Behind closed doors – Understanding how local politicians influence school allocation

Behind closed doors – Understanding how local politicians influence school allocation

by | NW 23 Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Every year, parents across Europe and beyond face the pivotal choice of which school is the most suitable for their children. But do they truly have as much choice as they believe? Through his exploration into the allocation of primary school places in the case of Berlin’s inner-city district, Dabisch’s (2022) European Education Research Journal article sheds light on the significant role of local politicians in shaping and executing national education policies. As the universal pursuit of educational equality remains a distant goal, these findings prompt a deeper reflection on the current complexities of educational governance and the nuanced influence of the ‘local’ in achieving educational equality on a European and global scale.

The debate surrounding school allocation

In discussions about school allocation, the concept of ‘choice’ stands as a central and contentious issue. While parental influence has been a focal point in recent media coverage (see this article by Forbes), it is essential to recognise the role of local political actors, who play a crucial part in establishing catchment areas, challenging institutional reputations, and ensuring equal educational opportunities.

Berlin’s historical legacy as a city divided into districts, each presenting unique challenges and characteristics, enriches this discussion. Since 1949, parents have had the option to choose a school outside their catchment area, a reform that has arguably heightened social segregation and competition. Navigating this complex allocation system falls on the shoulders of district elected department heads, highlighting the critical role they play in shaping educational access and outcomes.

Research findings

Dabisch’s (2022) study, based on interviews with three department heads, reveals significant differences in the implementation of federal regulations regarding primary school place allocation across Berlin’s district.

Despite a shared acknowledgement of the importance of providing sufficient primary school places within walking distance for children and improving the reputation of undersubscribed schools, contextual factors such as population size, available school places, and historical catchment areas profoundly influence decision-making (p.823). For instance, the challenges posed by high student populations in districts A and B constrained the department heads’ ability to achieve their objectives, prompting them to perceive their influence on allocation as limited (p.826).

Far from conforming to rational decision-making, department heads’ decisions and policy interpretations were heavily influenced by their political beliefs. Social-democratic heads, for example, prioritised social diversity, while the conservative head’s commitment was conditional on alignment with parental interests, reflecting broader political values and priorities (p.826).

Interestingly, the fragmented responses observed among Berlin’s district heads were linked to the absence of a unified emphasis on catchment areas within the city’s teacher unions (p.827). This lack of cohesive guidance impedes efforts to address competition and limit choice dynamics amongst parents, highlighting the need for greater coordination within local communities.

Implications beyond Berlin’s borders

What does this reveal about the direction of education policy in Europe? The last decade has witnessed a gradual shift towards ‘decentralization’, which refers to the process of granting more power to local educational authorities. Whilst this system may promote democratic choice and innovation in education, Dabisch’s (2022) findings highlight that it can also result in fragmented schooling and exacerbated disparities amongst schools, ultimately perpetuating social inequalities.

 Where you go to school, and consequently school allocation processes, matter (see in this Sutton Trust Report). As decentralisation continues, mitigating these distinctions amongst schools and achieving the global aim of ensuring “inclusive and equitable quality education…for all” by 2030 (United Nations, 2018) depends more than ever on local actors to implement national policy effectively. This is especially crucial considering that it is the quality of enactment, rather than the policy itself, that is pivotal for educational improvement (Nordholm et al,2022:1).

Ultimately, these findings demonstrate the importance of finding a balance between central and local responsibilities in European educational governance when such local disparities persist. Achieving this balance is crucial for effective policy enactment, adapting to local contexts, and, most importantly, ensuring equal access to education. This should prompt education systems across Europe to ask: What is the best approach to achieve this balance?

As the UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer advocates for breaking the “class ceiling” through further decentralisation (The Labour Party, 2022:5), Berlin’s educational governance offers a glimpse into the potential future of school communities across Europe if this question isn’t comprehensively answered.

Key Messages

  • Local politicians significantly influence the implementation of national educational policies, affecting school catchment areas and educational success
  • Berlin’s historical district-based structure and school choice policies have led to increased social segregation and competition
  • Differences in policy implementation among district heads are shaped by contextual factors and political beliefs, causing inconsistent educational outcomes
  • Decentralisation in education can lead to fragmented systems and increased inequalities, highlighting the need for balanced central and local governance
Daisy MacRae

Daisy MacRae

Daisy MacRae is a final year MA (Hons) Government, Policy and Society student at the University of Edinburgh.

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

  • Burgess, S., Greaves, E., &Vignoles, A. (2020). School places: A fair choice. Educational Review.
  • Crawford, M., Maxwell, B., Coldron, J., & Simkins, T. (2020). Local authorities as actors in the emerging “school-led” system in England. Educational Review, 1–17.
  • Dabisch, V. (2022). Which child to which school? How local politicians shape catchment areas, school choice and diversity. European Educational Research Journal, 22(6), 814–833.
  • ‌Dzhurylo, A. (2019). Decentralization in education systems: European policies and practices. Education: Modern Discourses, 1, 29–37.
  • Morrison, N. (2024) Are Lotteries The Fairest Way To Allocate School Places? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2024/01/10/are-lotteries-the-fairest-way-to-allocate-school-places/
  • ‌Nordholm, D., Wermke, W., & Jarl, M. (2022). In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 1–21.
  • The Labour Party: Policy Positions on Key Education Issues. (2022). https://plmr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Labour-Party-Policy-Positions_Education_Dec2022web.pdf
  • United Nations. (2018). What is the goal here? Why does education matter? https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Goal-4.pdf
Parental and Family Involvement in Children’s Digital Learning: Bridging Policy and Practice

Parental and Family Involvement in Children’s Digital Learning: Bridging Policy and Practice

by | ESAI, NW 14 Communities, Families, and Schooling in Educational Research

As education systems adapt to the demands of the digital age, preparing students to live and learn in a technology driven world has become a pressing priority. The successful integration of digital technologies in education is a complex, multi-faceted process that depends on several interrelated factors, including the crucial role of family support and socio-economic conditions (Giannoutsou et al., 2024). This blog briefly explores how European and Irish digital education policies seek to address parental and family involvement in children’s digital learning—a topic we believe deserves greater recognition. We aim to spark discussions about how education systems and school communities can better support families, especially those at risk of digital exclusion. We will conclude with proffering recommendations for bridging gaps in policy and practice to foster inclusive digital learning environments.

Parental involvement in children’s learning: why it matters?

A large body of research highlights the benefits of parental involvement on children’s development, both socially and academically.  Whether at home, in school, or both, the more parents actively engage in their child’s education, the better the outcomes.  But what exactly is parental involvement in an educational context? Literature describes it as a ‘multi-faceted’ (Epstein, 1995) and ‘multi-dimensional’ concept (Laranjeiro et al.,2023). As a general definition, parental involvement refers to parents actively engaging in their child’s education both at school and at home. Several seminal publications provide frameworks for understanding the concept of parental involvement, including the Parental Involvement Process model (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995, 1997) and Epstein’s six types of parental involvement (1995). These frameworks enable us to understand why and how parents become involved in their child’s education.

As education systems and schools work towards integrating digital technologies into education successfully, these theoretical perspectives clearly elucidate the central role parents play. By recognising this role, we can work toward building stronger family-school partnerships in the digital age with the ultimate aim of achieving better outcomes for children.

Policy – the role of parents and families in digital education

The digital transformation of education, defined as “a realignment of education models utilising digital technology to engage students, teachers, parents, and leaders more effectively at every point in the students’ schooling journey” (McCarthy et al., 2023, p. 9), has seen education systems across the globe develop strategies and policies to guide the integration and use of digital technologies in schools (van der Flies, 2020). Yet, parental involvement in digital education is often overlooked in such policies (Internetmatters.org, 2024), despite research highlighting that strong school-parent relationships are integral to the digital transformation process (Giannoutsou et al., 2024).

Some recent development suggests a more optimistic outlook. At EU level, a 2023 European Council recommendation called for the “active participation” of parents and other underrepresented groups in digital education reforms. At national level, Ireland’s Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 emphasises empowering parents to support children’s digital learning, acknowledging gaps in adult digital skills. Similarly, Ireland’s Literacy, Numeracy, and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024–2033 aims to expand family digital literacy programmes, particularly for marginalised communities.

Enacting these policies and strategies at school level requires the engagement of key actors, particularly school leaders and teachers (McCarthy et al., 2023). By promoting parental involvement in children’s digital learning, they play a key role in fostering stronger family-school partnerships, which work towards enhancing student outcomes (Yulianti et al., 2022). However, with school leaders and teachers already managing numerous policies and initiatives, implementing additional actions to support digital education policies requires substantial investment in both physical and human resources in our educations systems.

