Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Training diversity-responsive teachers has emerged as a crucial need in times of amplified migration, while data- and context-based instructional design arises as a very important parameter for delivering meaningful and inclusive courses (see Ertmer, Quinn & Glazewski, 2017; McLoughlin, 2001) for refugees and migrants aiming at their educational empowerment and subjective well-being. In this paper we address issues of instructional design as part of the training of language educators. We draw on the curriculum design of the international (using English as a working language) two-year distance learning postgraduate programme LRM-Language Education for Refugees and Migrants- of the Hellenic Open University launched in 2016. We support that the practice-centered and critical conceptualization and design of the postgraduate programme providing critical thinking, collaborative and creative activities, as well as opportunities for involvement in the field, facilitates the development of crucially important skills for language educators as instructional designers for diversity (cf. Yuan, 2017). Towards this end students are encouraged to take initiatives, design their own conventional and digital material taking into account specific spatiotemporal contexts and feedback from the field. We present examples of relevant activities and discuss postgraduate students’ involvement and respond to them. We conclude with some general comments concerning the importance of instructional design perceiving it as a framework of thinking that requires a combination of creativity, critical thinking skills, intercultural and human rights awareness especially when working with target-groups that are struggling for creating new paths, voices, repertoires in new spatiotemporal contexts due to relocation/migration.