School of Education

Teaching for Digital Citizenship: Data Justice in the Classroom and Beyond

Professor Bob Davis and Professor David Lundie

26th of November 2025
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

The challenges of Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, social media use, the polarisation of discourse in digital spaces and beyond, weigh heavily on young people. Digitisation and datafication of public life has made processes less transparent, contributing to citizens feeling disempowered, apathetic, and angry. Citizenship education has always had a role in preparing young people for the ‘good society’ in relation to the challenges of the age, whether the concern for an ‘education for freedom’ in the aftermath of the Second World War, or for ‘global citizenship education’ at the turn of the 21st century. In relation to the digital, young people have a right to critical information literacy – to understand that the information ecosystem we currently inhabit is not inevitable, it is the result of socio-historical and technical choices and structures, which are contingent and can be changed. Many of the capacities that enable the exercise of rights, and the building of a better demos in the digital age, rest on analogue human capacities for discernment.

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 26/11/25 – Fill in form

Coping with Post-Truth: When Evidence is Necessary but not Sufficient in Science Education

Professor Sibel Erduran

28th of January 2026
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

The term “post-truth” has been used to characterize the contemporary era. Designated as the word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford English Dictionary, “post-truth” refers to “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” There is widespread recognition of the need to address the adverse effects of post-truth, such as misinformation, and to help people cope with post-truth. What are the implications for science curricula in schools and universities? How should school science teachers and university lecturers teach? One way of dealing with post-truth is to focus on the nature and importance of scientific evidence to counter proliferation of misinformation. My own research group has been investigating strategies to support evidence-based reasoning in secondary school science lessons for more than 25 years. Our work has highlighted how students’ skills in evidence-based reasoning can be supported through resources and pedagogical strategies. In this presentation, I will review examples of our research and development efforts on argumentation in science education in a cross-curricular context and highlight that although necessary, focus on scientific information is not sufficient to deal with the post-truth condition. I will argue that there is a need to revise the narrative of argumentation studies to be inclusive of the broader context of science in the curriculum.

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 28/01/26 – Fill in form

Journey Matters: unequal borders, travel narratives and refugee integration

Dr Esa Aldegheri

25th of Febuary 2026
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

This seminar presents key findings to date from my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which investigates how unequal narratives and bordering of refugee journeys affect integration, focussing on Scotland as a case study. Current framings of migration and mobility in the UK are increasingly polarised: some journeys are allowed but others must be contained, with unequal border rules and travel narratives applied to refugee journeys. This becomes especially apparent in places of deterrence/crossing such as Calais/Dover, where journeys made by refugees in boats are ‘illegal’ and must be stopped but ‘booze cruise’ tourism is encouraged, and adventurous sea-crossings are celebrated in the canon of travel writing on both sides of the Channel. For refugees who do reach the UK, the UK immigration system’s ongoing focus on deterrence and detention curtails freedom of movement and opportunity for refugees and sets them apart from other people in receiving communities. Yet community is where integration takes place: it is where people’s lived experiences intersect, mediated by narratives which support or hinder integration. If people living together in communities carry such manifestly different experiences and narratives of journey, how does this affect integration? My work builds on a growing body of scholarship, including my own work with the UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Language, Education and the Arts (RIELA) at the University of Glasgow, which recognises the internationally relevant learnings from the devolved Scottish Government’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy (NSRIS) approach to integration.

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 25/02/26 – Fill in form

Pathways to Initial Teacher Education Students’ Attitudes and Beliefs towards Teaching Mathematics: Old Topic, New Insights

Dr Utkun Aydin, Dr Ismail Zembat, & Dr Cristina Mio

25th of March 2026
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

The present study examined pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards teaching mathematics. In particular, this research explored whether beliefs towards teaching mathematics can lead to positive attitudes by enhancing confidence and reducing insecurity. 222 postgraduate diploma in education – primary students at a public university in the UK completed a questionnaire relating to the attitudes (confidence and insecurity) and beliefs (student respect, computation making, transmission, development, and decision). The results of path analysis showed that student respect was significantly and positively associated with both insecurity and confidence, while decision showed significant but negative associations with insecurity and confidence. Associations between computation making and development with insecurity were weak but significant in opposite directions, although neither related to confidence. Transmission was positively associated with confidence but unrelated to insecurity. These findings highlight how specific attitudes and beliefs interact in mathematics teaching, indicating that teacher education should address not only general attitudes but also their interconnections. By fostering constructive beliefs and reducing insecurity, educators can help future teachers build the confidence and orientations needed for effective mathematics instruction.

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 25/03/26 – Fill in form

AI, Agency and the New Testing Paradigm

Professor Susan Robertson

22nd of April 2026
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

In my presentation I interrogate how international organizations frame AI literacy, understood as a socio-technical assemblage with a distinct political economy (Birch 2025) giving rise to new political orders (Amoore, 2023). It does this by analysing three key policy documents: the OECD’s Empowering Learners for the Age of AI (2025), UNESCO’s AI Competency Frameworks for Students, and UNESCO’s AI Competency Frameworks for Teachers (2024). Using network text analysis I identify the main actors, map their mutual interactions, and examine the forms of agency ascribed to them by the international organizations under consideration. I show an almost exclusive focus on AI and students as the main actors in the AI society, while the role of teachers and educational institutions is significantly sidelined.  I argue education is being repositioned to become what Marres (2025) has described as a testing ground for AI systems more generally. In short, AI is leveraged as a totalizing force, reshaping educational priorities around testing and productivity whilst erasing/obscuring questions of agency, critique, teacher mediation and institutional context. 

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 22/04/26 – Fill in form

Twenty-first-century Competencies and the Curriculum: A Critical Examination of Competency-Based Education in Comparative and International Contexts

Professor Zongyi Deng

22nd of April 2026
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrews Building

Abstract: 

Twenty-first-century Competencies and the Curriculum: A Critical Examination of Competency-Based Education in Comparative and International Contexts

Registration:

If you wish to attend please register with the following link: Research Seminar Series- 27/05/26 – Fill in form