KIDLE

Funding programme

Erasmus+ KA220-SCH – Cooperation Partnerships in School Education

Project reference

2023-1-PT01-KA220-SCH-000154686

Period

2023–2025

Coordinating organisation

Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Portugal)

Participating countries

Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Austria, Belgium

Official project website

Visit official website

KiDLE aimed to support the inclusion of children with migrant backgrounds in new educational environments through the participatory development and implementation of intercultural board games.

The project focused on children aged 4–8, combining playful learning with opportunities for communication, language development, social interaction and the recognition of cultural diversity.

Its educational approach also sought to involve teachers, educators, parents and caregivers in the design and use of inclusive learning resources.

Specific learning objectives

• Social inclusion: Support the participation and sense of belonging of children with migrant backgrounds in their new school communities.
• Intercultural awareness: Encourage children to recognise, explore and appreciate differences and similarities between cultural traditions, languages and everyday experiences.
• Language development: Introduce vocabulary, expressions and words from different languages, including the home languages of children from migrant families.
• Communication: Encourage verbal expression, active listening, conversation and the use of non-verbal forms of communication.
• Empathy: Help children recognise different perspectives, understand others’ experiences and respond respectfully to cultural and personal differences.
• Friendship and belonging: Create opportunities for children to get to know one another, form relationships and participate in shared activities.
• Social and emotional learning: Practise turn-taking, cooperation, patience, emotional recognition and respectful interaction.
• Identity and self-expression: Encourage children to communicate their interests, personal experiences, cultural backgrounds and aspects of their identity.
• Creativity: Promote imagination, drawing, storytelling, movement and creative responses to game-based challenges.
• Collaborative problem-solving: Develop the ability to complete shared tasks, offer help and contribute to collective objectives.
• Critical thinking: Encourage curiosity, interpretation, categorisation and reflection through age-appropriate questions and challenges.
• Intergenerational engagement: Promote the participation of parents and caregivers in educational play, supporting communication between schools and families.
• Educator competences: Provide teachers and early childhood educators with practical resources for using intercultural board games to support inclusive classroom environments.
• Participatory game design: Involve children, families and educators in identifying needs, developing game concepts, testing prototypes and improving the final educational resources.

The project also sought to increase awareness among educational stakeholders and policymakers of the potential contribution of intercultural play to inclusive early childhood and primary education.

These objectives describe the intended educational benefits of KiDLE. Evidence of completed games and positive user experiences should be distinguished from demonstrated improvements in children’s language, social or intercultural competences.

KiDLE developed five original intercultural board games through participatory processes involving children, parents, caregivers, teachers and researchers across five European countries.

Each game addresses inclusion and intercultural learning through a different theme, narrative and combination of mechanics.

Games developed

1. Friends – Ireland

Developed by Eurospeak, Friends is a journey around the world beginning in Antarctica. Players travel across a colourful board, encountering challenges related to cultures, food, languages and social interaction.

Players: 2–6. Age: 4+. Duration: 20–60 minutes.

Main mechanics and characteristics:

• Roll-and-move: Players progress across a board using a die.
• Cultural knowledge cards: Questions and activities introduce traditions, food and languages from different parts of the world.
• Action cards: Participants perform expressive tasks involving movement, gestures, creativity and communication.
• Peer assistance: Special cards encourage children to request help from other players when they cannot complete a challenge independently.
• Turn management: Certain spaces cause players to miss a turn, introducing opportunities to practise patience.
• Dual objectives: The digital rules recognise both a race winner, who reaches the finish first, and a friendship winner, who accumulates the most heart points.

Educational focus: Cultural knowledge, multilingual awareness, communication, cooperation, expressive skills and positive attitudes towards asking for help.

2. The Journey – Cyprus

Developed by the University of Limassol and the Cypriot partnership, The Journey presents an adventure across colourful islands, each associated with a different category of intercultural or social learning.

Players: 2–6. Age: 6+. Duration: 60–90 minutes.

Main mechanics and characteristics:

• Roll-and-move: Players travel between islands by rolling a die.
• Colour-coded challenges: Island colours determine the category of the next question or activity.
• Five learning categories: Food, Language, Travel, Nature and Emotions.
• Question and activity cards: Players answer questions, perform actions or share experiences.
• Peer assistance: Other participants can help explain tasks and instructions that a child does not understand.
• Race objective: The first player to reach the final island wins.

Educational focus: Intercultural awareness, emotional recognition, communication, environmental curiosity, language learning and respectful interaction.

