Purpose: Cognitive Linguistics has repeatedly pointed out the major significance of metaphors. In particular, metaphors are highly effective in the context of political and economic discourse. We analyze the as yet ignored use of metaphors in standard economic textbooks as exemplified by Paul A. Samuelson and N. Gregory Mankiw. The following will focus on the metaphorical semantic context surrounding the abstract concept of „the market“. Design: Using textual analysis and drawing from Conceptual Metaphor Theory the authors examine how the concept of „the market“ is introduced as an abstract and primarily empty concept, (re-)interpreted with the help of entity metaphors, personifications and orientational metaphors, and linked to ideological and political value judgments. In addition the analysis illustrates how the use of metaphors in textbooks is not made transparent, nor is a critical reflection of the metaphorical rhetoric encouraged. Findings: In conclusion, based on their own teaching experience, the authors, addressing both teachers and students, outline possibilities of promoting the critical and conscious use of metaphors, not only in textbooks but also in public discourse.

Purpose: This article explores different strands of educational discourse about sexual diversity in Portuguese schools, from the students’ perspectives. Method : The methodological approach consisted in conducting focus groups discussions: 36 with 232 young students (H = 106, M = 126) in 12 public secondary schools. Findings: Students reveal a polyphony of discourses that gravitate between liberal acceptance, conditional acceptance and intolerance. Research implications: Attention is drawn not only to discriminatory processes that question school as a democratic place for LGBT youth, but also to the gap between what is legally decreed and a lack of know-how in the approach to sexual diversity in school.

Zielsetzung: Uberall in der Welt sieht der dominante Diskurs „Finanzbildung“ als notwendig und ausreichend an, um das Wohl Einzelner und der Gesellschaft zu verbessern. Erkenntnisse: In diesem Essay wird argumentiert, dass Finanzbildung weder notwendig noch ausreichend ist und dass die Forderung der Finanzbildung ein abwegiger Ansatz ist, um unzureichende Finanzierung von Renten, Uberschuldung, Finanzkrisen und andere soziale Missstande in den Griff zu bekommen, wie es Regierungen und Padagog_innen von dieser Masnahme erhofft haben. Stattdessen wird hier angeregt, das Ziel von Finanzbildung darin zu sehen, finanzinformierte Burger_innen heranzuziehen, die die Fahigkeit zum burgerschaftlichen Engagement besitzen, das eine von den Burger_innen bestimmte Wirtschaftspolitik und Finanzregulierung hervorbringen kann.

This paper assumes that formative processes are not limited to the school context or model but that other life contexts and experiences, even if not intentionally, have educational effects. These informal formative contexts and experiences can play a key role individual´s development, resulting not only in superficial changes, but also in deep changes in terms of subjectivity and identity. Our research involves clandestine militants of the Portuguese Communist Party during the dictatorship, and explores the type of knowledge acquired during their hiding experience (1940-1974) that allowed them to resist and survive over long periods. As our focus is the experience of women, based on narrative discourses of women (or about them) we will consider the role and status of women in hiding. The discourses were collected through several published autobiographical narratives and mainly interviews where we tried to identify the learning processes, the people seen as significant for knowledge acquisition, and also how knowing, knowing how to do and knowing how to be were constructed during living in hiding.

Purpose: The Quebec Ministry of Education has introduced – as of September 2017 – a new mandatory course focusing on financial literacy and addressing such issues as credit scores, loans, taxes and budgets. This announcement has created intense educational debate on the raison d’etre and content of the course. This article will summarise the heated debate and will examine content knowledge and the type of ‘good’ citizens that the course seeks to create. Method: We use thematic content analysis to identify textual patterns and themes in the Quebec Education Program (QEP) pertaining to financial literacy. Findings: Our assumption is that the QEP reproduces and shapes a personally responsible citizen at the expense of systemic criticism and justice-oriented citizenship education, according to Westheimer and Kahne (2004)’s typology.

Purpose: This paper explores the way in which art education advances the goals of citizenship education. In the first section of this paper the similarities between ethical and aesthetic concepts will be outlined and the visual art symbol system will be carefully examined. Findings: It will be argued that the transference of a value-adaptive attitude developed through the study and practice of art to its application in civic literacy and engagement is valuable and warranted. The second section of this paper will investigate the impact that compositional study in both art practice and experience has on the reinforcement of and the alteration of values.

Purpose: This article proposes an analytical framework that helps to identify and challenge misconceptions of ethnocentrism found in pre-tertiary teaching resources for history and the social sciences in numerous countries. Design: Drawing on nationalism studies, the analytical framework employs ideas known under the umbrella terms of primordialism, constructivism and ethno-symbolism. In applying it, the conceptualisation of the Slovak nation, as presented in the history textbooks currently used in lower secondary schools in Slovakia, is examined as a case study. Findings : A conceptually inconsistent picture emerges from the findings, displaying prevailing patterns of primordialism and a degree of ethno-symbolism. Nevertheless, the article concludes that history textbooks lend, on a number of occasions, unintended support to constructivism. Hence, both this inconsistency in theoretical approach, and frequent use of problematic assumptions based on primordialism and ethno-symbolism show that the attempts of textbooks’ authors to demonstrate the authenticity and historical continuity of the Slovak nation remain precarious. Research implications: The analytical framework used in this article is well-suited for multi-country examinations of national narratives in curricula and textbooks of history and the social sciences. Practical implications: Teaching materials and pedagogic approaches drawing on constructivism could enhance critical engagement with ethnocentrism in Slovakia and beyond.

Purpose: This study had two main objectives: The first was to explore the extent to which a group of University lecturers feel that they are prepared to deal with controversial issues in their classrooms. The second was to elicit their views on a didactic approach known as Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is a constructivist teaching strategy intended to aid the learner in developing their views on controversial issues and in understanding alternative views with the ultimate aim of locating a compromise position. Method: A qualitative intervention was designed to introduce six university academics from diverse specialisms to SAC by way of reflective engagement with it in the role of learners. Findings: The participants in this study deal with controversial issues frequently and several feel ill-prepared to do so. They identified several challenges associated with the use of SAC. These relate primarily to class size and curricular overload. However, despite the challenges, the participants all recognized the potential value of such approaches in developing multi-perspectivity, critical thinking, listening and negotiating skills in the learner. Future larger-scale, longitudinal studies in a variety of cultural contexts are needed to develop approaches which can facilitate those approaching controversial issues in their classrooms.