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The literature on ‘mixed’ families (in which members are socially viewed as ‘different’ due to their varying ethnicities and/or nationalities) identifies several stakes of mixedness. One of them arises from childbirth, after which parents need to give name(s) to their offspring. How does the parent–child dyad understand the giving of names in their mixed family? What does naming children unveil regarding interpersonal interactions and the value of children within this social unit? The chapter delves into these questions through a case study of forenaming children in Filipino-Belgian families in Belgium. Interview data analysis reveals two modes of forenaming in these families: individualisation through single forenames and reinforcement of collective affiliation through compound forenames. Through the analytical framework of social relatedness, this chapter uncovers the way the act of naming a child bridges families based on biological and social ties, generations, and parents' nations of belonging in their transnational spaces. The complex process of naming reflects the power dynamics not only within the parental couple but also within the wider set of social relations. Although the use of forename(s) in everyday life and in legal terms differ, the value of children in the mixed families studied lies in their symbolic role as social bridges linking generations and non-biological relationships, the then and now, and the here and there.

I will present an example of a shared decision-making process between adults and children: a case study of an intergenerational project built collaboratively between a group of artists, teachers, their current and former students, their families and the inhabitants of a pedestrian square in Lisbon's city centre.

The project began as weekly meetings that took place in the ruins of an abandoned house that only had walls and a cemented floor. The participants had to climb up the wall to enter it. Eventually, together they decided to renovate the ruins, paint them, garden in them and to research what had happened to that building. They began a newsletter with photos, drawings and texts that was compiled into a book, which was published and released in a public event.

The results were obtained by the triangulation of participatory observation data, interviews with the children and adults, written and filmed records. I will show how the project stimulated a learning process that was collective and active for all participants. As a consequence of the use of child-centred practice, the children saw their collaboration in the structuring of the meetings as a moment when the traditional school hierarchy was minimised and they felt their knowledge valued, with impact in their school performance.

This study investigates the process of praxeological transformation developed in an early childhood institution using context-based staff educational practices as strategy to support the professional development of educators. It aims at developing a pedagogy that recognises and legitimises children as full-right citizens, thus valuing their competences to participate.

The context-based staff educational practices were taken in an ecological perspective thus recognising an interconnection between professional development, curriculum and organisational development. This is a longitudinal case study (four years) framed in a qualitative constructivist approach, using action research, context-based staff development and participatory childhood pedagogy as means to change educational practices. It is founded in the principles of the Childhood Association's pedagogical approach for children learning and teachers' development, as well as on the Effective Early Learning Project as a reference for monitoring and evaluating quality co-construction. The main objectives of the study were defined around the reconstruction of children and educators' images, to create democratic participatory understandings of central actors that will develop a situated pedagogy of respect and learning. The reconceptualisation of the image of the child, based on the listening of his/her voices, has been key for their right to participate and a professional motivation for kindergarten teachers to change their daily professional practices. The data gathered reveal the understanding of children as competent persons and active learners who construct complex forms of thought and action. This long process of learning led the participants to realise the importance of participatory childhood pedagogies.

Temporary and permanent organisations have contrasting yet co-dependent perspectives regarding time; temporary organisations are made to ‘die’, yet most of them exist to enable permanent organisations to ‘survive’. The authors studied the temporal tensions of strategic initiatives – that is, temporary organisations that aim to implement strategic change in permanent organisations. Our empirical data identified three temporal tensions emerging when senior managers timed their strategic initiatives: ambition versus realism when enacting the time horizon, patience versus urgency when enacting the pace, and clock time versus event time when enacting the temporal perspective. By evoking the literature on paradox and temporal work, the authors extend the view of temporality at the temporary and permanent interface and indicate how temporal work played an important role in creating, reinforcing, or transforming temporal tensions. The authors conclude by providing implications for theory and practice.

The scientific literature on career counseling has been amassing, over more than 100 years, a vast collection of theories, models and approaches to career design, construction, and development. However, neither theories, nor research or practice concerning career issues, have consistently produced scientifically valid, socially just, or individually adjusted responses. This is especially salient when it comes to migration cases, which are by nature complex and diversified, and even more so when applied to refugees whose integration depends on models and strategies that are culturally sensitive. This chapter pursues a comprehensive review of existing models of career guidance and their supporting research and applies them to the specific needs of refugees. It also provides suggestions for intervention that address this issue in a culturally sensitive manner. In this vein, the authors present an example of the international project Live2Work, aimed at increasing the chances for successful integration of people in situations of professional vulnerability.

The purpose of this chapter is to document the use of Participatory Action Research methods as an effective approach for community empowerment and strategies for more inclusive public policy.

The methodology draws on a “participatory video” project with recycling cooperatives in São Paulo, Brazil, and documents the process, benefits, and challenges of using action-oriented methods and tools as an approach to build capacity for political and social change. The authors provide a step-by-step process of facilitating a PV project, its application for policy engagement, and some of the major dilemmas in using PV, including representation, power, and vulnerability.

The research findings conclude that the application of Participatory Action Research as a research method in social entrepreneurship, contributes significantly to build transformative capacity in participating members, in addition to creating new spaces for inclusive policy.

The research is unique in that it points to creative and transformative methods of engagement for inclusive governance, embracing multiple forms of personal identity, knowledge and creative expression in moving toward new solutions for equal opportunities and possibilities for change. Participatory video is argued to be an innovative avenue for the inclusion of multiple voices in these arenas, voices of people otherwise left on the margins. Participatory video is an approach that has the potential to transform the way we (local and global) move toward greater social equity, human compassion, and environmental flourishing.

Purpose – This chapter revisits an archive of life-story interviews of immigrant care workers in Italy in order to map the underlying placements, meanings and emotional connotations of the word ‘home’ (casa). The discursive ways of using this word are connected to the respondents’ shifting life milieus and orientations towards receiving and sending societies.

Methodology – The chapter builds on the content analysis of a subset of biographical interviews of immigrant women employed in live-in care work in Italy.

Findings – Three categories emerge across respondents’ narratives. Their everyday life experience is based in Home_here-and-now (the present dwelling place) and thus depends on its often limited inclusive potential. However, their everyday life experience is also affected by the home conditions in their country of origin (Home_there-and-now) and by their recollections, understandings and revisits of the past home experience prior to migration (Home_there-and-then). These immigrant women are engaged in an ongoing balancing act between different spatial and temporal dimensions of what they frame as home. Critical to their wellbeing is the ability to keep cultivating meaningful connections with Home_there-and-now and to reproduce some patterns of Home_there-and-then.

Originality/Value – As my study suggests, their present dwelling and living conditions remain the central arena for immigrants negotiating a more inclusive sense of home. Reconstructing home-related views and practices is a good heuristic strategy for researchers to illuminate ‘biographies of belonging’ as a whole. An analytical focus on the ways of using the word ‘home’ reveals broader patterns of integration and transnational participation.

The indigenous peoples of the Philippines have had to struggle against historical injustices for centuries. They fought against colonization and the subjugation of their cultures and ways of life. Over the decades, their next generations are confronted with exclusion, discrimination, and encroachments on their ancestral domains which have resulted in social and economic disadvantages. An obvious case in point is the lack of sympathetic and affirmative policy directives for the culture-based education of indigenous children and youth. This paper reflects on the policy development processes undertaken to institutionalize inclusion and social justice in indigenous peoples education policies within the K to 12 Basic Education Program. Using the method of narrative inquiry, the stories of reform are told from the point of view of those who facilitated the crafting of these policies. Three narratives demonstrate that contextualized and empowering education strategies and processes transform not only policy but also the policy makers.