What does this look like in practice? Some examples of digital resources and programmes

Building on the understanding of parental involvement as active engagement in children’s education both at home and in school, here are some Irish initiatives and resources designed to support family-school partnerships in the digital age:

  • Programme to Enhance Digital Literacy (PEDL): This school-based programme in Ireland is designed to support and shape parents’ digital confidence and competence, enabling them to better support their children’s digital learning. Read more about the programme here.
  • European Year of Digital Citizenship Education (2025): Hosted by the Council of Europe, this initiative offers tools and ideas to help parents and carers support their children in becoming ethical individuals who can actively participate in online and offline communities. You can access the resources for parents here.
  • Digital Wellbeing Resources: Many available resources for parents focus on supporting aspects of their children’s digital wellbeing, such as internet safety. Two notable examples from Ireland include Webwise Guides for Parents, which addresses issues like cyberbullying and online safety, and Barnardo’s Parent Section, offering practical guidance to foster safe digital environments at home.

These links offer a brief insight into some of the materials available to schools which could be used to foster parental involvement in children’s digital education. For maximum impact, we recommend complementing these resources with training for members of the school community to provide in-person sessions, which facilitate direct engagement and stronger connections between parents and schools. Furthermore, we echo Gonzalez-DeHass et al. (2022) in highlighting the need for further research into meaningful home-based digital learning practices, as well as the development of tailored resources specifically aimed at shaping parents’ competence in using digital learning tools and platforms for education.

Recommendations

To support parental involvement in children’s digital learning, we propose the following actions:

Allocate a Dedicated Parent and Family Support Position in Schools:

Providing dedicated staff to support parents can strengthen family-school relationships. In Ireland, the Home School Community Liaison Officer (HSCLO) role is designed to support parents of students at risk of educational disadvantage. While this position is currently limited to schools with DEIS (disadvantaged) status, its benefits could extend to all schools, fostering greater parental involvement and support across diverse educational contexts. An OECD review (2024) highlighted that even non-DEIS schools see the HSCLO role as a valuable asset. Expanding this position to all schools, with a focus on families at risk of digital exclusion, could significantly enhance parental involvement.

Implement School-Based Interventions to Enhance Parents’ Digital Self-Efficacy:

Low levels of digital self-efficacy hinder parents’ ability and motivation to engage with their children’s digital learning (Gonzalez-DeHass et al., 2022). With adequate training and resources, schools can support the implementation of targeted, in-person interventions to build parents’ digital skills and competences. Such programmes would not only foster stronger family-school relationships but also increase parental involvement in digital learning. To ensure success, school leaders should follow established frameworks, such as those outlined by Qualter (2024). However, for such interventions to be successful, they must be adequately resourced by education systems. This includes providing funding, training, and support for schools to design and deliver these programmes effectively. Without this systemic backing, school leaders and teachers—already stretched by existing demands – will naturally face challenges in implementing these initiatives

Key Messages

  • Parental involvement plays a central role in children’s educational outcomes.
  • Building meaningful, collaborative family-school partnerships is essential for creating inclusive approaches to digital education and mitigating digital exclusion.
  • Parental involvement is increasingly recognised in digital education policies as a key factor in addressing digital exclusion, but more actionable steps are needed to turn this recognition into practice.
  • Expanding the Home School Community Liaison Officer (HSCLO) programme, or similar roles, to all schools – regardless of status – can strengthen family-school relationships and provide targeted support for families at risk of many forms of exclusion, including digital.
  • School-based interventions designed to enhance parents’ digital self-efficacy can increase their engagement in children’s digital learning and foster more inclusive educational environments.
  • Schools must be equipped with adequate human, physical, and digital resources, alongside comprehensive training, to effectively involve families in digital learning and ensure all students benefit from the opportunities of the digital age.
  • Successful policy implementation depends on adequate resourcing (see point above). Without this, overburdened school leaders and teachers may struggle to deliver the intended impact of digital transformation initiatives.
Declan Qualter

Declan Qualter

Practice Placement Supervisor, University College Dublin, School of Education

Declan Qualter works in the School of Education at University College Dublin, Ireland, where he is the Practice Placement Supervisor for the UCD Bachelor of Education with Gaeilge and/or Modern Languages programme, and he also teaches on the UCD Professional Masters in Education programme. In addition, Declan is a PhD candidate at the UCD School of Education, where his research focuses on parental involvement in children’s home-based digital learning. His other research interests are focused on the digital transformation of education, particularly the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in educational settings.

Linked in – https://www.linkedin.com/in/declanqualter/

Orcid – https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4872-0343

Research gate – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Declan-Qualter 

Dr Rachel Farrell

Dr Rachel Farrell

Assistant Professor, University College Dublin, School of Education

Dr Rachel Farrell is Assistant Professor of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and the Director of the Professional Master of Education Programme (PME) in the School of Education at University College Dublin. Rachel’s main research interest is in the area of Democratic Pedagogical Partnerships and Expansive Learning in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Rachel has led many collaborative initiatives including: effective use of immersive technology in post-primary education with SchooVR, an evaluation of digital portfolios in ITE with MS Education Ireland, cyber resilience education with the Department of the Environment Climate and Communications (DECC) – see www.cyberwise.ie, The Look See What I Can Be: Changing Mindsets/Impacting Futures in STEM funded by SFI and supported by the Professional Development Services for Teachers (PDST), SFI funded Science Week initiative in 2021 and the PDST Young Economist of the Year national awards for post-primary students in association with multiple universities and government agencies.

X – @econrachel

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-farrell-phd-ucd/

Ordid – https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5828-7938 

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

Epstein, J. L. (1995). School/Family/Community Partnerships: Caring for the Children We Share. The Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701–712. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405436

Giannoutsou, N., Ioannou, A., Timotheou, S., Miliou, O., Dimitriadis, Y., Cachia, R., Villagrá-, S. S., & Martínez-, M. A. (2024, January 29). Unpacking the impact of digital technologies in Education. JRC Publications Repository. https://doi.org/10.2760/214675

Gonzalez-DeHass, A. R., Willems, P. P., Powers, J. R., & Musgrove, A. T. (2022). Parental involvement in supporting students’ digital learning. Educational Psychologist, 57(4), 281–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2022.2129647

Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1995). Parental involvement in children’s education: Why does it make a difference? Teachers College Record, 97(2), 310–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146819509700202

Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their children’s education? Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 3–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170618

Internetmatters.org (2024, September 6). Children’s Wellbeing in a Digital World — Index Report 2024. Internet Matters. https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/research/childrens-wellbeing-in-a-digital-world-index-report-2024/#full-report

Laranjeiro, D., Antunes, M. J., & Santos, P. (2023). Using Design-Based Research for a Technological Intervention to Promote Parental Involvement in Kindergarten. SN Computer Science, 4(3), 278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-023-01666-8

McCarthy, A. M., Maor, D., McConney, A., & Cavanaugh, C. (2023). Digital transformation in education: Critical components for leaders of system change. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 8(1), 100479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100479

OECD. (2024). OECD Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage in Ireland. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/3433784c-en

Qualter, D. (2024). From Digital Exclusion to Digital Inclusion: Shaping the Role of Parental Involvement in Home-Based Digital Learning – A Narrative Literature Review. Computers in the Schools, 41(2), 120–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2024.2322167

van der Flies, R. (2020). Digital strategies in education across OECD countries: Exploring education policies on digital technologies. OECD Education Working Papers, Vol. 226. https://doi.org/10.1787/33dd4c26-en

Yulianti, K., Denessen, E., Droop, M., & Veerman, G.-J. (2022). School efforts to promote parental involvement: The contributions of school leaders and teachers. Educational Studies, 48(1), 98–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2020.1740978

Math meditation – how mindfulness transforms anxiety into numbers

Math meditation – how mindfulness transforms anxiety into numbers

by | NW 24 Mathematics Education Research

Even though mathematics is often considered the queen of sciences and one of the most important subjects taught in school, it remains a mystery to many people and is associated with fear—often passed down to children by parents, guardians, teachers, and social and cultural influences. Many educators, who play a crucial role in nurturing talents and supporting the development of mathematical skills, may benefit from additional training and resources on this topic.

The myth of mathematical talent as an innate gift

The belief that mathematical talent is both rare and inherited is a widespread cultural myth. Many still assume that success in mathematics requires a special, innate “gift” that cannot be learned or developed through effort alone. Research has shown that people often associate math achievement with brilliance, and this perceived brilliance is commonly thought to be genetically determined. For instance, surveys of both academics and the general public reveal a tendency to view math as a subject where innate talent plays a larger role than effort or teaching. (E. Chestnut, R. Ley, S. Leslie, A. Cimpian 2018; Science Daily, 2020).

