Designing participatory data physicalization as cultural connectors for a Quantified Us

The global expansion of English Medium Instruction (EMI) programmes has intensified concerns over the linguistic and epistemic dominance of English as the academic lingua franca. This study draws on Vincent Shen’s theory of strangification to examine how EMI teachers in the humanities and social sciences at a Chinese research university engage in decolonial, intercultural dialogues with international students. Based on semi-structured interviews with 20 faculty members, the study investigates how teachers negotiate linguistic and epistemic tensions, adapt global academic frameworks to the Chinese sociocultural context, and reflect critically on their disciplinary identities and pedagogical roles. The findings identify three interrelated processes: (1) Translating inbound and outbound disciplinary knowledge across languages, (2) Recontextualising knowledge through situated and often contested pedagogies, and (3) Cultivating reflexive professional self-becoming in intercultural encounters. These processes demonstrate how EMI teachers act not only as transmitters of knowledge but also as intercultural dialogists who challenge colonial hierarchies and co-construct more inclusive academic spaces. By highlighting the tensions and strategies embedded in teachers’ ongoing negotiations, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how decoloniality can be advanced through reflexivity, epistemic plurality, and context-sensitive curriculum development in internationalised higher education.

The slogan “all Games all Nations”- has developed into a synonym for the Olympic Games and represents the biggest sport event in the world, including both intercultural encounters and international relations. The Olympic Games are more than a conglomeration of world championships and records of different Olympic disciplines. The Olympic Movement claims itself to be a community of Olympic values, which is based on the Olympic Idea and especially on the aspect of “internationalism”. The Olympic Idea is an attitude of life, which has to be trained and educated in a whole sense and not only limited to the period of the Olympic Games or to the athletes participating (IOC, 2007, Fundamental Principle). Concerning this matter, there are plenty of international Olympic programs, and the International Olympic Academy (IOA) plays an important role in this concern. Every year, there are more than 170 young people from over 100 nations participating in the “Session for Young Participants” at the IOA where intercultural dialogue is focused for about two weeks. With participants from different continents, coming from all over the world, the IOA almost in itself symbolizes the aspect of “internationalism” as part of the Olympic Idea.

Intercultural education is an approach that responds to societal change arising from the contact, noncontact, and conflict among cultural groups. It envisions the prospects and challenges of living together in pluralistic societies. Globally, intercultural education has prominent origins in various European societies. Scholars and practitioners have also developed and practiced intercultural education in parts of North America and Latin America. As an epistemology, interculturality underpins intercultural education in recognizing and promoting equitable relations across cultural groups. At its forefront is the attention to equality issues in culturally diverse societies, which espouses the mutual accommodation of majority, minority, and Indigenous populations through dialogue and shared cultural expressions. Intercultural education seeks to prepare learners to live in diversity by supporting their understanding of inequalities, fostering respect, developing intercultural communicative skills, and resolving conflict. In practice, intercultural education involves developing skill sets and cultivating values related to intercultural competence, intercultural communication, intercultural dialogue, intercultural encounter, and intercultural sensitivity individually and collectively with the support of communities and institutions. While it continues to be promising in terms of supporting societies to engage with changes in cultural demographics and promoting interactions among different groups, intercultural education is not invulnerable to persistent and emerging societal problems, particularly those that have been legitimized politically, such as anti-immigration and nationalist movements that fuel racism and xenophobia. Intercultural education can at times be confined to the intellectual ambit of the diverse societies in Europe or the Global North. It is also prone to risks in its neo-assimilationist and technocratic tendencies, putting to question its explanatory value in addressing structural and evolving forms of racism. A need for intercultural education theorists, proponents, and practitioners would be to confront racial injustices that operate in novel ways. This need suggests the efforts to restore the humanity, respect, and social justice that sustain societies to thrive on the peaceful coexistence and cooperation among different cultures.

This article examines the experiences of Palestinian students at An-Najah National University who participated in the Soliya virtual exchange program between 2023 and 2025. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explores how students participated in intercultural dialogue, political expression, and academic growth under Israeli occupation, mobility restrictions, and digital inequity. Thirteen undergraduate participants from different majors provided testimonies through interviews and written reflections. Findings show that initial fears of linguistic inadequacy and cultural misunderstanding shifted into confidence, agency, and critical engagement through sustained, thoughtfully mediated dialogue. Communicating in English as a second language strengthened students’ self-expression and sense of identity in meaningful ways. Dialogue became a transformative practice through which they negotiated belonging and asserted narrative presence in intercultural encounters. Virtual exchange offered a safe space for political witnessing, enabling students to articulate experiences of occupation and genocide while cultivating empathy, leadership, critical thinking, and a broader ethical awareness.

