Conference Agenda

For school-aged children, school is the place where they spend most of their waking hours. There, children not only learn in the classrooms during the formal time; a lot of learning opportunities also happen during the informal time outside the classrooms, such as breaktimes in school playgrounds. Through physical activities like running, jumping, and catching balls in school playgrounds, children develop different motor skills (Dapp et al., 2021; Robinson et al., 2015). In the meantime, when moving around the playground, children also have the opportunities to meet and socialise with other peers, through which many emotional and social skills can be acquired and a sense of connectedness may be built (Kohl & Cook, 2013).

However, many autistic children are observed to be sedentary and alone during school breaktimes (Rech et al., 2022; Memari et al., 2013). This may be partly due to difficulties in movements like balancing, catching and throwing objects that many autistic children have (Tyler et al., 2014; Whyatt & Craig, 2012). When in a mainstream school setting where autistic children are the only one or two neurodivergent pupils in class, these difficulties may limit autistic children’s participation in regular physical activities of their allistic (i.e., non-autistic) peers (McCoy et al., 2016), which might also further reduce their opportunities to make peer contact (Pan, 2009).

In this study, we aimed to address this possible link between physical activity and peer contact among autistic children, to understand the extent to which more intense physical activity may contribute to more peer contact. Uniquely, we examined this link in a primary special school in the Netherlands, which was selected because it is attended mostly by autistic children and had a playground recently renovated considering pupils’ needs, making it a possibly more inclusive environment for autistic children. Furthermore, motion and proximity sensing technologies were used to track children’s physical activity and peer contact, respectively. This new sensor-based approach can measure children’s behaviours objectively and continuously throughout their breaktimes, and allows children to ‘speak’ through their tracked behavioural patterns (Nasri et al., 2023). It thus could help capture the dynamic nature of breaktime activities and reflect individual needs.

A total of 49 autistic children participated (mean age = 9.89 years; 4 girls, 45 boys). They wore a belt mounted with a proximity tag and a motion sensor at their waist during school breaktimes in the school playground. Results showed that these autistic children spent more time in sedentary-to-light physical activities (SLPA) compared to moderate-to-vigorous activities (MVPA), but spent more time in peer contact than alone. Furthermore, to examine how time spent in MVPA contributed to peer contact, we computed two indicators for peer contact based on proximity sensor data: total time in peer contact and number of peer partners. Compared to children who did not spend time in MVPA, those who participated in MVPA - regardless how much - had contact with more peers but spent shorter time with them.

These findings suggest that, to better understand autistic children’s social needs, metrics that can reflect different aspects of social behaviours are required. Furthermore, they support the importance of designing an environment that better addresses the needs of autistic children (Yuill et al., 2007). When school playgrounds are designed to provide different levels of physical activities, they might also afford the diverse social needs both within and between autistic children, and allow autistic children to still have contact with peers even when sedentary.

Abstract

Digital and social-media environments have become major sites where young people encounter cultural diversity, negotiate identity, and participate in civic discourse. Yet some middle schoolers respond to perceived risks of online spaces with a form of critical digital withdrawal, intentionally avoiding common social platforms and limiting participation in networked publics. This poster presents two cross-cultural case studies of middle school students (one in a U.S. urban context and one in a Chinese urban context) who critically avoid certain digital literacy practices. Drawing on interviews with students and parents, school observations, and digital artifacts, we analyze how family mediation, school policy, platform governance norms, and youths’ developing sense of self shape dispositions toward nonparticipation in online affinity spaces. Although the national contexts differ, both cases show how concerns about safety, misinformation, and social harms can narrow youths’ opportunities for intercultural dialogue and civic engagement online. We conclude with design principles for inclusive, intercultural digital literacy pedagogy that support students in remaining critical without disengaging and cultivate classroom learning environments that promote respectful intercultural communication and democratic digital participation relevant to pluralistic European societies.

