Conference Programme & Abstract Book: BCE/BAMC 2026 by IAFOR

iafor.org/about/partners

IAFOR Partners

International Academic Board Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Kingston University, United Kingdom (IAB Chair) Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan Professor Jun Arima, IAFOR & The University of Tokyo, Japan Professor Virgil Hawkins, IAFOR Research Centre & The University of Osaka, Japan Mr Lowell Sheppard, IAFOR & Never Too Late Academy, Japan Professor Umberto Ansaldo, VinUniversity, Vietnam Dr Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, United Kingdom Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States Professor Brendan Howe, Ewha Womans University, South Korea & The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging

BCE/BAMC2026 Conference Programme Committee Professor Heitor Alvelos, University of Porto, Portugal Dr Dolors Ortega Arévalo, University of Barcelona, Spain Dr Sue Ballyn, University of Barcelona, Spain Professor Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Kingston University, United Kingdom Professor Raul Fortes Guerrero, University of Valencia, Spain Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan Dr Mattia Mantellato, University of Udine, Italy Professor John McLeod, University of Leeds, United Kingdom Ms Gloria Montero, Playwright and Poet, Spain Professor Antonella Riem, University of Udine, Italy Professor Catalina Ribas Segura, Comillas Pontifical University, Spain

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Letter of Welcome Dear Friends and Colleagues, Benvinguts a Barcelona! ¡Bienvenido a Barcelona! Welcome to Barcelona! If this is not your first time in this wonderful city, then you are already well aware of its incredible history and architecture, brilliant diversity of peoples and cultures, and extraordinary cuisine and nightlife. The sites and sights, both monumental and personal, are already woven into your lives, and I presume, are a large part of why you are back. For those of you visiting the Catalan capital and the largest European city on the Mediterranean Sea, you are in for a treat. Our conference will welcome some 250 delegates from more than 60 countries for the international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary engagement that makes an IAFOR conference so special. The rich conference programme at the intersection of education and arts, media, and culture is designed to both excite and provoke as we come together to share our research, test our ideas, express our opinions, and meet new friends and research partners. I would like to thank the International Advisory Board, Conference Programme Committee, reviewers, and invited speakers for their work before the conference. They have put together a great event that offers an important space and place for the convening of people from around the world, and then subsequently the discussion and dissemination of their work. Attending an IAFOR conference, where international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary perspectives intersect, is challenging and yet hugely rewarding. We have the opportunity to present our work to those from different backgrounds and be confronted by different perspectives, approaches, and systems. This is extraordinarily important work, as well as enlightening, generative, and indeed fun! Over the years, we have seen wonderful initiatives and research partnerships develop between delegates, and we look forward to many more. The International Academic Forum is brought alive by this open and goodwill engagement. I encourage your active participation throughout the conference. Warmest regards,

Dr Joseph Haldane Chairman & CEO, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) Professor, European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD), United Nations University for Peace Guest Professor, Osaka School of International Public Policy, The University of Osaka, Japan Member, Expert Network, World Economic Forum

Become an IAFOR Member IAFOR provides an enriching personal and professional environment for academics and scholars of all ages and backgrounds to exchange and contribute to interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue that informs and is informed by their own cultural and disciplinary background and experiences. We are able to do this thanks to our extraordinary network of individuals and institutions around the world who support our work and help shape our events globally. We particularly emphasise the nurturing and support for emerging academics from an array of different backgrounds, and aim to provide opportunities for them to seek advice, support and guidance, as well as offering mid-career and more established academics opportunities to forge working relationships beyond their traditional disciplinary ambitions. In our current world, where division and strife are often reinforced and played out in national and local contexts, and political posturing frequently seeks to ostracise and demonise, IAFOR is committed to working across cultural and national borders, and to working to bring people together through dialogue. We believe that mature human interaction and academic and cultural exchange are essential to offering positive versions of the future, where cooperation happens between individuals and institutions who share a commitment to listen, to reach out and bridge divides, and to contribute to good global citizenship, and to make the world a better place. By becoming a member of IAFOR, you will become part of an extraordinary network and a stakeholder in shaping the IAFOR mission and facilitating international exchange, encouraging intercultural awareness, and promoting interdisciplinary discussion in the hope and expectation of generating and sharing new knowledge. Join us now in this growing global organisation, and help make a difference today. To learn more about IAFOR membership, please visit:

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BCE/BAMC2026 Key Statistics Date of Creation: October 06, 2026

231

67 138

188

61 5%

61% University Faculty 13% Doctoral Student 7% Public Sector/Practitioner

Occupation

61%

6% Postdoctoral Fellow/Instructor 5% Other

57% Doctoral Degree 38%

Education

57%

5% Bachelors Degree

4% Postgraduate Student

13%

38% Masters Degree

2% Independent Scholar 2% Private Sector

1. Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy,

1. South Africa (8.5%)

Practice & Praxis (24)

2. United States (8%)

2. Educational Policy, Leadership,

3. Canda (5%)

Management & Administration (18)

4. Japan (4%)

3. Learning Experiences, Student Learning &

5. Taiwan (3.5%)

Learner Diversity (16)

4. Higher Education (14) 5. Professional Training, Development &

Concerns in Education (13)

8.5%

8% 5%

3.5%

Single-Authored Submissions vs. Multiple-Authored Submissions

199

70%

30%

Conference Venue

TBS Education Barcelona Address: Carrer de Veneçuela, 116 Barcelona

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Conference Venue

TBS Education Barcelona Suggested Lunch Options and Local Amenities

Please note that lunch is not provided. This map offers suggestions on where you can eat around the conference venues, as well as the locations of local amenities.

November 5 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Thursday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 13:00

Conference Check-in | Attic (7F)

13:15-13:55

Conference Orientation for First-Time Presenters | Conference Room (7F) Matthew Chima, IAFOR, Japan Melina Neophytou, IAFOR, Japan This session provides an overview of what to expect at the conference, including guidance on preparing your presentation, publishing opportunities, and ways to engage with IAFOR.

14:00-14:45

Flash Presentations | Conference Room (7F) This session allows presenters to maximise their visibility and showcase their research in this fast-paced, informal networking session. Each presenter has 60 seconds to highlight the key ideas, findings, or areas of interest in their work in lightning rounds, providing an opportunity for all participants to discover other presenters’ work and find sessions they may wish to attend during the conference. This session is open to all delegates, including those who have already presented. Audience members are welcome to watch the presentations.

14:45-15:15

Networking Coffee Break | Attic (7F)

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November 5 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Thursday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 15:15-17:00

17:00-18:00

Featured Workshop Session | Conference Room (7F) 15:15-16:05

Featured Workshop 1 Design Education in an Accelerated World: How Are We Keeping Up? Heitor Alvelos, University of Porto, Portugal Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal

16:10-17:00

Featured Workshop 2 Senior Academic Leadership Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Kingston University, United Kingdom Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan (Moderator)

Welcome Reception | Attic (7F) Admission is included in the conference registration fee and is only open to registered onsite conference delegates.

November 6 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Friday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 09:00

Conference Check-in & Coffee | Attic (7F)

09:30-10:00

Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners | Auditorium (7F) & Online Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan

10:05-10:30

Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online Interdisciplinarity, Creativity and Learning in a World of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Kingston University, United Kingdom Q&A

10:30-10:45 10:50-11:50

Panel Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online Educating for Hope: Creativity, Culture, and Social Change Brian Aycock, Chuo University, Japan Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Kingston University, United Kingdom Alex Seago, Richmond American University London, United Kingdom Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan (Moderator)

11:55-12:55

The Forum (Onsite) | Auditorium (7F) Agency in Times of Crisis Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States (Respondent) Melina Neophytou, IAFOR, Japan (Moderator) The Forum is a plenary session designed as a platform for international, intercultural, interdisciplinary – and inclusive – discussions, joining experts and practitioners in an open dialogue format. Come share your thoughts and experiences as global educators and researchers.

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November 6 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Friday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 12:55-13:00

Conference Photograph

13:00-14:15

Extended Break

14:15-15:00

Featured Session | Auditorium (7F) The Unknown Soldier: A Play in Performance Gloria Montero, Playwright and Poet, Spain

15:05-16:05

Cultural Presentation | Auditorium (7F) A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba Joan Delgado, The Raval's Band, Spain Agustín Gálvez, The Raval's Band, Spain

16:10-17:10

Conference Poster Session & Networking Coffee | Attic (7F)

20:00

Conference Dinner | Racó de la Vila This is a ticketed event

November 7 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Saturday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 09:00

Conference Check-in & Coffee | Ground Floor

09:30-11:10 Onsite Parallel Session 1 Room 202 (2F): BCE | Interdisciplinary Education Room 203 (2F): BCE/BAMC | Educational Research and Curriculum Design Room 204 (2F): BCE | AI-Mediated Education Room 205 (2F): BAMC | Literature, Literary Studies and Theory Room 208 (2F): BCE | Teacher's Professional Development Experiences Room 209 (2F): BCE | Mind, Brain and Psychology in Educational Contexts 11:10-11:25

Break

11:25-13:05 Onsite Parallel Session 2 Room 202 (2F): BCE/BAMC | Sustainable Development Issues in Education Room 203 (2F): BCE | Curriculum Design and Development Room 204 (2F): BCE | Pedagogy and Praxis Room 205 (2F): BCE/BAMC | Linguistics, Language and Culture Room 208 (2F): BCE | Professional Development and AI Room 209 (2F): BCE | Student Learning and Learner Diversity

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November 7 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Saturday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 13:05-13:35

Networking Coffee Break | Agora (1F)

13:05-13:55

Chatterbox: Guided Networking Session | Agora (2F) Matthew Chima, IAFOR, Japan Some of the most useful conversations can happen outside the formal presentation rooms. Chatterbox guides participants through engaging in conversations in an easy and more informal way to meet people onsite, beyond the presentations. Participants will choose from a selection of themed networking groups, each offering a different starting point for conversation.

14:00-15:15 Onsite Parallel Session 3 Room 202 (2F): BCE/BAMC | Sustainability and Society Room 203 (2F): BCE | Cryptography in the Classroom (Workshop) Room 204 (2F): BCE | Teaching Voice in the Era of Generative Text (Workshop) Room 205 (2F): BAMC | Media Studies Room 208 (2F): BCE | ReflAct: Shaping the Future of Education with a Systemic Constructivist Stance (Workshop) Room 209 (2F): BCE | Guidance and Learning Experiences 15:15-15:30

Break

15:30-17:10 Onsite Parallel Session 4 Room 202 (2F): BCE | Education, Sustainability and Society Room 203 (2F): BCE/BAMC | Technology in Curriculum Design and Development Room 204 (2F): BCE | Educational Assessment and AI Room 205 (2F): BAMC | Sociology Room 208 (2F): BCE | Professional Training, Development and Concerns in Education Room 209 (2F): BCE | Education and Differences

November 8 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Sunday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 09:00

Conference Check-in | Ground Floor

09:30-11:10 Onsite Parallel Session 1 Room 202 (2F): BCE | Assessment Theories and Methodologies Room 203 (2F): BCE | Language Teaching Experiences Room 204 (2F): BCE | Educational Policy and Leadership Room 205 (2F): BAMC | Arts Practices Room 208 (2F): BCE | Teaching Experiences and Pedagogical Development 11:10-11:25

Coffee Break

11:25-13:05 Onsite Parallel Session 2 Room 202 (2F): BCE | AI and Assessment in Education Room 203 (2F): BCE | Foreign Languages Education and Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/ TEFL) Room 204 (2F): BCE | Educational Policy, Management and Administration Room 205 (2F): BAMC | Digital Humanities Room 208 (2F): BCE | Professional Training and Development in Education 13:05-13:25

Onsite Closing Session

13:25-14:45

Extended Break

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November 8 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Sunday at a Glance

Conference Venue: TBS Education Barcelona 14:45-16:35

Knowledge Exchange Hubs | Agora (2F) Connect, collaborate, and shape ideas in this interactive session designed to turn delegates from passive participants into active contributors. Join rotating topic groups, exchange ideas on topics selected by delegates, explore potential interdisciplinary collaborations, and experiment with AI-based tools to develop and share your ideas. Coffee will be served throughout the session. 14:45-14:55 14:55-15:25 15:25-15:55 15:55-16:25 16:25-16:35

Opening and Group Formation Group Discussion Creative Reflection & Storytelling (with optional AI support) Group Presentations Wrap-Up

November 9 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Monday at a Glance Conference Venue: Online via Zoom 09:00-09:05

Message from IAFOR

09:05-10:05

The Forum (Online) | Live-Stream Room 2 Agency in Times of Crisis Briar Pelletier, IAFOR, Japan (Online Moderator) The Forum is a plenary session designed as a platform for international, intercultural, interdisciplinary – and inclusive – discussions, joining experts and practitioners in an open dialogue format. Come share your thoughts and experiences as global educators and researchers.

10:05-10:20

Break

10:20-12:00 Online Parallel Session 1 Live-Stream Room 2: BAMC | Linguistics and Language (Workshop and Presentation) Live-Stream Room 3: BCE | Education Policy, Leadership and Management Live-Stream Room 4: BCE | Teaching and Learning Experiences

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November 9 | All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Monday at a Glance Conference Venue: Online via Zoom 12:00-12:10

Break

12:10-13:50 Online Parallel Session 2 Live-Stream Room 2: BCE | Curriculum Design and Development Live-Stream Room 3: BCE/BAMC | Professional Training, Development and Concerns in Education Live-Stream Room 4: BAMC | Arts, Media and Culture 13:50-14:00

Break

14:00-15:40 Online Parallel Session 3 Live-Stream Room 2: BCE/BAMC | Education/Pedagogy Live-Stream Room 3: BCE | Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice and Praxis Live-Stream Room 4: BCE/BAMC | Digital Humanities 15:40-15:45

Message from IAFOR

Food for thought. The 7th Southeast Asian Conference on Education (SEACE2027) The 2nd Southeast Asian Conference on Arts and Humanities (SEACAH2027)

February 15-19, 2027 | Bangkok, Thailand, and Online Abstract Submission Deadline: October 30, 2026

Where will your ideas take you next?

Notes

IAFOR’s Conference Themes for 2025-2029

IAFOR’s conference programme provides an essential comparative and contrastive space for people to engage in multidisciplinary research across borders of nation, culture, discipline, and professions. We encourage mixed approaches and methodologies, combining theory and practice between and across the disciplines, and we look to harness the collective intelligence of our International Academic Forum in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. Through the implementation of new formats in our conference programme, including Intelligence Briefings, Keynote Interviews, and The Forum, we gathered insights into what has been discussed at the theoretical and policy levels, identified the challenges, and the outlook for best practices in tackling global contemporary issues, which we have identified as the themes for 2025-2029. Our four themes can be seen as standalone themes, but they are also very much in conversation with each other. Themes may be seen as corollaries, complementary, or in opposition/juxtaposition with each other. The themes can be considered as widely as possible and are designed, in keeping with our mission, to encourage ideas across the disciplines.

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1. Technology and Artificial Intelligence Our first theme examines the rapid pace of technological advancements, aided most particularly by those driven by artificial intelligence and its enormous and growing impact in all fields. 2. Humanity and Human Intelligence Our second theme asks us which principles, values, and attributes we wish to encourage, protect, and nurture and how we accomplish this. Technological advancements constantly ask us to reconsider and reimagine what it means to be human, including questions regarding communication, creativity, inclusivity, ethics, and care. 3. Global Citizenship and Education for Peace This theme prompts us to consider our existence and coexistence with each other, within our communities and places of belonging, and with people of different countries, cultures, and backgrounds, as well as with our environment and our planet. It includes engagement with enormous issues facing us beyond borders, such as peace and human security, climate change, etc. 4. Leadership The final theme recognises the continuing importance of leadership as a skill, particularly in light of difficult times, where recognising and encouraging best practices in leadership at all levels of society is critical. Encouraging leadership at the government level, in businesses, and within institutions of all sizes represents the engine of change.

Conference Themes in Theory, Policy, and Practice Many theories are born and initially tested in the academy, informing discussions in the public sphere that influence policy. IAFOR represents a unique combination of engagement emerging from the collaborative efforts of senior policymakers, administrators, and individuals working on the ground or in the field. IAFOR has made this rare combination of equitable theoretical and practical exchanges the standard for our organisation and represents a valuable model for how science should be done. We will develop conference and institutional programmes and publications around these themes as well as capacity building sessions for our conference programme over the next five years. It is our aim with the implementation of these themes, alongside the implementation and continuing refinement of new formats, to best harness the unique arena IAFOR and its network have built with regard to pressing issues of today and the future.

Networking Events Networking Event: Flash Presentations

Network and showcase your research highlights while gaining a comprehensive overview of other presenters, helping you identify potential collaborators and must-see sessions during the conference. Time & Date: Thursday, November 5 | 14:00-14:45 Location: TBS Education Barcelona, Conference Room 7F Admission is included in the conference registration fee and is only open to registered conference delegates.

Welcome Reception

Join fellow delegates for a drink or two at the Conference Welcome Reception. This event provides a great opportunity for delegates to network and get to know each other. Time & Date: Thursday, November 5 | 17:00-18:00 Location: TBS Education Barcelona, Attic (7F) Admission is included in the conference registration fee and is only open to registered onsite conference delegates.

Conference Dinner | Racó de la Vila

Join us after the plenary sessions for the Conference Dinner at Racó de la Vila, where you can reconvene with fellow delegates and our keynote presenters to continue conversations from the conference over an authentic Spanish meal. Time & Date: Friday, November 6 | 20:00 Location: Racó de la Vila Availability: 50 persons Ticket Price: 85 EUR This is an optional ticketed event. Only registered onsite delegates with pre-purchased tickets are able to attend the Conference Dinner.

Chatterbox: Guided Networking Session

Some of the most useful conversations can happen outside the formal presentation rooms. Chatterbox guides participants through engaging in conversations in an easy and more informal way to meet people onsite, beyond the presentations. Participants will choose from a selection of themed networking groups, each offering a different starting point for conversation. Time & Date: Saturday, November 7 | 13:05-13:55 Location: TBS Education Barcelona, Agora (2F) Admission is included in the conference registration fee and is only open to registered conference delegates.

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Networking: Connecting with Other Delegates IAFOR conferences are designed to offer countless networking opportunities to make and consolidate personal and professional connections, reconnect with colleagues, and meet new friends in a spirit of convivial collegiality. Whether in the plenaries, parallel sessions, workshops, information sessions, or cultural events, we encourage your active and open participation throughout the conference, remembering the importance of the spaces in between: over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, or in the continuation of conversations and relationships outside the conference. We encourage you to network at the conference over the Networking Events, the Networking Coffee, and the Extended Breaks. In addition, you are invited to join the Online Presentation Sessions and The Forum (Online) discussion to explore even more presentations and opportunities to make connections for future collaborations. While conferences serve as a platform to present your work and make connections, please be mindful of the other delegates’ privacy and their consent to provide personal information.

Networking Spaces TBS Education Barcelona features several comfortable spaces, such as the main lobby, coffee area, and the outdoor rooftop terraces, which serve as perfect locations for networking during the conference. These spaces provide an excellent opportunity to meet new people, connect with familiar faces, exchange ideas, and explore possible collaborations. We encourage you to make use of these spaces to connect with fellow attendees for a quick coffee or a longer chat to broaden your network and enhance your conference experience.

Missed the opportunity to make connections? You can connect with other delegates by using our ‘Find a Presentation’ feature. This feature can be accessed by scanning the QR code provided on the back of your name badge, and is also available on the conference’s website. You can search by presentation title, submission number, the presenter’s name, or the name of their affiliation. From there, you can look up the presenter’s bio and connect with them through their preferred contact channel. In addition to the ‘Find a Presentation’ online feature, presentation schedules are also displayed in front of presentation rooms.

General Information The QR code, as shown on the back of your name badge, contains the information you need to attend the conference, including: - Full Conference Schedule - The ‘Find a Presentation’ Feature - Conference Survey - Suggested Lunch Options - Online and Virtual Presentations - Presentation and Session Chair Guidelines, and more. Please scan this QR code or visit https://linktr.ee/iaforbarcelona

Check-in & Information Desk You will be able to pick up your name badge at the Conference Check-in & Information Desk at the times listed below. If you have any questions or concerns, IAFOR staff and volunteers will happily assist you in any way they can. Thursday, November 5 | 13:00-17:30 – TBS Education Barcelona, Attic (7F) Friday, November 6 | 09:00-16:30 – TBS Education Barcelona, Attic (7F) Saturday, November 7 | 09:00-16:30 – TBS Education Barcelona, Ground Floor Sunday, November 8 | 09:00-15:00 – TBS Education Barcelona, Ground Floor Monday, November 9 | No in-person Check-in

Name Badges Wearing your badge is required for entrance to the sessions and events. You must wear your badge at all times.

Refreshment Breaks & Lunch Complimentary coffee, tea, water, and light snacks will be available during the scheduled coffee breaks. Please note that lunch is not provided.

Connecting to WiFi Free WiFi for light use, such as reading emails and web browsing, is available at the conference venue. Streaming video will not be possible. If your presentation includes video, please bring it on a file that can be played without an internet connection. TBS Education Barcelona Login: TBS-GUESTS Password: Venezuela26!

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General Information Conference Schedule The full conference schedule (including abstracts) and conference programme are available on the conference website.

Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations & Virtual Poster Presentations A full list of pre-recorded virtual video presentations and virtual poster presentations will be on the conference website during and after the conference. We encourage you to watch these presentations and provide feedback through the video comments.

Conference Catch-Up (On-Demand) All Keynote Presentations and live-streamed sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the Conference Catch-Up (On-Demand) page via Vimeo. The Catch-Up page will be available after the conference until Wednesday, December 9, 2026.

Certification Corresponding authors will be able to download Certificates of Presentation for all presenters, as well as Session Chair certification and reviewer certification for Senior Reviewers, by logging in to the submission page. Certificates of Presentation will be available from Thursday, November 26, 2026. Certificates of Participation for non-presenters, as well as reviewer certification for Review Committee members, will be sent out by email in a PDF format within two weeks of the Conference's conclusion.

Photo/Recording Waiver Human interaction through networking, and dissemination of this knowledge, is at the core of what IAFOR does as an academic research organisation, conference organiser and publisher. As part of the archiving of the conference event, IAFOR takes photos in and around the conference venue, and uses the photos to document the event. This also includes the filming of certain sessions. We consider this documentation important, and it provides evidence of our activities to members, partners, and stakeholders all over the world, as well as to current and potential attendees like you. Some of these photos will therefore appear online and in print, including on social media. The above are the legitimate interests of the organisation that we assert under the European Union law on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under this legislation, you have an absolute right to opt out of any photo. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Read our full privacy policy – iafor.org/about/privacy-policy

iafor.org/publications

IAFOR Publications Conference Proceedings

IAFOR Conference Proceedings are Open Access research repositories that act as permanent records of the research generated by IAFOR conferences. The Conference Proceedings are published online in the IAFOR Research Archive (papers.iafor.org). All accepted authors who present at the conference may have their full paper published in the online Conference Proceedings. For further details on how to submit your paper, please visit the Conference website. Please note that: 1) Papers published in the Conference Proceedings cannot be considered for publication in IAFOR Journals. 2) IAFOR's Conference Proceedings are not peer-reviewed and are not ‘Scopus-indexed’. Full text submission is due by Monday, December 7, 2026, through the online system. The proceedings will be published on Thursday, February 4, 2027.

Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings (ISSN: 2759-4939)

IAFOR produces conference reports that provide concise and coherent overviews of the ideas, conversations, and areas of research presented at our conferences. These include key themes and takeaways, referencing programme(s), speakers and attendees, which are curated and archived for both those who attended the event, as well as those who did not. Readers can stay abreast of many of the developments and insights provided by the conference and the collective intelligence of its participants. Links to video recordings of the presentations and interview references are included where possible, encouraging readers to engage further with the conference material and presentations. Each report contains photos of the event, as well as key statistics pertaining to general attendance and demographics. Read and download the Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings, and access Conference Photo Galleries from past conferences using the QR code on the back of your name badge. You will receive a notification email when the Conference Photos and the Conference Report and Intelligence Briefing of this conference are available.

THINK Magazine: The Academic Platform

THINK is an online magazine presenting the latest in interdisciplinary research and ideas from some of the world’s foremost academics and thought leaders. As a publishing platform, THINK makes selected research presented at IAFOR’s international, intercultural, interdisciplinary conferences freely available to a global academic audience. Content on THINK spans everything from the arts to psychology, politics to film, law to education and history to technology, presenting research, ideas and perspectives from every corner of the globe. The format is varied, encompassing full research papers, long-form journalism, opinion pieces, creative writing, interviews, podcasts, video, photography and more. To learn more about THINK, please visit think.iafor.org or access the webpage from the QR code on the back of your name badge.

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iafor.org/publications

IAFOR Journals IAFOR's Open Access Journals IAFOR publishes several editorially independent, Open Access journals across a variety of disciplines. They conform to the highest academic standards of international peer review and are published in accordance with IAFOR’s commitment to make all of our published materials available online.

How are papers submitted? Submissions should be original, previously unpublished papers which are not under consideration for publication in any other journal. All articles are submitted through the submission portal on the journal website and must conform to the journal submission guidelines.

How does IAFOR ensure academic integrity? Once appointed by IAFOR’s Publications Committee, the Journal Editor is free to appoint his or her own editorial team and advisory members, who help to rework and revise papers as appropriate, according to internationally accepted standards. All papers published in the journal have been subjected to the rigorous and accepted processes of academic peer review. Neither editors nor members of the editorial team are remunerated for their work.

Where are the journals indexed? IAFOR Journals are indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, ERIC, MIAR, TROVE, CiteFactor, EBSCO, SHERPA/ROMEO, and Google Scholar. DOIs are assigned to each published issue and article via Crossref. Please note that indexing varies from journal to journal.

What’s the reach? Each of our journal issues is viewed thousands of times a month, and the articles are frequently cited by researchers worldwide, largely due to our dedicated marketing efforts. Each issue is promoted across our social media platforms and to our tailored email marketing lists. On average, each journal publishes biannually.

What’s the cost? IAFOR Journals are Open Access publications, available online completely free of charge and without delay or embargo. Authors are not required to pay charges of any sort towards the publication of IAFOR Journals, and neither editors nor members of the editorial boards are remunerated for their work.

How are IAFOR Journals related to IAFOR Conferences and Conference Proceedings? IAFOR Journals reflect the interdisciplinary and international nature of our conferences and are organised thematically. A presenter can choose to publish either in Conference Proceedings or submit their manuscript to the corresponding IAFOR Journal for review.

Current IAFOR Journal titles include IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies (Scopus Indexed) IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus & Web of Science Indexed) IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship (Scopus Indexed) If you would like more information about any of IAFOR’s publications, please visit iafor.org/journals Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/iaforjapan | IAFOR Barcelona 2026 | IAFOR.ORG | 31

Academic Grant & Scholarship Recipients IAFOR's grants and scholarships programme provides financial support to PhD students and earlycareer academics, helping them pursue research excellence and achieve their academic goals through interdisciplinary study and interaction. Our warmest congratulations go to the following scholarship recipients who have been selected to receive grants and scholarships to present their research at the conference.

Stuart D. B. Picken Scholarship Recipient Professor Stuart D. B. Picken was a cherished friend and an inspiration to IAFOR and its community of supporters. In honour of Professor Picken and his dedication to academia, the ideals of intercultural understanding, and the principles of interdisciplinary study, IAFOR created the Stuart D. B. Picken Scholarship, an award supported by the Stuart D. B. Picken Memorial Fund. This award is given to PhD students and early-career academics who need funding to complete their research and whose work demonstrates excellence in the core values of academic rigour, intercultural sensitivity, and interdisciplinarity.

Han Giang Nguyễn (Oral Presentation)

111164 | The Ideal Woman in Population Policies: Female Reproductive Rights and the Cultural Construction of Womanhood in Vietnam Ms Han Giang Nguyễn is a Master’s student in Public International Law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, specialising in International Human Rights Law. Her work focuses on Vietnamese law-making, public policy and regional governance. Giang currently works as a Project Assistant for Green Path Migrants (GPM), an NGO for climate migrants in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.

About Stuart D. B. Picken (1942-2016)

The late Reverend Professor Stuart D. B. Picken began his academic career as a Rotary Scholar in Japan. A native of Scotland dedicated to religious studies, he became fascinated by Japanese culture and the practice of Shinto. Whether in his research or teaching, Reverend Professor Picken devoted much of his life to increasing understanding between Japan and the West, and in 2007, he was recognised with the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure for his contribution to the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and the United Kingdom. From 2009, he was the founding Chairman of The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), where he helped nurture and mentor a new generation of academics and facilitate intercultural and international understanding.

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Academic Grant & Scholarship Recipients BCE2026 IAFOR Scholarship Recipient Brenda Itzel Pablo Hernandez (Poster Presentation) 110836 | Bridging Policy and Practice: Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the Framework of Mexico’s New Educational Reform Brenda Itzel Pablo Hernandez is a public policy specialist currently working at the Secretaría Ejecutiva del Sistema Nacional Anticorrupción, Mexico, generating technical indicators. Her research focuses on governance, sexuality education policy, and administrative burdens.

BAMC2026 IAFOR Scholarship Recipients Lasya Aji Silpa (Virtual Presentation) 111125 | Ayurvastram as First Skin: Herbal Textiles, Plant-Based Color, and Sustainable Fashion Lasya Aji Silpa is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Design at Appalachian State University, United States. Minenhle Matela (Oral Presentation) 110492 | Global Citizenship from the South in Rethinking Higher Education for Peace and Human Intelligence Minenhle Matela is a PhD Candidate at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, with interests in public policy, higher education, and social justice. Her current project focuses on higher education policy implementation in post-apartheid South Africa. Cezara Mindrescu (Virtual Presentation) 110981 | Military Communication in the Age of Social Media: Strategy, Identity, and Public Engagement Cezara Mihaela Mîndrescu is a PhD candidate in Communication Sciences at the University of Bucharest. Her interests include strategic communication, military communication, organisational communication, and institutional identity in digital environments.

IAFOR events are among the most diverse on Earth Bridging divides of nation, culture, and discipline; informing and shaping ideas, research, practice, and policy in a comparative and contrastive space, IAFOR encourages the sharing and nurturing of diverse ideas. Over the past year, more than 5,000 delegates from more than 120 countries have participated in an IAFOR event.

5,000+ Delegates

120+ Countries

Inspiring global collaborations, this diversity of peoples, nations, voices, cultures, and ideas is at the heart of what we do.

It is our greatest strength. Join us.

Keynote & Featured Presentations All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

Featured Workshop: Heitor Alvelos, Susana Barreto

Design Education in an Accelerated World: How Are We Keeping Up? Thursday, November 5, 2026 | 15:15-16:05 | TBS Education Barcelona, Conference Room (7F)

The workshop will address the challenges design educators are facing in a world that is changing faster than our curricula. It will touch on perplexing technologies, with AI at the forefront, shifting professional expectations, and how we have been managing to prepare students for futures we struggle to anticipate. A contextual presentation will be followed by an open conversation and a hands-on activity mapping out testimonies and action plans for the following three fronts: • our classrooms • our course curricula • design practice These topics will converge in a collective position paper/manifesto for design education in times of rapid change, co-authored by those present who wish to participate. The action-based moments will alternate with a joint critical reflection towards future publications on the subject of design education in an accelerated world. Delegates will gain renewed insights into the current fast pace of design education and contribute to novel ways of acting upon the resulting issues of this speed.

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Heitor Alvelos Heitor Alvelos is a Full Professor of Design at the University of Porto, Portugal, where he directs the ID+ Research Center at the university. Professor Alvelos is currently Vice-President of the European Academy of Design and a Member of Academia Europaea and the European Science Foundation. Prior posts include: Course Director of the PhD in Design at the University of Porto from 2011 to 2024; Chairman of the Scientific Board (HSS), Foundation for Science and Technology, from 2016 to 2022; Outreach Director for the UTAustin-Portugal Program for Digital Media from 2010 to 2014; and Senior Tutor at the Drawing Studio, Royal College of Art from 1999 to 2001. Professor Alvelos has led national and international design research projects since 2007 on the subjects of heritage, disinformation, media philosophy, and the ecology of perception.

Susana Barreto Susana Barreto is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, and a researcher at the ID+ Research Center. Her research focuses on the intersection of design, crime, and security, and she is currently involved in the Center’s i.PLACING project titled Spatial, Visual and Social Analysis of Urban Safety in Transit Environments. She is Executive Director of the European Academy of Design (EAD) and Chair of the 16th EAD International Conference, Trust_Distrust, to be held in Porto in May 2027. She is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) and is part of the team working on the development and implementation of the European CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) Association.

Featured Workshop: Anne Boddington, Donald E. Hall, Joseph Haldane (Moderator)

Senior Academic Leadership

Thursday, November 5, 2026 | 16:10-17:00 | TBS Education Barcelona, Conference Room (7F)

This roundtable and interactive session will explore the career paths of academic leaders and provide tips on the skills needed to succeed in leadership positions. Speaking from a variety of national and professional contexts, the session leaders will describe their individual paths to leadership roles and the trade-offs that often accompany a career in higher education leadership and administration. Following the brief presentations, audience members will be asked to provide their own thoughts and observations on successful and unsuccessful leadership styles, as well as engage in an active discussion of the potential for academic leaders to make positive changes within their institutions and professional organisations.

Anne Boddington Professor Anne Boddington is Executive Vice-President and Provost of IAFOR, and oversees its academic programs, research, and policies. Anne Boddington is Professor Emerita of Design Innovation and has held executive and senior leadership roles in Higher Education, including as Dean of Arts & Humanities at the University of Brighton, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business & Innovation at Kingston University, and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Middlesex University. In 2022, she concluded chairing the Sub Panel (32) for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) and has extensive experience in the governance and conduct of peer review, research evaluation and assessment in REF2014 (Sub Panel Deputy Chair and Equality, Diversity Advisory Panel [EDAP]) and RAE2008. A former member of AHRC’s Advisory Board, she is the current Chair of the Advisory Board for the UKRI’s National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme (£30M), Deputy Chair and a Trustee of the Design Council, the government’s strategic advisor for design, and a member of both the InnoHK Scientific Committee (Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ). Since the 1990s, Anne has worked across the UK and internationally with a wide range of quality assurance, professional, statutory, and regulatory bodies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Hong Kong, and India. As an independent consultant, she now works as a strategic advisor and mentor and is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice, developing effective governance, supporting career development, reducing bureaucracy, and improving organisational design, integrity, and productivity in the changing workplace. 38 | IAFOR.ORG | IAFOR Barcelona 2026 | Follow us on Instagram @iafor.official (#IAFOR)

Donald E. Hall Donald E. Hall is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Binghamton University (SUNY), United States. He was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at the University of Rochester, United States, and held a previous position as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University, United States. Provost Hall has published widely in the fields of British Studies, Gender Theory, Cultural Studies, and Professional Studies. Over the course of his career, he served as Jackson Distinguished Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English (and previously Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages) at West Virginia University. Before that, he was Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for 13 years. He is a recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award at CSUN, was a visiting professor at the National University of Rwanda, was a Lansdowne Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria (Canada), a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Cultural Studies at Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria, and a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Helsinki. He has also taught in Sweden, Romania, Hungary, and China. He served on numerous panels and committees for the Modern Language Association (MLA), including the Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion and the Convention Program Committee. In 2012, he served as the national President of the Association of Departments of English. From 2013-2017, he served on the Executive Council of the MLA. His current and forthcoming work examines issues such as professional responsibility and academic community-building, the dialogics of social change and activist intellectualism, and the Victorian (and our continuing) interest in the deployment of instrumental agency over our social, vocational, and sexual selves. Among his many books and editions are the influential faculty development guides, The Academic Self and The Academic Community, both published by Ohio State University Press. Subjectivity and Reading Sexualities: Hermeneutic Theory and the Future of Queer Studies were both published by Routledge Press. Most recently, he and Annamarie Jagose, of the University of Auckland, co-edited a volume titled The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Though he is a full-time administrator, he continues to lecture worldwide on the value of a liberal arts education and the need for nurturing global competencies in students and interdisciplinary dialogue in and beyond the classroom. Professor Donald E. Hall is a member of IAFOR’s International Academic Board.

Joseph Haldane (Moderator) See full biography on page 42.

Notes

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Plenary Speaker: Joseph Haldane

Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners Friday, November 6, 2026 | 09:30-10:00 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F) & Online

Joseph Haldane Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations. Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in 19thcentury French Studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history, politics, and education, as well as governance and decision-making. Since 2015, Dr Haldane has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at The University of Osaka, having taught on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and has been Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre situated within the university, since 2017. Since 2022, he has been a Professor at the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) of the University for Peace, established by the United Nations. He is also a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance. From 2019 until 2026, he was a Visiting Professor at Doshisha University, where he taught Ethics and Governance in the Global MBA. From 2020 to 2025, Dr Haldane was an Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL), through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. Earlier in his career, he held full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University. Professor Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations at universities and conferences globally, including at the United Nations headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs, and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office, and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships. From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane was Treasurer of the Chubu chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, and from 2015 to 2020 was a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency Japan. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He lives in Japan and holds a black belt in Judo. 42 | IAFOR.ORG | IAFOR Barcelona 2026 | Follow us on Instagram @iafor.official (#IAFOR)

Keynote Presentation: Anne Boddington

Interdisciplinarity, Creativity and Learning in a World of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once Friday, November 6, 2026 | 10:05-10:30 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F) & Online

This talk explores interdisciplinarity in a rapidly changing world, where artificial (or super) intelligence, technological determinism, and nationalistic rhetoric continually challenge human creativity, learning, research, and wisdom, while dominating our news and social media feeds. What constructive role might higher education play? How might teaching, research, and innovation prepare future generations while prompting us to reflect on why we teach what we already know, and at times, in places and spaces that are not conducive to learning? The structures that govern higher education—outcomes-based education, modularity, and credit accumulation—have become a ubiquitous toolbox and common currency, brokered internationally through a language that is rarely challenged or used creatively. Institutional systems instead use these structures to automate and allocate workloads and teaching spaces, and to monitor attendance and performance, creating vast unresponsive machines for learning, styled with a 21stcentury gloss. Creative communities in arts, design and architecture worldwide have often resisted these systems, advocating instead for interdisciplinary, less prescriptive frameworks that allow subjects to bleed into one another. Yet such approaches often appear unstructured, laissez-faire or even irresponsible as higher education has become increasingly transactional, tied to employability and economic growth rather than curiosity, learning for its own sake and practical application. Important questions remain about why, what, when, and where learning occurs, and how we might use the tools at our disposal more creatively and effectively. How can higher education create the conditions in which innovation and ideas can flourish, producing confident, resilient and intellectually adaptable graduates who understand that the future is not a place we go, but a place we must imagine collectively and take responsibility for shaping?

Anne Boddington See full biography on page 38.

Panel Presentation: Brian Aycock, Anne Boddington, Alex Seago, Joseph Haldane (Moderator)

Educating for Hope: Creativity, Culture, and Social Change

Friday, November 6, 2026 | 10:50-11:50 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F) & Online

This panel will explore the role higher education might play in responding to turbulent times, supporting human agency and flourishing, generating social and cultural transformation, and creating conditions for optimism and hope. Taking Barcelona as a resonant setting and reflecting on its social, political and urban transformation over the past fifty years, the panel brings together ideas from Spain, the United Kingdom and IAFOR’s international network. It asks what conditions are required today to enable, empower and enact change. Our news feeds predominantly report wars, energy and economic crises, and threats to peace, democracy, human rights and the climate, often distorted by AI bots and hostile state actors. The panel will consider the roles teachers, researchers, students and higher education institutions might play, and how education might shift national narratives, engender confidence and shape a more hopeful and peaceful future. The panellists will examine examples from the United Kingdom and Spain, considering how post-war reforms in British art education created spaces for experimentation that contributed to movements such as Swinging London, Glam and Punk. In Spain, La Movida followed Franco’s death in 1975, expressing democratic and cultural change through music, film and fashion. Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic Games and Cultural Olympiad brought together politics, civic life, urban planning, arts and design in the city’s international reimagining. How can we strengthen human-to-human engagement, bridge gaps and reach the many places that AI cannot, and that are distinctly and undeniably human? Across these examples, the panel asks what we might learn about education’s capacity to foster hope, encourage collective action, and help students understand that the future is not predetermined. It will explore how to engender tenacity, perseverance, and hope when passivity and apathy are easier, and how education might facilitate creative resistance, effective action, and social exchange.

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Brian Aycock Dr Brian Aycock is an Associate Professor of Law at Chuo University, Japan. He is also a Senior Research Associate in the Refugee Law Initiative’s Internal Displacement Research Programme and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the RLI Working Paper Series. His research focuses on state responsibility for climate-induced displacement and the development of international protection frameworks in response to environmental harm. His work examines the intersection of refugee law, subsidiary protection, and international legal obligation, with particular attention to comparative approaches in Japan and Europe. He has conducted field research on planned relocation in Fiji and has presented his research internationally in Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has also consulted with the Japanese Ministry of the Environment on legal responses to disaster displacement. Dr Aycock earned a PhD in International Law from International Christian University, Japan, in 2023 and an MA (Distinction) in Refugee Protection from the University of London, United Kingdom, in 2019.

Anne Boddington See full biography on page 38.

Alex Seago Professor Alex Seago received his BA in American Studies from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, his MA in American Studies from the University of Kansas, United States, and his PhD in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art, United Kingdom. During an academic career spanning almost 50 years, he has taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology, cultural studies, popular culture, criminology, development studies, art, and design history for several British and American universities and colleges of art, including the Royal College of Art, where he was responsible for supervising MPhil and PhD students. During the mid 1990s, Professor Seago developed the Research Methods lecture series for MPhil and PhD students at the Royal College of Art. His publications include Burning the Box of Beautiful Things (Oxford University Press, 1995), a cultural-historical study of changes in graphic design at the RCA in the 1950s and early 1960s and Pop Art and Design (Bloomsbury Press, 2017) with Dr Anne Massey.

Joseph Haldane (Moderator) See full biography on page 42. Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/iaforjapan | IAFOR Barcelona 2026 | IAFOR.ORG | 45

The Forum | Agency in Times of Crisis Donald E. Hall (Respondent), Melina Neophytou (Moderator) Friday, November 6, 2026 | 11:55-12:55 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F) Briar Pelletier (Online Moderator) Monday, November 9, 2026 | 09:05-10:05 | Online via Zoom

Humanity faces various crises on many fronts, what has been termed a ‘polycrisis’. First coined by French theorists Edgar Morin and Anne-Brigitte Kern in the 1990s and later popularised in 2016 by Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, a polycrisis describes a situation in which multiple challenges coalesce into a complex web of interconnected crises, creating impacts greater than any single crisis alone. These include, among others, the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), democratic backsliding, declining trust in political institutions, demographic changes and population ageing, and climate change. Often, we feel helpless in the face of challenges like these, while those with decision-making power discuss and make decisions and solutions for us. Agency, defined as the capacity, power, and freedom to make independent choices, form intentional goals, and take actions that shape one's own life and environment, is increasingly constrained by the social, political, economic, and technological systems in which we live. Although we can not directly control these systems, humans can still exercise some influence in the communities, societies, and contexts they live in. What agency remains to us as educators, artists, professionals, and individuals? How can we contribute to meaningful change? These Forum sessions invite participants to reflect on the possibilities of human agency in times of polycrisis.

