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Universities, and business schools specifically, are experiencing a transformation of their societal mission. Similar to the STEM fields, business schools are nested in global competitive environments facing multiple competing pressures, one being the need to demonstrate their social impact (SI). While business schools signal their commitment to SI by addressing it in their mission and adjusting their curricula and research, whether and how they assess the SI of their core functions is less well known. This study thus investigates how business schools organise for SI through performance management (PM). The analysis includes 10 European business schools selected among members of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) network, and draws on reports and interviews with staff responsible for social responsibility reporting. Findings suggest that business schools are in early stages of organising for SI, and practices largely reflect compliance with coercive and normative factors. Performance management is mainly concerned with monitoring SI performance -- i.e. providing performance indicators and assessment tools without appropriate rewards or sanctions. This study sheds light on practices for SI assessment in business schools, the influence of environmental dependencies on these practices, and aspects that could strengthen institutional accountability and commitment to social impact.

School leadership models emphasize the importance of leadership devoting time to the creation of a shared school mission, as a strategy for school effectiveness. This paper focuses on teachers' and parents' perceptions of the desired and practised school mission, considering the following dimensions: i) scientific and technological; ii) civic; iii) social and emotional; iv) vocational; v) physical. 3284 teachers and 3258 parents participated. All dimensions were highly valued as part of the desired school mission, mostly civic and social and emotional. However, the averages were lower in all dimensions of the practised school mission. Implications for school leadership are discussed.

This paper examines the role of professionalism in teachers' change in practice related to dialogue and argumentation. Data were collected from 14 pre-primary and primary school teachers who participated in a professional development programme with an emphasis on promoting values such as tolerance, empathy, inclusion and social responsibility through dialogue and argumentation. Data from teachers' transcribed lessons revealed discrepancies in teachers' implementation of the lesson plans, despite receiving the same professional support. This paper argues that the discrepancies lie in the notion of professionalism, accounting for teacher agency, self-efficacy and autonomy. Three positions on the professionalism continuum were identified from this implementation: the prescriber, the implementer and the enactor. Interview data examining teacher professionalism traits confirmed these positions. The paper aims to contribute to the literature on professionalism, as the latter re-emerges as a key concept in recent teacher professional development literature.

Purpose Researching on lesson studies in initial training of physical education (PE) teachers in Portugal, our group is especially interested in the potential of this methodology for developing the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of future PE teachers. The purpose of the present text is to synthesize the knowledge relating to this subject. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory searches in four multiple search databases were carried out, resulting in 51 records. Information about authors, year of publication, purposes, methodology and results was collected and analyzed. Findings Results highlight the diversity of purposes. The interview is recurrent in the qualitative studies, while the questionnaire is used in all the large quantitative studies. Regarding the findings, it appears the centrality of PCK, its development potential and its measurability, the consistency of the concept and its evolutionary dynamics, as well as the constructive criticism of initial teacher training models and practices. Originality/value To emphasize the relationship between lesson studies and the development of PCK in initial teacher training of PE teachers.

In the mid-1970s, after the end of military dictatorships, Spain and Portugal experienced a transition to democracy that promoted the establishment of regimes committed to achieving gender equality in public and private life. Women saw significant advancements in education and employment rights, enabling them to have more job opportunities. Using critical discourse analysis, we examine the socio-occupational representation of women in primary textbooks from Spain and Portugal from 1974 to 1982 in order to assess whether state-approved textbooks accurately reflected the reframed female role in society. The results show a lack of female characters depicted in economically rewarding roles and the persistent presence of gender segregation in the workforce's horizontal and vertical dimensions.

The time frame of this article covers the Portuguese transition to democracy in the 1970s until the 1990s, when democratic institutions operated fully. The focus lies on the way in which changes in the conceptualization of nature and society and their mutual relationship were reflected in secondary education textbooks. We explore whether and how knowledge about both domains provided in textbooks contributed toward democratic education and toward the exercise of citizenship at a time when democracy was in the making. Both natural sciences and history textbooks express environmentalist concerns and promote an ecological perspective. History textbooks frame these concerns in the social, cultural, and political contexts of the time.

This article deals with visual representations of children in social and natural science primary education textbooks from Spain and Portugal during the final years of dictatorship, transition to democracy, democratic consolidation, and democracy between 1965 and 1995. It explores ways in which children are addressed and made visible in social and natural environments and what kind of relationships with these milieus are established. With reference to processes of social and political reconfiguration of the individual and society, environmental awakening, the strengthening of children's rights, and the transformation of the design, textuality, and knowledge contained in textbooks, it shows how textbooks contribute to the self-perception and identity formation of children. The results reveal an underrepresentation of those for whom the textbooks are intended, a contemplative social representation, and a shortage of natural spaces.

This paper examines the praxeology of informal educational practices (i.e. how participants produce setting-specific practices to make a tour happen) in the Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra through close analysis of a video-recorded excerpt of a guided tour. Guided visits in informal science settings are important educational events that take place every day in many institutions. Even so, research addressing these activities in detail remains scarce. It is assumed that tours are "structured" interactions, having a stable format in which participants follow predetermined actions. Nonetheless, the results of this study show that the guided tour observed here is highly interactive, with educational practices being co-accomplished by participants (guides and students) with different levels of astronomical expertise. The present study aims to contribute to our understanding of guided tours, and in so doing shows the importance of methods for data analysis sensitive to naturally occurring events.

