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AbstractThis special issue focuses on the theoretical, empirical and practical integrations between embodied cognition theory (EC) and educational science. The key question is: Can EC constitute a new theoretical framework for educational science and practice? The papers of the special issue support the efforts of those interested in the role of EC in education and in the epistemological convergence of EC and educational science. They deal with a variety of relevant topics in education and offer a focus on the role of the body and embodied experience in learning and educational settings. In conclusion, some further topics are suggested that will need to be investigated in the future, such as a critical evaluation of the possibility for an epistemological alliance between educational theory and embodied cognition, and the contribution that enactive cognition can provide to educational systems, organizations, institutions and policies.

"In diesem Beitrag wird aus soziologischer und bildungsphilosophischer Perspektive die Frage aufgeworfen, welche kontextspezifischen Macht- und Herrschaftsinstrumente an Schulen ausgemacht werden können. Den Ausgang bildet dabei die These, dass Vereinheitlichungsbestrebungen in formalen Bildungsinstitutionen Symptom und Mittel einer intendierten, subtil gegenwärtigen Machtausübung und -tradierung darstellen. Im Kontext von Praktiken der Disziplinierung und Normierung kann insbesondere dem Herrschaftsmittel Tabu eine tragende Rolle zugeschrieben werden, da es in Ergänzung zu seiner kontrollierenden und verhaltensregulierenden Funktion ebenso einen Nährboden für kreative Zeichen der Revolte und folglich für gesellschaftliche Veränderungen bietet. Neben der Thematisierung von Schule als Austragungsort gewaltvoller Akte der Formung (Fremdbestimmung) wie auch kreativer Prozesse der Subjektwerdung (Selbstbestimmung), geraten die produktiven und gesellschaftsstabilisierenden Wirkungen von Disziplinierung und Normierung in gleicher Weise in den Blick. Ausgehend von Überlegungen zur Relevanz eines Machtdiskurses im Kontext Schule werden abschließend Möglichkeiten des Ansinnens alternativer Schulwirklichkeit diskutiert." (Autorenreferat)

This open access book introduces vignette research to new and experienced researchers by guiding them through its history, theory and underlying principles before delving into step-by-step practical guidance on how to do vignette research. Vignette research is an innovative qualitative, narrative and phenomenological research methodology that has gained international recognition, sparking interest from a wide range of individuals and institutions in global contexts. Vignettes are concise narratives, which capture human experiences in real life settings. They reveal surprising or intriguing facets and intangible moments. The experiential narratives resonate with readers and reduce the distance between the researcher and the researched. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC-BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Following the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education systems in Europe, the EU has been called upon to provide a concerted response to the crisis in a context where member states provided their own diverse responses. Against this background, the aim of this article is to uncover and critically examine the EU's education policy discourse and promoted narratives since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and by doing so evaluate the EU's response-ability for education recovery during the crisis. A conceptual framework has been devised to analyse the responsiveness of an international entity, such as the EU, based on organisational and neo-institutionalist theories. Data were collected through a combination of discourse analysis and computer-assisted content analysis, which was applied to official EU education policy documents published in 2020. The following categories emerged from the analysis process, indicating that the EU perceives education recovery as: "upskilling and reskilling", "digital transformation" and "sustainable development". The findings suggest a substantial continuation between the EU's pre- and post-Covid-19 strategy in the education sector, and even an acceleration in the same direction, revealing a lack of real change in the EU's response, which was focused predominantly on the economic and employability approach to education. (DIPF/Orig.)

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the limitations of current social structures, with school closures exposing marginalized population groups to further threats and disadvantages. During the first wave of the pandemic, schools needed to pay special attention to the most vulnerable and marginalized pupils to counteract growing social and educational inequity. Against the background of the differing educational governance and emergency management in the neighbouring countries of Italy and Austria during the first wave of the pandemic, this paper investigates how policy initiatives and regulations helped to tackle inequities in schools between February and August 2020. The aim of this analysis is to understand the differences between the educational policy measures adopted by Italy and Austria in order to be better prepared for future crises and to work toward more equitable education systems. Educational policy documents were subjected to qualitative content analysis and discussed using the lens of critical pedagogy. The results illustrate the extent to which educational policy documents supported students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and culturally and linguistically diverse learners during the first wave of the pandemic. The data show the different dynamics of systems' responses to the pandemic: while in Italy there was a stronger focus on digitalization as a means of ensuring equity of educational opportunities, for example, Austria put more emphasis on supporting children with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. ; La pandemia da Coronavirus ha messo in luce i limiti strutturali dell'attuale sistema sociale. La chiusura delle scuole ha esposto settori emarginati della popolazione a ulteriori minacce e svantaggi. Durante la prima ondata della pandemia, le scuole sono state chiamate a prestare particolare attenzione agli alunni più vulnerabili per contrastare la crescente disuguaglianza educativa. A partire da retroterra differenti in termini di misure politiche e strategie di gestione della crisi nei due paesi confinanti, Italia e Austria, durante la prima ondata della pandemia, questo articolo esplora il modo in cui le politiche educative hanno supportato il contrasto alle diseguaglianze a scuola da febbraio ad agosto 2020. L'obiettivo di questa analisi consiste nel comprendere le differenze tra Italia e Austria per quanto riguarda le misure di politiche educative sia per essere meglio preparati a eventuali future crisi sia per contribuire ad un sistema educativo più equo. I ricercatori hanno esaminato documenti di politiche educative attraverso l'analisi qualitativa del contenuto e hanno poi discusso i risultati attraverso la lente della pedagogia critica. I risultati evidenziano come, durante la prima ondata della pandemia, tali politiche abbiano sostenuto soprattutto gli studenti provenienti da ambienti socioeconomicamente svantaggiati e quelli culturalmente e linguisticamente diversi. I dati mostrano le diverse dinamiche delle risposte sistemiche alla pandemia; mentre in Italia si è posta maggiore at- tenzione sul ruolo della digitalizzazione quale mezzo per garantire eque opportunità educative, in Austria si è posta maggiore enfasi sul sostegno ai bambini con un diverso background linguistico e culturale.

In this article, we provide a theoretical conceptual analysis of FridaysForFuture (FFF) and of its effort in promoting the governance of socioeconomic transition toward sustainable development. FFF is a social movement that has received outstanding public recognition and visibility across the world in the last 2 years and is of great interest to educational research because it is largely composed of youngsters and appears to play a paideutic role in societal innovation. There is a growing but still limited body of investigation of FFF's structures, genealogy, and behavior. The same goes for its theoretical and ethical background and principles. Its efforts to promote social change by going beyond individual agency toward collective agency deserve greater attention from educational scientists. We argue that FFF is a complex, self-organizing, informal network, which we define as an enactive network for its ability to retrieve scientific knowledge and transform it into lived meaningful knowledge, and for its capacity to mobilize masses and influence public discourse under a specific ethical umbrella. We provide six macro categories to describe and explain FFF: 1) nested emergent network, 2) collective social agency and leadership, 3) political impact, 4) science-based learning and activism, 5) paideutic function, and 6) ethical (normative) stance. We stress the FFF capacity to recruit high-level scientific knowledge without direct support from schools, and embody strong ethical stances with specific references to the ethics of responsibility and care for the interaction between humanity and the natural world. Finally, we suggest that FFF can be interpreted as an enactive network with the ability to affect collective identity and empower collective agency by encouraging communities into a more scientific, evidence-based, and ethical public discourse.