This exciting companion volume explores how intercultural perspectives can inform and transform teacher education and professional development.The book addresses the practical challenges and opportunities that educators face when responding to diversity in all its forms within learning environments. Engaging with the flexible notion of interculturality, it encourages critical and transparent discussion of its manyinterpretations. A core principle is that teacher education is...

This book renews our understanding of contemporary interculturality and today’s intercultural world through an illuminating case study of the Labubu phenomenon.Why do we queue for hours, shake blind boxes and refresh screens at 10 p.m. just for the privilege of buying something we did not even want yesterday? What does our hunger for a grinning monster reveal about how we connect, belong and exclude in today’s divided world? Beneath these questions lies an ultimate search for the d...

Stepping into the vibrant and uncharted margins of Intercultural Communication, Education and Research (ICER), this edited volume challenges the field’s established narratives by actively listening to the thinkers, educators, and practitioners whose transformative work has previously been overlooked.Moving beyond clichés, this volume introduces the ‘unsung maverick’ not as a heroic figure but as a precarious rope-dancer performing vital and innovative work without a safety net. Thr...

In Free Together: An Existentialist Guide to Intercultural Living, Fred Dervin offers another radical rethink of how we encounter others interculturally.Drawing on existentialist writings, the book argues that interculturality is not a problem of knowledge or competence, but rather an existential challenge: How can we meet others as free beings when no guarantee of understanding exists? Written in an accessible tone, the book combines theoretical reflection, personal narra...

This book brings together 40 genuine questions raised by student teachers in Finnish education, sparking reflection and insight into education and wider issues amid the complexity, diversity and uncertainty of today’s classrooms and ever-changing world.What does it mean to teach social justice in today’s complex and divided world? How can educators acknowledge and value the multiple diversities that students bring to the classroom, while also responding to conflicting expectations ...

This book argues that the field of Intercultural Communication Education and Research (ICER) has often been compromised by uncritical, market-driven approaches that create an illusion of progress. The author demonstrates how hollow buzzwords, superficial models and a focus on harmony often mask power imbalances and prevent meaningful change. To counter this, the book proposes a practice of intercultural acrobatics – the creation and strategic use of new, provisional terms. These c...

This book presents a game-changing approach to critical intercultural pedagogy by reclaiming myth as a stimulating tool for deliberate and productive disorientation.Moving beyond archaic relics or simple deconstruction, the author argues that myths, from the Finnish Kalevala to student-created (digital) narratives, are dynamic forces for both epistemic resistance and renaissance today. Readers will discover how myths can disrupt reductive binaries, challenge neoliberal agendas and ...

Interculturality in Flux is an audacious and self-reflexive interrogation of intercultural scholarship and education.Redefining intellectual retrospection as a process of fundamental critique, Fred Dervin turns his analytical lens inwards, exposing the contradictions, weaknesses and evolving tensions within his own work. At its core, this book addresses the tension between polished academic language and the uncomfortable truths beneath. The author reveals how power imbalan...

Provocative, interdisciplinary, and daringly critical, AI for Critical Interculturality doesn’t spoon-feed ready-made answers but rather inspires readers to think, question and interrogate interculturality alongside AI.In a world where AI is often feared as a threat to human intelligence and creativity, the book flips the script by positioning AI as a valuable partner in the study of interculturality as both a scientific and educational notion. How could AI help us dismantl...

This book challenges the silence surrounding money, revealing its profound influences on personal and social identities and power dynamics in intercultural contexts.In this inimitable book, Fred Dervin continues to explore the notion of interculturality by offering a novel and critical exploration of the often-overlooked role of money, especially within the broad field of Intercultural Communication Education and Research (ICER). Adopting a robust interdisciplinary lens and drawing...

Based on the author’s 25 years of experience in researching and teaching interculturality, Intercultural Self-Defence: A Resource Book for Students, Teachers and Researchers is a compelling exploration of the subtle forces that shape Intercultural Communication Education and Research (ICER).The Resource Book delves into the adversaries lurking within ICER - indoctrination, intellectual inertia and linguistic indifference - and unveils how they can stifle genuine understand...

An Introduction to AI and Intercultural Communication Education is the first, historic volume to explore the intersection of AI and intercultural communication education, interrogating both the transformative possibilities and ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies.Through diverse scholarly perspectives, the book examines how AI tools, ranging from language models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek to generative image systems, could reshape the way we teach, research an...