Our symposium intends to interrogate the capacity of Organizational Education and Organizational Education Research to address the complexity of the challenges that are encountered in dealing with diversity in contemporary Europe and beyond. In times of nationalism, populism and a general tendency in reinforcing the closure of systemic boundaries, we want to discuss the organizational responsibility for fostering counter discourses like new approaches of Democratic Education (e.g., Civic Engagement Education, Service Learning, and Collaborative Learning) aimed at supporting multilevel inter-organizational cooperation, crossing boundaries, and generate resources to imagine new solutions to fractures in organizations and societies. In this regards, organizational education must be able to provide useful interpretations of modern megatrends, support critical thinking within organizational experts and practitioners’ communities, co-develop pragmatic tools to navigate through troubled water and contribute to the building of a ‘democratic and social Europe’. Our era is asking organizations to move beyond the monoculture of revenues, productivity and performance, to tune with compelling collective needs.

Following this line or reasoning, during our symposium we will discuss different aspects that invest organizations in facing the challenges posed by such a transition. Within the framework of three different national and cultural perspectives we will ask: Can organizations acquire and enact more fully the role of responsible agent to promote democratic education? What can educational research do in order to investigate and promote ethical and democratic values and attitudes within and through organizations and communities? What is the role of multi-professional teams in organizations? How to support new forms of and civic engagement and ethical responsibility within and between organizations for the promotion of a more just, diverse and better world? How to promote collaborations and openness while sharing ideas about education and teaching?

The three presentations use a mixed methods design with quantitative and qualitative approaches for collecting data and analysis, e.g., policies and official documents, school projects, evaluation reports, and curricular projects as well as interviews and quantitative survey. Results from the studies are presented within specific theoretical frameworks, as indicated below, in order to highlight relevant organizational aspects. Throughout three different presentations, we will enquire about the following topics: The first presentation introduces the impact of the project "Inclusion Didactic Teaching Modules" (!DL) to teacher´s value education and aims to make a significant contribution to the democratic citizenship education. The project is characterized by multi-professional cooperation (teachers, academics, and school cooperations) and interdisciplinary cooperation (special needs education, subject didactics, primary school education and didactics). In workshops, both student teachers and teachers reflect on their own values and develop it into a democratic attitude. The second presentation points out the changing role of schools against the background of societal trends and fractures. In the context of civic engagement education, they can operate as social innovation agents, not only within schools themselves but in wider social and professional networks. By re-connecting different types of organizations schools initiate ‘horizontal‘ change, that can be investigated as (inter)organizational learning. The third presentation presents a new model of mentoring for beginning teachers, based on the collaborative approach. This model was developed based on social theories and democratic values and encouraged principles of collaborative transformation and construction of professional knowledge through mutual learning, empowerment practices and empathic dialogue. This process provides the opportunity to discuss education goals in an organizational, democratic, critical, and open environment.

Special attention will be given to the commonalities and differences between these three approaches as well as to the transferability of the findings within a European context and in a global world.

Zeichner, Ken. 2016. Advancing social justice and democracy in teacher educa-tion: Teacher preparation 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Kappa Delta Pi Record, (52): 150-155.