Formal school spaces are often limited in preparing youth for critical engagement and activism due to standardized curricula, constrained resources, and politicized pressures. Nonformal learning environments, specifically extracurricular clubs, remain underexplored as spaces for youth activism. This study investigates how extracurricular clubs in high schools function as third spaces for learning about social justice issues and engaging in collective action. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we analyzed twelve discussion groups with 63 high school students involved in extracurricular clubs. Findings suggest that club participation fosters critical engagement, activism-related knowledge and skills, and a justice-oriented approach to local and global issues, with promise for enhanced global citizenship. However, specific conditions influence youth interest, retention, and action. Implications highlight the need for educational institutions to support third-space opportunities for youth activism.

This study applies social movement theory to examine how young Italian activists embody and reconfigure global narratives within their specific contexts. Over 6 months in 2024, we conducted three in-depth interviews with each of 10 activists and analysed their online activities on social media. During the interviews, participants reflected on their social media posts related to their activism. Using a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts and their online posts, we illustrate how these activists strategically frame their agendas as both local and specific, while effectively employing the language of global justice campaigns. The study further investigates how their activities and perceptions are closely linked with their interactions with diverse actors (organisations and individuals), and how these young activists cultivate a range of connections to amplify their messages and engage with local audiences. The various modes of communication used by these activists show how local agendas resonate with global movements, ultimately fostering sustained collective action, particularly around environmental and gender issues.

This study used a qualitative approach to examine health promotion policies in the Israeli education system, analysing 24 written policy documents (2011–2023) and conducting semi-structured interviews with senior policymakers. The analysis revealed that policy documents did not address health promotion in a multicultural society, and programme evaluations have not been conducted for over a decade. Additionally, there is a lack of knowledge about policy implementation in schools serving minority or low-income students. Although the policy addresses minorities, practical responses for groups, such as immigrants and Israeli Palestinians in peripheral areas are inadequate. We also found significant involvement of external entities and third-sector organisations that implement these policies with limited oversight. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the policies emphasise urgency and place responsibility on schools for promoting healthy lifestyles, yet some health issues are omitted. Findings suggest potential health disparities between ethnic and socioeconomic groups, viewed through an intersectional lens.

Teacher mobility is a widespread and growing phenomenon. This study sought to examine professional identity construction processes among mobile teachers across various contexts. Using the concepts of motility and viscosity, we examined three cohorts teaching abroad in different contexts – a national organization context, a private organization context, and a familial context (due to spouse-driven expatriation). We explored the processes of constructing a professional identity through the lens of a dialogue between teachers and their work environment. We found that context plays a central role in establishing teachers’ motility capital and results in different professional identity conceptualizations. We contribute to the literature by highlighting how varying migration contexts shape migrant teachers’ professional identity construction. By emphasizing the influence of context on identity negotiation strategies, the study underscores the need for schools and organizations to develop models that support the construction of optimal professional identities among mobile teachers. Additionally, the findings have significant implications for educational policy and practice, calling for context-sensitive support models to better integrate and empower migrant teachers in diverse educational systems.

The fall of the Soviet bloc brought a sense of optimism for the establishment of open and democratic civil societies; however, the transition has been inconsistent and varied across the region. Some countries have embraced Western democratic and capitalist principles while others have encountered significant political challenges and setbacks. For young people, these diverse paths of development have led to both political engagement and apathy. In this systematic literature review (SLR) we aim to depict the state of research on school-age youth activism (YA) in post-socialist countries. Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted our search using three databases: Web of Science, EBSCO, and ERIC. The screening process resulted in 121 eligible papers. Our comparative analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications about YA in EU and non-EU post-socialist countries underscores the complexity of youth activism in post-socialist countries, revealing distinct research focuses and methodological disparities between EU and non-EU contexts. Our review challenges the notion of a uniform post-socialist landscape. Findings indicate that publications on non-EU countries often emphasise political events and youth organisations, such as the Euromaidan in Ukraine or groups like Nashi. In contrast, studies from EU countries tend to cover a wider range of topics but focus more on youth civic engagement and its deficiencies. Essentially, research from non-EU contexts highlights politically active youth, whereas EU-focused studies explore the reasons for political apathy and potential solutions. Additionally, papers on EU countries generally exhibit higher methodological rigour compared to those on non-EU countries.

