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In this article, a social movement lens is applied to examine the dynamics of an urbanbased language revitalization movement in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (North-western Spain). The potential of Resource Management Theory is explored as a way of systematically analysing the dynamics of urban-based language revitalization movements. It does this by identifying factors which both helped fuel the emergence and growth of this Galician grassroots movement as well as those constraining its potential development. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations collected over six months of ethnographic fieldwork in one of Galicia's main cities, social movement theory is used to analyse the role of Galician social movement activists as social agents in shaping the success of their language revitalization initiative. We argue that a social movement lens provides a useful analytical toolkit to focus on the grassroots efforts of social agents involved in peripheral ethnolinguistic mobilization in minority language contexts such as Galicia. Ultimately, we aim to show that these social movement revitalization initiatives go beyond language as an object and are centred around language-based struggles which not only address strategy dilemmas but also scaffold social relations and ties among speakers as they mobilize within particular institutional fields.

There is an increasing interest and growing practice in Citizen Science (CS) that goes along with the usage of websites for communication as well as for capturing and processing data and materials. From an educational perspective, it is expected that by integrating information about CS in a formal educational setting, it will inspire teachers to create learning activities. This is an interesting case for using bots to automate the process of data extraction from online CS platforms to better understand its use in educational contexts. Although this information is publicly available, it has to follow GDPR rules. This paper aims to explain (1) how CS communicates and is promoted on websites, (2) how web scraping methods and anonymization techniques have been designed, developed and applied to collect information from online sources and (3) how these data could be used for educational purposes. After the analysis of 72 websites, some of the results obtained show that only 24.8% includes detailed information about the CS project and 48.61% includes information about educational purposes or materials.

The widespread use of digital technologies and the expansion of social networks has created new communication and meeting spaces where people and social and political actors connect with each other. This opens diverse spaces and possibilities for digital engagement in a more accessible, immediate, continuous, egalitarian, and personalized way. Digital technology facilitates learning, dissemination, and access to information, turning it into a means of communication and fueling the practice of critical thinking. In particular civic critical thinking practices improve the organization and effectiveness of civic networks and spaces for citizen participation, ultimately helping to produce responsible, conscious citizens. This study proposes a series of hypotheses based on the relationships between digital learning, critical thinking and civic participation, and tests them using the technique of structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) applied to a sample of 191 primary and secondary school students. The results indicate that digital tools have a positive impact on the development of critical thinking, and this influences citizen participation, transforming people into more engaged citizens of the world with participatory attitudes and values.

Online risks are a concern for citizens in the digital society. Many sectors of the population lack training to face, prevent and solve problematic situations arising from Internet use. University researchers and innovation agents in small towns in southern Spain are carrying out an educational programme of 13 intergenerational workshops to strengthen digital competence and citizenship involving 239 participants. The main objective of this article is to describe and interpret shared reflections on various problematic situations related to the use of the Internet and technology. A content analysis of 864 reflections and experiences contained in seven dimensions and 31 categories is carried out. The results show that the participating citizens are characterised by a high awareness of online risks, they tend to seek help and concrete solutions on issues related to data security, excessive use of mobile phones and online scams and frauds. We propose the need for training to develop a fully digital, responsible and tech-savvy citizenship and an integrated digital model of education focused on protecting the well-being and online rights of citizens.

The climate crisis and the environmental emergency are a sign of uncertainty for the future of the planet. European and national educational directives establish the framework of action and the commitments that must be made by each agent to reach the new sustainable paradigm which is based on circularity. The school, as an institution of social transformation, faces a reproductive framework that feeds the consumer socio-economic structure, covering up the urgency of the problem. The aim is to identify the forces for change to improve the intervention mechanisms in the educational field in Spain aimed at fostering the involvement and the participation of young people. The qualitative methodology combines discourse analysis using Grounded Theory and prospective analysis using the scenario method. By means of a validated questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and focus groups are conducted with technicians and managers, trainers of trainers, teachers, and researchers (n=53). The discourse of the agents and legislation on education and sustainability are analysed to generate substantive theory. By means of the theorization obtained, drivers and constraints are identified, establishing a probability and impact matrix that allows for the visualization of three possible futures. It concludes with a set of recommendations to strengthen the desired scenario and to reduce the possibilities of the dystopian scenario.

