Conference Agenda

Language education is shaped by historical power relations that determine which learners, languages, and forms of knowledge are recognised as legitimate. In adult second language education for refugees with learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities, these dynamics are particularly visible: Globally, around 750 million adults lack basic literacy skills, constituting a highly heterogeneous group with diverse educational biographies and learning needs (UNESCO, 2015). In refugee populations, learning processes are additionally affected by trauma, health-related and impairment factors: So the prevalence of impairments among refugees is estimated to range from 3% to 23 % (Tofani et al., 2025), while a meta-study by Henkelmann et al. (2020) identified PTSD prevalence rates between 29% and 37% in refugee populations. Despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), guaranteed access to inclusive learning opportunities is often not ensured across European countries. As a result, many LESLLA learners are left with few opportunities to learn or are placed in standard language courses that rely on standardised assessment instruments, leading to disengagement, misrecognition, and repeated experiences of failure (Obens, 2023).

This structural mismatch is reflected in a survey which indicates that fewer than one third of member states provide dedicated literacy courses, while LESLLA learners are nevertheless frequently required to pass written examinations (Rocca et al., 2020). These exclusionary effects are further intensified by the lack of appropriate diagnostic tools for identifying disabilities within refugee populations and by limited professional rehabilitation expertise at the intersection of migration and disability (Köbsell, 2019). At the same time studies indicate that LESLLA refugees face heightened risks of marginalisation and cumulative disadvantage due to barriers in accessing health, education, and administrative systems (Soldatic et al., 2015). To address this, the Council of Europe (2022) has released the LASLLIAM framework (Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants), which integrates literacy development and second language learning below A1 and explicitly challenges deficit-oriented assessment practices. LASLLIAM offers a critical alternative to dominant CEFR-based regimes, particularly in migration policy contexts where language testing is linked to residence permits or access to the labour market. The framework aligns curricula, pedagogy, and assessment with real-life participation through “can-do” descriptors.

Against this background, the ProDaZ-Inklusion study (2025–2027) explores how inclusive and trauma-informed adult second language education can be professionalised through participatory approaches. The study is informed by German research on adult literacy and professionalisation in adult education, particularly with regard to literacy-sensitive diagnostics, the relational enactment of learner agency, and educational participation (Schramm, 2021; Dos Santos, 2023). It addresses the research question: How, and with what outcomes, can professionalisation concepts for refugees with learning difficulties be co-designed within a Design-Based Research (DBR) process using the LASLLIAM framework? The study is based on a cooperative project involving two institutions—an adult education centre and a project for inclusive adult education for people with intellectual disabilities. Within this collaboration, the project offers specialised inclusive language courses and develops transition formats into regular adult education programmes. Professionalisation efforts focus on language assessment and special needs diagnostics, individualised instruction, curriculum co-design, and the development of inclusive classroom practices through co-authoring processes that redistribute expertise. Teachers and staff from both institutions are actively involved, alongside learners and a research advisory board that includes experts with lived experience. First findings from the co-design processes will be presented and discussed, with a particular focus on the development of inclusive diagnostic practices. By documenting and theorising these processes, the study responds directly to calls to advance inclusive educational design and foster more equitable and accessible learning opportunities for marginalised adult learners in multilingual Europe.

Over the past six years, my growing team and I have been engaged in community-based research with Indigenous youth in remote communities across the province of Alberta and now into the Yukon. We have worked alongside First Nations and Métis leaders, and school division superintendents, administrators and educators to design research and deliver on the requests of the youth. Examples of questions include: What cultural teachings would you want, if any? What courses would support your goals for life after high school? Overwhelmingly the Indigenous students have been asking to learn their languages and cultures—stories, practices, histories, teachings, and ways of living. As a result, some of the school divisions have created positions for language and culture teachers within their schools. Others have created credit-based courses around cultural teachings and practices, such as hide tanning and beading. Indigenous students, families, and community members are re-engaging in education in ways that colonization has hindered and suppressed for generations.

The theoretical framework of the research is based in ethical relationality (Donald, 2012) which is an extension of the concept of ethical space (Ermine, 1995). Both theories require engagement across differing epistemologies and ontologies, consciously and respectfully. They shift power from the dominant worldviews to create greater balance between people. Relationships are at the heart of the leading Indigenous research methodologies (Kovach, 2021; Smith, 2012; Wilson, 2008). As a Métis scholar who works with Indigenous community partners and youth, I know that relationships are key to building and maintaining trust. In the way of Paulo Freire’s conscientization (1993), the research with youth identifies their needs and interests, and it is our responsibility to then enact change based on what we have learned from them. The partnerships are strengthened by our shared commitments across all parties to support the wellbeing needs and educational aspirations of the youth. We work to create and expand their opportunities to learn language, practice cultural teachings, engage in sport and recreation, and explore career pathways of all kinds.

Importantly, language is essential to culture (McAdam, 2015). Canada has a responsibility to support Indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize language in their communities (TRC, 2015). The transmission of language from one generation to the next has been significantly hampered by colonizing policies and priorities, past and present.

As the language and culture teachers have been working to re-dress the issue of language loss, they asked that we bring our partners together to connect with and learn from each other. others doing important work on-the-ground in different communities. For two years, we have brought together the Indigenous language and culture teachers and Indigenous youth leaders from multiple locations to build a wider network of connections, resources, and opportunities. In the first year we had 56 participants inclusive of youth. The second year we had 112 participants at the gathering. They shared stories of successes, challenges, and needs as language teachers. We also conducted optional research with these partners to capture their insights in an ethical and inclusive way. These contributors are also listed as authors on any publications that share their offerings.

Knowledge mobilization includes the sharing of research processes, not the data, as that belongs to the community partners. Our shared work fosters capacities and enriches language and cultural teaching practices for the benefit of wider audiences, as acts of resistance and decolonization.