Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society

Can education counter a culture of hate?

2026-05-25T13:32:38+00:00

Learning from violence. Hate Literacy as a core competence for contemporary citizenship

2026-05-24T21:32:15+00:00

Public debates on hate speech are often framed in terms of regulation, moderation, or prevention, positioning hostile content primarily as a pathological deviation to be removed from digital environments. This article proposes a different perspective, arguing that hate speech can be approached as a critical object of analysis for contemporary citizenship education. Building on the concept of hate literacy, the paper conceptualizes hostile online discourses as pedagogically relevant artifacts that both reflect and actively shape models of citizenship, participation, and belonging. Rather than interpreting online hostility as an automatic outcome of digital technologies, the article situates hate speech within a dynamic interplay between intentional political actors, platform infrastructures, and hegemonic cultural narratives. From this perspective, hate speech functions as a form of informal civic education, contributing to a hidden curriculum through which norms, hierarchies, and exclusions are learned and normalized. The paper outlines hate literacy as a core civic competence, understood as the ability to critically read, contextualize, and deconstruct hostile discourses by examining their discursive, technological, and political dimensions. By reframing violence and hostility as lenses through which power relations and civic subjectivities can be analyzed, the article advances a pedagogical framework that moves beyond moral condemnation toward critical engagement. The contribution concludes by discussing the implications of this approach for citizenship education in platformed societies.

"To redeem horror from his invisibility". Forensic Architecture’s work with images

2026-05-25T13:35:11+00:00

Securitized migration news and hostile audience reactions on Instagram: a computational analysis of Italian news posts and user comments

2026-05-24T21:17:26+00:00

Migration has become one of the most contested issues in contemporary European public debate, where news coverage often frames migrants through the language of border control, legality, and public order. Such securitized representations may contribute to keeping migrants at a symbolic distance from audiences, presenting them less as socially embedded individuals and more as categories to be regulated or governed. While previous research has examined media representations of migration and online hate speech separately, less is known about how migration-related news content is associated with the hostile reactions that can emerge among social media audiences exposed to this content.
This study addresses this gap by analyzing migration-related Instagram posts published by eight major Italian news organizations between January 2025 and March 2026, together with the comments they generated. A corpus of 368 news posts and 76,998 user comments was analyzed by combining topic modeling of news posts with automated emotion detection and hate speech classification of user comments to examine how securitized thematic environments are associated with hostile audience responses. The results show that audience reactions were marked by a strong prevalence of negative emotions, with anger emerging as the dominant response across the corpus. This affective profile became more polarized in relation to news posts that framed migration through legal-institutional conflict, return procedures, border enforcement, and NGO-related controversies. In these securitized contexts, audience responses were more strongly concentrated around anger and disgust, and this emotional concentration was accompanied by higher levels of hate speech.

From hate speech to toxicity: depoliticization, algorithmic governance, and the transformation of harm in digital public discourse

2026-05-24T21:12:31+00:00

Over the last twenty-five years, hate speech has become a key category in international public policies, while digital environments have increasingly promoted the rise of the broader and more operational category of toxicity. This article argues that the shift from hate speech to toxic content should not be understood as a merely terminological substitution, but as a semantic and governmental transformation in the way discursive harm is identified, measured, and managed. The paper first reconstructs the historical and normative genealogy of hate speech, then examines the psychological, computational, and platform-based genealogy of toxicity, and finally compares the two frameworks through their conceptual, operational, and political implications. Particular attention is paid to the agency of platforms, algorithmic governance, content moderation, and the tension between discriminatory harm and conversational harm. The article suggests that toxicity offers scalability and technical operability, but may also contribute to the depoliticization of online harm if detached from histories of discrimination, protected characteristics, and asymmetries of power.

Poeticising life. Art and art education as forms of resistance and elaboration of the logic of hate

2026-05-25T03:24:11+00:00

This article analyses the role of art and art education as practices of poeticising existence capable of countering the logic of hate and violence in contexts marked by alienation, trauma and social disharmony. Drawing on the theoretical contribution of Michèle Petit, in dialogue with Gaston Bachelard's poetics of rêverie and Hartmut Rosa's sociology of resonance, the article interprets hate as an expression of a silent and discordant relationship with the world and with others. In this context, art is taken as a device of resonance, capable of reactivating speech, imagination and the ability to attribute meaning to experience. From a methodological point of view, the research adopts a theoretical-interpretative approach integrated with case studies, identifying and analysing artistic and educational practices operating as forms of prevention, cultural resistance and therapy. The cases discussed — from the pedagogical atelier, artivism and street art, to artistic practices of trauma processing in war contexts — show how art can transform wounded objects, places and materials into symbolic spaces of reconciliation and healing. Importance is given to the role of the artist and art educator as a passeur: a cultural mediator who does not transmit predefined contents but creates the conditions for a symbolic transition towards forms of subjectivation, emancipation and the construction of bonds. The article concludes by arguing that the poeticization of existence today represents a fundamental educational and cultural resource for imagining and practising a culture of peace.

