Neurodiverse-friendly preschools: Aligning inclusive pedagogy and spatial design

This study explores how ten-year-old children in South Korea and the United States express their multi-layered identities and sense of belonging through multimodal mapping. Drawing on the concept of funds of identity (FoI) and the construct of X-ness, this mixed-methods research demonstrates how children draw on drawings, writing, and spatial design to negotiate cultural, social, and academic identities within specific school contexts. Analysis of 35 multimodal maps and accompanying interviews reveals that children mobilise home languages, cultural symbols, and everyday experiences to position themselves within and beyond the classroom. The findings show that multimodal mapping supports children’s agentive identity work, revealing how relational, practical, institutional, and cultural FoI intersect in flexible, layered ways. This study contributes theoretically by extending FoI research into visual and spatial domains and demonstrates how multimodal composition can serve as both an inclusive pedagogical tool and an analytical lens for understanding identity-in-practice in multilingual, multicultural classrooms, suggesting practical directions for inclusive pedagogy.