Aug 2026· Education sciences· Vol 16, pp. 1223· 0 citations· 30 references
Abstract
In contexts of growing social polarisation and cultural complexity, tertiary educators are increasingly called upon to move beyond celebratory multiculturalism towards critically informed intercultural praxis in preparing students for 21st-century classrooms. Drawing on a sustained transnational collaboration between Australia and Spain within initial teacher education, this paper adopts a collaborative autoethnographic approach to critically reflect on our pedagogical practices and their implications for culturally responsive music education. We examine how intercultural musical encounters, particularly those involving culture bearers, can foster cultural competence and critical reflection among pre-service teachers, while also generating tensions related to knowledge, cultural ownership, authenticity, and appropriation. Building on these reflections, we reconceptualise authenticity as a relational and dialogic process, co-constructed through interaction, mediation, and context-sensitive engagement. We propose a conceptual framework grounded in three interrelated dimensions: collaborative partnerships, relational authenticity, and dialogic mediation through educator facilitation. Together, these principles offer an ethically informed and pedagogically grounded approach to intercultural music education that moves beyond representation towards sustained, meaningful engagement with cultural diversity. By foregrounding the role of the educator as a cultural mediator and drawing on insights generated through sustained intercultural practice and prior research, this paper contributes to ongoing debates on belonging, inclusion, and the development of culturally responsive practices in contemporary music teacher education.
This article explores the integration of pláticas—informal, culturally grounded conversations rooted in Chicana/Latina feminist methodologies—as a transformative pedagogical tool in adult learning contexts. Drawing from experiences as doctoral students and educators at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the authors illustrate how pláticas foster connection, reflection, and critical consciousness across diverse learner identities. Through narrative, theoretical, and practical lenses, the article positions pláticas as a means of validating lived experience, disrupting traditional hierarchies of knowledge, and cultivating intercultural communication competence. The authors provide concrete strategies for structuring plática circles, co-constructing ground rules, designing reflective prompts, and integrating the practice into course assessments. They argue that when implemented with care and intention, pláticas promote inclusive, student-centered learning environments that enhance engagement, support emotional safety, and foster collective meaning-making. Ultimately, the article affirms pláticas as a liberatory practice that strengthens the social and relational dimensions of higher education and reimagines the role of educator as co-learner and collaborator.
Iza Martinez, Adrienne Taylor· Adults learning· 0 citations
This theoretical-reflective article, derived from the doctoral dissertation Intercultural Education Based on Curriculum Management for Strengthening the Quality of Higher Education, is grounded in a critical-hermeneutic documentary review. The study adopts a qualitative perspective supported by micro-ethnographies and an introspective-experiential approach, assuming the co-construction of the corpus through information analysis, textualization, theoretical triangulation, and analytical systematization. It examines the relationship between culture, intercultural education, curriculum management, and technology, understanding the latter not as a neutral resource but as a sociocultural mediation capable of expanding or restricting recognition, participation, and curricular justice. The findings suggest that intercultural education goes beyond discourses of inclusion and coexistence to become a transformative practice in the face of historically rooted cultural exclusion. They also show that the critical, ethical, accessible, and pedagogically relevant integration of digital technologies can foster dialogue among knowledge systems, the visibility of identities, collaborative knowledge production, and the democratization of learning. However, technology may also deepen inequalities when gaps in connectivity, accessibility, digital competencies, and cultural representation persist. The article concludes that recognizing diversity, developing inclusive curricular practices, and critically managing technology contribute to strengthening educational quality.
Greys Patricia Núñez Ríos, Leonardo Antonio Díaz - Pertuz, Fredy Julián Gómez Pedroza et al.· International journal of com...· 0 citations
ABSTRACT This study examines how Artist Educators (AEs) cultivate multicultural dispositions in Singapore’s harmony-driven and exam-oriented school system. Drawing on 60 lesson observations and 30 interviews, we identified two pedagogical processes – critical thinking through empowerment and understanding positionality of power – through which AEs foster reflexivity, empathy, and awareness of cultural narratives. These processes reflect AEs’ dispositions of authenticity, relationality, and social mediation, and enact key dimensions of Banks’ multicultural education framework. The findings extend transformative multicultural education theory by showing how artistic inquiry can open space for identity work and critical dialogue in conflict-avoidant contexts. Implications for policy, theory, and practice highlight the potential of artistic pedagogy to support deeper, culturally responsive engagement in diverse classrooms.
P. Costes-Onishi, S. Teng, Varsha Vignesh· Multicultural Education Revi...· 0 citations
This study examines how instrumental music educators employ diverse strategies to establish comfortable openings in synchronous online teaching between a Scandinavian Conservatory and two Chinese music middle schools. Drawing on 42 video recordings, stimulated recall, and two focus group interviews, the research examines how teachers utilize humor, praise, metaphors, and structured routines to foster culturally responsive and emotionally supportive learning environments. Framed within the concept of “hospitality in education,” the study highlights how relational care and intercultural sensitivity are essential for reducing student anxiety and enhancing engagement in high-pressure performance contexts. The use of video-stimulated recall reveals how teachers reflect on their own practices, adapt to technological and cultural challenges, and develop strategies to build trust and connection across linguistic and geographic boundaries. Findings contribute to the development of professional development frameworks that prioritize wellbeing, inclusion, and intercultural competence in online music education. By centering teacher empathy and student comfort, this research offers actionable insights into how cross-cultural communication strategies in synchronous online lessons can support the holistic development of musicians in diverse global contexts.
Marianne Løkke Jakobsen· International Journal of Mus...· 0 citations
This study investigates how dialogic feedback shapes professional identity, agency, and reflective practice among Arab-Bedouin female pre-service teachers in southern Israel. Using a qualitative interpretive design, 12 participants engaged in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences with culturally mediated mentoring during practical teacher training. Thematic analysis revealed that mentors acted as cultural mediators, facilitating dialogue that balanced respect for traditional norms with opportunities for critical reflection. Dialogic feedback emerged as a space for professional identity development, enabling participants to integrate inherited cultural values with contemporary pedagogical practices. Moreover, it fostered agency, empowering student teachers to take ownership of their learning, contribute ideas, and exercise leadership in classroom decision-making. A reciprocal dimension was also identified, wherein mentors experienced professional growth and reflective renewal through the feedback process. Cultural challenges, including hierarchical social norms and concerns about respect, highlighted the necessity of culturally responsive strategies to ensure meaningful participation. Overall, the findings demonstrate that dialogic feedback operates as a relational, contextually sensitive mechanism that simultaneously supports professional development, reflective learning, and the co-construction of a learning community.
Aref Abu-gweder· Journal of Interdisciplinary...· 0 citations
As English-medium instruction (EMI) programs expand globally, teacher educators play a crucial yet understudied role in navigating multilingual, sociocultural, and institutional complexities. Understanding their agency is essential for examining how pedagogical reasoning, language ideologies, and context-responsive practices develop in educational spaces. This autoethnographic research explores how I negotiate and enact my agency as a language teacher educator in a language teacher education program at an EMI institution. Drawing on teaching journal entries, retrospective reflections, and course artifacts, the analysis showed how my pedagogical agency was enacted through reframing translanguaging and multilingual perspectives, navigating critical perspectives in context, and fostering teacher candidates’ agency and professional identity. These enactments emerged through ongoing negotiation among transnational trajectory, insider– outsider positioning, students’ realities, evolving educator identities, and negotiation with the context. The study offers nuanced understandings of teacher educator agency in transnational educational contexts and implications for promoting multilingual, context-responsive, and agency-oriented language teacher education in EMI settings.
Mengfei Liu· International Journal of TES...· 0 citations