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Critical literacy (CL), which refers to the use of diverse communication media to analyse and critique everyday social practices, has often been credited with advancing inclusion and diversity in schools. However, criticality has been seen as a missing dimension in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and the extent to which it figures in mainstream curricular documents is unclear. In this scenario, we aim to determine how CL is represented in lower secondary curricula in different national contexts and subject areas. We examined curricula in history and biology subjects, which are commonly taught through a CLIL approach, in three national contexts: Finland, Italy, and Spain. We used a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, complementing an analysis of curriculum documents with a coding process informed by CL and Critical Thinking (CT) theories. The study reveals that CT and CL are present in both biology and history, but are emphasised differently across countries. Biology curricula tend to integrate CL more visibly, while history favours CT despite its disciplinary potential for perspective-taking. These differences highlight the need for greater balance and explicitness in how criticality is represented across subjects, with implications for designing curricula that better support criticality, both in mainstream and CLIL contexts.

Subject-specific knowledge has increasingly been foregrounded in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) research, particularly in subjects such as history and chemistry. However, the focus on subject-specificity may render invisible the potential impact of interdisciplinary knowledge resources in shaping, scaffolding, or extending knowledge-building in CLIL classrooms. Against this background, the present study investigates how a teacher refers to other disciplinary fields of knowledge (FoK) while constructing legitimate arts knowledge in a Finnish CLIL visual arts classroom, an under-explored subject area in CLIL. Methodologically, we combine multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA) with the Autonomy dimension of Legitimation Code Theory to analyse video-recorded lessons from both micro- and macro-sociological perspectives. The analysis focuses on two interactional environments: (1) teacher explanations and (2) teacher-initiated question-answer sequences. We demonstrate how the teacher mobilises references to other disciplinary fields to scaffold understanding of visual arts-specific knowledge, and how these multimodal practices involve movement across autonomy codes. In doing so, we illustrate the underlying principles governing the transition between disciplinary domains during knowledge-building. The study offers pedagogical implications for CLIL classroom discourse and teacher education, particularly concerning how teachers strategically draw upon other disciplinary fields to support students' learning of visual arts concepts.

In recent years, increasing numbers of studies have explored knowledge-building practices in classrooms through the conceptual tools of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). At the same time, many researchers have used complementary methodologies (e.g. Systemic Functional Linguistics, Conversation Analysis) together with LCT to investigate pedagogy and classroom interaction. Highlighting the greater explanatory power, which is possible in interdisciplinary work, this special issue brings together papers that apply an integrative approach of discursive methodologies and the three LCT dimensions, Specialisation, Semantics, and Autonomy. The papers in this special issue represent a broad exploration of meaning-making and knowledge-building processes in various classroom environments. This special issue shows (1) how teachers and students organise knowledge-building practices in various classroom contexts and (2) how researchers/educators adopt combined approaches using discursive methodologies and a variety of LCT dimensions for interpreting knowledge-building procedures. The special issue provides theoretical and practical contributions towards understanding knowledge-building in classroom discourse and teacher education by presenting combined approaches that integrate discursive methods with the LCT dimensions.

The use of English as medium of instruction (EMI) in non-Anglophone contexts can be seen as part of a process of 'Englishisation' which favours a monolingual policy of using only one language in the classroom. However, EMI can be seen as a multilingual phenomenon, where the declared policy of using one language (English) as the medium of instruction may not reflect actual classroom practices in which other languages are used. Such practices can be described as 'translanguaging', in which participants engage their full linguistic repertoires in making meaning, and which does not see languages as distinct, compartmentalized entities. In this sense, this study aims to investigate how a lecturer deploys bilingual practices in an EMI postgraduate pharmacology module at a Spanish university for content knowledge building and meaning making purposes. The study uses multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine the multilingual and multimodal resources enacted by the lecturer both at the 'local' level of interactional sequences, and at the level of 'overall' medium of practice. The findings suggest that translanguaging (not just English or Spanish) was used as a way of connecting target content knowledge with the students by referring to the students' experience and the shared classroom community.

Student participation and engagement are widely recognised as key contributors to academic success and wellbeing. However, few systematic reviews have explored student engagement and participation in relation to the related concepts of wellbeing (e.g. life satisfaction). Drawing from 20 years of literature across four major databases, this article addresses this gap by reviewing research on participation, engagement, and wellbeing in higher education, with a focus on qualitative methodologies and the use of digital tools. It demonstrates how these methods provide a detailed understanding of the factors influencing student experiences. The systematic review also focuses on the implementations of digital tools (i.e. video viewing, annotation, and observation) in analysing student participation and engagement in higher education. The article highlights the importance of innovative methodologies and using video annotation tools for exploring student participation and engagement in relation to wellbeing, and thus may contribute to future educational practices that create inclusive and engaging learning environments.

Clinical skills training requires a comprehensive understanding of how tutors demonstrate their knowledge, and fulfil their tutoring practices in medical education. This study aims to investigate expertise demonstration of different tutors following students' requests for information during clinical skills training. For this purpose, video recordings of the suturing skill training provided by three different tutors (medical expert, research assistant, and near-peer tutor) were analysed through Conversation Analysis. The findings show that medical expert showcases expertise knowledge through different practices such as using directives and providing assessments while the research assistant takes a more collaborative approach, involving peers in the learning process. The study also indicates that the near-peer tutor employs concise and less informative utterances, refrains from giving direct feedback. This research offers valuable insights into how tutors display expertise by documenting various interactional practices in clinical skills training, and providing data-driven implications for professional training programs in medical education. 

There is a growing research interest in the dynamics of English Medium Instruction (EMI) university classroom interactions in non-Anglophone contexts. In the present study, we track the procedural unfolding of content knowledge co-construction across multiple online activities in an online EMI university classroom. Using Multimodal Conversation Analysis to examine the screen recordings of an undergraduate course on Educational Sciences at a state EMI university in Türkiye, we show how translanguaging plays a central role in enabling the participants’ displays of content knowledge by deploying multilingual (English, Turkish, the focal EMI university jargon) and multimodal (i.e., coordinating verbal and multimodal materials on the screen) resources across four phases of the online class, namely (i) lecturer talk, (ii) pre-task, (iii) task engagement in breakout rooms, and (iv) sharing outputs in the main room. The study brings implications for higher education EMI classroom interactions by describing the multilingual, multifaceted, multimodal, and sequential organization of screen-recorded online environments.

This article explores the dynamics of epistemic positioning and knowledge-building in classroom interaction in two postgraduate neuroscience classrooms. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining multimodal Conversation Analysis and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), it examines how lecturers and students negotiate epistemic stance and status through interactional practices, and how these practices legitimise certain stances or “gazes” in relation to doing neuroscience. Drawing on six hours of video-recorded classroom interaction, the study uses detailed transcripts to uncover the epistemic positioning practices of two lecturers teaching modules on neurobiological bases of psychiatric disorders and addiction. The interactional data are reanalysed from the knowledge-building perspective of LCT, revealing that the two lecturers were operating different specialization codes and activating different gazes in terms of the social relations of both themselves and their students as knowers. The analyses demonstrate how slight shifts in interactional practices around epistemic positioning can have significant consequences for legitimating different knower positions in postgraduate neuroscience education. By combining micro-analysis with the sociological framework of LCT, the study offers insights into the complex dynamics of knowledge-building in advanced academic settings and offers tools for reflection on and enhancement of teaching practices in postgraduate science education contexts.