World of research

It’s about us! Reflections on Education for Active Citizenship within the European Union

This article was originally published in Elm's predecessor media, LLinE.

What exactly is an EU citizen? The authors argue that EU citizenship education is a strategy for legitimising the Union rather than for fostering democratic processes.

Sustainable citizenship as practice

A discourse of “citizenship-as-achievement” affects education for sustainable development. The authors shift the focus from competences that citizens must acquire to democratic educational practices.

Fourth Way Futures

Focus on testing and ranking is bad for schools. Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley propose an alternative, the "Fourth Way". Active citizens taking part in education planning are central to the Fourth Way.

Active citizenship and late-life learning in the community

This paper argues there is no education outside the social realm. Two community learning projects in Malta show how a critical reading of the social realities of adults is central to effective citizenship.

Good practices: Short workstays abroad combat exclusion

As the American drama film Precious (2009, based on the 1996 novel Push by the former social worker Sapphire)  makes clear to a wider audience, much of what we believe in as standards of communication may not exist for young people who live in poverty, far away from social inclusion, solid education and regular work.

A Nordic perspective on youth unemployment

This article was originally published in Elm's predecessor media, LLinE. Introduction Youth unemployment has increased dramatically all over Europe since the financial crisis of 2008 although at different levels and speed in the individual countries. Rising youth unemployment in particular creates a strong feeling of urgency among all political leaders. Experience shows that young people

Need of enhancing core skills: the Greek case

In Greece, strong families may replace those social networks that might be helpful for employment. Source: Wikimedia Introduction Youth unemployment in Greece has increased dramatically the last four years (2008-2012). From 1985–2008, the rate of unemployment was between 25%–35% and was steadily higher than the EU19 average (OECD, 2009, p.12). However, in 2012 the unemployment

Reflecting design learning in collaborative development – towards integrative teaching practices in Finnish teacher education

research. How does one define the concept of design learning in education? And what kinds of teaching and learning activities form the basis for an integrative learning process?

Mainstreaming innovation in Europe- Findings on employee innovation and workplace learning from Belgium

Innovation mainstreaming refers to the inclusion of employees in the innovation process. This article asks how “mainstream” innovation is in Belgian firms. Innovation seems to be an elite driven process although workplace learning would be a strong lever for employee innovation. The EU is striving for an “Innovative Union”. Various case studies already hinted that

Public sector innovation: value creation or value loss?

This paper explores the value dimension of public innovation in the light of practitioners’ values and asks why there seems to be a clash between innovation imperatives and workplace practices in the public sector. The paper contributes to the research on public innovation from a practice perspective by providing evidence from an ethnographic field study