Donald E. Hall (Respondent) See full biography on page 39.

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Melina Neophytou (Moderator) Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community. She is leading various projects within IAFOR, notably The Forum discussions and the authoring of Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings. Born in Germany and raised in Cyprus, Dr Neophytou received her PhD in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2023, specialising in political sociology, the welfare state, and contentious politics. She received an MA in International Development from Nagoya University, with a focus on Governance & Law, and a BA in European Studies from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus. Dr Neophytou’s research interests currently focus on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the relationship between state and society. Her current work examines technologies such as facial recognition (FRT) and biometric surveillance, and how these tools impact freedom of expression, protest, and social policy.

Briar Pelletier (Online Moderator) Briar Pelletier is the Editorial and Communications Coordinator at IAFOR, where she works with the academic team on a range of academic projects and initiatives, including the Forum’s Scholarship and Grant Opportunities, Conference Proceedings, and Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings. She is currently developing IAFOR’s online community content for members and moderates its monthly Academic Advice Surgery sessions. Ms Pelletier is completing her PhD at Nagoya University, Japan, where she was recognised as a Next Generation Research Fellow from 2022 to 2025. Her research focuses on grassroots cultural exchange initiatives and communityled digital archives, with particular attention to projects affiliated with sister-city partnerships. She holds an MA in Cultural Studies from Nagoya University and a BA in Art History from the University of Maine, United States.

Featured Session: Gloria Montero

The Unknown Soldier: A Play in Performance Friday, November 6, 2026 | 14:15-15:00 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F)

Polarisation in today's world bears a striking resemblance to the political climate of 1936. Spain was a republic when a military uprising against the democratically elected Popular Front government led to a devastating war. Solidarity was immediate: 60,000 men and women from some 50 countries volunteered to fight with the Republic in the International Brigades. In this featured session, award-winning playwright Gloria Montero brings The Unknown Soldier to life through performance, telling the story of how the 1929 Crash and the subsequent Depression force a musical prodigy from Canada beyond his piano. His reality leads him to the Spanish Civil War. The performance portrays how political upheaval shapes individual lives and highlights international solidarity, themes that remain relevant today.

Gloria Montero Ms Gloria Montero is a novelist, playwright, and poet who grew up in a family of Spanish immigrants in North Queensland, Australia. After completing her studies in theatre and music, Ms Montero began working in radio and theatre, later moving to Canada, where she continued her career as an actress, singer, writer, scriptwriter, and broadcaster. Ms Montero is the Co-founder of the Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples in Toronto, which was established in 1972. She served as a consultant on Immigrant Women to the Multicultural Department of the Secretary of State, Government of Canada in 1973. She has organised international conferences, including ‘Amnistia’ in 1970 and ‘Solidaridad’ in Toronto in 1974. Ms Montero has also consulted on film, including her serving as a consultant-interviewer on Dreams and Nightmares (A-O Productions, California), a film that won international awards in Florence, Moscow, Leipzig, and at the American Film Festival in 1975. Her film Crisis in the Rain (Montero-Fulton Productions) won the Gold Camera Award at the American Film Festival in 1982. Since 1978, Ms Montero has been living in Barcelona, where she has continued to write and publish. Best known among her theatre works is the award-winning ‘Frida K.’, which has toured Canada and held international performances in New York, Mexico, Spain, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, and Latvia. 48 | IAFOR.ORG | IAFOR Barcelona 2026 | Follow us on Instagram @iafor.official (#IAFOR)

Cultural Presentation: Joan Delgado, Agustín Gálvez

A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba Friday, November 6, 2026 | 15:05-16:05 | TBS Education Barcelona, Auditorium (7F)

In the 1950s, the rumba catalana or Catalan rumba developed within the gypsy community of Barcelona out of the fusion of flamenco and other international musical styles. Today, some 75 years later, UNESCO is being asked to declare this popular foot-stepping rhythm as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As we prepare for the UNESCO declaration, key questions must be explored to truly understand the art form. Who really developed the Catalan rumba? In what neighbourhood of Barcelona did it develop? What are the basic elements that characterise it? What makes it different from the Cuban and Flamenco rumbas? What is the famous ventilador, an essential feature of the rumba catalana? Barcelona guitarist Joan Delgado and vocalist Agustín Gálvez address these questions as they lead the audience through the origin and history of the rumba catalana in a participatory musical exploration of this fascinating rhythm, ever present at any popular festival in the region. With only a guitar and two palms to clap, you need nothing more to set up a great shindig like Peret himself might have done.

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Joan Delgado Guitarist Joan Delgado is an architect with a passion for music. He studied classical guitar from a young age, over time discovering the magic of the regional 'rumba catalana' sound and its ‘ventilador’, a rapid strumming rhythm reminiscent of fan blades. From this moment on, his interest in the guitar shifted to that of an accompanist, blending his background in flamenco with specialised training in the Andalusian guitar. Mr Delgado has been a constant feature of Barcelona's musical scene since 2010, accompanying musicians in various styles (including flamenco, rumba, bossa nova) and combining the rhythmic base of the solo guitar with traditional Latin rhythms. He is known for his collaborations with Swiss-Mexican singer Raissa Avilés and, more recently, with Argentinian singer Dominique Maucci and French-Tunisian percussionist Narjess Saad. In addition to his work as a guitarist, composer, and arranger in his rumba catalana band, International del Raval, Mr Delgado has honed his skills as a musician with courses in percussion (including cajón flamenco and palmas) and has played as a trombonist in the Raval's Band and the Txaranga de la Prospe.

Agustín Gálvez Although musician-singer Agustín Gálvez was born in Bilbao, his family came from the region of Aragon in northeastern Spain. Mr Gálvez learned to play the traditional Aragonese bandurria when he was seven years old, performing in local groups throughout his youth. Although music has always been a part of his life, he began studying it seriously after he moved to Barcelona and transitioned from a competitive athletic career. He bought himself a tenor saxophone and began taking classes at the then-recently established Taller de Músics in Barcelona. He gradually added classes in solfeo at the Conservatory of Music and, given the quality of his singing voice, was urged to study singing. Although he trained as a lyric tenor, he always gravitated towards salsa–boleros, rumbas, and huarache while performing professionally with various bands. He is now part of three Big Jazz bands: The Raval's Band, L'EM Big Band, and the Bibandinou.

Friday, November 6 16:10-17:10 | Attic (7F) Friday Poster Session All times are Central European Time (UTC+1) Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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16:10-17:10 | Attic (7F)

Friday Poster Session Education & Difference: Gifted Education, Special Education, Learning Difficulties & Disability 107860 | Supporting Early Language Development Through Inclusive Preschool Practices Sevda Karaca Al, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, Tuerkiye This study presents a practice-based inclusive preschool model designed to support early language development by embedding structured language opportunities into daily classroom routines and family participation. The model was implemented in an inclusive preschool setting in Türkiye with children aged 2–6 (N≈20 per classroom), including a focus group of 10 children identified with delayed speech and language development. This study adopts a qualitative, practice-based research design to examine how routine-based, naturalistic language practices influence expressive and receptive language skills, vocabulary development, comprehension, and communicative initiation. Grounded in social interactionist theory and developmentally appropriate practice, the model emphasizes play-based and interaction-driven language learning. A key component of the model is the “Word Affinity Practice”, in which families select target words at home and children present and use these words within classroom contexts, establishing a consistent language-learning bridge between home and school environments. Data were collected over a 12-week period through systematic classroom observations, teacher reflection records, and ongoing monitoring of children’s communicative behaviors. Findings indicate observable improvements in vocabulary use, expressive language attempts, comprehension, and peer interaction, particularly among children with language delays. This study provides an ecologically valid and adaptable framework for inclusive early childhood education. Participants will gain practical strategies for embedding language-rich practices into daily routines, supporting children with diverse language needs, and strengthening family–school collaboration. 110966 | The Use of Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology as Accessibility Elements in Inclusive Education Denise David, University of Brasília, Brazil Sinara Zardo, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil This study deals with the importance of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology (AT) for students in public schools in the Federal District, Brazil, from the perspective of Inclusive Education. Based on data collection conducted through a questionnaire with open and closed questions administered to a group of twelve teachers from a public school, it was found that there is a lack of knowledge of these practices among the teaching staff. In view of this finding, an intervention was carried out with the group of twelve teachers with the following objectives: i) To understand the teachers' perceptions of UDL and AT; ii) To identify the challenges faced by teachers regarding the use of AT and UDL resources in their everyday school practices; iii) To analyze the contribution of continuing teacher education in UDL and AT as a strategic tool for inclusion in basic education. With these objectives, a workshop lasting 3 hours was conducted, using activities such as theoretical and practical, conceptualization and exemplification of the terms, and finally, the elaboration of a lesson plan based on UDL. With the analysis of the data obtained and activities developed, it is concluded that the lack of continuing education in this area is one of the main barriers regarding accessibility and inclusion, especially for students with specific educational needs. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to the debate on educational policies for the promotion of accessibility and equity in public schools in the country.

Educational Policy, Leadership, Management & Administration 110688 | A Century of Trends and Impact in Educational Leadership Research Chuan Chung Hsieh, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Educational leadership has evolved significantly over the past century, yet its long-term intellectual trajectory remains insufficiently synthesized. Addressing this gap, this study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 8,244 Scopus-indexed articles (1910–2023) using VOSviewer and R to map citation networks, co-authorship patterns, and thematic structures. The findings reveal a clear shift from early administrative and managerial orientations toward relational, transformative, and equity-focused paradigms. In recent decades, transformational leadership, digital leadership, and social justice have emerged as central themes, accompanied by intensified international collaboration and interdisciplinary integration. Highly cited studies increasingly emphasize inclusive and adaptive leadership in response to technological change and global policy dynamics. By situating contemporary developments within a century-long perspective, this study delineates the field’s intellectual structure, identifies key contributors and influential works, and highlights emerging directions for future research in educational leadership.

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Friday Poster Session 113020 | Digital Transformation and Educational Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities Mane Atikyan, Public Administration Academy, Armenia Digital transformation has become a defining feature of contemporary education, reshaping institutional practices, teaching approaches, and models of educational governance. Despite extensive research on technology adoption in education, limited attention has been given to the strategic role of educational leaders in managing digital transformation as a complex organizational change process. This study addresses this gap by examining how educational leaders navigate the challenges and opportunities associated with digital transformation and how leadership practices influence the sustainability of digital initiatives. Grounded in transformational leadership and change management theories, this study explores the ways in which educational leaders develop digital visions, support teacher readiness, manage resistance to change, and foster innovation-oriented organizational cultures. A qualitative research design is employed, using semi-structured interviews with educational leaders from selected educational institutions. The collected data are analyzed through thematic analysis to identify key leadership strategies, barriers, and enabling factors influencing digital transformation. The study highlights that successful digital transformation requires more than technological investment; it depends on leaders’ capacity to promote collaboration, build digital competencies, and align technological innovation with pedagogical objectives. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on educational leadership in digitally transforming environments by providing insights into leadership practices that support sustainable, inclusive, and human-centered digital change. The study offers implications for policymakers, educational managers, and professional development providers seeking to strengthen leadership capacity in the digital era. 111641 | Improving the Performance of King Saud University in Light of Global Experiences: A Proposed Model Fayez Alfayez, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia This study aimed to develop a proposed model for improving the performance of King Saud University, in light of global experiences and aligning with the objectives of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program. The study employed a qualitative, analytical, and comparative approach, analyzing educational literature, previous studies, and distinguished international experiences in universities performance development. The results showed that improving university performance requires integrating administrative and organizational dimensions, developing human, academic, and administrative resources, enhancing financial performance, and activating digital transformation. Based on these findings, the study presented a proposed model based on clear strategic principles, specific developmental objectives, priority implementation areas, and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. It also identified the most prominent anticipated challenges and proposed solutions. The study recommended that King Saud University employment this model as a roadmap that would contribute to improving institutional performance efficiency, enhancing the university's competitiveness, and achieving university sustainability at both the local and global levels. 113396 | Structural Disparities and Standardization in Pharmacy Education: A National Analysis of Colleges of Pharmacy in South Korea Dongmun Ha, Mokpo National University, South Korea Accreditation systems are widely used to ensure the quality, accountability, and continuous improvement of pharmacy education. In South Korea, colleges of pharmacy are evaluated through a national accreditation system covering multiple domains, including curriculum, faculty resources, educational infrastructure, practical training, and research capacity. This study used accreditation self-evaluation reports from 37 colleges of pharmacy accredited between 2020 and 2024 to evaluate their educational capacity, practical-training structure, and research infrastructure. Institutions were grouped by type (public/national vs. private), location (Seoul metropolitan vs. regional), and establishment period (existing vs. newly established colleges). Quantifiable indicators across three domains—educational environment, laboratory and practical training, and research performance—were compared using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test (p<0.05). Of the 37 colleges, 32.4% were public/national and 67.6% private; 43.2% were metropolitan and 56.8% regional. Public/national universities showed significantly higher laboratory and practical-training expenditure per student than private ones (1,922,364 vs. 512,191 KRW, p=0.022). Metropolitan universities secured significantly greater three-year external research funding than regional ones (6.16 vs. 2.29 billion KRW, p=0.0046). Existing colleges had significantly larger enrolment and higher faculty-to-student ratios than newly established ones (p<0.001). In contrast, core educational indicators such as total practical-training hours and curriculum composition were comparable across groups. These findings show that although institutional disparities exist in educational resources and research capacity, the core structure of pharmacy training remains relatively standardized across accredited programmes. Accreditation data thus offer a valuable policy tool for maintaining educational quality and for identifying structural differences that can inform future educational planning and resource allocation. 110836 | Bridging Policy and Practice: Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the Framework of Mexico’s New Educational Reform Brenda Itzel Pablo Hernandez, Secretaría Ejecutiva Del Sistema Nacional Anticorrupción, Mexico Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a key component of educational policy, gender equality, and the protection of human rights. Despite significant international progress, major implementation gaps persist. This research analyses Mexico’s recent efforts to institutionalise CSE through the second phase of the National Strategy for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy (ENAPEA). Drawing on qualitative policy analysis, the study combines documentary review of educational and legal frameworks with semi-structured interviews conducted with key governmental, educational, and policy actors involved in the implementation of CSE at the national and local levels. The research examines how intersectoral coordination mechanisms have contributed to the incorporation of CSE into the framework of Mexico’s New Educational Reform, including curriculum redesign, free textbooks, teacher training initiatives, and educational governance strategies. The findings reveal important advances in the institutionalisation of CSE, particularly in curricular integration and interinstitutional collaboration. However, the study identifies persistent structural challenges, including insufficient teacher preparation, fragmented coordination across levels of government, inconsistent monitoring indicators and significant disparities between policy design and classroom practice, especially in rural and socially vulnerable communities. By analysing the Mexican case through a public policy perspective, this research contributes to international discussions on how states attempt to operationalise rights-based sexuality education. The institutionalisation of CSE requires not only curricular reform, but also sustained political commitment, multi-level governance capacity, adequate financing, and culturally contextualised implementation strategies. Beyond its educational dimension, the paper positions CSE as a critical public policy instrument for advancing gender equity, adolescent wellbeing, and social justice.

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Friday Poster Session 112642 | Teacher Agency and the Recontextualisation of an International Language Benchmark: Evidence from Malaysia’s CEFR-Aligned English Language Curriculum Reform Dayana Nayan, University of Bristol, United Kingdom Research on Malaysia’s CEFR-aligned English language curriculum reform has documented teachers’ perceptions, training needs and challenges involving materials and assessment. Less is understood about how the conditions through which the reform reaches teachers interact with local contexts to shape agency. This study examines how primary English teachers interpret, negotiate and enact the CEFRaligned curriculum across urban, semi-urban and rural localities. The analysis uses Bernstein’s pedagogic device to examine how CEFR is recontextualised into curriculum, materials and assessment expectations, and the ecological model to explain how teachers act within these conditions. The study draws on semi-structured interviews with 19 teachers and four policy-level participants, alongside focused analysis of national policy and curriculum documents. Interviews were conducted March–May 2026; thematic analysis is ongoing, combining inductive and deductive coding with cross-locality comparison. Initial coding has identified instances of teachers adapting curriculum materials, assessment expectations and lesson pacing in response to classroom and school conditions. Ongoing analysis will examine how these adaptations, and the conditions shaping them, vary across the three localities. Rather than treating teachers as either compliant implementers or individual resisters, the study seeks to offer a grounded account of agency as a situated professional achievement. Its originality lies in connecting the national recontextualisation of CEFR within the reform with teachers’ situated enactment across contrasting localities. This moves beyond descriptive accounts of perceptions and enactment challenges by examining how policy and local conditions make curricular decisions possible, difficult or legitimate, with implications for context-sensitive curriculum support and professional learning.

Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL) 108654 | Listening Coping Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of L2 Listening Performance: the Roles of Listening Anxiety and Metacognitive Strategies Miki Satori, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Japan This study examined listening-specific psychological and metacognitive mechanisms underlying TOEIC listening performance among 82 Japanese university students. It investigated the relationships among listening anxiety, metacognitive strategy use, growth mindset, listening self-efficacy, and L2 listening performance, while also examining the factor structure of listening self-efficacy. Confirmatory factor analysis identified two dimensions of listening self-efficacy: Listening Improvement Self-Efficacy and Listening Coping Self-Efficacy. Only Listening Coping Self-Efficacy significantly predicted L2 listening performance. Mediation analysis further revealed that it mediated the effects of metacognitive strategy use and listening anxiety on L2 listening performance. Although growth mindset was positively associated with Listening Improvement Self-Efficacy, neither growth mindset nor Listening Improvement Self-Efficacy significantly predicted L2 listening test outcomes. The findings indicate that regulating anxiety and sustaining effective processing during listening tasks are more critical for standardized listening performance than general beliefs about long-term development.

Higher Education 111074 | From the Classroom to the “Trend”: Social Media, Epistemic Authority, and the Spiral of Silence in University Learning Sara Alnufaishan, Kuwait University, Kuwait The rise of social media has transformed the landscape of knowledge production in higher education, raising critical questions about who holds epistemic authority in contemporary learning environments. As digital platforms increasingly shape what students encounter, trust, and share, traditional educational authorities face growing competition from algorithmically amplified content and online trends. Drawing on the Spiral of Silence theory, this study examines how dominant digital discourses influence university students’ perceptions of credible knowledge and their willingness to express alternative viewpoints. Using a qualitative critical-analytical approach, the study is based on semi-structured interviews with 20–25 university students from diverse academic disciplines. The analysis explores students’ experiences of navigating social media as a learning environment and the ways in which digital trends shape judgments of knowledge credibility. Preliminary analysis suggests that students increasingly negotiate knowledge within digitally mediated environments where visibility, popularity, and algorithmic circulation influence perceptions of credibility. Participants reported hesitation in expressing views that diverge from dominant online narratives, reflecting dynamics of epistemic silence and intellectual conformity. The analysis also indicates that algorithmically curated content may narrow exposure to diverse perspectives while simultaneously creating opportunities for collaboration and informal learning. The study argues that social media functions not merely as a communication tool but as an emerging site of epistemic authority that reshapes knowledge construction in higher education. It highlights the need for universities to strengthen critical digital literacy and foster independent judgment in increasingly algorithm-driven learning contexts.

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Friday Poster Session 112371 | The Use of Free Time Among Forced Immigrant Students in Brazilian Higher Education and Its Impacts on Mental Health Valeria Mattos, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil Elaine Ragnini, Federal University of Parana, Brazil Camila Brüning, Federal University of Parana, Brazil Anderson da Silveira, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil Contemporary involuntary displacement arises from diverse motivations, including political, ethnic, climatic, religious, gender, and economic conflicts. In this context, Brazil has emerged as a host country for refugees, humanitarian visa holders, and stateless persons, particularly since the 2010s, revising its legislation to address this population’s needs. This study examines migratory status within the university setting through the empirical experience of welcoming forced immigrants in two Brazilian public higher education institutions. It adopts a qualitative approach, drawing on two focus groups with 23 students aged 20 to 39 (61% women; 39% men) from African and Latin American countries. Four guiding questions explored experiences in a new territory, the university’s role in socio-emotional reception, uses of free time, and psychosocial effects. Data were analyzed using IRaMuTeQ software, resulting in four categories: free time as ambivalent, coping strategies, cultural contrasts, and freedom versus demand. Findings reveal that while international is a term often used generically to describe students abroad, South-South migrations present specific challenges shaped by cultural differences, academic rituals, and intersectional oppressions such as racism and xenophobia. Free time was closely tied to education and work, limiting opportunities for rest and leisure. The study highlights the tensions of internationalization in the context of forced migration, where students seek not only intercultural competencies but also the chance to rebuild their lives and academic trajectories. It concludes that reception practices must go beyond formal internationalization efforts, recognizing the lived experiences of discrimination and fostering interculturality through genuine inclusion and acknowledgment of students’ histories.

International Education 101780 | Global Citizenship in Chilean Higher Education: Mapping Courses and Curricular Trends Daniela Velasquez, Universidad de Las Américas, Chile This study examines the development of global citizenship in Chilean higher education through a mapping of undergraduate courses that explicitly address this theme in accredited universities. Using an exploratory-descriptive approach, it identifies disciplinary areas, levels of study, and pedagogical approaches. The mapping was structured around the dimensions of global citizenship proposed by UNESCO (2015), cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral, which provide a framework to assess how courses foster knowledge of global issues, the development of attitudes and values such as empathy, diversity, and solidarity, as well as the willingness to engage in transformative action at local and global levels. To classify the courses, a set of thematic axes was established, including human rights, democracy and participation, sustainability, interculturality, gender and diversity, peace and conflict resolution, among others, in order to identify both emphases and gaps in the integration of this perspective. Additionally, the study draws on the concept of global citizenship as a transversal framework, understood as the education of individuals capable of critically engaging with interdependent challenges and participating ethically and responsibly in increasingly diverse and interconnected societies. Preliminary findings reveal a fragmented presence, concentrated mainly in the social sciences and humanities, with limited transversal incorporation across curricula. The study contributes to international debates on education for global citizenship, aligned with SDG 4, which emphasizes ensuring that all learners acquire knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development and global citizenship.

Knowledge Creation, Preservation & Access: Curation, Librarianship, Information & Archival Science 112125 | Generative AI, Academic Integrity, and the Governance of Scholarly Communication: A Bibliometric Study of Higher Education Research, 2023–2025 Ahmed Shehata, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Generative artificial intelligence is transforming academic work across higher education, affecting how students, researchers, reviewers, editors, publishers, and institutions produce, evaluate, and regulate scholarly knowledge. While much discussion has focused on AI-assisted writing, less attention has been given to how generative AI is becoming a broader governance issue for scholarly communication. This study examines the international research literature on generative AI, academic integrity, and scholarly communication governance from 2023 to 2025. Using a corpus of 739 Scopus-indexed English-language articles and reviews, the study applies bibliometric and thematic analysis techniques, including annual publication trends, source analysis, keyword co-occurrence, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and thematic evolution. The findings show rapid growth in scholarly attention, with the literature moving from early concerns about AI-assisted writing and authorship attribution toward wider institutional issues, including peer-review integrity, disclosure practices, publication ethics, publisher policies, and research integrity. Governance and policy development emerge as central research fronts, while citation reliability and AI-generated references remain comparatively underdeveloped as explicit themes. The study argues that generative AI should not be understood only as an educational technology or writing aid, but as a socio-technical challenge requiring coordinated responses across higher education and scholarly publishing. The findings have implications for AI literacy, researcher development, academic integrity education, library instruction, editorial policy, and responsible research practice. By mapping the evolution of this emerging field, the study contributes to international debates on education, technology, and the future governance of academic knowledge production.

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Friday Poster Session Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity 110637 | Intercultural Competences in Teacher Education: A Comparative Analysis of Three European Universities (Zagreb, Padua, Granada) Chiara Todorov, University of Zagreb, Croatia This study examines the extent to which teacher education programmes at the Universities of Zagreb, Padua, and Granada prepare future teachers for work in intercultural classrooms. A mixed-method comparative design was employed, combining curriculum analysis with a survey of 146 teacher education students. Curriculum documents and course syllabi were systematically reviewed to identify the presence, scope, and integration of intercultural content. The survey explored students’ perceptions of intercultural competence, access to international experiences, and readiness to work in culturally diverse educational settings. The findings reveal substantial differences across the three institutions. Padua demonstrated the most systematic integration of intercultural themes through compulsory courses addressing inclusion, human rights, and cultural diversity across years of study. Granada incorporated intercultural and inclusive perspectives throughout the curriculum, with emphasis on democratic values and professional sensitivity. In contrast, Zagreb addressed intercultural issues more indirectly, with greater reliance on elective courses and less explicit coverage within compulsory coursework. Across all institutions, students recognised the importance of intercultural competence but reported insufficient practical preparation for working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Spearman correlation analysis identified a significant positive relationship between participation in international exchanges and self-assessed readiness for intercultural work (r = .537, p < .001). However, a higher number of intercultural courses was associated with a lower perceived importance of educational practices from other European countries (r = -.344, p < .001). The results suggest that intercultural competence development depends not only on curriculum content but also on meaningful experiential learning opportunities and international engagement. 110634 | Cultural Intelligence and Its Impact on Pre-Service Teachers’ Ethnocentric Attitudes: A Quasi-Experimental Research Alanoud Alrashidi, Kuwait University, Kuwait In teacher education, ethnocentrism refers to teachers’ tendency to evaluate students’ behaviors and attitudes through the lens of their own cultural values. Such tendencies can lead to misunderstandings, conflict, and prejudice, particularly toward students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This research examined whether enhancing cultural intelligence (CQ) could reduce ethnocentric attitudes among pre-service teachers at Kuwait University. A one-group Pretest–Posttest Design was employed, and the Generalized Ethnocentrism Scale (GENE) was administered to 32 female pre-service teachers enrolled in an advanced education course. Pretest results indicated a moderate level of ethnocentric attitudes (M = 42, SD = 0.89). Participants then completed a four-session training program grounded in the four dimensions of CQ: Drive, knowledge, strategy, and action. Each 120-minute session included cultural awareness discussions, analysis of culturally based scenarios, interpretation of cultural videos, and reflections on real-world cultural misunderstandings. Following the intervention, Posttest results revealed a significant reduction in ethnocentric attitudes (M = 23, SD = 0.71, d = 0.81). These findings suggest that CQ-based training can be an effective approach to reducing ethnocentric attitudes among pre-service teachers. It is recommended that teacher education programs systematically assess ethnocentrism and implement targeted interventions to better prepare future teachers for work in multicultural educational contexts.

Primary & Secondary Education 113331 | Measuring Refractive Index via Total Internal Reflection: A Low-Cost Apparatus and Its Educational Impact Jusciane da Costa e Silva, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region, Brazil Rudson T Mendonça Fernandes, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region, Brazil Naiara Oliveira, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Brazil Subenia Medeiros, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region, Brazil Gustavo Rebouças, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region, Brazil The development of simple experimental procedures and apparatuses for the physics classroom is essential to engage students and facilitate their understanding of physical phenomena that often go unnoticed in daily life. For instance, the apparent distortion of an object partially immersed in water is caused by the refraction of light as it travels between media. Under specific conditions, this optical distortion can even cause the submerged object to completely disappear—a consequence of total internal reflection. While standard classroom experiments measure refractive indices using basic laser setups in transparent containers, this work introduces a low-cost geometric air-wedge apparatus built from discarded materials, enabling direct quantitative measurements without the need for expensive goniometers. The experimental method correlates the displacement of a laser beam undergoing critical angle refraction with the liquid’s refractive index using linear regression analysis. Our results demonstrated high accuracy, yielding refractive index values with less than 1.5% relative error for water (n≈1.33) and glycerin (n≈1.47) compared to reference literature values. To evaluate the educational impact, the setup was implemented with 45 high school physics students (N=45). Quantitative assessment via pre- and post-tests revealed a statistically significant improvement in conceptual understanding of wave optics (normalized learning gain g>0.50), while qualitative feedback highlighted increased student engagement and interest in physical modeling. Ultimately, this proposal provides an effective, highly accurate, and low-cost educational tool that seamlessly integrates hands-on experimentation with rigorous data analysis.

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Friday Poster Session Professional Training, Development & Concerns in Education 112866 | From Expectation to Experience: Shifts in Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Identity Across Practicum Raghad Elkahlout, Lancaster University, United Kingdom This study explores how pre-service teachers' expectations, beliefs, and emerging professional identities shift across the practicum experience. Using a longitudinal qualitative design, 15 pre-service teachers were interviewed twice, once before practicum and once after practicum, generating 30 interviews for analysis. The study examines how participants initially imagined teaching, how they interpreted their classroom experiences, and how these experiences reshaped their sense of preparedness, confidence, and professional self-understanding. The findings suggest that practicum functioned as a critical turning point in teacher formation, moving participants from idealized or abstract conceptions of teaching toward more complex, experience-based understandings of classroom realities, relationships, and responsibilities. At the same time, the data reveal tensions between university preparation and school-based practice, particularly in relation to confidence, classroom management, and the emotional demands of teaching. By tracing change over time, this study contributes to research on teacher identity development and highlights the importance of stronger alignment between coursework, practicum support, and the lived realities of becoming a teacher.

Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis 110620 | From Authoritative Guidance to Equal Co-learning: Positioning Reconstruction and Professional Capital Flow Among Three Types of Teachers in the Third Jui-Hsuan Hung, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan This study examines how teacher educators, in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers renegotiate their professional positions and develop teacher agency and professional capital through an overseas practicum program. Traditional teacher education often positions teacher educators as knowledge authorities, in-service teachers as practical experts, and pre-service teachers as novice learners, which may limit equal dialogue and reciprocal learning. Using a qualitative case study design, this research draws on semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, classroom observation notes, and researcher observations from a one-year overseas practicum program. The analytical framework integrates third space, positioning theory, and professional capital. The findings show that the overseas practicum created a relatively de-hierarchized third space where existing role boundaries were temporarily suspended and renegotiated. The teacher educator shifted from knowledge authority to learning facilitator; in-service teachers became practical dialogue partners; and pre-service teachers moved from passive learners to active contributors to lesson design and knowledge co-construction. Through collaborative practice in cross-cultural teaching contexts, participants developed both individual and collective agency. Professional capital also flowed across role boundaries, as pre-service teachers gained practical judgment, in-service teachers learned innovative and digital pedagogical perspectives, and the teacher educator reconnected theory with practice. This study suggests that a de-hierarchized third space can transform teacher learning from one-way transmission to reciprocal co-construction, offering implications for teacher education, overseas practicum design, and cross-role professional learning communities. 111151 | Learning Through the Conservation of Temple Door Guardian Paintings: A Case-Based Pedagogical Approach to Art and Heritage Education Wan Ting Yang, Cheng Shiu University, Taiwan Pin Chia Huang, Cheng Shiu University, Taiwan This paper explores temple door guardian painting conservation as a case-based approach to art and heritage education at the elementary level. Temple door guardians are not merely decorative images; they are living heritage objects embedded in religious space, local belief, community memory and everyday life. Transforming their conservation process into classroom activities offers students a tangible way to understand relationships between artistic practice, materials, craftsmanship, religious belief and local culture. The study is based on a four-stage teaching module. The first stage introduces the historical context, religious iconography and the role of temple door guardians within local communities. The second stage guides observation of material conditions, including soiling, pigment loss and environmentally induced cracking. The third stage consists of documenting the condition, damage mapping, simulated repair and chromatic reintegration on mock-up samples. These activities help students understand conservation not merely as restoring appearance, but as a process grounded in observation, interpretation, decision-making and respect for the original object. The final stage introduces conservation ethics, focusing on limits to intervention, the value of historical traces and the responsibilities involved in community-based religious heritage. Temple door guardian painting conservation can serve as a localised active-learning model that incorporates conservation thinking into basic education. Students’ learning responses were examined through classroom observation, practical engagement, discussion feedback and written reflections. The results suggest the approach enhanced students’ visual sensitivity and material awareness, while deepening their understanding of the ethics and decision-making involved in cultural heritage conservation.

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Friday Poster Session 110647 | Online Teaching in Times of Crisis: Experiences and Challenges of Elderly Professors Eissa Alansari, Kuwait University, Kuwait In response to regional war-related circumstances, Kuwait University transitioned to online learning starting March 2026, requiring faculty members to redesign their courses and deliver instruction through digital platforms. While many younger faculty adapted smoothly, elderly professors encountered notable challenges. This qualitative study examined the experiences of elderly professors (aged 70 years and older) with online teaching at Kuwait University. Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with twelve professors, each lasting approximately 60 minutes and recorded for analysis. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were used to analyze the findings. Results indicated that all participants (100%) experienced substantial technical difficulties, particularly with video conferencing and audio management. Challenges related to online assessment were also prevalent, including lack of experience with learning management systems such as Moodle or Microsoft Forms (100%), difficulty monitoring student performance during examinations (80%), and concerns about academic dishonesty (70%). Additionally, most professors reported limited student engagement (90%) and inability to monitor online interactions effectively (80%). Participants expressed a strong preference for face-to-face instruction and reported difficulties designing online teaching materials, including PowerPoint presentations (80%) and use of virtual keyboards (70%). Physical issues, such as visual strain (60%) and musculoskeletal discomfort from prolonged sitting (20%), further affected their experiences. Many professors relied on younger family members for technical assistance (60%). These findings highlight significant barriers affecting instructional quality and underscore the need for targeted training, institutional support, and flexible online teaching models for elderly faculty members. 113541 | School Management Internship and Teacher Education: Reflections from a Rural Teacher Education Program in Brazil Késia Kelly Vieira de Castro, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid, Brazil Josiel Medeiros de Aquino, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil Supervised internships play a fundamental role in teacher education by fostering the integration of theoretical knowledge and practice. This study reports the experiences developed during the Supervised Curricular Internship II – School Management, conducted at José Calazans Freire State School, located in Upanema, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, as part of the Interdisciplinary Rural Education Teacher Education Program at the Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region. The study aimed to analyze how immersion in school management contributes to the professional development of pre-service teachers and the understanding of democratic educational management. A qualitative approach was adopted, combining bibliographic and documentary research with reflective experience reports based on observation, participation, and intervention activities. The internship included the analysis of the school's organizational structure, management practices, pedagogical planning, historical development, and relationships among administrators, teachers, students, and the community. An educational intervention addressing the Brazilian High School Reform was designed and implemented through a seminar involving school administrators and teachers. The findings indicate that the internship strengthened participants' understanding of democratic school management, collaborative decisionmaking, and the relationship between educational policies and school practices. Furthermore, the experience promoted critical reflection on the role of school leadership and reinforced the importance of integrating theory and practice throughout teacher education. The study concludes that supervised internships constitute an essential component of teacher preparation by enabling future educators to critically understand the complexities of educational management while developing professional competencies that support reflective, participatory, and context-responsive educational practice, particularly in rural education settings.

Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations 111736 | From Local Food Stories to Regional Brand Narrative: Co-creation and Visual Storytelling in the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture Region Heidi Alander, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland Matti Moller, Oulu Culture Foundation, Finland Minna Virkkula, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland Storytelling is recognised as a tool for tourism branding and identity building. Moreover, national and international food tourism guidelines emphasise strategic planning, stakeholder participation, regional identity, product development and communication. Positioned at the intersection of food tourism development, destination branding and brand storytelling, this case study examines how local food meanings generated by food and tourism actors can be transformed into a shared regional brand narrative and visual communication assets. The Oulu2026 region contains diverse food traditions, landscapes and cultural histories, yet these have not formed a widely shared and marketable food tourism identity. By translating locally generated food meanings into narrative and visual assets, the study addresses the underexplored challenge of implementing these guidelines in regions with emerging food tourism identities. Methodologically, the case combined three facilitated co-creation workshops with thematic narrative analysis. In the workshops, participants contributed place-based meanings related to local food, history, nature, everyday life and culture. The material was examined to identify recurring themes, narrative motifs and placebased meanings that informed the collaborative development of the core narrative for Northern food tourism by a professional story designer and regional developers. The process resulted in a regional core narrative in which pine wood tar and waterways function as unifying elements. Key narrative elements and draft story were used to guide the commissioned image bank. The study contributes to destination branding and place marketing by demonstrating how fragmented local food identities can be synthesised into coherent communication assets that support stakeholder engagement, message consistency and dissemination.

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Saturday, November 7 09:30-11:10 | Onsite Parallel Session 1 11:25-13:05 | Onsite Parallel Session 2 14:00-15:15 | Onsite Parallel Session 3 15:30-17:10 | Onsite Parallel Session 4 All times are Central European Time (UTC+1) Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Interdisciplinary Education Session Chair: Hsiu-Chu Hsu 09:30-09:55 111183 | Creative Expression as a Pathway to Empowerment: The Contribution of Arts-Based Interventions to Social Inclusion and Professional Activation of Individuals Martina Ditbrener, Fundacja Teraz Wy, Poland Contemporary approaches to inclusive education and disability rehabilitation increasingly emphasize participation, autonomy, and empowerment as essential dimensions of social inclusion. Within this framework, arts-based interventions have gained growing recognition as effective methods for supporting emotional expression, interpersonal development, and vocational activation among individuals with disabilities. This paper examines the impact of creative therapeutic practices on social participation, self-efficacy, and employability within educational and rehabilitation contexts. The study is based on an interdisciplinary qualitative analysis integrating contemporary research literature with observations derived from educational and therapeutic programs utilizing arts-based methods in work with individuals with intellectual, developmental, and psychosocial disabilities. Preliminary findings indicate that regular engagement in arts-based interventions contributes to increased self-confidence, improved interpersonal interaction, and greater participation in group and community activities. Participants involved in creative programs demonstrated enhanced emotional expression, stronger social engagement, and improved capacity for cooperation and independent decision-making. The findings further suggest that creative therapeutic environments may reduce experiences of exclusion and support the reconstruction of identity beyond deficit-oriented perceptions of disability. In vocational contexts, arts-based activities were associated with the development of concentration, adaptability, problem-solving skills, and motivation for active participation in educational or employment-related initiatives. The paper also discusses current barriers to the implementation of artscentered rehabilitation programs, including insufficient institutional support, unequal access to specialized services, and challenges related to the evaluation of long-term outcomes. The study concludes that arts-based interventions represent a valuable component of inclusive rehabilitation and educational strategies.

09:55-10:20 112388 | ‘Applied Clumsiness’ for Wicked Education Challenges: Empowering Educators to Engage Learning and Teaching Diversity Inclusively Zheng Renjie, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Agnes Xue, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Educators’ endeavor to leave no students behind is a ‘wicked’ challenge due to students’ and faculty’s diverse learning and teaching preferences. Educators need to engage this diversity inclusively because an oversight of learning preference will lead to ‘elegant’ (nonpluralistic) policies that often cause gaps in learning outcomes due to ‘inclusivity blind spots’. This presentation engages these diversity challenges by building on two prior studies presented at IAFOR ACE2025 and SEACE2026. The ACE2025 study investigated a dataset of 490 student feedback from 1,279 undergraduates through Mary Douglas's Grid-Group Typology. The findings demonstrated that a grid-group based preference mapping typology can empower educators to (1) sense-make learner and teaching diversity effectively, (2) uncover unaddressed preferences comprehensively, and (3) surface preference tensions pre-emptively for mitigative 'clumsy' (non-elegant) interventions. This led to the formalization of 'Applied Clumsiness' tools: effective, scalable and effort-efficient scaffolded preference-mapping Heuristic and tensionmapping Methodology. The SEACE2026 study separately applied these tools to analyze the teaching preferences of the faculty team, showing the tools’ efficacy in helping educators similarly uncover ‘inclusivity blind spots’ and tensions in module policies caused by diverse and conflicting teaching styles. This presentation shares the synthesis of overlaying the findings from both the student and faculty analyses into a single more complex preference map overview, and demonstrates through first-person accounts on how the 'Applied Clumsiness' tools remain effective in guiding inclusive module policy formulation. This presentation aims to share this pragmatic, unified framework for educators in other messy and diverse contexts to foster more inclusive educational environments.

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Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Interdisciplinary Education Session Chair: Hsiu-Chu Hsu 10:20-10:45 111181 | Negotiating Normative Infrastructures: Neurodivergence, Artificial Intelligence, and Empowerment in Higher Education Mike Frazier, Michigan State University, United States This paper presents emerging conceptual directions from a constructivist grounded theory analysis of interviews with neurodivergent students and faculty exploring how empowerment is negotiated within technologically mediated higher education environments. While contemporary discussions of educational technology and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) often emphasize personalization, productivity, or accessibility, analysis suggests participants experience these systems as intensifying existing normative assumptions surrounding communication, participation, productivity, academic labor, and legitimate cognition. Drawing from six in-depth interviews with neurodivergent graduate students and faculty across diverse institutional positions and intersectional identities at a large, research-intensive university in the Midwestern United States, this study examines how participants construct, negotiate, and reinterpret experiences of empowerment, disempowerment, masking, authorship, relational safety, and cognitive support in relation to AI systems, digital infrastructures, and broader institutional contexts. Rather than producing a singular narrative of either technological empowerment or harm, participants describe heterogeneous and sometimes contradictory relationships to sociotechnical systems. Some participants describe AI as supporting executive functioning, emotional interpretation, communicative translation, or actionable structure, while others experience these same systems as ethically troubling, cognitively overwhelming, dehumanizing, or reinforcing dominant neurotypical norms. Across interviews, empowerment is often constructed as contextual and relationally negotiated through flexibility, recognition, environmental fit, meaningful participation, and the ability to engage academic life without constant self-translation. This paper contributes emerging conceptual directions for rethinking normative assumptions embedded within higher education and AI-mediated academic life through an interdisciplinary lens foregrounding cognitive plurality, sociotechnical power relations, and contested assumptions about legitimate intelligence and participation.

