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The demands on the police to ensure security and order have increased in times of growing right-wing extremism, corona protests and widespread criticism of and dissatisfaction with democratic structures and processes. Protection, escort or even confrontation in the course of public demonstrations and protests as well as the protection, e.g. of politicians, synagogues or mosques requires additional deployment of the police and poses extended challenges. However, the police force itself also faces various problems with antidemocratic, violent or extremist police officers. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate why and how civic education of police officers can be a cornerstone to respond to the described challenges and improve democratic policing.

This paper describes how civic education can be organized in police training and further education and how it can be designed in cooperation with civil society actors. It is based on a research and development project conducted between 2016 and 2021 under the title “Civic Education and Police.”

Civic education can or could be an approach in sensitizing police officers to social conflicts and in better understanding the background and reasons for their deployment. Moreover, civic education can be helpful in preventing abuse of power and police violence, reducing negative aspects of esprit de corps and strengthening police legitimacy.

Civic education of police officers can help to understand conflicts and social tensions, strengthen the understanding of the society, improve police investigation, reduce misbehavior and support legitimacy in the democratic state.

The article uses findings from the project Civic Education and Police, which was funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education between 2016 and 2021. Project partners were the German Police University and the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia. The project conducted empirical studies on the supply and demand structure of civic education for and in the police. In addition, a database of educational concepts, a series of conferences and a new journal for conference documentation, research and special issues were launched.

There is widespread debate about the nationalistic top-down approach of citizenship education. By using the notion of cultural citizenship as a useful theoretical lens, citizenship education research tends to focus on the process of subjectivity construction among students’ citizenship learning process. The Communist Party of China plays a dominant role in cultivating citizens in the form of ideological and political education (IaPE) in Chinese universities. The research problem thus focuses on the dynamics and complexity of how Chinese university students construct their subjectivities regarding citizenship learning through IaPE. The main purpose of the study is to provide some research directions for understanding students’ citizenship learning today.

With the case study of one university in China and interview data from 25 students, this paper examines the ways in which students understand and respond to dominant discourses.

The findings revealed there is a deficit of citizenship learning in IaPE, and students felt ideologically pressurized. This study suggests students’ complex subjectivities of active participants but confused minds as a phenomenon in Chinese higher education, in which they must involve in IaPE for personal academic and career development, while they adopted covert strategies for self-conscious citizenship learning expectations. These strategies took the form ranging from obediently completing basic curriculum requirements and distancing away by studying abroad, to actively searching for learning opportunities from other courses and media society.

This paper contributes to citizenship education research by recognizing the complexities of how subjectivities are formed in formal university settings.

The study explored the effect of information and communication technology-assisted instruction (ICTAI) on civic education (CE) students' academic performance and the effect of gender on students' performance. Specifically, the study addressed the facilitating effect of ICTAI on students' scholarly performance.

This study utilised the quasi-experimental approach. A sample of 255 senior secondary school students was the analysis unit. A teacher-made performance test was used as an instrument for the study. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics for the research questions, and hypotheses tested with paired sample t-test statistics.

The study results indicated that ICTAI improved student scholarly performance. The study also proved that gender had an impact on student academic performance.

Not all the students in intact classes that were used for conducting the study/research, and the background and gender of research assistants were not considered, and these could have affected the result of the study. The study implications are that this study is a piece of deeper ingenuity and innovation that provides an additional source of information to study. The study provided proof that innovative activity-based instructions such as computer-assisted instruction (CAI) boost students’ performance.

On the instructor, the study findings demonstrated the significant effect of ICTAI on the scholarly performance of CE students. Consequently, this study contends that CE instructors/teachers can benefit from the implications of these findings by comprehensively understanding that ICTIA usage enhances student performance and, thus, improves the students' performance. Additionally, the study's findings proved that gender affected students' performance when instructed with ICTAI. The study implies that CE instructors/teachers should pay special attention to students' gender, specifically female students, as gender affects the improvement of students' CE performance when instructed with ICTAI.

The study findings contribute to the literature on academic improvement and performance of CE students by enhancing the understanding of the effect of ICTAI on students' scholarly performance. The study recognises the existing gaps in previous literature and vivid understanding of the effect of ICTAI on students' performance and gender as a mediator.