Genetic studies suggest some link between brain development and mathematical ability, though the extent of the influence of heredity remains complex. For example, research on the neurobiological origins of mathematical ability highlights how certain genetic factors affect brain structures associated with quantity processing, influencing mathematical skills in children​ (M. Skeide et. Al, 2020).

This view, however, has important social implications, as it perpetuates stereotypes that brilliance—and thus success in mathematics—is more common among certain groups (such as males or people of specific racial backgrounds) while discouraging others from pursuing math-intensive fields ​(E. Chestnut, R. Ley, S. Leslie, A. Cimpian, 2018).

In my homeland, Poland, we recognize a great need to change the way mathematics is taught, starting from the earliest educational stages (StrefaEdukacji 2024). Unfortunately, this cannot happen immediately. It requires a lot of time, effort, and willingness to meet such a difficult challenge.

Could mindfulness help alleviate maths anxiety?

My academic interests are related to early childhood education in mathematics and language. During my work in primary schools, with students, and while conducting research projects, I noticed that the fear that often accompanies mathematics can be mitigated. Completing a psychotherapy course and having my own experiences with mindfulness led me to realize that this could be an important point in alleviating mathematical anxiety. As it later turned out, I was not the only one who thought this way.

The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to widely introduce mindfulness into schools. Mindfulness programs began to be implemented on a larger scale in 2019 as part of an initiative aimed at improving students’ mental health. This project, carried out by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in collaboration with University College London, involved around 370 schools in England. As part of the initiative, students participated in mindfulness exercises, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises to improve their mental well-being (Chen, C. ,2021,Weare, K., & Bethune, A.,2021).

Research on the impact of mindfulness on mathematics performance in schools has yielded promising results. One study conducted on primary school students in the United Kingdom found that mindfulness interventions can help reduce mathematics anxiety, which in turn can improve mathematics performance. Students who regularly practiced mindfulness before math lessons reported lower levels of anxiety and better results in math tests. However, the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on the school and its approach to implementing the program (Henderson, D., 2019)​.

Other studies on secondary school students indicate a positive impact of mindfulness on high-stakes mathematics test performance. Specifically, students who participated in mindfulness sessions before tests achieved better results than their peers who did not have such an intervention. Mindfulness helped them reduce stress and anxiety related to testing, which positively influenced their achievements (Zuo, H., & Wang, L. (2023)).

It is worth noting, however, that although research indicates the benefits of mindfulness in mathematics education, the effectiveness of these programs can depend on various factors, such as the implementation method and individual differences among students. Therefore, further research is necessary to better understand how and why mindfulness affects mathematics performance (Meyer, L., & Eklund, K. (2020).

Traditional Teaching of Mathematics

Mathematics is often taught in a highly structured way, prioritizing memorization and practice of specific techniques. This conventional method is teacher-centered and results-driven, emphasizing accuracy and speed. Many students experience math anxiety due to the pressure of getting correct answers quickly, which can make learning rigid and stressful. Mistakes are typically viewed as failures rather than opportunities for learning, contributing to a fear-based relationship with the subject​. (Boaler, J., 2016).

Traditional math teaching often emphasizes heavy focus on formulas and algorithms, requiring students to memorize and apply them in repetitive ways. This approach places a strong emphasis on performance, especially through tests and exams, where students are judged primarily on their ability to get the right answer quickly. Instruction tends to be teacher-centered, allowing little room for exploration or curiosity, as students follow strict procedures rather than engaging in creative problem-solving. Mistakes are often seen as failures rather than opportunities for growth, which can lead to increased anxiety among students. As a result, this method of teaching tends to disconnect learners from emotional or mindful engagement, reducing their ability to connect with the material on a deeper level.

Teaching Mathematics with Mindfulness

In teaching mathematics with mindfulness, there is a strong encouragement of self-reflection and mindfulness exercises aimed at reducing student anxiety. Mistakes are normalized, promoting a learning process that embraces trial and error rather than fear of failure. The focus shifts from memorizing formulas to understanding concepts deeply, ensuring that students grasp the “why” behind the methods they use. Real-world applications of math concepts are highlighted to make the subject more engaging and relevant. Additionally, collaborative learning environments are fostered, supporting cooperative problem-solving and peer interaction, which enhances both understanding and enjoyment of the subject (Leppma, M., & Darrah, M., 2022).

Studies suggest that incorporating mindfulness practices in math classrooms can significantly reduce anxiety and improve problem-solving skills by helping students focus on the present moment and engage with math in a more open, less judgmental way (Ahmed, K., Trager, B., Rodwell, M., Foinding, L., & Lopez, C., 2017).). This approach aligns well with contemporary educational goals that prioritize not just cognitive, but emotional and social development.

Summary – and a call for change in teaching mathematics in Poland

In my opinion, considering the needs of Polish children, we should implement similar initiatives in our country. The experiences in the United Kingdom clearly demonstrate that mindfulness in education can help students. Introducing mindfulness programs in schools, especially amidst the current mental health crisis among children and adolescents, can serve as a powerful tool for fostering mental health hygiene and prevention.

By adopting these practices, we can help Polish youth not only academically but also develop the resilience and well-being needed to thrive in all aspects of their lives. And as mindfulness has no cultural boundaries, such assistance should, in my opinion, be a right for every student attending school in every country in our world.

Key Messages

  • Mindfulness reduces math anxiety by shifting focus to the present moment.
  • Embracing mistakes as part of the learning process improves problem-solving skills.
  • Mindful approaches foster a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.
  • Mindfulness improves concentration, leading to better performance in math.
  • Math meditation enhances emotional and cognitive development.
Dr Maja Wenderlich

Dr Maja Wenderlich

Assistant Professor in the Department of Supporting Human Development and Education, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

Ahmed, K., Trager, B., Rodwell, M., Foinding, L., & Lopez, C. (2017). A review of mindfulness research related to alleviating math and science anxiety. Journal for Leadership and Instruction, 16(2), 26–30. https://spiral.lynn.edu/facpubs/434/

Bennett, D. (2019). Mindfulness and math: The role of mindfulness in mathematics education and assessment. Large-scale Assessments in Education, 7(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-019-0078-1 

Boaler, J. (2016). Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students’ potential through creative math, inspiring messages and innovative teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Ernest, P. (1989). The philosophy of mathematics education. London, England: Falmer Press. 2016-07883-000 

Chen, C. (2021). Exploring mindfulness-based school programs around the world. Centre for Education Improvement. https://www.edimprovement.org/post/exploring-mindfulness-based-school-programs-around-the-world

Chestnut,  E., Ley, R., Leslie, S., Cimpian, A. (2018). The Myth That Only Brilliant People Are Good at Math and Its Implications for Diversity. Education sciences, 8(2), 65. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8020065

Henderson, D. (2019). Exploring the impact of a mindfulness-based intervention in relation to primary school children’s mathematics anxiety [Doctorate of Educational Psychology in Educational Child and Community Psychology]. University of Exeter. https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/38965

Leppma, M., & Darrah, M. (2022). Self-efficacy, mindfulness, and self-compassion as predictors of math anxiety in undergraduate students. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 1–16. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10327283-self-efficacy-mindfulness-self-compassion-predictors-math-anxiety-undergraduate-students 

Meyer, L., & Eklund, K. (2020). The impact of a mindfulness intervention on elementary classroom climate and student and teacher mindfulness: A pilot study. Mindfulness, 11, 991-1005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01317-6

Neuroscience News. (2020, October 28). Genetics linked to children’s math ability. Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/genetics-math-ability-17207/

Rodríguez, S., Regueiro, B., Piñeiro, I., Estévez, I., & Valle, A. (2020). Gender differences in mathematics motivation: Differential effects on performance in primary education. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 3050. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03050

ScienceDaily. (2020, October 22). Mindfulness training in schools reduces stress and improves mental health. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201022144549.htm

StrefaEdukacji. (2023, September 4). Wiceminister edukacji Katarzyna Lubnauer zapowiada zmiany w nauczaniu matematyki. Strefa Edukacji. https://strefaedukacji.pl/wiceminister-edukacji-katarzyna-lubnauer-zapowiada-zmiany-w-nauczaniu-matematyki-szkoly-czeka-kolejna-rewolucja/ar/c5-18385069

Weare, K., & Bethune, A. (2021). Implementing mindfulness in schools: An evidence-based guide. The Mindfulness Initiative. https://mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/implementingmindfulnessinschools-vfinal-digital.pdf#:~:text=URL%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fmindfulnessinschools.org%2Fwp

Zuo, H., & Wang, L. (2023). The influences of mindfulness on high-stakes mathematics test achievement of middle school students. Frontiers in Psychology, 14.  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1061027/full

EduTopics: ECER – A WebApp for exploring ECER contributions since 1998

EduTopics: ECER – A WebApp for exploring ECER contributions since 1998

by | NW 12 LISnet - Library and Information Science Network

30 years of EERA means 30 years of ECER conferences. 30 years of discussions. 30 years of inspiring new research ideas, setting trends but also reflecting and adapting to paradigm shifts in terms of educational issues and methodological advancements. This momentous occasion is not only an anniversary to be celebrated and should be a point of retro- and introspection, but also of tone and theme setting for the future of educational research. After all, ECER is and always has been one of the central yearly occasions to reflect on one’s own work and determine potential future avenues of research. But as George Santayana once (allegedly) said: “To know your future, you must know your past.”