10:45-11:10 113606 | Art-Centered STEAM Education: Constructing Indicators and Implementing SEL-SDGs Integrated Practice in a Disaster-Affected Rural School Hsiu-Chu Hsu, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan In conventional STEAM education, art often plays a supportive rather than central role. This study proposes an Art-centered STEAM (ARTSTEAM) framework that positions art as the core discipline while integrating STEM to foster interdisciplinary learning and holistic competency development. To address the limited emphasis on art's roles in sensory awareness, emotional healing, aesthetic practice, and local engagement, this study developed a comprehensive set of ART-STEAM educational indicators and integrated Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the curriculum. Following the severe typhoon and flood disasters that struck Guangfu Township in eastern Taiwan in 2025, Sifu Elementary School was selected as the implementation site because both teachers and students experienced significant psychological and emotional distress. A collaborative teaching unit, "Turning Waste into Art," guided the entire school in transforming disaster debris into installation artworks reflecting local culture, aesthetics, and humanistic values. Data were collected through video documentation, assessment rubrics, learning portfolios, and reflective journals. The findings demonstrate that the ART-STEAM curriculum significantly enhanced emotional self-regulation, collaborative problem-solving, environmental sustainability awareness, ecological responsibility, and psychological healing among teachers and students. The study provides both a theoretical framework and practical evidence for integrating SEL and SDGs into ART-STEAM education, demonstrating its potential to promote emotional well-being, collaboration, environmental stewardship, and resilience in disaster-affected schools.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 203 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE/BAMC2026 | Educational Research and Curriculum Design Session Chair: Rūta Girdzijauskienė 09:30-09:55 113523 | Exploring the Role of Teacher Characteristics in AI-Focused Professional Development Outcomes: Evidence from UNESCO IIOE CRAIE Activities in Serbia Danimir Mandić, University of Belgrade, Serbia Gordana Miscevic, University of Belgrade, Serbia The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education requires teachers to develop competencies for its responsible and effective use. Within UNESCO International Institute of Online Education (UNESCO IIOE) activities in Serbia, the Centre for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Education (CRAIE) at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Education supports innovative AI-assisted teaching and teacher professional development. This study examined whether teachers’ gender, professional profile, and years of work experience were associated with differences in the outcomes of an AI-focused professional development program. A quantitative, quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was applied. The sample included 120 educational professionals from Serbia who participated in a program combining several days of selfdirected learning through specially developed materials and a one-day face-to-face workshop at CRAIE. Independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine group differences. Results showed no statistically significant differences in knowledge outcomes by gender (p = 0.160), professional profile (p = 0.649), or years of work experience (p = 0.136). Attitude outcomes also did not differ significantly by professional profile (p = 0.638). Gender (p = 0.055) and work experience (p = 0.056) showed trends, but these did not reach statistical significance. The findings suggest that the program offered comparable learning opportunities to participants with diverse backgrounds and experience levels. The combination of self-directed learning and face-to-face instruction appears to be a promising, inclusive model for sustainable teacher professional development. Institutionally supported initiatives of this kind may strengthen AI competencies and contribute to educational digital transformation in Serbia.

09:55-10:20 109012 | Holistic Teacher Formation in the AI Era: Preparing Human-Centered Educators for AI-Mediated Classrooms Hongzhuan Song, Nazareth University, United States The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is transforming educational environments and raising important questions about how teachers should be prepared for increasingly AI-mediated classrooms. While current discussions often emphasize the technical integration of AI tools, less attention has been given to the holistic formation of educators who can engage these technologies critically, ethically, and in ways that sustain human-centered teaching practices. This study explores how teacher education programs can support the development of educators who integrate technological literacy with pedagogical judgment, ethical awareness, and culturally responsive teaching. Guided by sociocultural theory and teacher professional identity development, this research adopts a design-based research (DBR) methodology within a teacher education course. Through iterative cycles of instructional design, implementation, reflection, and revision, AIrelated learning activities are integrated into coursework to encourage teacher candidates to critically examine the pedagogical and ethical implications of AI in education. Data sources include teacher candidate reflective journals, classroom discussions, instructional artifacts such as lesson plans incorporating AI tools, and semi-structured interviews. Using thematic analysis, the study investigates how teacher candidates conceptualize AI’s role in teaching and how structured reflection contributes to the development of professional judgment in AI-mediated learning contexts. Preliminary findings suggest that engaging teacher candidates in critical dialogue about AI supports the development of reflective practice, ethical awareness, and culturally responsive decision-making. Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for human instruction, the study highlights how AI can function as a catalyst for deeper reflection on the purposes of teaching and learning.

10:20-10:45 113484 | Reflective Learning in Human–Computer Interaction Education: Developing Usability and Design Thinking Skills Moretlo Tlale-Mkhize, Central University of Technology, South Africa This paper provides a systematic literature review on the importance of reflective learning in growing usability and design thinking in Human– Computer Interaction (HCI) education. This research is inspired by the demands for HCI graduates who assess user needs, tackle designrelated challenges, and develop user-focused digital solutions. The gap is that students are unable to link the theories they learn to real-world design practices, which inhibits the growth of their usability and design thinking skills. The review is based on Schön's Reflective Practice Theory. A systematic literature review was carried out in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Peer-reviewed literature was collected from Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and ProQuest using specific search terms related to reflective learning, HCI, usability, and design thinking for the years 2020 to 2025. After meeting the inclusion and exclusion standards, 53 studies were thematically analysed to answer the following queries: In what ways does reflective learning contribute to the usability skills of HCI learners? And, in what ways does reflective learning contribute to the design thinking skills of HCI learners? The outcome of the study is that reflective learning helps students assess usability, develop an appreciation of the user, substantiate design decisions, and refine a digital solution through multiple iterations. The study offers a theoretical model that merges reflective practice with usability and design thinking and provides a means of embedding intentionally designed reflection within HCI programs.

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Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE/BAMC2026 | Educational Research and Curriculum Design Session Chair: Rūta Girdzijauskienė 10:45-11:10 113749 | Teachers’ AI Literacy Through the Lens of Formative Assessment Rūta Girdzijauskienė, Klaipeda University, Lithuania Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping educational practice by creating opportunities for learning, feedback, and assessment. While growing evidence suggests that AI can enhance formative assessment (Mousa, 2025), its implementation remains challenging (OECD, 2021; Nazaretsky et al., 2022; Hopfenbeck et al., 2023). Existing research has examined AI-supported assessment in higher education. Little is known about teachers' AI literacy for formative assessment in school education. Recent studies argue that successful AI integration depends not simply on technology adoption but on teachers' capacity to use AI effectively (Trust & Whalen, 2022; UNESCO, 2023; OECD, 2025). This paper examines teachers' AI literacy through the lens of formative assessment. The study draws on data from a large-scale national survey of Lithuanian teachers (N = 1,300). The questionnaire investigated AI use, AI literacy, ethical awareness, attitudes towards formative assessment, and intentions to integrate AI into teaching and assessment. The findings reveal that teachers use AI extensively for lesson planning, design, and content creation, whereas its application to formative assessment remains limited. Although teachers highly value formative assessment and express motivation to develop AI competencies, a clear gap exists between positive attitudes and actual classroom practice. This discrepancy appears to reflect differences in AI literacy, ethical concerns, and limited institutional support rather than resistance to innovation. The findings suggest that AI literacy should be understood as a pedagogical competence in which formative assessment represents a central dimension, with implications for teacher education, professional development, and educational policy.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | AI-Mediated Education Session Chair: Zubair Ahmad 09:30-09:55 110750 | EFL Teachers’ Use of AI Tools: Benefits, Challenges, and Classroom Practices in Indonesian Secondary Schools Bachtiar Bachtiar, Universitas Terbuka (Open University of Indonesia), Indonesia Sylvia Sylvia, Universitas Terbuka (Open University of Indonesia), Indonesia Maya Puspitasari, Universitas Terbuka (Open University) Indonesia, Indonesia This study investigates how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers integrate artificial intelligence (AI) tools into teaching practices in Indonesian secondary schools. As AI technologies become increasingly accessible, teachers are beginning to leverage these tools for lesson preparation, material development, and classroom activities. However, empirical evidence on teachers’ perceptions and actual classroom use remains limited, particularly within the Indonesian context. This study adopts a mixed-methods design, using a structured questionnaire that was administered to 132 EFL teachers, followed by in-depth interviews with 18 participants to explore three key dimensions: perceived benefits, encountered challenges, and patterns of classroom practice. The results indicate that teachers perceive AI tools as highly beneficial, particularly in enhancing efficiency in lesson planning, generating engaging instructional materials, and providing preliminary feedback to students. Nevertheless, several challenges persist, including concerns regarding the accuracy of AI-generated content, students’ over-reliance on AI, issues of academic integrity, and uncertainty about effective pedagogical integration. In practice, AI is predominantly utilized as a supportive tool for material development and assignment design, contributing to increased student engagement and motivation. Overall, the findings suggest that while AI offers significant pedagogical advantages, its implementation remains cautious and selective. Teachers tend to balance its potential benefits with critical considerations of pedagogical appropriateness and ethical implications. This study contributes to the growing discourse on AI in language education and underscores the need for context-sensitive and pedagogically grounded integration strategies.

09:55-10:20 111409 | From Early Language Exposure to Attentional Regulation: Attention as a Linguistically Scaffolded Construct in AI-Mediated Education Rubina Danilova, American University of Armenia, Armenia Arbi Balaban, American University of Armenia, Armenia This paper examines how attention is conceptualized across languages and how these linguistic framings may influence self-regulation in AI-mediated learning environments. Rather than treating attention only as a universal neurocognitive resource, the study investigates whether attention is also shaped by culturally and linguistically specific patterns of socialization. The study combines cross-linguistic conceptual metaphor analysis with discourse analysis. Attention-directing expressions were analyzed in English, Russian, Armenian, Persian, Korean, and Spanish, with supplementary comparison to published examples from Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Hebrew. Data were gathered through native-speaker competence, structured elicitation with native consultants, bilingual Russian–Armenian introspective analysis, and examples from educational discourse. The analysis identified several recurrent metaphorical patterns: transactional framings of attention as something paid or given; directional framings of attention as orientation or movement; stative framings of attention as remaining with an object; etc. The paper argues that such linguistic differences matter for educational design because attention-directing language can scaffold learners’ internal self-regulatory strategies. The findings point to the need for culturally and linguistically sensitive AI tutoring systems that support diverse models of attention rather than imposing a single instructional metaphor.

10:20-10:45 113773 | Leveraging AI Educational Platforms to Enhance Young English-as-a-Foreign-Language Reading Abilities Yi-Mei Wu, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Li-Tang Yu, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Ai-Ling Kan, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan This study investigated the effects of AI-assisted reading instruction on young English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in Taiwan. Specifically, it evaluated the effectiveness of an AI-powered educational platform, EdCafe, on the development of reading comprehension and reading motivation, as well as learners’ perceptions of AI-assisted reading. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the study involved two intact classes in a public elementary school in Taiwan, one assigned to an experimental group (n = 27) receiving AI-assisted instruction and the other to a control group (n = 24) receiving conventional instruction. Quantitative data were collected through pre- and post-tests of reading comprehension, along with pre- and post-surveys evaluating reading motivation. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the experimental cohort to explore their experiences within the AI-assisted learning environment. The results showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in reading comprehension after the intervention. While quantitative analyses indicated no statistically significant between-group differences in overall reading motivation after the intervention, qualitative interviews provided further insights into the intervention's affective and behavioral benefits. Participants reported that AI-assisted instruction supported greater learner autonomy and encouraged them to infer word meanings from context before seeking AI verification. Additionally, most participants preferred a hybrid model combining human teachers and AI chatbots and highlighting the continued importance of teachers in providing pedagogical guidance and support. Finally, this study concludes by discussing the pedagogical potential of integrating AI reading tools into young EFL classrooms to alleviate cognitive processing demands, enhance learner autonomy, and improve overall reading performance.

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Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | AI-Mediated Education Session Chair: Zubair Ahmad 10:45-11:10 113699 | Developing Responsible AI Behavior among Secondary School Students through Ethical Understanding Internalization and Responsible Practice Zubair Ahmad, Qatar University, Qatar The growing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education requires curricula that move beyond ethical awareness toward developing responsible AI behavior. This study examines ethical learning as a developmental progression from ethical understanding to ethical internalization and responsible AI practice. A quantitative cross-sectional research design was employed with 224 secondary school students. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire assessing cognitive (ethical understanding), value-oriented (ethical internalization), and behavioral (responsible AI practice) dimensions. The hypothesized relationships were examined using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Mediation analysis assessed the role of ethical internalization between ethical understanding and responsible AI practice, while grade-level multigroup analysis examined variations across grade levels. Results showed that ethical understanding positively predicted both ethical internalization and responsible AI practice, with internalization significantly mediating the understanding– practice relationship; these relationships remained broadly consistent across grade levels. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, the findings demonstrate that responsible AI behavior develops not merely through acquiring ethical knowledge but through incorporating ethical principles into students’ value orientations and self-regulatory standards that guide AI-related judgments and actions. The study’s novelty lies in empirically connecting understanding, internalization, and practice as an integrated developmental pathway rather than treating ethical awareness and responsible behavior as isolated competencies. Building on this evidence, the study advances a developmental K–12 curriculum perspective in which foundational ethical awareness and guided practice progressively evolve toward reflection, ethical dilemmas, critical evaluation, and responsible decision-making. This framework offers educators and curriculum developers an evidence-informed pathway for systematically cultivating responsible AI behavior among

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09:30-11:10 | Room 205 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BAMC2026 | Literature, Literary Studies and Theory Session Chair: Akiko Takei 09:30-09:55 113627 | The Contemporary Dystopian Imagination: Style and Crisis in Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song Lizi Dzagnidze, Caucasus University, Georgia The paper examines the work of Irish novelist Paul Lynch, specifically his 2023 Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song as a defining work of contemporary dystopian fiction while arguing that its formal features are an important development within contemporary Irish literature. With close reading, stylistic analysis and narratological approaches, the paper considers how the novel’s political crisis is created through syntax and the instability of narrative voice. Lynch's long, pressurised sentences and unmarked transitions between speech, thought and narration weaken the boundaries between external event and subjective perception so the reader is denied the distance usually associated with dystopian world-building. The novel's form reproduces the pressure of violence at the level of reading, which draws the reader into a world in which ordinary language and familiar institutions gradually lose their stability. The paper therefore considers style as central to Lynch's political vision and asks how contemporary dystopian fiction responds to crises that are already visible in democratic societies. As for the relevance, the paper corresponds to current debates on contemporary dystopia because it demonstrates how the genre presents political violence without relying on remote futures or fully invented worlds. In its final section, the paper juxtaposes the English text with the novel's Georgian translation, published in 2025, examining how Lynch's distinctive rhythm and atmosphere of crisis are presented in translation. The presented study is a part of the Fundamental Research project (FR-24-7246) funded and supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia.

09:55-10:20 113638 | From Empire to Partnership: Otherness, Nature, and Death in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life Mattia Mantellato, University of Enna "Kore", Italy David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life (1978) rewrites Ovid’s exile as a journey from domination to relational belonging, relocating the Roman poet from the ideological centre of the Empire to its imagined margins. Drawing on Riane Eisler’s partnership approach (1987; 2002), this paper argues that Malouf reimagines exile as a process through which imperial consciousness gives way to reciprocity, compassion, and interconnectedness. It examines this transformation through three interconnected perspectives. First, it explores the encounter with the Other, showing how Ovid’s growing openness to the Getic people, their language, and the enigmatic wild Child challenges hierarchical notions of identity and difference, revealing otherness as the foundation of self-knowledge. Secondly, it analyses nature as an active participant in Ovid’s transformation rather than a passive setting, where the wilderness becomes a living space of participation that restores his relationship with the more-than-human world. Finally, it investigates death not as annihilation but as continuity within the larger rhythms of life, dissolving the boundaries between self and world. By rewriting Ovid’s exile from a postcolonial Australian perspective, Malouf transforms the geographical edge of the Roman Empire into an epistemological centre from which dominator assumptions are questioned and partnership emerges as an alternative mode of inhabiting the world. In an age marked by war, displacement, and ecological crisis, An Imaginary Life demonstrates literature’s enduring capacity to imagine more relational and compassionate futures.

10:20-10:45 111149 | Jenny Wren as Entrepreneur: Disability, Independence, and Alternative Womanhood in Our Mutual Friend Akiko Takei, Chukyo University, Japan This study refigures Jenny Wren in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend as an entrepreneur whose determination for independence sets her apart from Dickens’s conventional model women, such as Agnes Wickfield or Esther Summerson. Whereas earlier scholarship has tended to cast Jenny as a lifeless emblem, a victimized child, or a representative of marginalized Victorian womanhood, this paper argues that she is instead a creatively skilled businesswoman who actively negotiates the constraints of her social and physical environment. Drawing on close textual analysis, Victorian conduct literature, and studies on disability in the Victorian period, the study situates Jenny within the harsh realities faced by disabled individuals in nineteenth century England. A central argument is that Jenny’s entry into commerce is both radical and culturally intelligible amid broader Victorian anxieties surrounding women’s labor and participation in commerce. Jenny’s dolls’ dressmaking, though entrepreneurial, is grounded in sewing—a traditionally feminine skill—allowing her to participate in economic life without wholly violating gender norms. At the same time, her disability and exclusion from the marriage market free Dickens from the ideological constraints of “The Angel in the House,” enabling him to imagine a woman’s life and career beyond the roles of wife and mother. By reframing a minor character as a figure of agency and innovation, this study reconsiders Dickens’s views on gender and highlights his nuanced negotiation between individual resilience and structural constraint.

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Notes

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09:30-11:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teacher's Professional Development Experiences Session Chair: Matthews Makunye 09:30-09:55 107188 | Developing Teacher Spirit Through Experiential Learning: A Study of Preservice Physical Education Teachers Phuwadon Chulasukhont, Naresuan University, Thailand Narintip Kornpuang, Naresuan University, Thailand Physical Education (PE) preservice teachers are prepared for teaching contexts that emphasize active, practice-based learning and require close supervision to ensure students’ safety. They are also expected to demonstrate professional role modeling through discipline, ethical conduct, and sportsmanship, which are central to teacher professionalism. Accordingly, developing teacher spirit among PE students is essential for strengthening professional awareness, responsibility, and commitment to future teaching practice. This research aimed to enhance teacher spirit among first-year undergraduate PE students enrolled in the course “Being Professional Teachers”. The intervention was designed based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, which conceptualizes learning as a continuous four-stage process: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Participants were 59 first-year PE students in the second semester of the 2025 academic year. Research instruments included a five-point Likert-scale self-assessment questionnaire of teacher spirit and an experiential learning behavior record form. Learning activities emphasized self-exploration, critical analysis of desirable and undesirable teacher characteristics, collaborative knowledge sharing, and structured reflection to synthesize individual professional development guidelines. Findings revealed that the overall mean teacher spirit score increased from a moderate level before the intervention to the highest level after the intervention. The results indicate that experiential learning-based instruction can effectively promote teacher spirit among PE students, particularly regarding professional pride, responsibility, and ethical conduct that contributes to trust and acceptance in future teaching roles.

09:55-10:20 108653 | Mobile Technology Use in Learning Science in Early Childhood: A Tale of Preservice Teachers in Lesotho and South Africa Lintle Maraisane, University of the Free State, South Africa Early exposure to science in Early Childhood Education (ECE) lays the foundation for curiosity, inquiry, and problem-solving. In both South Africa and Lesotho, curriculum reforms increasingly recognise the importance of developmentally appropriate science learning, yet the integration of mobile technologies remains uneven. This study comparatively explores preservice teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating mobile technologies into early childhood science learning in the two contexts. Guided by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, the study examined how preservice teachers negotiated the intersections of content, pedagogy, and technology in their teaching. A qualitative case study design was adopted. Twenty ECE preservice teachers (ten per country) were purposively selected during their teaching practicum. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions and were analyzed thematically using both inductive and TPACK-aligned coding. Findings indicate positive attitudes toward mobile technology and recognition of its potential to enhance inquiry-based learning. However, integration was often superficial, with limited alignment to child-centered pedagogy. Participants in South Africa framed technology use in relation to curriculum compliance, while those in Lesotho emphasized improvisation amid infrastructural constraints. Across both contexts, structural barriers such as limited devices and connectivity, alongside insufficient formal preparation, hindered effective integration. The study provides comparative insights into digital pedagogy within Southern African early childhood education and identifies gaps at the intersection of pedagogy and technology within the TPACK framework. It recommends structured, practice-based digital pedagogy training within teacher education programs to strengthen meaningful mobile technology integration in early science learning.

10:20-10:45 113780 | Beyond Surviving: Subjective Wellbeing, Social Support, and Professional Resilience Among Teachers in Disaster Affected Schools Dony Darma Sagita, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Sri Tatminingsih, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Della Raymena Jovanka, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Teachers in disaster affected communities are expected to maintain educational continuity while coping with personal loss, environmental disruption, and sustained occupational pressure. This study examined the relationships among subjective wellbeing, perceived social support, and professional resilience among teachers affected by hydrometeorological disasters in West Sumatra, Aceh, and North Sumatra, Indonesia. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from 756 teachers, comprising 225 early childhood education teachers, 232 primary school teachers, 166 junior secondary school teachers, and 133 senior secondary school teachers. Participants completed a 42 item researcher developed questionnaire. Internal consistency was satisfactory for social support (α = .831) and professional resilience (α = .790), although the subjective wellbeing scale showed modest reliability (α = .734). Descriptive results indicated high subjective wellbeing (M = 4.29, SD = 0.18), moderately high social support (M = 3.73, SD = 0.60), and moderate professional resilience (M = 3.48, SD = 0.62). Social support was strongly and positively correlated with professional resilience (r = .73, p < .001), whereas subjective wellbeing was not significantly associated with either social support (r = −.02, p = .645) or professional resilience (r = .02, p = .616). Multiple regression explained 53.7% of the variance in professional resilience, F(2, 753) = 436.70, p < .001. Social support emerged as the dominant predictor (β = .73, p < .001), while subjective wellbeing was nonsignificant (β = .03, p = .218). These findings highlight social support as a resource for strengthening teacher resilience and sustaining education recovery after disasters.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teacher's Professional Development Experiences Session Chair: Matthews Makunye 10:45-11:10 111960 | Preparing Reflective and Confident Teachers: Metacognitive Awareness as a Predictor of Educators’ Sense of Efficacy Among Preservice Teachers Matthews Makunye, North-West University, South Africa Divan Jagals, North West University, South Africa Preparing reflective and confident teachers is a central concern in global debates on the sustainable attainment of quality education. In contemporary teacher education, increasing attention is being given to the cognitive and sense of efficacy of pre-service teachers to develop their capacity to enact teaching practices in classrooms. Beyond the traditional curriculum emphasis on Pedagogical Content Knowledge, metacognitive awareness and teachers’ sense of efficacy have emerged as critical components of reflective and confident teaching. This paper reports on a quantitative study that examined the relationship between metacognitive awareness and sense of efficacy among pre-service teachers in a South African higher education context. Framed within a post-positivist paradigm, data were collected from 683 Bachelor of Education students enrolled in four teaching phases at a multi-campus university. Participants completed the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory for Teachers (Balcikanli, 2011) and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001, 2007). Data analysis was conducted using the IBM Social Packages for Social Sciences. The results were interpreted using effect sizes. The findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between metacognitive awareness and sense of efficacy. Multiple regression analysis showed that metacognitive awareness significantly predicted pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Participants who demonstrated higher levels of planning, self-monitoring, and evaluation reported greater confidence in classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. The study recommends integrating metacognition into teacher education programmes. It contributes to international conversations on innovative and sustainable teacher education by highlighting metacognitive awareness as a key lever in developing reflective and confident teachers.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 209 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Mind, Brain and Psychology in Educational Contexts Session Chair: Motsekiso Calvin Letuma 09:30-09:55 111078 | Emotional Regulation and Its Relationship to Culture of Peace: Intervention Strategy in Educational Counseling for Secondary Education Claudia Caballero García, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico Currently, upper secondary education institutions in Mexico are facing challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them are incidents of abuse, which is one of the ways violence manifests itself in schools. The pedagogical approach of the New Mexican School foster a culture of peace and emotional well-being, which are essential for the holistic development of students. To achieve this objective, the proposal is based on analyzing the link between emotional regulation skills and a culture of peace in order to promote the expression of emotions, positive attitudes, and practices that build a bridge of communication and mutual respect among peers in the face of adversity through educational guidance interventions focused on learning to manage emotions using the pentagonal model of emotional competencies. The research design employs a mixed-methods approach with a sequential explanatory process. Preliminary descriptive data following the intervention indicate a decrease in the average DERS scale score between the pretest (M = 99.3, SD = 28.6) and posttest (M = 95.3, SD = 28.9), suggesting a slight trend toward improved emotional regulation of the students. Descriptive data on incidents of abuse as perceived by students using the EAV Scale view differences during intervention in the dimensions of relational and verbal victimization. This result showed that identifying and managing emotions reduces incidents of abuse in the school by fostering a culture of peace.

09:55-10:20 113010 | Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Childcare as a Strategy for the Region’s Future: An ICT-Supported Educational TeleCare Model Mónica Esther Castillo Gómez, Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia Territorial disparities restrict rural families’ access to education on nutrition, parenting, and child development. This study evaluated an ICTsupported psychosocial TeleCare model in six municipalities in Córdoba, Colombia. It was hypothesized that a multichannel educational intervention would strengthen caregiving practices and promote child development. A longitudinal quasi-experimental design and a territorial action-research approach were employed. The sample comprised 1,912 children aged 0–71 months and their caregivers: 1,712 children enrolled in Child Development Centers and 200 non-enrolled children—that is, children who did not attend a Child Development Center or any other formal early-childhood service and were supported in their homes and communities. Participants came from rural and urban areas and were assigned to three intervention groups and one control group. The pre–post analysis included participants with complete measurements. The model combined six experiential workshops, educational booklets, personalized text messages, and telephone follow-up. Action research made it possible to assess local caregiving practices, co-create educational content with families, and adapt it to territorial needs. The results showed overall improvements in child development, particularly in the personal-social domain. Personalized text messages were the most efficient active strategy, and their targeted delivery was associated with greater improvements in positive parenting and personal-social development. Although improvements were also observed in the control group, the findings demonstrate the educational feasibility of TeleCare for sustaining learning, overcoming geographical barriers, and delivering contextually relevant guidance to rural and urban households.

10:20-10:45 110892 | Rethinking Teacher Praise in Under-Resourced Classrooms: Insights from High-Performing Learners Motsekiso Calvin Letuma, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Classroom management remains a significant challenge in under-resourced South African secondary schools, particularly in Quintile 1–3 contexts shaped by poverty, overcrowding, and limited educational resources. Teacher praise is widely promoted as a positive pedagogical strategy for motivating learners and reinforcing desirable behaviour. Existing South African research has largely examined praise in relation to progressed or low-performing learners, showing how selective recognition may contribute to exclusion and disengagement. However, little attention has been given to high-performing learners, even though they are the primary recipients of praise in classroom settings. Guided by Attributio and Self-Determination Theory, this qualitative multiple case study explored the experiences of 12 high-performing learners from two Quintile 1–3 secondary schools in South Africa. Data was generated through focus group discussions and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings show that praise affirmed competence, strengthened motivation, and reinforced positive academic identities. At the same time, learners described how performance-based and public praise generated pressure to sustain achievement, intensified peer competition, and strained social relationships. Participants further perceived that teachers consistently recognised academically successful learners while lower-performing learners remained overlooked in classroom practice. These findings reveal that praise is more than a motivational tool; it functions as a differentiated pedagogical practice shaping learners’ visibility, participation, and belonging. This study introduces a neglected perspective into debates on classroom management, recognition, and equity in unequal schooling contexts. The paper challenges the assumption that praise is universally beneficial and opens debate about how everyday teacher practices may inadvertently reproduce exclusion while simultaneously rewarding achievement.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE/BAMC2026 | Sustainable Development Issues in Education Session Chair: Ruby Hanson 11:25-11:50 110492 | Global Citizenship from the South in Rethinking Higher Education for Peace and Human Intelligence Minenhle Matela, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Debates on global citizenship, peace education, and human intelligence are commonly framed as ethical or pedagogical matters. This paper argues that they are also fundamentally questions of power, social justice, and public policy. Engaging the themes of global citizenship, education for peace, humanity and human intelligence, it examines these questions through the case of post-apartheid South African higher education. It contends that universities cannot meaningfully cultivate peace-oriented, democratic, and globally conscious citizens while their institutional realities remain marked by exclusion, epistemic injustice, and unequal experiences of belonging. Drawing on this author’s almost completed doctoral study and using a critical documentary analysis of post-apartheid higher education policy in South Africa, the paper examines whether policy has moved beyond the narrow project of expanding access towards building an inclusive, transformative, and universalised sector. Using a transformative social policy lens, it argues that higher education should be understood not only as a vehicle for skills development and labour market participation, but as a public good with redistributive, reproductive, democratic, and recognition-based functions. From this perspective, universities are central to human flourishing, social cohesion, democratic participation, and the cultivation of humane and socially responsive intelligence. Bringing decolonial thought into dialogue with global citizenship debates, the paper asks whose knowledge, humanity, and intelligence continue to be privileged within dominant higher education frameworks. It argues that education for peace in the Global South must engage materially with structural inequality, institutional culture, and historical redress, thereby reframing higher education as a justice-oriented public project.

11:50-12:15 113499 | Service Learning as a Vehicle for Transversal Competences: Connecting a Microcredentials Programme and a European Digital Ecosystem for University–Community Collaboration Camelia Radulescu, University of Bucharest, Romania Higher education is increasingly expected to equip students with transversal competences - collaboration, communication, critical thinking, civic responsibility, adaptability and initiative - that support their transition to work and active citizenship. Yet a content analysis of curricular documents at the University of Bucharest found these competences represented in under 10% of course descriptions, exposing a gap between institutional aspirations and everyday practice. This paper connects two complementary initiatives that address this gap through service learning, a pedagogy in which students apply academic knowledge to a real community need. The first, Mind the Gap, is a pilot microcredentials programme developed by the University of Bucharest Learning Centre. Structured in five credit-bearing modules, its final BOOST PACK culminates in a service-learning module, ABLE, in which final-year and master's students co-design adapted teaching strategies and materials with and for peers who have visual and hearing impairments, developing civic, research and interpersonal competences while making the university more inclusive. The second, the Erasmus+ project Service Learning 2.0 CoLab, brings together six European universities and three civil society organisations to build a shared digital ecosystem that supports the co-creation, coordination and scaling of servicelearning experiences across institutions. Read together, the two projects show how service learning can be intentionally designed to develop transversal competences: one embedding it within a credentialed curriculum, the other providing the collaborative infrastructure to sustain and transfer it. We discuss shared design principles, early insights, and implications for institutionalising competence-oriented service learning in European higher education.

12:15-12:40 108709 | Adopting Entrepreneurial Curriculum Design in Media Studies Modules to Turn Online Media Losses to Gains by Promoting Youth Productivity Rachel Moyo, Central University of Technology, South Africa The problem: The literature confirms increasing youth addiction to digital platforms and content due to, among other reasons, unproductivity because of high unemployment and a lack of skills in the study context, which is a developing economy. Research indicates positive relationships between digital media competence and entrepreneurial skills but presents the lack of systematisation and support of entrepreneurial curriculums in higher learning institutions. Methodology: Underpinned by Kolb’s 1984 Experiential Learning Theory, this qualitative, phenomenological study explored innovative strategies to impart entrepreneurial skills to students using a case study of two conveniently selected 4th level and 5th level Media Studies modules at a university of technology. Participant observation was used to gauge student performance by innovatively teaching media development, design and layout skills, resulting in websites and magazines developed at the 4th and 5th levels respectively. This was triangulated by convenience and snowball, unstructured interviews with 5 students who completed both modules to determine the extent to which the acquired skills improved the respondents’ economic standing. Findings: The participant observation revealed that students were motivated to develop content for their publications in both modules. The interview findings confirmed that three students acquired internship opportunities in two departments in the university, while two got employment. One of the three participants indicated having started a perfume selling business which she advertises on her website. Conclusion and Implications: The findings indicated that digital, innovation and entrepreneurial skills can be successfully incorporated into the Media Studies curriculum to turn youth’s digital media presence and losses to gains.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE/BAMC2026 | Sustainable Development Issues in Education Session Chair: Ruby Hanson 12:40-13:05 113362 | Pathways for the Integration of Sustainability Principles into Existing Curricula in Ghanaian Schools Ruby Hanson, University of Education, Ghana Bawa Mbage, University of Education, Ghana Sean Higgins, University College London, United Kingdom Boniface Yaayin, University of Education, Ghana The UN Sustainability Development Goals are to ensure that humanitarian challenges are reduced. Teachers, as agents of change should integrate these goals into everyday activities. However, baseline studies and literature reviews indicate that teachers have little to no knowledge about sustainability principles nor their integration into curricula. One way of achieving this was through professional learning communities (PLCs). PLCs are structured groups of educators who engage in collaborative enquiry to improve their teaching, co-construct knowledge, share experiences, and refine pedagogical strategies. This research which purposively selected 16 social studies and science in-service teachers employed a participatory action research design for eight weeks to guide them to integrate sustainability principles through the infusion model, using transformative strategy, project-based learning, case studies and reflective practices. The PLCs became the platform for innovation, professional growth, and curriculum enhancement. Teacher talk, photo elicitation, indigenous knowledge, proverbs, folklores, patriotic songs and adinkra symbols were used as strategies that were weaved directly into lessons to elicit inherent sustainability principles. Findings confirmed that teachers had low knowledge about sustainability and never talked about such in their lessons even when such ideas were apparent. By the end of the 8-week project, teachers identified and integrated implicit sustainability ideas in their curriculum, taught them in interactive ways, built agency, and collaborated across partner schools. These multidisciplinary and indigenous-laden pathways for sustainable development enabled teachers to develop national, cultural and global identities that bordered on patriotism and deep sense of environmental conservation for posterity.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 203 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Curriculum Design and Development Session Chair: William Walters 11:25-11:50 111212 | Exploring High Academic Achievement in Online Higher Education: Perspectives on Assessment and Student Performance Stacey-Ann Meggo, The University of the West Indies, Jamaica The high level of academic performance in online higher education courses has attracted the attention of educators and quality assurance practitioners, particularly regarding assessment, feedback, and student success. Although studies show that proper alignment and authenticity of assessment improve participation and results (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004; Broadbent & Poon, 2015), further investigation is needed into the influence of other variables in the teaching process on student outcomes in online learning environments. This paper focuses on patterns of high academic success (e.g., grade distributions) in an online higher education setting and seeks to answer the following question: What are the causes of high academic success? How does assessment influence such success? Instead of focusing on a single cause of academic success, the paper analyses the relationships among assessment design and authenticity, continuous assessment systems, learner involvement, and learning outcomes. The research employs a qualitative case study approach, examining programme documentation, assessment artefacts, grade distribution data, and instructor perspectives within a fully online programme. The analysis is informed by constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2011), formative assessment and self-regulated learning (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Hattie & Timperley, 2007), and feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018; Winstone et al., 2022). The findings suggest that high achievement depends on the relationship between assessment design, learner motivation, and adult learner features. This research adds value by showing how achievement arises from the connection among pedagogic practice, learner self-determination, and quality assurance systems.

11:50-12:15 110560 | A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends in Teacher Evaluation, Accountability, and Effectiveness (2000-2024) Shahid Rafiq, Emerson University Multan, Pakistan This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on teacher evaluation, drawing from 2,069 peerreviewed articles published in English and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2000 and 2024. Using R-based Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny tools, we examine the evolution of research across key themes, including teacher accountability, effectiveness, student teacher evaluation, and performance-based appraisal. The analysis focuses on publication trends, influential authors, prolific institutions, citation patterns, and keyword co-occurrence networks. Findings reveal a steady growth in scholarly output over the last two decades, with notable increases post-2010, driven by global education reform agendas and performance-based evaluation policies. The United States, China, and the United Kingdom emerge as leading contributors, while research collaborations are increasingly transnational. Thematic mapping identifies four dominant clusters: evaluation systems and policy, teacher effectiveness, student feedback mechanisms, and accountability frameworks. Trend analysis highlights the growing emphasis on formative assessment, evidence-based teaching, and teacher development in recent years. This study contributes to the field by offering an integrative overview of the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of teacher evaluation research. The results provide valuable insights for policymakers, education researchers, and practitioners seeking to align teacher assessment practices with global best practices and emerging scholarly trends.

12:15-12:40 109853 | INCLUITE INCLUI: Co-Creating Accessible Learning Through Student Agency, Technology, and Community Engagement Gisel Crespo, Colegio Santa Inés, Argentina This study examines INCLUITE INCLUI, a student-centered educational initiative developed at Colegio Santa Inés (Argentina) that promotes inclusive learning through cognitive accessibility, digital technologies, and community engagement. Grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Design Thinking, the project aims to reduce educational barriers for students with diverse learning profiles. This research adopts a qualitative case study methodology (2023–2025). Data were collected through classroom observations, student-produced artifacts, and semi-structured interviews with students and teachers (n=45), as well as feedback from community stakeholders, including people with disabilities who validated project outputs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Students acted as co-researchers and designers, producing accessible materials such as a bilingual digital magazine integrating Easy-to-Read texts, subtitles, audio descriptions, alternative text, and NaviLens QR codes, alongside inclusive signage in public spaces. INCLUITE INCLUI in numbers: the project expanded from one classroom (25 students) to over 750 participants across 18 institutions. International replication reached five classrooms (Bulgaria, Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria) through Class2Class. In 2024, the initiative secured youth participatory budgeting, enabling inclusive public signage implementation, and expanded to 53 active student participants, supported by four foundations and five professionals. Outputs reached 10 local, 25 international, and over 100 digital institutions. The initiative contributed to the co-authorship of a national law on inclusive signage and received recognition from UNESCO and the Spanish Ministry of Education (2025). In 2026, it joined the DIM-EDU innovative education network and delivered six international seminars reaching over 250 teachers, while receiving the Fundación Stabilo award and contributing to an international publication on inclusive practices. Findings indicate increased student engagement, improved accessibility practices, and strengthened community awareness. The study demonstrates the scalability and transferability of participatory, accessibilitydriven educational models.

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Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Curriculum Design and Development Session Chair: William Walters 12:40-13:05 110226 | Perspectives and Reflections on Assessment in Physical Education: A Self-study Narrative Inquiry of a Pre-service, In-service, and an Education Professor William Walters, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada As a subject discipline frequently marginalized within the school system, enduring assessment approaches do little to advance the status of physical education (PE). Current assessment practices in PE are often disconnected from curricular outcomes, subjective in nature, and focused on assessment of learning rather than assessment for or as learning. Although assessment practices in PE are routinely criticized as poor, there is a paucity of research focused on assessment in the field. While PE teacher education claims a focus on student-centered formative assessment, the ongoing practice of ‘assessment of learning’ remains the prevailing model in schools. Using narrative inquiry, three physical educators at different stages of their careers investigated their experiences with assessment in PE. This research team came together hoping to improve their assessment practice and perhaps influence other physical educators. The educator’s stories, along with emails, documents, transcribed meeting notes, and field notes from the lead researcher, formed the data. The data analysis was interpretive, relational, and story-driven, prioritizing meaning, context, and lived experience over quantification or rigid coding frameworks—consistent with narrative inquiry methodology. Analysis was collaborative and reflexive. Our findings suggest the need for ongoing, assessment-focused professional development in PE, as all three researchers experienced similar assessment methods over 40 years. Assessment of learning was common practice, as was subjective evaluation of things unrelated to the curriculum (e.g., attendance, uniform). Equally significant, there is a need to establish communities of practice focused on supporting physical educators who often work in isolation or feel marginalized within the system.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Pedagogy and Praxis Session Chair: Helmi Vent 11:25-11:50 107737 | Inquiry-Based Learning in a STEM Camp: Shifting Attitudes but Not Career Pathways Pey Tee Oon, University of Macau, Macau This study examines changes in student attitudes toward learning science and interest in pursuing STEM careers following participation in a three-day STEM summer camp. This study involved 139 students (54 female, 85 male), aged 10 to 18 years, from 37 schools across Macau, representing grades 5 through 12. A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect student perspectives, utilizing surveys and interviews. Analysis of the data showed that the inquiry-based problem-solving component was the most favored aspect of the camp among students in all three grades. In terms of attitude change, roughly 30% of students unequivocally agreed the camp greatly increased their affinity for learning science. A further 45% stated the camp did not alter their already favorable attitudes. Notably, however, more than half of the participants did not envision engaging in a science-related profession or academic pathway in the future. This study offers several recommendations for further supporting student learning in STEM.

11:50-12:15 111046 | “Tomorrow, Everything Could Be Different“: Students from Artistic and Scientific Disciplines Undergoing Processes of Reorientation Helmi Vent, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria Amidst the current opaque landscape of higher education this paper focuses on student initiatives of a reorientation in the context of education-oriented studies at public universities in Salzburg, Austria, and beyond. For several years, students from pedagogical, artistic, and scientific disciplines have been signaling a realignment, often in a performative form (film documents). Led by the authoress, the interuniversity course series “Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different” takes up these student signals and—within the context of practice- and research-oriented field studies—provides spaces for their realization and transformation (film documents). The qualitative research question aims to identify the themes and criteria underlying students’ reorientation. Methodologically, the study and research design involves equal consideration, evaluation and reasoned interpretation of both knowledge-driven and experience-based activities. The analyses are based on systematically compiled and categorised videographic data, recontextualised in 2026. These encompass verbal and non-verbal forms of expression and communication, including (kin)aesthetic and bodily-sensory modes of the participating individuals (film documents). The evaluation of the interviews and questionnaires for the overall project “Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different” has brought a surprising prioritization of key competencies into the focus of reorientation: This should, in addition to subject-specific skills, focus human education (“Bildung”), in the sense of a sensitive and responsible cultivation of awareness–aimed at fostering a peaceful, open, honest, creative and critical coexistence in learning, teaching and research. Less a ‘result‘ than a future-oriented plea for a sustainable realignment in the Higher Education area by humans for humans in an unknown tomorrow.