This article examines to what extent the independent living movement has an impact on higher education. With this purpose, a survey of 13,939 undergraduate and postgraduate students related to Education Sciences from 24 institutions in Europe and Latin America was carried out. Of these students, 615 declared having a disability. The objectives of the study were to describe the profile and the living conditions for students with and without disabilities; characterise their level of university and social participation; determine the predictors of university participation of students with disabilities. The results suggest an under-representation of these students at university, who form a homogenous profile, consistent with the starting point of the independent living movement. These students participate in university from an instrumental point of view linked to academic achievement and maximum impact on the institution. Lines of work and research to promote the academic and social inclusion of this group are discussed.

Emergency remote teaching (ERT) through online learning was adopted by the higher education system worldwide to provide students with ongoing education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores students' perceptions of the functioning of online classes during the ERT period and how these perceptions influenced their accounting teaching-learning process. A questionnaire was applied to management and economics students, enrolled in a Portuguese HEI, within the context of accounting course units. Applying the PLS method, a theoretical model was estimated. Our results suggest that HEIs should invest in easy access to online teaching platforms and conferencing systems and to promote collaborative and interactive learning. Since ERT contexts may become increasingly recurrent, online learning should provide students with appealing online classes, as part of an engaging educational experience. This study contributes to a research agenda on the impact of a disruptive event on the accounting teaching-learning process in a specific cultural setting.

Indigenous knowledge is generally recognised as an inferior social experience in spaces of knowledge production. The educational issue that results from this process imposes barriers to the integration of these epistemologies in the school environment. This study presents a systematic review about the integration of indigenous knowledge in primary schools in developing and/or emerging countries and the results of these interventions. Through a search carried out in the electronic database b-on, from the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto in Portugal, 14 studies were selected. This review identified factors that influence the representation of the indigenous culture in the school environment, allowing the construction of a framework in which indigenous knowledge is often neglected in the formal education system with obstacles to its introduction into the school environment. It also revealed that the understanding of the local context is essential in proposing interventions to open a possible intercultural dialogue.

The aim of this study is to analyse attitudes, perceptions of teacher self-efficacy and collaborative practices and teachers' opinions of the most appropriate placement for students with severe/permanent SEN. The methodology involves a survey based on a questionnaire administered to teachers in three school groups in the central region of mainland Portugal, including scales for the assessment of attitudes towards inclusion, perceptions of teacher self-efficacy and collaboration between teachers. The data was processed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS software. The results indicate that the teachers have favourable attitudes towards inclusion and a high perception of self-efficacy, and also provide evidence of collaborative practices. In addition, a positive and statistically significant relationship between teachers' attitudes and perceptions of self-efficacy with regard to inclusion was identified, affirming a statistically significant relationship between these variables and teachers' opinions of the most appropriate placement for students with severe/permanent SEN. What is still at stake is that, despite inclusive policies, the placement of students with SEN in regular classrooms can still be influenced by the type of SEN. It was also noted that the diversity of students, the reinforcement of collaborative practices represent challenges for the inclusion of these students.

Background: Background: Research demonstrates the benefits of communities of practice (CoP) for teachers' professional learning in Physical Education (PE). However, much less is known about how CoPs can be used to understand pre-service teachers' (PSTs) professional learning in their Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes. Negotiation of meaning (NofM) is a crucial concept regarding learning inside of a CoP. Hence, understand how meaning is negotiated in initial teacher professional development might allow the enhancement of the social learning strategies in PETE programmes. Purpose: Purpose: This article draws on the CoP theoretical framework, and specifically the concept of NofM to understand how PSTs negotiated meaning during a two-year PETE programme. In particular, the focus is on the challenges faced by PSTs throughout the PETE social interactive process. Participants and settings: Participants and settings: The setting was a PETE programme in Portugal. In year one, the participants were three university teacher educators (TE) and 25 PSTs. In year two, the participants were three PSTs from year one who were in their school placement, a university supervisor (US) and one cooperating teacher (CT). Data collection and analysis: Data collection and analysis: This study was an ethnography with a two-year longitudinal design. Data were collected through the ethnographer's participant-observations (first author), meetings of the PSTs with the mentoring team (TEs, US, CT), and the ethnographer's field diary, reflexive log, and audio-recordings. Data analysis involved the constant-comparative grounded theory method. Findings: Findings: Analysis resulted in the identification of three key challenges during the course units, for PSTs in the first year of their PETE programme: (a) the diversity and disconnections within the course units; (b) (the lack of) membership; and (c) the absence of democratic spaces in PETE class discussions. In the year two of PETE during the school placement, three challenges were identified for the negotiation of meaning (NofM): (a) the lack of dialogue with and focus on pedagogical practice by the cooperating teacher; (b) working together and the pressure to individualise PSTs' education process; and (c) unreachable support and supervision from the university. Implications: Implications: We suggest that PETE programmes should emphasise pedagogical strategies that create spaces for the cultivation of CoPs. For instance, we suggest PST engagement in continuous and planned group work across curricular years (e.g. peer-teaching and micro-teaching experiences) to increase work group membership. We recommend the emphasis on discussion sessions mediated by a facilitator (e.g. TEs, CTs, or US) where the different working groups could share their repertoire of learning experiences as a CoP. Moreover, we suggest optimisation of a base of pedagogical knowledge regarding course units' integration between the TEs of the PETE to systematise the process and also, an increased connection between the university and the host school. Additionally, we propose continuous professional development by the CTs to facilitate the requirements of the PETE programme.

