Following the discussions held at ECER – Network 7 (Bolzano, 2018; Hamburg, Sept. 2019) and at IAIE with Yvonne Leeman (Amsterdam, Nov. 2019) on intercultural professionalism in the field of Social Justice and Intercultural Education, we would like to continue the dialogue on our variety in perspectives and research practices.

Choices in research are always informed by an ethical and political perspective and by the current societal contradictory demands on research on education and the realities of teaching for social justice and intercultural inclusive futures.

In fact, our professionalism in educational research is grounded in our theoretical and personal-professional experiences related to our historically and culturally situated selves.

Thus, we would like to share our different perspectives on intercultural professionalism through an exchange of our research practices, choices, and reflection-in-action in the field of social justice and intercultural education, by addressing:

- How do we position ourselves as researchers and practitioners towards research questions and the issues that come from the field?

- How do we tackle the issue of power relations within our research, and how do we engage others in it?

- How do we disseminate the results of our research towards a transformational movement?

- What intercultural learning could all the participants develop during the process of research? And with what outcomes?

The first co-presenters, Paola Giorgis and Isabella Pescarmona (Italy), will develop their inter-professional approach (as researchers and teachers) based on auto-ethnography as reflection-in-action in the educational context (Allen-Collinson, 2013), also discussing how the intersection of their positioning with the reality of the daily engagement in the teaching-learning practice affects their expectations and actions (Giorgis et al., 2021).

The second presenter, Cristina Balloi (Italy), will discuss about the role of Intercultural Competence models as a tool to create reflection on personal intercultural professionalism (Mezirow 2000; Schön,1983). How can we use Intercultural Competence models to activate a self reflection? The topic of discussion will focus on different applications of models especially in research and training perspective.

The third presenter, Barbara Lapornik (Italian-Slovene bilingual context), will focus on her experience and research on multiple ways the teachers in high-school settings can draw on reflexivity in their practice to foster intercultural learning and development (Clark & Dervin, 2014). Critical reflection (Dasli & Diaz, 2017), based on the data collected, will consider the researchers and teachers’ positionings, also relating them to a citizenship-oriented education.

The fourth presenter, Lisa Rosen (Germany), will highlight the relevance of power asymmetries in qualitative research processes and show examples from her own research practice. To theorise, she will draw on a model of intercultural communication according to Georg Auernheimer (2013), in which power asymmetries, along with stereotypes, collective experiences and cultural codes, are considered relevant dimensions that influence the expectations of interaction partners.

The fifth presenter, Carola Mantel (Switzerland), will talk about what ‘reflecting’ may mean in the context of migration, diversity and social inequality. She will refer to theoretical concepts by Dewey (1910) and Helsper (2011) and she will show how this notion of ‘reflecting’ can become the main point of orientation in processes of intercultural/ transcultural learning and professionalisation in the migration context.

The sixth presenter, Ghazala Bhatti (UK), will discuss wider perspectives on professionalism and commitment to intercultural education. How is it ‘managed’ when a critical discussion of social justice is not prominent in educational and political discourse (Veugelers 2019)? How do we sustain intercultural dialogue with future teachers, educators and researchers?

The Panel, chaired by Yvonne Leeman (Netherlands), will offer a forum for debating these issues, opening up the field for further discussion.

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