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The present work aims to investigate social competences as part of the broad discourse on social and emotional skills, abilities and competences (SESACs). The objective is to nourish the body of literature on the different standardisation processes of educational practices with specific emphasis on the motives which govern standardisation of SESACs. With the intention to empirically explore these themes, data from a research on social competences as conceived by Italian middle school teachers are presented. In order to understand the practices of meaning negotiation in a scenario of normative indeterminacy, teachers' conceptions of social competences are presented and analysed. Results suggest a great conceptual variation about what social competences are. The work addresses a reflection on the role of SESAC in educational contexts in the attempt to give content and educational significance to this potentially fruitful educational tool.

This chapter contributes to the field of educational standardisation by critically discussing the recent preoccupation with social and emotional abilities as performance standards in education policies and curriculum. The chapter is philosophical-theoretical in scope and sheds light on standardisation of social and emotional abilities through the different theoretical layers of the Foucauldian notion of governmentality. By bringing the writings of the late Foucault to the fore, I will argue that the power structures imbued in social and emotional standards are not merely oppressive and vertical structures of subjection, but can also be seen as enabling, relational and productive means for subjectivation. Thus, although social and emotional standards certainly can be seen as governmental measures in the production of a flexible, diligent, self-managing workforce, ensuring the kind of transferable non-cognitive skills that are so much needed in the knowledge economy, educators can ambiguously also construct public spaces for political-ethical self-creation and resistance in context of these ‘standards of the self’.

With the overarching goal of cultivating global citizens, many higher education institutions have developed and implemented co-curricular leadership programs for their constituents. Quantitative research on the impact of leadership programs on undergraduate students has shown an increase in self-awareness and social consciousness, both characteristics of global citizens. Yet, research has failed to adequately address the impact of leadership programs on global students’ sense of self. Global students include any individual who has spent a significant portion of their developmental years outside the country of higher education, including international students, children of international religious missionaries, international military personnel, international businesspeople or government diplomats. The central question that informed this qualitative inquiry was: How do former global students who participated in a co-curricular intercultural leadership program describe the impact of their involvement on their current sense of self in post-baccalaureate life? For this qualitative inquiry, grounded theory case study was utilized to explore the experiences of 15 former global students who participated in a co-curricular, intercultural leadership development program. This empirical research into the impact of co-curricular leadership programs on global students’ sense of self in their post-baccalaureate life contributed to the theory of intercultural competence development. It also provided practical implications for the components of high impact leadership programs as well as the value of providing developmental programs for global students.

Social annotation (SA) is a genre of learning technology that enables the annotation of digital resources for information sharing, social interaction and knowledge production. This study aims to examine the perceived value of SA as contributing to learning in multiple undergraduate courses.

In total, 59 students in 3 upper-level undergraduate courses at a Canadian university participated in SA-enabled learning activities during the winter 2019 semester. A survey was administered to measure how SA contributed to students’ perceptions of learning and sense of community.

A majority of students reported that SA supported their learning despite differences in course subject, how SA was incorporated and encouraged and how widely SA was used during course activities. While findings of the perceived value of SA as contributing to the course community were mixed, students reported that peer annotations aided comprehension of course content, confirmation of ideas and engagement with diverse perspectives.

Studies about the relationships among SA, learning and student perception should continue to engage learners from multiple courses and from multiple disciplines, with indicators of perception measured using reliable instrumentation.

Researchers and faculty should carefully consider how the technical, instructional and social aspects of SA may be used to enable course-specific, personal and peer-supported learning.

This study found a greater variance in how undergraduate students perceived SA as contributing to the course community. Most students also perceived their own and peer annotations as productively contributing to learning. This study offers a more complete view of social factors that affect how SA is perceived by undergraduate students.