Culture and Education: Cultura y Educación

In a recent article on Vygotsky’s reading of Spinoza, Vesa Oittinen argues that Lev Vygotsky took a ‘semantic turn’ late in his career, leading him to dualism and intellectualism. Oittinen characterizes Vygotsky’s interest in sign-meaning as a problematic break from prior interests in material practice. In this paper, I challenge this common view. I argue that Vygotsky has a materialist Marxist theory of sign-meaning, enriched by his engagement with contemporaneous empirical science. I then suggest some ways in which signs play a role in the development of emotions. I elaborate aspects of Vygotsky’s project by drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce, Wilfrid Sellars and related thinkers.

In this study, we aimed to examine the factors affecting the culturally responsive teaching competencies of academics and tested whether the personality traits and personal meaning profiles of the academics had significant effects on culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Data were obtained from 1,883 academics by using the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, Ten-Item Personality Inventory and Personal Meaning Profile Scale — Short Form. Correlation, regression and structural equation modelling analyses were run to analyse the data. We found that culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy is low. In terms of personal meaning profiles, ‘openness to experience’, ‘agreeableness’ personality traits and ‘self-transcendence’ and ‘fair treatment’ had a significant effect on culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy while ‘religion’ and ‘self-acceptance’ were found to have no effect. Based on the findings, we made various suggestions for academics to participate in training on culture-sensitive teaching pedagogy to be more sensitive to different cultures.

Introducing assessment as learning content from a participatory perspective and not only as a qualification tool is a challenge and a pending subject in Spanish universities. Therefore, the aim was to: (1) describe the participatory assessment methods and the tools used by the teachers; (2) inquire about the conditions that facilitate and hinder the assessment practices analysed in higher education; and (3) analyse the proposals for improvement of the assessment practices implemented by the faculty. The methodological design is based on a qualitative approach, characteristic of the interpretive paradigm. More specifically, it is a case study. The results indicate that the students’ participation in the assessment process is an essential issue in their academic training and for their professional future in the educational field since the fact of facilitating their reflection on the educational process enables critical awareness and self-regulation.

As a result of the restrictions caused by the pandemic, education has moved to another space. Online conditions largely override all the methods that can be applied offline. The online interface, as an educational platform, requires a different kind of competence. The extent to which heuristic, Socratic methods can be put into practice in online education depends primarily on the creativity of those working on the front lines. The aim of this study is to illustrate how fiction can be applied — in this case, Émile Zola’s novel The Ladies’ Delight, primarily in the teaching of commercial marketing — in order for students to be emotionally involved in the educational process and to be part of the experiential learning during a pandemic.

European guidelines have stressed the urgent need to train citizens in competencies related to the search for information on the internet, and this study offers, for the first time, an overview of the information literacy of young people in Spain aged between 18 and 25. The objectives are: to learn what training they have received and their interest in learning; to investigate their self-perception; and to analyse their search skills. The method consists of a descriptive quantitative study in which a structured questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of the population studied (n = 500), with a sampling error of ± 4.47% and a confidence level of 95%. The data are weighted according to socio-demographic variables (gender, age, level of education, social class, habitat size and geographical area) to analyse whether there are statistically significant differences using the chi-squared test. The results indicate that in this area, they have not been trained, are self-taught and, although they believe they know how to search on the internet, do not know how and where to search beyond a beginner’s level. It is concluded that this population is failing in this information competence and that there is a digital divide that needs to be bridged as a matter of urgency.

The increasing demand for culturally competent professionals and a globalized labour market are pressures pushing for the internationalization of higher education institutions. International students and the development of intercultural competence (IC) are crucial in a polarized socioeconomic context, where nationalism and populist movements are on the rise. A systematic literature review was performed on the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases to understand the scholarly production on the development of intercultural competence in higher education and the perceptions of higher education stakeholders. The results point to an increase in scholarly articles on the topic and the need to identify and clearly insert intercultural competence within the curriculum, and to identify difficulties in intercultural encounters among unprepared stakeholders and the higher market return of interculturally competent professionals. The conclusions point to the need to further integrate IC in tertiary education, bearing in mind the obstacles and returns of developing this competence.

An analysis is made of the impact on beliefs regarding the environment of an educational intervention, linked to the objectives of the Global Campaign for Education-2019. The aim is to analyse to what extent the service-learning project influences the environmental sustainability beliefs of university students (N = 210) studying degrees in primary and social education (University of Valladolid), via the ‘New Human Interdependence Paradigm (NHIP)’ Scale, composed of 16 items with a Likert-type response design. Intervention is carried out in the classroom. The results obtained through a quasi-experimental research design of a single group with pre-testing and post-testing show a statistically significant 95% improvement among the participating students. Participation in cooperative groups and the tools used to facilitate critical reflection and an analysis of the connections between learning skills and academic content, together with the creation of educational resources based on those developed by the CME-2019, show their effectiveness in education for the sustainable development of these future trainers of new generations.