This Special Issue brings together a collection of theoretical and empirical articles that variously apply, critique, and extend the concept of cosmopolitan nationalism. They mainly build on Maxwell, Yemini, Engel, and Lee’s (Citation2020) work that laid out the conceptual underpinnings of cosmopolitan nationalism and a growing body of work that has used it as an analytical lens to view education in an increasingly interconnected world (Poole & Qin, Citation2024; Wright, Lin, & Lu, Citation2024; Wright, Ma, & Auld, Citation2022; Yemini, Engel, Lee, & Maxwell, Citation2021; Yemini, Maxwell, Wright, Engel, & Lee, Citation2024). The overarching objective was to move beyond a portrayal of cosmopolitanism and nationalism as diametrically opposed to one another. The national and the global have so frequently been held in binary terms, dating back to decades-old discussions related to globalisation and debates over the weak-state vs. the strong-state in education policy formation (Engel, Citation2009). Scholars have continued to grapple with global education reforms in national spaces, seeking to understand the complex ways that global, national, and local ideas intersect, compete, marry, and become championed or resisted across different systems (e.g., Rizvi & Lingard, Citation2009; Tröhler, Piattoeva, & Pinar, Citation2022; Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, Citation2016). Rather than being an oxymoron, cosmopolitan nationalism is put forward in this Special Issue as an analytical lens to understand the ambivalent values, motives, and/or processes that inform education policy and practice. Specifically, it refers to the

Cosmopolitanism and nationalism are often presented in binary terms, as standing in opposition to each other, especially with regards to education. In this paper, we establish a framework for studying education policy today through the lens of a concept we have developed: ‘cosmopolitan nationalism’. Many education systems around the world are grappling with and simultaneously integrating both cosmopolitan and nationalist elements in policy objectives, curricular content and pedagogic approaches. Through an in-depth analysis of three country examples – China, the US and Israel – we outline four different manifestations of education policy that can be explained by employing the analytical lens of cosmopolitan nationalism: (i) the increasing prominence and visibility of the International Baccalaureate within these three public education systems; (ii) reforms of specific curricula elements and pedagogies legitimised with reference to approaches assessed as globally leading through international assessments; (iii) efforts to promote national education systems as international beacons of best practice; (iv) creation of alternative education provisions that are promoted globally for very specific purposes and populations. We argue that, given our heterogeneous sample of case study countries, and careful analysis of these, a cosmopolitan nationalism lens offers important insights into education policy-making today which has the potential to be applied in other contexts.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in one of the largest refugee crises in Europe since World War II. A significant number of Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have sought asylum in Germany, where they have been granted temporary protection status. These refugees found themselves in a state of protracted displacement, with uncertain futures. This article examines how middle-class Ukrainian women, with children, envision their futures and how this shapes their present. Engaging with the literature on protracted displacement and the concept of ‘agency-in-waiting’, we examine how this relatively privileged group variously respond to living in transit. To enable closer analysis of these variations, we extend examinations of protracted displacement with Grzymala-Kazlowska’s idea of anchors. This allows us to consider how previous social-class positioning, and also other external and internal structures in places migrated to, intersect to reveal the anchors facilitating or constraining ‘agency-in-waiting’.

We investigate the sub-networks involved in education policy in Israel in recent years, using Mixed Methods Social Networks Analysis – drawn from combined analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. Our objective was to comprehensively explore the Israeli education policy network to deliver an understanding of its structure, actors, and relationships. Our research offers a descriptive, analytical, and interpretive account of the contemporary Israeli education policy sector, including the actors involved, central policy sub-networks and organizations, and their relationships. We analyze dependence relations within the sub-networks using Resource Dependency Theory and Policy Networks Typology. Our findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of Israeli education policy networks and their perceived influence on policy-making and enactment processes. To the international field of educational policy-related research, we introduce a novel category of policy network actors, previously unaddressed as a distinct type. We have termed this category ‘Ethos networks’ to characterize this group of actors and elaborate on its significance within the field. Additionally, we underline the importance of considering external societal and political factors in education policy-making.

In this chapter we examine, through in-depth interviews with 15 Israeli Jewish globally mobile professional families, school choice strategies for their children. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1986) concept of cultural capital and Ben-Porath’s (2009) notion of ‘bounded rationality’, we illustrate an evolving pattern of decision making, where further relocations instigate new criteria that determine school choice. While initially parents seek out the familiar in unfamiliar locations, in an attempt to create a ‘soft landing’; subsequent family moves to new education systems open up choices, and patterns of school choice mirrors those of other (non-mobile) middle class families more closely. Our findings emphasise how economic and cultural resources facilitate greater school choice, but also demonstrate how mobility affects the bounded rationality of such decision-making.