For over two decades now, the application of Citizen Science to Education has been evolving, and fundamental topics, such as the drivers of motivation to participate in Citizen Science projects, are still under discussion. Some recent developments, though, like the use of Artificial Intelligence to support data collection and validation, seem to point to a clear-cut divergence from the mainstream research path. The objective of this paper is to summarise the development trajectory of research on Citizen Science in Education so far, and then shed light on its future development, to help researchers direct their efforts towards the most promising open questions in this field. We achieved these objectives by using the lens of the Affordance-Actualisation theory and the Main Path Analysis method.

The present article introduces the concept of knowledge mobilisation (KMb) strategies in university research by linking university social responsibility with the concept of inclusive and responsible research, which implies an ethical perspective of equity and inclusion in responding to citizens' needs. The study objective is to discover the ethical position and KMb strategies in 80 research groups from five European countries. The amount and type of strategies applied are analysed from information gathered in semi-structured interviews and from KMb indicators. The results show that these strategies are still not widely used and point to four key elements in researchers' ethical positions: commitment, knowledge recognition, dialogue and cooperation. Strategies range from the initial formulation of the research problem to a sustainability plan for the research projects. The conclusions identify an emancipatory ethical perspective that rebalances power relationships between researchers and stakeholders, but that generates tension with public research policies and research quality evaluation criteria.

The sustainability challenges facing humankind make necessary the convergence of Science Education (SE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Science learning and ESD requires the adoption of student-centred transformative teaching methods that promote values and critical thinking. This article explores the role of citizen science (CS) as an educational tool that could contribute in such transformative teaching. Innovative ICT tools that enable teachers to more easily engage their pupils in CS-based activities tailored to their local environment and teaching objectives have been developed and implemented in eight case studies, involving 214 students and seven teachers from three schools in Greece, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The results showed that: a) the CS-based educational initiatives contributed to improving natural science learning and represented progress in the development and integration of students' competencies for sustainability; b) the developed ICT tools increased students' interest and motivation; c) versatile ICT tools and platforms for teachers' co-working can contribute to the inclusion of CS in the curriculum and thereby to the inclusion of ESD in schools. We conclude that such educational initiatives can contribute to the convergence of SE and ESD and help students develop global skills, preparing them for 21st century sustainability challenges.

The emergence of digital technologies and a more global and digital society has brought about the need to develop and educate in Digital Citizenship, as well as to study how youth are taught to participate and learn citizenship in a digital age. This paper aims to explore the role of digital and socio-civic skills development, as facilitators for youth participation and analyses the relationship between sociodemographic variables (sex, age, educational level, and political ideology) with the participatory profile of participants. This is a study with a quantitative methodology, where, based on non-probabilistic convenience sampling, 534 young people between 16 and 35 years old from Spain, completed an online questionnaire regarding the development of digital and socio-civic skills. The results indicate how a participant's participatory profile is related to other variables. In addition, significant differences are observed between the different participation profiles and digital and socio-civic skills, underlining that the development of digital and socio-civic skills are essential for educating in digital citizenship.

This article aims to explore two assumptions that have underpinned most research on teachers' perceptions of citizenship education (CE). These are, firstly, that teachers' perceptions of CE are relatively coherent, conscious and classifiable into citizenship models and, secondly, that these perceptions are strongly connected to their political ideology and civic engagement. In this article, we present a study conducted at a Spanish public university to test these two assumptions. We designed a questionnaire to investigate the possible effect of tacit framing on preservice teachers' perceptions of CE--by observing whether the use of different wording led them to reason about CE in different, or even contradictory, ways--and the relationship between preservice teachers' disposition toward discussing current political issues and their political ideology and civic engagement. The findings illustrate the power of framing in shaping CE perceptions and show a non-significant relationship between preservice teachers' disposition toward including political issues in the classroom and their political ideology/civic engagement. Although the items used in the questionnaire cannot fully account for the diversity of views of CE, political ideologies and civic engagement experiences, the results provide enough evidence to begin questioning the assumptions that have dominated the research on teachers' perceptions about CE. These results have important implications for social studies educators and scholars.