The closure of higher education institutions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a sudden and unexpected transition from face-to-face to online teaching and learning. This paper draws on data from a broader study focusing on higher education students' perceptions and experiences of online learning during the first lockdown in 2020. In total, 2,718 students from different Portuguese institutions participated in the study. Findings indicate that students who felt they had been provided with more feedback reported less difficulty in online teaching and learning. Students reported more perceived difficulty than perceived feedback in online teaching and learning. Findings point to the importance of feedback in fostering self-regulation of learning, thereby helping students better adapt to online teaching and learning.

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.

Research on the role brand image plays in higher education (HE) suggests that it is crucial to understand students' perceptions of their university. This study builds on existing empirical work by Alcaide-Pulido, Alves, and Gutierrez-Villar (2017) exploring themes of national and international recognition, economic value, university campus facilities, and external communications and values. It employs a structural equation modelling approach with Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Decision Trees Analysis through a sample of 624 undergraduate students from England, Spain, and Portugal. The findings highlight areas of commonality as well as differences between the different cultures and nationalities examined as part of the study. They show areas that brand managers from each country should concentrate on, making recommendations that could help to shape the marketing direction of universities in each of the nations included in the research. The English and Portuguese should prioritise communication to students through their institutional website, whereas Spaniards should attend to ethical values and social responsibility. Economic value is an aspect that Spanish and English universities should focus on. Spaniards and English agree that campus facilities are important, whereas class size is key for Portuguese. Finally, Portuguese students' highly value the national recognition of their university.

In educational gerontology, non-formal education emerges as a possibility for lifelong learning because it is more flexible and less bureaucratic than formal education. In this context, agile culture offers a potential strategy to enhance non-formal education. While there are four manifestos for agile culture in education, their application in later life is lacking in the literature. The objective is to discuss the agile culture in education and present the concept of the agile manifesto for non-formal education in later life. A co-design process was conducted to develop this manifesto, in which specialists in education, educational gerontology and agile culture, as well as an older person, participated in an active and collaborative way. The manifesto, which has four values and 18 principles, will serve as a guide for educators who intend to develop educational activities based on agile culture, for older adults, in the non-formal instance. It is proposed that the agile culture of non-formal education for older adults is fundamentally about collaboration, democracy, independence and autonomy, considering the needs of everyday life, as well as the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of those involved.

This is an international study in which 125 secondary-level students from different European countries came together and were exposed to outdoor education. The purpose was to investigate the impact level of outdoor activities on the students' success rates and explore how they perceived their experiences in outdoors. The analysis of the data gathered from pre- and post-tests and semi-structured in-depth interviews showed outdoor education could complement indoor teaching, clarify abstract theoretical points, expand content knowledge and raise test scores of the students. At the same time, with its motivating nature, outdoor learning helped the participants get ready for learning and use their higher order thinking skills, form good relationships with others, communicate and cooperate and build high levels of self-efficacy. This research affirms outdoor education is an effective, but mostly neglected, practice at secondary levels and recommends policymakers to re-evaluate their vision for the status of learning in outdoors.

Many changes have taken place in initial teacher education (ITE) programmes over the last number of years in countries such as Israel, Portugal, Jamaica, Ontario (Canada), and England. This paper outlines some of these changes, why they occurred, and to the extent possible, how effective these changes have been from the experience of the teacher educators who have written this paper. In particular, they describe one significant change that would greatly improve ITE in their respective jurisdictions. In the latter part of the paper, the writers discuss current trends and possible directions for teacher education across international contexts. With its contrasting accounts of ITE in different national contexts across the world, this article argues for high quality initial teacher education to provide a global educational workforce in which teachers and learners can flourish within an equal, yet diverse and decolonialised ecosystem.

Emotional availability of parents plays a crucial role in the psychological well-being and development of adolescents. However, previous studies have primarily focused on assessing maternal emotional availability. The Lum Emotional Availability of Parents (LEAP) scale was developed, considering both mothers' and fathers' emotional availability. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the LEAP scale among Portuguese adolescents (N = 202). The results confirmed the unifactorial structure of the LEAP scale. Convergent construct validity was supported. Specifically, adolescents' perceptions of higher emotional availability from parents were related to better health-related quality of life. The LEAP scale also demonstrated small but positive associations with emotion regulation, with higher emotional availability being linked to lower use of expressive suppression and greater use of cognitive reappraisal. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the LEAP scale is a valid instrument for assessing adolescents' perceptions of both mothers' and fathers' emotional availability.

The changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have compelled schools to transform their pedagogies, with two seemingly contrasting trends emerging: the growing digitalisation of schools and the increased recognition of outdoor education. Our study, based on the experience of a European project, addressed the following questions: What digital competences can be fostered through school garden-based learning activities? Which UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be addressed by combining garden and digital activities? How do these practices align with the framework of transformative pedagogy? To answer these questions, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of 16 learning activity lesson plans designed and implemented by teachers from Slovenia, Greece, Portugal, and Spain. The findings indicate the activities contributed to exploring diverse online sources of information and integrating them into shareable digital products while developing SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 3 (health habits), and SDG 12 (sustainable consumption and production), among others. These activities align with the principles of transformative pedagogy, as they encourage students to think and interact globally while empowering them to take action at a local level. These results also emphasise the importance of enhancing students' decision-making abilities and providing opportunities for reflective questioning, less frequently identified in the activities.

The purpose of this article is to reexamine the decision-making process on Portugal's entry into PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). The analysis indicates that the decision, which was not unanimous among the government members with responsibilities in the education field, was made in a context of normative emulation, with the goal of strengthening a specific direction of the national educational agenda.