Intercultural dialogue (ICD) refers to a process of contact, interaction and exchange of views on the basis of equality, respect, and mutual understanding between individuals or groups from diverse backgrounds. A large body of research has discussed ICD and its potential value for fostering social cohesion and peaceful coexistence across difference. However, there is a lack of robust benchmark data that precludes researchers and practitioners from empirically testing assumptions and hypotheses pertaining to ICD. This article discusses the development of the Intercultural Dialogue Index (ICDI), a proposed composite index for measuring the extent to which ICD is being pursued and implemented as a diversity management tool within different countries. The index builds on the conceptual assumptions underpinning ICD, uses publicly accessible data, and applies methods that allow for replication, upgrading and comparability with relevant indices. This article assesses ICD prevalence for 51 countries based on three interrelated dimensions covering legislative and structural environments as well as opportunities for intercultural encounters. Altogether, 31 indicators across the three dimensions are identified and grouped under 10 broad components to capture both macro- and micro-level factors affecting ICD and intergroup relationships nationally and globally. The article briefly summarises some preliminary ICDI findings and discusses key methodological constraints and conceptual challenges. Theoretical and practical implications of ICDI are also provided.

The friars who ministered to the Nahua (Aztec) Indians incorporated into their Nahuatl teachings Old World symbolism which used the sun as a metaphor or type for Christ. The solar Christ had different connotations in Nahuatl because of differences between Christian and Nahua views of cosmology, morality, history, and the symbolism of sun and light. Indians today view Christ as a solar deity; Christian teaching may be one source of this identification. The Mendicant friars who converted the Indians of Mexico to Christianity after the Spanish Conquest left behind a large corpus of Christian doctrinal literature in Nahuatl and other Mesoamerican languages. These texts include sermons, catechisms, biblical excerpts, dialogues, hagiography, meditations, hymns, and confession manuals. They were written by friars conversant in the native languages, in collaboration with indigenous students who were educated in Spanish and Latin and who had considerable influence on the native-language texts. Because of their dominantly European content, these texts have received relatively little attention from ethnohistorians more interested in the indigenous side of Indian-Spanish contact. Thus these texts constitute a largely unexploited ethnohistorical resource of great value for interpreting colonial culture, particularly in regard to religion but also to language, political and social relations, and other aspects of Indian life. They provide a useful guide to the acculturative pressures operating upon native ideology. They may also help to establish more continuity between the indigenous beliefs and practices recorded in sixteenth-century ethnographic descriptions and those observed by ethnographers in the present. The doctrinal corpus is dominated by texts in the Nahuatl (Aztec) language. This extensive body of Nahua-Christian literature reveals precisely how Christianity was presented to the Nahuas, how Christian conEthnohistory 35:3 (Summer 1988). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc ooI4-I8o0/88/$i.5o. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.133 on Fri, 17 Jun 2016 05:27:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Solar Christ in Nahuatl Doctrinal Texts cepts were translated and explained, and what elements of indigenous belief were carried over by the friars into what was, in effect, a Nahuatl interpretation of Christianity. Christian concepts picked up new meanings and symbolic associations as they were translated into Nahuatl; at the same time, the new contexts and modes of expression characteristic of Christian preaching began to influence the meanings of Nahuatl terms. Analysis of this hybrid literature helps to illuminate the true character of the so-called spiritual conquest. Christian doctrine was Nahuatized in the process of its accommodation to native categories of language and thought just as Christian personages and Christian rites took the place of the indigenous ones that most closely resembled them. This paper examines the treatment of one motif, Christ as the sun, in the colonial Mexican literature, and analyzes this motif in light of its Old World origins and its New World cultural setting. The use of this motif in the Nahuatl doctrinal writings of three prominent friars, the Franciscans fray Bernardino de Sahagun and fray Juan Bautista and the Augustinian fray Juan de la Anunciacion, is discussed. The Solar Christ in the Old World and the New The Christ-sun is by no means a common theme in the colonial literature, but it illustrates some interesting aspects of the translation process, including the very sensitive issue of idolatry. It is the sort of identification that one might expect the friars to avoid in the interest of preventing idolatry. Alternatively, the fact that they did use it might be seen as an attempt at planned syncretism, the fostering of identifications between indigenous and Christian figures as an easy way to bring the Indians into the church. In reality, though, the friars were neither so conscientious nor so crafty. They were simply employing an Old World motif, translating its terminology into Nahuatl and using it in traditional contexts. Formal Christian teaching did not necessarily contradict the Nahuas' own interpretations of Christianity; the difference between Old World and Nahua Christianity lay in the articulation of their respective worldviews and the way that metaphors operated within them. It is widely known that present-day Mesoamerican Indians view Christ as a solar deity (see, for example, Gossen 1974; Hunt 1977; Taggart I983; Vogt I969). This identification may look like a survival of indigenous solar worship, but in fact the identification was not inconsistent with sixteenth-century Christianity. For Christ to become identified with the sun was a logical response given the structure and character of the indigenous worldview; the argument here is not that the friars were responsible for this identification but only that theirs was one voice active in the intercultural dialogue within which this identification originated. 235 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.133 on Fri, 17 Jun 2016 05:27:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

