Across Europe many young people are turning to activism to express their socio-political desires. Using Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, understood as a system of dispositions toward specific practices and a basis for certain modes of behaviour; this study examines young people’s perceptions of activism in three European settings. Based on thematic analysis of 83 discussion groups conducted with secondary school students in Italy, Germany, and Poland, we seek to understand whether and in what ways activism is embedded within young people’s habitus and how variations in national European contexts influence activist habitus among European youth. Our findings show how activism has become increasingly seen as a normalised and accessible practice embedded in youth daily life; and reframes youth activism as a lasting, embedded aspect of youth identity and behaviour rather than a temporary response to immediate crisis.

Recent decades have witnessed increased global focus on science education policy and growing international recognition of how science capital shapes educational participation patterns, particularly regarding access to elite science programs. Israel offers a unique case study to understand the efficacy and impact of excellence programs due to its geopolitical position and reliance on human capital as a strategic resource. This research examines the evolution of two elite Israeli science programs: Alpha and Odyssey. Using Bourdieu's social reproduction theory and Archer's concept of science capital, this study examines the complex interplay between policy entrepreneurs and state institutions, by investigating relationships among stakeholders and demonstrating how these programs can reproduce social inequalities while seeking to promote meritocracy. Through qualitative methodology, incorporating interviews with 20 experts and analysis of 24 policy documents, the research traces these programs’ historical development, shifting objectives, funding transitions, and approaches to equality and diversity. We show that although the Alpha and Odyssey programs successfully create valuable opportunities for gifted students, they fail to deliver equity. This study illuminates the tension between academic excellence and equity, enhancing understanding of how excellence programs reflect broader educational policies.

In the early 2000s, Israel’s Ministry of Education introduced health-promoting schools. Effective implementation requires tailored support to meet the diverse needs of communities with different cultural backgrounds. However, policies, especially when imposed top-down, may face resistance. This study explores how these policies were adapted to cultural, social, and economic contexts in three public elementary schools: A Mizrachi Jewish community, the African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, and a Bedouin community. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with educators, parents, and district instructors, and focus groups were held with students. Data were analyzed using Lipsky’s Street-Level Bureaucracy theory (1980), alongside Bourdieu’s capital theory (1984, 1986), together offering a comprehensive framework. The findings reveal that principals and teachers developed informal practices to address challenges. However, a lack of resources hindered implementation. To overcome these challenges, street-level bureaucrats leveraged students’ and parents’ social, economic, and cultural capital. The study highlights a need for flexibility in policy design and implementation to adapt to diverse local contexts, establish guidelines for discretionary decision-making, and foster initiatives to promote health policies. This research deepens understanding of how street-level bureaucrats interpret and implement government policy and how community and the educational staff capital within school influences policy implementation.

Migration profoundly shapes the lives of young people and is a polarizing topic in public discourse globally. This article examines if and how secondary school students across six countries with significant migration connect the issue of migration with their understanding of active citizenship. Employing Thorson's concept of citizenship vocabularies, we document and analyze young people's perceptions as well as the resources, narratives, and frameworks they use to make sense of migration, citizenship, and civic life. Drawing on data from deliberative discussion groups, the study adds depth to our understanding of how the current generation of youth engages with a complex and multifaceted social issue and makes an important contribution to debates concerning citizenship education, youth activism, and migration.

Recent years have seen a growing scholarly interest in youth activism (YA), a phenomenon often viewed as a positive development in response to declining civic and political engagement among young people. However, most of the research focuses on the activists themselves and gives less attention to how YA is perceived by the broader youth population. This article explores the shared and divergent perspectives of young activists and their peers who remain on the sidelines. The article focuses on Poland, a country in which YA is gaining traction. The research involved discussion groups with secondary school students and interviews with prominent young activists in Poland. The study found that activists and non-activist students shared similar views on key issues like education reform, climate change, human rights and abortion rights. However, they differed in how they defined activism and what forms of activism they deemed acceptable. Activists tended to use a narrower definition, reserving the term for those deeply committed to social or political causes. In contrast, students embraced broader definitions, identifying even small acts of volunteering or awareness-raising as activism. This difference is important, since how we define YA can shape our understanding and evaluation of youth participation. Additionally, while activists often supported radical tactics, students expressed disapproval of methods they saw as disruptive, like blocking traffic or defacing public spaces. These findings highlight how negative perceptions of YA can potentially discourage wider youth participation.

