The most important highlight of ECER2023 for the network community was the election of the new link convenor, Jenni Alisaari. Jenni Alisaari is currently working at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, as a University lecturer of Finnish language and in the INVEST Research Center in the University of Turku, Finland, as a senior researcher. She has been actively contributing to the Network 31 since 2016. Her research focuses on linguistically responsive pedagogy as well as sense of belonging and learning outcomes of students with multilingual or migration backgrounds. Jenni will act as Shadow Link Convenor for a year and take over from the current Link Convenor, Irina Usanova, after ECER 2024.
During the last year, NW 31 also developed intensive cooperation with NW07 'Social Justice and Intercultural Education' and NW20 'Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments' and launched a joint special call with the title 'Researching Multiliteracies in Intercultural and Multilingual Education: Bridging Identities, Practices and Learning Environments.' The special call has attracted a high resonance among the network community, and we received more than 50 proposals in response to this call. The submissions devoted to this special call were put in a special session format: the papers were combined into joint sessions with the participants from the three cooperating networks. The presented research covered a high variety of topics: e.g., (multi)literacy skills, new modalities, and innovative learning environments, identities and biographies of multilinguals, digital media, and (multi)literacy practices that foster individual/collective assertion of cultural diversity. By bringing together current research from the three EERA networks, we created a truly interdisciplinary perspective on multiliterate identities, skills, and practices in diverse learning environments that brought vivid discussions among the EERA members and stimulated further collaborations that go beyond a single network.