12:15-12:40 113212 | From Higher Education to Employment: Graduate Employability, Skills Mismatch and Labour Market Segmentation in Greece (2022–2025) Maria Tsampra, University of Patras, Greece Maria Katsigianni, University of Patras, Greece Higher education is expected to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills required for successful labour market integration. However, in countries experiencing prolonged economic restructuring, educational attainment does not necessarily translate into quality employment. Greece represents a critical case, combining one of the highest shares of tertiary-educated young people with persistently high youth unemployment and widespread graduate underemployment. This study investigates the transition from higher education to employment through a repeated cross-sectional survey conducted annually between 2022 and 2025, comprising more than 1,000 respondents per survey wave. Using a structured questionnaire, the study examines graduate employability, employment conditions, job quality, career prospects, contractual arrangements, and the alignment between qualifications, skills, and job requirements. The findings reveal persistent labour market disadvantages for younger and recently graduated respondents compared with older workers. Young graduates are significantly more likely to experience lower-paid employment, involuntary part-time or temporary contracts, limited career prospects, and substantial skill underutilisation despite their high educational attainment. These patterns remained remarkably stable across the four survey waves, suggesting that the observed mismatches reflect structural characteristics of the Greek labour market rather than temporary economic fluctuations. The study argues that improving graduate employability requires stronger links between higher education and labour market demand, alongside policies promoting knowledge-intensive sectors capable of absorbing highly qualified young workers. The findings contribute to current debates on graduate employability, skills utilisation, and the role of higher education in supporting inclusive and sustainable labour market transitions.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Pedagogy and Praxis Session Chair: Helmi Vent 12:40-13:05 110988 | Enhancing Grade 12 Business Studies Learner Performance Through Teacher Training and Development in Curriculum Leadership in South African Secondary Schools Michael Marumo, North-West University, South Africa Martha Matashu, North-West University, South Africa Curriculum leadership encourages design and implementation of school-based curriculum in schools to ensure learners' curriculum needs are met instead of accepting Department’s curriculum as is. Curriculum leadership process explains that principals and teachers need to ascertain effective implementation of quality curriculum, however, it requires teacher training and development for effective implementation. This study determines the extent to which Grade 12 Business Studies teachers are trained and developed in curriculum leadership to influence learner performance in performing and underperforming schools and what are the contributing factors. Mixed methods research through explanatory sequential research design is adopted and underpinned by human capital theory. 20 performing and 20 underperforming schools were purposefully sampled, 81 close-ended questionnaires were completed by Grade 12 Business Studies teachers and analysed through confirmatory factor analysis. Quantitative findings revealed that majority of the teachers were trained and developed to some extent. Qualitative data was collected through structured interviews which involved eight (8) Grade 12 Business Studies teachers (4 from performing schools and 4 from underperforming schools). Qualitative data was thematically analysed through Atlas ti. and it revealed that unlike in developing schools, Grade 12 Business Studies teachers in underperforming schools are not developed in their curriculum leadership role. The study recommends Department of Education (DoE) and schools to ensure Grade 12 Business Studies are trained and developed on implementation of curriculum leadership to influence learner performance. Additionally, DoE must robustly promote curriculum leadership across South African schools to highlight its importance in improving learner performance and addressing societal needs.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 205 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE/BAMC2026 | Linguistics, Language and Culture Session Chair: Rubén Darío Otalvaro Sepulveda 11:25-11:50 109108 | “Honorific Language Employed to Avoid Trouble”: Japanese Youth and Their Awareness and Use of Contemporary Honorifics Patrycja Duc-Harada, Jagiellonian University, Poland The phrase quoted in the title – “honorific language employed to avoid trouble” – comes from a respondent in a survey conducted among young Japanese speakers and captures a pragmatic stance that increasingly characterizes contemporary attitudes toward Japanese honorifics. This presentation explores how younger speakers perceive, evaluate, and strategically deploy honorific language within the context of ongoing sociolinguistic change in Japan. The analysis draws on a mixed-method study combining questionnaire data and semi-structured interviews with 276 university students from different regions of Japan. The study examines both reported patterns of use and speakers’ metalinguistic awareness, focusing on how honorifics are understood as indexical resources for positioning oneself within social interaction. Particular attention is paid to the role of sociolinguistic variables – including gender, regional background, and institutional affiliation – in shaping speakers’ orientations toward standard and emerging honorific forms. The data point to several ongoing tendencies: the democratization and simplification of honorific usage in public discourse, the emergence of intermediate politeness styles (e.g., the -ss(h)- form) situated between polite and colloquial registers, and the increasing visibility of honorific strategies in media and social media communication. The paper argues that contemporary Japanese honorifics are undergoing a process of sociopragmatic reconfiguration in which traditional vertical indexicalities are being renegotiated and honorific forms increasingly function as flexible strategies for stance-taking and interactional risk management.

11:50-12:15 109335 | Exploring the Effects of Ovation VR on Japanese EFL Learners’ Foreign Language Anxiety, Motivation, and Speaking Proficiency: A Small-Scale Pre/Post Study Yukie Saito, Chuo University, Japan Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) often experience substantial foreign language anxiety (FLA), particularly in speaking, while having limited opportunities for authentic oral interaction. This issue is especially relevant for students preparing to study abroad, where they are often required to participate in discussions and give presentations in English. Virtual Reality (VR) may help address these challenges by providing immersive, low-risk environments for communication practice and realistic simulated contexts (Dionisio et al., 2013). This study examined whether speaking practice using Ovation VR influenced learners’ foreign language anxiety, motivation toward English learning, and speaking proficiency. A matched pre-test/post-test design was employed. The final sample consisted of seven Japanese university students preparing to study abroad whose pre- and post-intervention questionnaire and PROGOS data could be matched. Questionnaire data included a foreign language anxiety scale adapted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) and a motivation scale assessing interest in and attitudes toward English. Speaking proficiency was measured using PROGOS. Mean anxiety scores decreased from M = 3.26 (SD = 0.59) to M = 2.92 (SD = 0.81), although this change was not statistically significant, t(6) = 2.09, p = .081. Mean motivation scores increased from M = 4.09 (SD = 0.68) to M = 4.23 (SD = 0.56), but this change was also not significant, t(6) = -1.92, p = .103. In the PROGOS data, four students improved, two showed no change, and one decreased. Overall, Ovation VR may help learners prepare for study abroad by reducing speaking-related anxiety and supporting oral communication development.

12:15-12:40 111780 | Development of Expressive Language: Ideas and Emotions for Describing Experiences Rubén Darío Otalvaro Sepulveda, Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia Mónica Castillo, Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia The ability to transform internal states into coherent narratives is a cornerstone of cognitive and social development. This study explores how the development of expressive language—specifically the articulation of ideas and emotions—serves as a vital tool for children and adolescents to narrate personal experiences. The primary objective is to identify the linguistic mechanisms that facilitate emotional literacy and the construction of self-identity through storytelling. A qualitative, longitudinal approach was employed, observing a cohort of students aged 8 to 12 over a six-month period. Data collection involved "Narrative Workshops" where participants were prompted to recount lived experiences using visual and emotional cues. Analysis was conducted using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to categorize how participants used evaluative language and complex syntax to express subjective meanings. Findings indicate a significant correlation between a diverse emotional vocabulary and the structural complexity of narratives. Participants who utilized a wider range of "feeling words" demonstrated a greater capacity for temporal sequencing and causal reasoning in their stories. Furthermore, the results show that narrating personal experiences acts as a catalyst for syntactic growth, as expressing nuanced emotions requires more sophisticated grammatical structures (e.g., subordinate clauses). The study concludes that expressive language is not merely a communicative output but a cognitive framework for processing reality. Educators should prioritize narrative-based interventions that integrate emotional intelligence with linguistic training. By fostering environments where students can narrate their experiences, we enhance both their communicative competence and their psychological well-being, bridging the gap between internal thought and social interaction.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Professional Development and AI Session Chair: Matsolo Mokhampanyane 11:25-11:50 113244 | More Feedback, Better Learning? Rethinking Feedback in the Age of Generative AI Randa Bou-Mehdi, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Generative AI has shifted writing instruction from feedback scarcity to feedback abundance. Students can now receive responses to their writing not only from instructors and peers, but also from AI tools and writing platforms. Yet more feedback does not necessarily lead to better writing. Students must learn to identify useful suggestions, recognize conflicting or inaccurate advice, and decide what to incorporate into their work. This practice-oriented presentation proposes a framework for developing feedback literacy in first-year writing classrooms in the age of generative AI. Grounded in feedback-literacy scholarship and classroom practice, it draws on an activity from a first-year writing course at an English-medium university in the United Arab Emirates. In the activity, students compare responses to the same piece of writing from human and AI sources, evaluate the suggestions against assignment criteria, and decide which recommendations to accept, adapt, or reject. The presentation’s central contribution is a four-part framework: comparing, evaluating, deciding, and justifying. It shows how instructors can make engagement with feedback an explicit, teachable part of writing instruction, helping students move from passively receiving it to making informed judgments about it. The presentation concludes with practical suggestions for adapting the framework across writing contexts as AI becomes increasingly integrated into the writing process.

11:50-12:15 113724 | A Research-Based Professional Learning Program for AI-Supported Formative Assessment in Lithuania Egle Pranckuniene, Klaipėda University, Lithuania Lithuania’s assessment culture remains shaped by tensions between exam-oriented traditions and learner-centred approaches focused on feedback, self-assessment, and reflection. Although formative assessment is embedded in national policy, its classroom use remains fragmented and has not consistently improved pupils’ learning outcomes. The rapid spread of AI tools in schools intensifies the need to understand how AI can support formative assessment while avoiding misuse, bias, and unethical application. This paper presents a professional learning program developed within the 30-month Klaipėda University project “Formative Assessment in Schools Using AI.” Grounded in Transformative professional learning (Boylan et al., 2023) and the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000), the program combined collaborative inquiry, expert-supported training, and peer follow-up to strengthen teachers’ agency and foster social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Its content followed a cyclical model of formative assessment competence linked to lesson planning, implementation, and reflection (Wolterinck, 2022). Over 15 months, school-based teacher teams across five subjects participated in 18 workshops, acting as co-creators of knowledge with researchers. Based on teacher interviews and classroom observations, we present preliminary evidence of an emerging shift toward feedback over grades, greater student autonomy, peer support, and feedback-first cycles, alongside continuing challenges with AI platforms. We reflect on conditions that supported or hindered this shift and discuss implications for professional learning that could sustainably transform assessment culture through AI-supported formative assessment.

12:15-12:40 109159 | Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Integration: Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Education Olira Rodrigues, Universidade Estadual de Goiás, Brazil Kleber Silva, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil The expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of education has generated significant epistemological shifts, particularly regarding the organization, production, and circulation of knowledge. In this context, a central question emerges: to what extent can the integration of AI-based technologies contribute to overcoming the disciplinary fragmentation that still characterizes many educational systems and promote educational approaches grounded in interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity? Based on this premise, the present study aims to critically analyze the role of Artificial Intelligence as a cognitive and technological mediator in the development of learning ecosystems capable of articulating different fields of knowledge. The research adopts a qualitative theoretical-analytical approach, drawing on contributions from the epistemology of complexity, digital culture studies, and the emerging literature on AI in education. The analysis indicates that, at the multidisciplinary level, AI expands access to and circulation of information from diverse fields of knowledge. At the interdisciplinary level, it supports methodological and analytical integration across scientific domains. From a transdisciplinary perspective, AI enables the development of learning environments oriented toward solving complex problems that connect science, technology, and society. The study concludes that the articulation between Artificial Intelligence and interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary educational practices represents a promising pathway for the epistemological renewal of contemporary education, particularly in higher education, by expanding possibilities for knowledge production, pedagogical innovation, and critical academic formation in the context of digital culture.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Professional Development and AI Session Chair: Matsolo Mokhampanyane 12:40-13:05 108142 | Transformative Pressure that Accounting Education Faces from Artificial Intelligence (AI): Lecturers’ Perspective Matsolo Mokhampanyane, Central University of Technology, South Africa Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into accounting practices offers transformative potential, but its practical implementation remains difficult. This empirical paper examines the primary barriers to AI adoption in teaching and learning accounting within the economics and management sciences module. The study is based on critical emancipatory research theory. Using a qualitative, transformative paradigm, the researcher employed participatory action research to gather data, including focus group discussions with four lecturers from the Economic and Management Science modules. The findings suggest that a lack of technical expertise among accounting professionals hinders their ability to utilise AI tools effectively. Additionally, concerns exist regarding data quality and security, as AI systems rely heavily on accurate, secure, and well-structured data. Furthermore, resistance to change and Organisational inertia, characterised by traditional mindsets and legacy systems, hinder innovation. The study recommends digital skills training programmes that ensure data integrity, privacy, and compliance, along with leadership backing for change management strategies and cross-functional collaboration. Addressing these barriers can enable the accounting profession to leverage AI's capabilities to enhance decision-making, efficiency, and strategic value.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 209 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Student Learning and Learner Diversity Session Chair: Sol Herrera Naranjo 11:25-11:50 112306 | Belonging to Becoming: Extracurricular Activities and the Undergraduate Student Experience Takalani Muloiwa-Klenam, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Extracurricular activities are increasingly recognised as important contributors to student engagement, belonging and success in higher education. This paper explores how participation in extracurricular activities shapes undergraduate student experience at a comprehensive South African university. Drawing on open-ended responses from a 2025 undergraduate survey of 2,000 students who participated in activities such as sports, religious groups, academic societies, social clubs and other student activities, the study uses qualitative thematic analysis to examine how these experiences vary across the undergraduate journey. The findings suggest that extracurricular participation supports students in ways that are closely linked to their stage of study, with early-year students emphasising adjustment, connection and belonging, while senior students describe more developmental, leadership-oriented and future-facing benefits. The paper argues that extracurricular activities should be understood as informal student-success infrastructure that supports students’ academic, social and personal development, while also highlighting the need to address barriers to equitable participation.

12:15-12:40 112280 | Beyond Structured Activities: the Significant Influence of a Bioecological Perspective on Young Children’s Spiritual Flourishing Jitka Patakiová, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic This qualitative study focuses on fostering the development of spirituality in preschool children as an innate dimension of humanity, emerging in self-transcending relationality, which is so essential for coexistence in today’s world. In the previous research context and changing epistemological framework, our research aimed to clarify how teachers perceive children’s spirituality, and what strategies they use to nurture it. Based on a situational analysis of observations, interviews, and curricular documentation in four types of kindergartens, we found that despite proclamations and various spiritually oriented activities, the development of spirituality in everyday school practice is often hindered by reproduced customary norms and hierarchical power structures, even within alternative settings. Normative approaches to education, power imbalances, insufficient pre-service training for teachers, and systemic distrust of natural developmental contexts, such as free play, were identified as key barriers. In contrast, the experience from an innovative public school shows that a partnership-based approach, empowering children in decision-making and taking on responsibility, and situational education grounded in rich social interaction ensure long-term equilibrium and the flourishing of all participants. We suggest that “lived relationships”, in which values are negotiated through interaction, are crucial for spiritual flourishing. It proposes a path to overcoming barriers through strengthening socio-emotional learning, teachers’ facilitation skills, building trust in children’s interactions, and a strong curricular foundation for cultivating spirituality from the earliest age. The absence of these conditions undermines children’s need to live in diverse, functional relationships that naturally broaden and deepen their experiences through mutual peer learning.

12:40-13:05 112335 | Impact of Physical Activity on the Working Memory of English Students Sol Herrera, University of Cordoba, Colombia This study examined the impact of a moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity program on the working memory of university English as a foreign language (EFL) students, a crucial cognitive component for syntactic processing and vocabulary acquisition. Under a quasiexperimental design, 60 students were divided into an experimental group, which performed 30 minutes of aerobic exercise before classes, and a sedentary control group. Working memory capacity was assessed using the Operation Span (Ospan) task, and linguistic performance was evaluated through a lexical retention test. Quantitative results indicated that students who engaged in prior physical activity showed a significant increase in their simultaneous information storage and processing capacity compared to the control group. Likewise, a positive correlation was found between executive function optimization and faster assimilation of complex grammatical structures. These findings align with Ludyga et al. (2016), who demonstrate that acute aerobic exercise positively modulates working memory performance, and with Liu et al. (2017), who confirm that physical activity facilitates encoding processes and long-term vocabulary retention in a second language. In conclusion, the strategic integration of physical stimuli in academic settings acts as a cognitive catalyst that enhances working memory and optimizes language learning.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BCE/BAMC2026 | Sustainability and Society Session Chair: Faten Hamad 14:00-14:25 108981 | Leading Sustainability Education: SAIT’s Sustainability Compendium Advancing Education for Sustainable Development Through Canada-Ireland Collaboration Charissa Lee, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Canada Lisa Palmer, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Canada As global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, and resource sustainability increasingly shape the future of societies, higher education institutions are being called upon to prepare learners to engage with complex global issues. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has emerged as a key framework supporting this work, aligning educational practice with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, institutions often struggle to capture and make visible the diverse ways sustainability is embedded across curricula, applied learning, and institutional initiatives. This paper examines the development of a Sustainability Compendium at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), designed to document and highlight sustainability initiatives across teaching and learning, applied research, operations, and community partnerships. Drawing inspiration from earlier work at the Technological University of the Shannon, SAIT adapted the compendium model to capture short “spotlight” cases illustrating how sustainability and global responsibility are embedded within its polytechnic learning environment. Using qualitative case mapping and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) alignment analysis, the project explores how sustainability is conceptualized and embedded within institutional practice. Early observations highlight strong representation of environmentally focused initiatives alongside opportunities to further foreground social justice and broader sustainability themes. Beyond documentation, compendiums function as faculty development resources and strategic institutional tools that raise awareness of sustainability initiatives and support educators in integrating ESD into curricula and assessment. The paper illustrates how polytechnic and applied higher education institutions can strengthen sustainability education by making institutional practices visible and mobilizing them as catalysts for curriculum innovation and global engagement.

14:25-14:50 111143 | Navigating the Green Narrative: Examining Media Framing of PLN’s Sustainability Footprint on Mass Media Irwan Saputra, Kindi PR and Strategic Communications Consulting, Indonesia Pandhu Kusumawardana, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, Indonesia Riza Syafitri, Kindi PR and Strategic Communications Consulting, Indonesia Sustainability has become a global issue influencing how global society operates. For corporations, implementing sustainability values into business provides added value by ensuring business continuity, attracting investment, and gaining public support. As a state-owned enterprise in the electricity sector, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) integrates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles to balance people, planet, and profit. PLN demonstrates its commitment to the energy transition through its Green, Lean, Innovative, and Customer-Focused principles, supporting Indonesia’s Net Zero Emission target by 2060. However, fossil fuels still dominated PLN’s energy mix (85%), with renewable energy accounting for only 15% in 2025. In this context, PLN’s Corporate Communications team implements agenda-setting strategies to build a sustainable corporate image through mass media coverage. This study examines how national and regional tier-1 media in Indonesia construct angles, diction, and narratives about PLN in sustainability issues. Grounded in framing theory, this research employs a media content analysis approach to identify patterns, themes, and meanings in media coverage. Data was collected through Intelligence Media Management (IMM), a big data and AI-based platform between January and December 2025, covering 7,854 news articles. Subsequently, thematic framing analysis revealed that mass media tend to emphasize positive aspects (63.5%) as the dominant reality presented to the public. This finding indicates that the media frames PLN as a corporation that “puts sustainability first,” thereby impacting public and stakeholder perceptions. This research contributes to academic discourse on public relations and framing strategies regarding sustainability issues in state-owned energy corporations.

14:50-15:15 109234 | A Climate-Literacy Maturity Model for School Information Specialists in Oman Faten Hamad, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Climate change education is increasingly framed as an action-oriented literacy that combines knowledge, critical information practices, and civic agency. School learning-resource centres (LRCs) and information specialists are positioned to translate national sustainability agendas into everyday learning, yet empirical evidence on their climate-literacy capacity remains limited in the Gulf region. This study examines how Omani school information specialists enact climate-change literacy (CCL) in LRC practice and introduces a Climate-Literacy LRC Maturity Model (CL-LRC-MM) as a practice-oriented contribution. Using a descriptive qualitative design with embedded descriptive statistics, data were drawn from a structured questionnaire administered to 22 information specialists across boys’ and girls’ schools in six governorates. Closed items captured training exposure, activity frequency, collaboration patterns, resource availability and support for student media projects; open-ended responses were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate strong normative commitment to CCL but modest professional preparation, uneven resourcing, and limited routine collaboration with teachers. Participants described mostly episodic awareness activities, while also articulating a clear vision for stronger roles involving curated climate collections, media-and-information literacy, student-led advocacy, and cross-sector partnerships. Grounded in these patterns and aligned to UNESCO ESD for 2030 and UNFCCC Action for Climate Empowerment, the proposed CL-LRC-MM specifies six capability domains across five maturity levels and offers operational indicators for school leaders and policymakers. The model supports targeted professional development, resource planning, and monitoring to reposition LRCs as strategic nodes for climate-literate and resilient school communities.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 203 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BCE2026 | Cryptography in the Classroom (Workshop) Session Chair: David Brown 14:00-14:50 113031 | Cryptography in the Classroom David Brown, The University of Tulsa, United States Justin McCrackin, Jenks High School, United States During World War II, the USA Marine Corps enlisted the Navaho indigenous people to create an unbreakable code using their native language. This code was used to transmit sensitive wartime messages. Today, coding is imbedded in our society through banking, gaming, sensitive personal information and most of our modern-day technology. This hands-on session will show teachers how to bring cryptography into the STEM classroom. Teachers will create and decipher codes that will make high/middle school STEM classrooms exciting and challenging. By participating in cryptography challenges, teachers, and their respective students, will utilize their innovative thinking skills, while challenging others to solve riddles and ciphers while studying STEM concepts. In a flipped learning style environment, students create coded review challenges for their classmates to decipher. Classmates then decode science concepts and processes. For students to create coded questions, they must have an in-depth understanding of the concepts. Deciphering a code means problem solving while showing an understanding of the concept being taught/reviewed. Students are no longer required to simply show their knowledge and application of the concept (Bloom, 1956), but to analyze and synthesize along the way. For this workshop, teachers will receive a coding sheet to decode the first example. Very little lecture will occur during this session. Teachers will then work together to decode and then to create their own ciphers. A Google sheet will be linked to a QR code so teachers can show their creations to the entire group.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BCE2026 | Teaching Voice in the Era of Generative Text (Workshop) Session Chair: Denese Wolff-Hilliard 14:00-14:50 111179 | Teaching Voice in the Era of Generative Text Denese Wolff-Hilliard, Houston Christian University, United States When Generative AI burst on the education scene in November 2022, it did more than startle academia. It abruptly silenced the voices of so many college students. Even more alarming is that writing instruction focused on helping students develop their own voice was disrupted. Today,faculty are struggling with how to teach authentic writing. Students develop their writing voice by making intentional choices, not just be being original. They make choices by selecting, rejecting, revising, and explaining their language. This presentation includes ideas from composition teaching, Writing Center interactions, and first-year writing classes to offer a clear framework for teaching voice as a form of evaluative judgment. Attendees will review activities where students compare their own drafts to AI-generated versions, note rhetorical differences, and write reflections explaining their revision choices. To show how structured use of AI can build rhetorical awareness and student agency, the session will include examples of student writing, reflection excerpts, and revision logs. Attendees will participate in a guided activity comparing student-written samples with their AI alternatives. Participants will review a writing rubric that measures voice, focusing on consistent tone, clear purpose, and quality of revision choices. At the end of the session, participants can add flexible teaching strategies, assessment tools, and ways to guide discussions to their instructional toolkits and be better prepared to help students maintain ownership of their writing while using Generative AI thoughtfully and ethically.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 205 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BAMC2026 | Media Studies Session Chair: Mohamed Ben Moussa 14:25-14:50 113225 | Reconfiguring Trust: AI as Epistemic Intermediary in Vietnamese Gen Z News Consumption Nguyen Dong Anh, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Vietnam Vo Khanh Ha, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Vietnam Generative AI is transforming how young audiences access, interpret, and evaluate digital news. While existing research has largely examined AI in news production, less attention has been paid to how AI reshapes trust during consumption, particularly through AI-generated summaries or human–AI collaborative formats. Drawing on algorithmic authority and epistemic trust frameworks, this study asks: how does AI mediation reshape epistemic trust in digital news among Vietnamese Gen Z? The study is designed as a scenario-based online survey with approximately 250–300 Vietnamese Gen Z participants, comparing audience evaluations across three news conditions using a between-subjects design. Participants will be exposed to either a journalist-written article, an AI-generated summary, or a human–AI collaborative version of the same news content, then evaluate perceived credibility, perceived authenticity, epistemic trust, and news verification intention. By conceptualising AI as an epistemic intermediary rather than merely a production tool, the study investigates how AI mediation shapes the way young audiences judge the reliability, authenticity, and trustworthiness of digital news. The paper argues that AI-mediated news consumption reconfigures the traditional trust relationship between news organisations and audiences by introducing algorithmic systems into the process of knowledge evaluation. In doing so, the study contributes to emerging debates on AI-mediated journalism, digital news consumption, and the future of trust in networked public spheres. The Vietnamese Gen Z context offers a valuable non-Western case for understanding how young publics negotiate trust in generative AI within rapidly changing media environments. These findings carry implications for media literacy education and platform design.

14:50-15:15 110658 | Journalism in Exile: Boundary Work and the Transformation of Journalism in Hybrid Media Systems Mohamed Ben Moussa, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Digital transformation has reshaped news production, distribution, and reception, intensifying the dependence of journalism on digital platforms and reconfiguring editorial practices through data-driven logics. These shifts have enabled the rise of hybrid actors such as content creators, influencers, and independent commentators who perform journalistic functions while operating outside traditional institutional frameworks. Drawing on the theory of boundary work (Carlson, 2015; Carlson & Lewis, 2019; Eldridge, 2018), this study conceptualizes these actors as interlopers who challenge, expand, and renegotiate the limits of journalism. The paper equally draws on the concept of “exile” (Said, 2000) to capture how journalists in politically constrained environments are compelled to exit institutional media spaces and relocate their practices to digital platforms. This displacement reflects broader structural pressures, including legal constraints, economic precarity, and state influence, which characterize media systems in the Global South. Focusing on Morocco, the study examines how YouTube podcasters construct metadiscourses about journalism and articulate their professional identities. The analysis draws on a qualitative dataset of political content produced in 30 podcasts by YouTube-based journalists and podcasters, including professional journalists, former journalists, and native content creators, using NVivo-assisted critical and multimodal discourse analysis. The findings show that, in politically captured media systems, boundary work extends beyond genres and production models to encompass fundamental epistemic struggles over the meaning, authority, and purpose of journalism. The paper argues that boundary journalism in such contexts is frequently shaped by exilic discourses that simultaneously articulate loss and marginalization while expressing possibility, creativity, and transformation.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BCE2026 | ReflAct: Shaping the Future of Education with a Systemic Constructivist Stance (Workshop) Session Chair: Astrid Dobmeier 14:00-14:50 113697 | ReflAct: Shaping the Future of Education with a Systemic Constructivist Stance Striving for Multidisciplinary and Transcultural Solution Orientation Astrid Dobmeier, ReflAct Institute, Germany Veronika Sweet, ReflAct Institute, Germany What could be the relevance of the workshop in an increasingly complex landscape of education and research, in which AI plays a significant role? The authors suggest a shift in focus from result to process in any research and publication, from reproducing content to reflection in educational research, development and publishing. They argue that future teaching and learning require approaches that refer to the complexity of intrapersonal and social dynamics. Through years of multidisciplinary research, the framework ReflAct has emerged for systemic, solution oriented elements in research and teaching with a constructivist’s stance. The authors suggest that a shift from a linear approach to context and process sensitivity requires the courage to differ from traditional structures. Therefore, workshop participants are invited to an interactive dialogue across disciplinary boundaries with a multidisciplinary and transcultural stance. The authors refrain from explicit descriptions of the workshop’s relevance, purpose and focus. Instead, participants will be invited to define what has relevance, purpose and focus for their respective academic and professional role. Not the authors but the participants will develop their individual measurable objects they can evaluate at the end of the workshop. A change of perspective is offered to the lecturers, researchers, higher education pedagogues, students and PhD candidates: The workshop explores the benefits of contact and dialogue, and allows for not-knowing through interactive activities. Focusing on their experiences during the workshop, participants act and reflect with a systemic approach. An agile script will emerge during the workshop and will be provided afterwards.

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14:00-15:15 | Room 209 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 3 BCE2026 | Guidance and Learning Experiences Session Chair: Sura Fadhel 14:00-14:25 111719 | Enhancing at Risk Student Learning Through Mid-Unit Assessment Sura Fadhel, The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, United States This study examined the use of mid-unit formative assessment as a practical strategy for improving Arabic language learning through earlier identification of student needs and more responsive instruction. It was conducted in response to recurring classroom challenges, including mixed proficiency levels, uneven student progress, comprehension gaps, and the difficulty of providing targeted support before the end of a unit. The purpose was to determine how structured assessment during instruction could help teachers identify learning needs and adjust support before students reached the final unit test. The intervention involved administering structured mid-unit assessments while learning was still in progress. Assessment results were used to identify areas of weakness, adjust instructional pacing, and provide differentiated support through reteaching, additional practice, feedback, and modified action plans. Data were collected through student survey responses, teacher reflection, classroom observation, and analysis of assessment performance. Findings indicated that mid-unit formative assessment strengthened the connection between assessment and instruction. Student feedback suggested that the assessment was aligned with unit content, appropriately challenging, and helpful in preparing for the final unit test. The process also enabled teachers to make informed decisions about pacing, lesson planning, and intervention strategies. Rather than functioning as an isolated test, the mid-unit assessment served as a diagnostic checkpoint that supported timely instructional adjustments and helped Students become more aware of their own learning progress. The study recommends continuing the use of mid-unit formative assessments as part of regular instructional practice. This classroom-based model supports earlier intervention, targeted support, and improved student progress.

14:25-14:50 113481 | Teaching Contextual and Morphological Analysis Through an ASR- and LLM-Based Tutoring Agent: A Chinese Reading-Strategy Study with Sixth Graders Yi-Hsin Lin, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Hou-Chiang Tseng, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Yao-Ting Sung, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Reading-strategy instruction is critical for struggling elementary readers. Existing intelligent tutoring agents primarily support passage-level comprehension and offer limited guidance on word-level lexical inference. Most also rely on typed interaction and emphasize answer scoring over formative learning support. To address these gaps, this study developed a Chinese reading-strategy tutoring agent for sixth graders, a stage at which word-level strategies begin to matter for comprehension. The agent integrates Whisper speech recognition with ChatGPT and follows a teaching-practice-assessment cycle in which students gradually take on more responsibility, guided through Socratic questioning rather than given direct answers. It teaches two lexical-inference strategies: contextual analysis (inferring meaning from context) and morphological analysis (inferring meaning from component characters). To assess pedagogical soundness, a domain specialist validated the design by operating the system as a learner. Applying an eight-dimension taxonomy of pedagogical ability for LLM tutors, the expert gave both strategies the top rating for coherent dialogue; contextual analysis also earned the top rating for guidance relevance, and morphological analysis for an encouraging tone, while four dimensions per strategy were rated "to some extent." On five-point assessment-stage items (5 = highest), both strategies scored 5 for the no-hint rule; stage transitions scored 5 for contextual analysis and 3 for morphological analysis, and item and scoring appropriateness scored 4 and 3, respectively. The expert's reservations concerned implementation rather than design, chiefly speech-recognition errors affecting scoring accuracy. Overall, the validation supported the agent's pedagogical soundness, with a typing fallback recommended before classroom trials.

14:50-15:15 114083 | Bridging Research-Based Evidence and Teaching Practice: Proactive and Inclusive Geometry Intervention Design in Primary School Through the UDL Framework Laura Menichetti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Francesca Parenti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Aurora Ramazzotti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy This contribution presents a robust pedagogical architecture for inclusive geometry instruction, shifting the educational paradigm from reactive adaptations to a proactive design. Anchored in a rigorous analysis of international evidence-based practices, the framework integrates highimpact strategies, such as the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) sequence and the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM), to dismantle cognitive barriers for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). By mapping instructional goals through the Anderson and Krathwohl taxonomy, the intervention bridges foundational knowledge with higher-order creative thinking, ensuring a dynamic cognitive progression. The design operationalizes the Universal Design for Learning 3.0 framework, specifically activating checkpoints that prioritize learner agency, collaboration, and the removal of systemic biases. Through the strategic use of multisensory tools and digital manipulatives, geometric abstraction is transformed into a tangible, shared experience that enhances motivation and autonomy for the entire class. Ultimately, this model offers a highly transferable methodology, repositioning the educator as an architect of sustainable learning environments where learner variability is harnessed as a primary curricular asset rather than a deficit.

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Notes

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15:30-17:10 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Education, Sustainability and Society Session Chair: Irene Kerubo Kereni 15:30-15:55 112071 | The Missing Scientist: Gender Representation in Indian Science and Mathematics Textbooks Keerthana Tharal, National Institute of Technology, India Preeti Navaneeth, National Institute of Technology Calicut, India Gender disparities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) remain a persistent global concern with larger implications for workforce participation and economic development. Mathematics, specifically has been historically constructed as a male-oriented discipline through the cultural and institutional exclusion of women. Although global and local interventions have been implemented for increased enrolment of women in higher education and participation in STEM workforce, lack of attention in the scrutiny of educational systems and curricular representation remains. This study conducts a visual and textual content analysis of Indian high school science and mathematics textbooks to discover disparities in gender representation. The sample of the present study consists of 9 Indian high-school textbooks, including 5 Science and 4 Mathematics textbooks from grades VIII, IX and X published by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). NCERT is an autonomous organization of government of India, responsible for the development and publication of school textbooks. The results reveal consistent gender asymmetry across the textbooks. A complete erasure of women Mathematicians from the textbooks and a significant underrepresentation of women in Science textbooks are observed. The textbooks position women predominantly in participatory roles and present men as knowledge producers. This paper argues that textbooks in the formative years of STEM education are significant curricular tools that construct who belongs, participates and produces knowledge within STEM disciplines. Representation in early educational spaces may have larger implications for students’ participation and aspirations in higher education and workforce in STEM.

15:55-16:20 110983 | Breaking in Is Not Enough: Women Sustaining Executive Leadership in Academia – Women’s Lived Experiences in Executive Academic Leadership Viktoriya Stavesky, National University Alumna, United States Women remain vastly underrepresented in executive-level leadership roles in academia, despite over 40 years of diversity efforts and the increasing number of women graduating from college. Research on the advancement of women into higher education executive leadership is well documented; however, little research examines how women persist in these leadership roles. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, this study sought to understand the experiences of 15 women currently in executive-level academic leadership roles across public, private, and community colleges in the western United States. Through a feminist interpretivist lens, this study unearthed the challenges women executive leaders face and the approaches that enable them to persist in these roles. Results found that women continue to face gendered organizational phenomena even after reaching an executive leadership role, including isolation in the workplace culture, excessive scrutiny, behind-the-scenes power plays, and unfair hiring/promotion processes. Study participants also recognized mentorship, support systems, resiliency, and relationships as key to persistence as executive leaders. This research provides evidence that the scarcity of women in executive academic leadership positions is more than a leaky pipeline problem. Women face institutional barriers well into their leadership roles as a result of historically masculinist organizations. Findings from this study can contribute to the literature that aims to shift focus from reaching leadership roles to persisting in them. Additionally, this study can inform administrators and leaders about the importance of making leadership pathways transparent, holding institutions accountable, creating mentorship/sponsorship opportunities, and shifting the entire academic organization to support women in leadership better.

16:20-16:45 111772 | Future Language Teachers Embodying Feminist Epistemologies and Recommendations of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth and Non-Repetition in Colombia Yuly Andrea Nieto Gómez, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia This talk addresses the embodiment of three pedagogical principles that emerged from the results of a qualitative descriptive-interpretive study carried out with pre-service language teachers in a public university in Colombia aimed at developing a curricular framework for the intersectional language teacher training, building from document analysis of feminist epistemological principles, and the findings and recommendations of the final report of the Truth Commission, considering their application in the classroom. Thus, the first principle emphasizes the need to recognize practices of resistance to peacebuilding in Colombia, fostering historical responsibility and awareness of collective memory, particularly in a country with over 10 million victims of the conflict. The second principle, challenges epistemic racism by validating collective experiences and wounds as a possibility for collective healing. The third principle engages future teachers in the development of a nonviolent curriculum, demonstrating genuine actions to oppose normalized racism, sexism, and classist bias. I will demonstrate how to implement a pedagogy of possibility that prioritizes collective well-being, rehumanization, and the recognition of local wounds. Therefore, my methodological principles, built from characterizing the needs for peacebuilding in Colombia, prove that it is possible to engage future language teachers in the exercise of identifying forms of exclusion and marginalization that we face, particularly in Latin American contexts. Consequently, the pre-service teachers showed their embodiment of pedagogies capable of recovering sensitivity and connection, resisting the pressures of our time, and allowing them to envision alternative paths to heal the wounds of our more than 60-yearlong internal conflict.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 202 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Education, Sustainability and Society Session Chair: Irene Kerubo Kereni 16:45-17:10 104395 | From Classrooms to Communities: Building Resistance and Sustaining Progress Against FGM Through Education and Global Advocacy David Nyaberi, Lincoln University of Missouri, United States Irene Kerubo Kereni, Nairobi University, Kenya This research explores the ongoing prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and its educational impacts among girls in rural West Pokot, Kisii, and Nyamira Counties in Kenya. It examines FGM through the perspectives of social justice and sustainable development in both local and global contexts. Despite laws against it, FGM remains a cultural marker linked to social status and marriage prospects, leading to interrupted school attendance and lower academic achievement. Based on fieldwork that includes site visits, stakeholder interviews, and review of educational records, this study assesses the effectiveness of Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) programs promoted within Pokot and Abagusii communities. Results show that although ARP models focus on reproductive health education and rights-based approaches in schools and communities, gaps persist due to inconsistent implementation, ongoing peer pressure, and secret practices. The research highlights the limitations of current strategies and calls for adaptive, community-driven approaches to address the underlying socioeconomic and cultural drivers of FGM. By engaging critically with local realities, this study contributes to global discussions on education, equity, and sustainable social development. Policy suggestions highlight the need for culturally sensitive and inclusive interventions to improve girls' access to education and long-term well-being in areas where FGM is still common. The work enhances understanding of how academic, political, and social movements intersect and emphasizes the importance of integrated, context-aware responses to complex issues related to gender, education, and development.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 203 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE/BAMC2026 | Technology in Curriculum Design and Development Session Chair: Martine Peters 15:30-15:55 112037 | The Authentication Chain Under Strain: Generative AI and Academic Integrity in International Baccalaureate Coursework Razan Al-Olimat, Eia Research and Consultancy Center, Jordan The assessment of submitted coursework rests on a foundational assumption: that the work is the product of the student’s own thinking. The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has expanded the means available for academic misconduct while weakening the mechanisms for detecting it. Institutional safeguards that ensure academic honesty are increasingly compromised. Current research focuses on higher education students and universities. High-stakes secondary education remains critically under-researched. The International Baccalaureate (IB) assessments, such as the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge, are designed to elicit higher levels of thinking in Bloom's taxonomy; the authentication provisions set out across the IB’s policies exist to verify that submitted work is genuinely the student’s own. This study argues that these provisions, which rely on teacher judgment and questioning students, can no longer verify authorship because students can generate and rehearse AI-produced work. This study applies Bowen’s (2009) qualitative document analysis to the IB’s academic integrity policy, its 2023 AI appendix, and associated assessment guidance, using the authentication provisions synthesized across these documents as the analytical framework. The analysis is triangulated with peer-reviewed literature on AI-outsourced cognition and fabricated revision histories. A student’s submitted work can no longer serve as proof of authenticity; therefore, there is a need to redesign assessment verification to be part of the student’s work creation process rather than retrospective verification.

15:55-16:20 112535 | State-Led Digital Governance Culture and Responsibility Attribution in Generative AI-Assisted Learning Shichang Deng, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China Generative artificial intelligence is increasingly used in higher education for writing, feedback, translation, tutoring, and knowledge integration. As its use becomes normalized, the key issue is no longer whether students and educators accept generative AI, but how they interpret and assign responsibility when AI-assisted learning produces inaccurate, biased, or misleading outcomes. This study introduces state-led digital governance culture as a political-institutional cultural orientation that may shape responsibility attribution in generative AI-assisted learning. We define this culture as a shared belief that digital technologies should be strategically guided, legitimized, and regulated by state or public institutions to support collective development, social order, and national competitiveness. Drawing on institutional theory, technology trust, and educational responsibility research, we propose that individuals with stronger state-led digital governance orientations are more likely to view generative AI failures as institutionally embedded rather than solely attributable to individual learners or teachers. We further suggest that governance trust and developmental legitimacy mediate this relationship. By moving beyond conventional technology acceptance perspectives, this study highlights how digital governance culture shapes accountability judgments in AI-mediated education. The study contributes to research on educational technology, AI governance, and cross-cultural understandings of responsibility in emerging learning environments.

16:20-16:45 111318 | Algorithmic Witch Hunt in Higher Education: Communication Process or AI Detection Tools? Raziye Nevzat, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus Many higher education institutions have been using similarity and AI detection tools to identify the originality of the students’ work. As generative artificial intelligence has rapidly increased in use, students have integrated these new tools into their academic world over a short period of time. Due to growing concerns regarding this practice, more higher education institutions began implementing stricter regulations and sanctions. While some institutions have been evaluating the progress of the work, others have positioned AI detection tools as the sole decision-makers regarding the work's originality. As these detection tools situate students between AI tools and human interaction, more students have been reported for being stigmatized or unjustifiably held accountable for using AI tools to author academic assignments on their behalf. Based on the output of the AI detectors, faculty members have found themselves in opposition to students who felt unjustly scrutinized. This study examines how digital witch-hunting, which has led to the policing of academic assignments, affects faculty-student communication within higher education institutions. Through 11 semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study investigates how AI detection tools affect students’ academic progress and intra-institutional dialogue. Findings reveal that introducing AI literacy courses into the curriculum, as well as a progress-based AI policy, will enable students to work more comfortably and confidently as they develop their academic work.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 203 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE/BAMC2026 | Technology in Curriculum Design and Development Session Chair: Martine Peters 16:45-17:10 110717 | Should Teachers Delegate Their Professional Judgement to Artificial IItelligence (AI) when They Assess? Martine Peters, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada Dolorès Grossemy, Université TÉLUQ, Canada Mélissande Trottin, Université d'Ottawa, Canada The arrival of AI in the education system has disrupted learning and teaching, in particular all aspects of assessment. The existing debate surrounding AI has concentrated on its use by students for cheating and plagiarising. But what about teachers’ use of AI? Little is known about how teachers choose to use AI and if they are using it with integrity, especially when it comes to their grading practices. This position paper will present a conceptual decisional flowchart to guide teachers in their choices when to use or not AI to assess, annotate and grade assignments. This flowchart was developed with the help of a community of practice composed of educational consultants and higher education faculty members. The central argument is that using AI to partially or completely automate grading will undermine the validity of the teacher’s professional judgment since AI tools have limited access to many contextual factors pertaining to the assignment brief, the explanations given in class, the institutional rules and policies as well as the students’ overall progress during the course. There are also issues related to a transparent use of AI, fairness, bias and data protection which can lead to unethical situations. Teachers must be made aware of all these concerns and make informed decisions when choosing to use AI in the assessment process. Recommendations will conclude the paper to provide guidance to ensure ethical and responsible use of AI in assessment.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Educational Assessment and AI Session Chair: Barun Roy 15:30-15:55 111546 | The Integration of ICT into the Mathematics Teacher Training Curriculum in Angola: Challenges and Prospects at ISCED Levels Virgílio Chivinda, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal Vanda Santos, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into teacher education curricula currently represents one of the major challenges facing Higher Education, particularly in African contexts marked by rapid technological transformations and increasing demands for pedagogical innovation. In this context, this article analyses the integration of ICT in the initial education of Mathematics teachers at the Higher Institutes of Educational Sciences (ISCEDs) in Angola, seeking to understand how curriculum guidelines related to technologies are operationalized in pedagogical practices. The study is grounded in a qualitative approach within the interpretative paradigm, using documentary analysis of Course Pedagogical Projects, semi-structured interviews with lecturers, and questionnaires administered to students enrolled in the Mathematics Teacher Education degree program. The findings reveal that both teachers and students recognize ICT as important tools for Mathematics teaching, particularly due to their potential to enhance classroom dynamics, facilitate the visualization of abstract content, and promote greater interaction in the teaching and learning process. However, challenges persist regarding infrastructural limitations, insufficient technological training for lecturers, and weaknesses in the curricular integration of ICT. The article argues for a more critical, reflective, and curriculum-oriented integration of ICT in Mathematics teacher education in Angola, reinforcing the role of Higher Education institutions in promoting innovative pedagogical practices aligned with contemporary educational demands.