This paper aims to address the limitations in designing educational approaches that apply critical approaches to data literacy, given the obscure nature of digital platforms, which leave youth unable to develop discourses that challenge dominant narratives about the role of data in their lives. The purpose of this study is to propose and evaluate a critical data literacy approach that empowers youth to engage with data from a sociocultural perspective using a speculative participatory research approach that affords opportunities to develop alternative discourses.

This is a multiple-case study that involves five alternative schools in Uruguay which implemented the Nayah-Irú curriculum over ten weeks leading to the development of six distinct research projects about the materialization of data in youth lives. The curriculum incorporates an alternate reality game (ARG) to engage youth in critical data literacy, based on the principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) epistemology and Speculative Civic Literacies.

The findings of this study highlight the integration of speculative storytelling and real-life experiences in developing alternative discourses about datafication. The analysis revealed instances of discursive closure among the youth, but through the curriculum's speculative fiction elements, such as the narrative of Nayah-Irú, emotional connections were formed, leading to increased engagement, critical inquiry, and problem framing.

The study conducted on the Nayah-Irú curriculum shows its effectiveness in engaging youth and educators in critical data literacy by affording opportunities for youth to engage in the analysis of their personal data literacies in an alternative world. Bringing speculative approaches to data literacy can open new avenues for exploring data literacy with youth in ways that center their voices and help them overcome different forms of discursive closure.

This study offers new insights into critical data literacy education blending youth participatory action research epistemologies with a speculative literacies framework to support youth in developing alternative discourses regarding the role of data in their lives.

In light of a need for more critical education about datafication, this paper aims to develop a framework for critical datafication literacy that is grounded in theoretical and empirical research. The framework draws upon existing critical data literacies, an in-depth analysis of three well-established educational approaches – media literacy, the German “(politische) Bildung” and Freirean “critical pedagogy” – and empirical analyses of online educational resources about datafication.

The study interconnects theoretical analyses with an empirical mixed methods investigation that includes expert interviews with creators of online educational resources about datafication and a qualitative survey with educators interested in teaching about data technologies.

The research identified novel findings on the goals of resource creators and educators, such as a focus on empowering and emancipatory approaches, fostering systemic understanding of datafication and encouraging collective action. Such perspectives are rare in existing critical data literacy conceptualisations but show resemblance to traditional education scholarship. This highlights how much can be learnt from practitioners and from these more established educational approaches. Based on these findings, a framework for critical datafication literacy is suggested that aims for systemic understanding of datafication, encouraging critical thinking and enabling learners to make enlightened choices and take different forms of action.

The study is unique in its interconnection of theoretical and empirical research, and it advances previous research by suggesting a grounded framework for critical datafication literacy.

The unique institution of waqf that was ignored during the colonization of the Muslim areas has to be revived to play its role in shared growth, social inclusion and cohesion in society. This research paper aims to explore the role of waqf as an instrument for a sustainable growth system and to suggest a model for socioeconomic development in an economy like that of Pakistan.

This qualitative research is based on analytical methods to arrive at the frameworks and a model that could facilitate the revival of waqf for community development/social inclusion in economies like that of Pakistan.

As most of the OIC member states like Pakistan are facing serious financial problems due to debt servicing obligations, promoting Waqf for various socioeconomic and cultural functions is a vital requirement for such economies. The inability of the state institutions in providing necessary civic, health and education facilities to the public is causing serious harm to the balance of the society. It requires promoting a formal system of charity and using FinTech for waqf-based donations and financing the micro businesses. The perpetuity complimented by the profitability of the waqf properties makes the waqf institutions sustainable and effective when compared to individual charities.

This is conceptual research discussing the potential of waqf in light of its historical role. Researchers may undertake empirical studies on awqaf operations in various jurisdictions and their role in the empowerment of the poor.

The research will provide the researchers with insight into the potential of waqf as a tool for community development. Besides, it will enable policymakers and implementation authorities to socialize charity for sustained benefits and welfare.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first major research that discusses the role of waqf in economies facing budgetary and trade deficits in the eradication of poverty and the promotion of social and economic entrepreneurship in realizing the community development targets for the economies like that of Pakistan.

