Alternative Spaces to Support Intercultural Learning: A Visual Arts-based Approach

One of the key challenges for European Careers Work in the 21st century will be to evaluate emerging uses of digital technologies to deliver enhanced careers-work practice in a multiplicity of challenging economic and social settings. There is now a bewildering array of digital platforms and tools available. These technologies develop with a rapidity that makes systematic evaluation difficult even for researchers working with them in a sustained way. For many careers practitioners it may feel impossible to undertake such evaluations, let alone implement the technologies in a pilot setting where there may be conflicting professional and research pressures, as well as resourcing issues for undertaking such work. ‘Virtual Worlds’ are one of these rapidly changing internet-based technologies – one that shows very considerable promise for work in the Careers Guidance field. This aim of this paper is to examine this promise through an evaluative and critical account of virtual worlds that focus on supporting the development of life skills in young people in intercultural settings, using an arts-based approach