{"title":"When I grew up, I became you: The effects of AI self-continuum, feedback-seeking, and reflective interventions on preservice teachers’ buoyancy, resilience, and professional identity","authors":"Liangjie Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102991","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102991","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Preservice teachers (PSTs) frequently experience stress and anxiety when engaging in authentic classroom contexts. Enhancing psychological resources, such as buoyancy, resilience, and professional identity, can mitigate these challenges, yet traditional strategies, including feedback-seeking and reflective practice, are often constrained by contextual factors. This study introduces an AI self-continuum designed to help PSTs envisage themselves as experienced educators and to support both teaching practice and career planning. Four groups (control, feedback-seeking, reflective letter-writing, and AI self-continuum intervention) were compared using ANCOVA and post hoc analyses. Results indicated that, compared with the control group, all intervention conditions led to improvements in preservice teachers’ buoyancy, resilience, and professional identity. However, the relative effectiveness of the interventions differed across outcomes. Reflective letter writing was most effective in enhancing buoyancy, whereas the AI self-continuum intervention produced the strongest gains in resilience and professional identity. Follow-up interviews illuminated the mechanisms underlying these effects. These findings suggest that the AI self-continuum approach can serve as a promising complement to traditional support strategies in teacher education by fostering PSTs’ psychological resources and professional development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 102991"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147544984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alexander T. Vazsonyi , Seyede Leila Moosavi , Marek Blatný
{"title":"Academic competence in Roma versus non-Roma adolescents: The role of social skills and ethnicity","authors":"Alexander T. Vazsonyi , Seyede Leila Moosavi , Marek Blatný","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102985","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102985","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Roma adolescents in Europe continue to face systemic educational disadvantages, including school segregation, low teacher expectations, and limited academic support. Social skills, including communication, cooperation, and self-control, are essential for academic engagement and teacher perceptions of competence, yet little research has direcly tested how these skills and associated adjustment measures vary across ethnic groups using multiple informants. The present investigation compared Roma (N = 99) and ethnic Czech non-Roma (N = 498) adolescents on self-reported as well as teacher-rated social skills, academic competence, and problem behaviors. Results provided evidence that Roma adolescents were rated significantly lower by teachers on nearly all social skills subscales and measures of academic competence, and significantly higher on problem behaviors (externalizing, bullying, and ADHD), even after controlling for self-reported social skills and demographic covariates. Results from path analyses provided evidence that ethnicity maintained a unique association with academic competence, where Roma ethnicity was negatively associated, net the effects of significant and additive self-reported as well as teacher rated social skills. These findings highlight the critical role of social skills in academic competence while underscoring the potential of either biased teacher evaluations or systematic ethnic differences in student academic competence. Potential implications for responsive educational practices and teacher training to address perceived cultural mismatches are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 102985"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147544986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comprehensive motivations for university students' adoption of AI teaching assistants","authors":"Shaowei Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>AI teaching assistant is reshaping the ecology of higher education, yet understanding the adoption mechanisms in university students' learning activities remains a challenge. This study integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to systematically reveal the key factors influencing university students' adoption of AI teaching assistants for learning, as well as their synergistic mechanisms. A mixed-methods research approach combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is employed for empirical validation. The findings indicate that perceived ease of use is positively associated with perceived usefulness and shows a stronger direct relationship with attitude toward use than perceived usefulness does. Subjective norms are positively associated with usage intention, whereas perceived behavioral control does not show a significant effect on usage intention. Behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control are jointly associated with actual usage behavior. Configuration analysis further reveals four distinct pathways associated with high adoption intention. This study highlights the critical role of perceived ease of use and subjective norms in university students' adoption decisions, confirming the complex synergistic mechanisms among technological attributes, individual psychological factors, and social environmental factors. The conclusions offer empirical insights and theoretical considerations that may contributes to promoting the deep integration and effective application of AI technology in higher education.