15:55-16:20 110655 | AI Usage, AI Dependency, and Self-Regulated Learning Among Undergraduate Students in Cambodia: A Cognitive Offloading Perspective Mansoureh Bahadori, CamEd Business School, Cambodia Shamila Ramjawan, CamEd Business School, Cambodia The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in higher education has led to debates about the potential over-reliance of students on these technologies and their impact on independent learning. While prior research has investigated AI use and its educational implications (Kasneci et al., 2023; Dwivedi et al., 2023), limited empirical work has explored the mechanisms through which AI usage influences students’ learning behaviors. Drawing on cognitive offloading theory, this study examines the mediating role of AI dependency in the relationship between AI usage and SRL among undergraduates in a developing-country context. This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 undergraduate students across 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year levels at a business school in Cambodia. Validated and adapted instruments were used to measure AI usage, AI dependency, and metacognitive self-regulation. Preliminary analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency across all constructs. Data will be analyzed using regression-based mediation analysis with bootstrapping techniques. The findings are expected to show that AI usage positively predicts AI dependency, which in turn negatively affects SRL, with AI dependency acting as a mediating mechanism. This study contributes context-specific empirical evidence from a Southeast Asian developing-country setting and offers practical implications for promoting responsible AI use while preserving students' self-regulated learning capacities.

16:20-16:45 112751 | Developing an Inclusive Digital Curriculum: Integrating Digital Literacy, Contextual Numeracy, and Critical Thinking for Early Childhood and Lower-Grade Primary Education Astri Dwi Jayanti Suhandoko, Universitas Terbuka (Open University), Indonesia Amirul Mukminin, Universitas Jambi, Indonesia Karisdha Pradityana, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia This study developed an inclusive digital curriculum integrating digital literacy, contextual numeracy, and critical thinking for early childhood and lower-grade primary education in Indonesia. Using a Research and Development (R&D) approach based on an adapted Gall et al. (2003) model, the study proceeded through four phases: (1) a needs analysis of 336 teachers across urban, semi-urban, and remote/underserved contexts, (2) development of a curriculum model and learning modules grounded in constructivist and meaningful-learning principles, directly informed by the needs analysis, (3) expert validation by curriculum and inclusive education specialists, and (4) pilot implementation across six schools in four cities Jakarta, Serang, Palembang, and Ternate involving eight teachers and over 250 students across 8–12 weeks. The needs analysis found that while 85–89% of teachers recognized the importance of these competencies, only 35% had clear curriculum guidance, directly shaping subsequent design priorities. Pilot results, measured through nine observation indicators, showed Contextual Numeracy reached "Very Good" across all sites regardless of infrastructure. Digital Literacy reached "Very Good" in urban/semi-urban sites and "Good Enough" in Ternate, though digital safety guidance was "Very Good" everywhere, indicating literacy extends beyond access to foundational attitudes. Critical Thinking reached "Very Good," particularly in fostering open discussion and exploration. These findings offer empirical evidence for an integrated three-competency curriculum's effectiveness, demonstrate that quality learning is achievable across diverse infrastructure contexts through pedagogical flexibility, and provide a practical, inclusive framework for national implementation, supporting a sustainable roadmap for equitable education access across Indonesia.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 204 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Educational Assessment and AI Session Chair: Barun Roy 16:45-17:10 111182 | AI-Driven Disinformation and Epistemic Resistance: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Digital Media Literacy Pedagogy in Peripheral Indian Schools Barun Roy, University of North Bengal, India The proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes, algorithmically targeted hate content, and politically motivated disinformation in India has created an acute epistemic crisis for students from religious minority and ethno-cultural peripheral communities, who are both primary targets and least equipped to critically resist such content. This paper reports the design, implementation, and evaluation of a culturally situated Critical Digital Media Literacy (CDML) intervention for secondary school students in the Eastern Himalayan region, specifically in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Jalpaiguri districts, where Gorkha, Adivasi, and Muslim minority learners constitute a significant share of enrolment. Using a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design with non-equivalent experimental and control groups, the study assessed three competency domains: recognition of AI-generated and deepfake content, critical decoding of politically targeted disinformation, and construction of community-grounded counternarratives. Drawing on Critical Media Literacy, Freirean emancipatory pedagogy, and epistemic injustice frameworks, the eight-session CDML curriculum was co-developed with local teachers and foregrounded vernacular digital ecologies—particularly WhatsApp fabrications, YouTube propaganda, and Facebook Reels—as key sites of inquiry. Quantitative analysis indicates statistically significant gains in deepfake recognition and disinformation discernment among experimental-group students. Qualitative data from student journals and classroom observations show how experiences of cultural marginalisation and political anxiety shape learners’ engagement with, and vulnerability to, AI-mediated epistemic violence. The paper argues that meaningful digital citizenship for India’s peripheral communities requires a pedagogy of epistemic resistance, treating AI literacy as a political and cultural survival competence. The study has critical implications for curriculum policy, teacher professional development, and scaling across minority-concentrated districts.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 205 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BAMC2026 | Sociology Session Chair: Andra Zvirbule 15:30-15:55 111164 | The Ideal Woman in Population Policies: Female Reproductive Rights and the Cultural Construction of Womanhood in Vietnam Khanh-Linh Ta, Green Path Migrants, Vietnam Han Giang Nguyen, Utrecht University, Netherlands This article examines how Vietnamese population policies participate in the cultural construction and regulation of female reproduction. Drawing on feminist legal theory and reproductive justice scholarship, it interrogates whether women’s childbearing capacity is recognised as an aspect of bodily autonomy or framed as a social obligation embedded in patriarchal ideals of femininity, motherhood, and family responsibility. The article argues that population governance in Vietnam has historically positioned women as instruments of demographic management and national development, reinforcing cultural expectations that equate women’s social value with marriage, sacrifice, and maternal duty. In doing so, these policies reproduce both patriarchal social norms and collectivist socialist rationalities that legitimise the regulation of individual bodies in the name of communal interests. Using doctrinal legal analysis and critical feminist approaches, the study traces the evolution of Vietnamese population policies from earlier family-planning programmes to the proposed Population Law 2025. Through feminist critique, the article analyses how legal and policy frameworks shape cultural narratives surrounding women’s bodies, fertility, and maternal roles, while assessing the extent to which women’s autonomy is substantively recognised within Vietnamese law. By approaching law as a reflection and producer of dominant social values, the article further questions the responsibility of lawmakers in either reproducing or dismantling patriarchal assumptions imposed upon women’s bodies. The article contends that transforming population law may also transform cultural portrayals of Vietnamese women from subjects of demographic governance to autonomous rights-bearing individuals, thereby challenging enduring patriarchal expectations within Vietnamese society.

15:55-16:20 113077 | Sexting and Low Self-Control: Results Form a National Survey of Adolescents Stelios Stylianou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Stella Charalambous, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus In the present study we focus on the relationship between low self-control and sexting. Participation in sexting (i.e., sending, receiving or posting sexually explicit photos, videos or text messages via digital technology) is potentially victimizing for persons who send or post sexting material (e.g., causing informal or formal sanctions if such behavior becomes known), for the recipients (as the content can be upsetting or offensive) and for the persons appearing in the shared content (e.g., dissemination of disreputable content outside the intended circle of recipients). Low self-control is a well-established predictor of deviant and criminal behavior as well as a predictor of what Gottfredson and Hirschi termed "analogous behaviors" (e.g., smoking, gambling, reckless driving). Thus, low self-control is expected to predict involvement in potentially self- and other-victimizing behaviors, such as sexting. We present results from a national survey of high-school students (N=761, roughly aged 15-18) that measured involvement in a variety of sexting behaviors, including sending provocative personal photos or videos to partners, friends or acquaintances, or to strangers and non-consensual forwarding or posting provocative photos or videos of a partner, friend or acquaintance, or a stranger to third parties. The survey questionnaire included twelve items measuring six dimensions of low self-control which we used to create an index of low self-control. We then modelled this index as a predictor of involvement in sexting behaviors using linear and logistic regression equations. The results show that low self-control has a consistent statistically significant mild positive effect on involvement in these behaviors.

16:20-16:45 112099 | Reimagining Black Boyhood Play: Critical (Re)broadcasting as a Methodological Tool Nathaniel Bryan, University of Texas at Austin, United States Negative media representations of Black boys abound in the United States, normalizing their oppression and obfuscating the possibilities of Black boyhood play in and beyond school. Despite calls for a paradigm shift, deficit orientations persist. Drawing on Black PlayCrit and employing (re)broadcasting as a methodological tool for critical race media discourse analysis, we investigate how media broadcast and rebroadcast the oppression of Black boyhood play and how Black citizens resist it in two highly publicized cases. We ask: How do media broadcast the oppression of Black boyhood play, and how do Black citizens resist these media portrayals? How might critical race methodologies serve as a liberatory tool to move from identifying structural harm to highlighting the possibilities of Black boyhood play? Findings reveal that media demonize Black boyhood play; however, media can serve to illuminate Black boys’ relational care, portray the reclaiming of Black boys’ humanity and space/placemaking, and acknowledge Black boys, families, and concerned citizens’ use of social media as a discursive tool of activism to champion Black boys’ humanity and the possibilities of their play. We recommend critical (re) broadcasting to illuminate the humanity of Black children, youth, and communities.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 205 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BAMC2026 | Sociology Session Chair: Andra Zvirbule 16:45-17:10 111086 | Entrepreneurship Education for Long-term Unemployed Young Mothers from Ethnic Minority Communities Andra Zvirbule, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia Gunta Grinberga-Zalite, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia Anita Auzina, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia Jelena Sterhova, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia Entrepreneurship education is increasingly recognised as an important instrument for fostering economic inclusion, employability and the development of entrepreneurial competences. At the same time, socially vulnerable groups face structural barriers to labor market participation. In the context of demographic change, digitalization, green transition processes, and rapidly changing geopolitical and socio-economic conditions, developing adaptive entrepreneurial skills has become essential for promoting sustainable self-employment and small business creation. This study focuses on a targeted entrepreneurship education methodology designed for long-term unemployed young mothers aged 15 to 29 from ethnic minority communities in Latvia and Estonia. The research aim is to develop a structured training methodology based on a sequential two-cycle education system that integrates both personal development and entrepreneurial practical learning for ethnic minority women. Following the developed training methodology, the first training cycle focused on strengthening self-efficacy, motivation, communication and personal development competencies as basic prerequisites for starting a business. The second cycle focused on acquiring practical business knowledge and skills related to business planning, business creation and small business management. The empirical findings of the Implementation Phase of the developed methodology indicate different levels of participant engagement in both training cycles. Higher levels of participation, motivation and responsiveness were observed in the personality development phase, while relatively lower levels of engagement emerged during the practical entrepreneurship component. The study contributes to the discussion on inclusive entrepreneurship education by providing methodological insights into the design and implementation of tailored training programmes aimed at improving entrepreneurial skills among marginalised ethnic minority women.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Professional Training, Development and Concerns in Education Session Chair: Nylon Marishane 15:30-15:55 97504 | Bridging the Policy-Practice Gap: Perceptions of Continuous Professional Development Effectiveness in Omani Basic and Post-basic Secondary Schools Khalid Alshammakhi, Independent Researcher, Oman This study explores the perceptions of supervisors, senior teachers, and classroom teachers regarding the effectiveness of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) within Omani Basic and Post-basic secondary schools. Utilising a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed methods design—comprising quantitative surveys (n = 153) and semi-structured qualitative interviews—the research reveals a significant policy-practice gap between national CPD policy objectives and the lived experiences of educators in practice. Quantitative data indicated low levels of teacher involvement in CPD planning and a limited perceived impact on teaching practices. Qualitative findings reinforced these results, with participants across the professional hierarchy expressing concerns about the top-down, inflexible nature of CPD offerings, lack of relevance to classroom challenges, and absence of sustained follow-up. Framed through the Ecological Model of Agency, the study argues that current CPD models in Oman are sustained by a governance logic of compliance that restricts professional growth. To enhance instructional impact, the study calls for a shift toward teacher-driven, context-sensitive learning that provides the "enabling space" required for educators to achieve genuine professional agency. The findings offer critical implications for policymakers and school leaders seeking to reform teacher education landscapes in centralized educational systems.

15:55-16:20 110868 | From Showing Up to Belonging: Learning Communities as an Outcome of Everyday Teaching Practices Su-Hyun Berg, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark In higher education, student attendance is often framed as a problem of motivation, accountability, or post-pandemic disengagement. This paper adopts a different perspective by asking a new question: rather than examining why students do not attend classes, it investigates why they choose to stay. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted within an international bachelor’s course in Innovation and Creativity, the paper explores how learning communities emerge through everyday teaching practices. The course was designed as a studio-based learning environment without attendance monitoring and with a strong emphasis on interaction, teamwork, and teacher presence. Focus group interviews with students were analysed using a Gioia-inspired coding approach, moving from first-order student expressions to secondorder theoretical themes. The findings indicate that students’ willingness to engage and remain present is shaped by four mutually reinforcing conditions: the perceived pedagogical meaningfulness of activities, teacher presence functioning as motivational regulation rather than control, affective safety, and relational connection between teachers and students. Students consistently contrasted this course with others they described as “boring” and emphasised the value of non-judgemental framing (e.g. “no bad ideas”), teachers’ active involvement during team-based work, and opportunities for low-risk participation. Importantly, the learning community was not intentionally implemented but emerged gradually through accumulated teacher microparticipations. The paper argues that attendance should be understood as pedagogical feedback rather than student deficit, and that learning communities are formed through relational processes of presence, recognition, and trust, with implications beyond creativity-focused teaching contexts.

16:20-16:45 112196 | Preparing Future Educators for Stressful Professional Realities: Resiliency, Psychological Reactance and Coping Strategies Among Pedagogy Students Anna Babicka-Wirkus, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Poland Łukasz Wirkus, University of Gdańsk, Poland This paper examines the relationship between resiliency, psychological reactance and coping strategies among pedagogy students. Psychological reactance is understood as a motivational state that emerges when an individual’s freedom is restricted or threatened, whereas resiliency is approached as a relatively stable personal resource supporting adaptive functioning in difficult situations. The topic is particularly relevant to teacher education, as future educators are likely to encounter unpredictable professional situations, increasing social expectations, bureaucratic pressures and growing mental health difficulties among children and young people. The study adopted a quantitative design and was conducted through an online questionnaire survey. The research sample consisted of 182 pedagogy students. Three standardised instruments were used: the Therapeutic Reactance Scale (TRS), the Resiliency Assessment Scale (SPP-25) and the MiniCOPE inventory for measuring coping with stress. The analysis focused on the relationships between the level of psychological reactance, the intensity of resiliency and preferred coping strategies. The findings indicate that pedagogy students are not a homogeneous group in terms of the variables analysed. Most respondents demonstrated an average level of psychological reactance, with no significant gender differences. A statistically significant relationship was found between the level of reactance and problem-focused coping. Higher resiliency was more characteristic of older students and was associated with more frequent use of active coping, planning, positive reframing, acceptance, humour and seeking emotional support. The results highlight the importance of strengthening personal resources in teacher education and supporting future educators in developing adaptive ways of coping with occupational stress.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Professional Training, Development and Concerns in Education Session Chair: Nylon Marishane 16:45-17:10 111752 | Contextual Intelligence in Leading Teacher Professional Development: Insights from Systematic Literature Review Nylon Marishane, University of Pretoria, South Africa Teacher professional development (TPD) is widely recognised as a pivotal driver of instructional quality and learner achievement. Nevertheless, its effectiveness is contingent not only on programme design but also on leadership's capacity to interpret and adapt initiatives to diverse and changing contexts. This paper synthesises scholarship on contextual intelligence in educational leadership through a systematic literature review, guided by the PRISMA framework. Searches across ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, and African Journals Online yielded studies published between 2000 and 2025 that addressed contextual responsiveness in TPD. Qualitative content analysis identified four recurring themes: policy responsiveness, cultural adaptability, teacher agency, and pragmatic adaptation to resource constraints. The findings reveal that although contextual intelligence is seldom explicitly theorised, it is consistently implied within leadership practices that influence the effectiveness of professional development. Conceptually, contextual intelligence serves as a bridge among adaptive, distributed, transformational, and situated learning theories, positioning it as a fundamental dimension of educational leadership. This paper contributes to theoretical knowledge by advancing contextual intelligence as a moderating construct in TPD leadership, and to practical application by emphasising its role in designing contextually responsive professional development. Policy implications include incorporating contextual intelligence into leadership standards and training programmes. Future research should empirically operationalise contextual intelligence and examine its impact across diverse educational systems.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 209 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Education and Differences Session Chair: Saeed Almalki 15:30-15:55 111185 | Social Skills Training and the Development of Inclusive Participation Among Individuals with Disabilities: An Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Perspective Magdalena Lewandowska, Fundacja Teraz Wy, Poland The development of social competence is increasingly recognized as a fundamental component of inclusive education and community-based rehabilitation for individuals with disabilities. Despite growing awareness of the importance of interpersonal functioning, many individuals with intellectual, developmental, or psychosocial disabilities continue to experience social isolation, limited participation, and barriers to independent living. This study examines the role of Social Skills Training (SST) in enhancing social participation, adaptive functioning, and interpersonal competence among individuals participating in rehabilitation and educational support programs. The paper is based on a qualitative and practice-oriented analysis combining contemporary literature review with observations derived from therapeutic and educational settings implementing SST interventions. Particular attention is devoted to structured training methods such as behavioral modeling, role-playing, guided interaction, emotional regulation exercises, and feedback-based learning. The analysis focuses on how these techniques influence communication abilities, cooperation, conflict resolution, and the capacity to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships. Preliminary findings indicate that systematic participation in SST programs contributes to improved social interaction, increased self-confidence, and greater adaptive functioning in everyday environments. Participants demonstrated enhanced ability to engage in group activities, express emotions appropriately, and respond more effectively to social situations within educational, family, and vocational contexts. The paper further discusses contemporary challenges related to the implementation of SST, including unequal access to specialized services, insufficient institutional resources, and difficulties in transferring acquired skills to real-life situations. The study concludes that Social Skills Training constitutes a significant element of modern social rehabilitation and inclusive education.

15:55-16:20 112101 | Understanding and Cultivating a Responsibility for Teachers to Support Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties in Mainstream Primary Schools Matabe Rosa Modiba, North-West University, South Africa Omphile Tshepo Cooporate Madiba, North-West University, South Africa In South Africa, inclusive education policies such as Education White Paper 6 and Screening, Identification, Assessment Support (SIAS) require teachers to support learners experiencing barriers to learning. Within these policies, teachers are positioned as the key stakeholders and case managers in the provision of learner support. However, there is limited evidence on how teachers translate their perceived responsibility into practical interventions in the classrooms. Thus, this study aims to understand and cultivate a responsibility for teachers to support learners with SLD in mainstream primary schools. Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) guided this study. Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach was used as the research methodology. Eight teachers from two mainstream primary schools in the North-West province were selected through purposive sampling. Data were generated through collaborative group discussions and analysed through the thematic data analysis method. The study confirmed that teachers understand that they have the responsibility to support SLD learners. However, the responsibility is not fulfilled adequately because teachers still operate from a medical model. In addition, teachers reported that the responsibility to support learners is mainly hindered by overcrowded classrooms, administrative workload and training that is too generic. Consequently, it was recommended that continuous, focussed professional development and sustained support be provided to the teachers to ensure that they feel confident in providing the necessary support to learners with SLD. In addition, it is recommended that learner support teachers be appointed to assume the responsibility for providing support to learners with SLD, thereby relieving classroom teachers from the support task.

16:20-16:45 109880 | From Categorical Training to Inclusive Practice: Rethinking Teacher Preparation Through ISEM Saeed Almalki, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia Inclusive education is an important focus in the reform of education systems across the globe. However, the preparation system for teachers seems to be based on traditional disability groups. This paper seeks to explore the disconnect between inclusive education policies and special education teacher preparation based on the categorical model in the context of Saudi Arabia. A qualitative exploratory research design is used in this study. The design is based on thematic analysis of 43 documents and semi-structured interviews with 44 participants drawn from faculty members in local universities, officials in the Ministry of Education, inclusive education consultants, and school principals. The analysis indicates that there are structural challenges in the reform of teacher preparation programs. These include categorical models in teacher preparation programs, the disconnect between theory and practice in inclusive education, and the policy incentives for disabilityspecific professional roles. In response, the study proposes the Inclusive Special Education Model (ISEM), a context-responsive framework that integrates an inclusive pedagogical foundation with structured specialization, strengthened theory–practice connections, and collaborative professional practice. The model offers a potential pathway for aligning teacher preparation systems with inclusive education goals while acknowledging institutional realities within the national education system.

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15:30-17:10 | Room 209 (2F)

Saturday Onsite Parallel Session 4 BCE2026 | Education and Differences Session Chair: Saeed Almalki 16:45-17:10 113585 | Factors Associated with the Use of Educational Applications for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Special Education Teachers Carol Rivero-Panaqué, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru Ricardo Navarro-Fernández, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru Monica Takushi Rodríguez, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru Angee Tamara-Viera, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru The factors associated with the use of educational applications designed to support individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) were analyzed using a structural equation model. 353 special education teachers participated (age: M = 46.96, SD = 9.28). The study posited that the level of support required by the student with ASD, as determined by the specialist and perceived by the teacher, negatively influences teacher self-efficacy (H1 and H2, respectively); the teacher's age negatively influences the perceived ease of use of the technology (H3); teacher self-efficacy and perceived ease of use positively influence the intention to use apps (H4 and H5, respectively); and these two variables influence the frequency of app use (H6 and H7, respectively). Furthermore, the study posited that the intention to use apps positively influences the frequency of app use (H8); and that both the intention and frequency of use positively influence teacher satisfaction (H9 and H10, respectively). The analyzed model showed adequate fit (CFI = .973, TLI = .970, RMSEA = .051, SRMR = .069). However, not all the analyzed relationships were significant: hypotheses H2, H3, H4, H5, H9, and H10 were confirmed. The model explains a small proportion of the variation in teacher self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, and frequency of use. Furthermore, it explained a moderate proportion of the variation in intention to use and teacher satisfaction. These findings contribute to understanding the factors associated with the use of educational applications in special education.

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Notes

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Sunday, November 8 09:30-11:10 | Onsite Parallel Session 1 11:25-13:05 | Onsite Parallel Session 2 All times are Central European Time (UTC+1) Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 202 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Assessment Theories and Methodologies Session Chair: Emil Velinov 09:30-09:55 112911 | Embedding 21st Century Competencies Explicitly in the Malay Language Curriculum: A Scaffolded Approach Across Primary and Secondary Levels Salha Mohamed Hussain, Ministry of Education, Singapore Rina Kesumawati Mizzy, Ministry of Education, Singapore As education systems worldwide grapple with preparing students for an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the integration of 21st Century Competencies (21CC) into subject curricula has become a central policy imperative. However, in many contexts, such integration remains implicit or incidental, leaving teachers without clear guidance on how to develop these competencies meaningfully within their subject areas. This paper presents Singapore's approach to addressing this challenge within the Malay Language curriculum, where 21CC has been explicitly embedded across both primary and secondary levels, supported by structured teacher guides and purposefully-designed instructional materials. Drawing on curriculum documents and instructional materials developed by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, this paper examines how 21CC skills, including critical and adaptive thinking, communication, and collaborative learning are systematically mapped onto Malay Language learning objectives at each level. It then traces the scaffolded progression of these competencies from primary to secondary schooling, demonstrating how skills are deliberately introduced at foundational levels, reinforced through increasing complexity, and deepened as students advance through their language learning journey. Through the presentation of concrete classroom examples and instructional materials, this paper offers practitioners and curriculum developers a replicable model for the explicit integration of 21CC into mother tongue and heritage language curricula. The findings have implications not only for Malay Language education but for any education system seeking to move beyond surface-level 21CC integration towards a coherent, curriculum-wide approach.

09:55-10:20 111115 | Advancing Future-Ready Graduates Through a WEF-Informed Student-Centered Power Skills Curriculum Elif Vardar Solak, Istinye University, Türkiye In a rapidly changing world shaped by uncertainty, technological transformation, and evolving workforce expectations, higher education institutions are increasingly expected to equip students not only with disciplinary knowledge but also with future-ready competencies. This presentation introduces an institution-wide, student-centered developmental model designed to integrate World Economic Forum (WEF)informed competency skills into higher education through four complementary Competency Skills Courses, offered to students across all faculties and vocational schools as a graduation requirement alongside their technical curricula. Recognized through a social transcript diploma supplement, the courses aim to support students’ academic, personal, and professional development through transformative learning experiences focusing on leadership, communication, critical and creative thinking, career readiness, resilience, self-awareness, and social responsibility. The model combines asynchronous and face-to-face learning, seminars, workshops, mentoring, and student engagement activities to foster sustainable student growth. Drawing on student-centered and holistic learning approaches, the presentation discusses the design, implementation, and institutional coordination of this interdisciplinary model and reflects on its transferability to other higher education contexts seeking to strengthen graduate preparedness, employability, leadership, and sustainable curriculum innovation.

10:20-10:45 111766 | Transforming Education in Disruptive Times Through the Blended Learning International Cooperation (BLIC) Project Emil Velinov, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Latvia Juergen Bleicher, Baden Württemberg State Cooperative University, Germany Saeed Shobeiri, Teluq University Montreal, Canada The rapid digital transformation of higher education, accelerated by global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical uncertainty, and technological change, has fundamentally reshaped teaching and learning practices worldwide. These developments have highlighted the urgent need for innovative, flexible, and resilient educational models capable of responding to continuously evolving societal and labor market demands. In this context, the Blended Learning International Cooperation (BLIC) project represents an international initiative aimed at strengthening management education through blended learning innovation, cross-cultural academic collaboration, and academia–industry engagement. This paper explores how the BLIC project contributes to transforming higher education in disruptive times by integrating blended learning methodologies, digital pedagogies, and international cooperation frameworks. The study adopts a qualitative and collaborative case-study approach involving partner universities, faculty members, students, and industry stakeholders participating in the project. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of blended learning implementation practices across international educational environments. The findings demonstrate that blended learning models significantly enhanced flexibility, accessibility, student engagement, and the development of digital and managerial competencies. The project also strengthened international academic collaboration and facilitated closer alignment between higher education and industry needs through practical, interdisciplinary, and real-world learning experiences. At the same time, the research identifies several ongoing challenges, including unequal digital readiness, technological limitations, faculty adaptation, and maintaining sustainable stakeholder collaboration in hybrid learning environments. The paper argues that successful transformation of higher education requires more than technological adoption alone; it demands institutional adaptability, pedagogical innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and human-centered approaches to learning.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 203 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Language Teaching Experiences Session Chair: Kari Stunell 09:30-09:55 113018 | Developing mIMER: A Post Positivist Mixed Method Intervention Model for Enhancing Grade 4 and 5 Reading Competencies in South African Classrooms Thapelo Mokgadi, North-West University, South Africa This study reports on the development of the Model of Intervention for Enhanced Reading (mIMER), which is designed to strengthen reading competencies among Grade 4 and Grade 5 learners in South African classrooms. Grounded on a post positivist paradigm, the research used a mixed method design, integrating quantitative measures of learner performance with qualitative insights from teachers’ practices and classroom experiences. Data analysis combined statistical evaluation of reading outcomes with thematic coding of interviews and observations, ensuring both rigour and contextual depth. The findings revealed persistent challenges in decoding, comprehension and vocabulary acquisition, particularly in multilingual settings. However, they also highlighted effective teacher led strategies that informed the model’s design. The mIMER framework emphasises scaffolded reading tasks, peer collaboration and culturally responsive text selection, supported by ongoing formative assessment. Recommendations include embedding mIMER into literacy programmes, enhancing teacher professional development and aligning classroom practices with national curriculum goals and development. The study’s contribution lies in offering a contextually relevant, evidence based intervention model that bridges theory and practice while addressing systemic gaps in literacy development. By situating mIMER within the context of South Africa, the study advances both scholarly discourse on reading pedagogy and provides practical solutions for improving learner outcomes in the intermediate phase.

09:55-10:20 114448 | Integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Framework in University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classrooms in Japan Marjorie Resuello, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Japan This study examines the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class at a Japanese university. Rather than using sustainability as language-learning content only, the course adopted an ESD-oriented pedagogical approach through activities involving sustainability issues, bias awareness, design thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and reflection. The study explores how students perceived these experiences in relation to their sustainability understanding, critical thinking, collaboration, and English communication. Using a qualitative classroom-based research design, data were drawn from weekly reflections and final course reflections, in which they describe their learning, challenges, changes in perspective, and responses to ESD-related topics and activities. Student reflections were analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns in perceived learning, participation, language use, and engagement with sustainability issues. The thematic analysis of weekly and final reflections of students identified four recurring patterns: a shift from surface-level problem solving toward examining root causes and interconnected issues; greater attention to multiple perspectives, bias, and collaborative learning; stronger connections between sustainability issues, local contexts, and everyday action; and increased confidence in expressing ideas in English. Students also reported continuing difficulty articulating complex sustainability issues because of vocabulary and fluency limitations. The findings suggest that ESD-oriented EFL can support reflective, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning while highlighting the need for language scaffolding when engaging students with complex sustainability topics.

10:20-10:45 111129 | Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Classes in French Primary Schools: Building Plurilingual Approaches to Learning Kari Stunell, Université de Bordeaux, France Marie-Anne Chateaureynaud, Université de Bordeaux, France Since the 1990s, the provision of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) within public primary education in France has increased in response to the promotion, at the European level, of the vision of a plurilingual Europe. There has been a concomitant resurgence of interest in bilingual primary education which combines French with a regional language, supported by the creation in 2002 of a teacher education diploma in regional languages. The national programmes for foreign languages in French primary schools, (March 2026), underline the importance of using pupils’ language repertoires as a resource for teaching and learning. In line with the work of Fonseca Favre, Gajo and Vaissière this study explores the pedagogical practices of teachers in Occitan-French bilingual primary schools, asking how they use translanguaging to develop plurilingual approaches. Through the distribution of a questionnaire to 50 teachers working in Occitan-French bilingual primary education, and a series of observations in bilingual classrooms, this study investigates the role of translanguaging practices in developing plurilingualism. Following Duverger 2007, the use, role and effectiveness of translanguaging practices during the programming, planning and delivery of CLIL lessons is analysed on the macro, meso and micro levels. The results have interesting implications for teacher education, giving a direction for guiding future teachers in best practice as to how, when and where to encourage translanguaging in order to enhance learning of individual languages, raise awareness of language learning processes, and promote plurilingual approaches to language learning for both teachers and learners.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 204 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Educational Policy and Leadership Session Chair: Noreen Naranjos Velazquez 09:30-09:55 109226 | A Comparative Study of Pre-service Teachers’ Perspectives on Digital Technology Use in Foundation Phase Programmes in Lesotho and South Africa Arone Camillus Koloti, University of the Free State, South Africa Thuthukile Jita, University of the Free State, South Africa Loyiso Jita, University of the Free State, South Africa In an era when digital innovation is revolutionising early childhood education (ECE), Foundation Phase teacher training programmes in higher education stand at a pivotal crossroads, demanding seamless integration of technology to equip pre-service teachers for tomorrow's classrooms. This empirical study aimed to compare pre-service teachers' (PSTs) perspectives on the use of digital technology in Foundation Phase teacher education programmes in Lesotho and South Africa. Grounded in Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), it investigates how innovation characteristics and UTAUT constructs shape PSTs' attitudes, experiences, and behavioural intentions. Using a concurrent mixed-methods design, qualitative data from focus group interviews with six PSTs per context revealed perceived benefits, including flexibility and mobile accessibility, as well as barriers, including infrastructure limitations and pedagogical gaps. Quantitative data from 292 PSTs showed positive attitudes, with strong performance expectancy and social influence, but no significant differences by device type, region, or country (p > 0.05). Significant correlations emerged, including relative advantage with compatibility (r = .286, p < 0.01) and complexity with trialability (r = .648, p < 0.01). Findings reveal consistent technology acceptance across contexts, despite socio-economic disparities and South Africa's superior institutional support. The study recommends digital literacy training and curriculum revisions to enhance PSTs' efficacy in blended learning for ECE.

09:55-10:20 107088 | Employer Expectations for Teacher Competencies in ECEC Recruitment Ville Mankki, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Given the crucial role of teachers in children’s learning and the effective delivery of early childhood education and care (ECEC), research on teacher recruitment in this sector remains limited. This study investigates employer expectations for teacher competencies in ECEC recruitment by analyzing 322 job advertisements for ECEC teacher positions in Finland. A deductive qualitative content analysis was conducted using the teacher competencies outlined in the multidimensional adapted process model of teaching as a framework. The findings emphasize the importance of relational skills, motivational orientation, and personal dispositions in these advertisements. In light of global challenges in recruiting teachers to rural areas and regional variations within Finland, the study also examines differences across municipalities and regions. While some associations between municipality type (urban, semi-urban, rural) or region and teacher competencies were identified, no consistent patterns emerged to indicate systematic differences. The study concludes with implications for refining competency definitions and informing teacher education programs.

10:20-10:45 110648 | Disrupting Orthodoxy: Arts-Based Approaches to Reimagining Educational Leadership Research Inbanathan Naicker, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Daisy Pillay, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Despite significant growth in educational leadership and management (ELM) scholarship, the field remains constrained by an overreliance on conventional humanist data production methods such as interviews, surveys and observations. This methodological conservatism limits the creativity and diversity of knowledge generated about leadership and management practice. Responding to calls for methodological inventiveness, this paper examines the transformative potential of arts-based educational research (ABER) as vehicles for illuminating complex ELM phenomena and catalysing practice-oriented change. Drawing on three researcher-practitioner vignettes, we explore how distinct ABER methods generate embodied, contextually rich insights into leadership and management practice that traditional methods cannot easily access. The first vignette uses photo elicitation and storyboarding as visual arts-based methods to surface what and how South African expatriate teacher leaders in Gulf Cooperation Council schools articulated the intersections of personal and professional praxis. The second vignette presents letter writing as a literary arts-based approach, revealing the nuanced leadership journeys of Muslim women teachers navigating intersecting axes of gender, faith and institutional power. The third vignette employs object inquiry to theorise the leadership praxis of a differently abled educational leader, illustrating how material objects mediate self-understanding and social justice consciousness. Collectively, these vignettes affirm ABER's capacity to disrupt methodological orthodoxies in ELM research by fostering embodied reflection, amplifying marginalised voices, and extending the epistemological possibilities of the field. The paper argues that producing knowledge differently, through creative and aesthetic processes, opens generative pathways for understanding and transforming educational leadership and management practice.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 204 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Educational Policy and Leadership Session Chair: Noreen Naranjos Velazquez 10:45-11:10 112731 | Mapping Preventive Networks in Early Childhood Education: An Egocentric Network Analysis of Interprofessional Cooperation Noreen Naranjos Velazquez, International University of Applied Sciences, Germany Early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions are often among the first places where complex family situations and early signs of psychosocial stress become visible. At the same time, prevention in early childhood cannot be understood as a task of one profession or one organization alone. It depends on cooperation between educational, social, health-related, and family support services. This presentation discusses egocentric network analysis as one possible methodological approach to examine such preventive cooperation in institutional contexts. The German context of ECEC, early childhood intervention services, family support, and daycare social work is used as an illustrative case. The focus is on how professional networks around institutions or professionals can be described with regard to network size, actor heterogeneity, fields of responsibility, and available counselling or support structures. The main argument is that heterogeneous networks may support prevention because they connect different forms of expertise, institutional responsibilities, and access points to families. However, network structures may also show gaps, fragmentation, or unclear responsibilities within support systems. By linking ECEC, prevention, and egocentric network analysis, the presentation contributes to educational research on institutional cooperation and professional concerns in education.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 205 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BAMC2026 | Arts Practices Session Chair: Diana Damilatis-Kull 09:30-09:55 111180 | The Court of Miracles: Dialectics of Residue and Urban Drifts in 1990s Mexican Artistic Practices Diana Martinez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico During the 1990s, Mexico City emerged as a pivotal site for artistic experimentation. Influenced by international trends, a generation of artists adopted practices such as the dérive, performance, and in-situ intervention. This paper analyzes the dialogue between the artist and collected materials, where the resignification of actions uncovers memories embedded within waste. While these creators share the "residue" as a common point of departure, each deploys unique strategies to rescue histories based on the specific potencies revealed by the object. A central axis of this study is the exploration of a "poetics of residue" arising as a critical response to shifting urban dynamics and the reconfiguration of the art object in Mexico. To navigate this landscape, the metaphor of the Court of Miracles (Cour des miracles) is employed as a theoretical framework. As noted by the critic of art Cuauhtémoc Medina, artists like Francis Alÿs transposed this allegory of Parisian marginality to Mexico City’s Historic Center, reimagining it as an ecosystem of resistance and precarious creativity. Under this lens, the residue transcends its status as mere waste to become the engine of an informal economy and a narrative of survival operating outside institutional control. This analysis does not claim a singular devotion to recycled materials, but rather explores how these pieces function as vital records of a city in mutation, where curiosity toward the everyday transforms the discarded into a profound political and aesthetic statement.

09:55-10:20 110626 | The Somatic Ritual of Truth: An Autoethnography of Nudity, Human Intelligence, and the Decolonial Body in Philippine Theater Archie Lawrence Geneta, University of the Philippines Manila, Philippines This analytical autoethnography investigates the complex phenomenon of nudity in contemporary Philippine theatre, transitioning from the researcher’s visceral experience performing en déshabillé to a broader anthropological interrogation of the "ecclesiastical wound" and colonial habitus. Aligning with the IAFOR theme of Humanity and Human Intelligence, the study positions the Filipino body as a primary site of somatic protest and embodied knowledge. It seeks to deconstruct the enduring tension between indigenous customary minimalism and the moral policing of Western-influenced religious institutions. Through nineteen qualitative interviews with theatre professionals and data from a "Theatre Talk" audience gallery, the research utilizes Csordas’s paradigm of embodiment and Turner’s "social skin" to analyze the live, unmediated body. In an era increasingly dominated by algorithmic logic and the "digital panopticon" of social media, this study argues that the physical human presence offers a form of intelligence that is inherently resistant to the commodified erotica of mainstream film. Ultimately, the paper asserts that onstage nudity in the Philippines functions as a decolonial "ritual of truth." It navigates the complexities of middleclass cultural capital while addressing the urgent risks of online exploitation. By advocating for the implementation of professional intimacy coordination, the research emphasizes the necessity of protecting performer dignity. This somatic inquiry underscores the irreplaceable nature of human agency and physical autonomy within a neo-colonial landscape, framing the theatrical body not as a mere object, but as a sophisticated vessel of cultural intelligence and transformative human experience.

10:20-10:45 110862 | Reimagining Theatre Etiquette: Sensory-Friendly Performances as an Inclusive Model for Neurodivergent Audiences Diana Damilatis-Kull, Adelphi University, United States Yan Mei Nie, Adelphi University, United States Margaret Lally, Adelphi University, United States Stephanie Grindell, Adelphi University, United States Traditional theatre environments are governed by strict social norms and expectations, including remaining seated, quiet, and attentive, as a demonstration of respect for performers. While these conventions are deeply embedded in performing arts culture, they can unintentionally create barriers for individuals with disabilities, particularly those with sensory sensitivities. Neurodivergent individuals may experience heightened responses to stimuli such as loud sounds, bright lighting, fog effects, and emotionally intense content, making attendance at conventional performances challenging or inaccessible. In response to these barriers, the Bridges to Adelphi Program at Adelphi University has implemented sensory-friendly “relaxed performances” each semester. These performances are intentionally adapted to support accessibility without compromising artistic integrity. Modifications include consultation with a neurodivergent expert, Diana Damilatis-Kull, who attends dress rehearsals to identify and recommend sensory-related adjustments. Performers are prepared in advance to expect increased audience movement and engagement, requiring flexibility while maintaining character. Environmental adaptations include maintaining low-level house lighting, allowing audience members to move freely, use electronic devices, and exit/re-enter as needed. A designated sensory room and mobile sensory supports are provided to enhance comfort and regulation. Additionally, a detailed sensory guide, available both digitally and in print, outlines the theatre layout, performance elements, and available supports. Audience members are explicitly encouraged to “come as they are,” reframing participation norms. This model demonstrates how performing arts spaces can shift from rigid etiquette toward inclusive, neurodiversity-affirming practices, expanding access while preserving meaningful engagement with live performance.

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Notes

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09:30-11:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teaching Experiences and Pedagogical Development Session Chair: Ijeoma Ogbonnaya 09:30-09:55 111981 | Reforming Legal Education from Within: Evidence from Nigerian Legal Academics Beatrice Ofowena, University of Szeged, Hungary Legal education reform is often discussed through regulatory standards, professional accreditation and curriculum design, while the perspectives of legal academics receive less attention. This paper examines Nigerian legal academics’ views on reforming legal education from within, focusing on pedagogy, curriculum relevance, practical training and institutional support. It draws on original survey data from 187 legal academics across federal, state and private universities in Nigeria, combining descriptive statistical analysis with thematic analysis of open-ended responses. The findings show a strong reform orientation among respondents. They support reform of the current legal education system, stronger teaching and research support, more marketable legal knowledge, greater use of empirical data in doctrinal courses and wider engagement with social science perspectives. The data also show continued reliance on traditional lecturing, while practical and experiential methods, including clinical legal education, remain less frequently used. Open-ended responses call for functional law clinics, problem-solving teaching, digital research training, curriculum modernisation and better preparation for contemporary legal practice. The paper contributes by reframing legal education reform as an academic-capacity question, showing that curriculum innovation depends on lecturers’ working conditions, pedagogical training, research support, digital infrastructure and institutional capacity.

09:55-10:20 113383 | How Curriculum Frameworks Rooted in the Arts Transform the Pedagogical Relationship: Insights from the Workshop Practice of Greene’s Aesthetic Education Naomi Katsura, Toyo University, Japan As the “era of assessment” becomes increasingly characterized by standardized objectives and evaluations in school education, expressive activities that reflect individual identity are becoming increasingly marginalized. This trend places strong emphasis on competition and the ranking of individuals through grading. Within this context, learners are positioned as passive recipients rather than active creators. Against this backdrop, this paper argues for a new curricular framework: collaborative inquiry-based lessons rooted in artistic thinking and individual expression. This approach draws on aesthetic education, developed by Maxine Greene and artists. This article defines the core of this framework as experiences that foster mutual recognition of individuality through collaborative expression, appreciation, and critique among teachers and learners, with connoisseurship serving as a key element. It aims to transform students’ passive, often silent, attitudes and strengthen their agency by extending this collaborative approach beyond arts education to other educational contexts. When art is understood, as Dewey argued, as an aesthetic experience realized in lived situations rather than as a fixed object, the technical concept of curriculum based on predetermined objectives and assessments is challenged. Instead, the workshop-style approach seeks to cultivate diverse perspectives. This framework pursues collaborative knowledge that is shaped by each participant’s unique perspective and guided by their individuality through the exchange of expression and appreciation. Based on an examination of workshop practices, this paper clarifies how this framework transforms teacher–student relationships and how teachers’ educational qualities depend on their curiosity and connoisseurship of expressive diversity.

