2023 REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE REFERENCE FRAMEWORK OF COMPETENCES FOR DEMOCRATIC CULTURE (RFCDC)

This report presents the main findings from the first review of the implementation of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The review process took place between March – December 2023.The main aim of this study was to understand the extent to which the RFCDC has been used in formal education systems of Member States since 2016, including its influence on policies and practices. Moreover, this review was intended as an opportunity for policy learning among Member States. The results have supported the preparation of the Council of Europe Education Strategy 2024-2030 and were fed into the 26th session of the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education of the Council of Europe on 28-29 September 2023. Chapter 1 of the report offers an overview of the conceptual definitions guiding the study and the research design used. Chapter 2 analyses the main findings in the implementation of the RFCDC in the following areas: 1) education policy development; 2) education system; 3) school; 4) addressing current and emerging issues, such violence in schools, violent extremism and radicalisation; climate change; media and informational literacy; ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI); and education in times of crisis; and 5) main opportunities and challenges related to the integration of the RFCDC in education systems. The concluding chapter (chapter 3) presents policy pointers for improvement with regards to the implementation of the RFCDC in key areas of action, and how to support further Member States in undertaking this task.The findings presented below were drawn from the analysis of evidence collected through:• A literature and document review conducted in English and French.• 2 online surveys: one for the Education Policy Advisors Network (EPAN) members (25 responses received), and one for education stakeholders across levels and sectors of education (42 responses received).• Peer learning workshops with the EPAN Network held in May 2023.• Online focus groups (15 participants in 5 online focus groups).• Individual interviews with EPAN Network members (5)  <br/

Ways of implementing information technologies in professional training of future specialists

Creation of modern effective technologies, automation, intensification of production, implementation of planning and management with the help of modern information and communication technologies are the main factors of acceleration of scientific and technical progress. The purpose of the article is to show the importance of using information technologies in the training of future specialists. Without the integration of the educational environment of the higher school into the informational educational environment, without the exit of the educational process into the global information space, significant development of modern educational systems is impossible. In order to substantiate the principles of improving the professional training of education seekers, a quantitative analysis of open educational resources is proposed, the most popular platforms on which&nbsp;the path to open educational resources is designed are determined. The article examines the conditions by which the effectiveness of pedagogical support is achieved in the distance learning process. The substantiation of the most essential criteria and indicators involves the assessment of the quality of personality education in the digital educational space. They offer the perfect use of digital information, readiness for communication, critical thinking, digital and social competence

Virtual exchange and the integration of global and ecological citizenship in foreign language education

