Over the decades intercultural encounters have been introduced in research and education inclusive of communication between humans and different communities.  Dervin, Sude, Yang & Chen (2022) problematizes the dominant discourse on interculturality between East and West and the need for diverse languages to be introduced in the dialogue. This study explored the ways in which interculturality can provide means towars planetary justice and sustainable societies. In the future, intercultural dialogue should not be based on the humanistic assumptions of a solitary human self, separate and autonomous from the rest of the planetary system. This paper discusses opportunities to shift the language around interculturality incorporating interdisciplinary, social justice and planetary lense by using the metaphor of contact zone in between interculturality and sustainability towards more sustainable interculturality. 

Utilizing the contact zone theory by Mary Louise Pratt (1991), this study explores the opportunity of interculturality to be understood as a dialogue and the encounters beyond Western intepretation of (inter)culture.  Pratt’s (1991) theory of contact zone, in its traditional understanding, refers to the interculturality (her original term used was transculturation) as a social space, where people meet, clash, and struggle with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power (Pratt, 1991, 6). In her writings, Pratt mentioned a story of a letter addressed by an unknown but apparently literate Andean to King Philip III of Spain. The purpose of the letter was to guide the King to rule in a more respectful manner towards the indigenous Andeans. The story continues with a belief that the letter was never delivered to the King (ibid, 1991,6). This leads to the ongoing issue of today’s education – whose knowledge is taught at schools and whose (inter)culturality is recognized in the education policies when intercultural education theories rely mainly on western knowledge system.

For the longest, teaching interculturality, has been recognized as important based on global education policy frameworks (see for example the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Competency Framework, 2020 and The Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue, 2008).  As an example, Finnish national curriculum recognizes interculturality in a form of language and cultural diversity, to remind about the ethnic diversity in schools. Interculturality and sustainability both play a significant role in our increasingly interconnected and diverse world, with also increased tensions and crises. However, interculturality has not been much included to the sustainable development goals, namely to the Education for All SDG4 goal. Interculturality here refers to the interaction and dialogue that takes place in highly asymmetrical power relations, often centered on beliefs and values among individuals or groups from different ethnic, educational, socio-economic and geographical locations (see for example Dervin, 2015). Whereas sustainability focuses on the long-term well-being of both the environment and society, aiming to preserve resources and promote social equity between species. This study explored the intersection between interculturality and sustainability, their interdependence and the potential for positive synergies towards sustainable interculturality with the focus on planetary justice. 

This study aimed to explore opportunities to create further contact zones with the idea of interculturality and sustainability in education. In 2021, a literature search was conducted to understand the relationship between sustainable and global/intercultural education. This was part of a project aiming to strengthen global and sustainable education at the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The keywords for the search were sustainable education, sustainability education, education for sustainable education and global citizenship education. The literature review was organised in themes, which were further developed to contact zones between the interculturality and sustainable education.

Three contact zones between intercultural and sustainable development in education were identified through the literature review and thematic analysis: 1. Intersecting Interculturality, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Education, 2. Cultural heritage and sustainability of different communities and species and 3. Competencies required for intercultural planetary well-being. To conclude, the key is to problematize how all this can become action and/or pedagogy. Börjesön & al. (2006) mention two types of futures thinking 1) concerns about what the future could be (possible futures), and 2) what it should be (preferable futures). This provides an interesting pedagogical question to solve about what type of futures do we want to achieve and what needs could be filled to create possible and preferable futures. Whatever frameworks and concepts are used, we should think if creating universal international goals is preferable. Reflecting on different types of positive and negative scenarios might help to understand the role of different intercultural encounters and power systems in the process, which can be referred to as systemic thinking. Resilience and adaptation are seen as important skills to be learnt in education, especially during times of emergencies and global crises.

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