10:20-10:45 110627 | Reflective Training with Videofeedback and PICCOLO in Early Childhood Education Ariadna Caberol Sallés, Universitat de Vic–Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), Spain Sandra Espino Datsira, Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya, Spain Magda Rivero García, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain The quality of adult–child interactions in early childhood education is key to children’s well-being, learning, and development. Sensitive, warm, and responsive adult practices, together with those promoting exploration and participation, create valuable learning opportunities. However, less evidence is available on how to promote and assess these practices in educational settings. This study addresses this gap through a collaborative professional development process based on video feedback and the use of PICCOLO (Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes; Roggman et al., 2013), adapted to the educational context. The aim was to analyse changes in educators’ interaction quality following a strengths-based reflective training process. An action research design was implemented over one school year with nine educator–child dyads in an early childhood centre in Catalonia. A speech and language therapist facilitated individual and group reflective sessions based on video recordings of semi-structured play situations (symbolic, sensory, and storybook activities). The four PICCOLO domains (Affection, Responsiveness, Encouragement and Teaching) were analysed quantitatively. Results show an overall improvement trend in most dyads. Initial scores were highest in Affection and Responsiveness, linked to emotional warmth and sensitivity. In contrast, Encouragement and Teaching started lower and showed greater room for growth. These findings suggest that basic relational practices may be more consolidated, whereas those fostering autonomy, initiative, and explicit learning require professional support. Analyses showed individual variability and a tendency for higher Teaching scores with older children. The study highlights the potential of PICCOLO and video feedback to enhance educational quality.

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09:30-11:10 | Room 208 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teaching Experiences and Pedagogical Development Session Chair: Ijeoma Ogbonnaya 10:45-11:10 112307 | Examining the Topic-Specific Nature of PCK in the Teaching of Graphs in Dynamics of Market: A South African Case Ijeoma Ogbonnaya, University of the Free State, South Africa Understanding graphs in economics education remains a global challenge but specifically, understanding graphs in the topic ‘Dynamics of Market’ (DM) is a critical issue for South African learners in economics education. This study aimed to examine the nature of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of economics teachers in the teaching of graphs in DM. A case of two different economics teachers’ PCK of the 10th and 11th grades on the same topic at different grade levels had to be compared to understand the phenomenon better. Focusing on different teachers’ PCK for teaching the same topic at different grade levels will help economics education researchers to understand why the same topic is taught differently by different teachers and therefore helps to throw more light on individual teachers’ PCK in teaching economics topics. Using Mavhungas’ Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) model as the theoretical framework, two topicspecific components, learners’ prior knowledge and knowledge of representations, were examined. Data was collected using the observation method and analyzed thematically. This study found that both teachers demonstrated adequate prior knowledge of learners’ misconceptions of graphs in DM. It was also found that both teachers used topic-specific classroom activities to enhance learners’ understanding of graphs in DM. However, both differ in the extent to which they understand learners’ learning difficulties. The study proposes a framework for teaching graphs in DM and recommends that teachers adopt a systematic approach. The study concludes that PCK is specific to each individual teacher.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 202 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | AI and Assessment in Education Session Chair: Arian Vincent Gallegos 11:25-11:50 113474 | Reconceptualising Capability Development Through Workplace Participation: Evidence from Defence Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) and Manufacturing Environments Chetan Lakhanpal, Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Susan Davis, Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Cheryl Anthony, Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Gavin Jenkins, Lincoln College, Saudi Arabia Competency-based approaches underpin workforce development across education, industry, and professional training; however, existing competency frameworks provide limited insight into how workplace capability develops through authentic participation in practice. Consequently, capability is often conceptualised as an outcome of competency attainment rather than as a developmental process shaped by experience and organisational context. This study presents findings from a mixed-methods pilot study examining capability development within Defence Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) and manufacturing environments. Relationships between workplace readiness, participation, competency progression, and organisational context were examined through the integration of survey data from 88 trainees, trainee open-ended responses, focus groups involving educational and industry stakeholders, and a semi-structured key informant interview. The findings indicated that high levels of perceived workplace readiness did not necessarily translate into equivalent levels of competency progression towards independent workplace performance, particularly within technical domains. Qualitative evidence further suggested that capability development was shaped less by competency attainment alone and more by authentic workplace participation, supported by supervision, feedback, increasing responsibility, and opportunities for practice. Integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings informed the development of the Competency Progression Model, which conceptualises capability as an emergent, context-dependent process arising through the interaction of workplace readiness, workplace participation, professional behaviours, competency development, and organisational context. The study contributes to debates on workplace learning, competency-based education, and workforce development by offering an evidence-informed explanation of how capability develops through workplace participation rather than competency attainment alone. Although situated within Defence MRO and manufacturing environments, the findings have broader educational-implications.

11:50-12:15 113242 | Generating Educational and Social Opportunities in Urban Peripheries: Agency and Educating Communities in the E.N.E.R.G.Y. Project Camilla Maria Aviles, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Elisa Ferrari, Fondazione Reggio Children, Italy Urban peripheries are crucial contexts for examining the intersections between social inequalities, educational poverty, and opportunities for community development. In such contexts, inclusive, high-quality education can contribute to promoting equity and expanding opportunities for children, families, and communities. This paper analyses the actions and outcomes of E.N.E.R.G.Y. (Enhancing Nurturing and Education Rights Globally), a project coordinated by Fondazione Reggio Children with the support of The Human Safety Net and implemented in vulnerable peripheral areas of Naples and Palermo (Italy). The project aims to strengthen early childhood rights, prevent school dropout, and promote social well-being. Its theoretical framework intertwines the principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach - listening, educating communities, and the plurality of languages - and the capability approach, conceptualising education as a process capable of fostering agency and capabilities. The study adopts a mixed-methods evaluation approach, integrating quantitative data from questionnaires on participant satisfaction and self-reported outcomes with qualitative data from focus groups with teachers and families, analysed through thematic analysis. The findings show high levels across the quantitative indicators examined, including parental confidence, acquisition of skills and strategies, the quality of parent-child time and relationships. Qualitative data highlight shared educational experiences, new forms of parent-child interaction, enhanced children's curiosity and exploration, a stronger sense of family belonging within the school community, and perceived transformations in teachers' professional practices. E.N.E.R.G.Y. suggests that participatory and inclusive educational practices can generate educational and social opportunities, strengthening agency and educating communities in vulnerable urban contexts.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 202 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | AI and Assessment in Education Session Chair: Arian Vincent Gallegos 12:15-12:40 113035 | Job Readiness in the Lebanese Educational Experience: Humanizing Career Guidance in a Time of Change Maysaa Banat, Rafik Hariri University, Lebanon Nisrine Sinjab, Rafik Hariri University, Lebanon In Lebanon, the persistent gap between academic achievement and workplace readiness continues to challenge students, educators, and families. Rooted in systems that emphasize rote learning over practical skills, young people often graduate with limited exposure to career pathways or mentorship. This study reports two quantitative needs-assessment surveys conducted to inform the design of a human-centered career guidance model integrating AI literacy, 21st-century skills, and continuous mentorship. Data were gathered from 163 stakeholders: 102 high-school and university students, and 61 educators, parents, and school leaders, using closed- and open-ended items analyzed through frequency distributions and keyword-theme extraction. Employability and job-readiness emerged as students' top need (47%), followed by 21st-century life skills (32%) and university admissions support (27%); 74% wanted to learn to use AI tools safely and effectively, and students strongly favored in-person or hybrid delivery over online formats. Educators and parents echoed these priorities, citing career orientation and AI-in-education as leading concerns (approximately 39%), with limited access to advanced tools as the primary barrier (21.6%). Based on these convergent findings, the study proposes a three-pillar model: (1) Career Guidance (career discovery, admissions, and employability coaching); (2) AI in Education (ethical, practical AI-tool use); and (3) 21st-Century Skills Development (critical thinking, communication, collaboration), delivered through school-embedded, mentorship-based formats designed to remain practical and adaptable across varying levels of school infrastructure and resources. Implications are discussed for teacher training design, school leadership planning, and future EdTech interventions in diverse Lebanese school settings.

12:40-13:05 113016 | The Sentinel Creative: Contractual Literacy as Safeguard Mechanism in Philippine Creative Education Arian Vincent Gallegos, De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, Philippines Freelance work in the creative industry has grown rapidly over the years, allowing creatives to explore entrepreneurship while assuming responsibilities traditionally handled within organizational employment. Despite this expansion, contractual literacy remains minimally addressed across reviewed curricula. This study examines contractual literacy as a preventive safeguard in Philippine creative undergraduate programs through two complementary approaches: curriculum analysis and practitioner survey. The former investigates the presence of contractual literacy within the Commission on Higher Education-prescribed General Education courses, the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, and the Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Multimedia Arts. The latter examines creative freelancers' educational exposure, perceived preparedness for contractual practice, and contract-related professional experiences. Findings from the two explorative surveys show that contractual literacy exposure remains consistently limited, with perceptions of contractual practice preparation as insufficient. Respondents reported contract-related concerns, such as payment, deadlines, project scope, and intellectual property disputes, substantiating their expression of stronger support for broader curricular inclusion of contractual literacy. The converged results from both approaches suggest a misalignment between undergraduate creative education and the real-world contractual obligations of freelance practice. The study argues that contractual literacy should be deliberately integrated as an essential component of professional preparedness within creative undergraduate programs and recommends its incorporation into undergraduate curricula as a preventive safeguard for future creative practitioners.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 203 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Foreign Languages Education and Applied Linguistics (including ESL/ TESL/TEFL) Session Chair: Hanan Habis Alharbi 11:25-11:50 110665 | When Personalization Breaks Level Control: Trade-offs in AI-Generated Language Learning Narratives Ronald William Marbun, Tokyo Denki University, Japan Makoto Shishido, Tokyo Denki University, Japan Utilizing narratives as a learning tool in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education has long been recognized as an effective approach for enhancing comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and contextual language understanding. With the development of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, narrative creation has become more efficient and scalable. Through prompt engineering techniques, educators can generate personalized and proficiency-aligned narratives tailored to learners’ needs and reading levels, enabling more adaptive and engaging learning experiences. This study investigates whether personalization within a proposed readability-driven prompting method affects the targetability of AI-generated narratives, defined as the ability to consistently generate narratives that match a specified learner proficiency level through alignment with predefined readability targets, measured by deviation from target ranges. Focusing on beginner-level learners (CEFR A1–A2), this study employs a simulation-based approach in which 1,000 synthetic learner profiles are generated using Big Five personality traits to model learner characteristics for personalization under a fixed narrative topic condition. These profiles are used to construct personalized and non-personalized variants of the prompting method, allowing controlled comparison across conditions. Narratives are evaluated using readability metrics, including Flesch-Kincaid and Dale-Chall, alongside lexical profiling. The study compares the performance of the proposed method under personalized and non-personalized conditions to assess differences in consistency and control. The findings contribute to the design of prompt engineering strategies that balance personalization with readability control, offering insights into scalable personalization in AI-assisted EFL narrative generation. Future work will extend this framework to human-centered evaluation and evaluating learner engagement through game-based approaches.

11:50-12:15 113715 | Mitigating AI Abuse and AI Induced Plagiarism Through Digital Multimodal Composing in the EFL Classroom Wade Alley, Universidad Panamericana Campus Guadalajara, Mexico Students often use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)and Large Language Models (LLMs) without regard for academic convention, ethical consideration or reflection on their own critical thinking or problem solving skills. AI abuse and plagiarism are especially acute in L2 language classes among students who are deficient in communicative areas such as L2 writing and speaking. To overcome AI abuse and re-orient students toward ethical and effective use of GAI, a course of instruction using Digital Multimedia Composition (DMC) was deployed in an advanced level of English with 12 students during the summer of 2026. The purpose of the task was to compel students to complete an original mini-documentary or multimodal project that focused on personal stories that were combined with research techniques. As part of their multimodal project, students had to show themselves directly engaging in activities that related to their topics (i.e.playing an instrument or sport). Students were responsible for providing evidence of their own learning through expert interviews, and by showing they had consulted and cited academic texts within their composition. Completed projects revealed that with proper guidance, students could successfully use AI resources to compose their projects without resorting to misuse or plagiarism. Furthermore, by giving students concrete examples that illustrated the desired project outcomes and instruction directed toward critical literacy of written and digital composition, students showed they could effectively communicate in a meaningful and high quality manner. Higher quality products led to higher value assessments and greater student satisfaction about their own learning.

12:15-12:40 108850 | Human-Centered AI in Language Education: Sustaining Empathy and Dialogic Engagement Through a GPT-Based Instructional Persona Muhammad Ali, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia Sadia Ali, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into language education necessitates renewed attention to the balance between technological mediation and the human dimensions of teaching and learning. While AI systems increasingly structure instructional interaction, language education remains fundamentally grounded in empathy, creativity, and ethical awareness. This study investigates how human-centered engagement can be sustained within AI-supported instructional environments and argues that algorithmic mediation does not diminish the relational quality of learning. To explore this idea, a fictional instructional persona, “Baymax”, was operationalized through a customized GPTbased conversational system intentionally configured to foreground empathy, dialogic sensitivity, and socio-emotional alignment. The persona was selected for its established association with compassionate, non-judgmental support. The system was designed to enact humanistic discourse features, including encouragement, perspective-taking, and adaptive conversational scaffolding, thereby repositioning the AI from a task-oriented assistant to a relational interlocutor. Using a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design, the intervention was implemented with undergraduate EFL learners at King Saud University, KSA. A Likert-scale survey was conducted to assess perceived human-likeness and emotional resonance. Findings indicate that over 70% of participants perceived the interaction as human-like. Descriptive statistics and t-test confirmed that mean human-likeness ratings significantly exceed the neutral midpoint (P<.05), with reliability established via Cronbach’s alpha. The study concludes that despite the expanding role of AI in language education, human agency remains central in shaping an empathetic and dialogic AI- mediated learning environment.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 203 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Foreign Languages Education and Applied Linguistics (including ESL/ TESL/TEFL) Session Chair: Hanan Habis Alharbi 12:40-13:05 112588 | Exploring the Impact of AI-Generated In-Class Activities on Foreign Language Anxiety and Learner Autonomy Hanan alharbi, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia Background: Foreign language anxiety (FLA) and limited learner autonomy remain persistent barriers to effective language acquisition in university settings. Empirical evidence on the effects of specifically AI-generated in-class activities on both FLA and learner autonomy simultaneously is scarce. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was employed with 81 female undergraduate students (IELTS 4.5+) enrolled in English language courses at two Saudi universities. Participants were assigned to an experimental group (n = 41) or a control group (n = 40). Over 10 weeks (one pre-test, eight instruction, one post-test), the experimental group engaged with four AI-generated activities — mind mapping, comic strip and advertisement creation, short skits, and case study analysis — produced using ChatGPT and Gemini. FLA was measured with an adapted 15-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS; Horwitz et al., 1986; α = 0.89). Learner autonomy was measured with a 15-item scale adapted from Benson (2001), Cotterall (1995), and Spratt et al. (2002), reported across two subscales: self-efficacy/motivation (α = 0.78 experimental; α = 0.78 control) and independence from external authority (α = 0.76 experimental; α = 0.72 control). Data were analysed using IBM SPSS v.29 and R v.4.3.1. Results: Both groups showed significant within-group improvements. The experimental group demonstrated larger effect sizes in FLA reduction (Mₚₒₛₜ = 2.47, SD = 0.80; d = 1.37) and autonomy gain (Mₚₒₛₜ = 3.77, SD = 0.39; d = 1.39) compared to the control group (FLA: d = 0.88; autonomy: d = 0.78).

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11:25-13:05 | Room 204 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Educational Policy, Management and Administration Session Chair: Andrew Wambua 11:25-11:50 109576 | Rethinking Student Voice: Adultcentrism and the Limits of Participation in Educational Policy Leslie Karen Booth S., Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile In recent decades, the concept of adultcentrism has gained increasing visibility in Latin American scholarship on childhood, youth, and education. However, despite its growing circulation, the concept is often used ambiguously, functioning more as an ethical label than as a precise analytical category, which limits its usefulness for examining intergenerational power relations within educational institutions and policies. This paper draws on doctoral research in Sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and develops a critical conceptual review of adultcentrism within Latin American academic literature, tracing the genealogy of the concept from its early formulations as a perceptual bias in adult interpretations of childhood to its contemporary reconceptualization in Latin American critical scholarship as a structural system of generational domination. Building on contributions from the sociology of childhood, decolonial perspectives, and critical educational theory, the paper analyzes how adultcentrism operates simultaneously as an epistemic framework, an institutional logic, and a relational structure shaping interactions between adults and children within educational contexts. The article proposes a situated definition of adultcentrism that integrates its symbolic, institutional, and relational dimensions, with particular attention to the intersections between generational hierarchies, coloniality, and gendered power relations in Latin America. By clarifying the analytical scope of the concept, the paper aims to provide a conceptual foundation for future empirical research examining how adult-centered logics are reproduced and contested within educational policy and school practices.

11:50-12:15 111927 | Examining Policy-Practice Gaps in Scholarship Distribution: Scholarship Type, Academic Risk, and Gender at a Private Higher Education Institution in Manila Michael Luis Fernando III Tecson, Ateneo De Manila University, Philippines Using a population-based study of 996 scholars for Academic Year 2024-2025, the paper examines the gap between policy and practice in terms of scholarship distribution at a private higher education institution in Metro Manila, Philippines. This paper is grounded in a document analysis of the institution’s Student Handbooks (AY 2022–2025 and AY 2025–2030) and is interpreted using Critical Realism. The scholarship governance conditions stipulated in the Student Handbooks are carefully examined to determine if they are aligned with the academic outcomes produced by each scholarship category or if a gap exists between the intent of the given scholarship and the observed academic consequences. The data reveals that merit scholars are 34 times more likely to be academically at-risk compared to academic scholars. In terms of gender, male scholarship recipients account for 80.9% of all scholars at-risk, and significantly the data shows that male merit scholars are recording a 25.6% at-risk rate, representing one in four merit scholars of the Institution. The study demonstrates that academic risk is not randomly distributed but it is structurally dictated, as governance conditions attached to merit scholarships place an emphasis on talent rather than academic maintenance. The high concentration of male merit scholars who are at-risk represents a failure in scholarship governance with a direct implication on equity. The findings ultimately highlight critical insights for the policy design of scholarships, allocation of academic support, and institutional governance of private higher education institutions in the Philippines.

12:15-12:40 112526 | Schools as Societal Mirrors: A Criminological Analysis of Learner-on-Educator Violence in South African Secondary Schools Huma Kganya, University of South Africa, South Africa Learner-on-educator violence is a growing concern in South African schools, with incidents escalating at an alarming rate. This study explores educators’ lived experiences and perceptions of learner-on-educator violence, focusing on its nature, causes, impact, and coping mechanisms. Drawing on empirical data from the author’s master’s research, the study employed an exploratory qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 educators from nine public secondary schools in the Tshwane West, North, and South Districts of the Gauteng Department of Basic Education in South Africa. The findings revealed that verbal abuse was the most prevalent form of violence experienced by educators, followed by physical abuse and cyberbullying. Participants attributed learner-on-educator violence to multiple intersecting factors, including inadequate parental discipline and involvement, family violence, peer pressure, gang affiliation, substance abuse, avoidance of academic responsibilities, the abolition of corporal punishment, and disregard for school codes of conduct. The study further found that violence negatively affected educators’ emotional well-being, physical health, and professional performance. To cope with these challenges, participants relied primarily on disengagement strategies such as resigned acceptance, financial motivation, and retirement planning. Educators also reported limited awareness of formal support structures and instead depended on informal collegial support. The study recommends a holistic ecological approach involving families, schools, communities, and learners to address violence while promoting human rights, responsibility, and the principles of Ubuntu.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 204 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Educational Policy, Management and Administration Session Chair: Andrew Wambua 12:40-13:05 112515 | Bridging the Policy-Practice Gap: Culturally Responsive Education in Kenya Andrew Wambua, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa Agnes Chigona, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa This position paper analyzes the structural implementation of Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), arguing that localized, systemic research is the vital link to school effectiveness. While CBC aims to foster 21st-century skills, its reliance on top-down, standardized cascade training models ignores classroom realities, alienates teachers, and maintains a rigid power distance between students and administration. This disconnect potentially suppresses student voice – a systemic failure that has historically manifested in devastating school strikes. To address this, Kenyan school leaders must shift governance and professional development toward participatory action research. By operationalizing the indigenous philosophies of maadili (ethical values), kamukunjis (student assemblies), and community barazas (inclusive dialogue forums), leaders can gather qualitative data on students' sense of belonging, thereby transforming passive compliance into relational accountability. Concurrently, integrating African ways of knowing into teacher development shifts training away from hyper-individualized paradigms toward collaborative professionalism, enabling educators to collectively refine classroom practices. Despite systemic challenges such as resource scarcity and implementation hurdles, empirical evidence shows that teacher-led inquiry and culturally responsive frameworks enhance institutional resilience and academic outcomes. Ultimately, this study offers actionable policy recommendations, including amending the Basic Education Act to mandate collaborative barazas and student kamukunjis, decentralizing professional development funding, and embedding indigenous research methodologies into teacher college curricula. This integration ensures that Kenyan schools evolve into highperforming, globally competitive learning ecosystems anchored in student voice and collaborative teacher leadership.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 205 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BAMC2026 | Digital Humanities Session Chair: David Salas Espasa 11:25-11:50 106130 | Atmosphere Without Authors: Posthuman Form and Internet Culture Kylie Dunleavy, University of Kent, United Kingdom Internet culture demands a rethinking of what constitutes the ‘literary’ and how meaning, authorship and form operate within the contemporary moment. Drawing on Timothy Morton’s concept of Posthuman decentring this paper explores how imageboards and meme cultures shape how identity and meaning are created and circulated without stable authorship, linear plot or coherent subjectivity. In what Bewes terms the ‘post-fictional age’ online space increasingly blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality, producing forms that are neither fully narrative nor purely referential but rather, are atmospheric and collective. Internet culture is read here as symptomatic of broader cultural conditions in which immediacy, fragmentation and affect dominate over mediation and interpretation. Despite the growing entanglement of the online and offline there remains a limited cultural understanding of internet culture. The online space is often treated as mere ‘content’ rather than as a distinct literary environment with its own logics of production and reception. This disjunction becomes particularly visible through the offline mobilisation of online users of the anonymous imageboard 4Chan seen during events such the formation of the Hacktivist group Anonymous. By approaching 4Chan as an affective system rather than a collection of isolated users or texts, this paper argues that internet culture provides a crucial site for rethinking contemporary literary form. Practices such as meme circulation, ephemerality, and collective authorship challenge conventional models of narrative coherence, readership, and interpretation, revealing how post-fictional forms operate through atmosphere and affect rather than plot, character, or stable meaning.

11:50-12:15 108824 | From Aura to Semi-Aura: Reframing Authenticity in AI-Generated Art Through Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry David Salas Espasa, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain Generative AI has intensified contemporary debates on authenticity, authorship, and artistic singularity. While Walter Benjamin described the “decay of aura” under conditions of mechanical reproducibility, algorithmic generation introduces a new ontological situation: artworks produced without stable origin, material anchoring, or clearly attributable authorial intention. Rather than interpreting this shift as a simple loss, this presentation proposes the concept of semi-aura as a framework for understanding authenticity within human–machine co-creation. Semi-aura describes authenticity not as an intrinsic property of the artwork, but as a relational configuration emerging through the interaction between generative systems, human prompting, institutional framing, and audience reception. The concept has been developed through a research programme combining theoretical analysis and empirical investigation. Findings from a quantitative study (N = 172) indicate that authenticity is perceived along a graded spectrum: human-created works receive the highest evaluations, fully autonomous AI works the lowest, while hybrid human–AI productions occupy an intermediate position. These results suggest that audiences do not reject technological mediation per se, but respond to the perceived presence—or absence—of human intentional trace. By integrating philosophical reflection with empirical data, the presentation argues that the crisis of aura does not culminate in aesthetic disappearance, but in a displacement of singularity from material origin to relational event, offering a new framework for understanding artistic legitimacy in contemporary algorithmic culture.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 208 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Professional Training and Development in Education Session Chair: Maria Sonia Valeria Sumonte Rojas 11:25-11:50 113014 | Dynamic-Ecological Model of Teacher Professional Development (MODE-TPD): A Theoretical Framework Based on a Systematic Literature Review Jennifer Lorena Gómez Contreras, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Colombia Sandra Valbuena Antolínez, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Colombia The present study aimed to analyze the determinants of the effectiveness of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for in-service teachers through the development of an integrative theoretical model derived from the available scientific evidence. A systematic literature review and a deductive thematic analysis were conducted. The review followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and was carried out using the Scopus database, including empirical studies published in English between 2013 and 2024. Studies were managed using Mendeley, and analyzed through deductive coding in NVivo. Peer review procedures and continuous comparison of categories were incorporated to enhance the credibility of the analysis. As a result, the Dynamic-Ecological Model of Teacher Professional Development (MODE-TPD) was developed, organizing the determinants of TPD effectiveness into four interrelated analytical levels: (1) teacher dispositions, professional trajectories, and identities; (2) organizational culture, leadership, and professional relationships; (3) TPD design, management, and regulation; and (4) the systemic-contextual level, encompassing educational policies, working conditions, and professional networks. The model distinguishes structural conditions, mediating processes, and emergent outcomes, integrating them within a dynamic, multilevel framework characterized by recursive feedback mechanisms. This framework conceptualizes CPD effectiveness as an ecological phenomenon whose outcomes depend on the interaction among teachers' individual dispositions, organizational cultures, institutional mechanisms, and contextual conditions. Consequently, the MODE-CPD provides an integrative theoretical framework for understanding the complexity of TPD and the dynamic processes that shape its effectiveness. This document is the result of the project INV-DIS-4339, financed by the Research ViceRectory of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada—validity 2026

11:50-12:15 112104 | Correlational Analysis of Teacher Profiles and Continuous Professional Development: a Case Study of Public Accounting Programs in Colombia Sandra Valbuena Antolínez, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Colombia Jennifer Lorena Gómez Contreras, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Colombia This study analyzes the relationship between teacher profiles, specifically teaching experience and highest level of formal education, and three dimensions of continuous professional development (CPD): perceived impact, institutional support, and current training needs among faculty members in Public Accounting programs in Colombia. Adopting an empirical, analytical, and mixed-methods approach with a cross-sectional design, the study collected data through a questionnaire that explored faculty characteristics, participation in professional development activities, perceptions of impact, satisfaction, motivations, institutional support, barriers to participation, and training needs. Statistical treatment included descriptive analysis, reliability testing using Cronbach’s alpha, normality assessment, and nonparametric correlation analysis through Spearman’s coefficient. The results indicate that teaching experience is associated with stronger positive correlations across several indicators of impact, institutional support, and professional development practices, particularly activities related to self-evaluation, collaborative inquiry, mentoring, and engagement with educational reforms. In contrast, higher levels of formal education are predominantly associated with negative correlations regarding perceived impact, satisfaction, and motivation, suggesting limitations in the relevance and continuity of existing development initiatives. Findings also reveal that participation in CPD is sustained largely by intrinsic motivation, while institutional incentives and support mechanisms are perceived as insufficient. As training and experience increase, the quality of activities is evaluated in relation to changes in context. The study contributes evidence for designing more relevant and responsive faculty development strategies within higher education. This document is the result of the project INV-DIS-4339, financed by the Research Vice-Rectory of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada—validity 2026.

12:15-12:40 111456 | The Shortage of Teachers in the European Union and Latin America: A Sociological Perspective in Liquid Modernity Stella de Mello Silva, Centro Universitário Adventista de Ensino - UNASP, Brazil The shortage of teachers is a global phenomenon affecting both the European Union (EU) and Latin America, requiring analyses that transcend the economic dimension. According to the European Commission's "Education and Training Monitor 2023" report, 25 of the 27 EU countries report a teacher shortage. Simultaneously, in Latin America, a severe "teacher blackout" is observed, marked by youth rejection of the teaching profession. This work aims to analyze the crisis of teacher attractiveness by connecting these realities from a sociological perspective, grounded in Zygmunt Bauman's theory of liquid modernity. It argues that public policies focused solely on salaries are insufficient. Empirical data from Latin American students reveal that the refusal to pursue teaching stems from the incompatibility between contemporary aspirations for fluidity, personal fulfillment, and adaptability, and the traditional structure of the profession. Teaching faces a value paradox: it is socially essential, but identifiably undesirable for the "liquid" subject. It is concluded that addressing this systemic shortage requires sociological interventions. The formulation of integrated public policies is proposed that, in addition to material incentives, promote the symbolic and cultural re-signification of the teaching profession, aligning it with contemporary subjective dynamics to restore its attractiveness among new generations.

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11:25-13:05 | Room 208 (2F)

Sunday Onsite Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Professional Training and Development in Education Session Chair: Maria Sonia Valeria Sumonte Rojas 12:40-13:05 113004 | Understanding Diversity in Teacher Education: Voices from Chile Valeria Sumonte Rojas, Catholic University of Maule, Chile The growing diversity of university classrooms challenges traditional teaching and learning approaches (Stentiford & Koutsouris, 2021; Sumonte et al., 2026). In response, inclusive pedagogy has emerged as an approach that promotes equity and participation for all learners (Florian et al., 2026; Hajisoteriou & Sorkos, 2023). However, its implementation requires adequately prepared teachers (Pantić & Carr, 2017), while specialized training in this area remains insufficient (Larios & Zetlin, 2023; Schmelkes & Ballesteros, 2023). This study examines the beliefs and attitudes of teacher educators (TEs) and pre-service teachers (PSTs) regarding practices for addressing diversity in higher education. An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed. A total of 232 participants from 18 universities completed the CAPA-PU questionnaire (Ramos et al., 2021). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Student’s t-test, chi-square tests, Pearson correlations, and hierarchical linear regression. Effect sizes were estimated using Cohen’s d and Cramer’s V. The results revealed positive perceptions of diversity, with the highest scores observed for institutional diversity (4.52 ± 0.52) and diverse teaching and learning practices (4.22 ± 0.64). In contrast, institutional leaders’ commitment received the lowest rating (2.89 ± 0.58). PSTs scored significantly higher than TEs on conceptions of diversity (p= .050) and diverse teaching and learning practices (p = .010). Although the regression models showed limited explanatory power, the inclusion of variables related to inclusive training increased the explained variance to 11.8%. Overall, the findings suggest that learning experiences associated with inclusive pedagogies contribute more substantially to explaining the observed differences than sociodemographic and academic characteristics.

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Notes

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Monday, November 9 10:20-12:00 | Online Parallel Session 1 12:10-13:50 | Online Parallel Session 2 14:00-15:40 | Online Parallel Session 3 All times are Central European Time (UTC+1) Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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10:20-12:00 | Live-Stream Room 2

Monday Online Parallel Session 1 BAMC2026 | Linguistics and Language (Workshop and Presentation) Session Chair: Brian Mathias 10:20-11:10 110603 | Using Talk for Writing to Develop Speaking and Writing Skills in Non-Native Arabic Learners Rana Kutkut, Gems Royal Dubai School., United Arab Emirates This workshop presents the Talk for Writing approach as an effective strategy to develop speaking and writing skills among non-native Arabic learners. It is based on a classroom action research study conducted with primary students, which showed clear improvement in both oral communication and written expression. The session introduces practical classroom techniques such as modeling, guided practice, and structured repetition to support language production. Participants will engage in interactive activities that demonstrate how learners can build confidence in speaking while improving sentence structure and vocabulary use in writing. The workshop also highlights how these strategies can be adapted to different proficiency levels. By the end of the session, participants will gain practical tools to design engaging lessons that integrate speaking and writing effectively in their classrooms.

11:10-11:35 112344 | Beyond the Technical Domain: Metaphorization and Determinologization of Construction Terminology in English and Albanian Megi Plaku, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania Anjeza Brahja, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania Specialized terminology is generally associated with precision, conceptual clarity, and communication among experts. However, technical terms frequently transcend their original domains and become integrated into everyday language through processes of metaphorization and determinologization. This study explores the semantic transformation of construction engineering terminology as it moves from specialized discourse into general communication in English and Albanian. Grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and terminology studies, the research examines how construction-related terms acquire figurative meanings and function as linguistic resources for expressing abstract concepts. The analysis draws on examples collected from English idiomatic dictionaries and Albanian everyday usage, focusing on terms such as foundation, bridge, pillar, wall, concrete, and roof. Particular attention is given to idiomatic expressions, phraseological units, and metaphorical extensions that reflect the cognitive association between physical structures and abstract domains such as social relationships, personal development, authority, stability, and human behaviour. The findings indicate that construction terminology represents a highly productive source domain for metaphorical conceptualization. Expressions such as lay the foundation, a pillar of society, and burn one’s bridges, together with Albanian equivalents such as hedh themelet, shtyllë e shoqërisë, and prish urat, demonstrate how technical concepts become embedded in collective linguistic experience. By examining the interaction between specialized and general language, this study contributes to a broader understanding of semantic change, terminology dynamics, and metaphorical thinking. It also highlights pedagogical implications for English for Specific Purposes (ESP), suggesting that awareness of metaphorical extensions can support engineering students in developing a deeper understanding of technical vocabulary.

11:35-12:00 113491 | Reading Aloud to Remember: Prefrontal Control Contributes to the Memory Benefit of Active Production Brian Mathias, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Lihui Hu, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Reading aloud is a learning strategy that reliably improves memory for spoken material relative to silent reading. We tested whether cognitive control processes supported by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) contribute to this benefit, known as the production effect. In a preregistered experiment, 40 adults completed three sessions involving bilateral continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS), intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), or sham stimulation of the DLPFC. Participants then studied words aloud or silently before a recognition test. Reading aloud significantly improved recognition accuracy, confidence, response speed, and recollection: recognition accuracy was 75% for aloud words and 58% for silent words. Critically, cTBS significantly reduced the aloud–silent accuracy advantage relative to sham and iTBS. However, it did not eliminate the production effect, reduce recognition of aloud or new words, or produce a speed–accuracy trade-off. iTBS did not increase the production benefit. Because overall recognition remained intact, the selective reduction following cTBS is unlikely to reflect a general memory impairment. Instead, the DLPFC may help prioritise the distinctive auditory and motor features generated by speaking. These findings help explain why active verbal production supports learning: reading aloud creates a distinctive memory record whose influence is partly shaped by prefrontal control. For education, the results support reading aloud as a robust learning strategy and clarify the cognitive processes underlying its benefit.

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10:20-12:00 | Live-Stream Room 3

Monday Online Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Education Policy, Leadership and Management Session Chair: Timothy Mattison 10:20-10:45 111338 | Strategic Convergence in Higher Education: Are University Strategic Plans Losing Value as Governance Tools? Jonathan Dredge, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Strategic plans have become central governance instruments within higher education institutions, intended to articulate institutional priorities, guide leadership decision making, and differentiate universities within increasingly complex and uncertain environments. However, growing similarities in strategic language, priorities, and governance narratives across institutions raise important questions regarding whether university strategic plans are maintaining their value as meaningful tools of governance and leadership or evolving into mechanisms designed to signal legitimacy and sectoral alignment. Drawing on Institutional Theory, this paper examines the extent to which strategic convergence is emerging across higher education institutions and explores the governance and leadership implications of this trend. Using qualitative content analysis of publicly available university strategic plans, the study investigates recurring themes related to innovation, resilience, sustainability, accountability, internationalization, transformation, and institutional agility. Particular attention is given to how institutions frame strategic priorities and whether governance and leadership approaches demonstrate meaningful differentiation. Preliminary findings suggest increasing convergence in both strategic language and governance framing, particularly in response to shared pressures including fiscal uncertainty, technological disruption, demographic change, political scrutiny, and heightened accountability expectations. While this convergence may strengthen institutional legitimacy and demonstrate responsiveness to external pressures, it may also contribute to strategic homogenization, weaken institutional distinctiveness, and reduce the effectiveness of strategic plans as governance tools. The paper concludes by considering how higher education leaders and governing bodies may strengthen the strategic value of institutional planning through greater governance differentiation, context-sensitive leadership approaches, and more adaptive planning frameworks that balance legitimacy with institutional identity and innovation.

10:45-11:10 112128 | Beyond Engagement: Using STEM Education to Explore Sustainability, Equity, and Global Challenges Aline Abassian, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Qatar STEM education is increasingly expected to prepare learners to engage with complex global challenges such as climate change, water scarcity, food security, sustainability, and social inequality. Yet educational responses often fall into one of two traps: emphasizing technical content detached from societal realities, or focusing on social issues without sufficient disciplinary rigor. This presentation introduces a Context–Structure Framework designed to help educators navigate this tension by balancing authentic societal contexts with the disciplinary knowledge and practices that support meaningful analysis. Drawing on experiences from undergraduate and graduate STEM teacher education programs in Qatar, the framework positions context as more than engagement and structure as more than content coverage. Instead, the focus is to critically examine whose experiences are centered, what assumptions are embedded within learning tasks, and how disciplinary tools can be used to explore complex social and environmental issues. Examples include learning experiences focused on water scarcity, food security, climate-related decision making, and culturally situated knowledge systems. The framework supports students in moving beyond simplified narratives and toward evidence-based and ethical reasoning. By connecting local realities to global challenges, this approach positions STEM education as a vehicle for sustainability, equity, and global citizenship while fostering the critical inquiry needed to navigate an increasingly interconnected world.

11:10-11:35 112493 | Replicating Human School Leadership Coaches in GenAI Chatbots Timothy Mattison, University of Southern Indiana, United States Juan Juarez, School Empowerment Network, United States Ever since OpenAI released ChatGPT, the first publicly-available generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) program, educational institutions worldwide have experimented with ways of using the technology to improve learning environments. Much of the existing research on GenAIuse in education focuses on the enrichment of teaching and learning. Fewer studies have focused on GenAI-use to improve K-12 school campus leadership. School leaders are crucial for training and supporting teachers in their work driving student achievement. However, school districts often struggle to provide them consistent one-on-one support. As a result, some districts have hired educational consulting firms to implement programs for school leadership coaching. But consultants have limits to their responsiveness. In this paper, the authors explore the use of GenAI chatbots to provide coaching support to school campus leaders. Chatbot coaching could ensure that school leaders have constant access to critical feedback and suggestions for improving their schools. However, several studies such as Juravle et al. (2020) indicate that people trust information from humans more than from AI programs. These studies suggest that human coaching is critical for building the trust required for internalization and application of information. In this live and virtual paper presentation, the authors propose an evidence-based framework for using GenAI chatbots to coach school leaders. The framework focuses on training chatbots to be virtual replicas of human leadership coaches in whom school leaders already trust. These chatbots are trained to use the same dialogic approaches, affective expressions, and advice as the human coach.

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10:20-12:00 | Live-Stream Room 3

Monday Online Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Education Policy, Leadership and Management Session Chair: Timothy Mattison 11:35-12:00 113029 | Designing an AI-Assisted Reflective Learning Environment for Cultural Humility in Speech-Language Pathology Education Sofia Madrid Teran, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Cathy Weng, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Cultural humility in healthcare education requires ongoing self-reflection and bias awareness, skills that are often insufficiently supported by traditional exercises and static clinical cases. In response, a 5-week online environment was developed using Wiggins and McTighe’s Backward Design and Jonassen’s Constructivist Learning Environments to foster cultural humility among speech-language pathology (SLP) students. The intervention integrates AI-generated audio clinical narratives, selected to enhance authentic empathetic engagement, and a customized ChatGPT-based tutor configured with system prompts for Socratic scaffolding and metacognitive guidance. Safeguards are implemented to address prompt drift, social desirability bias, algorithmic bias, data privacy, and ensure human oversight. To establish instructional validity prior to student implementation, the design is undergoing a structured expert review involving specialists in SLP, clinical education, and health ethics. Evaluation criteria include scenario authenticity, Socratic depth, and ethical alignment, analyzed through qualitative content analysis and a rubric-based consensus process. Preliminary findings from this expert validation will be presented, along with planned measures for assessing student reflective capacity. This work offers a peer-reviewed, reproducible model for integrating customized AI conversational agents into health professions education.

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10:20-12:00 | Live-Stream Room 4

Monday Online Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teaching and Learning Experiences Session Chair: Lei Huang 10:20-10:45 113199 | Student Perspectives on Mental Health and Higher Education in Croatia Antonia Ivanov, Independent Scholar, Croatia The prioritisation of productivity and employability over the acquisition of knowledge has profoundly altered the sphere of higher education for both students and the academic staff, presenting as a manifestation of the increasing neoliberalisation of academia. These contemporary ideological influences serve as an additional burden for students with mental health struggles already grappling with a system which was constructed for neurotypical individuals. Mental health difficulties are stigmatised, impede the fulfilment of academic goals, and have a significantly socially isolating, alienating effect on individuals. Through eight semi-structured interviews with students who attended the University of Zadar, I have explored the under-researched reality of students navigating academia while struggling with mental health within the context of Croatian higher education. The study placed an emphasis on the educational strain associated with attending university, the academic staff’s actions and stances, the impact of these on the participants’ mental health, but also the ways in which the participants’ mental health shaped their academic life. The participants in the study frequently expressed a sense of alienation from academia, believing that they were inadequate students and did not belong within the institution.

10:45-11:10 113730 | VUCA Perspectives on Academic Difficulties and SEL Competencies: College of Dentistry Supplemental Enrichment Program Evalene Ann Perez-Lanting, University of the East, Philippines VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) in dental education requires a flexible and holistic approach for students for becoming acquainted with the contemporary realities. At the heart of the shift is the infusion of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), which is designed to enhance emotional intelligence, interpersonal efficacy, stress management and professional resilience as essential skills in contemporary dental practice. Even though SEL is proven to be effective in education and healthcare, such as improved performance and communication, its integration in dental education is still limited. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the VUCA realities and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) on dentistry’s skills development. Grounded in Daniel Goleman’s research on emotional intelligence and Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, this study explores how students apply SEL competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and decision making – through the perceived academic difficulties in relation to VUCA. The study employs a mixed-methods research design, specifically an explanatory sequential approach. It commences with quantitative surveys to determine how respondents experienced regarding VUCA and SEL skills. Included in this study are dental students, faculty members, and academic administrators from two dental schools in Manila and two in the CALABARZON region. The research investigates not only the level of SEL among students but also differences in perceptions and coping mechanisms related to VUCA challenges. Ultimately, the supplementary program offers an adjunct approach to support that strengthens dental students' ability to cope in the VUCA world.

11:10-11:35 110906 | From Diagnostic Categories to Support Needs: Rethinking Multiple Disabilities Emrah Marul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Türkiye Multiple disabilities represent one of the most educationally complex groups within special education, yet definitional inconsistency persists across policy systems and scholarly literature. Terms such as multiple disabilities, profound and multiple learning disabilities, and extensive support needs are frequently used interchangeably despite reflecting different conceptual assumptions. This paper presents a conceptual comparative review examining how multiple disabilities are defined and operationalized across seven contexts: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Nordic countries, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and the WHO/ICF framework. Drawing on policy documents and scholarly sources published between 1980 and 2025, the analysis identifies three dominant approaches: categorical-diagnostic, functional-support, and participation-context. The paper demonstrates how exclusive reliance on categorical systems can obscure interactional support needs in educational planning and service provision. The analysis is situated within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), arguing that definitional ambiguity affects inclusive education and reasonable accommodation practices. The Turkish educational context is used as an illustrative case to examine tensions between legal recognition and practical implementation. Based on the comparative analysis, the paper proposes the Synergistic Impact and Support Needs Model, a framework designed to connect disability interaction, functional assessment, and support-oriented educational planning.