242 p.[EN] This thesis was written and is framed in a context of educational change and global challenge marked by historic events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and the environmental crisis among others. As asserted in the 2022 UN’s annual ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report’: “Today, we stand on the precipice of a critical moment. Either we fail to deliver on our commitments to support the world’s most vulnerable or together we turbo-charge our efforts to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030” (UN, 2022, p. 4). For this reason, the pedagogical activities proposed here take on special relevance due to their suitability for the development of intercultural (Byram, 2008), global (OECD, 2018), and ecological (Dobson, 2000, 2003, 2007) citizenship competences that favour sustainable and peaceful coexistence. As stated by the OECD (2018): “Developing a global and intercultural outlook is a process -a lifelong process- that education can shape” (p.5). It is following this idea of using education as a shaping power for preparing students to seize the opportunities and face the challenges that the present context poses that this doctoral thesis is born. The spread of access to technology and the internet has made it possible to implement innovative educational approaches such as Virtual Exchange (VE) for such an endeavour . VE is an umbrella term used to refer to the engagement of groups of learners in online language and intercultural interaction and collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of course work, and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators (O’Dowd, 2018). Given that the number of students who spend a period of their university studies abroad is very low, such educational experience is key to the democratisation of access to intercultural learning as it offers students the possibility to interact and learn in an intercultural environment through the mediation of technology, without the need to travel abroad (De Wit, 2016). Consequently, in recent decades, the implementation and recognition of VE has grown progressively and exponentially. Numerous studies and research projects have been carried out by educators that have explored and acknowledged the value of involving students in VE. These have been implemented from multiple approaches with well-documented success in developing numerous skill sets such as Foreign Language (FL) proficiency, Intercultural Competence (IC), cultural awareness or global citizenship which are key to live and thrive in the present context (Furstenberg et al., 2001; O'Dowd, 2003; Belz, 2004; Brammerts, 2006; Müller-Hartmann, 2007; Guth and Helm, 2010; Chun, 2015; Lindner, 2016; O’Dowd, 2019). However, the potential of VE for the development of ecological citizenship, has not yet been exploited as it could, despite the urgency of training students to meet the eminent challenges posed by the environmental crisis. In response to this gap, this research has explored the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students develop as a result of being exposed to an authentic experience of intercultural interaction and collaboration that enables them to better understand the local and global dimensions of environmental challenges as well as the possibilities for sustainable development. At the same time, this study aims to introduce this theme into the debate on VE with a view to promoting a global and ecological culture in university FL education. The aims of this research were: (1) to determine how the objectives of global and ecological citizenship can be integrated into the field of FL education through VE (proposal of a VE model), (2) to identify the observed learning outcomes, (3) to compare and contrast the possibilities of bilingual and lingua franca approaches, and (4) to explore how teachers can support students in their learning all within the framework of the VE model developed. To this end, an Action Research (AR) methodology was adopted. This methodology consisted of the design and implementation of two iterative cycles in which the VE model was tested and refined following the phases of planning, action taking, evaluation and refinement or reconceptualisation. Each VE intervention was designed on the basis of a literature review and the systematic collection of qualitative self-reporting and interactional data. Learning was measured through triangulation of these various sources of qualitative information over a two-year period in which two iterative cycles were implemented with 3 cohorts of students. In the first iteration, a telecollaborative bilingual-bicultural approach was adopted (see Dooly, 2017 and O’Dowd, 2016 for overviews) in which two groups of learners from Spain and Ireland studying each other's languaculture (Agar, 1994) communicated and collaborated using both languages. During the second iteration, a lingua franca approach was adopted (Kohn & Hoffstaedter, 2017) and students from Spain participated in a VE with a German partner class using English for communication and collaboration around issues of global relevance that go beyond explicit bicultural comparison (O'Dowd, 2019). The adoption of both approaches offers the opportunity to compare and contrast the possibilities of each telecollaborative learning configuration in order to reach reliable conclusions about their effectiveness for the implementation of the VE model developed. It also contributes to the need for further replication studies that aim to confirm the learning outcomes of specific VE approaches due to the heterogeneous nature of this pedagogical approach (O’Dowd, 2021b). Examples of such studies can be found in European Erasmus+ projects such as EVALUATE (EVALUATE group, 2019) or EVOLVE (EVOLVE Project Team, 2020) which examine the impact of the class-to-class VE model on large cohorts of students or the recent study by O'Dowd (2021b) in which the differences between these two approaches are analysed. The multiple iterations combined with the systematic collection and triangulation of varied data sources, allowed for the identification of the answers to the research questions and contributed in turn to the conceptualisation and evolution of the VE model designed in this study. Key reference works such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001, 2018b, 2020) for the development of language skills in English, the Global Competences Framework (OECD, 2018) and Dobson's (2000, 2003, 2007) notions of the virtues of the ecological citizen were used for the interpretation and analysis of the data collected. The main outcome of this study is an evidence-based understanding of the possibilities of VEs to develop FL, global and ecological competences through both bilingual and lingua franca approaches. The VEs implemented and the final model developed were efforts to create opportunities to guide learners in building their intercultural, global and ecological profile to successfully cope with the present context made possible by the opportunities that technological mediation offers educators today. Furthermore, the study also identifies key aspects to be considered by teachers when designing and implementing VEs for the development of these competences. In addition, the study provides a VE model comprising specific tasks and materials ready to be used and/or adapted by other FL teachers who wish to introduce the global and ecological perspective into their classrooms

Alternative method for the learning of a foreign language in a clil school

Este trabajo ha surgido de mi experiencia personal como maestra en Lenguas Extranjeras en un colegio bilingüe donde se lleva a cabo una metodología para la enseñanza de las lenguas, en este caso el inglés, nada habitual. El hecho de, por un lado, ver unos resultados magníficos a nivel lingüístico en los niños del centro al terminar la Educación Primaria; y, por otro lado, el nivel de estrés y, a veces, contradicción que yo he vivido como especialista del área de Inglés en el Primer Ciclo de esta etapa han hecho de este trabajo de análisis e investigación algo revelador y enriquecedor. La intención principal ha sido verificar si el método se atiene a la normativa vigente y si realmente ayuda o perjudica al desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa, máximo fin en el área de Lengua Extranjera.This research comes from my personal experience as a Foreign Language teacher in a bilingual school where a not common methodology for the language learning is carried out. The fact that learners have magnific linguistic results when finishing Primary Education; and, on the other hand, the level of estress and contradiction that I have experimented as English teacher in the First Cycle of this stage, make this work to be something revealing and rewarding. The main intention has been to verify if such method sets its roots on the current normative and if it really help or damage the development of the communicative competence, main aim of the Foreign Language Area.Grado en Educación Primari

