SONRIE: SOcial eNtertaining Robotics for Intercultural Education in Early Childhood Early Child hood Education Services and in Nursery school

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) has emerged in recent years as a fundamental theoretical approach to incorporating children’s different languages, cultures, and identities into the teaching process, leading to the consolidation of the concept of Intercultural Education. Indeed, the educational sector is crucial to create peaceful and cohesive societies, which should include all individuals beyond cultural diversities. The project SONRIE aims at defining the new concept of Intercultural Robotics Pedagogy, by establishing a software framework for social robots able to operate in kindergartens and primary schools with children of different cultures. The SONRIE robot will leverage its multi-linguistic abilities during verbal interaction, acting as a bridge between children of different nationalities, also implementing specific culture-aware functionalities that may be key in a multicultural primary school, such as traditional games, music, art, tales of specific culture.