The global society in which we are immersed is facing the challenges set out in 2030 Agenda: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study focuses on whether mathematics teachers teach SDGs alongside with their subject in schools located in rural areas of Castilla and León (Spain). Specifically, this research aims to find out how teachers of mathematics with generalist training who teach in Primary Education (6-12) and teachers with more specific training who teach in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate (12-18) work with these aspects. The methodology used was quantitative, as an online questionnaire was used to collect the 150 responses that make up the sample for this study. The results show that teachers of mathematics at both educational levels should pay greater attention to the content linked to the SDGs within their subject.

Children's policies at the local level stimulate initiatives in the municipalities to encourage child participation. In this article, we focus on the local political sphere as a space for the promotion of child participation and citizenship through digital mediation. It is in this immediate environment where the rights of children and adolescents are exercised and promoted. The study aims to analyse the contributions perceived by municipal leaders (elected officials and technical figures) of the digital environment and the uses they make of it to promote children's participation in the municipality. This study is part of a national project that includes as collaborating entities the International Association of Educating Cities (IACE) and Child Friendly Cities (CAIUnicef). 279 subjects (191 technical figures and 88 elected officials) from 179 Spanish municipalities associated members of IACE and/or CAI. Data were collected in 2020. Two ad hoc designed questionnaires were applied. Two of the most significant results of the study are: (a) the finding of the variable that establishes differences between those technical figures that mediate children's participation with technological environments and those that do not; (b) the use made of the digital environment as an interactive space for informational purposes. It concludes on the need to rethink the digital environment as a participatory area and increasing the use of technology in support of children's citizenship.

This paper presents partial results of a broader investigation and focuses on describing a process of reification that took place at the heart of an immigrant community in Sant Mateu (Castelló, Spain), and that crystallised through the construction and management of a mosque. The theoretical framework draws on social learning theories, with a particular focus on situated learning and communities of practice. Regarding the method, the study follows an ethnographic, qualitative approach. We present the fieldwork procedures (participatory observation, interviews and focus groups) and analytical procedures (content analysis) followed in the research. The results recount the process this immigrant community followed to build the mosque, and the meanings for the community of the process followed and its culmination. Finally, the discussion and conclusions characterise this immigrant community as a community of practice where situated learning processes arise.

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012 and 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) for 29 countries, including the United States, along with US 2012 data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Results highlight that college-educated individuals whose parents have low levels of educational attainment actually have a higher likelihood of becoming NEET relative to college-educated individuals whose parents are more highly educated. Study findings also emphasize the influence of economic and geographic differences (country-level for OECD and county-level for United States) on NEET rates, in addition to the extent to which mothers have a higher likelihood and fathers have a lower likelihood of being NEET relative to their childless peers and the influence of country-level family leave policies on the odds of being NEET across the OECD. College field of study also emerges as an important influence on disconnection across the 29 OECD countries in the study, but not in the United States separately. Finally, comparing results for college-educated NEETs and NEETs without degrees, we found that higher education appears to reduce the likelihood of community disengagement and reports of poor health among NEETs across the OECD countries. However, this is not the case within the United States where NEETs are less likely to be engaged in their communities and more likely to describe themselves as in poor health regardless of their educational attainment.

Digital media are present in all areas of society, even configured as a new space for political socialization. This is especially applicable in the case of young people due to their high use of new technologies, as they are also trained with the necessary skills to do so. In this context, social networks have prompted the emergence of a new type of political participation: which takes place online. Therefore, this study delves into the relationship between the socialization that occurs in the network, digital skills and political participation online and offline. A quantitative survey-based methodology was used with university students from three Ibero-American countries: Mexico, Spain and Chile. The fieldwork was conducted between the months of December 2017 and June 2018. The results obtained show that young people consume mainly digital media, which does not prevent them from being critical with the quality they deserve. In this sense, the political participation actions in which they are involved are mostly developed in the network, thus participating to a lesser extent offline. Therefore, young people enter the world of politics through the consumption of information on the Internet, which favors a subsequent online political participation.

