration of «security topics» into the content of mathematics lessons is briefly characterized. The conceptual dimension of the security problem has been clarified: the definitions of the terms «security», «human security», «safety of the educational environment», «safe educational environment» available in the scientific space have been clarified. It is noted that among the directions of the organization of a safe educational environment, the pedagogical one occupies an important place ‒ it concerns the formation of students’ knowledge, abilities and skills regarding safe behavior. The concept of «safe behavior» has been specified. The content of one of the Standard educational programs for primary school was analyzed for the purpose of the reflection of issues of safe behavior in its content: «expected learning outcomes» from certain educational fields have been updated, which reflect the focus of the content of primary education on the formation of students’ safe behavior skills; relevant thematic profiles are defined. On the basis of the analysis of the studied sources, the potential possibilities of textual problems as a means of forming knowledge about safe behavior among students of education have been revealed. Variants of textual problems that can be used in mathematics lessons in order to implement the specified pedagogical process are represented (among them are simple tasks for finding the sum and remainder and for increasing and decreasing a number by several units; simple difference comparison problems; simple tasks for finding the product and quotient; composed tasks for finding the sum and the difference;composed tasks for finding the sum and the difference, which contain the relation «more than», «more than», «less than», «less than»;composed tasks for finding the third term; complex problems, which include finding a part of a number and a number by its part; etc.).

INVISIBLES AT SCHOOL: RE-SIGNIFYING FOSTER CARE PEDAGOGIES FOR ADOPTED AND INSTITUTIONAL CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

This article presents the results of a qualitative research on adopted institutional care children and adolescents that investigated the need to re-signify Foster Care Pedagogies to reverse their invisibility in schools. Freire's (2000) and Skliar's (2019) contributions on inclusion and diversity pointed to the need for greater attention to the uniqueness of each child and adolescent enrolled in elementary schools. It was executed a case study based on Yin (2000), where three interviews were conducted with the teacher, pedagogical coordinator and principal; four interviews with families of adopted children; and a workshop with twenty-two students in a municipal school in Caxias do Sul/RS, Brazil. Categories of analysis were built considering the pedagogies of Reception, the planning of the pedagogical strategy for children and adolescents adopted and the impact of institutional care for children. It was possible to observe that when the condition of adoption or institutional foster care is made invisible in educational spaces, and it can cause significant changes in the learning and development of these human beings. For data analysis, it was used the content analysis technique of Bardin (1994). The results indicated that it is necessary to accomplish inclusive actions that consider the differences of children and adolescents adopted or in institutional care.

Artificial Intelligence Writing in Higher Education:

Winter 2023 was a scary time for educators being confronted with generative AI for the first time. The launch of ChatGPT caused nothing less than a seismic shift in the field of higher education. Amidst calls to ban it from schools and decrying the end of entire disciplines, there was also a great surge of enthusiasm and optimism as faculty and students alike contended with how this will shape their educational experience going forward. This paper reflects on this time and on the then-emerging issue of how to respond to generative AI in higher education from the perspective of a teaching and learning centre. These centres occupy a middle space for educators between the administration making decisions for institutions and the faculty members responding to generative AI in their classrooms. Teaching and learning centres can provide resources, strategize, and centralize the distribution of information, resources, and supports from across institutions and between institutions.

INTEGRATED TEACHING OF ORGANIC SYSTEMS: PROPOSAL FOR AN INVESTIGATIVE APPROACH IN HEALTH EDUCATION

The need for motivating pedagogical strategies that awaken a student who is a protagonist and has the ability to argue scientifically and critically motivated this study, which had as its general objective to develop and analyze the application of an investigative didactic sequence about the integration of the human body and health, developed in the light of meaningful learning and combined with a non-formal educational space. The research was developed with 30 students from the 3rd year of high school at a public school in the city of Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais and had 3 stages: 1. Elaboration and descriptive analysis of the application of the didactic sequence; 2. Analysis of the students' conception; and 3. Analysis of the students' perception about the application of the investigative didactic sequence. An investigative didactic sequence was developed using Digital Information and Communication Technologies on the theme “The influence of physical exercise on the human body”. Through the interpretation of data produced and collected from the application of the activities of the didactic sequence and semi-structured questionnaires, it was possible to identify that 26 students fully agreed with the statement “The systems of the human body function in an integrated manner”. In the descriptive analysis of the application of the investigative didactic sequence, it was possible to perceive, through the students' reports, video production and conceptual maps: students' enthusiasm in leaving traditional teaching; integrated understanding of the concepts addressed by the theme; curiosity aroused by the investigative context; interest in using digital technologies in activities and in seeking scientific information to explain phenomena experienced in everyday life. When evaluating the students' perception in relation to the applied SDI, 28 answered affirmatively to the question "Did you enjoy participating in the activities of the investigative didactic sequence? Why?", with 19 of these students listing the acquisition of knowledge about the human body as the main reason. And 2 students stated that they did not enjoy the applied activities, as they found them laborious and difficult. All students participating in the study reported that the visit to the Center for Education and Communication in Life Sciences/UFMG contributed to their learning. Therefore, it is considered that the research provided students with an opportunity for an autonomous construction of knowledge and understanding about important science concepts in the context of health education and provided conditions for meaningful learning.