The following article investigates the Metaverse and its potential to bolster digital accessibility for persons with disabilities. Through qualitative analysis, we examine responses from eleven experts in digital accessibility, Metaverse development, disability advocacy, and policy formulation. This exploration uncovers key insights into the Metaverse’s current state, its inherent principles, and the challenges and opportunities it presents in terms of accessibility. The findings reveal a mixed state of inclusivity within the Metaverse, highlighting significant advancements along with notable gaps, especially in integrating assistive technologies and ensuring interoperability across different virtual environments. This study emphasizes the Metaverse’s potential to revolutionize experiences for individuals with disabilities, provided that accessibility is embedded in its foundational design. Ethical and legal considerations, such as privacy, non-discrimination, and evolving legal frameworks, are identified as critical factors that shape an inclusive Metaverse. We propose a comprehensive framework that emphasizes technological adaptation and innovation, user-centric design, universal access, social and economic considerations, and global standards. This framework aims to guide future research and policy interventions to foster an inclusive digital environment in the Metaverse. This paper contributes to the emerging discourse on the Metaverse and digital accessibility, offering a nuanced understanding of its complexities and a roadmap for future exploration and development. This underscores the necessity of a multi-faceted approach that incorporates technological innovation, user-centered design, ethical considerations, legal compliance, and continuous research to create an inclusive and accessible Metaverse.

The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the publications focused on integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) competencies into teacher education during the last decade, in an endeavour to identify which competencies have been considered in the literature as key competencies for reorienting teacher education towards sustainability as well as explore the suggested assessment tools and approaches to integrate these competencies into teacher education programmes. The results show increased attention during the last decade to develop a set of ESD competencies for teachers, which reveals the absence of a unified framework for teacher competencies for ESD. However, the extent to which these competencies are effectively integrated into teacher education remains an undiscovered area. This paper highlights the progress and gaps in the research related to mainstreaming ESD competencies in teacher education, providing evidence from the literature that can inform policy and strategy improvement in higher education institutions.

This study aims to investigate the effect of school administrators’ personal initiative behaviors and their leadership styles on teacher motivation. In this study, designed with a quantitative research approach, the relational scanning model was used, and a model was created to test the effect of school administrators’ leadership styles and personal initiative behaviors on teacher motivation. In this context, the leadership styles of school administrators and their personal initiative behaviors were studied as independent variables, while teacher motivation was studied as a dependent variable. In the study, 406 teachers working in high schools in Manisa city center were selected using the purposeful sampling method. Pearson moment correlation techniques and multiple regression analysis techniques were used to determine whether there was a significant relationship between dependent and independent variables during the data analysis. According to the results obtained from the research findings, it was observed that the general motivation levels of the teachers were high. In the analyses conducted in terms of the relationships between school administrators’ personal initiative-taking behaviors and teachers’ motivation, it was found that these variables had a significant and positive relationship; similarly, it was determined that there is a significant relationship between the leadership styles of school administrators and the motivation of teachers. In the regression model established to examine the effect of the leadership styles of school administrators on the internal factor dimensions of teacher motivation, it was determined that all sub-dimensions of leadership styles predicted teachers’ internal motivation. This research provides evidence that school administrators’ personal initiative behavior is directly related to teacher motivation and positively affects teacher motivation, thereby affecting the quality of their teaching.

The future of education relies on the integration of information technologies, emphasizing the importance of equity and inclusiveness for quality education. Teacher education programs are essential for fostering qualified educators for the future. Integrating AI in education is crucial to ensure inclusivity and comprehensive services for all. This study aims to evaluate student teachers’ perceptions of using AI in learning and teaching, and to provide suggestions for enhancing sustainable education through information technologies. A qualitative research design was adopted to gather perceptions and experiences from 240 student teachers who participated in a seminar on AI usage and completed self-reflection tasks. These student teachers, enrolled in various teaching methods and principal courses, contributed to the thematic analysis. The study reveals that AI should be carefully planned and incorporated into lesson plans to enhance personalized learning. Student teachers reported that AI supports and motivates the learning process, effectively transforming students’ needs and learning experiences. However, they also noted potential drawbacks, such as AI imposing restrictions on the teaching profession, replacing teachers, and producing biased results. The study suggests that capacity-building strategies for student teachers should be enriched across different courses to raise awareness about AI’s applications.

With the rapid integration of technology into educational environments during the pandemic period, the teaching processes in classrooms and private education institutions began to be carried out with technology support. Game-based animation learning designs in technology-supported educational environments provide an interesting and motivation-enhancing learning experience in developing students’ education skills. In today’s educational environments, 2D and 3D animation game designs are the unique technology-supported learning environments in teaching many different skills, behaviors, and concepts to individuals with special needs. Visual designs and animations are one of the technologies necessary to prepare individuals with special needs for an independent life. The accessibility of animation designs for teachers and families has gained significant importance during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Technology education supports the visual, listening, reading, writing, social, and communication skills of individuals with special needs, facilitates their independent life skills, and contributes to their development as a guide. This allows individuals to learn the targeted information more easily, permanently, and quickly. In this context, this study provides information on the use and accessibility of animation technology in special education, offers suggestions for the benefit of visual design and animation, which are among the assistive technologies, and gives insights into how school management is ready for digital education.

Technology-supported cross-cultural learning (TSCCL) is essential for effective intercultural communication, fostering global understanding, and facilitating collaboration in an interconnected world. Although previous studies and review articles have explored this field, a comprehensive analysis of trends and key findings in these reviews is lacking. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting a thorough examination of existing review studies. We employed a narrative synthesis approach consisting of three phases: preparation, organization, and abstraction. We selected and systematically reviewed thirty-one review articles published in twenty-five journals between 2003 and 2023. Our findings highlight key aspects of the reviewed articles, such as keywords, databases, selection criteria, theoretical foundations, content analysis, research questions, findings, and limitations related to technology-supported cross-cultural learning. We found that the researchers used various strategies for literature searches, including single, double, or multiple keywords depending on the study’s focus. The most commonly used keywords were telecollaboration, intercultural, communication, competence, language learning, and technology, indicating their significance in current research and practice. The number of papers reviewed varied across studies, as did the timeframe coverage, ranging from a few years to several decades. Researchers employed different databases, with Web of Science, ERIC, Scopus, and Google Scholar being the most popular choices. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to ensure methodological rigor and relevance. Theoretical foundations, such as the telecollaboration model and intercultural communicative competence model, were frequently employed. Open coding was the dominant content analysis approach used. Research questions were present in some studies but not explicitly stated in others. These findings shed light on the strategies and considerations used by researchers in conducting review studies on technology-supported cross-cultural learning, providing guidance for future research. The study presents a reference table encompassing all previously published reviews, which can be valuable for future scholars. By gaining insights from past studies and identifying unexplored research avenues, researchers can benefit from this report. Additionally, the implications and suggestions derived from this review study are valuable for educators and researchers in the TSCCL field. This review addresses gaps in the existing literature and contributes to advancing knowledge in the field of TSCCL.