Which is easier said than done, when one glance at the sheer number of networks, authors and their contributions at ECER shows the vastness of educational research and investigated topics over the years and its heterogeneity. This vastness and heterogeneity are not only challenges to be overcome, but also a resource to be harnessed to identify past, current and potentially future trends in educational research. And this is exactly where EduTopics: ECER comes into play – the project on which this post is based.

Enabling users to explore past and present ECER contributions

Figure 1. Screenshot of the interactive plot on the development of contributions to ECER from 1998 to 2024 differentiated for ECER networks.

The main goal of EduTopics:ECER was to enable interested users to explore the corpus of contributions to the past (and present) ECER conferences. As gaining an overview of over 30,000 contributions in over 30 networks (see Figure 1) from thousands of authors is no small feat, we applied natural language processing, machine learning and clustering procedures to analyze and cluster the corpus. Procedures from those methodological areas were utilized to analyze the number of contributions related to the various ECER networks, authors, affiliation countries or years, and to determine the central topics of research across the years. For this purpose, we used topic modelling to determine the most frequent research topics across over 30,000 contributions and over 30 networks (see the methods section of the app for a detailed explanation and further references on topic modelling). 

On the one hand, the topic modelling process resulted in topics clearly associated with singular networks, such as topics on “history of education”, “vocational education”, or “teacher education”; on the other hand, cross-cutting topics relevant to a multitude of ECER networks were also identified, such as “transitions and decisions (in education)”, “emotions, motivation and self-efficacy” or methodological topics such as “ethnographic studies” or “reviews and bibliometrics”.

Figure 2. Screenshot of the interactive plot on the topic-relevancy over the years from 1998 to 2024 for the topic “Quantitative Scales and Questionnaires“
Figure 2. Screenshot of the interactive plot on the topic-relevancy over the years from 1998 to 2024 for the topic “Quantitative Scales and Questionnaires“
Figure 3. Screenshot of the interactive plot on the top 5 EERA networks for the topic “Quantitative Scales and Questionnaires“ from 1998 to 2024
Figure 3. Screenshot of the interactive plot on the top 5 ECER networks for the topic “Quantitative Scales and Questionnaires“ from 1998 to 2024

Users can explore the topics, their main authors, central contributions and yearly trends (see Figure 2), and explore the relevancy of the topics for each single author (with at least n = 5 contributions to ECER) or ECER network (see Figure 3). As simple lists of words, documents, authors and years may be happiness-inducing to some (us included) – they may not have the same effect on all. Therefore, for each variable and variable intersection, interactive visualizations were added to the app. Users can filter, zoom or even download the figures provided in the app. For those figures, we adapted “modern” interactive visualization techniques such as graph-drawings (see Figure 4) or 2D and 3D-mapping-scatterplots (see Figure 5) of the topics to enable users to identify the relationships, similarities or dissimilarities between the topics.

Figure 4. Screenshot of the interactive graph-plot of all k = 50 topics and all topic-indicative-terms with a term-topic-weight of at least 1%. The local and global structure of the graph was determined with a force-directed-graph-drawing-algorithm.
Figure 4. Screenshot of the interactive graph-plot of all k = 50 topics and all topic-indicative-terms with a term-topic-weight of at least 1%. The local and global structure of the graph was determined with a force-directed-graph-drawing-algorithm.
Figure 5. Screenshot of the interactive three-dimensional t-SNE-cluster-plot for the top n = 200 contributions of the topics “Gender and Gender Differences”, “History of Education” and “Philosophy of Education”.
Figure 5. Screenshot of the interactive three-dimensional t-SNE-cluster-plot for the top n = 200 contributions of the topics “Gender and Gender Differences”, “History of Education” and “Philosophy of Education”.

Furthermore, the app includes a section which enables the users to export samples at the intersection of ECER networks, topics and year of publication. If, for example, a user happens to be interested in contributions from the network “Sports Pedagogy” on the topic “Digitalisation and ICT” from 1998 to 2024, three simple clicks show all contributions related to this input (see Figure 6), and one more click leads to the download of the list of contributions.

Figure 6. Screenshot of an example for the export-function for the intersection of EERA network “18 – Sports Pedagogy” and the topic “Digitalisation and ICT” for 1998 to 2024. The resulting table shows all contributions for the selected settings, including their hyperlink to the ECER database of abstracts.
Figure 6. Screenshot of an example for the export-function for the intersection of ECER network “18 – Sports Pedagogy” and the topic “Digitalisation and ICT” for 1998 to 2024. The resulting table shows all contributions for the selected settings, including their hyperlink to the ECER database of abstracts.

The final interactive feature of the app allows users to insert any text into an input field. With one click, the text is mapped in relation to the corpus, resulting in the topics with the highest relevancy to the mapped text, as well as the most likely associated ECER networks and most similar contributions of the past ECER conferences to the entered text (which can be downloaded with one click, see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Screenshot of the app section on mapping individually entered texts. The text-example is the abstract from Christ, Penthin & Kröner (2021). The plots display the most likely topics and EERA networks of the entered text. The table displays the ECER contributions with the highest similarity to the entered text based on the lowest total euclidean distance between the document-topic-probabilities of the entered text and all ECER contributions.
Figure 7. Screenshot of the app section on mapping individually entered texts. The text-example is the abstract from Christ, Penthin & Kröner (2021). The plots display the most likely topics and ECER networks of the entered text. The table displays the ECER contributions with the highest similarity to the entered text based on the lowest total euclidean distance between the document-topic-probabilities of the entered text and all ECER contributions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this post presents a free tool for the exploration of the contributions to ECER from 1998 to 2024. It serves multiple purposes, as it may be used for creating plots and figures for publications, for answering research questions – for example on the cooperation between authors at ECER – or just for some light-hearted and fun exploration and discovery.

If you use the tool for your own research, we would be happy to link and mention your publications in a section of the app currently under development. We want to invite and encourage you to use the app to your heart’s content to explore the past ECER conferences, to look at the topics and your networks or to look up yourself, including which topics were assigned to your contributions.

We are happy to hear your thoughts about the app’s functions and its design and even, perhaps, about unexpected and surprising results and findings you encounter while using it. As an EERA-funded network seed project, EduTopics:ECER will be updated with next year’s contributions as well as new functions.

As a final note, we hope we could satisfy your curiosity, and give you a little bit of insight into the potentials and boundaries of natural language processing and machine learning for your own research.

Key Messages

  • EduTopics: ECER enables users to explore the contributions to past and present ECERs
  • Over 30,000 contributions from more than 30 networks are searchable due to natural language processing, machine learning and clustering procedures. 
  • In the EduTopics: ECER app, the central k = 50 themes of ECER contributions from 1998 to 2024 have been identified
  • Key insights can be gained by intersecting the k = 50 themes with covariates such as EERA networks or authors
  • All results and visualizations are interactive and free to use.
Dr Alexander Christ

Dr Alexander Christ

DIPF|Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education

Alexander Christ works at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education as a researcher on the application of machine learning, natural language processing and quantitative (big data) methods for the analyses of large literature corpora. His work focusses on developing and providing statistical code and interactive tools designed that open up new perspectives on and new avenues for research processes as well as empower their users.

Jens Röschlein

Jens Röschlein

DIPF|Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education”

Jens Röschlein works at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education for the German Education Portal and the German Education Server.

Christoph Schindler

Christoph Schindler

Deputy Head, Information Center Education, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education

Christoph Schindler is Link Convenor (NW 12 “Open Research in Education”), deputy head of the department “Information Center Education” (IZB) at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education and team leader (“Literature Information System”).

His team operates the German Education Portal, the German Education Index and the Open Access repository peDOCS. His interests are open science (open research information, open access), infrastructure design, graph technologies and science and technology studies.

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Easy and difficult maths problems – and why language matters

Easy and difficult maths problems – and why language matters

by | Emerging Researchers' Group, NW 24 Mathematics Education Research

As soon as we receive a task, we judge it, whether mentally or verbally. Is it interesting, boring, easy, difficult, or worthwhile? In school, teachers and students handle a large number of tasks every day, so it is unsurprising that they do the same.

For example, when  looking at the maths problems below, can you immediately tell which ones you find easy and which you would find more difficult to solve?

