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The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of an international book exchange project done with elementary students from a professional development school partnership on the understanding of project-based learning by pre-service teachers.

A collaborative project between a school in Uganda, a university teacher education preparation program in the United States and an elementary school resulted in a book exchange between the schools. The pre-service teachers worked to develop lesson plans related to social studies and language arts for students with and without special education needs. These lessons were then taught to students at an elementary school who are part of the university’s school partnership program. Upon completion of the book exchange, pre-service and in-service teachers reflected on their experiences.

Pre-service teachers reported that the project provided them a better understanding of collaborative work and project-based learning during their reflections and said they were more willing to take on large projects after seeing the buy-in and value for students.?

While pen pal and similar writing exchange programs are not novel, this project sought to explore the impact of having one embedded into a teacher training program on pre-service teacher perceptions of project-based learning and the potential impact to their future teaching practices.

The purpose of this study is to examine relevant demographic and socio-economic factors as they relate to progress towards intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity for ethnic-minority Latinx middle school English learners (ELs) using a mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge-featured writing practice.

Through the theoretical lens of funds of knowledge, this three-year study implemented a survey-based quasi-experimental design centered on the Latinx ELs’ ICC development with the implementation of an intercultural sensitivity questionnaire (Chen and Starosta, 2000). The authors first investigated the relationship between ELs’ intercultural sensitivity and associated demographic and socio-economic factors. The authors then examined the changes of ELs’ intercultural sensitivity. Over ten weeks, the intervention group completed five funds-of-knowledge-featured narrative essays using pen and paper and mobile-based writing tools alternatively.

Findings indicated that ELs’ intercultural sensitivity increased as they advanced to a higher-level grade from sixth to eighth. The embedded mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge writing practice as intervention promoted ELs’ intercultural sensitivity in interaction engagement, respect of cultural differences, interaction enjoyment and interaction attentiveness. Among the variables, interaction enjoyment was portrayed the most. ELs who reported not speaking English at home were statistically significant in this experiment.

This study acknowledges the robust and variance of funds of knowledge as a niche to address the interculturality and hybridity of ELs’ cultural practices accumulated through Latinx ELs’ family socialization and social development using mobile-assisted writing practice. This study could provide implications for optimizing inclusive experience to promote computer-assisted language learning in a contemporary, postcolonial global world.

The Social Norms Approach (SNA) is a health behaviour intervention which promotes positive behaviour change by challenging and reducing misperceived social norms of peer behaviours and attitudes. This study reports a novel qualitative evaluation of an in-school SNA intervention which aimed to reduce 11-to-12-year-old students’ unhealthy snacking behaviours by reducing misperceived peer norms.

A qualitative evaluation of seven teachers’ and eighteen students’ experiences of taking part in the SNA intervention based on focus group discussions and an open-ended survey.

An inductive reflexive thematic analysis indicated that the SNA intervention was an effective and engaging means of delivering normative feedback to younger adolescents. The use of a paper-and-pens creative poster-making activity, where students were tasked with designing the intervention materials featuring normative feedback based on their baseline data, encouraged students to discuss and reflect on the discrepancies between their perceived norms and the actual reported unhealthy snacking norms. Challenges were identified with ensuring intervention fidelity and in students’ understanding of how to record survey responses using Likert scales.

This study demonstrates the usefulness of exploring post-intervention perceptions of SNA interventions, particularly from the perspective of the intended recipients. The study also provides useful information for those intending to develop in-school SNA interventions in the future, particularly the importance of involving participants in the designing of intervention materials as a means of promoting engagement with an SNA-based dietary behaviour intervention.

Studies on technology and interpreting have increasingly explored how technology influences the role and performance of interpreters in their practice; however, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews and analyses. This paper aims to synthetically review the state-of-the-art application and integration of various interpreting technologies, identify the key trends of recent studies, and evaluate the associated opportunities and challenges.

Adopting a systematic review approach, 40 articles on technology and interpreting practice from 2013 to 2024 were selected and analysed.

A growing number of empirical studies on technology-mediated remote interpreting and technology-supported interpreting is observed in public service settings, suggesting that mobile and emerging technologies have gained more attention alongside phone and video. In addition, mixed results are revealed with respect to the impact of technology on interpreting performance.

This review not only provides a bird’s-eye view of how interpreting practice has reconciled with different technologies but also offers insights into the changing role of interpreters, the need for training, and the direction for future research.

This study explores the relations between home and family in times of a pandemic, transporting the family away from the family home and, apparently, from the family itself. Specifically, it focuses art, culture, and society by shedding light on the enduring role of family rituals in creating and sustaining family identity while affirming the role of information and communication technology (ICT), in both the construction and reproduction of the family dynamics amid pandemic times. Reflection is taken upon a live-by-Zoom art exhibition opening. Family photo albums and several artifacts are used to show the family history, and, at the same time, the installed objects and surrounding narratives invite others to imagine the artist’s family as well as each audience member’s own family. The opening took place in March 2021, during the second lockdown in Portugal. Methodologically, the chapter draws on data collected through direct observation and autoethnography. Inspired by an arts-based approach, narrative is built on storytelling sociology, while using writing as a method of inquiry and reflexive composition to overcome the limits of the personal narrative. By the end, it is argued that as families “live” at Zoom, family rituals too. Zoom platform reproduces the family atmosphere, opportunities, and constraints. Looking at the art exhibit opening as a family ritual allows one to think about how individuals experienced family gatherings during the pandemic, but also how art might generate such familial intimacies in such exceptional times.