ABSTRACTThis paper deals with new explorations of the historical migrations that attempt to establish cultural interconnections and identify processes of transnational networks. It discusses Italian history of migration, particularly the transatlantic mass movement to the United States, which is increasingly revisited from both sides of the ocean. On the one hand, Italy is ‘rediscovering’ this past migration and redefining its cultural identity in dialogue with new discourses emerging with contemporary immigration into the country. On the other, Italian/American literature and criticism have greatly contributed to transforming views of Italian identity, thus reversing the traditional influence of the ‘mother country’ on its former emigrants. Drawing on available comparative approaches, the analyses focuses on two literary sources representative of a significant turn in the memory and discourse on migration. It examines the extent to which new forms and imaginaries of migration have emerged in Italy and their effects on creating a climate of intercultural exchange and dialogue. In doing so, I will attempt to establish and adopt a retrospective which evaluates the analytical, critical and creative retrievals of the past.

This paper explores how intercultural awareness is raised in Maritime English (henceforth, ME) higher education courses and, particularly, how the “intercultural dialogue” (Council of Europe, 2008) is fostered in ME materials. Interculturality and its impact upon the maritime profession is a major concern for the shipping industry as multilingual and multicultural crews prevail aboard ships. Four teaching/learning resources have been targeted: the latest ME textbook (Grice, 2012), a web-based ME learning tool (MarEng, 2007-2010), a recently launched online platform offering ME learning materials (SeaTALK, 2015), and the latest edition of a full Model Course programme on ME (IMO, 2015). The results obtained help to assess if, and to what extent ME language teaching materials serve as “mediators of intercultural communicative competence” (Rico Troncoso, 2012: 130), providers of intercultural awareness, facilitators for intercultural encounters and creators of “spaces for intercultural dialogue” (Council of Europe, 2008: 46). Conclusions are expected to further research into intercultural dialogicity and provide researchers in other languages and ESP fields with guidance for assessing the presence of intercultural-related features in their own course materials.

In the design of information technologies, the challenge of integrating a human-centered design approach with software engineering methods emerge in different forms. The main challenge is to set the ground for different disciplines and professional cultures communicate and work together. The orchestration of different contributions and the establishment of communication practices that facilitates the integration of the different languages and procedures are crucial steps to take full advantage of different research traditions. This paper presents a case study in which human-centered design and requirement engineering methodologies have been used within a large research projects aiming at developing innovative technologies and services to support professionals in nursing homes. The design process took the form of an intercultural dialogue that required human-centered and requirement-engineering professionals to work across borders. Starting from our case study, the paper presents the boundaries identified between the human-centered and the engineering perspective and proposes a framework to guide the integration process conceived as an intercultural dialogue between disciplines.KeywordsHuman-centered designRequirement engineeringinter-disciplinarity

This paper presents research on the potential of classroom dialogues to facilitate greater intercultural communication between undergraduate home students in the UK studying Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and Master’s level students from China. The project put both cohorts together to discuss culture-related topics in Mandarin Chinese. Nine CFL students and 18 international students from China participated in the study. Five meetings were arranged, with the discussions being led by the students. The data collection includes videos of the group discussions and recordings of individual student reflections obtained after each discussion. Byram’s intercultural competence framework was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that social interaction enables the participants to demonstrate intercultural competence in several dimensions (attitudes, knowledge and skills of discovery and interaction), with skills of interpreting and relating and critical cultural awareness being more limited. The reflections also showed that the participants expressed varying degrees of anxiety about the discussion. CFL students reported their foreign language anxiety, and Chinese students were mainly concerned about potential prejudice against China. Intracultural competence was also discussed in this study.

ABSTRACTAttempts to come up with a relevant curriculum that responds to the African context, in general, and to Ethiopia, in particular, have been unsuccessful. The indigenisation approach has been applied in curriculum development and studies as a strategy for rehabilitating the knowledge base and perspectives of the neglected peoples in order to make their curricula relevant. Originally, the indigenisation approach involved a process of modifying a transplanted Western model to make it relevant to the importing country's political and socio-cultural context. Now, it has transformed into an authentication or cultural validation approach that seeks authentic roots in the local system to construct a domestic model in the light of the social, cultural, political and economic characteristics and needs of a particular country. The problem addressed in this article is the lack of curriculum relevance to the Ethiopian socio-cultural and structural context which is hampering the country's renaissance and development. This article employs a critical perspective to investigate the problem. A standalone indigenisation approach, which calls for rooting the curriculum in indigenous foundations and theories, as well as in principles and ideas derived from the culture, all followed by a blending approach which allows an intercultural dialogue, is suggested as being feasible. The authors argue that this approach is an alternative that can contribute towards ensuring the relevance of curriculum and the success of the African renaissance and development.