Three maths problems are shown. 350 + 120 769 + 858 444 - 111

If you were then asked to sort each addition problem according to its difficulty into the following table, could you solve the task, or would you hesitate?

A piece of paper with a line drawn down the middle. On one side of the line is a simple drawing that resembles a feather or perhaps a stalk of wheat. On the other side of the line is a simple drawing of two circles joined by a line, that resembles a dumbbell.

This sorting task is commonly used in German primary schools. Let’s take a closer look at it, and at the linguistic level of its illustrations. At first glance, the teacher may think this is a simple task, but when considered more closely, it is clear that understanding the task depends on the level of students’ experience, especially those new to the language of instruction, i.e., non-native speakers.  

In this blog post, I’d like to expand on the situational and linguistic factors that influence how a student may perceive the difficulty of a maths problem – beyond their basic mathematical abilities. 

Are there objective or subjective categories in mathematics teaching?

According to mathematics educators, the difficulty of math problems depends on how much effort students have to put into solving each problem, which again depends on their mathematical abilities (Rathgeb-Schnierer & Green 2015), and even diagnoses such as dyscalculia and other learning disabilities.

With this in mind, let’s look again at the maths problems above, how students might perceive them, and how educators might react to students who struggled with the task. Did you find them easy or difficult to solve?

350 + 120 – this task should be easy, given that you understand the decimal place value system. You can add the tens and the hundreds separately without having to carry, and each number is comparatively small.

References in the illustration: Torbeyns&Verschaffel (2013), Baroody (1984), 

Situational factors that affect mathematics understanding

Your judgement of a task’s difficulty might also depend on other factors. Maybe you spent the last weeks working only on subtraction problems, so they seem a little easier right now. Maybe your favourite number is eight, so you enjoy calculating with numbers that contain an eight, which makes the second problem the easiest for you. Perhaps the person next to you received the worksheet earlier, and after watching them calculate, none of the problems are difficult for you anymore. Maybe you want to impress your teacher by showing that you can solve all of the problems, even though they are difficult.

Your mathematical knowledge and familiarity with certain calculation strategies is only one factor that might affect how you solve maths problems. Equally important is your current situation and your relationship with the people you solve the problems with and for.

Whether you use the table to sort the problems as expected also depends on whether the task and the symbols were explained properly.

Linguistic factors that affect mathematics understanding

Whether the table above left you at a loss probably depends on how familiar you are with the German translations of ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’: ‘Leicht’ and ‘schwer’.

These words are often illustrated using drawings in the picture above of a feather and a dumbbell. These symbols are based on a second meaning of the German terms. ‘Leicht’ can also mean ‘light’ in the sense of weight, as illustrated by the feather. ‘Schwer’ can mean ‘heavy’, as illustrated by a dumbbell.

The task is to put the problems you find easy in the left column with the feather and the problems you find difficult in the right column with the dumbbell.

This example of a task observed in a German primary school classroom shows the relevance of language in mathematics classes – and how unexpected it can sometimes be. Without the linguistic explanation, there is no way of logically concluding which column to use for the easy and which for the difficult problems. Trying to find a logical connection between the terms and the symbols might even be misleading.

For example, you might consider the difficulty of a task to be its complexity and apply this to the illustrations. In that case, you might find the dumbbell symbol (which only consists of three lines) a lot less complex than the feather symbol. Consequently, you would sort the easy and difficult problems opposite to the task’s intention. Your only chance to use the table as intended would be to guess. But if you guessed wrong (and you have a 50% chance to do so), that would not be indicative of either your linguistic or mathematical abilities.

Especially when working with a student who is new to the language of instruction, we teachers, teacher assistants, or peers may be quick to assume students’ mistakes are due to a lack of linguistic understanding. We might even believe they didn’t receive proper mathematics education in their previous school.

Conclusion

There is more than mathematics and mathematics learning going on in mathematics lessons. We are often not aware of linguistic aspects, even in tasks and phrases we use every day, that are not explained sufficiently, even by translating.

All students face the challenge of handling these linguistic and situational aspects, but they may be especially confusing to those who have only recently joined a class in a new country, a new language, or a new culture. 

Can you think of an example of ambiguous terms or tasks in your native language? Do you also use the differentiation between ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ maths problems in your schools? 

Key Messages

  • Beyond the actual learning of mathematics, situational and linguistic aspects are relevant when students are working on a task
  • Any of these aspects can influence whether a maths problem is perceived by the student as easy or difficult. Not understanding the maths problem, therefore, does not unambiguously point to a level of mathematical ability
  • Certain aspects of language can be open to interpretation, such as when using images. We need to be aware of this and take more care when using everyday tasks and phrases that might cause confusion.

Alexandra Dannenberg

Research Assistant and PhD candidate, Kassel University, Germany

Alexandra Dannenberg is currently a research assistant and PhD candidate at Kassel University, Germany, and the graduate school InterFach. She studied primary education in the subjects mathematics, German as a first language, and natural & social sciences. During her studies, she discovered her interest in education research and began her current position in primary education research shortly after graduating. In her doctoral studies, she focuses on the relevance of language in primary school mathematics classroom interactions. Her general research interests are power relations in education, educational disparities, and institutional discrimination.

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

Baroody (1984): Children’s Difficulties in Subtraction: Some Causes and Cures. In: The Arithmetic Teacher, 32, 3, pp. 14-19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/748349?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

Rathgeb-Schnierer & Green (2015): Cognitive flexibility and reasoning patterns in American and German elementary students when sorting addition and subtraction problems. In: Proceedings of CERME 9 – Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, pp. 339-345. https://hal.science/hal-01281858/document

Torbeyns&Verschaffel (2013): Efficient and flexible strategy use on multidigit sums: a choice/no-choice study. In: Research in Mathematics Education, 15, 2, pp. 129-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2013.797745

Peer review in the era of generative AI models: An ethical call

Peer review in the era of generative AI models: An ethical call

by | Emerging Researchers' Group, NW 11 Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance, NW 9 Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement

The emergence of generative AI models, such as ChatGPT, is significantly impacting various facets of society, including research and academia. Given their ability to generate human-like text based on input data or prompts, generative AI models have profound implications for the academic community. These implications entail ethical and societal challenges within the peer review process, raising questions about the potential role of such models (Schintler, McNeely and Witte, 2023).

As a reviewer, I believe that it is my responsibility to highlight and discuss these critical and timely ethical concerns. Thus, while acknowledging the potential benefits of using such models for academic purposes, this blog post aims to highlight the caveats of using such models in peer-reviewing, and some of their potential pitfalls. This, in turn, emphasises the fundamental need for clearly shared and regularly updated ethical guidelines that ensure the healthy use of such models in academia.  

Can generative AI assist or replace expert reviewers?

How much of AI is too much?  This raises the ethical dilemma: should generative AI assist or replace expert reviewers? To address such fundamental questions, we should first acknowledge that AI, like any technology, is designed to increase the productivity of professionals, not necessarily replace them.

To begin with, generative AI (GAI) can assist reviewers, particularly those for whom English is not their first language, in producing clear and concise reports in less time. For instance, generative AI tools, such as editGPT, have the potential to save time in assessing text readability; tasks that are less intellectually demanding (Checco et al., 2021). I therefore believe it is acceptable for expert reviewers to use generative AI to streamline the review process, while emphasising the necessity of checking the report accuracy.

The pitfalls of AI in the peer review process

Generative AI models are typically unable to offer recommendations based on the latest research findings in the dynamic and complex field of education. The expertise of human peer reviewers is generally beyond the capabilities of generative AI models, which lack the required domain knowledge and intellectual capacity, at least in the foreseeable future. These limitations may have serious implications where GAI models typically provide general comments that lack critical content about the concerned manuscript (Donker, 2023); this means the lack of proper improvement recommendations with the possibility of the manuscript being unjustly dismissed.   

Generative AI models may produce reviews that contain ethical concerns and biases. AI algorithms risk copying and/or possibly expanding human biases (Schintler, McNeely and Witte, 2023). An example of one ethical consideration, which even human reviewers may not fully adhere to, is the importance of respecting the authors’ perspective and not converting their manuscript into that of the reviewers. AI might make recommendations that do not really respect or consider the authors’ perspective enough. This could potentially result in humans being responsible not just to fellow humans but also to machines (Schintler, McNeely and Witte, 2023). Reviewers equally need to be aware of caveats such as breaching the confidentiality of the manuscript under review, as generative AI models may use or share the original ideas as part of their machine-learning processes (Mollaki, 2024). These ethical issues clearly highlight a call for the wise use of unfolding AI technology.