Early career investigators (ECIs) in the Social Sciences and Humanities need to receive adequate information so that they will be empowered to progress in their academic career and deal with the various evaluation processes that constitute an essential part of their professional development. This article relies on an informational-ecosystemic approach originally developed in the context of resilience studies and crisis communication and uses it as a theoretical framework to analyse and understand the "early academic career building information ecosystems" (EACBIEs), into which ECIs professionally develop. The characteristics of these ecosystems are then refined through the analysis of interviews conducted with ECIs from all around Europe in the framework of the European Network for Research Evaluation in Social Sciences and Humanities (ENRESSH), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action. The analysis reveals the remarkable heterogeneity of the information ecosystems into which early career researchers have to build their career in Europe, articulating a diversity of formal, non-formal and informal learning environments, and several related information channels, as well as showing a geographical spread that covers institutional, national and international levels. Furthermore, although the diverse information channels at hand and geographical levels at which they operate appear in some cases to be complementary, and even mutually reinforcing, they can also, in other cases, be dysfunctional, fragmented and unfair to some extent.

The present study's purpose was to comprehend the internal dynamics of the social learning interactions inside a Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programme where pre-service teachers (PST) were learning and implementing student-centered approaches (SCA). Specifically, this article draws on the Value creation cycles framework to unveil the education development challenges faced by PSTs inside of their PETE Social Learning Space. The context was a two-year PETE programme in Portugal. In year one, the participants were three university teacher educators (TE) and 25 PSTs. In year two, the participants were 3 PSTs (from the original year one class) in their school placement, one university supervisor (US), and one cooperating teacher (CT). This study was an ethnography with a two-year longitudinal design. Data were collected through the ethnographer's participant-observations, meetings of the PSTs with the mentoring team (TEs, US, CT), and the ethnographer's field diary, reflexive log, and audio recordings. Data analysis involved the constant-comparative grounded theory method. The analysis resulted in understanding the challenges faced by PSTs while working in contexts of possible development of social learning spaces. Accordingly, findings explore the development of PSTs throughout the two years of the programme by analysing their involvement in each cycle of value creation: the PSTs' work group social dynamic; their experiences of peer-teaching SCAs before school placement; PSTs' intentions about implementing SCAs; the individualisation of PSTs learning process; relationship dynamics with stakeholders (TEs, CTs, and US); and, the lack of practical examples of SCAs implementation in the host school. The analysis of the value creation cycles encourage PETE programmes to invest in understanding the development of social learning spaces, before introducing them in programme policy, by acknowledging the importance of developing a mechanism of analysis and follow-up of its development.

Local biodiversity can help students develop conservation attitudes regarding biodiversity. However, studies reveal students' preferences regarding exotic than local biodiversity. Therefore, more research can permit an improved understanding of the reasons for their interest in these organisms. This research aimed to investigate São Paulo state (Brazil) students' interests and perceptions about their local biodiversity and understand how teaching materials present this topic. A Likert-type questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data regarding students' interests and perceptions. Textbooks and handouts analysis included counting quoted living beings and verifying their occurrence in local biomes using open-access datasets. Results showed that the students were less interested in local biodiversity than global biodiversity. They further expressed little knowledge about local biomes and their biodiversity. Teaching materials mostly name living beings that exist in Brazil. However, they offer few explicit examples of them in students' biome. Furthermore, regional teaching materials must deal with more contextualisation. Results from our study support previous research that suggests students need more than proximity to local biodiversity to be aware of it. Therefore, we recommend developing teaching materials focusing on local biodiversity, with follow-up studies examining their impact on student awareness of local biodiversity.

Research on preservice teachers' (PST) adaptive competence in physical education is critical to prepare them for effective teaching in an ever-changing pedagogical context. This study examined the adaptive competence of two PSTs (one male, one female) during their twelve-week school placement while teaching two 10th-grade classes. The adaptations to six core practices, namely: goals and assessment; establishment of rules and routines; management; content development; task presentation; and supervision and active monitoring were analyzed in 48 lesson plans. Twenty-seven adaptations were made by PST A (67.5%) and thirteen by PST B (32.5%). For both PSTs, the content development core practice had the highest number of adaptations (16), followed by management (10) and task presentation (5). No adaptations were made to rules and establishment of routines. While the invasion games showed the highest number of adaptations (N = 15; 37.5%), net-wall games had the highest number of adaptations per lesson. Most adaptations were made in volleyball. The type of physical education curriculum (distributed practice) imposed by the school, may have substantially impacted PSTs' ability to make adaptations to lesson plans. This study showed that PSTs put the most effort into adapting content development to the students they were teaching. Both PSTs had limited content knowledge in the teaching content, so future research should investigate the relation between PSTs' content knowledge and adaptive competence. In addition, interventions to improve PSTs' adaptive competence through reflection-on-action and expert supervision should be further explored.

This study explored 'cultural diversity' in urban schools in Portugal by conducting discourse analysis on interviews with school practitioners. Findings show that 'cultural diversity' was dominantly anchored in Othering 'foreigners' that mainly associated 'non-native speakers' to difficulties in integration, participation and teachers'pedagogical work. However, contradicting discourses somewhat resisted Othering by highlighting meaningful differences, all students' rights, and calling for pedagogical changes. By showing the ambivalences in how students, teachers and pedagogical relationships are viewed, we both alert for an exclusionary conceptualization of 'cultural diversity', and question Othering as a fundamentalizing discourse to fully govern 'cultural diversity' in schools.

