To respond constructively and progressively to the social, cultural, and economical changes around us, students need to be equipped to understand, critique, and transform the social and cultural conditions they live in and be armed to seize the opportunity to drive social transformation. This calls for a transformation in education focused on developing skills for multi-cultural understanding, inter-cultural dialogue to drive social responsibility and compassionate action.

UNESCO defines intercultural dialogue as “Equitable exchange and dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based on mutual understanding and respect and the equal dignity of all cultures is the essential prerequisite for constructing social cohesion, reconciliation among peoples and peace among nations.”.

Decades of research suggest that children do not learn alone but through interaction with their environment through talking and discussing with other people, both adults and other children. Thus, learning occurs through the use of socially constructed inquiries made by individuals and by proposing these questions and seeking answers to further one’s ideas and thoughts. 

If dialogue is adopted as a pedagogy, it emphasizes critical and reflective thought and provides student’s bases on what we do and why we do it. The objective is to interpret what and why we do by actively engaging in conversation, debate, and reflection on individual and collective understandings. 

DICE (Digital Intercultural Exchange)

DICE (Digital Intercultural exchange) programme is an ICT-based programme that connects socially and culturally diverse schoolchildren and teachers from across the globe, allowing them to share ideas and drive their own learning by helping them engage in a dialogue on issues of global importance.

While preliminary data about digital learning and intercultural dialogue exist, more needs to be done to understand the potential for dialogical approaches for the development of 21st-century skills. Not only is there a dearth of rigorous evaluation on the role intercultural dialogue in changing attitudes and behaviours, there is also little documentation of successful dialogical exchange programs.

To this end, the DICE program seeks to couple a thematic, peer-to-peer, intercultural dialogue-based approach to learning with a rigorous evaluation component during a yearlong study in geographically diverse schools. Ideally, the results generated from the project will result in information about best practices for this pedagogical approach as we improve the program. The study will also inform curriculum developers and pedagogues on the best approaches to integrate intercultural dialogue as a pedagogy at the school level.

Objectives of the study

1. To understand how engaging in intercultural dialogue influences key 21st century skills such as collaboration, empathy, cross-cultural communication and critical thinking across different cultures

2. Analyse how peer-to-peer learning affects attitudes and perceptions on key global issues such as migration, prevention of violent extremism, global warming, etc.

Approach

Students between the ages of 13 and 15 in globally diverse schools from ten countries will participate in the research programme. The students will engage in digital, peer-to-peer learning about themes associated with peace education and sustainable development, including (but not limited to) climate change, migration, and prevention of violent extremism. 

Teachers will be trained to mediate and facilitate interactions within the classrooms and help students connect and engage in dialogue with globally diverse peers in different geographical locations, and students will be encouraged to continue the dialogue informally outside of school spaces. Students will be requested to participate in the study during school or outside, thus not adding any curriculum load on the students.

Brainwiz is the Pan-India implementing partner for this project and is taking the implementation of  this project forward in the following schools:

1. H.H. High School, Ranchi, Jharkhand

2. Manav Sthali School, Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

3. Srimati Kamlabai Educational Institution, Bangalore, Karnataka

4. Sindhi High School, Bangalore, Karnataka

5. Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi

6. St. Anslem’s School, Jaipur Rajasthan

The schools waitlisted for round 2 are

1. The Fab India School, Rajasthan

2. GD Goenka Public School, Bahadurgarh, Haryana

3. Chennai High School, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Evaluation

Throughout the project, student dialogue will be analysed by a team of trained educational psychologists, AI enabled platform and computational linguists for evidence of behaviour change associated with 21st-century skills. This data will be used to continuously inform teachers of student progress, thereby training teachers to use data to improve their practice, and allowing the MGIEP team to adjust and experiment with the intervention.

Additionally, an evaluation team will be enlisted to conduct pre- and post-tests with students to analyse their progress both in basic subjects and in socioemotional domains such as tolerance for other points of view, ability to take multiple perspectives, and ability to form and evaluate arguments, all of which are associated with global citizenship and peace education.

Outcome

The data collected will be used to improve and deepen the work, and will be published in peer-reviewed journals and popular publications as a way to promote digital, intercultural dialogue as a tool for promoting education for peace and sustainable development.

Based on this research, UNESCO MGIEP will not only work with other nations to implement the program but will also develop a guide and toolkit so that any school system can take up the project themselves.

Source: UNESCO MGIEP DICE Concept Note