This work presents an assessment of pre-service teachers' argumentative practice, after implementing a novel teaching-learning sequence on soil health including a citizen science programme, which was applied outdoors at the university garden. The sequence was implemented at five Spanish universities with 351 undergraduates studying Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education. It posed a final assessment task consisting in a real-world situation that involved making decisions on science-related issues: students needed to argue whether it was possible to use a piece of land as a school garden, based on soil data provided in a variety of formats. To assess participants' level of achievement, a rubric was specifically designed by adapting the "Evidence-Explanation Continuum" approach, which was applied to a subsample of 123 answers (35%). Results evidenced that the process of knowledge-building discourse from initial data to final explanations involved a series of transformations of increasing difficulty, since the percentage of students who were able to correctly accomplish them decreased a long the continuum. Including the citizen science programme promoted the development of basic aspects of scientific literacy related to interpreting data and evidence scientifically but, for students to be generally capable of drawing evidence-based conclusions, argumentation practices should be regularly included in science classes.

This article presents the outcomes of a 2-year pilot study of a teaching innovation project in an English-medium instruction course on sociolinguistics, in a languages degree at a Catalan university. Following the tenets of Critical Linguistics Education, our proposal aimed at promoting the students' development of metalinguistic awareness of linguistic diversity; particularly, of Englishization phenomena in their socialization spaces. Firstly, we detail the project, based on the students' interpretive analysis of the social meanings of a series of Linguistic Landscapes involving local and global languages that they gathered ethnographically. This required the use of two technologies of citizenship participation, employed as Foreign Language learning/teaching instruments: A geolocating map and a 2.0 web. We then analyze the students' productions, and their marks, course ratings and project-assessment reports. We show that the required disciplinary content and advanced English level were attained. Students became knowledge generators of sociolinguistics phenomena and developed an intercultural, plurilingual competence in 'localized Englishes'. We conclude that the use of Linguistic Landscaping is an effective means to develop the multilingual literacy, technoliteracy and learning-to-learn competences required by the European Council. This contributes to the design of pedagogical strategies fostering the students' commitment to an ethics of respect towards multilingualism.

Background/Context: Many studies have systematized the wide range of youth civic engagement mechanisms identified to date; however, how young people deal with a complex flux of sociocultural and personal variables which condition their scope of engagement has received less attention. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article analyzes youths' appraisal of social issues and how this assessment influences the ways in which they engage with those issues. It also examines the elements of their inner worlds and their cultural settings that they consider deciding whether to get involved in one way or another. Research Design: A narrative discourse analysis is completed on two hundred Mexican and Spanish adolescents' explanations of an advertisement that sparked discussion on issues of undocumented immigration, discrimination, and past territorial disputes between the U.S.A. and Mexico. Youth civic engagement is categorized through 'ways of engagement,' a category that comprises the assessment of social issues performed by adolescents based on four constructs: civic knowledge, morals, discourse, and positioning. The analysis shows that four 'ways of engagement' are common to all the participants: pragmatic, complacent, critical-cynical, and empathetic. Findings/Results: The findings show how the participants assess the advertisement's possible intentions, positioning, and moral implications; at the same time, they explain the potential solutions they see possible while taking their own stands toward the advertisement. This type of personal appraisal makes them decide in what way they engage with this issue. Conclusions: Finally, reflections on the possible implications of the four 'ways of engagement' for citizenship education are presented.

The starting point of our urbanism courses in the master's degree programme is to take a broad, comprehensive local and global look at the urban reality of our environment from a comparative and historical perspective. The aim is to apply a learning-by-doing approach. The paper is structured in two parts. The first explores theory- and design-based approaches considered by architects and urban designers to improve the urbanity of our cities and neighbourhoods. The second presents the experience of five academic years of "Integrated Urban and Landscape Design," a subject in the framework of the Master's Degree Programme in Architecture taught at the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Zaragoza. It addresses urban regeneration interventions in vulnerable areas of the consolidated city with innovative approaches. The aim is to explore innovation in the academic field considering user participation. The workshop methodology is explained in detail, with more attention paid to the process followed than to the specific results of the workshop. The paper explains the four stages of the process: preliminary phase and selection of the study area; analysis and diagnosis phase; proposal phase, in which work is performed jointly with a vision of action in the entire neighbourhood; and presentation phase of the results to residents. Finally, some future challenges of this workshop are outlined.

