Learning Inclusion in a Digital Age: Belonging and Finding a Voice with the Disadvantaged

This open access book considers how inclusive learning, wellbeing and active citizenship can be encouraged, taught, learnt, and supported in a digital world. The book poses and seeks to address three questions: How can governments and intergovernmental organisations support learning inclusion and active citizenship? How can the education sector and public/private enterprises support learning inclusion and active citizenship? How can professionals and communities work with vulnerable adults who are disadvantaged in a participatory, empowering manner? The Examples discussed in the book draw on the experiences of adult refugees and migrants, as well as people who may experience disadvantage and/or discrimination as a result of their social, economic, political, cultural, religious, physical, mental, age or gender-related status. One methodological pillar in this work is the development of skills in digital storytelling and digital stories creation for personal, community and professional purposes. Conceptually and of interest for researcher and policy makers at local, national and transnational levels, this book brings together a number of related concepts to generate innovative understanding and practices of applied relevance in the age of the pandemic and its aftermath.

Professor Stephen Dobson is Dean of Education and the Arts at CQUniversity in Queensland, Australia and Professor II at the Centre of Lifelong Learning, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. He has published books on Assessing the Viva in Higher Education (2017), Learning Cities. Multimodal Explorations and Placed Pedagogies (2018) and Beyond Assessment - The Hidden World of Language Games and Capital (2023). He is co-founder of the international Centre of Excellence. Educating for the Future.

Associate Professor Svoen holds the position at Centre for Lifelong Learning, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. She has a background in Informatics and media education, and her academic interests include adult learning, practice-oriented learning, participatory design, and inclusion. Her publications include ​​Let’s Talk and Share! Refugees and Migrants Building Social Inclusion and Wellbeing Through Digital Stories (2019), Developing online resources for adult refugees in an increasingly unfriendly Europe: The case for inclusion, self-determination, and cultural responsiveness (2023) and the book Learning Through Professional Work, published in Norwegian(2023).

Professor Agrusti teaches Assessment in Education and Educational Research Methods at LUMSA University. She had led EU projects and is currently a member of an Italian Ministry working group reforming educational assessment in primary schooling. Her research focuses upon literacy and citizenship education. Her journal publications include Supporting the Inclusion of Refugees: Policies, Theories and Actions (2019), Understanding School and Classroom Contexts for Civic and Citizenship Education: The Importance of Teacher Data in the IEA Studies (2021) and Developing online resources for adult refugees in an increasingly unfriendly Europe: The case for inclusion, self-determination, and cultural responsiveness (2023).

Dr Victoria (Pip) Hardy is a Director of Pilgrim Projects Ltd., and the Co-founder of the Patient Voices Programme, founded in 2003. This is one of the longest-running digital storytelling projects in the world and the first to focus on healthcare. Pip is also a Research Fellow with the Institute for Medical Humanities based at Durham University in the UK. Pip was the winner of the BMJ 2010 award for Excellence in Healthcare Education and has published widely including Cultivating Compassion: How Digital Storytelling is Transforming Healthcare (2014), and Digital Storytelling in Higher Education: International Perspectives (2017).