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10:20-12:00 | Live-Stream Room 4

Monday Online Parallel Session 1 BCE2026 | Teaching and Learning Experiences Session Chair: Lei Huang 11:35-12:00 109621 | How Academic Pressure Becomes Psychological Burden: a Qualitative Study of Chinese International Students in Italy Lei Huang, University of Turin, Italy International student well-being has become a central concern in higher education, yet the mechanisms through which academic pressure develops into psychological burden remain insufficiently understood. This paper addresses that gap by examining how Chinese international students in Italy experience, interpret, and manage academic strain in everyday university life. Focusing on students at the University of Turin and the Polytechnic University of Turin, the study draws on qualitative interviews with participants across degree levels, disciplinary fields, and help-seeking trajectories. Rather than treating distress as a fixed outcome of academic difficulty, the analysis adopts a process-oriented perspective to show how pressure is gradually internalized through the intersection of transnational aspiration, family expectation, linguistic insecurity, future uncertainty, and difficulties navigating unfamiliar support systems. The findings suggest that what appears as academic stress is often experienced more deeply as a struggle over self-worth, responsibility, belonging, and legitimacy. They also illuminate why some students move toward formal or informal support, while others normalize distress, delay help-seeking, or remain silent. By offering a culturally informed account of distress formation, this paper contributes to debates on internationalization, student well-being, and inclusive support in higher education.

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12:10-13:50 | Live-Stream Room 2

Monday Online Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Curriculum Design and Development Session Chair: Jenny Artkoski 12:10-12:35 113434 | From K-pop to Global Citizenship: Recontextualizing K-Culture Education Under South Korea’s Second Basic Plan for Cultural Promotion Seri Yoon, Waseda University, Japan In 2023, South Korea introduced the Second Basic Plan for Cultural Promotion (2023–2027), setting a national direction for strengthening the cultural sector and K-culture. K-pop-related programs had appeared in universities and specialized institutions before the plan, but their expansion signals a shift in how popular culture is being positioned within education. As K-pop enters curricula, questions arise about what elements of the industry are selected as educational knowledge and what kinds of learners these programs seek to develop. Much of K-pop education remains connected to professional training in performance and cultural production. Its role in fostering intercultural understanding and global citizenship, however, has received less attention. By employing Basil Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device, particularly the concept of recontextualization, this research examines how policy discourse surrounding K-culture is translated into K-pop education in South Korean higher education and how this process shapes its educational meaning. Using a qualitative case-study and document-analysis approach, the research analyzes government policy documents together with curricula, program descriptions, and institutional materials from selected universities and institutions offering K-pop-related programs. The study focuses on how professional knowledge from the K-pop industry, including performance, cultural production, and global communication, is selected and reorganized as teachable knowledge. It also examines the relationship between industry-oriented training and educational aims related to cultural understanding and global citizenship. Through this analysis, the study seeks to clarify how a globally circulating form of popular culture becomes institutionalized as education and how ideas of global citizenship are constructed within that process.

12:35-13:00 106882 | Who Am I in the English Classroom? Judith Zangerle, University of Cádiz, Spain The project presented at this conference builds on my doctoral research, which demonstrated that language choice is closely linked to emotional expression and identity positioning. Using narrative data and computer-assisted text analysis (LIWC), my previous study showed that English functions not only as a tool for communication but also as a space in which speakers shape and express aspects of their identity. The current project, in its initial stage, transfers these insights to an EFL classroom in secondary and upper-secondary education. It examines how students use English to talk about themselves, their relationships, and their experiences within and beyond school. Language learning is understood as connected to culture, social belonging, and personal development, rather than solely to linguistic achievement. The study follows a mixed-methods design with a qualitative emphasis. Participants will be secondary and upper-secondary students with comparable English proficiency (B1 onwards). Participants will represent diverse genders and cultural backgrounds, with German as the preferred first language. Data consist of oral narrative interviews based on visual prompts, conducted first in the students’ first language and later in English, as well as short written narratives. LIWC then analyses their texts using dictionaries covering emotional, cognitive, and social processes. My preliminary analyses suggest differences in emotional tone and self-reference across languages, indicating that English may function as a distinct reflective space. The findings are expected to inform EFL teaching by promoting narrative, identity-oriented tasks that support emotional expression and learner agency.

13:00-13:25 109435 | Embodied Andragogy for Sustainable and Inclusive Adult Learning Niina Kovalainen, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland Jenny Artkoski, University of Vaasa, Finland In times of rapid societal, technological and cultural transformation, higher education institutions are increasingly expected to respond to complex global challenges related to sustainability, employability and social cohesion. Universities of applied sciences (UAS) play a particularly significant role in this landscape through practice-oriented education, regional engagement and work-integrated learning. This article examines embodied andragogy as a pedagogical orientation that holds potential to support adult learners’ professional agency, participation and adaptive capacity in uncertain and transnational contexts. Adult learning is conceptualised as a situated and experiential process in which bodily presence, interaction and reflection are integral to meaning-making and professional development. Anchored in Malcolm Knowles’ principles of andragogy and informed by research on embodied cognition, the article argues that learning is not solely cognitive but also bodily, relationally and contextually enacted. From this perspective, embodiment becomes central to how adult learners engage with experience, negotiate professional identities and orient themselves within changing working-life realities. The article further integrates Kovalainen’s (2022) framework of transnational communication competence, which conceptualises communication as fluid, multilingual and enacted across professional, cultural and institutional boundaries. Embodied andragogy is discussed as an approach that may support learners’ capacity to navigate such complexity by fostering bodily awareness, relationality and reflective agency in collaborative and hybrid learning environments. Drawing on illustrative examples from Laurea University of Applied Sciences’ Learning by Developing (LbD) framework, the article explores how embodied facilitation, experiential learning and reflective practices can enhance the societal relevance and contextual responsiveness of higher education.

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12:10-13:50 | Live-Stream Room 3

Monday Online Parallel Session 2 BCE2026 | Professional Training, Development and Concerns in Education Session Chair: Karen K. Fujii 12:10-12:35 113017 | Adaptive Communication as a Resource for Reducing Destructive Stress and Enhancing Organizational Justice in Startup Teams Victoria Mikhailova, Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, Russia Anna Solidikhina, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia In project-based entrepreneurial education, the success of teamwork is determined not only by professional competencies but also by the capacity to cope with stress, sustain a psychologically comfortable environment, and distribute tasks and responsibilities equitably. The aim of this study is to evaluate how training based on the Process Communication Model (PCM) affects stress, psychological safety, and organizational justice in startup teams. A five-month randomized controlled experiment was conducted at two universities within the framework of the "Entrepreneurial Workshop" course. The experimental group (n = 39) completed an 18-hour PCM training program with weekly follow-up support; the control group (n = 31) received no intervention. The training did not reduce the overall stress level as measured by the PSM-25 scale (p = 0.105; ANCOVA adjusted for baseline: p = 0.237); however, it altered the structure of stress: the proportion of interpersonal conflicts as a source of stress declined from 38.7% to 20.5% (p = 0.093), while stress related to deadlines and workload increased from 41.9% to 64.1% (p = 0.058). Trends toward improvement were observed in the evenness of participant contributions (d = 0.46, p = 0.064), ease of reaching agreements (d = 0.43, p = 0.082), and reduced desire to leave the team (d = 0.36, p = 0.147). A mediation analysis demonstrated full mediation of the training effect on the desire to leave the team through increased evenness of contributions (B = −0.132, 95% CI [−0.319; −0.009]).

12:35-13:00 111191 | Designing Professional Pathways: Cross-Unit Collaboration as a Catalyst for Career-Ready Fashion Education Barbara Trippeer, University of North Texas, United States Delaney Smith-Vaughan, University of North Texas, United States In many arts-based higher education programs, career services as an optional add-on rather than a curricular partner. This paper examines an interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty in the fashion design program and the unit-based Career Center that repositioned career readiness as studio pedagogy within a required senior capstone course. During Fall 2025, faculty and career staff co-designed three embedded interventions: (1) a co-developed fashion design-focused career fair that connected regional employers with students; (2) an early-stage industry critique led by a U.S.-based fashion designer and alumnus that provided feedback during collection development; and (3) participation in the international Pierre Cardin Young Designer Award competition to expose students to international standards of branding and professional voice. Drawing on qualitative course documentation and institutional course survey feedback, we examine how these experiences strengthened professional communication, clarified industry expectations, and boosted students' confidence in presenting their work. We also identify barriers limiting such partnerships—time, coordination, incentives, and risk management—and describe strategies that facilitated implementation (shared timelines, defined roles, and collaboration goals). Aligned with IAFOR's 2025–2029 themes of Leadership and Humanity and Human Intelligence, the paper argues that cross-unit collaboration can foster human-centered critique cultures while establishing pathways between education and creative industries. We conclude with a replicable framework for arts and design programs embedding career readiness outcomes without sacrificing creative rigor.

13:00-13:25 112758 | Validating Course Evaluations: A Formative and Outcome-Based Validation of the CARE² Model Karen K. Fujii, Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College, Denmark Natalie Perez, University of Hawaii, United States Sonia Caroline Baptista, Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College, Denmark Course evaluation instruments are used in higher education, yet rely on measurement assumptions that may not align with the multidimensional nature of pedagogical learning experiences. This study developed and validated the CARE² model, a formative course evaluation instrument composed of nine single-item dimensions: Culture, Peer Collaboration, Instructor Collaboration, Autonomy, Agility, Relevance, Repetition, Engagement, and Evaluation. Unlike traditional reflective approaches, the CARE² model conceptualizes pedagogical quality as a composite of design features. Using a multistep validation design with 156 university learners across two course sections, the study examined the instrument's formative measurement properties using statistics, inter-item correlations, multicollinearity diagnostics, bootstrapped outer weights, and bias assessment. Results indicated measurement characteristics, with low multicollinearity (VIFs = 1.35-2.80), significant outer weights for all indicators (p < .001), and no evidence of indicator redundancy. In addition, relationships between the CARE² model ratings and pre-post technology learning outcomes were examined for nomological validity, while accounting for baseline skill differences. Students in the intervention group demonstrated significantly greater technology learning gains despite equivalent baseline proficiency. The technology composite gain was substantially larger in the intervention group (d = 1.23) than in the comparison group (d = 0.60), with stronger gains observed across multiple technology skill domains. Although additional research is needed across diverse instructional contexts and populations, the results support the CARE² model as a promising framework for evaluating and improving teaching and learning experiences in higher education.

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12:10-13:50 | Live-Stream Room 4

Monday Online Parallel Session 2 BAMC2026 | Arts, Media and Culture Session Chair: Isabel Fernandes Silva 12:10-12:35 111206 | Radical Joy as Performance Elmira Mohebali, University of California Davis, United States This paper examines contemporary Iranian mourning performances as embodied media that reactivate ancient dramaturgies of unjust death in public space. Focusing on collective gatherings following the 2026 Iranian winter massacres, the project argues that grief in Iran operates not only as emotional expression but also as a performative cultural archive shaped by centuries of ritual memory. Through performance studies methodologies, the paper traces continuities between present-day mourning practices, the mythic figure of Siyavash in the Persian epic tradition, and Shi‘i commemorative structures surrounding Imam Husayn. Central to this continuity is the concept of martyrdom as a cultural elevation of youth, in which the innocent slain body becomes transformed into a sacred and collective symbol that exceeds individual death. Public acts of lamentation, rhythmic gathering, chanting, and celebratory mourning reveal how communities reframe catastrophic loss into moral transcendence and communal resistance. Drawing on the work of Touraj Daryaee and Judith Butler, the paper examines how grievability, public assembly, and embodied mourning construct political visibility through collective performance. By analyzing mourning as both media practice and ritual enactment, this research proposes that contemporary Iranian public grief functions as a living transmission system through which historical memory, martyrdom, and collective identity are continually rehearsed and reimagined.

12:35-13:00 110043 | The Paradox of AI Hyper-Personalization: Privacy Concern, Algorithm Concealment, and Purchase Intention Jaisang Kim, Texas A&M-Central Texas, United States Eunmi Jeon, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Younjung Park, Sungshin Women's University, South Korea As artificial intelligence enables firms to deliver increasingly precise recommendations, hyper-personalization has become a defining feature of digital commerce. While such systems promise greater relevance and convenience, they may also create psychological costs that weaken consumer response. This study examines the paradoxical effects of AI-driven hyper-personalization on purchase intention, focusing on the roles of privacy concern and algorithm concealment. Drawing on both behavioral field data and controlled experiments, we investigate whether highly personalized recommendations can simultaneously enhance perceived fit and intensify consumers’ sense of being monitored, inferred, and exposed. The findings show that hyper-personalized recommendations heighten privacy concern and reduce purchase intention, despite their promise of greater relevance. The results further indicate that algorithm concealment—the tendency to hide, distort, or withhold personal information from algorithmic systems—buffers these negative effects by restoring a sense of control over one’s digital self-presentation. By identifying both the downside of hyper-personalization and a key boundary condition in consumer response, this study contributes to current discussions of digital privacy, algorithmic consumption, and personalized marketing. The paper also offers practical implications for firms seeking to balance personalization effectiveness with consumer trust in increasingly data-intensive commercial environments.

13:00-13:25 107231 | Fragile Memories and Enduring Care: Understanding Cinematic Representation of Dementia Through the Movies ‘Three of Us’ and ‘Mayurakshi’ Sinjini Roy, Government General Degree College, India Dementia has become a serious social and public health concern in India, affecting not only those diagnosed but also families and caregivers who negotiate its social, moral and emotional complexities. Despite dementia being widespread, public awareness remains limited, making visual media, such as cinema, important sites for shaping social understanding. In recent years, Indian films such as 'Three of Us' and 'Mayurakshi' have brought nuanced portrayals of dementia to wider audiences through multiplexes and digital platforms. This paper examines how these films represent dementia, memory, and caregiving, and how they shape discourses on ageing, care, and relational identity. Using qualitative content analysis, this paper moves beyond a biomedical lens to examine dementia as a lived, relational, and emotionally embedded experience. Three of Us and Mayurakshi are selected for their nuanced, non-sensationalised portrayals of cognitive decline and their sustained focus on intimate family relationships and the emotional labour of care. Both films foreground a care crisis shaped by dispersal, loneliness, emotional exhaustion, and the loss of shared happiness. Memory emerges as a central theme, as past recollections gain prominence with the fading of present identities, often revealing unfamiliar aspects of the person with dementia and generating longing for past relationships. The films further suggest that when caregivers accept and accommodate these memories, the dignity and sense of self of the person with dementia get reaffirmed, revitalising the caregiver-care recipient relationship. Finally, the films offer an opportunity to compare the media representation and the real life situation of the people with dementia.

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12:10-13:50 | Live-Stream Room 4

Monday Online Parallel Session 2 BAMC2026 | Arts, Media and Culture Session Chair: Isabel Fernandes Silva 13:25-13:50 110907 | Pop Music and Gender Representation – (How) Has It Changed? Isabel Fernandes Silva, Universidade Autónoma De Lisboa, Portugal Women's representation in the media has drawn scholarly attention for several decades from various perspectives, including postfeminists. Considering the media are viewed as capable of actively promoting gender equality, we would expect pop music, as part of pop culture, to evidence equality in its representation of men and women. Gender is one of the earliest and most important ways we identify ourselves, and pop music is a widely consumed cultural product among young people; therefore, pop music plays a key role in shaping identities across generations and cultures. Female pop singers’ self-perception and self-representation in song are thus relevant material for analysing this triad – women’s representation, the media and pop music. This paper examines how three female pop singers, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Olivia Rodrigo, present themselves in their songs. Our selection of singers is based on their presence, prominence, and public persona, and our selection of songs allows us to analyse both how the singers feel that the media represents them and how they represent themselves as young women. Though the three singers agree on how the media depicts them (still from a conservative and sexist perspective), their selfrepresentations are not entirely the same. Their divergences, though minor, confirm the postfeminist perspective that female representation, choices, and worldviews are diverse rather than a single, unified voice. Moreover, this analysis allowed us to discuss how gender is portrayed in the media and the role of pop music in that representation.

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14:00-15:40 | Live-Stream Room 2

Monday Online Parallel Session 3 BCE/BAMC2026 | Education/Pedagogy Session Chair: Saadia Ouldyerou 14:00-14:25 113880 | A Corpus-based Thematic & Genre Analysis of Business Microblogs Khokha Chaib Ainou, University of Limerick, Ireland Despite the growing prominence and use of social media in professional communication, business microblogs (BMBs) remain an underexplored genre within English for Specific Purposes and Business English (BE) research. Thus, this study investigates business microblogs (BMBs) as an emergent genre of corporate communication, examining how the L'Oréal Groupe deploys discourse strategies on the X platform (formerly Twitter) to construct corporate identity, communicate values, and engage diverse stakeholder audiences. Drawing on a specialised corpus of 901 posts, referred to as the BMB corpus, the research adopts a corpus-based discourse analytic framework that integrates thematic analysis, genre analysis, move analysis, and corpus linguistic methods, including collocational analysis, concordance examination, and Word Sketch visualisation. The analysis identifies three dominant discursive themes, namely Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Research Innovation and Technology (RIT), and Corporate Achievements (CA), and five recurring rhetorical moves, namely Establishing Credibility, Claiming Significance, Expressing Commitment, Establishing Solidarity, and Calling to Action. A central argument advanced is that, unlike traditional promotional genres, whose rhetorical functions are distributed across sequential textual segments, BMBs are characterised by lexical corealisation, in which single discourse features, including hashtags, stance markers, self-mentions, and hyperlinks, simultaneously perform multiple rhetorical functions due to platform constraints. This organisational structure distinguishes BMBs from print-based promotional business genres. The findings carry implications for genre theory, necessitating revisions to sequential move models for digital corporate discourse; for corpus-based digital discourse methodology; and for English for Specific Purposes pedagogy, where BMBs represent an underexamined yet increasingly consequential genre of professional communication

14:25-14:50 110801 | The Effect of Layered Collaborative Instructional Approach on Conceptual Understanding in General Chemistry Among Engineering Students Francis Pantalita, National University Philippines, Philippines Virgilio Jr Rosialda, Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan Inc, Philippines The study examined the impact of a layered collaborative instructional approach on the conceptual understanding of undergraduate engineering students in the course Chemistry for Engineers. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed using the Chemical Concepts Inventory (CCI). Four (4) sections were involved in the study with two sections assigned as the control group (N=41), and the other two sections as the experimental group (N=43), having a total sample of 84 respondents. Preliminary analysis revealed that there is no significant difference between the groups at pretest. A 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVA was used and revealed a significant main effect of time, F (1, 82) = 553.29, p<.001, ηp2=.871, indicating substantial overall gains in the conceptual understanding of both the experimental and control group. In addition, a significant Time x Group interaction was observed, confirming improvement differed by instructional setting and conditions. Furthermore, analysis of gain scores showed that students exposed to layered collaborative approach achieved greater improvement than those in the traditional group. These findings suggest that incorporating structured and planned peer interaction and individual accountability within instruction can yield moderately greater conceptual gains in chemistry courses.

14:50-15:15 110788 | From Rote Learning to Conceptual Mastery: An ADEPT-Based Pedagogical Intervention in Algerian EFL Civilization Classes Saadia Ouldyerou, University of Mustapha Stambouli Mascara, Algeria In EFL civilization courses, Master’s students often reproduce technical definitions of concepts such as “colonialism” or “hegemony” without achieving genuine understanding. While students memorize disciplinary terminology, many struggle to explain concepts in their own words, generate examples, or transfer knowledge to new contexts. This classroom-based study examines the effectiveness of the ADEPT method, a pedagogical framework inspired by cognitive science principles. ADEPT consists of five stages: Analogy, Diagram, Example, Plain-language definition, and Technical definition. The framework was implemented with first-year Master’s students in English civilization studies (N=28) at Mustapha Stambouli University of Mascara, Algeria. Using a pre-test/post-test design, students defined five civilization concepts before and after ADEPT-based instruction. Findings revealed substantial improvement: the mean pre-test score was 42%, while the post-test score increased to 78%. Participants demonstrated stronger ability to create analogies, provide contextualized examples, and formulate plain-language explanations. Student reflections identified the “Analogy” and “Example” stages as particularly effective for deepening comprehension. The study argues that ADEPT offers a practical and replicable framework for promoting meaningful conceptual engagement in EFL higher education.

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14:00-15:40 | Live-Stream Room 3

Monday Online Parallel Session 3 BCE2026 | Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice and Praxis Session Chair: Tanzina Mohsin 14:00-14:25 110674 | Project-Based Learning in Online Interior Design Studios: A Case Study on Student Creativity and Learning Outcomes Min Min Die, Independent Scholar, Malaysia Project-Based Learning in Online Interior Design Studios: A Case Study on Student Creativity and Learning Outcomes. This study investigates the implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in online interior design studios in Malaysia, particularly in the post-Covid-19 context where online and short-course learning have become increasingly common. As PBL is widely adopted in creative and design disciplines, its effectiveness in supporting diverse adult learners in online design education warrants further exploration. Using a qualitative case-study approach, this research examines the learning experiences and project outcomes of 120 students enrolled in an online interior design programme. Participants came from diverse backgrounds, including non-design disciplines, graphic design, interior design, and constructionrelated fields, with many being working adults. Data were collected through student design projects, assignments, classroom observations, and informal feedback gathered during class discussions. Qualitative analysis was conducted to identify patterns related to creativity, learning outcomes, problem-solving skills, and student engagement. Findings indicate that PBL supports structured learning, iterative design development, and practical skill acquisition. However, variations in student engagement and self-regulation were observed, reflecting differences in prior experience and learning autonomy. These variations highlight the importance of differentiated instructional support in online design studios, where reduced visibility of participation and interaction may affect learning consistency. The study contributes to design education literature by providing empirical evidence on how PBL operates in online studio environments with adult learners, offering practical implications for enhancing scaffolding strategies and supporting learner diversity in digital design education.

14:25-14:50 113377 | Why Should Designers Be Responsible? Teaching Ethical Judgement Through Disagreement in Design Education Lemon Tang, Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom “Why should designers be responsible for what happens afterwards?” This question, raised by a student during a design research ethics workshop, prompted a critical reflection on what it means to teach ethical responsibility in design education. The discussion moved beyond familiar questions of consent, institutional approval, and research conduct towards a broader disagreement about whether designers remain accountable for the foreseeable consequences of their interventions. This paper uses the classroom encounter as a critical incident for reflective pedagogical inquiry. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of the workshop or measuring changes in student attitudes, it examines how the student’s challenge exposed two contrasting understandings of ethics: ethics as procedural compliance, fulfilled through regulations and approval processes, and ethics as an ongoing practice of judgement concerned with responsibility, power, representation, uncertainty, and consequence. Interpreted through reflective practice and educational theories of judgement, the incident prompted a reconsideration of my own pedagogical assumptions. The workshop ended without consensus, yet this unresolved disagreement revealed the limitations of teaching ethics primarily through rules or predetermined positions. I argue that disagreement can therefore serve as a pedagogical condition for ethical learning rather than simply a problem to be resolved. Design educators can create spaces in which students articulate assumptions, justify decisions, encounter competing values, and practise making defensible judgements where no single ethical answer is available.

14:50-15:15 111210 | Rethinking What and How We Teach: AI-Enabled, Community-Engaged Microlearning for Decolonizing Climate Education Tanzina Mohsin, University of Toronto, Canada In response to global calls for inclusive, community-engaged, and interdisciplinary pedagogies, this paper examines how ethical use of artificial intelligence can support climate change education when grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems, relational accountability, and reflective teaching practice. The paper presents a curriculum development project that rethinks climate change communication pedagogy in higher education through community-informed microlearning, cross-disciplinary teaching, and AI-supported experiential learning. Grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing, the project translates interviews with Indigenous scholars, Knowledge Keepers, and media practitioners into six short video modules addressing climate change through Indigenous lenses; communication across Indigenous and non-Indigenous contexts; decolonizing climate education; Two-Eyed Seeing in practice; storytelling and mainstream media; and trustful collaboration. Designed primarily for Environmental Science courses, while adaptable to media, communication, and social science classrooms, the modules expand both curriculum content and teaching practice. Short-form videos, guided prompts, and a bounded AI chatbot support student inquiry, reflection, and connection-making across course themes. The chatbot draws only on approved transcripts and curated materials, helping students revisit concepts, generate reflections, and connect interview themes to coursework without displacing Indigenous voices or automating knowledge production. The paper argues that ethical AI contributes meaningfully to pedagogy and praxis when used to scaffold respectful engagement rather than replace human, community-based, or Indigenous knowledge relationships. By combining community-engaged research, educational technology, and decolonizing pedagogy, the project offers a scalable model for climate education that is accessible, reflective, relational, and grounded in humility, responsibility, respect, care, and reciprocity.

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Monday Online Parallel Session 3 BCE/BAMC2026 | Digital Humanities Session Chair: Jaisang Kim 14:00-14:25 113771 | Journalism as a ‘Virtual Fieldwork’: Critical and Decolonial Approaches to Environmental Education Maria Rosa Darrigo, Pulitzer Center, Brazil Intan Febriani, Pulitzer Center, Indonesia Environmental challenges such as deforestation and climate change are shaped through interactions between power and multiple forms of knowledge, creating a need for methodologies that make these complex topics more accessible while fostering critical thinking. Yet, university teaching on environmental issues often prioritizes technical and scientific knowledge, reducing opportunities for students to engage with the socio-political context and lived experiences of affected communities. In this context, journalism can serve as an effective pedagogical tool for introducing contemporary socio-environmental issues and exposing students to different realities and perspectives. Over the past four years, journalism-based methodologies have been developed and implemented in Brazilian public universities. These activities integrated knowledge from Indigenous peoples, journalists, and researchers, promoting interdisciplinary discussions on socio-environmental challenges. While critical approaches are well established in disciplines such as political ecology, they do not always reach students across different fields. Journalism was therefore used to broaden access to these perspectives and encourage engagement with issues such as inequality and power. One strategy involved using journalism as a fieldwork simulation. Students analyzed interviews, arguments, and perspectives presented in documentaries and texts as a basis for reflection and research. Another methodology created interdisciplinary working groups that used journalistic reporting to support ongoing discussions on complex topics. These approaches proved particularly valuable, with documentaries functioning as “virtual field visits.” Evaluation shows that students improve understanding and engagement: 85% of participants reported a better understanding of the issues, 89% felt more prepared to discuss them, indicating that journalism-based approaches can strengthen interdisciplinary environmental education.

14:25-14:50 113672 | Impression Management in Women’s Political Branding: A Comparative Analysis from Confucian History to Contemporary Digital Media Contexts Diana Eseka, Swansea University, United Kingdom This paper theorises women’s political personal branding as a historically continuous practice of impression management that has evolved across media eras. Using a comparative media historical approach, it examines how women in leadership have employed impression management tactics for strategic self-representation in response to persistent media under-representation in political spaces. This underrepresentation remains a globally recognised anomaly, widely identified as a contributing factor to women’s limited political participation. Transnational scholarships consistently argue that media systems have reinforced the imbalance by legitimising subjugating narratives about women’s leadership capabilities. Such portrayals shape societal perceptions and sustain structural constraints that limit women’s political advancement (Van der Pas & Aaldering, 2020; Hameleers, 2024). Drawing on impression management theory (Jones & Pittman, 1982; Tedeschi & Reiss, 1983) the study contends that women have historically resisted these narratives through deliberate and strategic self-presentation across different media contexts (Rodríguez & Cotto-Escalera, 2021). The analysis traces this trajectory from the Confucian era to contemporary media environments by juxtaposing Wu Zetian’s narrative reconstruction with Margaret Thatcher’s strategic mass media framing and calculated projection of authority. The study also extends the comparison into the digital era through a content analysis of the impression management strategies of contemporary cases where impression management is operationalised strategically on social media platforms. The paper argues that impression management has long functioned as a critical tool for women navigating male-dominated political spaces, highlighting how digital media platforms have reconfigured the practice by decentralising traditional gatekeeping structures for improved self-representation by women in politics.

14:50-15:15 111008 | AI-Driven Cyber Twin Transformation of Industrial Heritage for Remote Cultural Immersion in Henan Yang Su, Henan University of Economics and Law, China This study explores how artificial intelligence and cyber twin technologies can transform industrial heritage spaces into immersive platforms for remote cultural engagement in Henan, China. Existing industrial heritage regeneration projects primarily focus on spatial renovation and commercial reuse, while digital heritage studies tend to emphasize preservation and accurate replication. This research proposes the concept of “remote cultural immersion”, which refers to the cross-regional transmission of cultural experiences through AI-generated immersive environments. Using representative industrial heritage sites in Henan, including Zhengzhou Oil Chemical Factory Creative Park and Ersha Cultural and Creative Park, the study investigates how AI-generated visual narratives, interactive projection systems, and multisensory design strategies can reconstruct distant cultural resources such as Dabie Mountain revolutionary heritage, Yinxu oracle bone culture, and traditional southern Henan dwellings within urban industrial spaces. Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed qualitative approach combining spatial analysis, immersive experience prototyping, behavioral observation, and in-depth interviews. The study further examines how immersive cultural experiences influence emotional engagement and cultural consumption behaviors. The research contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on AI, digital humanities, immersive media, and urban cultural regeneration by proposing a new model integrating industrial heritage transformation, cyber twin technology, and cultural dissemination. It also provides practical strategies for enhancing public accessibility to regional cultural resources through immersive digital experience design.

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Monday Online Parallel Session 3 BCE/BAMC2026 | Digital Humanities Session Chair: Jaisang Kim 15:15-15:40 110042 | When Personalization Backfires: Organizational Context and Consumer Responses to Algorithmic Personalization Jaisang Kim, Texas A&M-Central Texas, United States Eunmi Jeon, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Younjung Park, Sungshin Women's University, South Korea As algorithmic systems increasingly mediate social action, personalization is often treated as a neutral tool for improving relevance. However, its effects may depend on the context in which it is implemented. This research examines how exploitative versus explorative personalization strategies are evaluated across organizational settings. In a 2 × 2 experiment (N = 302), participants evaluated a donation-matching platform described as either for-profit or nonprofit. The platform employed either a strategy that reinforced prior donation patterns (exploitative) or introduced causes beyond established preferences (explorative). Results reveal a contextual asymmetry: exploitative personalization reduced donation and reuse intentions in for-profit settings, but not in nonprofit settings. Perceived privacy intrusion partially mediated the overall effect, indicating that consumer responses to personalization are shaped, in part, by concerns about how personal data are used. However, privacy alone does not fully account for the observed contextual differences. The same personalization strategy produced divergent outcomes depending on organizational setting, suggesting that consumers’ evaluations extend beyond privacy-based considerations. These findings challenge the assumption that personalization is evaluated solely based on its functional or data-related properties. Instead, they demonstrate that organizational context plays a critical role in shaping consumer responses to algorithmic practices. By showing that privacybased explanations are incomplete, this research highlights the need for broader frameworks to understand how consumers interpret and respond to personalization in digitally mediated environments.

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Notes

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Virtual Posters BCE2026 | Virtual Poster Presentations BAMC2026 | Virtual Poster Presentations Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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Virtual Poster Presentations Counselling, Guidance & Adjustment in Education 106900 | Understanding Parental Involvement in Remote Education: a Qualitative Study Asnat Dor, Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Israel Background: The rapid growth of remote education has transformed everyday educational practices and redefined relationships among students, teachers, and families. While distance learning increases flexibility, it also shifts significant responsibility to the home, particularly for parents of elementary school children who are expected to actively support learning processes. Exploring parents’ lived experiences is therefore crucial for understanding the strengths and limitations of remote education. Method: Following approval by the institutional ethics committee, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 mothers of children aged 6–12. Interviews were held either face-to-face or via Zoom, audio-recorded with informed consent, and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify central patterns across participants’ narratives. Findings: Parents described remote learning as a demanding and emotionally complex experience. Key challenges included navigating multiple digital platforms, balancing work and caregiving roles, sustaining children’s engagement, and coping with fatigue and emotional strain. Communication with teachers played a central role, serving as both practical guidance and emotional reassurance, though inconsistencies sometimes limited its effectiveness. Parents reported adopting coping strategies that combined organizational practices—such as establishing routines and drawing on family support—with emotional strategies, including reducing self-expectations and modeling emotional regulation. Conclusions: The findings suggest that effective remote education extends beyond technological infrastructure. Meaningful emotional, relational, and institutional support for families is essential. Educational systems should recognize parents as active partners and acknowledge the home as a key educational space.

Educational Policy, Leadership, Management & Administration 110929 | Academic Performance Across Scholarship Categories: A Critical Realist Inquiry into CGPA, Socioeconomic Proxies, and Gender Michael Luis Fernando III Tecson, Ateneo De Manila University, Philippines A scholarship intends to expand the access of a person to education and to be able to promote academic opportunity as a basic human right. However, differences in academic performance across scholarship categories may show a broader structural inequality that may be linked to the persons socioeconomic status and gender. Limited research has examined how these factors interact within institutional scholarship systems despite increasing attention to educational equity. The study, using the lens of a Critical Realist, aims to uncover the underlying structures that translate institutional support into measurable academic success. The study draws on Bhaskar’s stratified ontology and Archer’s Morphogenetic Approach. This helps in positioning scholarship categories not merely as administrative labels, but as structural conditions that would either enable or constrain student academic performance. The study employs a quantitative approach, utilizing one-way ANOVA, independent samples t-tests, and simple linear regression using secondary administrative institutional data from a sample of 996 scholarship recipients from a higher education institution in Manila, Philippines. A two-way ANOVA is further applied to determine if gender serves as a moderating variable between scholarship type and performance. The findings aim to demonstrate how institutional structures and socioeconomic realities affect student academic performance. By identifying causal mechanisms and generative events, the study provides school administrators critical insight in order to refine scholarship policies and ensure that scholarships are equitable and that structural support for diverse student populations is readily available. 113563 | Comparing Youth and Adult Financial Literacy: Institutionalization and Lifelong Learning Continuity in Four European Countries Aiga Rullere, Latvijas Universitāte, Latvia This comparative study examines how youth and adult financial literacy profiles correspond to the institutionalisation and continuity of financial education in Latvia, Poland, Italy, and Spain. It addresses two questions: how financial literacy outcomes differ between 15 year old students and adults across the four countries, and how these patterns align with national strategies, curriculum integration, and lifelong learning provision. The study combines comparative analysis of PISA 2018 financial literacy data, OECD/INFE 2023 adult financial literacy indicators, and systematic analysis of national policy and curriculum documents. Financial education is conceptualised as a lifelong learning competence supported through formal, non-formal, and informal learning across different life stages. The analysis follows an exploratory configuration and pattern-matching approach and does not assume that national strategies or curriculum arrangements directly cause financial literacy outcomes. Instead, it identifies country-specific combinations of student performance, adult outcomes, policy commitment, institutional coordination, and implementation across educational stages. The study contributes to comparative and international education by examining whether similar policy objectives are associated with consistent or contrasting financial literacy profiles in different national contexts. The findings highlight the importance of policy continuity, institutionalisation, and coordination when developing coherent national approaches to financial education across the life course.

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Virtual Poster Presentations Higher Education 113665 | Enhancing Health Literacy Through a Liberal Arts Lesson: An Evaluation of University Students’ Learning Outcome Akinori Yamabe, Jichi Medical University, Japan Chiaki Mishima, Jichi Medical University, Japan Health literacy is increasingly important for university students, yet its integration into general liberal arts education remains underexplored. This exploratory study examined students’ perceptions of a 90-minute health literacy lesson for female university students. A needs assessment conducted approximately three weeks beforehand found that about 90% of respondents wished to learn about menstruation and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). In response, a social science educator and a female physician collaboratively designed a lesson integrating menstrual health with broader aspects of physical and mental health, including sleep, diet, physical activity, self-care, health information, and communication with healthcare professionals. The lesson was delivered to 92 students, of whom 85 provided valid post-class questionnaire responses (response rate: 92.4%). The questionnaire was jointly developed by the two educators to assess multiple dimensions of perceived understanding and educational value. Descriptive analysis showed that all respondents (100%) reported at least some increase in their perceived understanding of managing their own health. Furthermore, 90.6% reported greater understanding of assessing the reliability of health information, 97.6% of the importance of having a regular physician, and 96.5% of communicating their condition to healthcare professionals. These findings suggest that student-informed health literacy education within a liberal arts context is well received and may support perceived understanding of self-care, health information, and healthcare engagement. Future research using validated measures and pre-post designs is needed to assess educational effects more rigorously.

Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity 108233 | Training Prospective Physics Teachers to Link Between STEM Projects Engineering and Physics Theory Dalila Yamani, The Higher Normal School of Kouba, Algeria STEM learning aims to acquire the ability of applying knowledge to understand and solve scientific challenges. However, engaging learners in engineering-oriented activities leads them to focus on practical tasks rather than scientific comprehension and reasoning. To prevent scientific concepts from being watered down, the teacher must be able to identify the scientific knowledge anchors. Our research investigates how to develop this skill in prospective physics teachers. We conducted quasi-experimental research with an experimental group of 56 students, final-year prospective teachers at middle schools. The aim was to train them, during STEM situations, to identify physics concepts and laws in messy physical objects, to represent the physical quantities on completed projects, and to determine exactly when to stop a construction project to ask questions related to physics. The control group, containing 60 students, received traditional training with in-depth knowledge of STEM pedagogy focused on the main learning phases. The two groups passed a pre-test, which consisted of determining the list of physics laws in objects demonstrated in videos and specifying how to explain them to middle-schoolers. The post-test involved designing a lesson plan and performing a simulated theory anchor interaction by providing them new STEM projects. Data were collected using a Likert-scale rubric with three criteria: physics fidelity, visual bridging, and scaffolding quality. Independent samples t-tests showed significantly higher scores in the experimental group for linking physics laws to object building and theory anchoring than in the control group. 111113 | Multimodal Generative AI in Self-Regulated Learning: A Thematic Scoping Review Rayen Jui-Yen Chang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan Manh Tuan Kim, Vietnam National University, Vietnam Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming self-regulated learning (SRL) in higher education. Current research has largely concentrated on learning performance, technology acceptance, and text-based AI interactions, while multimodal applications capable of supporting SRL through visual, audio, behavioral, and sensor-based data remain insufficiently examined. This study reviewed 32 empirical and review articles published between 2024 and 2026 to identify major research themes and emerging gaps at the intersection of GenAI and SRL in postsecondary education. Inductive thematic analysis generated three central themes: GenAI support across forethought, performance, and reflection phases of SRL; tensions between metacognitive support and cognitive overreliance; and institutional and learner conditions influencing productive AI supported regulation, including AI literacy and learning analytics infrastructures. The findings of this study showed that answer-oriented AI use frequently reduced critical evaluation, reflective thinking, and sustained metacognitive engagement. The findings of this study also demonstrated that conversational GenAI systems designed as reflective coaches or adaptive feedback tools strengthened goal setting, progress monitoring, and self-reflection. Most existing studies nevertheless relied heavily on text-based interactions and clickstream analytics, while genuinely multimodal GenAI environments remained rare. This study identified major gaps in longitudinal evidence explaining how GenAI shapes learner agency, regulatory adaptation, and SRL development over time. Greater theoretical precision and multimodal methodological approaches remain necessary for advancing future research and educational practice.

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Virtual Poster Presentations Mind, Brain & Psychology: Human Emotional & Cognitive Development & Outcomes within Educational Contexts 112748 | Validation of the Italian Version of the Decision Fatigue Scale: A Tool for Educational Psychology Research in Higher Education Vanessa Donadel, Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali, Italy Inmaculada Pedraza-Navarro, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain Marco Zuin, Istituto Universitario Salesiano Venezia, Italy Contemporary higher education settings increasingly require students to engage in complex decision-making regarding learning strategies, digital tools, and information sources. From a cognitive psychology perspective, repeated decision-making may progressively deplete limited cognitive resources, compromising self-regulation, decision-making processes, and adaptation to learning environments (Evans et al., 2024; Choudhury & Saravanan, 2026; An et al., 2025). Within this framework, decision fatigue emerges as a potentially relevant construct for understanding students’ cognitive functioning, yet it remains unexplored in educational research. To address this gap, the present study aimed to adapt and validate the Italian version of the Decision Fatigue Scale (Hickman et al., 2018), providing educational psychology researchers with a psychometrically sound and reliable instrument for investigating decision fatigue among university students. The validation process involved Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis on two independent samples of Italian university students (N=104; N=394). Results supported a unidimensional factor structure, with satisfactory model fit indices (CFI=.957, TLI=.943, SRMR=.048), good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=.827; McDonald’s ω=.831), and measurement invariance across gender and academic discipline (STEM vs. non-STEM). Construct validity was further supported by theoretically consistent associations, including negative correlations with Cognitive Reappraisal (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire; ERQ), Honesty–Humility and Openness to Experience (HEXACO), alongside a positive correlation with Expressive Suppression (ERQ). The Italian version of the Decision Fatigue Scale provides educational psychology research with a valid and reliable instrument for assessing decision fatigue and investigating its associations with cognitive and emotional processes underlying learning, self-regulation, and academic decision-making, particularly in digitally and AI-enhanced learning environments.

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Virtual Poster Presentations Architecture, Geography and Urban Studies 111066 | Watery Memories Beneath the Shell: Mapping the Buried Waterscape and Lived Space of Bentderesi, Ankara Hatice Hilal Topuz, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye Ela Alanyalı Aral, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye Buket Ergun Kocaili, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye Throughout the twentieth century in Ankara, stream beds were progressively turned into parts of the sewage infrastructure and covered with roads and urban development as part of modern planning approaches. This process transformed not only the natural environment, but also the everyday life practices and collective memory that had developed around water. Focusing on the urban section of Hatip Stream, known as Bentderesi, located to the north of Ankara Castle, this study aims to make this process of erasure visible through a physical mapping model in order to critically question how practices justified in the name of public benefit have, over time, erased the lived space. The study creates a two-layered mapping by peeling apart the present-day topography, where the stream bed is covered, and the topography based on the 1924 Ankara City Map showing Old Ankara, in which Hatip Stream can still be seen flowing openly in its natural course. While the contemporary topography is treated as a shell, the lower layer reveals traces of the former open stream system together with bridges, mills, tanneries, recreation areas, and everyday life related to water. By using the creative mapping techniques of layering and rhizome, archival photographs, newspaper articles, historical maps, and literature sources were connected to the physical model. Overall, the map demonstrates the tension between the hardness of infrastructural interventions and the fragile memory of lives once shaped around water.