This article aims to contribute to the study of the difficulties that young people face in accessing the public sphere as political actors. It looks at the press coverage and the Twitter activity surrounding the restructuring process and the subsequent dissolution of the Spanish Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España-CJE). A content analysis was carried out on the news published in 22 newspapers between 2012 and 2014, as well as on the use of Twitter within the framework of the "Salvemos el CJE" campaign during the same period of time. The main objective of the analysis has been to see the prominence of this issue on both the media and citizens agendas. In most newspapers, the measures taken by the government vis-á-vis the CJE were treated as punctual news of peripheral importance. The online campaign, mainly orchestrated by youth grassroots movements, raised the controversy on the biased nature and the political consequences of this plan. The core of the campaign addressed the representation of young people in public institutions. The results of the study suggest that the increased potential for visibility offered by social media is not always maximized and does not necessarily alter the prominence of an issue in the public sphere.

Higher Education is demanding the need of a greater connection between its academic offer and the necessary civic engagement of the graduates. This has given Spain the opportunity, for just over a decade, to develop the methodology of service-learning, which combines both the theoretical and practical aspect of university learning with the practical development of solidarity and civic commitment of the students. At the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain) we have designed an online service-learning proposal, based on the virtual exchange which occurs between the students from the UNED and the University of PortoNovo (Benin), requiring practical classes of Spanish. The result favours continuing with this virtual servicelearning project aimed at the exchange with other universities; strengthening the planning of the training proposal for the development of ethical competence and civic engagement; the design of solidarity service action that enhances global citizenship and intercultural dialogue, consolidates digital competence, etc., all in a virtual educational environment.

Focusing on youth attitudes during a time of political upheaval in Catalonia, we study 1,438 high school students, aged 15 to 16, nested within 30 high schools. Using multilevel analyses, we examine their perceptions of the importance of voting across different election types (independence referendum, local, subnational, national, supernational) and intent to vote regularly upon turning 18. Results show a matching effect of perceived voting importance with levels of municipal, Catalan, Spanish, and European identification. Notably, voting importance across different elections also relates to the extent students perceived their social studies teacher as open to debate and the expression of student opinions within the classroom. This study also highlights differences between the importance that students place on voting in a possible independence referendum compared with conventional elections. For example, socioeconomic status and political dialogue with parents are not associated with perceived voting importance concerning the referendum but are with other election types.

This paper discusses Romani mentors' mixed experiences, views and coping practices in an intra-ethnic 'natural mentoring' project targeting young Romani (more commonly known as 'Gypsy') students in Spain. The intervention transforms already existing intra-ethnic bonds into mentorships in local Spanish Romani communities. To meet the aims of this research, observations were conducted at mentors' follow-up meetings and other project activities, and individual semi-structured interviews were held with three female and three male mentors. The mentors' mixed views and experiences are analysed in four dimensions: competence, commitment, project operation and sociocultural change. From a critical stance, the results suggest that mentoring remains highly apolitical, having as its primary object 'people to be developed' and not the structure that is to do the developing. In this endeavour, mentoring is instrumentalized to create self-regulated 'active' citizens desiring to be acted upon through 'technologies of the self'.

Complexities of social problems in our globalised world pose new educational challenges, including how to empower citizens for active engagement with socioscientific issues. This study describes the analysis and discussion of an activist video as the first phase in an activist education programme. Participants were 104 preservice primary teachers from the University of Malaga (Spain). Their task was to watch a video about illegal mining in the Venezuelan Amazon and, using the "CoAnnotation" tool, to annotate the video so as to indicate: the problem they saw as most important, the best solution and ways in which the video could be improved. Students were subsequently shown all the annotations that had been made by the group as a whole so as to facilitate discussion. The content of their annotations was analysed and described using a category system developed by consensus among the research team. The problem most commonly referred to by students was environmental damage. In terms of solutions, the main focus was on raising awareness, although mention was also made of government intervention and both citizen-led and school-based initiatives. As for how the video might be improved as a tool for raising awareness, students made several suggestions regarding its content.

Considering the attention that global citizenship education has recently received, it is not much of a surprise that teacher education programs and courses around the world are including stated goals related to the preparation of teachers to educate their students for global and participatory citizenship. This is also the case of the Faculty of Education at the University of Cantabria (Spain). This study explores how a group of teacher educators from this university conceptualize citizenship education, if they include global perspectives in their notions, and how they educate for democracy in an increasingly globalized world. Although teacher education can contribute to challenge pre-service teachers' perceptions of the nation state as the only locus for democracy and citizenship, the inclusion of global perspectives done by these teacher educators has been very limited. Also, the participants that were more globally concerned were those who had a stronger sense of social justice.