Effective GAI Implementation

We acknowledge that GAI technology is developing at a fast pace (Checco et al., 2021), so it is not easy to predict its exact capabilities. Accordingly, we might witness the emergence of generative AI models that address some of the above ethical concerns. Therefore, it is the collective responsibility of all involved in knowledge production (authors, reviewers, editors, academic supervisors) to continually review and update the scientific community, as well as society members in general, on best practices for using generative AI in academia.

Peer reviewers have an ethical duty to uphold their full responsibility and resist the temptation to simply delegate the job to generative AI models. While researchers importantly advocate for policies that govern the use of AI in peer review (Mollaki, 2024), I do believe that it is, first and foremost, an ethical responsibility that should be central to the review process, with clear repercussions for those disregarding these fundamental ethics.

Thus, this blog post, following Facer and Selwyn (2021), advocates for a ‘non-stupid’ optimism that acknowledges the limitations of using digital technologies in academia. This necessitates that the dialogue be positioned within continuous academic discussions and research on reliable and ethical AI-powered peer review. All those involved in advancing educational research need to ensure that ethics is at the heart of the knowledge production process; otherwise, the integrity of the entire process would be compromised.

Key Messages

  • Generative AI models like ChatGPT have critical implications for academic peer review.
  • Expert reviewers play a crucial role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the peer review process.
  • Generative AI should complement, not replace, human judgment and expertise in academia.
  • Continuous review and dialogue are necessary to ensure ethical and effective use of AI in peer review.
Dr Ayman Hefnawi

Dr Ayman Hefnawi

Mathematics Instructor, ADVETI, UAE

Ayman Hefnawi holds a Doctor of Education from the University of Bath, United Kingdom, and a master’s degree in educational leadership and management from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Additionally, Ayman serves as a reviewer for educational journals and maintains memberships in various academic associations

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ayman-Hefnawi 
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ayman-Hefnaw 
https://twitter.com/aymanhefnawi 
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-7744-6997 
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57315619100 

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

Checco, A., Bracciale, L., Loreti, P., Pinfield, S. and Bianchi, G., 2021. AI-assisted peer review. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), pp.1-11. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00703-8

Donker, T., 2023. The dangers of using large language models for peer review. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 23(7), p.781. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00290-6/fulltext?rss=yes

Facer, K. and Selwyn, N., 2021. Digital technology and the futures of education: Towards ‘Non-Stupid’optimism. Futures of Education initiative, UNESCO.

Mollaki, V., 2024. Death of a reviewer or death of peer review integrity? The challenges of using AI tools in peer reviewing and the need to go beyond publishing policies. Research Ethics, p.17470161231224552. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17470161231224552

Schintler, L.A., McNeely, C.L. and Witte, J., 2023. A Critical Examination of the Ethics of AI-Mediated Peer Review. arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.12356. https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12356

How theory matters in feminist posthumanist new materialist research

How theory matters in feminist posthumanist new materialist research

by | NW 13 Philosophy of Education, NW 33 Gender and Education

We are four researchers at various career stages who share an interest in how feminist posthumanist new materialisms (FPNM) matters in our research, pedagogy and lives. This blog explores what FPNM theory offers educational researchers and gives examples how we have employed this in our research.

I came to theory desperate … to comprehend- to grasp what was happening around and within me
bell hooks

Teaching to Transgress - Education as the Practice of Freedom

Feminist posthumanist new materialist theory

Educational researchers and doctoral students are expected to have and/or use a conceptual or theoretical framework. From a FPNM perspective, this presumption presents some concerns: one, concepts and theories are not pre-existing things, ‘out there’, waiting for us to ‘apply’ them to a pre-existing question or problem; and two, it tends to hide how frameworks shape, define and mould research and researchers in particular ways. However, some researchers have worked with theory as a means to disrupt and defamiliarize dominant practices and categories (Ball, 1995; Lather & Smithies, 1997; Cannella, 1997; Butler, 1990/2006). In FPNM research, theory is an emergent material, practical, political, and relational practice entailing a socially engaged and situated mode of producing knowledge (Coole & Frost, 2010). Taking inspiration from the philosophy of immanence in which concepts are ‘invented’ and  continually ‘created anew’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1994), from posthumanist work which emphasizes the pluralization of ontology beyond the human (Braidotti, 2019; Bennett, 2016), from post-species work (Haraway, 2016), and from reconceptualizations of theory as a material-discursive practice (Barad, 2007; Jackson & Mazzei, 2012), FPNM puts theory to work as a move against human-centric objective mastery. In FPNM,  theory is an emergent, embodied, processual practice of knowledge-ing (Taylor, 2021) where theory always materializes in entangled acts of living-researching-becoming.

Working with theory; Living theory

Ahmed (2017) sees theory as doing more the closer it gets to the skin. FPNM theories have the potential to intersect with work in Black Studies (Sharpe 2016, McKittrick 2021), feminist Latina studies (Morega & Anzaldúa, 2021) and Indigenous and decolonising methodologies (Tuhiwai Smith, 2021). In these intersections, theory and practice intertwine with stories of land, body, pain and hope, where the materiality of theory lives in the flesh connecting past, present, futures. Thinking with Multiverse and Pluriverse suggests a range of possible realities exist simultaneously rejecting the notions of fixity and universality (Fairchild, 2023). Therefore, FPNM enhances our capacities to theory’s intimate entanglement with materiality; living FPNM theory highlights the multiplicities of the here-and-now, the past-present and the yet-to-come, encouraging researchers to consider how power and boundaries are constituted and how we may re-imagine different ways of mattering. Living theory is an ethico-onto-epistemological commitment in FPNM research, it informs and is immanent to everything we do, prompting us to question: ‘Who has the power to bring/use/talk about theory’, ‘What theory might become and do after white western humanism?’ ‘How might theory move to attend to new modes of living, doing and knowing?’

Shiva: Materialising the lived experiences of racial harassment

Lived theory in my forthcoming article emerged with hair/her stories of British-Bangladeshi Muslim schoolgirls of my research (Zarabadi, forthcoming 2024). In this article, I focus on the assemblages that hair affectively enables or constrains and the new and different relations that hair produces. I explore material moments when boundaries between human and more-than-human bodies, stories and experiences fade and ‘hairy assemblages’ of pain, injustice, resistance and hope emerged. With posthumanising hair and hair/her stories, I think with hair as lived theory and method, not only to matter with what matters for Muslim schoolgirls, but also to relocate the analytical frame of thinking and researching educational environments and practices towards multiple and untracked material experiences (Zarabadi 2022). Hair as affective agential actants in life stories of Muslim schoolgirls can enable or constrain their bodies and everyday educational embodied and embedded lived experiences into different ‘racialising assemblages’ (Weheliye, 2014). Entangling with hair/her stories as lived theory is a response to Hartman’s call “to tell a story capable of engaging and countering the violence of abstraction” (2008, p. 7).

Anna: Reading, thinking, doing, articulating theory

“Overwhelmingly, theory is bodily, and theory is literal. Theory is not about matters distant from the lived body; quite the opposite”, writes Haraway (2004, p. 68). A particular day in my teaching career awakened awareness for how bodily theories can be. When doing theories in teaching, we, student-teachers and myself, were reading and discussing materiality. Nyhus (2013) writes about how much time young children spend tied up in chairs, waiting. To challenge the student teachers’ relations to theories about materiality, I fastened the bodies of the student-teachers loosely to their chairs with ropes. Before fastening each one, I asked for permission. Those who were not attached volunteered to help untangle their fellow students, if needed. With the student-teachers consent to remain sitting tied in this way, unable to touch each other and their things, I continued with a short lecture. Our bodily affects and reactions created many discussions about ethics and professional practice, and became something the student-teachers referred to when discussing other theoretical aspects regarding practices with young children later on. Both bodies and language is “the effect of articulation” (Haraway, 2004, p. 105), and through the session theory became articulated bodily.

Nikki: The spaces of theory

Space as living theory requires an attention to materiality and time; space is created and modified by techniques, material objects, historical happenings, and social production (Santos, 2021). Living theories call for educators to be aware of their role in the constant transformation of space and how techniques materialise the political nature of learning. Pedagogies of mattering in higher education open up spaces of possibility for students to co-construct reading lists and lecture content and support the redesign of curriculum and assessment. Paying attention to classroom environments considers how power materialises in/as inclusion or exclusion (Gravett et al., 2021; Fairchild et al., 2024). Taking students on field trips can help them understand the challenges of accessing outdoor environments and support them to connect this to their developing education practices (Fairchild, 2021). These examples focus on the power of spaces and how attention to materiality produces new possibilities for thinking otherwise. Space, place and time are contingent and pedagogical, opening up opportunities for students/educators to create their own praxis.

