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Education Sciences
Special Issues
Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today
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Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 9046

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Juan Leiva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Research Group in Inclusive Educational Development and Innovation, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Malaga, Office 7.06. Boulevard Louis Pasteur, 25, Campus of Teatinos, 29010 Malaga, Spain
2. Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of Malaga, Av. de Cervantes, 2, 29010 Malaga, Spain
Interests: interculturality; inclusive education; teacher training; big data; ICT
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today's society is changing at a rapid pace. The virtualization of social, cultural, economic, and educational processes is changing the very physiognomy of human acts and deeds in a dynamic and complex way. Within the broad amalgam of educational events that promote the re-signification of learning, we can observe the relevance of greater functionality and application of digital competencies on the part of all educational agents in culturally diverse school scenarios.

Cultural diversity is common in pedagogical spaces that are constantly redefining themselves in light of the new needs and demands of high-quality education, which must be anchored in the values of inclusion, solidarity, and social justice.

Digital culture and practice should not only be a curricular subject, but also a transversal concept that is necessarily linked to the construction of an inclusive school. An inclusive school requires the implementation of a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and all kinds of didactic and innovative formulas to continue weaving inclusion and maximum participation for the promotion of better learning opportunities and interactivity.

This monograph aims to be an open, pluralistic, and democratic space for an inclusive pedagogical construction, free of dogmatism and totalitarianism of any kind in the field of education. Resilience, freedom, and personal creativity are key axes for the development of an inclusive and intercultural education that successfully faces educational challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also transformed the scenarios and guidelines for didactic intervention.

For this reason, in this Special Issue, we are open to receiving research articles employing different approaches (qualitative, ethnographic, mixed, action-research, quantitative, case studies, etc.), as well as more reflective studies, reviews, and experiences from research projects or educational innovation, to give voice to a wide range of perspectives on how the current educational reality is being transformed based on the parameters of encounters, equity, participation and inclusion in classrooms and schools. Additionally, studies in community and more social, or less institutionalized, educational spaces, where educational support and new spheres of educational participation are increasingly relevant, are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Juan Leiva
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • intercultural education
  • practices and opportunities for educational transformation
  • inclusive education
  • interculturality
  • teacher training for inclusive education in the post-COVID-19 era
  • digital skills for teacher education
  • resilience strategies for the inclusion of vulnerable students in situations of social emergency
  • inclusive educational innovation and development
  • co-teaching and other tools and active methodologies for inclusion
  • culture of diversity, freedom, and social justice in education today