Current explanations of the business consequences of achieving sustainability goals are incomplete. This paper provides empirical evidence of the effect of environmental and social sustainability on organizational legitimacy. Using structural equation modelling, in a sample of 77 Spanish state and private universities, the results show that achieving environmental and social sustainability goals positively influences organizational legitimacy. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between environmental sustainability and social sustainability. In the field of legitimacy, this research expands our knowledge on the antecedents of organizational legitimacy. In the field of sustainability, it sheds light on the effects of environmental and social sustainability on organizations. At the same time, we provide empirical support to the link between environmental and social sustainability. For practising professionals, the results justify the relevance of actions supporting environmental and social sustainability.

Initial teacher education must envisage spaces that provide students with opportunities to experience a collaborative culture during their training, promoting the acquisition of cross-curricular competencies and the comprehension of links between theory and practice, and encouraging the integration of a gender perspective in educational practices. Through an interdisciplinary project in which three subjects of the teaching degree in primary education were involved, students produced a theatrical show for children. Although this type of practice is not frequent in the Spanish university context, the results suggest that implementing projects of this kind provides multiple benefits for the participants. The development of basic and cross-curricular competencies, such as collaboration, teamwork, adaptability, communication and creativity, are underscored. Furthermore, very enriching synergies are created between the different fields of knowledge that favour the development of a holistic and globalized education.

The study analysed teacher knowledge and implementation of Differentiated Instruction in basic schools in the Effutu Municipality. The study adopted the cultural-historical theory by Lev Vygotsky as the theoretical framework. A quantitative research method and a cross-sectional survey were employed as the research design. Sixty teachers were selected via multi-stage sampling which involved purposive and simple random sampling. A close-ended questionnaire was used to collect information about knowledge, awareness and extent of usage or implementation of Differentiated Instruction among the teachers on a four-point Likert scale. The results showed that the teachers had very good knowledge of Differentiated Instruction in the study area but that the proportion of teachers who implemented it in core subjects was not statistically significantly different from the proportion who did not. It was recommended that policymakers and heads of basic schools should enforce the use of Differentiated Instruction due to its significant benefits to learners.

This research aims to study the pivotal factors that encourage higher education students to use mobile technology to promote student-centred learning. A mobile technology–enhanced student-centred learning (MTSCL) model was proposed by integrating the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model and Hofstede’s national cultural dimensions. This study recruited 153 Malaysian higher education students via purposive and snowballing sampling methods. Data were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings showed that effort expectancy and long-term orientation predict mobile technology adoption intention. Mobile technology can accelerate technology adoption in the classrooms of tertiary education to support student-centred, lifelong and continuous learning.

The primary objective of this article is to analyse the application of the Kodály method for the creation of contemporary Chinese music, which depends on creative skills, emotional expression and musical hearing. In pursuit of this inquiry, a cohort of 118 third-year students specializing in composition was enlisted from diverse academic institutions, namely Ningbo University, Beijing International Art School and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The fulfilment of the article’s intended objective was made feasible through the employment of an analytical methodology, the utilization of the Thurstone scale, as well as the application of Mann-Whitney coefficients to ascertain pertinent statistical significance. Additionally, the evaluation of the resultant musical compositions was undertaken to appraise their artistic quality. The obtained findings substantiate the efficacy of the employed Kodály method in the genesis of musical compositions. In light of these results, the authors proffer a recommendation for the implementation of a comprehensive pedagogical approach, one that encompasses a multifaceted acquisition of musical knowledge, diverse melodic orientations and variations in compositional elements, as well as strategies for the fusion of textual and musical components.

This manuscript identifies categories of Mapuche educational content incorporated into the development of intercultural education in a decolonial perspective. The methodology combined ethnographical and indigenous approaches within a school setting. The study context was situated in La Araucanía and involved work with a school located in Mapuche communities in the municipality of Temuco. The research instruments used were ethnographic registry (n = 40) and semi-structured interviews (n = 10). The information was analysed through grounded theory. The results identify wisdom and knowledge in Mapuche family education that are incorporated as educational content in intercultural school education. This has contributed to the revitalization of knowledge and lifestyles and the incorporation of Mapuche educational agents, which together build a foundation that breaks down the hegemony of school knowledge. The study concludes that the decolonization of intercultural education urgently requires the incorporation of specifically Mapuche educational content, since this contributes to a restructuring of the logic and functioning of the school on Mapuche territory.