Carol: Living theory with objects-bodies-spaces

Thing theory (Bennett, 2010) enacts the ontological presumption that things are not inert, dead and passive but are ‘vibrant matter’ with agentic capacities. Things’ liveliness produces actions, affects and interventions, and things also act in congregation with other objects, humans, animals, atmospheres, the weather etc. Focusing on things in classrooms brings to the fore the material agency of mundane, everyday objects’ and how their entanglement in educational practices produces inequalities, exclusions and differential matterings. For example, I analysed gender and power via the liveliness of a chair, a pen, a whiteboard and a T-shirt (Taylor, 2013), classroom exclusions and  tables (Taylor, 2017), and bags and string to reconceptualize participation and feminist praxis in research (Taylor et al., 2019; Taylor 2022a). Recently, I have developed ‘posthuman object pedagogies’ as a research practice of ‘thinking with things as a means of thinking with theory’ (Taylor et al., 2022b, p. 206), and used arts-based approaches to consider what doors do as barriers and enablers in educational spaces (Taylor et al., 2023).

Living theory for better futures

A passionate question animates how we four work with, and embody, the living theory of FPNM: ‘What sorts of knowledges and knowledge-making practices in educational research do we need to produce different modes of being-knowing-doing so we can resist anthropocentric modes of research based in extractivism and exploitation?’ Living FPNM theory is concerned with ways to live, think, research, work, and care in relation with other human-nonhuman bodies, things, environments, and planetary systems. Living FPNM theory is a research praxis aimed at producing more curiosity, more attentiveness, more relationality, more kindness: it entangles us materially in human-nonhuman lifeworlds that affects us making us feel something. It changes the way we think, creating a more capacious, inclusive and affirmative sense of what educational research can be and what education can become.

Notes: The figures in this blog have been composed of from images we have used in our work, apart from one of these images which was taken from Vogue Mexico: The Climbing Cholitas, 2019, Directed by Yumna Al-Arashi, https://vimeo.com/367077642 Accessed 1 May 2024.

Key Messages

• To conceptualize theory as an emergent material, practical, political, and relational practice entailing a socially engaged and situated mode of producing knowledge.

• To re-think our ethico-onto-epistemological practices as an embodied mode of living theory emergent in and through response-able acts of living-researching-becoming.

• To consider about how feminist posthumanist new materialist (FPNM) theory enables us to move and attend to new modes of living, doing, teaching, researching and knowing.

• We suggest that working with theory/ living theory changes not only the way we think, but creates a more capacious, inclusive and affirmative sense of what educational research can be and what education can become.

Professor Carol A. Taylor

Professor Carol A. Taylor

Professor of Higher Education and Gender in the Department of Education, University of Bath

Professor Carol A. Taylor is Professor of Higher Education and Gender in the Department of Education at the University of Bath where she leads the Reimagining Education for Better Futures research group. Carol’s research focuses on the entangled relations of knowledge, power, gender, space and ethics in higher education and utilizes trans- and interdisciplinary posthumanist and feminist materialist theories and methodologies. Carol co-edited the journal Gender and Education for 7 years (2016-2023), and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Teaching in Higher Education, Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning and Journal of Posthumanism. Her latest books are J. B. Ulmer, C. Hughes, M. Salazar Pérez & C. A. Taylor (Eds.). (2024) The Routledge International Handbook of Transdisciplinary Feminist Research and Methodological Praxis; Fairchild, N., Taylor, C.A., Benozzo, A., Carey, N., Koro, M., & Elmenhorst, C. (2022). Knowledge Production in Material Spaces: Disturbing Conferences and Composing Events. London: Routledge; and Taylor, C. A. and Bayley, A. (Eds.) (2019) Posthumanism and Higher Education: Reimagining Pedagogy, Practice and Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr Nikki Fairchild

Dr Nikki Fairchild

Associate Professor in Creative Methodologies and Education at the School of Education, Languages and Linguistics, University of Portsmouth.

Dr Nikki Fairchild is an Associate Professor in Creative Methodologies and Education at the School of Education, Languages and Linguistics, University of Portsmouth. Her research is theoretically informed by critical feminist materialist, posthumanist, and agential realist theory. She employs creative methodologies to disturb knowledge production and relationality by entangling materiality, gender, place-spaces, time, temporality and (early) childhoods. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Posthumanism and on the Editorial Boards of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Norland Educate Research Journal, and Gender and Education.  Her latest book is Fairchild, N., Taylor, C.A., Benozzo, A., Carey, N., Koro, M., & Elmenhorst, C. (2022). Knowledge Production in Material Spaces: Disturbing Conferences and Composing Events.  Routledge.

Dr Anna Moxnes

Dr Anna Moxnes

Associate Professor, Department of Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE), University of South-Eastern Norway

Anna Rigmor Moxnes, PhD, is Associate Professor at the department of Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE), University of South-Eastern Norway and works as educator in pedagogy and mentoring. Her recent research-projects are ‘Children and animals relationships’, ‘Mentoring’ and ‘Teaching slowly’. She is inspired of feminist new materialism and post-human theories.
Her latest book is Moxnes, A.R., Wilhemsen, T., Øvreås, S.,Santan, M.O. & Aslanian T.K. (2022).
Barnehagelærerutdanning i endring – å forske på egen praksis i høyere utdanning.
[Early Childhood Teacher Education in Change - research on own practice in higher education].
Universitetsforlaget.
Dr Shiva Zarabadi

Dr Shiva Zarabadi

Dr Shiva Zarabadi holds a Ph.D. in Education, Gender, Feminist New Materialism and Posthumanism from UCL Institute of Education. Her research interests include feminist new materialism, posthumanism and intra-actions of matter, time, affect, space, humans and more-than-humans. She uses walking and photo-diary methodologies to map relational materialities in ordinary practices. She is the co-editor of the book Towards Posthumanism in Education: Theoretical Entanglements and Pedagogical Mappings (Routledge) and the author of ‘Bodies of Walking: Trans-Materializing the Experiences of Racial Harassment’ in Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies and ‘Watery assemblages: the affective and material swimming-becomings of a Muslim girl’s queer body with nature’ in Australian Journal of Environmental Education.

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press.

Ball. S. J. (1995). Intellectuals or Technicians? The Urgent Role of Theory in Educational Studies. British Journal of Educational Studies, 43(3), 255-271. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3121983

Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. London: Duke University Press.

Braidotti, R. (2019). Posthuman Knowledge. Polity Press.

Butler, J. (1990/2006). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.

Cannella, G. S. (1997). Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. Peter Lang Publishing.

Coole, D., & Frost, S. (2010). New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Duke University Press.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1994). What is philosophy? Verso Books.

Fairchild, N. (2021) Pedagogies of place-spaces: walking-with the post-professional, PRACTICE [online first]. https://doi.org/10.1080/25783858.2021.1968279

Fairchild, N. (2023). Multiverse, Feminist Materialist Relational Time, and Multiple Future(s): (Re)configuring Possibilities for Qualitative Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry [online first]. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231176753

Fairchild, N., Gravett, K., & Taylor, C. A. (2024). Pedagogies of Mattering in Higher Education: thinking-with posthumanist and feminist materialist theory-praxis. In J. Bustillos Morales & S. Zarabadi (Eds.), Towards Posthumanism in Education: Theoretical Entanglements and Pedagogical Tracings (pp. 123-136). Routledge.

Gravett, K., Taylor, C. A.,  & Fairchild, N. (2021). Pedagogies of mattering: re-conceptualising relational  pedagogies in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education [online first]. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580

Haraway, D. J. (2004). The Haraway reader. Routledge.

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Hartman, S. (2008). Venus in Two Acts. Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 12(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching To Transgress (1st ed.). Routledge.

Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. (2012). Thinking with Theory in Qualitative Research: Viewing Data Across Multiple Perspectives. Routledge.

Lather P.A., & Smithies, C. S. (1997). Troubling The Angels: Women Living With HIV/aids. Routledge.

McKittrick, K. (2021). Dear Science and Other Stories. Duke University Press.

Morega, C., & Anzaldúa, G. (2021). This bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color. 40th anniversary edition. SUNY Press.

Nyhus, M. R. (2013). Ventebølger. Venting og de yngste barnas rom for medvirkning i barnehagen. [Waiting-waves. Waiting and the youngest childrens room for participating in Kindergarten.] Fagbokforlaget.

Santos, M. (2021). The nature of space. Duke University Press.

Sharpe, C. (2016) In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press.

Taylor, C. A. (2013). Objects, bodies and space: Gender and embodied practices of mattering in the classroom, Gender and Education, 25(6),  688–703. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2013.834864

Taylor, C. A. (2017). Rethinking the empirical in higher education. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 40(3), 311–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2016.1256984

Taylor, C. A. (2018). Edu-crafting posthumanist adventures in/for higher education: A speculative musing, Parallax, 24(3), 371-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2018.1496585

 Taylor, C., Fairchild, N., Elmenhorst, C., Koro-Ljungberg, M., Benozzo, A., & Carey, N. (2019). Improvising Bags Choreographies: Disturbing Normative Ways of Doing Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 25(1), 17-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418767210

Taylor, C. A. (2021). Knowledge matters: Five propositions concerning the reconceptualisation of knowledge in feminist new materialist, posthumanist and postqualitative approaches. In K. Murris (Ed.) Navigating the Postqualitative, New Materialist and Critical Posthumanist Terrain Across Disciplines: An Introductory Guide. Routledge.