Given the double risk of exclusion caused for women with a low educational level, adult education can be a fundamental element that allows them to actively participate in their social, political, and cultural environments. Moreover, because educational level has been reported by the scientific literature to be a factor that directly favors personal benefits, such as having better health or greater employability, adult education may be an opportunity to obtain the aforementioned benefits for women with a low educational level. In this study, using the data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey, a model was developed to perform a structural equation analysis on a sample of 5,838 European women with an educational level of ISCED 0-2 and to investigate the benefits of participating in nonformal education activities. The results show that this participation provides these women with greater social and political confidence, more intense cultural participation and even better health and employability.

This paper uses action learning as a basis for producing research data that help explore the relationship between learning and listening in public organizations. The regional government of Gipuzkoa in northern Spain is engaged in a sustained effort to change the way it interacts with and interprets the future needs of society. Based on grounded theory and on a review of key concepts about critical action learning, a reflexive analysis of the implementation of the methodology of action learning with policy makers was conducted. The paper explores the learning journey participants undertake when implementing a governmental programme of citizen engagement, and shows that a space for criticality resulted in participants learning to listen to each other, and consequently to society, in ways which had previously been beyond reach. The paper concludes by discussing the learning implications for listening to society.

The humanist and critical principles of educational gerontology attribute different goals to education in later life. Self-Actualization is the goal of humanist educational gerontology, while empowerment, emancipation, and social change are the goals of critical educational gerontology. Liberal arts education is dominant in later-life learning. Both the humanist and the critical philosophies of learning in older age claim that this type of education is not empowering. Empowerment is a contested concept that has been defined through a set of constructs ranging from psychological capacities to attitudes and behaviors. In terms of capital, empowerment translates into gains in identity and social capital, operationalized in the variables "agency" and "social and civic participation," respectively. The present study investigated the empowering potential of liberal arts courses using the BeLL survey data of 7,338 adult learners. Through a series of ANOVAs and a regression model, we found that age, gender, educational attainment, the number of courses, and changes in agency are significantly associated with changes in social and civic participation. We concluded that liberal arts education does empower adult learners, especially older adults, women, and individuals with lower educational attainment. Given that goal-related claims in the principles of educational gerontology have been empirically challenged, we recommend a new statement of principles that takes into account the latest developments in the field, as well as learners' agential capacities and the structural inequalities they face.

Invasive species threaten worldwide biodiversity. Success in facing this problem may be possible through the engagement of younger audiences. Here, a game was designed to teach children how to recognize invasive seaweed and to encourage them to participate in marine citizen science. The game was first tested in a pilot study, and then carried out in Salinas High School (Asturias, Spain). Game-based training consisted of an explanation of invasive species, followed by the 'Find invasive seaweed' game and was evaluated with tests before and after the activity. After training, students spent 3 months looking for invasive species. Four invasive species were detected in the study area. The results showed a positive impact on knowledge gains and significant differences in marine environmental awareness and conservation actions.

The objective of this study [Susinos, T. (Dir.), 'Schools moving towards inclusion: Learning from the local community, the student voice and educational support' (I+D+I, EDU2011-29928-C03-03)] is to gain a deeper understanding of the analysis of the discourses that different education professionals in the Spanish education system have on student participation in schools, based on the premise that they tacitly reflect different models of democracy and advance very diverse school practices. The study is based on the Student Voice Movement, which is defined by its commitment to deliberative democratic education and its role in the development of inclusive schools. In this article, we have conducted a qualitative analysis of the data from 31 in-depth interviews carried out with teachers and other education professionals from nine schools. These teachers' discourses are summarised in four dimensions, which we have named individual, pedagogical, organisational and socio-political. Some conclusions of this work demonstrate a predominance of discourses linked to an individual and pedagogical dimension of participation, based on the idea that this fundamentally depends on the personal dispositions that some students have. It is less common to appeal to the socio-political dimension, which refers to participation as a citizen's right to debate and make decisions regarding common and public affairs. This suggests that teachers still see their work from a technical point of view, rather than envisaging the school as a space for democratic participation and practice. In short, with this study we aim to contribute to normative theories on participation and democracy in order to expand their empirical and practical support in schools.