Emergent literacy (EL) interventions are effective at fostering foundational skills for reading and writing. During the COVID-19 pandemic schools faced several challenges to maintain these interventions, namely changing face-to-face to remote modalities. In this study, the effects of a multi-tier emergent literacy intervention are examined, delivered both in face-to-face and remote modalities, during the second COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The intervention was delivered to 102 preschool Portuguese children (aged 5-6 years) according to the Multi-Tier Systems of Support (MTSS) framework and evaluated using a pre and post-test design and a single group. The results showed significant gains after the intervention in all emergent literacy skills evaluated: phonological awareness, vocabulary, print concepts, alphabet knowledge, and emergent writing. These findings highlight the relevance of systematic interventions that implement universal screenings, progress monitoring and decision-making processes based on children's performance, and the potentialities of using mixed modalities (face-to-face and remote) to deliver such interventions in uncertain times.

Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care published from 2010-2020. The review outlines the population of interest (participants in the study, age of children, study location), methodological trends, and how curiosity and/or wonder are included in the research. The search yielded 300 peer-reviewed articles, of which 33 were included for analysis based on eligibility criteria. The main results showed that: (a) the term "curiosity" was more commonly used than the term "wonder," (b) few studies elaborated on their understanding of the two terms beyond them being naturally present in children, and (c) curiosity and/or wonder were emphasized as means to learn natural science or considered as stimulated by it, although few studies discussed how children's curiosity and wonder can be observed and nurtured. With a better understanding of what defines the terms curiosity and wonder and how to foster these qualities in early childhood education and care, we can learn to better support children's intrinsic motivation for science learning.

The complex trajectories of higher education students are deviations from the regular path due to delays in completing a degree, dropping out, taking breaks, or changing programmes. In this study, we investigated degree changing as a cause of complex student trajectories. We characterised cohorts of students who graduated with a complex trajectory and identified the characteristics that influenced the time to graduation. To support this predictive task, we employed machine learning techniques such as neural networks, support vector machines, and random forests. In addition, we used interpretable techniques such as decision trees to derive managerial insights that could prove useful to decision-makers. We validated the proposed methodology taking the University of Porto (Portugal) as case study. The results show that the time to degree (TTD) of students with and without complex trajectories was different. Moreover, the proposed models effectively predicted TTD, outperforming two benchmark models. The random forest model proved to be the best predictor. Finally, this study shows that the factors that best predict TTD are the median TTD and the admission regime of the programme of destination of transfer students, followed by the admission average of the previous programme. By identifying students who take longer to complete their studies, targeted interventions such as counselling and tutoring can be promoted, potentially improving completion rates and educational outcomes without having to use as many resources.

This paper addresses the ways through which new philanthropy in education is being enacted in Portugal, focusing on one of its significant imaginaries: social inclusion. We analyse EPIS (Entrepreneurs for Social Inclusion), a top association dedicated to corporate philanthropy with a growing presence in the education system. Drawing on Popkewitz's concept of fabrication, it examines EPIS' programmes and deliverables as technologies that constitute social inclusion as an object of policy, knowledge and practice, targeting students (transforming "at-risk" students into entrepreneurs), teachers and schools (transforming their cultures to become performance-oriented), and the relationship between State and non-State actors (fostering the State's adoption of a rule-following role, dependent on knowledge generated by non-State actors). This paper suggests that new philanthropies' social inclusion imaginary enacts a system of reason that promulgates results-oriented and evidence-based approaches to educational policy and knowledge.

Background: Psychological distress is highly noticeable among caregivers working in residential youth care (RYC). Maintaining and enhancing caregivers' professional mental health and quality of life is crucial to achieve effective outcomes in RYC. Nevertheless, trainings to protect caregivers' mental health are scarce. Considering the buffering effect over negative psychological outcomes, compassion training could be beneficial in RYC. Objective: This study is part of a Cluster Randomized Trial examining the effects of the Compassionate Mind Training for Caregivers (CMT-Care Homes), looking at professional quality of life and mental health of caregivers working in RYC. Method: The sample was composed of 127 professional caregivers from 12 Portuguese residential care homes (RCH). RCHs were randomly allocated at experimental (N = 6) and control group (N = 6). Participants were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and 3 and 6-month follow-ups, answering to the Professional Quality of Life Scale and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Program effects were tested using a two-factor mixed MANCOVA, with self-critical attitude and education degree as covariates. Results: MANCOVA showed a significant Time × Group interaction effects (F = 1.890, p = 0.014; [eta-squared][subscript p] = 0.050), with CMT-Care Homes participants presenting lower scores on burnout, anxiety, and depression at 3 and 6-months follow-ups, when compared with controls. Participants that received CMT-Care Homes considered the program useful to deal with pandemic threats and with youth during lockdowns. Conclusions: This study shows the benefits of the CMT-Care Homes in helping professional caregivers reducing burnout, anxiety and depression, and dealing with pandemic challenges in RYC. Trial registration: This cluster randomized trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (TRN: NCT04512092) on 6th August 2020.

