This chapter investigates how belonging is constructed through language in Belize. Inspecting linguistic landscapes, interviews, and ethnographic observations, the study reveals the sometimes paradoxical ways languages are ideologically positioned within local, national and transnational contexts. Kriol is central to constructing national belonging and serves as a unifying symbol of a diverse population. It is also tied to racial and transnational belonging, connecting to Afro-Caribbean cultural spaces. Conversely, Spanish is associated with immigration and Guatemala, despite its historical presence and ongoing use. This tension results in contradictory discourses, where Spanish is simultaneously seen as ‘foreign’ and as a home language. English occupies a dual role as both a foreign and national language. While it indexes Belize’s colonial ties and distinguishes Belizeans from their Hispanic neighbours, it is also regarded as essential for education and economic mobility. The chapter concludes that language ideologies and practices do not always align, reflecting the coexistence of diverse historical, social, and political discourses in shaping linguistic belonging in Belize.

Learning in HASS subjects is usually characterised by inquiry-based learning; collecting, organising, analysing and synthesising information, and research. By their nature, these forms of learning involve and depend on reliable, useful and relevant data and information sources. Effective educators know how to select and help their learners access age-appropriate and suitable resources to support their inquiries, investigations and research. Rather than being provided with ready-made information, inquiry and research-based learning involves learners actively seeking, locating, interpreting, analysing, synthesising, representing and communicating information, evidence and data to inform a HASS inquiry, answer a research question or examine a topic from a range of perspectives. Resourceful educators and learners can capitalise on a wealth of resources available in their local communities to enrich their learning. Most communities feature museums and other collections, significant cultural, heritage and natural sites, as well as groups and individuals with extensive knowledge, stories and experiences that represent valuable learning resources for learners of all ages.

Throughout this book, you have been challenged to look at the role the Arts play in society and in education. Various methodologies have been suggested and each specific Arts area has been broken down for you. The tools are now in place for you to organise Arts learning and teaching in your classroom. You also have reflective tools to apply to the learning and teaching you undertake. In this final chapter, we challenge you to imagine your Arts-rich classroom. What do you want the Arts to look like and how do you want your students to engage in them? These decisions will reflect your vision and rationale for teaching the Arts and your many experiences in working with the Arts as you have progressed through this book. These decisions are best made by the person who decides the ‘what’ and ‘how’ for their students every day: you.

This overview discusses the development of the catacombs of Rome, focusing on their architectural evolution and their role in Christian burial practices. Tracing the transformation of subterranean cemeteries from the late second to the fourth century, it argues that the catacombs were distinct from contemporary pagan hypogea. Unlike their pagan counterparts, Christian catacombs featured vast networks of interconnected tunnels, a structured layout designed for expansion, and an intensive use of subterranean space. A defining characteristic of these burial sites was the deliberate placement of tombs near those of martyrs, which in turn became focal points for pilgrimage and veneration. The Callixtus catacomb exemplifies this trend, as it was developed with carefully planned access points and designated areas for noble burials. The chapter also challenges earlier assumptions that pagans continued to use catacombs extensively after the legalisation of Christianity. Instead, it argues that these spaces became increasingly exclusive to Christian communities, serving as both burial grounds and sacred spaces that reinforced communal identity and the cult of the martyrs.

This chapter provides a detailed comparative overview of domestic religion in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century London, setting out evidence of a range of domestic devotional activities as performed by households of different faiths, and introducing the legislation which, to varying extents, restricted the open religious expression of these different communities. It considers how larger domestic gatherings involving participants other than members of the household would have been restricted by legislation such as the Conventicle Acts (1664–89), as well as self-regulation within the recently established Jewish communities. This legislation or congregational law drew a distinction between household and family prayer and ‘gathering for worship’ in domestic spaces. The chapter suggests that domestic gatherings for worship were permitted in certain circumstances, and that these circumstances generally coincided with life-cycle events.

