Conference Program

In the Palestinian context, a territory marked by physical and symbolic barriers, restrictions on freedom, and continuous disruptions to daily life, education represents both a right under threat and a vital resource for emancipation and social transformation. Within this challenging scenario, international cooperation can offer meaningful spaces for intercultural dialogue, mutual learning, and the co-construction of context-sensitive pedagogical frameworks, therefore sustaining educational continuity and local capacities to foster democratic processes. In line with these considerations, this contribution presents a participatory research model grounded in international cooperation between the University of Macerata (Italy) and Al-Quds University (Palestine), developed within the Palestinian context through a structured workshop experience which involved a team of researchers in the fields of education and special education from both universities. The participatory workshop was conceived as a dialogical and intercultural space aimed at creating shared meanings, jointly identifying challenges and opportunities, and co-constructing research strategies capable of investigating how inclusion, resilience, and community wellbeing are sustained in the Palestinian context. Methodologically, the workshop was conducted with a participatory and reflexive approach, valuing local knowledge and lived experiences of Al-Quds University researchers as an essential epistemic resource. In this sense, the participatory workshop not only offered a structured setting to design and develop a research on inclusive education in emergency: it also represented a dimension for mutual understanding and empowerment, where the very concepts of inclusion and wellbeing were critically examined and jointly re-signified. Framed within the paradigms of Education in Emergency and inclusive education, the study explores how participatory methodologies for international cooperation can foster democratic and inclusive processes in contexts affected by protracted conflict, leveraging research practices to foster empowerment, reciprocal learning, and social impact. Specifically, the contribution illustrates the structure, development and main outcomes of the workshop, highlighting the dynamic process that led to the definition of a field research on inclusive education in emergency within the Palestinian context. In this direction, the co-construction of shared interpretative frameworks and research tools will be presented, highlighting the generative power of intercultural scientific dialogue and putting forth the voices and visions of Palestinian researchers. By presenting this participatory research framework and its practical application, the paper argues that international cooperation based on participatory approaches and intercultural dialogue can foster transformative processes capable of crossing physical and symbolic borders, sustaining the Quality of Life of school communities and promoting democratic participation in contexts affected by protracted conflict.