Intersectionality in intercultural educational research. The role of power and privilege in multicultural societies

Currently, multicultural societies are characterised by multiple, complex, and interdependent changes and challenges at the local, regional, national, and global levels. Many individuals and groups experience racism, deprivation, exclusion, and discrimination in areas such as education, healthcare, the workplace, and social settings. Discrimination, inequality, marginalisation, and minorities are common key themes in intercultural educational research and intersectionality theories. This paper aims to reflect on how intersectionality can contribute to addressing new and diverse issues in intercultural educational research. The role of power and privilege, often studied by authors using an intersectionality perspective, remains marginal in the focus of intercultural educational research. This paper explores the characteristics of multicultural societies, the perspective of intersectionality, and how power and privilege can be analysed within the intercultural educational framework from an intersectional perspective. The positioning of researchers, categories within intercultural educational research, and themes such as identity, prejudice and stereotypes, implicit biases, and inequalities are examined to reflect on how they could be studied in order to better understand the role of privilege and power.