The United Nations 2030 agenda includes quality university education, highlighting the importance of writing competence, as a basic skill for the dissemination of sustainable knowledge. However, there is little evidence of the factors that predict effective written communication to support such quality. Among these factors, the literature highlights motivation and writing metacognition, as well as the adequate structuring of the academic and/or scientific genre. The main novelty of the present research is the study of the relationships between the mentioned factors, measured with validated instruments. To this end, content analysis is first applied to determine the rhetorical moves of argumentative essays written by a sample of 72 university students. Secondly, the correlations between each of the rhetorical moves, metacognition and argumentative writing self-efficacy are calculated. The relationships are studied in depth, applying step-by-step linear regression models. Finally, the dependence of the results, observed with respect to unmeasured factors, is contrasted by means of a confirmatory analysis based on structural equations. The analyses show that it is the practical ability to express rhetorical moves—Conclusion and Bibliographic References—which predicts a students’ writing metacognition. Moreover, the minor relationship that argumentative self-efficacy shows with the expression of rhetorical moves, compared to writing metacognition, point to the need to consider another motivational dimension that is driving the learning of the argumentative essay at university level, a hypothesis that is confirmed with the structural equations model. These, and other findings, allow for the establishment of a series of educational quality criteria for the empowerment of written argumentation in academic and scientific contexts.

Ensuring learning for all and by all in urban schools is a major challenge. It is therefore necessary to rethink schools and teacher performance to respond adequately to these challenges, especially in secondary education. In this respect, the extended professional learning communities model may be a viable alternative. This article presents data from the study of three secondary schools working to improve their educational outcomes. We adopt a case study methodology with an intrinsic, ethnographic, and autobiographical perspective to contextualize and understand the topic under study. The results reveal the degree of presence and development—at different levels of depth—of the dimensions that define an extended professional learning community. In these cases, they value the growth of their social and professional capital, with a sense of community, while weaving collaborative networks inside and outside the school around a shared purpose, i.e., liberating learning and ensuring learning for all. We conclude that the key conditions for achieving this goal are relational trust, professional interrelationship, co-responsibility, and clear shared leadership for learning, guided by the environment and underpinned by principles of care and social justice.

Environmental challenges continue to intensify globally, highlighting the urgent need to foster Environmental Citizenship (ECn) among younger generations, particularly within higher education. Despite increasing policy emphasis on sustainability education, limited cross-national evidence exists on how students translate environmental awareness into action. This study employs a quantitative, comparative design using survey data from 2,013 higher education students across seven countries (Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, and Sweden). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate a reduced Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (rECQ) and examine students’ motivations, competences, intentions, and behaviors. Results reveal a consistent pattern across countries: while students demonstrate high levels of environmental values (M = 3.54) and attitudes (M = 3.49), as well as strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (M ≈ 4.7), their engagement in past environmental actions remains notably low (M = 1.77). Competences and intentions are significantly higher than actual behaviors ( p <.001), indicating a substantial intention–action gap. Correlation analyses further show weak links between past actions and other ECn dimensions, while attitudes, values, and intentions are moderately to strongly interrelated. Cross-country differences highlight stronger motivation and engagement in Cyprus and Croatia, while contextual factors such as family influence play a key role in Lebanon. Overall, the validated 9-factor rECQ demonstrates robust cross-cultural applicability. The findings emphasize the need for higher education institutions to move beyond awareness-based approaches by integrating experiential, action-oriented learning and motivational support mechanisms to effectively translate environmental commitment into sustained behavioral engagement.

This article investigates how digital competences contribute to the production of social capital and professional recognition through a systematic review of international literature. Drawing on 62 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC, the review identifies the most frequently mobilized theoretical frameworks, the predominant types and sources of recognition, and the associated dimensions of social capital. The findings reveal a growing emphasis on communicative and network-based digital competences—particularly digital communication, information management, and virtual collaboration—as key assets in professional contexts. Recognition is shown to take predominantly non-material, extrinsic, and visibility-oriented forms, with social media platforms emerging as central sites for the performance and circulation of digital competences. The results indicate that social media proficiency has become a central determinant of social recognition, favoring individuals who possess not only digital fluency but also the ability to strategically develop and mobilize their networks. This dynamic reframes signal theory in light of today’s platformed ecosystems: recognition no longer depends increasingly on one’s capacity to render competences legible, visible, and endorsed within algorithmically mediated environments. Those who master the codes of visibility and reputation-building online are best positioned to convert recognition into social capital and professional opportunity.

This article seeks to understand the extent to which rural schools in isolated Andalusia approach the meaning and functioning of professional learning communities (PLCs), focusing on collaborative leadership, shared pedagogical practices and active community participation in the construction and development of a shared improvement project. He argues that the PCL model is a good response in contexts of geographical isolation and teacher instability because it fosters networks of interrelation around a shared purpose that is sustainable over time, with an impact on improving learning. A case study was carried out, focusing on three schools in the region of the Comarca de Las Villas. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and document analysis, followed by emergent coding and thematic analysis to identify commonalities and differences in the degree of development of PLC dimensions across schools and, consequently, an understanding of the extent to which they align with the PLC model and which factors need further development. The findings reveal that the rural schools under study have clear leadership, are progressing around a shared purpose of improvement, and foster connections with their local communities to address challenges arising from their isolated locations. All schools display at varying levels of development the key dimensions of a PLC, including learning-oriented leadership, establishing a shared purpose that addresses local challenges, and efforts to increase social and professional capital through community engagement. However, the evidence does not consistently support that they operate as full PLCs. Factors such as geographic isolation and high teacher turnover contribute to the instability of collaborative practices and inhibit a sustainable, unified sense of purpose for improvement. Each school shows unique improvement strategies and is at a different stage of development, with different levels of impact from factors such as teachers’ social engagement, relational trust, and community connections. These actions represent a local response to the barriers faced by isolated rural environments, such as high teacher turnover, cultural isolation from the school, and limited access to technological resources.