The use of cutting-edge technology in education has the potential to transform the learning experience and greatly contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in emerging economies. With the increased accessibility of technology and online resources, digital literacy has become an essential skill in today's world. Smart e-learning platforms have emerged as a new tool for offering education and training in emerging economies, while also boosting digital literacy.

This chapter will attempt to investigate the impact of new-age technologies on the educational system and how they can help emerging economies achieve the SDGs. This study looks at case studies from various emerging economies, analyzing how innovative technologies like digital learning, smart teaching and learning, mobile learning, online learning, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and gamification are used to improve education quality and promote SDGs. This chapter emphasizes the impact of technological integration on access to education, reducing inequality, and improving educational quality and relevance. This study also looks into how education may help promote environmental sustainability and economic growth. According to the findings, integrating new-age technologies into the education system can be a game changer in achieving SDGs in emerging nations.

The significance of well-being in social development policy and practice is increasingly acknowledged by scholars and practitioners worldwide. Nevertheless, when examining well-being within the context of Global South trends, existing conceptualisations seem to yield incongruent indicators. Given the background, this paper aims to synthesise theoretical and empirical literature on well-being to foster an understanding of well-being in contemporary Global South.

This article reviews the now large literature on the well-being in the Global South. The article begins with a discussion of the contributions of state-of-the-art developments in well-being studies, a realm experiencing remarkable growth in social policy studies. It then turns to the prominent well-being constructs that have garnered considerable attention within the literature, with an examination of the Global North and Global South context followed by reinterpretation of these concepts to facilitate a comprehensive study of well-being beyond the realms of welfare states. Concluding the narrative, a succinct outline of potential pathways for future research is presented in the final section.

The review reveals that the concept of well-being in the Global South does not necessarily deviate entirely from the prevailing belief that the region is fundamentally distinct from the Global North on a conceptual level. The authors have discovered that three core dimensions of well-being, namely objective, subjective and relational, are observable across societal boundaries due to the diffusion of knowledge and social and cultural practices that have progressively aligned them with Global North-style modernisation. An exception arises in the relational aspect, where the attainment of positive collective relationships precedes individual happiness to some extent. The paper advances a renewed perspective on well-being, portraying it as a situational, interconnected, collective undertaking and continuous process. These approaches empower the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances.

This paper helps the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances, thereby facilitating future enhancements in social policy design.

The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to determine whether civic education has a positive impact on voting intentions among the electorate; second, to establish whether attitudes towards voting behaviour (ATVB) mediate the relationship between civic education and voting intentions; and third, to determine whether educational level moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.

This study adopted a survey research design and a quantitative approach. Data were collected from a sample of 1,450 registered voters from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A regression-based approach was adopted to test the study hypotheses using Hayes-PROCESS Macro 3.5.

The results indicate that civic education is positively associated with voting intentions. Further analysis reveals that ATVB significantly mediates the association between civic education and voting intentions. Additionally, educational level positively moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.

The findings offer implications for governments and democratic institutions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence of the mediating effect of ATVB and the moderating effect of educational level on the relationship between civic education and voting intentions. This study provides useful insights into the factors that influence voting intentions.

This study explores the value of sports films for engaging youth in issues related to patriotism, justice, equity and liberty. The authors analyze how two sports films, 42 and Battle of the Sexes, have pedagogical potential and value in secondary social studies methods classes, as well as what criteria educators might use when selecting films (and television series) for classroom use.

Using content analysis, the authors respond to the following questions: (1) What critical themes related to civic education surface in the sports films 42 and Battle of the Sexes? and (2) What framework might guide the use of selecting sports films and sports film clips for educators' civic educational use?

Five themes surfaced in the films 42 and Battle of the Sexes: economics as a force for social change; racism and anti-Blackness, athletes as more than athletes, resisting oppression, and sexism and homophobia. Instruction related to these themes has the potential to engage students in critical, awareness-based approaches to civic education.

Sports films show promise for engaging youth due to their interests in the medium of film and in sports, both as participants and spectators. Across the world, athletes face questions and issues related to patriotism, justice, equity and liberty on courts, fields, tracks and rinks, These questions and issues are deeply embedded in civic education. This study is among the first of its kind to explore the pedagogical potential of sports films.