In discussing the functions of education Gert Biesta distinguishes qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In subjectification higher education facilitates the evolution of students as distinctive self-determining persons. This paper foregrounds and discusses 'student self-formation', a paradigm of subjectification with fecund…

Cultural humility has gained traction as a potentially transformative construct in social justice work, compelling practitioners to engage in a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique to recognize the limitations of their knowledge, practice openness toward others, and actively work to mitigate systemic inequities. In this paper, we…

Reflective practices are considered an important part of a pre-service teachers' (PSTs) professional learning experiences. However, there has been much criticisms on its efficacy as a learning tool for teacher professional development. This paper will relate a study that was designed to compare reflective teaching practices in two culturally…

Education is naturally transformative, but the acquisition of new skills and construction of new knowledge are only possible when we empower students instead of forcing their conformity. Our current compliance-based teaching methodologies rely on coercion, conditioning and external motivators that engender submission and fear in students and…

One of the educational objectives of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 is to develop students who are creative and critical thinkers. The present study thus examined Saudi elementary teachers' reflective thinking, based on the ideas that teachers who possess reflective thinking will have direct influence on their students' thinking, and that reflective…

This study examines how students experienced and made meaning of a novel academic course in mindfulness, offered to foster holistic learning through self-knowledge. For this interpretive phenomenological analysis, data were collected through critical reflective journals and semistructured interviews. The findings suggest that the course allowed…

This paper explores the design, delivery and evaluation of a new bespoke reflection tool for enhancing informal learning in the workplace via reflection in and on action, as part of an undergraduate reflective practice course component. The rationale underlying the tool is presented first, followed by the results of a mixed-methods study…

This article is based on two phases of a five year arts-informed study that involved 24 women who immigrated to Maritime Canada as adults and who were all teachers in their countries of origin. In groups of approximately six, research participants gathered together in workshops held in two teacher training institutions in two Maritime Provinces…

Universities and graduate education are increasingly viewed as part of the emerging lifelong learning and education system and we see the evidence of this as the average age of graduate students increases. We are also seeing an increasing emphasis on education for employment in the lifelong learning and education literature, and this discourse is…

Using an autoethnographic approach and drawing on principles of reflective practice, this paper illustrates how a long-standing professional involvement in community education evolved into a personal search for meaning that included engagement with the concept of spirituality. It re-views typologies of community education developed in the UK in…

This article examines intercultural learning as a lifelong process. The data on which the article is based consist of 10 biographical interviews in which Finnish teachers were asked to talk about their lives from the perspective of intercultural learning. The analysis of the interviews showed that other people were involved in many of the…

Purpose: E-portfolios, which document and facilitate learning and performance, have recently attracted interest in the USA, UK, and Europe as means to increase employability and support lifelong learning. This article aims to critically examine these objectives in order to guide the future e-portfolio practice. Design/methodology/approach: Social…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 12th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia and Nessebar, Bulgaria, in June 2014, and papers submitted to the 2nd International Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre 'Scientific Cooperation,' Rostov-on-Don,…