In this volume an international team of authors explores paradoxes, shares illuminations and invites you to reflect on educational practices to enhance pedagogy, scaffold learning and keep pace with educational advancements. The collection is written by students, teachers, researchers and higher education instructors and discusses education across all phases of learning, which makes it appealing for teachers, headmasters, stakeholders in the area of education and all those working in different educational contexts.

Every day educators are presented with enlightening insights, questions, and encounters which reveal how students engage in learning, how new ideas can impact positively on student outcomes and how - when challenges are uncovered - there can be a sense of puzzlement where rethinking of pedagogical approaches is critical for student success. In this volume of Voices from the Classroom, "Contemporary Challenges in Education - Paradoxes and Illuminations", an international team of authors explores paradoxes, shares illuminations and invites you to reflect on educational practices to enhance pedagogy, scaffold learning and keep pace with educational advancements.
This collection written by students, teachers, researchers and higher education instructors discusses education across all phases of learning. It explores issues such as instructional scaffolding in kindergarten, understanding transition through children's voices, youth participation in curriculum development of sex education, delivering crisis assistance to university students and staff in times of conflict in Ukraine, using augmented reality for transformative learning, co-creating university practices with staff and students, and how inclusive practices can help meet the needs of international postgraduate students. This comprehensive and diverse collection will have wide appeal for teachers, headmasters, stakeholders in the area of education and all those working in different educational contexts.

Autorentext
Dr. Vana Chiou is a faculty member (Laboratory Teaching Staff) at the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece. Her research interests focus on contemporary teaching methods, assessment, teacher training, and inclusion in education. She is also a co-editor of the book series Voices from the Classroom (Waxmann Publications). She has contributed to various publications, including edited volumes, book chapters, and articles in both Greek and international journals. Additionally, she has participated in and co-coordinated several European projects. Lotte Geunis is a political advisor with a proven track record on open government reforms, gender and inclusion. Lotte has consulted for the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, International IDEA and the Open Government Partnership. She is a PhD fellow at Maastricht University, focusing on political elites and youth participation. Lotte is the co-editor of three books and the author of over a dozen publications. She holds an MPhil from the University of Oxford and a BA from the University of Warwick. Oliver Holz, Prof. Dr. phil., M.A. (1970); MA in educational sciences and psychology; PhD in educational sciences; coordinator and organiser of European network(s); research with the emphasis on comparative educational science; employed at the KU Leuven, various publications on relevant educational subjects. Working at Izmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages since 2008, Nesrin Oruç Ertürk has earned her PhD degree from Anadolu University in 2007, assigned as an Assoc. Prof. Dr. in 2014 and appointed as Prof. Dr. in 2019. Her main interest areas are Lifelong Learning, teacher training, and second language acquisition. She has published many books and has many articles published in national and international journals. She has carried research and taught abroad in departments of linguistics at different universities (State University of New York, SUNY, USA; Universidad de Alcala, Spain). Since 2015, she has been assigned as the director of EKOSEM (Izmir University of Economics, Continuing Education Center) and is a member of the Executive Board of TUSEM (The Council of Turkish Universities Continuing Education Centers). Justyna Ratkowska-Pasikowska, assistant professor at the Department of Educational Sciences of the University of Lodz. Specialist in the scope of Psychological Aid in the Area of Sexology. Author of numerous scientific publications. Her interests include human sexuality, femininity, initiation, as well as psychoanalysis as a tool of text interpretation. Fiona Shelton, Doctoral Candidate, MAEd, BEd, FHEA, MCCT. Current doctoral research focuses on memories of primary school from 1944 - 2009. Master of Arts in Education focusing on the role of the stakeholder in curriculum design. Fiona has 25 years of experience in the education sector in schools and Higher Education, Fiona is currently Dean of Students and Head of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Pedagogy, Pomeranian University in Slupsk. Academic teacher, coordinator of East Partnership and Erasmus+ programmes, participant and a coordinator of international projects, member of scientific societies (APA, ISSBD, ISSID, ATTE, IPiE and others) and author of monography and numerous scientific articles in the field of Psychology of Individual Difference, Developmental Psychology, Psychology of Gifted and Talented and Psychology of Dance. Alpochoritis, Christos graduated from the School of Theology of the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens, Greece. He works as a teacher of Byzantine Music in Secondary Education and holds a Master's degree in Human Geography. He is currently a postgraduate student at the Department of Educational Sciences and Social Work of the University of Patras in Greece. AN_IC, Dunja is PhD, Associate Professor, in the field of Pedagogy (Education) at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, Croatia. She teaches courses related to Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable development, and Didactics of Teaching subjects of Nature and Society to future early childhood and primary school teachers. Her research interest involves Teacher Barakari, Sissy, born in Athens-Greece. She is an Electrical and Computer Engineer (NTUA), MA in Digital Design and Interactive Applications (Middlesex University), a new-media artist and a cello player and she is also finishing her Postgraduate Studies in Audio-visual Arts at Ionian University. She is a STEM educator. She has attended scientific conferences, music therapy, chamber music seminars and seminars of composition of various forms of art - performance. She has given presentations and has published research papers in Greek Conferences and in the international conference MEI2018 (Leeds, UK). Her work (interactive installation and short films) has also been presented in digital arts festivals.