3. Better Together – Austria

Developed by InterAktion, Better Together represents the experience of building a new life in a different country. Players encounter situations involving friendship, identity, communication and language learning while progressing towards the construction of a shared home.

Players: 3–5. Age: 7+. Duration: 30–40 minutes.

Main mechanics and characteristics:

• Cooperative progression: Players advance together rather than competing to reach the final destination individually.
• Personal identity questions: Activities encourage participants to share information about themselves, their interests and their experiences.
• Language teaching: Children can record and share simple words or phrases from their own languages, allowing peers to learn from one another.
• Virtual suitcase: Each child carries an everyday object representing a personal contribution to the shared journey.
• Collaborative drawing: The final challenge requires players to imagine and draw a shared dream home.
• Common achievement: The game concludes when participants complete the collective final challenge.

Educational focus: Belonging, cultural identity, empathy, cooperation, multilingual communication and recognition of the contributions made by each child to the group.

4. Space Inclusion – Portugal

Developed by Iscte, Space Inclusion is a cooperative space adventure in which a group of explorers must repair a broken spaceship by collecting special powers from three planets.

Players: 2–6. Age: 6+. Duration: 30–45 minutes.

Main mechanics and characteristics:

• Shared objective: Participants work together to repair their spaceship and complete the adventure.
• Collective pawn movement: Players share a Shuttle used to travel between planets.
• Three thematic planets: Friendship, Communication and Curiosity.
• Cooperative challenges: Each planet presents activities intended to encourage social interaction, expression and mutual understanding.
• Movement-based resource generation: Players generate the energy required for travel by completing physical movements selected through dice.
• Collective progression: The group must obtain the powers associated with the three planets to repair the spaceship.

Educational focus: Cooperation, friendship, communication, curiosity, shared problem-solving and inclusive group participation.

5. Togetherland – Belgium

Developed by SIRIUS, Togetherland is an intercultural board game in which players travel through themed spaces, respond to questions and complete activities concerning cultural diversity and communication.

Players: 2–6. Age: 6+ on the digital platform. Duration: 60–90 minutes.

Main mechanics and characteristics:

• Roll-and-move: Players advance through colour-coded spaces.
• Thematic questions: Cards address food, culture, art, music, dance, language and communication.
• Open-ended responses: Many questions do not have a single correct answer, encouraging discussion and the exchange of experiences.
• Special challenges: Specific cards require correct responses and can be collected as part of the winning condition.
• Ladders: Certain board positions provide opportunities to advance more quickly.
• Set collection: Players must collect cards from the required categories before successfully completing the game.
• Individual or team participation: The rules allow children to play individually or in teams.

Educational focus: Intercultural dialogue, communication, empathy, cultural knowledge, social interaction and appreciation of diversity.

Game development approach

All five games were co-designed within the Erasmus+ project using a participatory methodology involving children, educators, parents and caregivers.

Each game was developed as a physical board game and subsequently adapted for use through a multilingual digital gaming platform.

Digital gaming pack

The five games are accessible through an online multiplayer platform. Participants can create or join game rooms and play remotely with others.

The platform reproduces the main rules, game progression and educational challenges through interactive digital boards.

Game approach: Custom-designed educational board games, supported by physical print-and-play resources and digital adaptations.

Availability: Printable games, translations and editable templates are available through the project’s Zenodo community. The five digital games are available through the KiDLE online platform.

Official resources:

• KiDLE – Intercultural Board Games and Printable Resources
• KiDLE – Zenodo Community and Game Downloads
• KiDLE – Online Multiplayer Games

KiDLE adopts a participatory Board Game-Based Learning methodology based on the Creative and Playful Learning (CPL) model, using intercultural games to support children’s communication, social interaction and inclusion in diverse school environments.

The project combines game co-creation, physical gameplay, digital adaptation, collaborative learning and the involvement of families and educators.

Participatory game development

The methodology follows four interconnected phases:

1. Orientation: Researchers and project partners identify the educational objectives and the needs of children with and without migrant backgrounds. Focus groups with parents, caregivers and teachers explore communication barriers, school inclusion and opportunities for intercultural learning. Children also participate in activities introducing the topic of migration and sharing their experiences.
2. Creation: Children, parents and educators participate in co-creation workshops addressing game themes, characters, rules, mechanics, visual elements and cultural content. Initial prototypes are developed and refined collaboratively.
3. Game Play: Children, families and educators test the developing games during practical play sessions. Observations, participant reactions and discussions provide feedback on engagement, clarity, inclusion and suitability for the target age group.
4. Elaboration: The partners revise the games in response to the feedback collected. This includes reviewing prototypes, adjusting educational content and making improvements before final publication and digital adaptation.