Purpose

This study examines how youths’ “critical digital withdrawal” digital literacy practices shape, and are shaped by, opportunities for intercultural contact, identity negotiation, and civic participation in digitally mediated learning environments. It aims to inform innovative intercultural teaching strategies that support students’ criticality while sustaining inclusive participation, an urgent concern in diverse classrooms and communities.

Research questions

1. How do adolescents in two sociocultural contexts interpret the risks/values of participating in online social platforms and affinity spaces as sites of intercultural interaction?
2. What roles do family guidance, school policies, and platform governance play in shaping youths’ social media participation or withdrawal?
3. What intercultural digital literacy teaching strategies help students remain critical while developing dispositions for democratic participation and respectful dialogue across difference?

Theoretical Framing

• Critical digital literacy: critical evaluation of platforms, discourse, and power while recognizing that “overly critical to the point of withdrawal” can undermine the educational goal of meaningful participation (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Janks, 2013; Pangrazio, 2016).
• Intercultural learning in digital environments: social platforms as spaces where intercultural discourses circulate, identities are negotiated, and civic talk occurs; therefore, “withdrawal” is not only a personal media choice, but also a participation/learning issue in diverse societies (Çiftçi, 2016; Bailey & Gruber, 2020).
• Democratic digital citizenship orientation: classrooms as learning environments that support students to engage ethically, safely, and critically with difference rather than retreating into small, homogeneous networks (Choi, 2016; Manzuoli et al., 2019).

Study abroad (SA) is often perceived by students to be a comprehensive and possibly transformative experience that encompasses a variety of developmental outcomes (Benson et al., 2012). SA is a key opportunity, where multilingual practice, intercultural exposure, and identity development evolve simultaneously in various sociocultural contexts. In recent years, the Erasmus exchange programme has become one of the most widespread institutionalised forms of SA, with over 30% of the participants being involved with higher education mobility. Germany is among the top three countries with the largest number of participants (European Commission, 2026). As a variety of countries have an Erasmus agreement, a country-specific focus may be necessary to observe the nuances. Within SA contexts, language learning is increasingly conceptualised as socially situated, as development does not occur solely via formal instruction but is embedded in everyday participation in social life (Beaven & Borghetti, 2016). Hence, this perspective emphasises not the simple quantity of exposure to the target language but the quality of access to interaction and participation opportunities, which shapes students’ perceptions of the gains from their mobility experience. In line with this, Isabelli-García et al. (2018) show that SA is quite complex in nature as experiences differ due to different factors, ultimately altering their effect on language learning and experience abroad as well. This further indicates the necessity to look at SA in depth from an Erasmus perspective with a context-specific lens.

For this reason, this study investigates the experiences of nine Erasmus exchange students in Germany during the 2024–2025 spring semester by focusing on a single host (higher education institution) and country context in Europe (Germany). Several studies found that there is a scarcity of longitudinal research to capture the linguistic and personal changes in depth that exchange students go through (e.g. Chen et al., 2025). Therefore, this study is designed to inquire into changes in participants’ perspectives throughout their exchange period rather than relying on end-of-stay retrospectives. In addition, the study adopts an explicitly international perspective by examining a linguistically and culturally diverse cohort with varying prior SA experience before their student mobility period.

The main research question of this study is: How does participation in the Erasmus exchange programme influence students’ intercultural communication, language acquisition, and identity development within a German setting? For the purposes of this study, this umbrella question is pursued through three interrelated analytic foci and corresponding guiding questions:

1. German language learning as the (at least) third language: In what ways do students access, make use of, and evaluate German language learning opportunities over time, specifically in relation to English and their native languages?
2. Intercultural adaptation: How do students articulate specific changes in their sense of belonging, communication strategies, and communicative challenges throughout their exchange?
3. Multifaceted identity development: How do students describe shifts in their identity from various perspectives (e.g., academic positioning, language learner identities, personal development) through their participation in new communities and settings?

The conceptual framework connects a social-practice understanding of SA language learning and access to interactional opportunities. It also adopts a poststructural and ecological view of identity as dynamic across time and space (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Norton, 2013). This view was utilised to capture the complex nuances of identity development throughout an exchange period.