Human Capital Management: innovative aspects of transformational economies

Довгий час було добре відомо, що людський капітал є ключовим компонентом економічного розвитку. Проте існування людського капіталу недостатньо, але найважливішим питанням є те, як він організований або керований. У цій монографії дослідники з декількох країн висвітлюють деякі проблеми, з якими стикається управління людським капіталом в конкретному контексті Центральної та Східної Європи. Ця перспектива до недавнього часу отримувала порівняно невелику увагу дослідників. Незважаючи на це, поєднання управління людським капіталом та трансформаційними економіками відкриває нові уявлення про динаміку декількох секторів, таких як організації державного сектора, підприємства, регіональний розвиток та навіть футбольні ліги. Економічний розвиток швидко розвивався в деяких країнах, регіонах або секторах Центральної та Східної Європи, а в інших спостерігається відставання. Загалом, рівень освіти хороший у глобальному порівнянні, але незалежно від цього економічне зростання не відстежується скрізь. Цей дещо парадоксальний розвиток потребує більш глибокого розуміння, де однією з головних напрямів має бути управління людським капіталом.В течение долгого времени было хорошо известно, что человеческий капитал является ключевым компонентом экономического развития. Однако само существование человеческого капитала недостаточно, но важнейшей проблемой является то, как он организован или управляем. В этой монографии исследователи из нескольких стран освещают некоторые проблемы, стоящие перед управлением человеческим капиталом в конкретном контексте Центральной и Восточной Европы. Этой перспективе до недавнего времени уделялось сравнительно мало внимания исследователями. Тем не менее, сочетание управления человеческим капиталом и трансформационными экономиками открывает новые возможности для анализа динамики нескольких секторов, таких как организации государственного сектора, предприятия, региональное развитие и даже футбольные лиги. В некоторых странах, регионах или секторах в Центральной и Восточной Европе быстро развивается экономическое развитие, а в других - отставание. В целом, уровень образования хорош в глобальном сопоставлении, но независимо от этого экономический рост не отслеживается повсюду. Это несколько парадоксальное развитие требует более глубокого понимания, когда одной из основных областей должно быть управление человеческим капиталом.For a long time, it has been well-known that human capital is a key component of economic development. However, the very existence of human capital does not suffice, but the crucial issue is how it is organized, or managed. In this monograph researchers from several countries highlight some of the challenges facing management of human capital in a particular Central and Eastern European context. This perspective has until recently received relatively little attention from researchers. Nevertheless, the combination of human capital management and transformation economies opens up for new insights into the dynamics of several sectors, such as public-sector organizations, enterprises, regional development, and even football leagues. Economic development has been fast in some countries, regions or sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, while lagging behind in others. In general, the level of education is good in a global comparison, but regardless of this, economic growth has not taken off everywhere. This somewhat paradoxical development requires a deeper understanding, where one of the focal areas should be how human capital is managed

Learning and Teaching Languages in Technology-Mediated Environments: Why Modes and Meaning Making Matter

