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Virtual Exchange (VE) as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)-compliant approach to language education: a Global South-North research-informed seminar.

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It was a privilege to be given the opportunity  to organise and host the BAAL-Cambridge University Press seminar: Virtual Exchange (VE) as an EDI-compliant approach to language education: a Global South-North research-informed seminar on the 14th June 2024 (https://baal-cup.coventry.domains/).

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The seminar was delivered in hybrid mode. Fifty five participants attended, twenty four of whom came in person to the Languages Centre at Coventry University. Attendees joined from Higher Education institutions located both in the UK (e.g. Birmingham, Coventry, Leeds, Open University, Northumbria, Stirling and Warwick) and all over the world (e.g. Algeria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Finland, Kuwait, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, The Netherlands and Türkiye). The audience included tenured academic staff, early career researchers, doctoral students and learning technologists and this provided a nice opportunity to reflect  on the seminar topic from a variety of learning, teaching and research viewpoints.

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VE is gaining traction as a sustainable, equitable, inclusive and transformational postmodern approach in language education that allows for powerful intercultural knowledge-sharing, while also fostering the acquisition of transversal skills such as resilience, flexibility and respect for ‘the other’. However, the aim of the seminar  was also to discuss whether or not issues of unequal access and digital inclusion/exclusion are adequately addressed in VE theorisation and practice in the field of language education and beyond.

The EVOLVE project defines VE as:

a practice, supported by research, that consists of sustained, technology-enabled, people-to-people education programmes or activities in which constructive communication and interaction takes place between individuals or groups who are geographically separated and/or from different cultural backgrounds, with the support of educators or facilitators. Virtual Exchange combines the deep impact of intercultural dialogue and exchange with the broad reach of digital technology (https://evolve-erasmus.eu/about-evolve/what-is-virtual-exchange/).

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The first  speaker was Dr Mirjam Hauck, Associate Head of School, Internationalisation, Equality, Diversion and Inclusion, Open University and President of the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning (EuroCALL), with her talk: Language education for Critical Global Citizenship through Virtual Exchange. Dr Hauck pointed out that while VE practices can promote EDI, VE is not inherently equitable and inclusive. It can reproduce colonial power dynamics, perpetuate existing exclusion/inequalities, and  even create new, digital inequalities (Satar & Hauck, 2022). She proposed her model of Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE) and asked the audience to  analyse VE case studies in her workshop and discuss whether or not their features reflected a CVE approach.

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Dr Müge Satar,  Reader in Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University, reported on the results of her recent research on VE:  ‘An inclusive and multiliteracies-informed Virtual Exchange pedagogy through digital cultural artefacts’, she illustrated how the co-creation of digital artifacts in VE can promote inclusion and stated that language educators need to go beyond digital and multimodal literacy, and develop critical digital literacy (CDL) (Bilki et al., 2023).  She invited the audience to reflect on how topics such as family, friends and folklore can be addressed at a deeper intercultural level, avoiding stereotyping  ‘the other’.

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After the lunch break, the co-tutelle (Coventry University/Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo) doctoral student Carlos Alberto Hildeblando Júnior provided a VE ‘taster’ based on his thesis work (Hildeblando Júnior, 2023): ‘Practising VE ‘in action’ with VETSDELT (Virtual Exchange as a Third Space to Decolonise ELT) – Topic: Native-speakerism’. Participants worked in Zoom breakout rooms to carry out tasks. Each group reported in writing on a  shared Padlet wall and then fed back orally on their exchange in the  interesting plenary feedback session that followed. The audience gave very positive feedback on this VE taster, participants who were new to VE in particular, who stated they were inspired to adopt this pedagogical approach in their practice.

