Conference Agenda

Background and Aim

In 2022–2023, a series of policy interventions targeted Danish upper secondary schools with high interculturality, amplifying critical master narratives that framed some institutions as “risky” or “less desirable” (Piekut & Qvortrup, 2023). These interventions interacted with long-standing discourses on allocation, choice and school reputation, creating a narrative environment where interculturality was simultaneously celebrated and problematised. This paper explores how narratives of the ‘intercultural’ are produced, circulated and transformed across system level, from policy and public discourse to organisational sense-making and classroom interaction in six Upper Secondary Schools in the capital region of Denmark. The study addresses two research questions:

1. How do master narratives about interculturality and community travel and shift across macro (policy), meso (organisation) and micro (interaction) levels?
2. How do these narrative shifts shape students’ participation patterns and conditions of belonging in upper secondary schools?

By focusing on narrative infrastructures rather than isolated practices, the paper contributes to understanding how systemic discourses of inclusion and belonging are enacted, contested and reframed in everyday schooling.

Theoretical Framework

We conceptualise schools as narrative ecologies binding macro, meso and micro practices (Gabriel, 2016). This approach foregrounds the circulation of stories as a mechanism of governance and identity work across scales: Macro (policy–public sphere): The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) guides analysis of how policy logics (allocation/choice) script problems and solutions, rendering some schools publicly “risky” or “less desirable” (Jones et al., 2022; Somers, 1994). In Denmark, allocation changes interacted with public labelling of particular institutions, reinforcing deficit framings of interculturality and shaping parental choice. These macro narratives create ambivalent conditions, as schools navigate between policy imperatives of inclusion and public framings that cast interculturality as a risk.Meso (organisation): Drawing on Czarniawska’s view of narratives-as-organising and inhabited institutionalism, we examine how leaders and staff articulate, align and live organisational identities in strategy and routine practice, and how these stories circulate vertically within organisations (Czarniawska, 2011, 2024). Organisational narratives often mediate between policy imperatives and local legitimacy, producing hybrid storylines that stabilise or unsettle interculturality and inclusion.Micro (interaction/identity): At classroom and peer level, we use performative narrative/positioning analysis to trace how master narratives (e.g., deficit tropes about ‘diversity’, “brown” or “drop-out” schools) are internalised, reworked or resisted through counter-stories that reclaim voice, agency and belonging (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004, 2020; Hyvärinen, 2020).. To theorise inclusion and exclusion, we draw on recognition theory (Honneth, 2003) and communities of practice (Wenger, 2011/2021) to explain how recognition, participation and shared repertoires function as narrative resources that scaffold—or constrain—students’ sense of legitimate membership in school communities. Ahmed’s (2012) notion of “diversity work” clarifies how symbolic performances of interculturality can coexist with under-enactment in practice, revealing tensions between policy rhetoric and lived experience.

The paper speaks to a wider European context marked by political restrictions on migration and increasingly polarized debates on interculturality and diversity in education (Dervin et.al., 2012; Perez-Jorge, D. et. al., 2023; Landini, I., 2025). Across Europe, school systems with choice and allocation rules face reputation effects that shape enrolment patterns and public perceptions of “desirable” schools. These dynamics often produce ambivalent narratives: interculturality framed as both an educational value and a potential risk. By applying the concept of narrative ecologies and the Narrative Policy Framework, the study offers analytical tools to trace how such narratives travel across levels and how they condition inclusion and belonging. This approach aligns with ECER 2026’s call on the production and use of educational research by foregrounding how systemic narratives mediate reform uptake and everyday practices. The findings are relevant for European systems grappling with similar tensions between policy ideals of inclusion and contested public framings of interculturality.

Reflexivity in navigating one’s learning and life pathways is a central transversal skill for young people in today’s fast-changing and increasingly insecure societies. Especially for those young people who have limited resources due to their vulnerable and multi-disadvantaged life situations, it is a demanding task to be reflexive (Kim, 2023; Maclure, 2017) in making and executing biographically meaningful, flexible, and realistic educational and occupational plans that account for personal, structural, and spatial limitations, dealing with ruptured pathways, finding alternative routes to goals, and adjusting aspirations when necessary. This requires, for example, knowledge and understanding about the opportunity structures within which one navigates.