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 103005"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147703507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The backstage of schooling: Aspirational engagement with private tutoring in the Seoul Capital Area","authors":"Seung-Hwan Ham","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103015","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing on an institutionalist account of private tutoring as a para-institution symbiotic with formal schooling, this study examines whether adolescents’ participation in private tutoring reflects dissatisfaction with school or the strategic pursuit of credentialed futures. We analyze multilevel data from 1122 middle school students in 49 schools in the Seoul Capital Area using hierarchical generalized linear models. A random forest model with Shapley-based feature attributions provides a supplementary analysis. We find that tutoring participation varies systematically by occupational aspirations: orientations toward stable, credential-dependent careers predict higher participation, whereas aspirations toward physically active careers predict lower participation. Factors aligned with school-improvement narratives, including class-size reduction and expanded after-school support, have limited explanatory power. These findings recast private tutoring as positional consumption that both rests on and reinforces the institutional legitimacy of formal schooling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 103015"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147850162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of GPT-powered video games on early adolescents’ academic achievement in distance learning environments","authors":"ZuoYuan Liu , Galiya Ldokova","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102967","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102967","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global transition to distance learning has otherwise curtailed the potential to provide impactful maths education to early teenagers, a low-motivation and low-conceptual understanding demographic in remote conditions. This research meets the pressing demand for disruptive, scalable solutions by assessing the effect of GPT-powered video games on maths achievement and motivation in 15–16-year-olds. The main aim was to know if the integration of generative AI into game-based learning environments would create adaptive feedback and enhance deeper learning. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 120 students from [BLINDED], divided equally into experimental and control groups, over an eight-week period. The experimental group played with GPT-upgraded versions of Minecraft: Education Edition and Prodigy Math Game, which provided real-time, precise feedback and contextual hints, while the control group participated in standard online instruction. The experimental group demonstrated large improvements in mathematics achievement, with effects sustained at follow-up. Motivation also increased more strongly than in the control group, and qualitative interviews confirmed that students perceived GPT feedback as clear and useful. These results show the real value of integrating AI-driven, adaptive feedback within educational games, supporting their application in distance mathematics curricula. The results also highlight the need for further studies on GPT-powered games across subjects, age groups, and broader educational outcomes such as critical thinking and conceptual mastery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102967"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Academic freedom and peace: Comparative insights from Africa","authors":"Liisa Laakso , Hajer Kratou","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102958","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102958","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Building on earlier literature on the role of academic freedom in shaping public attitudes and policies, this study examines its impact on peace. Using the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index and the Varieties of Democracy Index on Academic Freedom, along with Generalised and Ordinary Least Squares econometric techniques, we find that the preceding level of academic freedom is associated with peace and the absence of violence in a sample covering 162 countries during the period 2012–2022. This result remains robust when tested in 50 African countries where intra-state conflicts have been frequent, including a sample of 25 countries with multiparty political competition and high levels of factionalism, which heightens the risk of conflict, as measured by the Factionalized Elites indicator in the Fragile States ranking of the Fund for Peace. The results are robust, when excluding oil-exporter countries and testing different lag-structures for academic freedom. A qualitative analysis of Cameroon, Kenya, Tunisia and Zimbabwe highlights how differences in the space available for scholars influence their contributions to fostering peace. Politicised ethnicity threatens academic freedom within universities, highlighting its importance not just in university-government relations but also in local and regional politics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102958"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thalia Thereza Assan , Gal Levy , Mohammad Massalha
{"title":"The impact of school experiences and relationships on high school students’ activism: Support, constraints and tensions","authors":"Thalia Thereza Assan , Gal Levy , Mohammad Massalha","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102913","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102913","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article responds to the global rise in activism led by high school-aged youth by asking: How do students perceive high schools as arenas for socialisation into political activism? Although non-religious Jewish state schools in Israel typically avoid encouraging political engagement, high school students were prominently involved in the 2023 Protest Movement against the government’s “judicial reform”, with some schools supporting and even initiating student protests. Drawing on interviews with high school activist students, the article investigates how and under what conditions schools facilitate political engagement. Our findings show that certain schools fostered students’ activism implicitly or explicitly — for example, through extra-curricular teaching about democracy, excusing protest-related absences, and other practices. Participants, however, described