Politically motivated hate speech in Albanian language social media

2026-06-06T07:38:28+00:00

The research addresses politically motivated hate speech in Albanian-language triggered by recent political events. An evident reactive hate dominates the comment section of political news outlet in social media, so that one is moved to detect the underlying partisan motivations of this hostility. Some comments provide answers and others suggest reasons that reflect a spreading animosity towards politics and its traditional or emerging actors. Robert Entman’s frame paradigm offers a theoretical foundation to detect hate speech embedded in mediated interaction in digital platforms. This research combines framing with interpretative insights derived from critical discourse analysis to capture deeper causal logics embedded in frames as a communicating text. Findings reveal that politically motivated hate speech is often normalized and legitimized in digital interaction when it is frames around some thematic issues such as national identity, moral values, economic development. Hate speech targets include political actors and institutions, collective outer groups in some cases. Recurring narrative patterns highlight responsibility attribution and negative moral evaluation, which reinforce shared perceptions about political legitimacy, and underlying legacy. The research suggests that a context-sensitive approach when addressing hate speech detection helps to understand mechanisms of its construction in order to design preventive initiatives.

Digital literacy programmes and social Interventions for building resilience against hate speech among school students in Kerala

2026-06-08T17:21:21+00:00

Online hate speech against school students is increasing globally. This paper examines how digital literacy programmes and school interventions can help students aged 10 to 18 recognise, resist and respond to hate speech in online spaces. The study reviews research published between the years, 2020 and 2026. It expatiates the causes and effects of online aggression among adolescents. Qualitative data gathered through structured thematic discussions with 16 educationists drawn from government, aided and unaided schools across the State of Kerala. Inductive thematic analysis of these discussions informs the practical approaches presented, drawing on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and critical media literacy frameworks. The paper highlights several initiatives used in Kerala schools. These include the KITE fake news detection curriculum, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) value education framework, the Student Police Cadet programme and the Suraksha Mitram support system.
Two conceptual models guide the discussion. The first model explains how films, games and digital media can increase hostility and aggressive behaviour among students. The second model presents a four-component resilience framework that helps students develop responsible digital behaviour and stronger critical thinking. This framework is explicitly exploratory and normative in character: it synthesises existing evidence and programme documentation into a prescriptive architecture designed for iterative evaluation and refinement. The paper recommends a multi-level prevention approach. It focuses on student skill development, positive peer influence, teacher training, family participation and clear school policies. The approach suits government, aided and unaided schools in Kerala.

Evolving teacher interests in innovative learning environments: impacts of exposure and implications for professional development

2026-05-24T21:42:10+00:00

Teachers’ practice is increasingly oriented towards designing and working in Innovative Learning Environments (ILE). In-service teachers’ professional development is being designed coherently, sometimes allowing them to experience learning situations in such environments. Two surveys were designed, and validated, to answer to two main questions concerning teachers’ interests and how they evolve once they know ILEs and have this training experience. To get all the information needed, one survey was filled before taking part in the training experience, and the other one after it. 255 answers were received and analyzed to extract several conclusions. Results indicate that teachers, after the training, became increasingly open to embracing more active, participatory methods, integrating more innovative, immersive and interactive technology. They also showed greater interest in how to zone and plan meaningful learning experiences in such environments. Furthermore, the main topics teachers wish to receive further training on relate to designing appropriate learning experiences and selecting suitable methodologies. These findings suggest that engaging teachers in a training experience within an ILE serves as a catalyst for professional development in these topics. The study has implications for both educational administrations and school leaders promoting ILEs.

How can educational videos with annotations help students in online learning environments?

2026-05-24T21:22:21+00:00

In recent years, many new technologies have been used to enhance the learning outcomes of learners in online learning. Video annotation is one of these new technologies which is an innovative way to make learning more interactive and engaging. It can accommodate different learning styles by turning passive video-watching into an active learning experience. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an e-Learning platform incorporating a Video Annotated Technique. Learners can pinpoint challenging parts of educational videos and then receive personalised explanations from their teachers. The primary purpose of these annotations is to clarify and provide thorough explanations of complex topics, ultimately improving understanding and making preparation for final examination tests easier. This paper presents a new personalization approach by managing the learners’ annotations. Furthermore, it offers a video annotation tool incorporated into an e-Learning environment. This tool was tested on a sample of students, and the experimental results demonstrated a significant positive impact on learners’ performance.