Youth councils are examined as spaces of citizenship education where young people are educated as political subjects. At a time of political and economic instability data were collected in a Catalan city through tests and focus groups involving 112 students, three teachers and two youth council managers during one academic year. Students' political trust decreased and their cynicism towards politics increased; there were no changes in students' anticipated future participation. The article avoids drawing simplistic causal links between students' involvement in a council and the expression of their views. The participants also discuss the councils as performance sites. It is speculated whether, in students' views, this metaphor of performance applies not only to the councils but to the wider political context in which they live. It is argued that youth councils are, in some ways, potentially valuable for promoting participation and recommendations are made in light of the findings.

Since ERASMUS (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) was launched there has been a constant debate about the civic significance of this mobility programme. The purpose of this article is to analyse the understanding of "active citizenship" by Erasmus students. In order to discover Erasmus students' perceptions, values, beliefs and attitudes regarding the issue under discussion, original data were collected from 174 students who participated in our survey in March 2014. By applying a statistical analysis, the most and the least important criteria for being considered an active citizen have been extracted from the answers of our respondents. In addition, we studied their attitudes towards and knowledge of the European Union (EU). We found that their understanding of "active citizenship" echoes with the definition of the concept provided in the research literature.

Older people's civic participation contributes to community development while at the same time providing opportunities for personal growth in later life. One important dimension of civic participation that has been largely underexplored is informal learning. The aim of this study is to explore the learnings experienced by Spanish older people through their participation in political organizations as one important type of participation that has received little attention in the literature to date. A total of 192 people aged 65 years and older and actively engaged in three kinds of political organizations participated in the study. Participants answered an open-ended question regarding learnings through political participation. Results show a range of informal learnings, relating to social, political, or instrumental domains. Both the type of organization and some sociodemographic and participatory characteristics are associated with the type of learnings experienced by participants. Implications for political organizations are discussed.

This article is based on the findings of a broader research project entitled "Childhood Participation and Citizenship Building," which examined the medium-term effects of intense experiences of participation in childhood within both the school environment and those of leisure-time and community education. The results presented in this article refer specifically to the memories subjects hold of their participation in these childhood experiences. The study combined quantitative (using a questionnaire) and qualitative approaches (conducting in-depth interviews). The results obtained contribute to strengthening the idea--explicit or implicit in all pedagogies that seek to promote child participation--that such participation is not only a right, but that it also contributes to the quality of educational experiences.

In the European context Active Citizenship has been promoted within the education and training Lisbon Strategy as a tool to support the continuation of democracy, human rights and greater social inclusion. In this article the authors analyse the impact of education on Active Citizenship and contribute to the existing debates relating to education levels and participation. The results of their analysis uniformly suggest that there is a significant democratic return associated with formal education. Indeed, using a large sample of individuals from the 2006/2007 European Social Survey, it was found that education is positively and significantly correlated with Active Citizenship behaviour. Tertiary education has by far the biggest impact and this impact is the strongest for the domain of Protest. The findings are robust to the introduction of a large set of control variables and to alternative measures of educational attainment. (Contains 14 notes, 8 tables, and 1 figure.)

This paper analyses how textbooks deal with the issues of education for democratic citizenship encompassed within the European framework and Spanish educational reforms. The sample comprised the 24 individual texts in social science, natural science, and technology for 6-12-year-olds. This paper delimits and defines the six themes for analysis: responsibility, participation, conflict resolution, diversity, and human rights. It offers a qualitative description of the content of each theme as well as a quantitative assessment of the frequency with which they appear. The results indicate that European ideals of citizenship education are dealt with unevenly, and in some cases barely, in these textbooks. (Contains 4 notes.)

