Kirjahaku

Virtual exchange is an educational approach that uses technology to bring together people from geographically and/or culturally distant locations in sustained online interactions, often intended to develop their intercultural awareness and understanding. Though the practice has existed for several decades, it has gained popularity in recent years, in part due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic and recourse to online tools for international and intercultural learning. This Element explores intercultural communication in virtual exchange by looking at how and why culture is made relevant in the pedagogical design and framing of virtual exchanges and what impact this might have on student positioning, power dynamics, and on intercultural learning. From this framework three broad approaches are outlined, which are defined as comparative, challenge-based, and dialogue-based. Each approach is explored through examples and the opportunities, limitations, and risks for intercultural learning.

Virtual exchange is an educational approach that uses technology to bring together people from geographically and/or culturally distant locations in sustained online interactions, often intended to develop their intercultural awareness and understanding. Though the practice has existed for several decades, it has gained popularity in recent years, in part due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic and recourse to online tools for international and intercultural learning. This Element explores intercultural communication in virtual exchange by looking at how and why culture is made relevant in the pedagogical design and framing of virtual exchanges and what impact this might have on student positioning, power dynamics, and on intercultural learning. From this framework three broad approaches are outlined, which are defined as comparative, challenge-based, and dialogue-based. Each approach is explored through examples and the opportunities, limitations, and risks for intercultural learning.

This book explores how identities emerge and are negotiated by young people in online facilitated dialogue, a form of virtual exchange. It offers a framework for this type of exploration based on the assumption that both the situated context and the technologies mediating online interactions influence, but do not necessarily determine, the interactions taking place and the participants' identity orientations. Identity is viewed not as fixed and static, but rather multiple and fluid as interactants position themselves in relation to one another. This framework is then applied to the analysis of one specific virtual exchange context, and the interactions over several weeks of a group of participants from a wide range of backgrounds.

A just and sustainable peace for Syria can only be attained through the equal participation of women's rights defenders at the negotiation table and throughout the transitional process. Understanding the legal framework within which such participation takes place - and the challenges of promoting women's rights through a gender-responsive constitution - is crucial. This publication, resulting from a collaboration between Euromed Feminist Initiative and the University of Padova, builds on the knowledge of academics and advocates, shedding new insights on those challenges. It aims at supporting institutional efforts being made to guarantee women's participation in the Syrian reconstruction, as well as advocacy initiatives carried out to ensure women's participation in political and economic decision-making in the country's future.