these schools as atypical. Indeed, these schools mostly serve higher socioeconomic communities closely identified with the protest milieu. Participants also pointed to clear limits of institutional support, such as barring criticism of politicians or the Occupation. Furthermore, while most research on political socialisation into activism and education for citizenship emphasises the role of adults, our findings highlight the importance of school peers. Activists engaged in meaningful political dialogue with classmates and encouraged their participation, yet these interactions also produced conflicts and strained relationships. This paper therefore draws attention to the informal, relational aspects of schooling that shape youth activism and calls on scholars, educators, and policymakers to recognise students’ political agency, their present stakes in society, and the ways political socialisation is facilitated by youth through their interactions with both school staff and peers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102913"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kate Cain , Jane Oakhill , Shelley O’Carroll , Daleen Klop , Monique Visser , James Jackson , Brian Francis
{"title":"The impact of a story-based intervention on language, literacy, and cognitive development in South African pre-schoolers: randomised controlled trials for two language groups","authors":"Kate Cain , Jane Oakhill , Shelley O’Carroll , Daleen Klop , Monique Visser , James Jackson , Brian Francis","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102920","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102920","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Literacy rates in South Africa are low and many children start school without the requisite levels of emergent language and literacy skills needed to succeed. We report two RCTs of a story-based intervention delivered by preschool teachers to two language groups of children from low income backgrounds (isiXhosa: N<sub>children</sub>=82, N<sub>teachers</sub>=20; Afrikaans, N<sub>children</sub>=118, N<sub>teachers</sub>=24). The story-based intervention involved a 36-week programme, of 2-week cycles, each using a different culturally-appropriate story in the target language with activities designed to foster emergent language and literacy skills. Training for the teachers before and during the intervention was provided. The post-intervention assessment took place after 26 weeks. For both language groups (compared with the corresponding control group), the intervention had a positive impact on vocabulary taught in the programme and also developmental status across key learning domains. For early language and emergent literacy measures, baseline ability was the most consistent predictor for all outcome measures, with additional important contributions of initial vocabulary for some measures. This study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting gold-standard randomised controlled trials in low-resource settings. We draw on the data to set out practice and policy recommendations, critically the need to support school and literacy-learning readiness in homes and preschools, to enhance practice and children’s outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102920"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Academic freedom challenged: Comparing France, Germany and the UK","authors":"Donatella della Porta , Sevgi Doğan","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102917","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102917","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While violations of academic freedom seemed for a long time to be a problem that almost exclusively affected authoritarian regimes, in recent times a deterioration can also be noted in democratic regimes. As part of a right-wing backlash or democratic backsliding, attacks on both individual academics and entire fields of knowledge have been singled out in Europe as well as in North America. Focusing on France, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), our research has addressed the different mechanisms of repression of academic freedom with particular attention paid to the movements in solidarity with Palestine that spread globally after 7 October 2023. The empirical research triangulates quantitative and qualitative analysis. Using various sources, we have constructed a database that we use to map episodes of repression in the three countries, specifying their targets and mechanisms. A qualitative analysis of various documents subsequently makes it possible to single out the frames used to justify the repression carried out by moral panic entrepreneurs, which include political parties and governments, university administrations, police and courts, pressure groups and the mainstream media.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102917"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tevfik Palaz , Gökhan Savaş , Fatih Aydın , Osman Çepni , Ali Çağatay Kılınç
{"title":"Supporting teacher well-being in post-earthquake southeastern Türkiye: The role of leader-member exchange, teacher resilience, and teacher work engagement","authors":"Tevfik Palaz , Gökhan Savaş , Fatih Aydın , Osman Çepni , Ali Çağatay Kılınç","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102918","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102918","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the empirical relationships between leader-member exchange and the psychological well-being of teachers, with the mediation of teacher resilience and teacher work engagement. Survey data were collected from 504 teachers working in schools affected by the February 2023 earthquakes in southeastern Türkiye and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results revealed that leader-member exchange is directly linked to teacher well-being and indirectly via teacher resilience and work engagement. Our findings offer critical insights into how relational dynamics between principals and teachers influence teacher well-being in disaster-affected educational settings. We provide implications for policy and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102918"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}