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Professor Dr Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão, Assistant Provost for International Affairs, from the Universidade Estadual Paulista and coordinator of the Brazilian Virtual Exchange Program (BRaVE), spoke next and delivered an interactive lecture-workshop on  ‘Global-South/North perspectives on VE pedagogical models’. She challenged the audience to reflect on bias in South-North exchanges, starting with an analysis of world maps, that often misrepresent the Global South. She then illustrated very powerful interdisciplinary VEs led by Global South institutions (e.g. https://www.fmb.unesp.br/#!/noticia/2178/brave-brazilian-virtual-exchange---internacionalizacao-em-casa), where, for example, students reading medicine in the UK and Brazil discussed their different approaches to epidemiology. Participants commented that the examples provided illustrated well how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be embedded into South-North VEs to address global challenges.

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Dr Kyria Finardi, Postgraduate Lead at Universidade Federal do Espríto Santo (UFES), Brazil, Vice-President of AILA and pioneer in the decolonisation of ELT, delivered her talk ‘Post-pandemic Virtual Exchange as a Third Space for English Teacher Education: Reflections on South-North technology-supported encounters and challenges’.  She discussed how VE offers a transformational Third Space (Wimpenny et al. 2022), supporting the cross-disciplinary development of intercultural competence across shared multicultural and multilingual learning environments. She illustrated a British Academy/Leverhulme funded research project that investigates how VE can empower women (https://female-voices.coventry.domains/). She also invited the audience to reflect on the potential (and challenges) inherent to the integration of a combination of VE and AI into the HE curriculum, illustrating some of the  issues arising with AI-generated pictures (one of Freire). The discussion that followed focused on the VE/AI interface.

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Dr. Lynette Jacobs, Acting Director and Research Portfolio Lead in the Office for International Affairs at the University of the Free State in South Africa (VE expert not involved in language education) led the round table with very thought-provoking questions, e.g.:  ‘As linguists, could you give consideration to how to ‘depower’ English in VE?’. An interesting discussion followed, Dr Finardi proposed the use of the intercomprehension pedagogical approach in language education VEs, rather than translanguaging, to foster an appreciation of languages as linguistic repertoires instead of  named languages. Dr Hauck pointed out  that translanguaging and intercomprehension are only mutually exclusive if we understand language education within the written/oral dichotomy, excluding the wider semiotic ‘armoury’ available for communication purposes, particularly in VE in the digital age, that offers a variety of digital

communication modes, as well illustrated by Dr Satar in her talk. Dr Salomão reported that BRaVE tries to promote the use of translanguaging, which is fluid, and the use of Portuguese in exchanges with Portuguese-speaking  countries in Africa; however she also mentioned that sometimes decolonisation can be challenged from within in the Global South, as some of her Brazilian colleagues would prefer to work with institutions in the Global North and use English in VE and there is a need to change mindsets. Dr Jacobs  concluded by challenging us further and proposing we destabilise English by carrying out VEs in languages otyer than English that VE participants are not familiar with. The discussion concluded with Dr Satar suggesting that it would be difficult to remove the power from English, but that learners could be made aware of the symbolic power of English in a critical way through VE and reflect on what actions they can take to destabilise it.

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The feedback on the seminar was very positive, we are grateful to BAAL and Cambridge University Press for having sponsored the event.

 

Bilki, Z., Satar, M., Sak, M. (2023). Critical Digital Literacy in Virtual Exchange for ELT Teacher Education: an interpretivist methodology. ReCALL, 35(1), 58-73

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Brazilian Virtual Exchange (BRaVE). Retrieved from:  https://www.international.unesp.br/#!/study/virtual-exchange-program/

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Hildeblando Júnior, C. A. (2023). Virtual Exchange as a Third Space to Decolonise ELT (VETSDELT) project: report on its first action-research cycle. Retrieved from: https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/78493516/Hildeblando_Junior.pdf

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Satar, M., & Hauck, M. (2022). Exploring Digital Equity in Online Learning Communities.  In A. M. Sousa Aguiar de Medeiros & D. Kelly (Eds.) Language Debates: Digital Media (pp. 270-290). John Murray Learning.

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Wimpenny, K., Finardi, K., Orsini-Jones, M., & Jacobs, L. (2022). Knowing, Being, Relating and Expressing through Third Space Global South-North COIL: Digital Inclusion and Equity in International Higher Education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 26 (2), 279-296. doi: 10.1177/10283153221094085