Chapter 4 addresses four types of issues. First, I delve into the ambiguous status of the idea of legitimacy in the discourse on politics. Legitimacy is both omnipresent and an object of suspicion. On the one hand, it is one of the terms most frequently used in conversations on politics. On the other hand, especially in the academic disciplines that deal with the study of politics, the notion of political legitimacy has its detractors. There is intellectual nervousness about embracing it and relying on it. Second, comparing natural sciences and social sciences, I explore some of the features of what a theory is (description, explanation and predictability) and what this means for the theory of social phenomena that factors in political legitimacy. Third, I examine two different approaches of politics: politics mainly as power, and politics mainly as community. Fourth, I highlight the centrality of legitimacy for a theory of politics as community.

In 2018 the ANU theatre company, which had gained a reputation for immersive performance and installation work since forming in 2009, staged a site-specific piece in Dublin called The Lost O’Casey. This play took inspiration from, and reimagined, key elements of Sean O’Casey’s 1924 play Nannie’s Night Out. This chapter, co-authored by the director of the ANU production and by a leading theatre historian, examines the social and political imperatives behind the 2018 production, and connects the concerns that O’Casey articulated in the 1920s with the endemic poverty, inequality, and losses of the modern Irish capital.

Infants and toddlers are immersed in the social culture of their family, community and society from before they are born. Every family has distinct social practices and ways of interacting which shape very young children’s holistic physiological, cognitive and emotional learning, development and wellbeing. These practices reflect the values, beliefs, norms and expectations of their community and culture. Over time, through repeated social encounters and experiences, the social culture of their family and community is passed on as infants and toddlers become socialised into these specific ways of engaging with others. Social practices and interactions thus form the basis of the relationships that infants and toddlers form with significant others. As a result, the social opportunities that very young children experience and participate in during their everyday existence have far-reaching consequences for their sense of identify and belonging.

From the moment they are born, infants are active and competent learners. Before birth, they perceive and respond to stimuli from the outside world and the people in it. Newborns recognise and respond socially to other people and pay attention to interesting objects and events. Infants are born ‘ready to learn, and during their first three years, they learn, develop and grow at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives. Rapid physical development enables mobility, exploration and physical manipulation; emerging social and emotional skills foster relationships, wellbeing, and belonging; increasing communication and language competence support social interactions, literacy development and learning; and cognitive advancements cultivate critical ways of thinking and understanding. The skills and understandings that infants and toddlers achieve during their first three years form the cornerstone from which all future learning, development and wellbeing is built.

Schools are part of a community and, as such, teachers are involved in a range of interactions with colleagues, parents/caregivers and the wider community. Forming and maintaining positive relationships with a range of stakeholders is an integral part of a teacher’s role and can lead to improved outcomes for students. Teachers also have a range of ethical and legislative responsibilities that will guide their interactions with colleagues, families and the wider community. This chapter provides practical advice to guide you through various approaches to forming and maintaining positive relationships, while also gaining knowledge about how to navigate difficulties that may arise during the course of interacting with others.

This chapter invites readers to engage in a daily morning dance practice, highlighting the numerous physical, mental, and emotional benefits of dancing. It suggests a curated playlist of diverse music genres, spanning the last hundred years, to accompany this practice. The author encourages readers to personalize their dance experience, emphasizing the importance of enjoyment and positive emotions. By promoting a shared experience of dancing, the chapter aims to foster a sense of community and well-being, ultimately demonstrating how music can invigorate and uplift our daily lives.

This chapter begins with a reflection of the Find My iPhone app, employing it as an example of how physical and digital place can exist simultaneously and in interconnected ways. Afterwards, it turns to explaining the notion of physical-digital place as parallel universes, subsequently unravelling this idea through strands taken from across crescent voice interviews. The emphasis of this chapter is on place, or more specifically the intermingling of physical and digital places, whereby the commitments, practices, and imaginaries of screens can shape one’s understandings of place and allow one to form a consciousness that is a kind of home. By employing notions of the ‘digital home’, social imaginaries, digital twins, and a postdigital concept of community, this chapter unsettles the binary between digital and physical spaces, employing Dezuanni’s definition of community to help get at the ways that online spaces feel like home. It explores these ideas primarily through crescent voices and their experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, an event which lent more prominence to practices such as digital twins.