This presentation reports on a small-scale intervention case study examining how an AI-supported learning activity, integrating Google Earth and Copilot, can strengthen teacher students’ understanding of plate tectonics and associated landforms, as well as their ability to adapt such activities for secondary school teaching. During the intervention, participants engage in a virtual fieldwork task in which they explore tectonic processes and landforms using Google Earth, with Copilot providing guidance, explanations, formative diagnostic assessments, and opportunities for deeper inquiry. After completing the activity, the students evaluate their own learning process and redesign the task for grade 9 learners. Their reflections and redesigned activities form the empirical basis for analyzing how AI-supported virtual fieldwork can shape both conceptual learning and pedagogical reasoning.The study illustrates how AI-enhanced virtual fieldwork can help teachers develop their technological pedagogical content knowledge by highlighting both opportunities and challenges of incorporating Google Earth and Copilot into teacher education and school teaching. The study offers insight into how AI tools can assist learners’ work with complex spatial data, support sense-making, and stimulate reflection on disciplinary content. At the same time, it reveals tensions associated with the integration of AI in teaching, including issues of accuracy, over-reliance, and the need for critical evaluation of AI-generated explanations. More broadly, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about meaningful and responsible use of AI in education and calls attention to key pedagogical considerations for emerging digital tools.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a digital education programme developed for municipality politicians accountable for the Swedish elder care. The programme focused on the work environment for different key professions within elder care and on the municipality politicians' work environment responsibility on an organisational level.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal single-group pre-experimental research design was used to evaluate a digital education programme regarding the organisational and social work environment within elder care. The participants were municipality politicians accountable for the Swedish elder care. The evaluation was based on self-reported responses to a questionnaire – at T1, before the intervention (N = 81); at T2, zero to two weeks after the intervention (n = 35); and at T3, three months post education (n = 35). Longitudinal changes within the intervention group were examined.

Findings

The digital education programme substantially enhanced municipality politicians' self-rated knowledge of professions in both special housing and home care settings. This improvement was observed immediately after the programme at T2 and was either maintained or further increased at the three-month follow-up at T3. The absence of clear differences between T2 and T3 indicates that the knowledge gains were sustained over this period.

Practical implications

The results suggest that a digital education programme targeting the organisational level of the municipality-driven elder care, that is, accountable politicians, can help improve the understanding of work environment management regarding elder care, and thereby be a way to address challenges in elder care employee situations.

Originality/value

The focus is on addressing the organisational level instead of first-line managers and/or individuals.

PURPOSE: Municipality politicians in Sweden represent their municipalities as employers, bearing overall legal responsibility for the work environment. This study examines the self-rated knowledge of politicians responsible for elder care in the settings of home care and special housing in Sweden. The study focuses on two aspects of their role: their knowledge regarding the work of the key professionals who deliver elder care services (including care assistants, assistant nurses, registered nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and first-line managers) and their knowledge of their accountability as employers for the work environments.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This quantitative study is based on self-reported responses to a questionnaire from 81 municipality politicians. All of Sweden's 290 municipality political board chairs were invited to participate and asked to extend the invitation to other board members. The study is part of a larger study with a longitudinal single-group pre-post experimental research design that evaluated a digital educational programme regarding organisational and social work environments within elder care, targeting accountable municipality politicians in Sweden.

FINDINGS: Politicians may lack knowledge regarding the work of elder care professions and their legal responsibilities as employers. The level of knowledge was higher among board chairs compared to board members. Regardless of political role, knowledge of the work of care assistants and assistant nurses was highest, whilst that of physiotherapists and occupational therapists was lowest.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The results of this study are based on a questionnaire designed to assess the self-rated knowledge of municipality politicians regarding the work of key professions in elder care within special housing and home care contexts.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: These results highlight the knowledge imbalance between board chairs and board members and are significant because all board members share equal responsibility for the decisions made. Given the limited time board members have to fulfil their political roles, it is essential to consider this constraint when addressing their knowledge needs.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: This study provides insights into the self-rated knowledge of municipality politicians responsible for elder care and focuses on two key aspects of their role. Examination of their knowledge of the work performed by key professionals who deliver elder care services indicate differences in knowledge levels based on political roles. Board chairs demonstrate a higher overall degree of knowledge compared to board members.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This research examines the knowledge of municipality politicians accountable for elder care regarding the work of different key professions within elder care, in both special housing and home care contexts as well as their knowledge of work environment legal responsibilities.