Ensuring equal conditions of access and success for all higher education students is a challenging task for educational systems and institutions. Understanding the students' perspectives and needs regarding educational policies and institutional practices in higher education can be an important contribution to improving the quality of education. This paper aims to identify the main obstacles faced by students and their proposals for the improvement of policies and institutional practices in the Portuguese higher education system to promote access and success for all students. By using a mixed-methods approach, we gathered responses from 1,292 students enrolled in 56 HEIs. Data was analysed through content analysis with a pre-existing grid comprising three dimensions: socio-economic, educational and institutional. Descriptive statistics were carried out for the quantitative data. The results revealed socio-economic factors were the most frequently mentioned as needing improvement, followed by the educational and institutional factors. The results allow concluding that institutional practices and educational policies are directly related. Thus, the institutional and political improvement actions should be seen in a holistic and integrative way, integrating actions to enhance the students' socio-economic, educational and institutional conditions.

The presence of Cigano/Roma students in secondary education in Portugal is still a rarity, considering that less than 3% of young Ciganos/Roma attend secondary education. This article aims to highlight the need for a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions of school teachers and principals on educational (under)achievement, absenteeism and school integration of Cigano students. To this end, we analyse data from an online questionnaire survey of a sample of 819 teachers, school principals and deputy principals and other senior management staff in schools of the Metropolitan Areas. These respondents express persistent representations and stereotypes in relation to the educational trajectories of Cigano students, especially in assigning prime causes of school failure to factors relating to the students' family or own intrinsic issues, rarely indicating institutional factors or those linked to their teaching practices. Although this is a study centred on Portugal, the lessons drawn from it can point to new directions for other contexts, as the educational achievement of Cigano students represents an opportunity and an invitation to transform and upgrade school institutions as well as the educational system as a whole, which should be more innovative, reflexive and increasingly open to the community.

The internationalisation of Portuguese higher education implies multicultural challenges arising from the Portuguese language variation. Nevertheless, the perceptions of lecturers about their students are rarely analysed, though influencing learning. This will be the focus of our article, using focus groups. Findings show that lecturers experience unexpected situations of incomprehension with students speaking varieties of Portuguese, while profiling differently students' sociolinguistic characteristics. Thirdly, participants differ on strategies applied to overcome difficulties encountered, such as pedagogical and monitoring. Our conclusions highlight the need to deconstruct lecturers' ideologies as listening subjects of Portuguese language varieties and its socialisation, designing solutions promoting their capacity-building.

Participation in educational settings is a universal right of every child, consigned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This right encompasses the need to protect and encourage young children's active participation and decision-making in early childhood education and care. Research Findings: This qualitative study, inspired by the Lundy model (2007), examined ECEC teachers' (n = 25) and coordinators' (n = 25) perceptions about participation practices, collected through focus groups conducted in Belgium, Greece, Poland, and Portugal. Participants were previously referred as implementing participatory practices. Results showed that the four dimensions of the Lundy model emerged in teachers' and coordinators' group discussions: Participative space, Children's voice, Audience of children's perspectives, and Influence. Furthermore, a number of subcategories in each dimension reflected different orientations toward participatory pedagogy. Practice or Policy: This study contributes to informing and inspiring participation practices in ECEC across Europe and to enriching policy discussions regarding children's participation rights, particularly in the early years. Promising participatory practices were identified in the various dimensions of participation, though some challenges remain, requiring in-depth knowledge about pedagogical practices and the promotion of initiatives to empower professionals to enhance children's right to participate, particularly at the center-level.

Positive life aspirations among adolescents and young adults have been associated with greater wellbeing in the future. However, belonging to a stigmatized minority may jeopardize this process. In this work, we sought to understand the role of sexual and gender identity in the life aspirations (desires and expectations) of adolescents and young adults (14-19 years), attending secondary education in Portugal (N = 888). Two MANOVAs with sexual and gender identity as a between-subjects factor (LGBTQ+ vs. Cis-heterosexual) were conducted to inspect differences in future desires and expectations in three life domains: family, social, and material. LGBTQ + youth expressed lower desires and expectations regarding all future life domains, when compared to their cis-heterosexual peers, with greater effect sizes detected for the family domain. In general, results suggest that when contemplating their future, LGBTQ + youth may be at a disadvantage. The findings highlight the need for parents, teachers, and policymakers to recognize the adversities LGBTQ + adolescents and young people still face in the present which and might extend to their future.

This article discusses the relationship with time in early childhood practice and research. It is based on a 2-year study, Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child (2020-21). The study was underpinned by a concern about time pressures, testing, and measurement within the early childhood education and care sector and a desire to seek alternative narratives. This article explains the background to this research before outlining the concept of a slow pedagogy. Two main aspects of the study are discussed. First, "What do 'slow practices' look like?", using the relationship with the natural environment and documentation as examples. Secondly, questions are raised about what slow and patient research can look like.

Education systems around the world, faces the major challenge of including all children in schools. Differentiated instruction (DI) is proposed as a pedagogical approach that support social, emotional and academic success for all students in the context of heterogeneous classrooms. Although, recent research draws the attention to the inconsistent definitions and practices of DI. In this context, this qualitative study aimed at exploring the Portuguese teachers self-reported typical DI practices in mixed-ability classrooms. The participants were thirty-six teachers from kindergarten to middle school and came from a public-school cluster of five schools. The qualitative analysis carried out indicate a variety of practices under the concept of DI, ranging from practices aimed only at a group of students, based on low ability or special education needs, to practices aimed at building communities of learners. The majority of the self-reported practices described DI as simply giving one assignment to most pupils and fewer or easier activities to students who are struggling with their learning. Implications for initial teacher training and professional development programmes are discussed.