At the individual level, reflexivity is forced upon young people by structural fragmentation and insecurity. Thus, to cope with the changing institutional constraints and ever-present risks and uncertainties, individuals need to be reflexive in building and adjusting their identities and biographies (Beck et al., 2003). Although reflexivity is linked to agency, they are distinct: reflexivity may exist even when structural barriers prevent agency from being exercised (Threadgold, 2011). Policy measures can hinder or promote young people’s reflexivity, for instance, by emphasising specific goals (e.g., labour market placement or individual exploration). The relationship between reflexivity and agency can be affected by the perception of institutional constrains (and opportunities), i.e., by how individuals experience rules, measures, and interactions with policy providers as aligned or clashing with their expectations. We underscore that both reflexivity and agency are embedded in contextual opportunities within a certain space, for instance, thriving or lagging regions which offer or hinder chances for labour market participation and access to training and education. The consequences of contrasts and misalignments among expectations, institutional constraints, and contextual opportunities are at the core of the present study.

Drawing from the theoretical perspective of life course research (Mortimer & Shanahan, 2003) and theorisations of opportunity structures (Roberts, 2009), the research question we aim to answer is how young people’s reflexive skills are supported, ignored, or hindered by their lived experiences of educational and labour market policies and practices in differing spatial contexts of thriving and declining regions in Austria, Finland, and Portugal. By highlighting the interplay between reflexivity, structural barriers, and policy frameworks, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how reflexivity shapes young people’s ability to navigate their life course transitions and pathways. The results emphasise how young people’s reflections on their life paths interact with the structural and policy contexts they face, as well as with the territory they live in, thereby illuminating their capacities for agency and decision-making in complex and unequal environments.

This study explores how integrating music-movement pedagogy and creative drama can enhance embodied expression and intercultural sensitivity in early childhood education. While intercultural education is a central priority within European educational policy, classroom practices in early childhood settings frequently remain predominantly cognitive, relying on verbal explanations and symbolic representations of culture (Byram, 2008; OECD, 2016). Such approaches may restrict young children’s opportunities to experience cultural diversity through sensory, emotional, and bodily engagement. Embodied learning research highlights that learning extends beyond cognitive processes, being deeply rooted in bodily and affective experiences shaped through movement and physical interaction (Shapiro, 2019; Wilson, 2002). In early childhood education, bodily engagement is especially critical, as children primarily acquire knowledge through action, imitation, and play (Glenberg, 2010). Music-movement pedagogies, such as Dalcroze-based approaches, offer structured opportunities to foster rhythmic awareness, motor coordination, and expressive movement (Juntunen, 2004). Likewise, creative drama practices nurture imagination, empathy, and social interaction by allowing children to explore meaning through role-play and embodied storytelling (Kao & O’Neill, 1998; Wright, 2015). Nonetheless, classroom-based empirical studies that merge these approaches within intercultural learning contexts remain scarce (Bamford, 2006; Winner et al., 2013). The main research question guiding this study is: How does the integration of music-movement activities and creative drama practices influence young children’s embodied expression and intercultural sensitivity in early childhood classrooms? The study also addresses the following sub-questions: 1. What changes occur in children’s bodily expression and movement patterns during the intervention process? 2. How do children’s responses to culturally diverse musical materials evolve over time? 3. What pedagogical challenges and instructional adaptations emerge during classroom implementation? The research is informed by three interconnected theoretical perspectives. First, embodied learning theory conceptualizes the body as an active agent in meaning-making and underscores the importance of sensorimotor experience in cognitive and emotional development (Varela et al., 2017; Shapiro, 2019). Second, arts-integrated pedagogy positions artistic practices-such as music and drama-as mediators of social, emotional, and cultural learning, emphasizing participatory and experiential environments (Eisner, 2002; Bamford, 2006). Third, the study draws on intercultural education theory, particularly approaches that prioritize openness, dialogical engagement, and respect for cultural diversity, rather than static representations of culture (Byram, 2008; UNESCO, 2013). These perspectives are congruent with European educational frameworks that advance intercultural competence as a key lifelong learning outcome (European Commission, 2018). Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative-dominant action research design, enabling the exploration of pedagogical change within an authentic classroom context while simultaneously facilitating instructional improvement (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2007). Iterative cycles of planning, action, observation, and reflection permit the ongoing adaptation of teaching strategies based on children’s responses and evolving classroom dynamics (Reason & Bradbury, 2008). The intervention takes place in a preschool classroom in Türkiye, incorporating music and movement activities drawn from six culturally diverse musical traditions: Anatolian, Balkan, African, Latin American, East Asian, and Middle Eastern. Although situated within a local educational context, the study addresses internationally relevant challenges, such as increasing cultural diversity in early childhood classrooms, the necessity for inclusive pedagogies, and the rising emphasis on embodied and arts-based learning approaches (OECD, 2016; UNESCO, 2013). By foregrounding bodily expression as a medium for intercultural learning, this research contributes to ongoing international discussions regarding developmentally appropriate, inclusive, and experiential approaches in early childhood education. The findings are anticipated to offer practical insights for educators and to enrich the broader literature on embodied learning and intercultural pedagogy.