Educational implementation

The five games can be used in early childhood and primary education, after-school activities and family learning environments.

They introduce intercultural themes through questions, expressive challenges, storytelling, cooperative objectives and the sharing of personal experiences.

The educational approach aims to create opportunities for children from different backgrounds to interact on equal terms, contribute their own knowledge and recognise the experiences of others.

Specific activities include learning words in different languages, discussing cultural traditions, expressing emotions, sharing individual interests and completing collective tasks.

Game session preparation

Educators or parents select a suitable game according to the children’s ages, previous experiences, language proficiency and educational objectives.

The facilitator introduces the game, explains the rules and ensures that children understand the tasks and opportunities for interaction.

Where appropriate, participants can play in mixed groups so that children with different cultural or linguistic backgrounds have opportunities to communicate and cooperate.

Game duration varies by title, with published estimates ranging from approximately 20 to 90 minutes.

Facilitator’s role

Teachers, early childhood educators and parents support participation by explaining instructions, helping children understand unfamiliar words and encouraging respectful interaction.

Facilitators may also help children who are not yet confident in the dominant classroom language, allowing peers to explain concepts and promoting the use of different home languages.

The games are intended to provide opportunities for children to express themselves without requiring every contribution to be assessed as right or wrong.

In cooperative games such as Better Together and Space Inclusion, the facilitator supports shared participation and encourages children to contribute towards common objectives.

Digital implementation

The online gaming platform supports multiplayer participation through game rooms and access links.

Games reproduce the main educational challenges in a digital environment, allowing players to respond to questions, complete tasks and interact remotely.

Some activities include voice recording or collaborative drawing, creating opportunities for children to communicate and contribute in different formats.

Reflection and debriefing

The project places considerable emphasis on discussion and reflection during the co-creation and testing processes.

Several games also incorporate reflective questions directly into gameplay, encouraging children to discuss their identities, emotions, experiences and cultural practices.

However, the reviewed Pedagogical Handbook does not establish a single mandatory post-game debriefing protocol consistently applied across all five games.

Educators can extend the educational experience by inviting children to discuss what they have learned about their classmates, unfamiliar languages, shared interests and the importance of helping others.

These discussion opportunities are compatible with the intended methodology but should not be presented as a standardised debriefing intervention independently evaluated by the project.

Distinctive methodological feature

KiDLE integrates participatory game development with intercultural learning. Children and families contribute to the design of the games, while the resulting resources provide opportunities for multilingual communication, social interaction and inclusive play.

The combination of physical and digital formats, multilingual materials and openly accessible editable templates strengthens the potential transferability of the educational approach.

KiDLE was implemented through an Erasmus+ partnership involving six organisations from Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Austria and Belgium.

The project combined participatory research, collaborative game development, physical and digital game testing, educator involvement and the dissemination of inclusive learning resources.

Implementation

• European consortium: The project was coordinated by Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Portugal), with the University of Limassol and Agios Spyridon Kindergarten (Cyprus), Eurospeak (Ireland), InterAktion (Austria) and SIRIUS (Belgium) as partners.
• Project launch: Initial coordination activities took place in December 2023, followed by an international kick-off meeting at Iscte in Lisbon on 15–16 January 2024.
• Participatory needs assessment: The partners organised focus groups and consultations with teachers, educators, parents and caregivers to identify barriers and opportunities relating to the inclusion of children with migrant backgrounds.
• Child participation: Children aged 4–8 were involved in workshops exploring experiences of migration, cultural diversity, game themes and possible design ideas.
• Co-creation: Each implementing country developed an intercultural board game with input from children, families and educational professionals.
• Five original games: The partnership produced Friends (Ireland), The Journey (Cyprus), Better Together (Austria), Space Inclusion (Portugal) and Togetherland (Belgium).
• Prototype development: Initial game concepts were converted into playable prototypes incorporating rules, challenges, visual elements and culturally relevant content.
• Formative testing: Play events brought together children, families and educators to examine game clarity, accessibility, engagement and suitability for intercultural learning.
• Iterative improvement: Observations and feedback collected during testing informed subsequent changes to the games.
• Digital development: The five games were adapted into an online multilingual gaming pack offering multiplayer participation through virtual game rooms.
• Educational guidance: The consortium published a Pedagogical Handbook describing the theoretical framework, co-creation methodology, educational objectives and instructions for the games.
• Belgian pilot testing: SIRIUS organised four additional sessions in cooperation with Foyer VZW and Mondial Sport & Culture, two community organisations working with culturally diverse populations.
• Belgian pilot participants: The four sessions reached 22 children from the two participating after-school centres.
• Participant feedback: Children and educators provided comments about the game’s appeal, suitability for different ages and potential use as an introductory activity for pupils getting to know one another.
• International closing activities: The partnership held its final international meeting and conference in Brussels on 20–21 November 2025.
• Final conference: The conference brought together more than 50 participants and included presentation and discussion of the project’s five intercultural games and educational materials.
• Policy dissemination: The project produced a White Paper with recommendations concerning intercultural play and the inclusion of children with migrant backgrounds in early childhood education.
• Open dissemination: Physical game materials, translations and editable templates were deposited in the project’s Zenodo community, while the digital games remained accessible through a separate online platform.