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 268 KiB  
Article
Intercultural Competence of Teachers to Work with Newcomer Children
by Janis Dzerviniks, Svetlana Ušča, Iluta Tarune and Olga Vindaca
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(8), 802; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080802 - 23 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1540
Abstract
With the increasing diversity in society caused by migration processes, the heterogeneity of classrooms in educational institutions is increasing. Teachers face new challenges related to cultural diversity in a multicultural classroom. This is more common in societies with a diverse population and in [...] Read more.
With the increasing diversity in society caused by migration processes, the heterogeneity of classrooms in educational institutions is increasing. Teachers face new challenges related to cultural diversity in a multicultural classroom. This is more common in societies with a diverse population and in societies where newcomers regularly enter schools. In order to facilitate the inclusion of newcomer children in the education system, more analysis of teachers’ intercultural competence is needed. Intercultural competence is the teacher’s ability to understand, adapt to and work effectively in different cultural and linguistic contexts in the pupils’ environment. This competence includes the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to work successfully in a multicultural and multilingual classroom. The intercultural competence of a teacher is essential to create a positive and effective learning environment in which all pupils can learn and develop better, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background. Experience gained in working with newcomers is an important factor influencing teachers’ self-assessment of their knowledge, skills and attitudes, and the results show that respondents with such experience rate their knowledge, skills and attitudes higher than respondents without such experience, while age, work experience, level of education and workplace do not show statistically significant differences for the parameters analyzed. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure of the intercultural competence of teachers and its pedagogical potential and characteristics for the activities of teachers in a multicultural educational environment in the context of migration processes, and to assess the readiness of teachers for the inclusion of newcomer children in the Latvian education system. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, survey of teachers, data processing in SPSS 22.0. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today)
16 pages, 283 KiB  
Article
Facilitators of and Barriers to Inclusive Education in the Arab Community of Israel: The Parents’ Perspective
by Mohamad Jorban, Javier Cachón-Zagalaz, Marcos Mecías-Calvo and Rubén Navarro-Patón
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 525; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14050525 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 1143
Abstract
A positive and collaborative partnership between parents and schools is required to improve the education of children with special educational needs. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the educational context in the Arab community in Israel based on the perceptions and beliefs [...] Read more.
A positive and collaborative partnership between parents and schools is required to improve the education of children with special educational needs. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the educational context in the Arab community in Israel based on the perceptions and beliefs of parents of children with special educational needs about their children’s education in relation to schools. Twenty parents of children with different special educational needs were interviewed to understand their thoughts and beliefs about special education in the Arab community in Israel. Six core categories emerged from the analysis of the interviews [i.e., (a) parenting, (b) learning at home, (c) communicating, (d) volunteering, (e) inclusion of parents in decision-making related to their children, and (f) teachers’ attitudes towards children from the perspective of parents], which were perceived as axes with high potential to improve special education in this community and guarantee an optimal education for children with special needs. The role of the school as a tool to assist parents is highlighted, with the aim of empowering them and encouraging their active participation in school processes with a clear educational policy that clarifies the demands of the school system for parents and vice versa. Finally, we conclude by highlighting the importance of teachers in a child’s life, emphasizing the potential benefits of cooperation and collaboration between teachers, students, and parents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today)
19 pages, 297 KiB  
Article
From Specialised Classrooms to Mainstream Classrooms: A Study on the Inclusion of Students with Special Educational Needs from the Voices of Their Mainstream Peers
by Carmen María Caballero
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 452; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14050452 - 24 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1901
Abstract
The modalities of schooling and the educational measures for students with special educational needs (SENs) are postulated as important aspects within the field of study of inclusive education. The general objective of this research is to analyse the processes, through the voice of [...] Read more.
The modalities of schooling and the educational measures for students with special educational needs (SENs) are postulated as important aspects within the field of study of inclusive education. The general objective of this research is to analyse the processes, through the voice of their peers, for the inclusion of students with SENs enrolled in specialised classrooms (SCs) in mainstream centres in Spain when they attend mainstream classrooms (MCs). The design of the research is mixed (QUAN-Qual), non-experimental, and descriptive. The participants in the quantitative phase were 2649 peers from MCs that have students enrolled in the SCs, and the participants in the qualitative phase were 57 students from MCs. A questionnaire designed ad hoc was used for collecting the quantitative information and discussion groups for the qualitative information. This study shows the barriers and facilitators towards the inclusion of students in the SU within mainstream centres or classrooms. Among the facilitators which stand out is the wish of classmates from mainstream classrooms to share times, spaces, and activities with their classmates with SENs from the SU. Among the barriers highlighted by a large number of students in the MCs are the fact that they do not participate in group activities with their peers with SENs and that the latter do not usually participate in common activities developed at the centre (like celebrations or excursions). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today)
11 pages, 1303 KiB  
Article
Resilience Strategies of Students in Highly Complex Educational Contexts: Opportunities for Inclusive Pedagogical Transformation
by María Jesús Santos-Villalba, Juan José Leiva-Olivencia, José Luis González-Sodis and María José Alcalá del Olmo-Fernández
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(3), 265; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14030265 - 3 Mar 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1524
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic had various effects on the social, personal and educational spheres that made it necessary to rethink how to respond to new emerging needs. In Spain, a massive closure of schools occurred, which led to a transition from face-to-face teaching to [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic had various effects on the social, personal and educational spheres that made it necessary to rethink how to respond to new emerging needs. In Spain, a massive closure of schools occurred, which led to a transition from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching. This led to the implementation of pedagogical measures to ensure continuity in the teaching process. The aim of this research is to explore the impact of the pandemic on the educational and personal trajectories of students from their own experiences of attending a poorly performing school in the province of Malaga (Spain). The methodology was qualitative, and the information was collected through a focus group. The most relevant results indicated that the students, in response to the pandemic situation, developed resilience strategies to cope with the lack of technological devices, connectivity problems, difficulties in managing their emotions and the absence of interactions with their peer groups. The main conclusions include the need to build resilient and inclusive educational spaces as key pillars for educational transformation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today)
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11 pages, 286 KiB  
Article
Towards Intercultural Education: Exploring Perceptions of Cultural Diversity and Identities of Adolescents Living in the Border Area between Spain and Morocco
by Beatriz Gallego-Noche, Cristina Goenechea, Miguel Ángel Gómez-Ruiz and Macarena Machín-Alvarez
Educ. Sci. 2023, 13(6), 559; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13060559 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1635
Abstract
Borders are complex spaces of relationships and interpretations built from the perspective of cultural diversity. The complexity of these spaces concerns the ways in which they are created, experienced and questioned by the people who inhabit them. They are considered spaces of exclusion [...] Read more.
Borders are complex spaces of relationships and interpretations built from the perspective of cultural diversity. The complexity of these spaces concerns the ways in which they are created, experienced and questioned by the people who inhabit them. They are considered spaces of exclusion but also of educational opportunities. This research aims to explore how adolescents who live at the border area between Spain and Morocco value cultural diversity and different aspects related to the construction of their identities. The cities of Algeciras and La Línea in Spain and Tangier and Tetouan in Morocco were selected, and a questionnaire in Arabic and Spanish was administered to a total sample of 751 adolescents, obtaining a significant sample of the adolescent population (confidence level greater than 95% and estimation error less than 2%). The data were statistically analysed using the SPSS Statistics V24 software programme. The results show significant differences between the Moroccan and Spanish adolescents regarding their perceptions of cultural diversity and how it can be a source of conflict; how they shape their identities and identify with the ways of life and habits of the neighbouring country; and how religion influences their cultural identities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Culture of Diversity and Interculturality in Education Today)
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