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In this paper, we draw on the concepts of figurations, capital, and hegemonic masculinity to analyse a bullying relation involving two fifth-grade boys at a Swedish comprehensive school. The findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork, which included participant observations and group interviews with eight teachers and fourteen students (seven girls and seven boys) from the same class. Our findings demonstrate the complexity of the relation between the boys and suggest that rather than constituting a straight-forward bullying situation involving a problematically aggressive 'bully' targeting a less powerful 'victim', it is part of a more complex figuration involving interdependent social relations that are tenuously balanced in terms of power dynamics and where the boys position themselves and are positioned in relation to the long-term symbolic norms of status dominant within their specific school field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much cultural capital research has accumulated since its inception in the 1970s and researchers have charted the corresponding development of cultural capital theory in academic communities. This empirical study takes the further step of offering an account of cultural capital as it is interpreted in schools. This 'interventionalist account' is based on classifications of practices that had been explicitly implemented at 14 secondary schools in England in order to give students access to cultural capital. The collection of cultural capital practices was compiled from 38 interviews with senior leaders, teachers, and support staff. Practitioners justifiably believed these practices to be supported by research evidence. It was found, however, that a wide variety of cultural capital practices exist in schools today, with limited support from research evidence and theory. I discuss how the 'evidence pipeline' has broken down in this case and is sometimes an inappropriate metaphor for conceptualising research dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue brings together current work in education research that engages with a pragmatic, yet critical theoretical tradition sprung from the French context during the 1980s. Based on a particular understanding of existence, perception, reality and the dynamics of social life, this theoretical tradition has continuously been developed over the past four decades in a variety of fields, such as law, economic studies, political sciences, education research and sociology. Despite its rich history, this approach has until recently only garnered limited attention from English-speaking research communities. Consequently, our aim is to introduce the approach to the European Education Research Journal readership and demonstrate the tradition's richness and range of use for education research. By showing the many ways in which this perspective can be utilised in education research, we hope to inspire more scholars who publish in English-speaking contexts to engage with us and explore what insights this 'novel' perspective can bring to our research field. In this editorial, we briefly explain the perspective's base assumptions and key features, discuss the potential relevance of this approach for education research, and introduce the articles of the special issue. First, however, we want to address the issue of naming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on convention theory and sociology of critique, this article examines how teachers at a Swedish folk high school coordinate students' activities through tests. Through ethnographic descriptions of exercises, assignments, presentations, and exhibitions that test students' engagement, it is shown how the teachers seek to depart from the standardized assessment procedure associated with formalized schooling. More specifically, the teachers' tests destabilize the prevailing understanding of what art "is," support the students to collectively explore and experiment with materials and highlight promising dimensions in their art-making. The article highlights "what is at stake" in art education and recognizes certain conventions as central in formatting, confirming, and interrogating the students' understanding of their artistic practices. Through these tests, students face a contradiction of freedom: the freedom to find their unique voice and follow their inner calling, versus the explicit and imposed expectation to express their freedom in a certain way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When comparing lifelong learning systems in Europe, Swedish vocational education has been characterised as a statist, school-based ideal type, with strong emphasis on egalitarianism and social citizenship. However, the popularisation and expansion of higher vocational education (HVE), a post-secondary training form that has a mandate to train people to meet local labour market needs, complicates these composite descriptions. Building on conventions theory and pragmatic sociology, our analysis probes the plural worlds of HVE participation, beyond simplistic understandings of human capital accumulation or universalistic welfare. Drawing on interviews with participants and archival material, we analyse forms of justifications evoked by those engaged in this transforming skilling regime. Our analysis reveals that participants do not enrol merely for getting work or getting ahead. Rather, participation is described as a response to constraints, a means to challenge difficult circumstances encountered in the labour market, or related to contingencies. Taken together, HVE emerges as a flexible mode of governing vocational knowledge to match local labour market needs, with rivalling conventions of worth. We discuss the increasing significance of projection and anticipation for individuals and organisations involved in skilling regimes, and propose a prospective convention that underscores expectancy and promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current article is to evaluate social responsibility, digital ethics, and knowledge about safe data storage among students of different ages. Four hundred students took part in the study: 200 people each in the first and fifth years of study. Their ages were 19.2 years (SD = 1.08) and 24.4 years (SD = 1.18), respectively. The research tools were the Chinese University Students' Social Responsibility Scale (CUSSRS), the Digital Ethics Level Scale (SLDE), and the Cyber Security Awareness Survey (CSA). It was found that with age, the indicators of Social Responsibility become higher. Digital Ethics also increases with age: in the category of Privacy and Data Protection, first-year students had a mean value of 11.49 versus 16.04 of fifth-year students; in the Ethical Use of Technology – 12.05 versus 16.49; in Digital Security − 11.02 versus 15.00, respectively. At the same time, the Digital Accessibility subscale was the same for the two groups, without significant differences. In addition, the value of Cybersecurity Awareness was higher among fifth-year students with an indicator of 58.86 against an indicator of 46.33 for first-year students, that is, it was 12.53 higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be in the future lives of children at school today. Voice-activated intelligent personal assistant devices are used in the home and could be useful in the classroom. This article explores how two groups of New Zealand children aged 7–12 engaged with Google Home devices in their classroom. Interactions recorded through the devices were analysed to evaluate how the devices were used, how easy they were to use and how the use aligns with the purposes of education. A framework for analysis was developed from Davis's Technology Acceptance Model and Biesta's three functions of education. The children used the devices across the three functions of education. They anthropomorphised the device, talking respectfully, sharing jokes and asking for its opinion. Use was influenced by the social context of the classroom and teacher beliefs about education, and limited as the devices were not designed for the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education's focus is shifting to include societal impact alongside academic excellence. While community-engaged scholarship has a long history, many initiatives focus on individual researchers or institutional practices, without accounting for disciplinary and geopolitical contexts. The Community Engagement for Impact (CEFI) Framework and the Contextual Model of Community Engagement (CMCE) are based on findings of an in-depth, qualitative study of researchers' strategies for community engagement. Results point to complex relationships between researchers, universities, and disciplines, shaped by government policy, research trends, community imperatives, and other factors. While participants fostered community relationships supporting social change, they did not receive appropriate training, support, or recognition. CEFI guides individuals and institutions to identify barriers and facilitators for engagement, across disciplines, for work involving industry organisations, community groups, governments, and other partners. When used alongside CMCE's approach to local, national, and global factors, researchers, universities, and disciplines can better support pathways to societal impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counselors and educators must re-imagine social-emotional wellness as an essential part of the academic curriculum. The authors present a collaborative, sustainable model that focuses both on academic rigor and emotional wellness. The authors outline how this model can be integrated in any academic content area and how school counselors and teachers can support each other to meet academic and social-emotional learning outcomes. The authors demonstrate how this model can be integrated into high school math. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies conducted between the 1950s and 1970s found that the principles embodied in the First Amendment constituted a "clear norm" endorsed by large majorities of community leaders and virtually all legal practitioners and scholars. This consensus has since weakened under the strain of arguments that racist slurs, epithets, and other forms of expression that demean social identities are an intolerable affront to egalitarian values. Guided by the theory that norms are transmitted through social learning, we show that these developments have spurred a dramatic realignment in public tolerance of offensive expression about race, gender, and religious groups. Tolerance of such speech has declined overall, and its traditional relationships with ideology, education, and age have diminished or reversed. Speech subject to changing norms of tolerance ranges from polemic to scientific inquiry, the fringes to the mainstream of political discourse, and left to right, raising profound questions about the scope of permissible debate in contemporary American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]