The developing argument presented in this thesis is based on seven articles, eight book chapters and one set of conference proceedings, some single-authored and some co-authored, on language learning and teaching in technology-mediated environments, published between 2004 and 2018. The publications chart my evolution as a researcher and practitioner at the Open University UK. There are several threads which weave themselves through my scholarly journey and which are reflected in the selected work: Thread 1: multimodal competence and language learning and teaching with technology Thread 2: task-based approaches to language learning and teaching with technology Thread 3: teacher (and learner) preparation for language learning and teaching with technology Thread 4: learner (and teacher) autonomy in language learning and teaching with technology. The narrative cloth in the presentation of the publications draws these threads together and illustrates how they interconnect across my work. They are linked by my concern for online language learners’ awareness of the opportunities and demands of the learning environment and the impact that such awareness, or lack thereof, has on the learning process. The empirical studies presented and discussed in my work use mostly qualitative research instruments. They take forward the knowledge in the field by offering original insights into the interrelationship between language learner awareness and control over the learning context understood as awareness of online modes and their potential for meaning-making, communication, interaction and collaboration. This interrelationship is not only relevant for language learning in virtual environments per se, it also has repercussions on online learners’ development of intercultural communicative competence, their digital participatory competence and social presence online, and on their autonomy. Underpinning my work is a view shared by a growing number of researchers and practitioners in online learning and teaching of languages and cultures that a radical pedagogical shift is required: it is not sufficient to see the new technology-infused learning spaces as replicates of conventional face-to-face settings. Such a shift has to be informed by new learning theories which capture the dynamic nature of the enterprise in the wake of unabating technological advancements (e.g. Guichon, 2009; Hampel & Stickler, 2005; Hubbard & Levy, 2006; Hubbard, 2009; Kern, 2015; Sun, 2011). Moreover, I argue, it will need to include the systematic raising of learner awareness of learning context. The presentation of the selected articles, book chapters and conference proceedings in Chapter 4 is divided into five parts in line with the thematic foci of the publications: (1) contextual knowledge, (2) multimodal competence (3) multiliteracies (4) digital literacies (5) participatory literacy and social presence. The publications in Chapter 4, section 4.1 – Hauck (2004), Hampel and Hauck (2004), Hauck (2005), and Hauck and Hurd (2005) – focus on the concept of contextual knowledge and are informed by two studies: one carried out with students when the former Department of Languages (DoL) at the Open University offered learners a choice between face-to-face and online tutorials via an audiographic conferencing application (Lyceum); the other one carried out with OU tutors, most of whom were at the time unfamiliar with using Internet-based conferencing for language learning and teaching purposes. The work presented in section 4.2 – Hampel and Hauck (2006), Hauck (2007), Hauck and Youngs (2008) and Hauck and Hampel (2008) – concentrates on multimodal competence as well as the interface between multimodal communicative competence and intercultural communicative competence online. While Hampel and Hauck (2006) is a theoretical contribution, the other three publications are based on a telecollaborative exchange linking participants from three different parts of the world (the Tridem project). The former helped frame the empirical study at the center of the two articles and the chapter that followed. The publications in section 4.3 – Hauck (2010a) and Hauck (2010b), and Fuchs, Hauck and Müller-Hartmann (2012) – explore multiliteracies with multimodal competence understood as a core element of multiliteracies. They draw on data from a four-way telecollaborative exchange between teacher trainees and language learners in order to illustrate why telecollaboration provides the ideal set-up for fostering such competence development and therefore also online learner and teacher autonomy. This leads to an examination of digital literacies in Kurek and Hauck (2014) and Hauck and Kurek (2017) in section 4.4. Both chapters are, again, theoretical contributions to the field of technology-mediated language learning and teaching. We conceptualise digital proficiency as mastery of modes and meaning-making – in other words multimodal competence – and as a precondition for autonomy. In Kurek and Hauck (2014) we present a task framework for instructed learner reflection to this effect, ideally in telecollaborative settings. Finally, in section 4.5 – Hauck and Warnecke (2012), Hauck, Galley and Warnecke (2016), also a theoretical contribution, and Hauck and Satar (2018) – my co-authors and I explore a subset of digital literacies, namely participatory literacy as reflected in multimodal competence, and its relevance for social presence in online language learning and teaching contexts. An example of how these themes interlink with the aforementioned threads is the task-based approach to multimodal competence development (Threads 1 and 2) in telecollaborative settings which is advocated in all three publications in section 4.3. Together, the publications make a substantial contribution to the field of language learning and teaching in technology-mediated environments, through the centrality they grant to the learning context, and increasingly also to multimodality (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001; Kress, 2009) as an overarching approach to conceptualising context-related challenges for both students and teachers

Pandemia in translation: a comparative understanding of European social values

This volume, resulting from the training and research activities of the “Pandemic in translation” project – FORTHEM’s Experiencing Europe Lab, University of Palermo –, deals with central issues related to COVID-19 pandemic, and aims at contributing to a comparative understanding of mainly, but not exclusively European values challenged during this contingency. This interdisciplinary projects mobilizes a multicultural and multilingual debate about norms and beliefs, cultural identities and societal values, public policies and emotional communities. Using methodologies drawn from Comparative and International Law to Comparative Literature, from discourse analysis to Translation Studies, this book clarifies the socially constructed nature of the pandemic reality and calls for a redefinition of some long-assumed categories. Although translation can function culturally, epistemologically and cognitively as a metaphor, in fact translation seems more like “a process endogenous to social life”: in this sense – and from an anthropological point of view – it allows for the articulation of ethical, legal, normative and ideological representations. In some cases, translation can highlight the hermeneutic impasse between public policy actions and the discursive politics that emerge from them. The social suffering caused by the pandemic crisis calls into question both scientific mediation as a whole and scientists’ position in particular: how can scientific accuracy be reconciled with the need to make certain warnings known? Who is qualified to speak about the pandemic and its societal implications? Which authority figures are expressing their thoughts on the matter, and how trustworthy are they? Indeed, the methodological combination of 1 the approaches of Translation Studies and Multilingual crisis communication points to translation as a key theoretical concept not only in social and human sciences, but also in the anthropological and epistemological construction of global public health discourses

ATEE Spring Conference 2020-2021

This book collects some of the works presented at ATEE Florence Spring Conference 2020-2021. The Conference, originally planned for May 2020, was forcefully postponed due to the dramatic insurgence of the pandemic. Despite the difficulties in this period, the Organising Committee decided anyway to keep it, although online and more than one year later, not to disperse the huge work of authors, mainly teachers, who had to face one of the hardest challenges in the last decades, in a historic period where the promotion of social justice and equal opportunities – through digital technologies and beyond – is a key factor for democratic citizenship in our societies. The Organising Committee, the University of Florence, and ATEE wish to warmly thank all the authors for their commitment and understanding, which ensured the success of the Conference. We hope this book could be, not only a witness of these pandemic times, but a hopeful sign for an equal and inclusive education in all countries