English language classrooms are increasingly shaped by cultural, linguistic, and social diversity. In many school contexts, students come from different national, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds, bringing varied experiences, values, and perspectives into the classroom. While English is often positioned as a neutral medium of communication, classroom interactions reveal that language learning is deeply connected to identity, culture, and intercultural understanding.

This poster is grounded in the professional practice of English teachers and teacher trainers who work in culturally diverse educational settings and are actively engaged in intercultural training. It explores how intercultural awareness is developed through routine English language teaching, rather than through isolated cultural lessons or special events. The focus is on everyday classroom practices such as reading, speaking, discussion, and collaborative tasks, and how these practices create opportunities for dialogue, reflection, and perspective-taking.

The main objective of this practice-based inquiry is to examine how English teachers intentionally design learning environments that encourage students to share cultural experiences, listen to different viewpoints, and engage respectfully with difference. Particular attention is given to the role of the teacher in creating safe spaces for dialogue, where students feel confident to express themselves and learn from one another.

The inquiry is guided by the following key questions:

• How do English teachers integrate intercultural learning into daily classroom practice?

• What types of classroom tasks encourage students to share and value diverse cultural perspectives?

• How does teacher training influence confidence and competence in intercultural pedagogy?

• What challenges and tensions arise in intercultural classroom interactions?

Conceptually, this work is informed by perspectives on intercultural communicative competence, culturally responsive pedagogy, and reflective teaching practice. Rather than treating culture as fixed or factual, intercultural learning is understood as a dynamic process that develops through interaction, dialogue, and reflection. The poster also reflects a European and international dimension by connecting classroom practice from a Central Asian context with broader international discussions on intercultural education and teacher professional development.

Commonly, in Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classes, students use English communicatively with classmates who are primarily Japanese nationals. Consequently, their receptive and productive English language learning skills are limited to interactions with their teacher and other Japanese nationals. Unfortunately, in most Japanese EFL classes, learners can easily rely on using their first language (L1), Japanese, to clarify meaning or resolve conversation disfluency and misunderstanding. Ideally, Japanese EFL learners can better develop their English oral fluency skills if they converse in English with non-Japanese students, both native English speakers and other non-native English speakers, so that they are incapable of relying on Japanese for alleviating communication breakdowns, avoiding grammatical confusion, and preventing vocabulary errors (Yashima, 2009). Most Japanese universities have international exchange students enrolled in study abroad programs; however, many of their classes in Japan are populated with other international exchange students so they often don’t have the opportunity to collaborate with native Japanese students in or outside of the classroom (Yamada, 2021). Japanese EFL students want to improve their English-speaking skills and speaking confidence (Wojtowicz, 2019) and international exchange students hope to interact more naturally with Japanese students and learn about authentic Japanese university life (Taniguchi, Takai, & Skowronski, 2022; Hennings & Tanabe, 2018). To help stop this unnecessary and unwanted segregation, unique courses combining regularly enrolled Japanese students and international exchange students in student-centered classes that promote multicultural and multinational collaboration are becoming more prevalent at universities in Japan (Nam & Cheng-Hai, 2022).

The researchers involved in this research project designed a special course at a university in Japan that allows international exchange students and Japanese national students to enroll together. The course outline explains that students taking the course will gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of international cultural perspectives on various issues, both in Japan and globally. Foreign exchange students will also be able to gain firsthand insight into modern Japanese daily life and regularly enrolled Japanese students will be able to learn about challenges and benefits of studying abroad directly from their international classmates. This course focuses on student-generated discussions based on personal cultural backgrounds and foreign cultural interests. All students must engage in phatic conversation each lesson and actively contribute to building a comfortable, interactive, and communicative class atmosphere. It is not a lecture course.

The following two research questions were addressed to better understand if both international students from globally diverse cultural backgrounds and Japanese national students can not only benefit socially and academically from a multicultural collaboration class, but also become more confident and comfortable engaging and interacting with an assortment of students from an array of ethnical backgrounds:

1. How confident and comfortable do university students from a multitude of nationalities studying in Japan feel interacting and working together socially and academically with multifarious international exchange university students and domestic Japanese university students before and after the completion of a one semester mixed multicultural collaboration course?