Cultural Studies 111083 | When the Copy Becomes the Heritage: Authenticity, Surrogacy, and the Digitisation of Monumental Painting in Bulgaria and China Nanqi Xu, South-West University, Bulgaria Monumental painting is the most spatially bound of the visual arts: a fresco or a cave mural cannot be moved without cutting away the surface that bears it. This places it at the centre of an unresolved tension in heritage theory: when the original is fragile, restricted, or relocated, what status accrues to the copy that takes its place? The paper develops an analytical framework organised along four axes, namely the ontology of the wall, the legal status of the surrogate, the aesthetics of reproduction, and the lived reception of the copy, and applies it to three historically distinct cases spanning Bulgarian and Chinese monumental painting traditions: the restricted-access regime around the Boyana Church frescoes (1259), the physical relocation of Yongle Palace murals during the Sanmenxia reservoir project of the late 1950s, and the mature digital surrogacy programme of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. Drawing on Walter Benjamin's notion of aura, the relational definition of authenticity advanced by the Nara Document on Authenticity (1994), and emerging discourse on the cultural agency of digital replicas, the analysis demonstrates that the three cases constitute variant configurations of a single underlying phenomenon. The paper proposes a working concept of distributed authenticity, in which heritage value is diffused across an ensemble of physical and digital surrogates rather than concentrated in a single original. It further identifies four ethical pressure points, namely access, custody, representation, and reception, at which digitisation policy acquires lasting consequences for the meaning of the original.

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Notes

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Virtual Presentations BCE2026 | Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations BAMC2026 | Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Abstracts appear as originally submitted by the author. Any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors are those of the author.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Assessment Theories & Methodologies 109984 | Rethinking Assessment in Design Innovation Education: Lessons from Singapore for a Global Pedagogical Shift Agnes Xue, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Renjie Zheng, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Desmond Y. R. Chong, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Conventional assessment in project-based learning (PBL) prioritises polished final outcomes, inadequately capturing the iterative, non-linear processes central to design innovation. In achievement-oriented educational contexts such as Singapore, this misalignment is particularly acute: students are implicitly discouraged from intellectual risk-taking, and the generative value of failure remains unrecognised. This paper proposes the Process–Progress Assessment Model (PPAM), a framework that shifts assessment focus from product to process across four integrated dimensions: Exploration and Risk-Taking, Iteration and Responsiveness, Reflection and Learning Agility, and Value Translation and Application. Uniquely, the PPAM is grounded in Mary Douglas's Grid-Group (GG) Typology, which serves as a theoretical lens to anticipate and accommodate plural learning preferences - Hierarchical, Individualistic, Egalitarian, and Fatalistic, thereby purposefully ensuring no learner disposition is systematically disadvantaged. The framework operates through three temporal checkpoints (Initiation, Mid-Action, Consolidation), drawing evidence from reflective logbooks, curated portfolios, and process prototypes, while embedding safeguards such as rater calibration and co-constructed analytic rubrics. A pilot survey of 17 undergraduates enrolled in a healthcare innovation elective revealed that students rated PPAM more favourably than traditional rubrics across nearly all dimensions, with the largest improvement in risk-taking and iteration (+0.71). Over half surveyed preferred a hybrid model integrating PPAM with traditional assessment, while none favoured a return to purely conventional rubrics. Workload emerged as the primary concern. These findings suggest that the PPAM offers a structured, transferable approach to assessment reform in design innovation and STEM education globally.

Design, Implementation & Assessment of Innovative Technologies in Education 109084 | Incorporating Arabic Picture Book Design in Graphic Design Education Tala Atrouni, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates Tina Sleiman, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates The world of picture books is a fascinating design laboratory. Words whisper, images shout, and together they choreograph how a child experiences story, emotion, and imagination. Graphic design plays a decisive role in shaping that choreography. Typography, composition, color, and illustration style do not merely decorate the narrative; they structure how young readers see and feel the story. This study explores how contemporary Arabic picturebook design can be integrated into graphic design education. It builds on a previous analytical study that identified and classified visual styles in contemporary Arabic picturebooks, including approaches to illustration, color systems, composition, and narrative sequencing. Rather than remaining at the level of observation, the present research extends these findings into a pedagogical experiment that tests how such visual characteristics can inform the creation of new illustrations within the design classroom. The project was conducted with art and design students at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi through an experimental studio-based methodology. Students engaged in formal visual analysis of selected Arabic picturebooks, followed by exploratory sketching, visual reinterpretation, and technical development. Using these books as reference material, students redesigned and culturally adapted non-Arabic picture books for Arabic contexts. The paper discusses a selection of student outcomes to reflect on the pedagogical value, creative possibilities, and practical challenges of incorporating contemporary Arabic picturebooks into graphic design education. 110855 | Transition-Ready Course Design: A Case Study of Face-to-Face and Online Learning Transitions in Kuwait Andrea Hingston, Australian University of Kuwait, Kuwait Recent disruptions to higher education in Kuwait have exposed challenges associated with transitioning between face-to-face and online learning, particularly in relation to engagement, digital readiness, and continuity of learning. This mixed-methods case study explores the need for transition-ready blended course design within a Foundation English Programme at the Australian University of Kuwait. The study examines how instructors and students experience transitions between face-to-face and online learning, with particular focus on engagement, digital readiness, and students’ ability to manage online learning independently. Data were collected through questionnaires completed by approximately 19 instructors and 80–100 foundation students. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative responses were examined through thematic analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that difficulties during transitions between learning modes contribute to student engagement challenges. Technical issues, low digital confidence, inconsistent use of online platforms, and dependence on teacher-led classroom structures appear to negatively affect students’ ability to adapt to online learning. The findings also suggest variation in instructor readiness and confidence in facilitating online learning environments. The study suggests that blended learning alone does not necessarily make courses transition-ready and highlights the need for course design that integrates digital pedagogy, platform familiarity, and student preparation for online learning more intentionally.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Digital Humanities 111516 | Vibe Creating: Authorship and Expression in Human-AI Cultural Production Dino Gliha, iqdigital systems Ltd., Croatia Generative AI systems are transforming cultural production across art, media, design, music, writing and visual culture. Human creators increasingly shape expression through prompts, aesthetic direction, references, selection, iteration and refinement – steering outputs rather than determining their expressive form directly. This paper introduces vibe creating as a concept for this mode of AI-mediated cultural production: a practice in which the human contribution lies in directing the creative process rather than executing it. Vibe creating has become a widespread and largely untheorised practice across cultural production, one that existing legal and cultural frameworks were not designed to address. It extends and generalises a shift already observed in software development, where similar dynamics have begun to reshape how human creative agency operates in interaction with generative systems. From a copyright perspective, vibe creating raises a fundamental question: where does legally relevant expression occur when expressive form is partly or predominantly generated through probabilistic processes? Copyright protects works reflecting free and creative choices attributable to a human author. Yet in vibe creating, the human may define the idea, mood or intended effect without determining the protected expressive form. The paper argues that the decisive issue is not whether AI was used, but whether the human retained sufficient creative control over the expressive outcome. It applies the distinction between AI productions (outputs lacking sufficient human creative control) and copyright works (of the mind), offering a principled framework for creators, platforms and cultural institutions navigating the copyright implications of AI-mediated cultural production.

Educational Policy, Leadership, Management & Administration 110616 | Artificial Intelligence and Educational Leadership in Adult Learning: Navigating Digital Transformation, Governance and Pedagogical Change Georgios Vasileiadis, University of Aegean, Greece This study explores the transformative role of contemporary educational technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in reshaping educational leadership, with a particular emphasis on adult and lifelong learning environments. Drawing on a systematic literature review, the paper conceptualizes AI not merely as a pedagogical tool but as a socio-technical infrastructure that redefines leadership practices, governance structures and decision-making processes in modern educational organizations. The analysis highlights how AI-driven systems—such as learning analytics, adaptive learning platforms, automated feedback mechanisms and generative AI—are increasingly integrated into strategic planning, instructional design and learner support services. Within adult education contexts, these developments are particularly significant due to the heterogeneity of learners, time constraints and varying levels of digital literacy, which amplify both the opportunities and risks associated with AI adoption. Findings suggest that successful integration of AI depends less on technological sophistication and more on leadership capacity to align innovation with pedagogical principles, ethical governance and institutional mission. Key challenges include data privacy, algorithmic bias, assessment integrity and the risk of excessive data-driven managerialism that may undermine human-centered educational values. The study argues that educational leaders act as critical mediators between technological potential and educational purpose. It proposes a leadership-oriented framework emphasizing transparency, human oversight, professional development and equitydriven design. Ultimately, the paper contributes to the emerging discourse on AI in education by offering practical and theoretical insights into how leadership can guide responsible and effective digital transformation in adult learning systems. 112781 | Organisational Architecture for Inclusive Education: Leadership, Coordination and Support Networks in a Portuguese School Cluster Jennifer Silva, University of Aveiro, Portugal Diana Oliveira, University of Aveiro, Portugal Alexandre Ventura, University of Aveiro, Portugal This study analyses the role of school leadership, internal coordination and support networks in building organisational responses oriented towards inclusion within a Portuguese school cluster. It seeks to understand how these processes contribute to translating the principles of inclusive education into concrete, contextualised and collaborative practices suited to student diversity. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach, based on a case study. The empirical corpus comprises 12 semi-structured interviews, conducted between 2024 and 2025 with school leaders, complemented by the analysis of key organisational documents, namely the Educational Project, the Internal Regulations and the School Leader’s Intervention Project. Data were analysed through thematic analysis, supported by MAXQDA software, and subjected to triangulation between empirical and documentary sources, seeking to identify patterns, convergences and tensions between participants’ perspectives and institutional frameworks. The findings show that the realisation of inclusive education depends on a distributed organisational architecture, sustained by the articulation between leadership, coordination structures, monitoring instruments, projects and partnerships. This architecture is expressed through formal and informal practices of articulation, spaces for listening to students, and responses adjusted to sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities. The study concludes that these organisational dynamics strengthen the school’s capacity to respond to student diversity, fostering processes of participation, learning and well-being. As a limitation, the study is based on participants’ perspectives and documentary analysis, without integrating direct observation of practices or the voices of other actors, such as students and families.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL) 111204 | Between Policy and Practice: Challenges in the Implementation of English Language Education in Paraguay Valentina Canese, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay Maura Zalimben, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay Cynthia Rolon, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay Ignacio Gimenez, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay Fernando Esquivel, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay The enactment of Law No. 5031/2013 established the compulsory teaching of English throughout Paraguay’s public education system, from preschool to secondary education, representing a major shift in national language policy. More than a decade later, significant challenges remain regarding the effective implementation of this policy, particularly in teacher education and institutional support. This presentation examines the implementation of English language policy in Paraguay from a language policy and planning perspective, focusing on the relationship between state policy, institutional conditions, and local educational practices. The study integrates findings from four qualitative investigations conducted across multiple regions of Paraguay with pre-service teachers, English teacher educators, institutional leaders, and in-service teachers participating in Ministry of Education training programs. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and thematic analysis. Findings reveal a persistent gap between policy goals and implementation realities. Major challenges include limited instructional time, low initial English proficiency among students, shortages of specialized teachers, unequal access to resources and technology, and the absence of systematic language assessment aligned with the CEFR. At the same time, participants described innovative strategies developed to sustain the policy, including the creation of local materials, the use of free digital platforms, and institutional self-management initiatives. The presentation argues that the implementation of English language policy in Paraguay relies heavily on the initiative and commitment of educational communities. From a language policy and planning perspective, the study contributes to understanding how language policies are negotiated and reinterpreted in contexts marked by structural inequalities.

Higher Education 112553 | An Interdisciplinary Adaptive Evaluation Model (IAEM) for Evaluating Educational Interventions Aimed at Tackling Wicked Problems in Higher Education Maria Katsigianni, University of Patras, Greece Wicked problems in contemporary higher education are characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and the absence of clear solutions, requiring educational approaches that transcend disciplinary boundaries and traditional evaluation paradigms. To address these challenges and strengthen the alignment between higher education and labor market needs, this paper introduces the Interdisciplinary Adaptive Evaluation Model (IAEM), a framework for evaluating educational interventions designed to develop students’ capacity to engage with complex real-world problems. Grounded in systems thinking, complexity theory, and design-based research, the IAEM conceptualizes educational interventions as dynamic systems operating through iterative feedback cycles. The model comprises five dimensions: Input, Process, Output, Outcome, and Impact. Inputs include interdisciplinary integration, stakeholder engagement, and problem complexity. The Process dimension focuses on collaborative learning, adaptive instructional design, and institutional responsiveness. Outputs capture immediate learning achievements, particularly problem-solving skills and interdisciplinary competence, while Outcomes address transformative learning and innovation capacity. The Impact dimension concerns long-term effects on employability, societal contribution, and institutional development. Methodologically, the IAEM adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative measures with qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of both measurable outcomes and contextual factors affecting educational effectiveness. The model contributes to the higher education literature by bridging pedagogical theory, evaluation research, and employability studies. Unlike conventional evaluation frameworks, the IAEM emphasizes the dynamic relationship between educational processes and outcomes, highlighting adaptability and interdisciplinarity as essential elements for addressing wicked problems and fostering transferable, futureoriented competencies in students.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Language Development & Literacy 109792 | Speech and Language Support Measures for Children with Insufficient German Language Skills in Germany Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University Hospital, Germany Benjamin P. Lange, International University of Applied Sciences, Germany Christiane Hey, Marburg University Hospital, Germany Introduction. Both monolingual German and bi-/multilingual children can lag behind in the German language acquisition, either due to language(-related) impairments and disorders or due to unfavourable conditions of the German language acquisition. In the current study, measures taken by parents and kindergarten teachers of children with insufficient German language skills were scrutinized. Methods. German language skills of four- to five-year-old German kindergarten children (N = 2,697) were assessed by the language test “Kindersprachscreening” (KiSS.2: speech comprehension, vocabulary, articulation, grammar, phonological short-term memory). Sociodemographic characteristics of children and their families were documented in KiSS.2 questionnaires for parents and kindergarten teachers. Such characteristics of children with “pass” (PA) and “fail” results (FA) in KiSS.2 were compared by univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Results. FA underwent more often speech-language therapies (as well as other therapies) and attended more often German language courses. Their German language skills were less often tested in kindergartens. However, respective differences between FA and PA were minimal. Children’s participation in speech-language therapies and German language courses was associated with their age, length of kindergarten attendance, and length of German language contact. Discussion. Although FA receive additional educational and medical assistance in acquiring German somewhat more often than PA, the difference is minimal. This means that most children needing such assistance do not obtain it, whereas some children with age-appropriate German language skills are provided with such (unnecessary) assistance. Children with longer kindergarten attendance get medical help earlier. Early contact to German usually results in age-appropriate German language competence. 109791 | Why Do Different Subgroups of Immigrant Children in Germany Speak Different Kinds of German? Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University Hospital, Germany Benjamin P. Lange, International University of Applied Sciences, Germany Christiane Hey, Marburg University Hospital, Germany Introduction. In Germany, immigrant children often learn or acquire German as their second or third language. In the current study, English(EN), Arabic- (AR), Turkish- (TU), Russian- (RU), and Italian-speaking (IT) children were compared regarding their German language skills and sociodemographic conditions of the German language acquisition. Methods. A sample of 2,569 four- and five-year-old immigrant children was analysed. Children’s German language skills were assessed by the language tests KiSS.2 (speech comprehension, vocabulary, articulation, grammar, phonological short-term memory) and S-ETK 3-5 (grammar, phonological short-term memory). Sociodemographic characteristics of children and their families were documented in KiSS.2 questionnaires for parents and kindergarten teachers. Results. EN and IT showed above-average, AR and TU below-average, RU average German language skills. EN, IT, and RU produced more “advanced” error patterns in KiSS.2 (e.g., wrong morphology), AR and TU produced simplest error patterns (e.g., no morphology). The quality and quantity of the German language input were better for EN, IT, and RU and worse for AR and TU. Discussion. German spoken by TU and AR is not as elaborate as that of EN, IT, and RU. TU and AR avoid morphology in the grammar and use simplest umbrella terms in the vocabulary, whereas EN, IT, and RU produce at least some kind of morphology and can utilize synonyms or narrower terms in the vocabulary. Differences in the German language skills between these two subgroups can be traced back to the sociodemographic conditions of the German language acquisition. These are clearly unfavourable for TU and AR.

Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity 111822 | The Impact of In-Person Science Laboratories on Understanding, Motivation, and Teamwork Among Undergraduate Non-Science Majors Zahra Moradi, University Canada West, Canada Prashant Kumar, University Canada West, Canada Regan Zhang, Mendel's, Canada Mostafa Javanmehri, Acsenda School of Management, Canada Undergraduate students who are not science majors frequently experience anxiety, low confidence, and limited engagement in required science courses. These challenges are often more pronounced among students from diverse international educational backgrounds with limited prior exposure to laboratory-based learning. The present study investigates the perceived impact of newly implemented hands-on, in-person laboratory sessions on undergraduate arts students enrolled in introductory science courses at the University of Canada West. A quantitative survey-based design was employed to collect data from approximately 700 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory Biology, Ecology, and Physical Geography courses. The Lab Experience Survey measured students’ perceptions of laboratory quality, clarity of instruction, understanding of course material, motivation and interest in science, collaboration with peers, and the perceived necessity of in-person laboratory sessions for learning. Reliability, descriptive, and inferential statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS. Preliminary findings demonstrate highly positive student perceptions of the laboratory experience across multiple dimensions. Students indicated that the laboratory sessions enhanced their understanding of scientific concepts, increased engagement and motivation, and improved opportunities for collaborative learning. Positive associations were observed between perceived laboratory quality and perceived learning outcomes. These results suggest that purposefully designed in-person laboratory experiences may support non-science majors in developing greater confidence and interest in science education. This study contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning by providing evidence of the pedagogical value of hands-on science laboratories designed specifically for non-science-major populations in diverse higher education contexts.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity 113796 | Rethinking Rigor: Developmentally Appropriate Inquiry Through Disciplinary Literacy in Kindergarten Heidi Gerard, California State University Fullerton, United States Debate persists over whether developmentally appropriate practices and rigor can be meaningfully aligned in early childhood education with concerns about a “push-down” curriculum suggesting that increasing academic expectations and standards may constrain opportunities for hands-on, play-based inquiry. This qualitative case study challenges this “either-or” framing that positions developmentally appropriate practices and academic rigor as competing priorities by examining how disciplinary literacy can support developmentally appropriate historical inquiry in a kindergarten classroom. Drawing on disciplinary literacy which emphasizes the specialized ways of constructing knowledge and communicating in each discipline (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008) and social constructivist learning theory (Vygotsky, 1978), this study explores how young children engage in the epistemic practices of historians through integrating interactive read-alouds, teacher think-alouds, collaborative discussion, historical inquiry, primary and secondary source analysis, historical artifact investigation, experiential learning through field trips, and scaffolded writing activities. Findings from this study suggest that engaging in disciplinary literacy practices can be developmentally appropriate when intentionally designed to reflect young children’s developmental strengths and ways of meaning making. By reconceptualizing rigor as authentic participation in disciplinary practices through inquiry-based learning, this research contributes to broader conversations about equitable early childhood education and offers practical implications for designing classrooms that honor both children’s developmental needs and their capacity for higher-order thinking.

Nurturing Creativity & Innovation: New, Innovative & Radical Education 113486 | From Diffuse Design to Ludic Co-design: Systematization in Teaching Practice Elizabeth Stefanía Elizalde Ríos, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Ecuador Beatriz García Prosper, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain Patricia Rodrigo Franco, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain In resource-scarce, vulnerable educational settings, there is a need to implement active pedagogies (Duarte Nares & Pons Peguero, 2024). Faced with this reality, teachers often devise empirical solutions through a process of "diffuse design" (Retamozo et al., 2023); however, the issue is that these efforts remain isolated and are rarely systematized (González-Vargas et al., 2023). Furthermore, the traditional model often relies on external materials while ignoring local needs (Mora Naranjo et al., 2023). This study shifts toward participatory design or co-design, integrating playful resources not merely for recreation, but as a catalyst for collaborative work. Methodologically, the research was conducted in three institutions located in vulnerable areas of Guayaquil, Ecuador, employing social design dynamics. With the support of expert designers acting as mediators, teachers designed their own tools. Actively involving teachers in the co-creation of these resources transformed their empirical developments into structured, sustainable methodologies. Throughout this process, the teacher assumed the role of facilitator and systemic leader. Observation and validation records demonstrated that this model allows learning to be rooted in local knowledge and turns environmental constraints into genuine opportunities for innovation.

Professional Training, Development & Concerns in Education 112281 | Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions of Kindergarten Quality in Hong Kong: Ideals, Stakeholder Expectations, and Feasibility Jessie Ming Sin Wong, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong Hong Kong’s early childhood education (ECE) sector has moved from a largely market-oriented system to one shaped by stronger government involvement, increased public investment, and formal quality assurance mechanisms such as School Self-Evaluation and Quality Reviews. Against this policy background, examining pre-service teachers’ conceptions of kindergarten quality can shed light on the professional understandings they are forming as they prepare to enter the field. This study examines how final-year pre-service ECE students in Hong Kong describe a high-performing kindergarten, interpret parental and government expectations, and judge the feasibility of different quality goals. The analysis draws on 234 valid responses to four open-ended survey questions. Findings suggest that participants were developing a child-centred and professionally grounded conception of quality, with whole-person development emerging as the most prominent theme in their own accounts, appearing in about half of the responses. Students also associated parents’ expectations with academic achievement, primary-school readiness, and reputation, and about half of them viewed parental expectations as different from their own ideals. Views of government expectations were more mixed, although policy and compliance concerns were prominent. Responses on feasibility further revealed a grounded awareness of practice conditions, with 30% mentioning constraints related to time, resources, staffing, or pressure. These findings suggest that pre-service teachers are entering the profession with a clear pedagogical vision while already anticipating tensions among child-centred ideals, stakeholder expectations, and the practical realities of implementation in Hong Kong kindergartens.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations 111201 | AI-Literate Educators and the Evolution of Teaching Practice: A Conceptual Framework for Augmented Teaching Soyinett Whyte, The University of the West Indies, Jamaica Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to change teaching and learning, moving beyond experimental use into everyday classroom practice, assessment, course design, and student support. Despite growing adoption of AI in education, many teachers lack structured guidance for developing AI-related competencies needed to integrate AI effectively and responsibly into their daily activities. Using a conceptual analysis of Çelik's Intelligent-TPACK framework and UNESCO's AI Competency Framework for Teachers, this concept paper develops a theoretical model of augmented teaching to guide educators' integration of AI into teaching, assessment, and professional decision-making. The paper makes the following contributions: 1. Augmented teaching is conceptualized not as the simple addition of AI tools to existing practice, but as the transformation of pedagogical decision-making, assessment, and teacher-student interaction within AI-supported learning environments. 2. The model integrates i-TPACK and AI CFT into a diagnostic framework linking technological knowledge, pedagogical design, content expertise, and ethical practice across fifteen interconnected competency domains. 3. It suggest that AI competencies should be embedded throughout teacher education and professional development rather than treated as isolated technology skills. The analysis suggests that effective AI integration depends less on advanced technical expertise and more on ethical awareness, critical evaluation, prompt literacy, and responsible classroom implementation. As AI continues to reshape teaching, assessment, and curriculum design, augmented teaching provides a useful lens for understanding how educators can adapt their practice while preserving educational quality, ethical responsibility, and professional judgement within increasingly AI-supported learning environments.

Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis 111920 | Blended and Experiential Learning’s Influence on Accounting Education Curriculum Delivery in Pre-Service Teacher Education Institutions Nosihle Veronica Sithole, Central University of Technology, South Africa This study explored the transformative impact of emerging pedagogies, particularly blended and experiential learning, on the delivery of accounting education curriculum in a pre-service teacher training institution. As rapid technological advancements evolve preparing teachers in higher education now requires a shift from traditional pedagogical approaches to increasingly supplemented innovative instructional strategies aimed at enhancing pre-service teachers’ engagement, practical skills, and critical thinking. Lately blended learning, which is the approach that combines face-to-face instruction with online digital content. On the other hand, there is experiential learning which emphasises hands-on, real-world experiences, bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing students for professional teaching challenges. This study borrowed one element from TPACK framework; Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) for understanding how teaching changes when specific technologies are used and Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) which provides four stages of learning. This qualitative study adopted interpretivist paradigm and case study research design. Four accounting education lecturers in a pre-service teacher training institution were purposively observed, and eight pre-service teachers were also purposively sampled for interviews in the Post Graduate Certificate in Education programme. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse data obtained. Findings demonstrate that blended learning influences accounting education curriculum delivery by encouraging incorporation of diverse multimedia resources, enhances student engagement and foster practical teaching skills required in teaching field. The findings underscore the importance of strategic integration of blended and experiential learning to foster a dynamic, relevant, and engaging accounting education curriculum in pre-service teacher training institutions. 113338 | Cognitive Demand and Student Performance in Calculus I: A Learning Analytics Study Russina Eltoum, Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia Mirna Abisaab, Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia Conceptual understanding and procedural fluency are fundamental dimensions of mathematical proficiency, yet little is known about how the cognitive composition of university assessments relates to student success. This study investigates the relationship between assessment cognitive demand and cohort-level performance in Calculus I using a learning analytics approach. Final examination data from three academic semesters, representing 459 undergraduate engineering students at Alfaisal University, were analyzed. A total of 93 examination items were independently classified as conceptual, procedural, or mixed by two raters using a conceptual–procedural coding framework grounded in mathematics education research and Bloom's taxonomy. The coding process demonstrated moderate inter-rater reliability (Cohen's κ = 0.43). Descriptive learning analytics were used to examine assessment characteristics, and Spearman's rank correlation was employed to explore the association between conceptual assessment weight and cohort pass rates. Results showed that procedural items dominated the assessments (63.4%), whereas conceptual items accounted for only 12.9%. An exploratory analysis revealed a moderate negative association (ρ ≈ −0.50) between the proportion of conceptual assessment marks and cohort pass rates. Given that the correlation was based on three cohorts, the findings are interpreted as exploratory and do not imply causation. The study contributes to assessment research by applying learning analytics to examine the cognitive composition of assessments rather than individual student performance, providing evidence to inform assessment design and support a more balanced integration of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in undergraduate mathematics.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations 113755 | Can Students Tell Us How to Teach? Student Voice as a Tool for Responsive Legal Pedagogy Prianka Mungray, Emeris, South Africa Traditional legal education has largely been characterised by lecturer-centered, doctrinal approaches that prioritise the transmission of legal knowledge. While this approach remains fundamental, it may not fully and adequately address students’ difficulties in applying legal principles in practice. This paper explores the impact that student voice has on teaching legal theory and the potential that it has to operate as a legitimate source of pedagogical insight capable of informing responsive legal pedagogy. Drawing on scholarship relating to legal pedagogy, student voice and responsive teaching, the paper develops a conceptual framework for positioning student feedback as an important component of curriculum and teaching design. The discussion is illustrated through a case example from an undergraduate Law of Evidence and Litigation Techniques module at a South African private higher education institution. Student feedback, collected through Likertscale questionnaires and open-ended reflective responses, identified challenges in applying evidentiary principles despite students reporting conceptual understanding. In response, an authentic “murder mystery” crime scene investigation activity was designed to address these learning barriers.The paper demonstrates how student-generated feedback can reveal barriers to learning that may not be apparent through formal assessments alone. It argues that responsive legal pedagogy enables lecturers to preserve doctrinal integrity while designing learning experiences that better support the development of legal reasoning and application in students. 106086 | What Does Postdigital Inquiry Look Like when a Teacher Intentionally Incorporates AI as a Thinking Partner in Higher Education Classrooms? Jo Perry, Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand This presentation takes a grounded, practice-based approach to exploring what postdigital inquiry pedagogy looks like in a real classroom. While the literature offers rich theoretical accounts of entanglement, mediation, and human-nonhuman co-participation, there is limited empirical evidence showing how these dynamics unfold in everyday teaching. This project responds to that gap by documenting what happens when an inquiry-based teacher intentionally incorporates AI as a thinking partner. Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework of Vygotsky’s mediated action, Emerson’s relational entanglement, and postdigital scholarship, the study examines the teacher-researcher’s planning, decision-making, and reflective practice. The aim is not to test a predetermined model, but to observe the emergence of pedagogical patterns as they occur. An autoethnographic approach is used to trace shifts in thinking across human, nonhuman, analog, digital, and environmental actors. Five elements of postdigital entanglement provide analytic waypoints: human–nonhuman interaction, epistemic vigilance, analoguedigital interplay, distributed cognition, and reflexive teacher practice. A possible limitation is that students bring differing levels of experience with AI prompting and critical questioning. For some, learning how to ask effective questions of the Agent is still emerging, which may shape the depth of interaction observed. This variability is understood as part of the evolving postdigital landscape in which learners, tools, and practices develop together. By focusing on what can be seen, traced, and documented in practice, the presentation offers grounded insights into the emergence of a postdigital inquiry pedagogy

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations Arts Practices 109940 | Beyond the Page: Independent Publishing as a Bridge for Interdisciplinary Art and Research Feixue Mei, James Madison University, United States This paper examines the "Boundless Bound" initiative—an interdisciplinary symposium and art book fair—as a site of practice-based research where independent publishing operates as a social scaffold for knowledge mediation. Moving beyond traditional academic reporting, this paper employs a visual-narrative approach to document how the tactile resistance of analog production—specifically within the mechanical constraints of Risograph and letterpress—integrated artistic production, scholarly research, and public engagement. Grounded in Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Woods’ communicative models, the initiative enacted a framework guided by three core principles: mutual mentorship, high challenge/high support, and the integration of production with critical reflection. Here, the physical production of zines and artist books functions as a "third space" where participants from disparate fields (e.g., psychology, library science) negotiate the friction between abstract theory and haptic manifestation. To operationalize this framework, the research utilizes a distinct Six-Step Model—analyzing participant observations, visual documentation, and finished material artifacts. Through this Material Scaffolding methodology, this paper delivers three core findings on semiotic scaffolding, sensory friction, and physical publications as boundary objects. Ultimately, this paper asserts that the haptic materiality of independent publishing provides a unique site for intellectual synthesis and the flattening of academic hierarchies, proving that the contemporary art book fair is not merely a venue for distribution, but a vital methodological apparatus for collaborative, socially-responsive making.

Communication 110981 | Military Communication in the Age of Social Media: Strategy, Identity, and Public Engagement Cezara Mindrescu, University of Bucharest, Romania With the advent of the internet and the rise of social media, military institutions have had to adapt their communication style to disseminate information as quickly as possible, counter misinformation, and maintain a dialogue with the global public. This study analyzes and compares the strategic communication practices of the armed forces of the United States and Romania on Facebook, aiming to identify differences in content strategies, thematic focus, posting patterns, and audience engagement levels. Thus, the study contributes to an under-explored body of literature on military communication in Eastern Europe within the digital public sphere. The study is based on a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative content analysis applied to a corpus of 2.308 posts on Facebook. The posts were published on the main communication pages of the U.S. and Romanian armed forces (U.S.Army and Ministerul Apararii Nationale, Romania - www.mapn.ro) between January 1 and December 31, 2023. For the analysis, a custom codebook was developed that included variables such as content type, thematic categories, message tone, and interactivity elements. Although the Romanian Army published more posts and had a stronger presence on Facebook, the U.S. Army achieved significantly higher engagement thanks to its diverse, personal and interactive content. The Romanian Army’s formal and ceremonial style limited interaction with the public, suggesting that more varied content that resonates with the public could strengthen trust in the institution.

Cultural Studies 111125 | Ayurvastram as First Skin: Herbal Textiles, Plant-Based Color, and Sustainable Fashion Lasya Aji Silpa, Appalachian State University, United States Manikya Sai Tejaswini Vallabhajyosula, University of North Texas, United States Barbara Trippeer, University of North Texas, United States Ayurvastram, or herbal clothing, is an Indian textile practice in which natural fabrics are treated with herbs, plant-based dyes, and botanical extracts. Rooted in longstanding Indian traditions of natural dyeing and plant-based material knowledge, Ayurvastram offers a culturally situated alternative to chemically dyed textiles and synthetic materials that dominate contemporary fashion. This paper examines Ayurvastram as a sensory and ecological textile practice that reimagines clothing as the body’s “first material layer.” Rather than positioning herbal textiles through therapeutic or medical claims, the study approaches them as multisensory design surfaces shaped by fiber, plant source, color, texture, scent, and material transformation over time. The research analyzes fifty herbal textile samples developed through varied plant fibers, herbal dye washes, and botanical treatments. These samples are tested under water exposure, sunlight, detergent washing, aroma retention, and soil burial to examine changes in color stability, scent persistence, surface texture, and biodegradability. By foregrounding herbal texture, natural dye behavior, aroma, and materiality, this study proposes Ayurvastram as a framework for sensory sustainability and plant-based textile design. It argues that herbal textiles can expand sustainable fashion beyond low-impact production by reconnecting clothing with ecological responsibility, cultural heritage, embodied experience, and everyday material awareness. In doing so, the paper contributes to discussions on sustainable fashion, sensory textiles, natural dye research, biodegradable materials, and culturally rooted textile innovation.

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Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations 111103 | Creative and Cultural Participation Among Chinese Diaspora Youth in Barcelona Zeyuan Liu, Universitat de Lleida, Spain This study explores how participation in cultural and creative activities shapes experiences of identity and belonging among Chinese diaspora youth in Barcelona. Focusing on everyday cultural participation, including community events, creative practices, language activities, and social interactions in urban spaces, the research examines how young people negotiate cultural identity and emotional belonging within transnational contexts. The study approaches Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) as forms of cultural infrastructure that influence access to participation, representation, and social connection in multicultural cities. Using qualitative methods, including interviews and participant observation, the research investigates how diaspora youth engage with both local and transnational cultural environments in Barcelona. The paper argues that cultural participation plays an important role in building community, sustaining identity, and creating a sense of belonging among young people living between cultures. 111126 | Kadhavastram: Encoding Kerala Mural Storytelling into Laser-Etched Modular Textiles Lasya Aji Silpa, Appalachian State University, United States Barbara Trippeer, University of North Texas, United States Kerala mural painting is a historically significant visual storytelling tradition that communicates Hindu mythological narratives through symbolic imagery, natural pigments, and sacred architectural surfaces. Within Kerala’s cultural context, these murals function not merely as decorative paintings but as carriers of cultural memory, ritual atmosphere, and inherited ways of seeing. As this visual tradition becomes less visible within contemporary material culture, this paper explores how its narrative language can be translated from wall to textile through laseretched fashion surfaces. Drawing from selected garments in a practice-based MFA design collection, the study examines the development of Kadhavastram, a textile storytelling approach that encodes mythological imagery into natural-fiber and naturally dyed fabrics. The project uses laser etching not as surface embellishment but as a method of inscription, allowing stories, symbols, and sacred visual references to become materially embedded into cloth. By burning into the textile surface, laser etching creates tonal contrast, depth, tactility, and material traces, echoing the layered presence of mural imagery while transforming it into a wearable form. The etched narratives are further cut into mandala-inspired modular units and assembled into garment sculptures. This modular system allows the pieces to be rearranged, resized, and restyled, connecting symbolic storytelling with sustainable design principles of adaptability, reuse, and reduced size dependency. By combining Kerala mural traditions, natural materials, laser technology, and modular construction, this research proposes textile surfaces as living narrative spaces where cultural memory can be carried, touched, reconfigured, and worn.

Film Studies 109085 | “A Lot of What Happens Isn’t Right”: Dystopian Television, Immigration, and the Screen as Political Mirror Margaret Tally, Empire State University, United States From the asylum detention camps of Years and Years (2019) to the ICE raids of One Battle After Another (2025) to the quietly devastating Fourth of July plotline of The Pitt (2025), screen culture has emerged as one of the most urgent sites for representing — and in some cases anticipating — the treatment of immigrants in the contemporary United States and Europe. This paper examines how recent television and film navigate the fine line between political foreshadowing and real-time reflection, tracing a through-line from Russell T Davies's near-future dystopia to Paul Thomas Anderson's Pynchon adaptation to the procedural realism of The Pitt's emergency room, where a Haitian boy's blownoff fingers become a quiet indictment of a deportation regime that has left him and his sister entirely alone. Drawing on Stuart Hall's encoding/ decoding framework and Raymond Williams's concept of "structures of feeling," the paper argues that these texts operate across a spectrum: some, like Years and Years, project present anxieties into speculative futures; others, like One Battle After Another, arrive already overtaken by the reality they depict; while still others, like The Pitt, embed immigration's human costs within the procedural rhythms of everyday institutional life, rendering them visible precisely because they are not foregrounded. Together, these works suggest that dystopia is no longer a genre of warning but of documentation — and that the screen has become, for many viewers, the primary space in which the human consequences of border policy are made legible.

Performing Arts Practices: Theater, Dance, Music 112646 | Musical Nationalism and Cultural Identity in the Venezuelan Valses of Antonio Lauro Domenico Leonello, Independent Scholar, Italy The concept of “national music” emerged during the nineteenth century as a cultural response to the dominance of major European musical centres such as Vienna, Paris, and Berlin. Nationalist musical languages did not simply incorporate folk materials; rather, they transformed them into artistic forms capable of preserving local identity within a broader musical discourse. This paper examines the construction of Venezuelan musical identity through selected waltzes by the guitarist and composer Antonio Lauro (1917–1986), widely regarded as one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Latin American guitar music. Through a historical and analytical approach, the study investigates rhythmic, metric, and timbral features in works such as Carora, El Marabino, Ana Cristina, and Nelly. By relating these musical characteristics to broader cultural and historical processes, the paper argues that Lauro’s guitar works represent more than an individual artistic achievement. They participate in the development of a distinctive Venezuelan national soundscape, in which popular traditions are reinterpreted through the language of the classical guitar. The study highlights the role of the guitar as a vehicle of cultural representation and contributes to a deeper understanding of musical nationalism in twentieth-century Latin America.

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BAMC2026 Review Committee Dr Martyna Bieniek, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Dr Joana Braguez, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal Dr Matthew Brooks, University of Nebraska at Omaha, United States Dr Alexander Ibni, Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University, Philippines Dr Nur Atirah Kamaruzaman, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Dr Atouoto Kerker, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria Dr Malektaj Khosravi, Islamic Azad University, Iran Professor Daniel Mckay, Independent Scholar, United Kingdom Dr Catherine Phillips, Lakehead University, Canada Dr Bharti Shandilya, University of Delhi, India Dr Yu Yang, Zhengzhou University, China

BAMC2026 Senior Reviewers Dr Nguyen Dong Anh, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Vietnam Dr Megi Plaku, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania Dr Sanaz Alizadeh Tabrizi, Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey Professor Lizi Dzagnidze, Caucasus University, Georgia Dr Shatha Khuzaee, Al-Muthanna University, Iraq Dr Frederico Pacheco, independent, Brazil Dr Faten Hamad, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Professor Dina Faour, American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

BAMC2026 Reviewers Dr Marcelo Isse Moyano, Universidad Nacional de las Artes, Argentina Dr Zaha Alanazi, Majmaa University, Saudi Arabia Professor Tina Clemente, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines Dr Patrycja Duc-harada, Jagiellonian University, Poland Professor Isabel Fernandes Silva, Universidade Autónoma De Lisboa, Portugal Dr Dino Gliha, Joint Law Office Dr. sc. Marković, Grbavac & Dr. sc. Gliha; Qi Project Ltd.; Iqdigital Systems Ltd., Croatia Dr Mohamed Ben Moussa Mohamed Ben Moussa, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Dr Rachel Moyo, Central University of Technology, South Africa Dr Raziye Nevzat, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus Dr Sinjini Roy, Government General Degree College, Chapra, affiliated under Kalyani University, India Dr Stelios Stylianou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Professor Andra Zvirbule, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia Dr Nathaniel Bryan, University of Texas at Austin, United States

BCE2026 Review Committee Dr Mane Atikyan, Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia, Armenia Dr Hale Ülkü Aydın, TED University, Turkey Dr Kiran Chalise, Mid-west University, Nepal Dr Lei Huang, University of Turin, Italy Dr Hassiba Koriche, University of Ain Temouchent, Algeria Dr Hennie Lomibao, Bicol University, Philippines Dr Wilma Lontoc, Mindoro State University, Philippines Dr Brian Mathias, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Dr Hlengiwe Mbhele, North-West University, South Africa Professor Nourreddine Menyani, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Moulay Ismail University of Meknés, Morocco Professor Michael Owen, Brock University, Canada Dr Shahid Rafiq, Emerson University Multan, Pakistan

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BCE2026 Senior Reviewers Dr Dalila Yamani, the Higher Normal School of Kouba, Algeria Dr Phuwadon Chulasukhont, Naresuan University, Thailand Dr Shichang Deng, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China Professor Ruby Hanson, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Dr Emrah Marul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Turkey Dr Anna Lucia Peluso, IC “Ferrajolo - Siani” Acerra (NA), Italy Dr Dony Darma Sagita, universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Professor Agnes Xue, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Dr Khalid Alshammakhi, Independent Researcher, Oman Professor Edward Markwei Martey, Koforidua Technical university, Ghana Dr Ferley Ortiz, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Colombia Dr Olira Rodrigues, Universidade Estadual de Goiás - Brasil, Brazil Dr Merih Ugurel Kamisli, TED University, Turkey Dr Daniela Pieraccini, I.C. Anchise Picchi - Collesalvetti - Livorno, Italy Dr Rubina Danilova, American University of Armenia, Armenia Dr Matabe Rosa Modiba, North-West University, South Africa Dr Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University, Germany

BCE2026 Reviewers Professor Mónica Esther Castillo Gómez, Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia Dr Kari Stunell, Université de Bordeaux, France Dr Hibah Alharbi, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia Dr Bachtiar Bachtiar, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Dr Rebecca Corso, Stonehill College, United States Dr Noor Syahida Md Soh, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Dr Palita Sooksamran, Phayao Provincial Education Office, Thailand Professor Eissa Alansari, Kuwait University, Kuwait Dr Muhammad Ali, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia Dr Sara Alnufaishan, Kuwait University, Kuwait Dr Alanoud Alrashidi, Kuwait University, Kuwait Dr Russina Eltoum, Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia Professor Hsiu-chu Hsu, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan Dr Anisa Hysesani, Academy of Security, Albania Dr Maria Katsigianni, University of Patras, Greece Dr Niina Kovalainen, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland Professor Milena Lipnická, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia Dr Matthews Makunye, North-West University, South Africa Dr Ville Mankki, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Dr Kulnicha Meechaiyo, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom Professor Matsolo Mokhampanyane, Central University of Technology, South Africa Dr Zahra Moradi, University Canada West, Canada Dr Bakhtiyorjon Numonov, Kokand State University, Uzbekistan Dr Martine Peters, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada Dr Elysha Eleanor Ramage, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom Professor Candace Skibba, Carnegie Mellon University, United States Dr Valeria Sumonte Rojas, Catholic University of Maule, Chile Dr Lemon Tang, Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom Professor Maria Tsampra, University of Patras, Greece Dr Norman Vaughan, Mount Royal University, Canada Dr Andrew Wambua, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa Dr Jaka Warsihna, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Dr Aphiradee Wongsiri, Khon Kaen University, Thailand Dr Judith Zangerle, University of Cádiz, Spain Professor Laura Menichetti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Professor Matsolo Mokhampanyane, Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa Dr Melese Shula, North West University, South Africa Dr Viktoriya Stavesky, National University, United States Dr Wanting Yang, Cheng Shiu University, Taiwan Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/iaforjapan | IAFOR Barcelona | IAFOR.ORG | 159

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