The last few decades have significantly changed international research collaborations in the social sciences. Projects now span multiple countries, employ diverse methodologies, and involve various actors, producing varied data for dissemination across scholarship, practice, and policy domains. Such complexity poses not only research challenges but also considerable legislative concerns, particularly regarding privacy protection and the evolving landscape of data gathering and usage. Navigating the increasingly flexible and intricate nature of contemporary research, alongside constantly changing legislation, has become a new hurdle for delivering robust comparative projects. Employing a case study approach, we examine the ethical approval process experienced by the project team members, including postdoctoral and doctoral students, project advisory board members, and the PI. The project under investigation encompassed several potential challenges: a range of qualitative research methods, sensitive topics, multi-site data collection, participants under 18, and the use of social media data. We traced this process across multiple international sites, demonstrating how these challenges collectively contributed to the overall complexity of ethical and data governance issues. Our findings illustrate the difficulties presented by ethical approval processes, the changes these processes imposed on the study design, and inconsistencies within the ethical clearance process across funding entities, countries, and institutions. We underscore three disjunctures inherent in ethical approval processes. By mapping the ethical route across multiple sites, we offer insights for researchers planning international projects, as well as for Research Ethics Committees, institutions, and other stakeholders within higher education seeking to support research endeavours.

This article examines the evolution of Russian school-level education policy from 1992 to 2025 through the lens of cosmopolitan nationalism. Drawing on documentary analysis and expert interviews, we demonstrate how Russia’s engagement with international educational frameworks and standards has transformed across four distinct periods. Using the cosmopolitan nationalism framework, we trace Russia’s journey from post-Soviet integration into the global educational space to its current ‘sovereign education’ model. Our findings reveal that Russia demonstrated unprecedented mobility across all cosmopolitan nationalism quadrants, from post-Soviet integration into global educational space to current ‘sovereign education’. The analysis identifies four distinct periods: ambiguous reforms (1992–2003), educational leadership ambitions (2003–2012), the establishment of ‘sovereign education’ (2012–2022), and patriotic recalibration (2022 onwards). Russia’s education policy evolution illustrates that states can rapidly shift between nationalist and cosmopolitan orientations in response to political transformation. This study contributes to understanding how nations can simultaneously pursue nationalist objectives utilising global educational frameworks, even during periods of international isolation.

This review outlines the scholarship landscape and uncovers the nature and key characteristics of activism related to migrant school-aged youth. Employing PICOT and PRISMA protocols, 126 relevant articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2007 to 2023 were identified. We employed a three-layered, mixed-methods analytical framework to map the scholarship and to decipher the nature of agency and the voice of activism. The review revealed that migrant youth engage in diverse forms of activism, primarily driven by their anchoring to society and a desire to secure their rights. Furthermore, we found activism concerning school-aged migrants is often initiated and led by their allies (e.g., NGOs, schools) and consequently studied from the latter’s perspectives. Our findings highlight an overrepresentation of investigations focusing on issues surrounding activism rather than migrants’ lived experiences of activism. This analysis lays the groundwork for a further conceptualization of the field of migrant school-aged youth.

Purpose This study examines how political and ideological shifts shape citizenship education by analysing how school curricula reflect broader political agendas and influence young people’s civic engagement and activism. Method We conduct a content analysis comparing two Polish curricula: Historia i Teraźniejszość (HiT), introduced by a right-wing government in 2022, and Edukacja Obywatelska (EO), introduced by a centre-left government in 2025. Findings HiT promotes nationalist and conservative values through a fixed-knowledge model that restricts pupil agency. By contrast, EO emphasises participatory, transparent and activist-oriented approaches. However, its optional status and uneven implementation limit its effectiveness, particularly in politically polarised regions. Implications Situating these reforms within broader socio-political and educational contexts, this study demonstrates that curriculum change is not ideologically neutral but deeply embedded in political struggles over the role of youth in democracy.