Book synopsis: This book generates a fresh, complex view of the process of globalization by examining how work, scholarship, and life inform each other among intercultural scholars as they navigate their interpersonal relationships and cross boundaries physically and metaphorically. Divided into three parts, the book examines: (1) the socio-psychological process of crossing boundaries constructed around nations and work organizations; (2) the negotiation of multiple aspects of identities; and (3) the role of language in intercultural encounters, in particular, adjustment taking place at linguistic and interactional levels. The authors reflect upon and give meaning and structure to their own intercultural experiences through theoretical frameworks and concepts—many of which they themselves have proposed and developed in their own research. They also provide invaluable advice for transnational scholars and those who aspire to work and live abroad to improve organizational participation and mutual intercultural engagement when working in a globalizing workplace. Researchers and practitioners of applied linguistics, communication studies, and higher education in many regions of the world will find this book an insightful resource.

Book synopsis: This book generates a fresh, complex view of the process of globalization by examining how work, scholarship, and life inform each other among intercultural scholars as they navigate their interpersonal relationships and cross boundaries physically and metaphorically. Divided into three parts, the book examines: (1) the socio-psychological process of crossing boundaries constructed around nations and work organizations; (2) the negotiation of multiple aspects of identities; and (3) the role of language in intercultural encounters, in particular, adjustment taking place at linguistic and interactional levels. The authors reflect upon and give meaning and structure to their own intercultural experiences through theoretical frameworks and concepts—many of which they themselves have proposed and developed in their own research. They also provide invaluable advice for transnational scholars and those who aspire to work and live abroad to improve organizational participation and mutual intercultural engagement when working in a globalizing workplace. Researchers and practitioners of applied linguistics, communication studies, and higher education in many regions of the world will find this book an insightful resource.

Researchers across disciplines have looked to deaf individuals and communities to learn about many aspects of human experience, earning deaf people's unique biological and social status a subjugated position in scientific inquiry. All too often deaf people appear in the literature as research “subjects” rather than active, autonomous participants, or partner‐researchers. My research investigated deaf youth identity in Mexico City, Mexico, with a focus on the emic perspectives of my adolescent participants and their families. My focus deaf epistemologies led me to photovoice for data collection and analysis. This article outlines the engagement of deaf youth participants through the participatory visual data collection method photovoice, which allowed me to achieve the goals of a community‐based research design. This article explores the unique needs of deaf youth research participants and epistemological considerations for community‐based work among deaf youth in Mexico City. I discuss innovative ethnographic results revealing deaf youth's emic perspectives through participatory analysis.

Introduction: The integration of research evidence into nursing practice is a central objective of modern healthcare systems. However, the growing volume, heterogeneity, and variable quality of scientific evidence pose significant methodological challenges for nurses and researchers alike. Evidence synthesis and critical appraisal are essential components of evidence-informed nursing practice, yet they are often insufficiently operationalized within structured methodological frameworks. As a result, decision-making processes may remain implicit, inconsistent, or overly dependent on individual judgment rather than transparent and reproducible methods. Aim: The aim of this study was to design and internally validate a methodological framework that integrates evidence synthesis, critical appraisal, and structured decision-making to support evidence-informed nursing practice. Methods: A methodological study design was adopted, based exclusively on simulation and procedural modeling. The framework was developed through sequential phases involving the conceptual structuring of evidence synthesis processes, operationalization of appraisal criteria, and formulation of decision-making pathways. Simulation-based testing was used to examine internal coherence, logical flow, and methodological feasibility across hypothetical nursing practice scenarios. No human participants, clinical data, or empirical datasets were involved. Results: The simulation process resulted in the development of a structured methodological framework comprising interconnected components for evidence identification, synthesis, appraisal, contextual interpretation, and decision formulation. Simulation testing demonstrated stable internal logic, clear methodological transitions, and adaptability across scenarios characterized by varying evidence quality and availability. The framework successfully supported transparent documentation of assumptions, appraisal outcomes, and decision rationales. Conclusions: The proposed framework demonstrates that evidence synthesis and decision-making in nursing can be systematically structured through methodological design and simulation-based validation. This approach strengthens transparency, reproducibility, and methodological rigor in evidence-informed nursing practice and provides a robust foundation for future empirical application, education, and quality improvement initiatives.