ISLS 2026 Agenda

Wednesday, June 17 · 10 sessions

8:00 AM

3 options scroll

Long Paper · ALP 1700

Culturally Responsive Design

These papers show how culturally responsive and sustaining design supports learning and identity, from leveraging students' cultural resources in university physics to a robotic Punjabi Dhol for embodied music learning. Further talks examine Diné digital storytelling and relational, culturally sustaining computing with Tibetan diaspora girls.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

4 talks

Short Paper · ALP 2500

Socio-Emotional & Group Dynamics

Five short papers examine the emotional and social side of collaboration, from team functioning and leadership in pediatric medical simulations to regulating epistemic emotions in higher- versus lower-performing CSCL groups. Other talks cover teacher learning on WhatsApp, a fifth-grade SEL digital curriculum, and boundary-crossing STEM competencies in global informal programs.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

5 talks

Short Paper · ALP 2700

Teachers learning and agency

These papers explore teacher learning, agency, and positioning, including reinterpreting project-based learning in Kazakhstan and how inclusive 'we' discourse shapes belonging in science. Further talks treat customization dilemmas, teacher positioning during student game redesign, resistance as a professional resource, and autonomy in informal learning.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

6 talks

10:00 AM

4 options scroll

Arts Gallery & Performance

#1244: Intergenerational Arts-based Storytelling: Fostering Solidarity Learning Toward Climate Justice

Drawing on critical participatory ethnography with Arab American immigrant youth, families, and teachers, this arts-based project frames collaborative climate-change mapmaking as intergenerational knowledge work. Attendees see participant artwork and learn how storytelling legitimized lived realities and nurtured critical consciousness for climate-justice advocacy.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy

Practice Paper · ALP 1100

Collaborative Design Structures in Researcher and Practitioner Partnerships

Six practice papers describe how researchers and practitioners co-design educational programs, including a university laboratory school for equitable computing and a community partnership developing urban-agriculture curriculum. Cases also span co-designed embodied games for computational thinking, technology-education pathways, and designing edTech with schools rather than for them.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

6 talks

Short Paper · ALP 1110

Place and land-based learning and education across various modalities

Six short papers explore place- and land-based learning across modalities, including spatial typologies for active-learning classrooms and syncretic game designs interweaving virtual and natural worlds. Others address youth climate storytelling, multispecies discomfort in a STEAM program, identity play through creek science, and scientific practice in an archaeological apprenticeship.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

6 talks

Long Paper · ALP 3610

Research Practice Partnerships and Design

Four long papers examine research-practice partnerships and design, including the value of scaling science teaching slowly and a Reverse Translation framework that repositions practice as a source of knowledge. Other talks study computing education in refugee support organizations and navigating boundaries when integrating CS in elementary schools.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

4 talks

4:15 PM

3 options scroll

Social / Networking · ALP 2600

Juneteenth Book Club

A two-part book study of On Juneteenth and On Tyranny commemorating Juneteenth as an international community and connecting to the conference theme of partnering with purpose. Selected chapters ground discussion of abolitionist and liberatory projects and collective struggle against unjust forces, with paperbacks gifted to the first thirty participants.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy

Poster · Online

ICLS Virtual Posters - Virtual Poster Session

A virtual poster session covering a wide range of learning-sciences topics, including making and aesthetics, computational thinking and creative coding, and culturally responsive STEAM across international contexts. Studies also examine generative-AI policies and student-LLM reasoning, field trips, and physics teacher professional development.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

70 talks

Poster · Outdoors

ICLS Posters - Wednesday Poster Session (In-Person)

An in-person poster session spanning equity-oriented learning across STEM, computing, and the arts, with threads on multilingual and culturally responsive teaching, integrated STEM+C and AI literacy, and teacher learning in makerspaces and curricular customization. Settings range from family garden activities and afterschool math to climate-change pedagogy and preservice teacher preparation.

Culturally Sustaining & Responsive Pedagogy in a talk

93 talks