Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Citizenship, education and Society

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Conducting innovative research and promoting interdisciplinary approaches to the exploration of the intersection of citizenship, education and society.

Our focus is on education (formal and informal) as a human right and as a reflection of the way that societies view themselves historically and imagine themselves in the future. We are particularly interested in the ways that citizens’ experiences from exercising their right to education influence their citizenship identity, civic attitudes and political socialisation. By fostering interdisciplinary approaches to educational research we aim to engage the research community and the public in systematic explorations of education as a socio-political process, guided by power dynamics and influencing citizens’ self-perceptions, values and socio-political views.

our cross-cutting research themes

  • Mobility and social inclusion

  • Citizenship, human rights and democratic education

  • Environment and environmental education

  • Digital education

  • Health and health education

  • Language and communication

Our current projects

  1. Schools for All: Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (funded by Norwegian Grants)

    Through this project school directors and teachers are trained to create safe and inclusive schools and classrooms where refugees are welcomed into a learning environment that aims to provide quality education to all. The training aims to equip school directors and teachers with the tools, competence and confidence to manage controversy and deal with issues concerning intolerance, discrimination, racism and hate speech in school and the local community.

  2. EDINA GoPro: teacher professionalisation for migrant pupil education (Erasmus+ project)

    This project aims at the expansion of the results obtained by EDINA (2015-2018), by expanding the existing network through a European consortium that consists of local/provincial authorities, schools and researchers with backgrounds as diverse as linguistics, language acquisition, psychology, pedagogy and intercultural communication. We have in common the belief that valuing the cultural identity and home language of Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) is extremely important, not only as a way to acquire the school language but also to avoid delays in non-linguistic subjects. EDINA GoPro focuses on the development of the professional skills of teachers, no matter what they teach, in order to support them in the integration of NAMS.

  3. Student Teachers' Practice for Democratic Culture. (Erasmus+ project)

    STEP UP-DC meets the need for teachers’ training in democratic pedagogies, supporting schools as hubs for democracy and inclusion through the use of the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC). This project is an educational initiative aimed at fostering intercultural dialogue involving teachers and pupils from an early age, stressing the social and educational value of democracy. The project aims to develop an innovative student teacher training programme on developing CDC based on transnational co-operation between partners with different national educational backgrounds. It will include a set of tools for the training programme, a process of certification and online Open Educational Resources.

  4. EU Policy and practice monitoring in the field of education of children and young people with a migrant background

    Continuing a series of workshops, this project seeks to demonstrate good practice in implementing evidence-based migrant education policies. Examples of good practice will identify where research findings were used for the design and continuous improvement of practice. The workshops will formulate recommendations for good practices for evidence-based migrant education policies (with the inclusion of migrant organisations).

seminar series

interdisciplinary dialogues

The centre is developing the Interdisciplinary Dialogues in Education (IDE) series, launched in November 2021. The IDE will be a series of round-table discussions among a selected number of participants with a view to enriching educational thinking and practice. IDE aim to provide an opportunity to those with an interest but not necessarily expertise in education to present findings from their research projects, share experiences and/or outline their thinking on a specific field, and explore the implications that this might have for educational research, policy and practice.

The series will become a forum for dialogue on education, which will:

  • Broaden the circle of academics, researchers and practitioners with an active interest in education;
  • Explore the educational dimension of social activities and the intrinsically educational role of all social actors;
  • Fertilise educational research with ideas from other disciplines;
  • Enrich participants’ perspectives of their work and its significance and impact by examining it from an educational angle.

Our people