2. How beneficial for students with multifarious cultural backgrounds is a one semester university course structured on in-class phatic interactional discussions as well as working together in ethnically mixed groups on academic cultural research projects?

This empirical research explores the belief that a need exists for global universities to provide domestic and international students with more opportunities to interact authentically with each other academically and socially without worrying about being assessed on English language skills or abilities. This research also aims to show that international exchange students studying abroad in Japan want to have more opportunities to engage and interact communicatively, culturally, and interactively with Japanese students in face-to-face classes.

Topic

Fostering Sustainable Future Perspectives: Indigenous Youth, Higher Education, and Transformative Agency in Contexts of Global Risk

Research Questions

RQ1: What nurtures the development of future perspectives and transformative agency?

RQ2: What aspirations for a sustainable future perspective of indigenous communities are revealed in the reflections of indigenous learners on their higher education experiences?

RQ3: What do learners' reflections reveal as nurturing practices in the higher education experience for sustainable future perspectives for their communities?

Objectives

This research examines how higher education can foster transformative agency among Indigenous youth in marginalized regions facing disproportionate climate and economic risks. The study aims to understand the aspirations and future perspectives of Indigenous learners engaging with blended-learning higher education, identifying which educational practices nurture hope and agency for sustainable futures in vulnerable communities.

The investigation seeks to move beyond standardized educational approaches by centering epistemic justice and decolonial practices in higher education design. Through dialogue with an Indigenous community, the research explores how universities can fulfill their third mission commitment—contributing to societal development beyond traditional teaching and research—by creating meaningful educational opportunities for those at the intersection of ecological risk, marginalization, and historical exclusion.

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

The World Risk Report underscores how today's young generation confronts unprecedented complexity and severity in global risks. Countries like the Philippines experience these threats acutely through natural catastrophes, economic instability, inflation, and unemployment. Indigenous communities and marginalized regions bear climate change consequences despite contributing least to its causes, creating moral obligations for Global North countries to engage in discourse and develop compensation strategies.(Berlant, 2011; Brown, 2003; Elsner et al., 2025; Frye, 2012)

At forums like COP 30, Indigenous delegates articulate their urgent realities, yet commitments remain insufficient from their perspective(Grosse et al., 2020). Youth from Indigenous communities in the Asian Pacific region call for ecological conversion and intergenerational solidarity. This context raises fundamental questions about how this generation aspires for their future and what ways could nurture hopeful perspectives.(González, 2021)

This research departs from rational choice theory, which treats aspirations as calculated predictions—essentially viewing them as predictive competence for decision-making. Instead, the study adopts a pragmatist perspective that criticizes rational choice as too narrow because it ignores how human creativity generates new strategies inspired by imagined futures. Drawing on Dewey, the pragmatist view positions future imagination as central to human agency, driving and refining present activities.(Dewey, 1922; Evans, 2007; Mkwananzi & Wilson-Strydom, 2018; Moitra, 2024; Zipin et al., 2015) Understanding Aspiration as a culture capacity (Sen, 1999) practiced in higher education, and especially emergent aspirations (Zipin et al., 2015) as navigational capacity closely linked to individuals' agency for change (Appadurai, 2004; Tzenis, 2018; Zipin et al., 2015) represents this research's core argumentation focusing on the culturally sustaining design elements of higher education. In Detail the voice of indigenous learners should be amplified to guide the design of blended learning higher education for meaningful intervention interventions.

Colonial power structures continue shaping educational agendas in often unexamined ways. Educational actors need collaborative, decolonial practices genuinely incorporating affected communities' perspectives.

For Indigenous youth at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities, foundational questions become existential: Which future perspectives matter? What are their aspirations and dreams? Understanding these perspectives is essential for designing initiatives that respect worldviews, nurture hopes, and respond ethically to global commitments, as meaningful interventions require knowing real aspirations.