In the context of humanistic Bildung-centred Didaktik, the educational potential of different school subjects is emphasized. But how can different school subjects collectively contribute to the ‘cultivation-of-human-powers’ and Bildung with a focus on sustainability? In this article, seven different school subjects are compared. Eleven teacher educators from Malmö University, Sweden, have written scholarly about the roles of their respective school subjects for Bildung and sustainability. Drawing from the texts related to the seven school subjects – geography, mathematics, physical education and health, religious education, science for citizenship, Swedish as a second language, and visual arts – a comparative analysis was conducted. The primary focus was to understand the unique characteristics of each school subject, explore their epistemic differences, and discern their potential roles in fostering cross-curricular didactics for Bildung and sustainability. It is shown that the different school subjects collectively provide complementary contributions to contemporary Bildung and climate change literacy.

The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization.One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasingnumber of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access tobasic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstratethe impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governmentsand on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town calledMakhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has beenexperiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansioninto the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such aswater, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixedmethodsstudy of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado BiabaLocal Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mappedfor the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnairein six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others,the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urbanvillages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urbancore. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urbandevelopments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure.The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal servicessuch as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is laggingbehind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bringabout information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of theperi-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges.For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structuredcitizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended.In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development andland use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect onecosystem services.

What make a bus stop perceived as pleasant and attractive and another boring and desolate? This investigation calls attention to the affective dimension of bus stops and how it influences our waiting experience. Based on socio-spatial mapping of selected bus stops in Malmö, the paper highlights the role of the urban context, both physical and social, in forming affective atmospheres at bus stops. We argue that understanding constitutive elements of affective atmosphere is important for the design and planning of attractive transit spaces.

Sedan 2018 har adjunkt Lena Andersson på Institutionen för naturvetenskap, matematik och samhälle vid Malmö universitet och adjunkt Purna Bahadur Subba på Department of STEM education vid Samtse College of Education varit ledare för ett utbytesprojekt inom det SIDA-finansierade utbytesprogrammet Linnæus Palme.

Genom framgångsrika utbyten av lärare och studenter har projektet främjat kulturellt orienterat lärande i matematik och naturvetenskaper inom svenska och bhutanesiska lärar- och skolutbildningar.

Som det sista lärarutbytet inom projektet, som avslutas i år, besökte vi våra två lärarstudenter och bhutanesiska kollegor vid Samtse College of Education under tre veckor över månadsskiftet mars–april. Vi anlände en fredag till Paro och huvudstaden Thimphu och fick på lördagen äran att vandra upp till det fantastiska buddhistiska klostret Paro Taktshang . Efter helgen blev vi körda söderut från Thimphu till Samtse nära gränsen till Indien.

Under de kommande två arbetsveckorna hann vi med mycket. Vi observerade våra lärarstudenters matematikundervisning på Samtse Higher Secondary School och höll presentationer om Sverige på college och ett par skolor utanför Samtse. Vi höll även didaktiska seminarier om hur man kan introducera kemi för lärarstudenter och hur man kan använda geografiska informationssystem i skolundervisning.

Ett viktigt syfte med resan var att diskutera möjligheterna till fortsatt samarbete mellan lärosätena. Tanken är att fokus ska ligga på lärande i STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) och som det ser ut nu har vi möjlighet att söka ett Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility-anslag i början av nästa år. Hoppet kvarstår alltså om att kunna fortsätta på den inslagna vägen och bygga vidare på redan etablerade kontaktytor.

The Swedish school education in geography has developed slowly and still focuses on names of, for example, countries and capitals, rather than geographical concepts and processes. To implement the secondary and upper secondary school curricula, teachers need both broad and deep geographical knowledge. For example, teachers need knowledge of geographic information systems (GIS), which are computerised information systems for analysis and presentation of geographical data. This literature-based discussion article aims to analyse opportunities and difficulties with using GIS programs in the teacher and school education. In summary, the preconditions are good, with few technical barriers, for developing GIS-based teaching in the teacher and school education that promotes active, inquiry-based, cooperative, and problem-based learning. This would make the school education more problem-oriented and interdisciplinary so that it promotes pupils’ opportunities to achieve the competencies stipulated in the curricula. Such development requires that teacher educators and school teachers get the time and resources needed to develop technological pedagogical content knowledge. However, it is probably enough for educators and teachers to get started with simpler internet- and web-based GIS and then develop their knowledge at an appropriate pace.