Bridging Regional Divides through the Digital Citizenship City: A Three-Layered Framework for Authentic Civic Dialogue in Japanese Classrooms

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Empowering youth for a digital future: civic dialogue, news literacy, and collective action in global classrooms

Proposal

The Digital Citizenship City (DCC) project was developed to tackle several educational and social challenges in Japan: rural depopulation (Inoue et al, 2022), widening regional disparities (Mutlu, 1991), and the fragmentation of civic engagement among young people　(Gumasing et al., 2024). Students in small or remote schools often have limited opportunities to interact with peers from different backgrounds, narrowing their capacity for democratic dialogue and civic participation (Barley & Beesley, 2007; Hannum et al., 2009). Furthermore, the cultural emphasis on wa (harmony)　, which Sugimoto (2015) refers to, can prevent open discussion and the recognition of diversity as a resource for learning in the Japanese classroom.

The DCC directly responds to these challenges by creating a digital space where classrooms across different regions can engage in authentic civic dialogue. Instead of promoting a uniform consensus, the project aims to cultivate a diverse form of harmony where students learn to understand differences and collaboratively construct shared understandings. This is achieved through a unique three-layered structure that integrates key educational frameworks, including dialogic pedagogy (e.g., Skidmore & Murakami, Eds., 2016).

Within the DCC framework, three core elements underpin students’ engagement in civic dialogue. First, collaborative face-to-face dialogue within individual classrooms enables students to share perspectives and construct collective knowledge, following the principles of dialogic pedagogy. Second, inter-classroom exchanges conducted via Zoom connect students across towns, cities, and regions, allowing them to compare local experiences, explore differing viewpoints, and work collaboratively on authentic, real-world issues such as disaster prevention or inclusive community design. Third, AI-assisted tools are integrated to systematically collect, categorize, and summarize students’ contributions, providing structured feedback that informs ongoing reflection and dialogue. In practice, these three elements operate in a deeply intertwined and seamless manner: classroom-level discussion, cross-regional exchange, and AI-supported analysis mutually reinforce one another, creating a dynamic and integrated environment in which students negotiate differences, co-construct understanding, and engage in authentic civic dialogue that bridges local and regional contexts. Teachers facilitate this process, guiding discussions, supporting equitable participation, and helping students critically examine both local and broader social issues. The DCC emphasises participatory learning anchored in authentic, real-world contexts (Levinson, 2012; Gaudelli, 2021). By embedding civic dialogue in the formal curriculum, the project addresses common educational challenges such as geographic isolation, inequitable access to diverse perspectives, and the difficulty of fostering civic agency in under-resourced schools.

Between 2021 and 2024, the DCC organized over fifty dialogue sessions involving more than thirteen thousand students from three hundred schools across Japan. The project has addressed a wide range of issues, including disaster prevention, challenges faced by "shopping-vulnerable" populations in rural areas, and multiculturalization of the communities. Data from student surveys showed consistently high satisfaction, with around 80 % of students reporting that they valued the opportunity to encounter perspectives beyond their immediate communities. In a case of the lesson, a student proposal on creating a more inclusive community for foreign residents was considered by local government officials in Hiroshima, demonstrating the project’s authentic civic impact. However, the project also revealed key challenges. Technical limitations were a persistent issue, as school networks often lacked sufficient bandwidth, necessitating a classroom-unit participation model instead of individual student connections. This finding highlights the broader challenge of digital equity in education and the need for robust infrastructure. Furthermore, effective facilitation requires significant teacher preparation and ongoing professional development, indicating that scaling the project successfully depends as much on individual effort-building as on technological tools. While short-term engagement and satisfaction were clearly positive, the long-term assessment of the project’s impact on civic agency and democratic skills remains an area for further research. The DCC has made a tangible impact on the civic and educational challenges it targeted. By connecting students across rural and urban areas, the project expanded social horizons and provided opportunities for meaningful engagement with diversity. The project's impact was assessed using a multi-method approach to ensure the reliability of our findings. We utilized student surveys with a 5-point Likert scale to measure growth in motivation to social participation and confidence in engaging with peers from different backgrounds. These measures collectively indicated a significant increase in students’ civic agency. Beyond Japan, the model has been extended to Korea and is being piloted in the United States, underscoring its global relevance. Looking forward, the DCC aims to facilitate historical dialogue among students from Japan, Korea, and the U.S. This next step would position schools as nodes in transnational civic networks, cultivating young people’s ability to engage thoughtfully with complex, contested global issues.

The DCC project is a highly relevant submission for the CIES 2026 conference theme, "Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World." It offers a practical, applied model that contributes to the conference's primary objectives. The project could critically examine how education can mitigate divisions, creating a safe space for students to negotiate differences and build social cohesion. Furthermore, the DCC's unique three-layered structure and its subsequent adoption in Korea and the United States serve as a compelling example of an effective educational practice that can be adapted to different geopolitical contexts to build peace and social cohesion.

Authors

• HIROMI KAWAGUCHI, Hiroshima University

• Jongsung Kim, Hiroshima University

• Kazuhiro Kusahara, Hiroshima University