Taylor, C. A., Tobias-Green, K., Sexton, J., & Healey, J. (2022a). Regarding string: A theory-method-praxis of/for co-compos(t)ing feminist hope. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology. 13(2), 47-73. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.4910

Taylor, C. A., Hogarth, H., Barratt Hacking, E., & Bastos, E. (2022b). Posthuman Object Pedagogies: Thinking with Things to Think with Theory for Innovative Educational Research, Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry. 14(1), 206–221. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/cpi/index.php/cpi/article/view/29662/21668

Taylor, C. A., Albin-Clarke, J., Broadhurst Healey, K., Hogarth, H., Lewis, Z., Pihkala, S., Smith, S., Cranham, J., Latto, L. (2023). What do doors do? Door storyings, matterings, adventurings and commonings. Qualitative Inquiry[online first]. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231196184

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (2nd Ed). Zed Books Ltd.

Weheliye, A. G. (2014). Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Human. Duke University Press.

Zarabadi, S. (2022). Watery assemblages: The affective and material swimming-becomings of a Muslim girl’s queer body with nature. Australian Journal of Environmental Education 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2022.39

Zarabadi, S. (Forthcoming 2024). ‘Hair-ing and haring: Post (auto) theoretical more-than-human entanglement with hair/her/stories of Muslim schoolgirls’, Gender and Education SI: Gender, Feminisms and the ‘Posts’: Contemporary Contestations, New Educational Imaginaries & Hope-full Renewals.

COVID-19 pandemic and the mental health and well-being of secondary school children

COVID-19 pandemic and the mental health and well-being of secondary school children

by | BERA, NW 14 Communities, Families, and Schooling in Educational Research

This blog piece discusses the main findings from a research project funded and supported by York St John University and Liverpool Hope University into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Our research suggests that the pandemic and associated restrictions and disruptions exacerbated an already serious situation for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing (Wood, Su and Pennington, 2024)

The study

To gain an understanding of young people’s wellbeing, it is essential to access the views of young people themselves (The Children’s Society, 2022).

A National Health Service (NHS) study in the UK shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing numbers of children and young people were experiencing poor mental health and wellbeing (Newlove-Delgado et al., 2022). Our research drew on the views of young people about the development of factors conducive to their wellbeing and mental health in school and the sorts of factors that enable this.

A qualitative multi-method research design was used, consisting of an online questionnaire survey (n=605) and follow-up focus group interviews (n=16). The research took place in three secondary schools in one local authority area in England. Year 9 and Year 10 students aged between 14 and 15 years from these schools participated in the study.

The study addressed the following questions: to what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic affected secondary school students’ mental health and wellbeing in England? What do students value most for their mental health and wellbeing in a secondary school context during the pandemic? What are the implications for the post-pandemic future?

Findings

The analysis evidenced the social and emotional impacts of a number of other factors too including anxieties about family members’ employment security, health and circumstances at home during the pandemic on young people’s mental health.

Significantly, transition back to in-person schooling brought its own challenges. One particular message that emerges from this study is that in the return to in-person schooling, the dominant emphasis on ‘catching-up’ to make good the learning loss, appears to have been too restricted and narrow and in need of an accompanying focus on: the restoration and regeneration of friendships and social bonds that lie at the heart of schools as communities and human flourishing; and sports/physical activity, arts and cultural pursuits .

The findings of the study show that the pandemic and associated restrictions had a detrimental effect on the lives of a very large proportion of the young people in our study, with a greater impact on girls than boys. From the analysis, the resilience and ability of the participants to ‘bounce back’ from the upheavals caused by the restrictions was apparent. However, for a significant minority, the adverse impacts on their mental health and wellbeing continue to affect their lives.

Findings suggest the Covid-19 pandemic had a bigger impact on girls than boys, for example:

  • The reported impact on daily life was greater for girls ( 85%) than for boys (71%)
  • The continuing impact was greater for girls (37%) than boys (24%)
  • Friendships were more adversely affected for girls (54%) than boys (34%)
  • More girls reported an adverse effect on mental health and wellbeing (55%) than boys (25%)
  • Fewer girls felt supported by school (64%) than boys (79%)

Due to the scope of our study, specific reasons for the gender differences were not established. However, our study does suggest that there is a need for a holistic response to young people’s mental health and wellbeing issues, which gives prominence to addressing the gendered impact and recognises the importance of friendships, social bonds, arts, cultural and sports activities as well as the more academic domains of schooling.

Wider implications – insights from experts in the field

Findings and implications from the research have been widely shared at a number of briefings with school senior leaders, children’s services agencies, youth work organisations, and other partners from the local authority area in which the research took place.

In addition, the findings are being used to inform the annual report of the local Director of Public Health. The principal dissemination event to discuss our study findings with national and regional stakeholder groups was the ‘Symposium on Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing’, which took place in York on 19th March 2024. At the Symposium event, important insights were shared by the following expert panel members.

Anne Longfield, Chair of the Commission on Young Lives, UK, argued there is a need for joined up services and cross agency working to support children’s education and mental health and an extended role for schools in their communities. She stated that ‘I, for a long time, have been a big proponent of schools being fully open to their communities and making their precious resources more accessible to children and families’.

Alison O’Sullivan, Chair of the National Children’s Bureau, UK, suggested that the social contract between schools, parents and children has broken down and stressed the importance of renegotiating the relationships between children and families, communities and schools. She also expressed that ‘evidence increasingly demonstrates that children and young people’s sense of belonging plays a decisive role in shaping their social, emotional and mental health outcomes’.

Charlotte Rainer, Coalition Manager at The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, UK, suggested two possible solutions – firstly, to increase early intervention support with dedicated funding; secondly, to create children’s mental health and well-being drop-in hubs in the community.

Dan Bodey, Inclusion Adviser, City of York Council, UK, observed that ‘school attendance has been significantly low since the Covid-19 pandemic particularly for children who have special education needs (SEN) and those who are on free school meals. In addition, the school exclusion rate has increased noticeably’. He also highlighted the importance of cross agency working to address these issues as part of post-pandemic recovery.

Conclusion

This study shows that the pandemic and associated restrictions had a detrimental effect on the lives of a very large proportion of the young people in our study, with greater impact on girls than boys. These effects have significant implications for the ways in which school and services develop their responses to the question of children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Key Messages

Overall, the principal insights affirmed the importance of:

·   responding to the continuing adverse effects on mental health and wellbeing for a significant minority of young people, taking account of the gendered nature of these impacts

·   ensuring young people’s voices are brought into decision making and policy formulation

·   easily accessible early help and support

·   inclusive educational practices to strengthen a sense of belonging for all children and placing children’s mental health at the heart of education provision.

·   an inclusive curriculum which focuses on the whole person rather than an overemphasis on academic achievement and high stakes assessment and testing.

Dr Margaret Wood

Senior Lecturer in Education at York St John University, UK

Dr Margaret Wood is a Senior Lecturer in Education at York St John University, UK. Her recent research and publications have explored the centralizing tendencies of much current education policy and its relation to community and democracy at the local level, and the development of academic practice in higher education.

Dr Feng Su

Associate Professor and Head of the School of Education at Liverpool Hope University, UK

Dr Feng Su is an Associate Professor and Head of the School of Education at Liverpool Hope University, UK. His main research interests and writings are located within the following areas: education policy, the development of the learner in higher education settings, academic practice and professional learning.

Dr Andrew Pennington

Post-doctoral researcher at York St John University, UK

Dr Andrew Pennington was a senior officer in two local authority education and children’s services departments. He is now a post-doctoral researcher at York St John University, UK. His main research interests are concerned with democracy, power and community engagement in the governance of schools.

Other blog posts on similar topics:

References and Further Reading

The Children’s Society (2022). The Good Childhood Report 2022. The Children’s Society. https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-09/GCR-2022-Full-Report.pdf

Newlove-Delgado, T., Marcheselli, F., Williams, T., Mandalia, D., Davis, J., McManus, S., Savic, M., Treloar, W. & Ford, T. (2022). Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022. NHS Digital. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2022-follow-up-to-the-2017-survey

Su, F., Wood, M. and Pennington, A. (2024). ‘The new normal isn’t normal’: to what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic affected secondary school children’s mental health and wellbeing in the North of England? Educational Review. DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2024.2371836