A study involving 670 nonabusive families and 166 abusive families compared Spanish and Colombian cultures in relation to community social support variables and the relationships between these variables and child maltreatment. In both cultures, abusive parents showed lower levels of community integration, participation in social activities, and use of organizations. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Objectives: To analyze stakeholders’ perceptions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizen participation in Spain and identify the factors influencing the assessment of its severity. This analysis is based on information from two research projects on local citizen participation, modified after the WHO declared the pandemic to include this new context. Methodology: Mixed research methods were used. Quantitative data was collected through web surveys directed at those responsible for citizen participation in municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants in Andalusia and Madrid, as well as members of Andalusian advisory councils. Qualitative information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with key informants from the selected case studies. Results: The pandemic interrupted or shifted initiatives to an online format. The perceived severity of the impact is more pronounced in municipalities with greater resources for participation and those governed by left-wing parties. The study identifies significant obstacles to citizen participation due to the pandemic, with variations depending on local governance and resource availability. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of considering political and resource factors when assessing the resilience of participatory initiatives during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems on a global scale (such as climate change) are of increasing concern in the scholar. However, it is unclear to what extent society is aware of the severity of these problems. The aim of this study is to advance our knowledge about the environmental perceptions of citizens, with the understanding that citizen participation and action are key to mitigating environmental problems. Specifically, we aim to determine the degree of importance of demographic and sociocultural factors in this perception. To this end, data from 506 questionnaires carried out in Spain and Argentina were analysed. Quantitative data were treated using multivariate analysis based on multiple logistic regression. The results showed that demographic variables, such as location and age, have a greater influence than sociocultural variables, such as profession and sources of environmental information, in the perception of environmental problems. Our findings show that the analysis of environmental perception is a useful tool both for incorporating the point of view of local actors in public policies and for defining effective strategies for action in participatory management. They also show that the different age, occupation and profession of the population must be taken into account and that, to address specific environmental problems, it is necessary to carry out diagnoses focussed on demographic factors, mainly to find out which aspects should be strengthened through programmes and projects aimed at solving environmental problems. It is important to bear in mind that the behaviour of local actors is related to their environmental perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the role of social movements in the production of heritage. However, there has been scant theoretical reflection on the inverse process ―the influence of heritage on the production of civic activism. The objective of this article is to fill this void in the literature about heritage movements, by exploring the strategic benefits and hermeneutical limitations of heritage as a political mobilisation device. The case study addresses the evolution of the movement in defence of Casa del Pumarejo (Seville) over the past twenty years, analysing the perception of heritage during three distinct historical stages: non-heritage, heritagisation and hyper-heritage. This ethnographic longitudinal approach shows the movement's incorporation of transformative cultural meanings and subversive (or, as the activists say, 'rampant') uses of heritage to achieve public recognition, as well as the ambivalences of focusing social struggles on heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Advisory councils (ACs) are one of the most common participatory institutions, aimed to provide authorities with a forum to consult the organized groups at a given territorial or sectoral level. Although they constitute permanent spaces for civic participation, they remain overlooked. This work systematically analyses ACs from a large-N perspective that goes beyond the best-cases approach. The article initially reflects on the role and expected benefits of ACs, identifying three important design choices: organizational structure, objectives, and accountability channels. Then, the article maps 2,013 ACs in Spain and develops a descriptive analysis relying on an original database obtained from the study of official regulations and web pages of 70 ACs. Our first goal is to describe ACs. Secondly, a good picture of these councils sets the foundation for discussing their performance in terms of inclusiveness, impact in policy-making and democratic control. Combining different statistical techniques the article shows that: (1) ACs present diverse design features; (2) these characteristics enable the generation of typologies of ACs; and (3) having the explicit goal of influencing public policies positively correlates with being an empowered council. These findings connect with the broader debate on participatory governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Derecho Politico is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After several European experiences of deliberative democracy in environmental matters (Sweden, Ireland, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Scotland), Spain joins this wave with the creation of its Citizen Assembly for Climate. It is a citizen organization claimed since the declaration of Spain in a climatic emergency situation in 2020 but that was not created until Law 7/2021, of May 20, on Climate Change and Energy Transition and that It has been definitively launched with the ministerial order TED/1086/2021, of September 29, which establishes its composition, organization and operation. Given the uniqueness of this citizen forum, we dedicate these pages to an analysis of its main characteristics, comparing its structure and scope with other similar experiences in the European context, and we will consider whether we are facing an effective exercise of the right to public participation in environmental matters, and we will make some proposals to guarantee the legal viability of future regional and local citizen assemblies, as well as so that their creation is a real exercise of the right to citizen participation that implies citizen participation in decision-making on the climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]