Conference Agenda

Play is essential for children’s development and learning in various domains and a fundamental right of children. School playgrounds, as the major spaces that provide play opportunities, however often present invisible barriers to autistic and neurodivergent children. Moreover, different children can have different preferences, and their preferences may also vary from time to time, depending on their needs and motivations.The question is how a playground may be designed to afford these diverse requirements within and between children.

In this case study we focused on the neurodiversity of children, and examined autistic and allistic (i.e., non-autistic) children’s use of a primary school playground in the Netherlands, which was co-designed with all pupils in the school. Specifically, we aimed to understand the extent to which “neuro-affirming” playground affordances (i.e., opportunities offered by the playground for meeting neurodiverse needs; based on the Theory of Affordances, Gibson, 1979; Heft, 1988) are linked to autistic and allistic children’s use of the school playground. A sensor data-driven approach (using GPS loggers) was adopted, which measures children’s playground use in an objective, unobtrusive, and continuous manner throughout their school breaktimes, allowing us to reveal individual patterns (Nasri et al., 2023).

A total of 53 children participated (mean age 8.56 years), including 4 autistic and 49 allistic children. During school breaktimes, they each wore a GPS logger, which tracked the time they stayed in each of the 18 playground areas. Furthermore, each playground area was rated based on the Neuro-Affirming Design Assessment Scale for Playgrounds (NADAS-P) developed for this study. It includes four dimensions of playground affordances, which we identified based on previous neuroinclusive literature (e.g., McAllister & Sloan, 2016; Yuill et al., 2007) and autism-friendly/universal design principles (e.g., Mace et al., 1996; Mostafa, 2014): (i) feelings of safety: the extent to which a playground area provides measures to avoid harm and assist accessibility, visibility, and predictability; (ii) sensory calming: the extent to which an area is comfortable overall, and helps regulate sensory overload; (iii) sensory stimulation variations: the extent to which various opportunities and levels for sensory stimulation are available; (iv) sense of autonomy: the extent to which an area allows children to participate, adjust, and contribute in their own/creative ways.

Results showed that while each autistic child had their unique favorite spot, both autistic and allistic children stayed longer in the areas that are more neuro-affirming. This preference was also observed when each neuro-affirming dimension was analyzed separately, with all the four neuro-affirming dimensions positively contributing to autistic and allistic children's playground use. Among them, autistic children seemed more attracted to areas that provided sensory stimulation variations and a sense of autonomy compared to allistic children.

Through sensor data (GPS) loggers that reveal individual movement trajectories during school breaktimes, our findings showed that neuro-affirming playground design perceived as safe, calm, providing autonomy and varied sensory stimulation choices may benefit both autistic and allistic children. Compared to designs based on one-size-fits-all assumptions, neuro-affirming designs may more effectively afford the diverse needs between and within users. These findings could inform the design of more inclusive school playgrounds where all children feel welcomed.

Increasing cultural diversity, migration, and global social change are reshaping educational systems across Europe and beyond, placing renewed emphasis on how schools respond to cultural differences in equitable and inclusive ways (Ainscow, 2020; Gay, 2018). While culturally responsive pedagogy has been widely discussed at the classroom level, comparatively less attention has been paid to how cultural responsiveness is embedded within school culture as an organizational and relational construct (Khalifa et al., 2016). This gap becomes particularly critical in times of educational change, when schools are expected not only to generate educational knowledge but also to translate research-based insights into sustainable and context-sensitive practices.

In line with the ECER 2026 theme Knowing and Acting, this study focuses on the relationship between educational research, school culture, and practice by examining how culturally responsive school cultures are conceptualized and enacted in diverse educational contexts. The central research question guiding the study is: How can educational research support the development of culturally responsive school cultures that bridge knowledge and practice in times of educational change? Subsidiary questions explore how school leaders and teachers interpret cultural responsiveness at the organizational level, how cultural values are reflected in school norms and practices, and how research-informed frameworks are translated into everyday school processes.

The study is theoretically grounded in culturally responsive education (Gay, 2018) and culturally responsive school leadership (Khalifa et al., 2016), which emphasize equity, social justice, and the recognition of students’ cultural assets within institutional structures. These perspectives are combined with school culture theory, conceptualizing schools as dynamic social organizations shaped by shared values, norms, and interactions. From an international perspective, the study engages with European debates on inclusion, intercultural education, and institutional responses to diversity, aligning closely with Network 20’s focus on intercultural education and learning environments.

