Interculturality, Inclusion and Social Justice in Education

Dear Colleagues,

The contemporary global context creates a complex learning environment where an intercultural growth mindset, learning, and competencies have become increasingly crucial for fostering equitable collaboration and interconnectedness, polyculturalist beliefs about the adaptability of cultures, and inclusive, differentiated educational practices. Super diversity demands multiliterate global citizens and learners who can collaborate in multicultural, multilingual, and globalized contexts, co-construct knowledge, and think critically.

This Special Issue examines the implications and applications of Intercultural Literacies in Education through the lens of intercultural capital, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We adopt the contemporary term "literacies" (in plural) to address literacy learning and teaching within the framework of ‘multiliteracies’ theory and practice. This approach is essential in intercultural and inclusive pedagogy, as the rise of digital media has made the meaning-making process increasingly multimodal. Consequently, written meanings are inseparable from visual, spatial, tactile, gestural, audio, and oral modes of communication.

Contemporary social and learning spaces navigate a broad spectrum of differences in meaning-making with and among others, as there is no singular or ‘correct’ way to communicate across sociocultural contexts and encounters. Diverse social purposes, personal experiences, interests, competencies, attitudes, language abilities, participation, and identities create a dynamic knowledge base and necessitate a variety of literacies.

In this context, education aims to facilitate effective engagement by activating personal, relational, and transversal skills, such as managing one’s own and others’ emotions, adapting to unexpected changes or uncertain situations, and making decisions attuned to a specific context.

Suggested themes for this Special Issue include:

1. Educational policies of diversity and inclusion;
2. Intercultural teacher education;
3. Interculturally differentiated instruction/pedagogy;
4. Culturally responsive assessment;
5. Intercultural capital and competence;
6. Intercultural learning communities and leadership;
7. Intercultural and reflexive dialogues in education;
8. Generative artificial intelligence and inclusive education;
9. Qualitative intercultural research (narratives, visual/arts-based methodology, etc.).

Dr. Eugenia Arvanitis
Dr. Spyridoula Giaki
Dr. Theodosia Michelakaki
Guest Editors

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.

• intercultural literacies
• multimodality
• inclusive education
• diversity
• generative artificial intelligence
• intercultural growth mindset
• differentiated educational practices
• intercultural teachers’ training