The challenges of modern society have led educators to reconceptualize formal learning spaces, into flexible spaces, imbued with technologies and active methodologies. To achieve this goal, a course was developed in an in-service teacher education Master program to support teachers in developing learning scenarios for innovative learning environments (ILEs). The aims of the current study are to understand the impact of this course on teachers' preparation to create learning scenarios appropriate for ILEs, and on teachers' perspectives about the potential benefits and challenges of ILEs. Twelve in-service teachers enrolled in the Master program participated in the study. Data collection included teachers' assignments, learning scenarios and a survey. Results showed that developing learning scenarios had a positive influence on teachers' perspectives toward ILEs. Specifically, the participants revealed that they had developed skills to elaborate, implement and assess learning scenarios in ILE; and to reflect on the contribution of ILEs to teaching innovation, to curricular management and to teachers' practices. Moreover, the course improved their awareness about the importance of interdisciplinarity and teacher collaboration. These findings suggest that the skills developed by the teachers during the course could be mobilized for their practice due to their willingness to innovate in their schools.

School bullying and cyberbullying are serious public health problems that negatively affect the lives of school-aged children. We examined the correlation between risk behaviors and lack of resiliency factors with bullying and cyberbullying across seven Mediterranean countries. The sample consisted of 33,399 adolescents (51.1% girls) aged 11, 13, and 15 years who participated in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in 2018 in Greece, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Portugal, and Spain. Bivariate logistic regressions were conducted to test the relationship between risk behaviors, resilience, and bullying. All risk behaviors and lack of resiliency factors examined were related to involvement in bullying as a victim, perpetrator, or bully-victim, both in school and cyberbullying. Moreover, the odds of involvement in school bullying and cyberbullying increased as the number of risk behaviors and the lack of resiliency factors grew. Our results may contribute to the development and implementation of anti-bullying programs.

Since the 2010s, Portugal has experienced a considerable growth in the number of Chinese international students, who have been attracted by the country's image of tolerance and openness for diversity. However, as it was reported in other contexts, throughout the health crisis, these students were blatantly confronted with racial microaggressions in their daily routines inside and outside their higher education institutions' facilities. Drawing on evidence from 30 in-depth interviews conducted with Chinese international students in Portugal and following a thematic analysis approach, this paper analyses how they frame and perceive their encounters with racism in their daily lives during the pandemic. We argue that Chinese international students resort on distinct discursive strategies to negotiate their encounters with racism during their sojourns in Portugal throughout the health crisis and to negate their "otherness" as a racial minority in the country.

Purpose: The implementation and reporting of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is one of the emerging challenges for higher education institutions (HEIs), but the lack of well-defined reporting structures and topics for this sector makes it difficult to map and evaluate HEI performance in relation to 2030 Agenda. This study aims to assess the SDG performance and reporting by the 13 HEIs that integrate the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking (THE_IR), from the perspective of the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda in the Portuguese context, where research on this topic is quite scarce. Design/methodology/approach: Considering the THE_IR methodology, an SDG reporting assessment framework with 85 key topics has been developed to search for in the institutional reports of the 13 studied HEIs. For each topic, depending on the number of institutions that disclose it, a reporting index (RI) has been calculated, which was used to compare the level of reporting between the different SDGs and pillars. Findings: Concerning HEIs' SDG performance in the THE_IR, the People pillar was the one with the most HEIs ranked, followed by the Prosperity pillar. The Planet pillar was less highlighted. SDG reporting varied widely among Portuguese HEIs. The SDG RI presented a mean value of 43.1%. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that the RI for the Planet pillar (RI = 23.6%) was statistically and significantly lower than those for the People and Prosperity pillars (RI = 48.6% and 53.5%, respectively). The results thus demonstrated some conformity of the SDG reporting with Portuguese HEI performance in THE_IR. Aside from Goal 5, the SDGs 4 and 3 stood out in the first four positions of the HEIs in the THE_IR. Goals 3 and 4 were also the most disclosed in institutional reports. Originality/value: This study proposed and applied a new SDG reporting assessment framework for HEIs, contributing to better evaluation of the inclusion of important SDG-related topics in their institutional reports.

Background: As delays or disorders in early language and communication are the most prevalent symptom in children with disabilities, early screening is crucial to promote prevention, early diagnosis, and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, no screening tool is available for the joint assessment of early language and social communication skills in European Portuguese (EP)-learning children, which is critical for screening, monitoring and enrolment in appropriate early intervention services. Aims: (1) To adapt and validate the EP version of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales Developmental Profile™ (CSBS DP™) Infant-Toddler Checklist, a parental report for the screening of early language and social communication skills. (2) To conduct a cross-cultural comparison between the EP adaptation and the original US version. Methods & Procedures: A total of 611 EP-learning children (ages 6-24 months) were assessed on the CSBS DP Infant-Toddler Checklist. Normative data, psychometric characteristics (i.e., internal consistency and test-retest reliability), and cross-cultural comparison between the EP and the original version were explored. Outcomes & Results: Internal consistency ranged from good to excellent and the test-retest reliability was excellent. The performance of the EP and US samples matched on almost all scores. However, EP children performed significantly better than their American peers in the Social compositive at 22 months and in the Symbolic composite at 20 months. No further differences were found. Conclusions & Implications: These findings showed that the EP CSBS DP Infant-Toddler Checklist seems to be a reliable screening tool of communicative and symbolic behaviours for EP-learning children, which can be particularly relevant for decision-making in clinical practice.