By situating culturally responsive school culture at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, this proposal contributes to ongoing discussions on how educational research can move beyond descriptive knowledge production toward actionable frameworks that support schools in culturally diverse and rapidly changing contexts.

In my presentation, I would like to share insights from the context of Internationalization at Home, as practiced within the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (www.emmir.org). In this program, we experiment with the idea that, in today’s globally interconnected society and superdiverse cities, students arriving for study mobility already carry with them place-based knowledge of the place they travelk to. They can act as intercultural mediators between minority communities living in the city and local students. In the Czech Republic, faculties of education remain among the least internationalized university environments, which creates a significant gap between teacher training and the realities that future graduates will encounter in their own classrooms, classrooms that will inevitably include students with migration backgrounds. Moreover, most students at Czech faculties of education have no personal experience with international mobility, such as a semester abroad via Erasmus, particularly those training to become civics teachers, with whom I have worked for over twenty years. This is why the presence and engagement of international students is so vital: when they work alongside local teacher trainees, everyone benefits.

In my course at Charles University in Prague, where international students on semester-long exchanges study alongside local students, we jointly explore the following research question through a combination of experiential pedagogy, non-linear pedagogy (as developed by Rantanen and Chudoba), and place-based education: How can internationalization at home, framed through place based education and lived urban experience, empower foreign students as knowledge holders in superdiverse classrooms, and what pedagogical strategies support mutual learning between local and international students in the context of consumer spaces and everyday urban practices?

Our research presents a case study of utilizing steam pedagogies in early childhood education (ECE) in Finland and Japan. We examine how the steam pedagogy activities was to help nurture and develop the key competencies for sustainability activities and how the different material and socio-cultural environments influence these activities. Prior research has highlighted how experiences with nature, both direct and indirect, during early childhood, influence emotional relationship with nature (e.g. Kellert, 2002). Emotional affinity in turn relates to nature protective behavior (Kals et al. 1999), which connects to values thinking, one of the key competencies for sustainability (UNESCO, 2017). These competencies are: (1) Systems thinking competency, (2) Anticipatory competency, (3) Normative competency, (4) Strategic competency, (5) Collaboration competency, (6) Critical thinking competency, (7) Self-awareness competency. These competencies later been refined, further contextualized and operationalized by researchers and educators, for example in Japan by Ohnuki & Suzuki (2023) and (8) Integrated problem-solving competency has been added later.

Building on Ohnuki et al. (2024) research we focus on anticipatory competence (the abilities to understand and evaluate multiple futures – possible, probable and desirable; to create one’s own visions for the future), normative competency (the abilities to understand and reflect on the norms and values that underlie one’s actions) , collaboration competency (the abilities to learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others) and integrated problem solving competency (ability to reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to deal with one’s feelings and desires) because they connect closest with emotional learning and together with systems thinking are the most salient for our purposes.

Ste(a)m pedagogies have been shown to provide a good framework for educating children about sustainable development and nurturing the above-mentioned key competencies in ECE (Haraguchi et al. 2024). Research has shown how children’s play-based and inquiry-oriented learning can support agentic responses and nurture understanding of sustainability and help build foundation for further scientific skills (Vartiainen et al. 2024). The material and physical and environment with its restraints and affordances makes a difference in education: the ease and difficulty of access to natural environments or materials for daily use has been shown to direct curricular focus and activities in different directions in Finland and Japan (see Teshirogi et al. 2023). The social environment with its group dynamics, role expectations and communicative traditions also play an important role in how the educational activities are enacted and experienced.

Japanese ECE is a heterogenous field with many private providers and varying approaches to structure and discipline, although whole group instruction and relationships-oriented approaches can be prevalent (Holloway, 2001). Teaching academic skills is typically not emphasized. Relationship with nature and surrounding environment is typically nurtured through field trips, observing seasonal changes and connecting them with aesthetic experiences and in case of some places, growing own flowers and vegetables (Ohnuki & Sumida, 2017).

Finnish ECE represents the Nordic edu-care model. In the present national curriculum guidelines, pedagogical activities are built around transversal competencies and wide areas of learning instead of detailed learning objectives (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2025), making it easy to implement STEAM education. Playing, exploring and centering the learning around the children’s interest are very prominent in Finnish style ECE. The environment is a central keyword for building the transversal competencies and a foundation for lifelong learning, and for the aim to educate socially and environmentally aware and responsible citizens (Havu-Nuutinen et al. 2021).