Objective: This review summarizes evidence pertaining to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Materials and Methods: An electronic search was conducted using four major databases--PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Using an umbrella methodology, the reference lists of relevant papers were reviewed, and citation searches were conducted. The study included articles written in English between January 2020 and March 2021 that focused on the psychological health of autistic children and adolescents. Results: All eight studies included in the final review were cross-sectional. Three of the eight studies were conducted in Italy, two in Turkey, and one study each in Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with a total of 1,407 participants. All studies used a mixture of standardized and non-standardized questionnaires to collect data. The total number of patients were 1407 at a mean age of 9.53 (SD = 2.96) years. Seven studies report gender; male 74.7% (657/880) and female 25.3% (223/880). The finding showed that behavioral issues in children and adolescents with ASD have significantly increased; 521 (51.9 percent) of the 1004 individuals with ASD presented with behavioral changes, including conduct problems, emotional problems, aggression, and hyperactivity. Some studies also found increased anxiety and difficulties managing emotions. Only one study reported clinical stabilization in children with ASD during COVID-19. Finally, 82.7% of families and caregivers of children with ASD (544 out of 658) faced challenges during COVID-19. Conclusion: Although the studies in this review suggest a general worsening of ASD children's clinical status, it remains difficult to draw definitive conclusions at this moment, with newer COVID-19 variants on the rise worldwide. During this difficult pandemic period, caregivers, families, and healthcare professionals are recommended to pay more attention to the ASD patients' health and care needs.

Progress tests (PT) are a popular type of longitudinal assessment used for evaluating clinical knowledge retention and long-life learning in health professions education. Most PTs consist of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) whose development is costly and time-consuming. Automatic Item Generation (AIG) generates test items through algorithms, promising to ease this burden. However, it remains unclear how AIG-items behave in formative assessment (FA) modalities such as PTs compared to manually written items. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality and validity of AIG-items versus manually written items. Responses to 126 (23 automatically generated) dichotomously scored single best-answer five-option MCQs retrieved from the 2021 University of Minho PT of medicine were analyzed. Procedures based on item response theory (IRT), dimensionality testing, item fit, reliability, differential item functioning (DIF) and distractor analysis were used. Qualitative assessment was conducted through expert review. Validity evidence of AIG-items was assessed by using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The PT proved to be a viable tool for assessing medical students cognitive competencies. AIG-items were parallel to manually written-items, presenting similar indices of difficulty and information. The proportion of functional distractors for both AIG and manually written items was similar. Evidence of validity for AIG-items was found while showing higher levels of item quality. AIG-items functioned as intended and were appropriate for evaluating medical students at various levels of the knowledge spectrum.

Grade retention decisions are high-risk because this practice can significantly affect students' academic and professional path and their socioaffective development. This study aimed to contribute to a better understanding of second-grade retention decision-making by exploring the factors the professionals consider during the retention decision-making, their beliefs about the effectiveness of grade retention, and their cognitive decision-making style. The study sets in Portugal, where second-grade retention is a common practice. One hundred ninety-four teachers answered an online questionnaire developed for this purpose. Path analysis results suggested that teachers' beliefs and decision-making styles served as a filter, defining what factors they consider relevant or not to make grade retention decisions. Intuitive experiences seem to inform teachers' grade-retention decisions, especially when they believe retention is essential for students' success.

The objective of the present research is to examine the factor structure of the Interpersonal Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) and the Interpersonal Behavior Self Questionnaire (IBQ-Self) in the sport context. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the psychometric properties and measurement invariance across sex and sports. For the IBQ, a sample of 813 Portuguese athletes aged between 15 and 32 years (M = 23.46; SD = 4.92) took part in this study. They had an average sports experience of approximately 7.62 ± 3.23 years. For the IBQ-Self, a sample of 606 Portuguese coaches aged between 20 and 73 years (M = 34.43; SD = 11.56) participated in this study. Both scales demonstrated good fit, achieved convergent and discriminant validity, exhibited acceptable internal consistency, and demonstrated invariance across sex and sports. Regarding the analysis of psychometric properties, the IBQ and IBQ-Self can be applied to Portuguese athletes and their coaches to measure perceived behaviors of others and self-reported behaviors.

Immigrant minority (IM) languages have a significant presence in certain European regions. Nonetheless, these languages are not usually included in the school curriculum. This paper aims to analyse the studies published between 2010 and 2020 considering IM languages in multilingual European education contexts. The method included a search of academic papers published in the databases ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus, which yielded 42 studies. The studies were analysed by considering: (1) the demographic characteristics of the countries where the studies were conducted, (2) the sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic focus of the papers in relation to the European country, and (3) the characteristics of the bi-multilingual education programme including IM languages. The results indicate that: (1) the demographic characteristics of the country are not strictly related to the number of studies published, (2) most studies have a sociolinguistic approach even though many studies analyse both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors, and (3) only seven multilingual education programmes including IM languages were described in these papers. We conclude that there is a lack of research focusing on IM languages in educational settings and discuss how addressing these gaps could create opportunities for building equitable multilingual communities in Europe.

Across the world, countries have engaged in different iterations of curriculum change, and one of the common denominators of reform is the proposal of more agency for teachers around curriculum making. This is not an easy task for teachers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the effects that international ERASMUS+ mobilities have had on the power of curricular agency of teachers from two European countries. This work is based on an empirical investigation of a qualitative nature which collected the testimonies of four school headmasters, a deputy principal and eleven teachers from Ireland and Portugal, teaching different curriculum matters, who were involved in the ERASMUS+ programme. Our findings evidence a very positive impact on secondary teachers' capacity to self-organize and achieve agency in relation to curriculum making by adapting their knowledge and skills, learnt through the mobility, to their own culture and context through collaborative communities of practice.