Evaluation approach

KiDLE employed a participatory and formative evaluation process in which children, parents and educators contributed to game development and refinement.

The main evaluation activities involved focus groups, observations during play, participant feedback and discussions with educational professionals.

These methods provided information about the relevance, acceptability and usability of the developed resources.

Documented findings

• Child participation: Children contributed ideas during co-creation and interacted with the games during testing.
• Educational usability: The partnership used practical feedback to refine the games before publication.
• Social interaction: Belgian educators identified the potential value of Togetherland as an introductory activity encouraging children to communicate and get to know one another.
• Age suitability: Some participants suggested that the game could also be enjoyable for children older than the original target age range.
• Community implementation: Testing in Belgian after-school centres demonstrated the possibility of using the games outside the original school development settings.
• Resource sustainability: The project preserved its physical and digital games, supporting materials and methodological publications through an operational website and an institutional repository.

Evidence classification

Game development: Five original physical board games and their digital adaptations documented.

Implementation: Co-creation workshops, play events, community testing and international dissemination documented.

Formative evaluation: Participant feedback and educator observations used to assess usability and refine the games.

Learning outcomes: No controlled study demonstrating improvements in language proficiency, intercultural competence, peer relationships or school belonging attributable to the games was identified in the reviewed sources.

Long-term outcomes: No sufficiently documented longitudinal assessment establishing sustained improvements in migrant children’s educational inclusion was identified.

Methodological limitations

The Pedagogical Handbook presents intended learning outcomes and theoretical arguments supporting the use of intercultural games, but these descriptions should not be interpreted as empirical evidence of measured educational effectiveness.

The Belgian pilot report provides useful information about feasibility and participant reception, although the small sample and descriptive methods do not establish causal learning effects.

Detailed quantitative results, standardised assessment instruments, comparison groups and intervention fidelity data were not identified for all five games.

In addition, each game employs different mechanics and educational activities. Their effects should therefore be assessed individually rather than assuming that all five provide equivalent learning experiences.

Evidence status: Strong documentation of game development, implementation and public resources; formative usability evidence available; robust educational effectiveness not established.

KiDLE provides an extensive collection of intercultural educational resources designed to support inclusive play, multilingual communication and social participation among children aged 4–8.

Its main results include five original physical board games, digital adaptations, printable and editable components, a pedagogical handbook and policy recommendations.

Available resources

• Friends: An intercultural board game developed in Ireland, using a journey around the world to introduce children to languages, cultural traditions, food and social interaction.
• The Journey: A board game developed in Cyprus, featuring travel across thematic islands and questions or activities related to food, language, travel, nature and emotions.
• Better Together: A cooperative game developed in Austria, representing the experience of building a new life in another country through friendship, language sharing and collaborative storytelling.
• Space Inclusion: A cooperative game developed in Portugal, involving a shared space adventure and challenges associated with friendship, communication and curiosity.
• Togetherland: An intercultural game developed in Belgium, combining thematic questions, cultural exchange, special challenges and card collection.
• Physical Print-and-Play Resources: Printable versions of the five games made available through the project’s Zenodo community.
• Translated Game Materials: Multilingual versions of the games supporting their use in different educational contexts.
• Editable Templates: Resources intended to allow additional translations and adaptations beyond the original languages.
• Digital Gaming Pack: Online versions of the five games accessible through a dedicated multiplayer platform.
• Online Multiplayer Rooms: Features allowing players to create or join game sessions and share access links with others.
• Pedagogical Handbook on the Intercultural Pack of Digital Games: A detailed publication explaining the educational rationale, co-creation process, intended learning outcomes, intercultural dimensions, digital platform and individual game instructions.
• Game Implementation Guidance: Practical instructions for preparing and facilitating game sessions with children in educational and family contexts.
• White Paper – Policy Recommendations for Intercultural Play in Early Childhood Education: A publication presenting the project’s experiences, relevant educational challenges and recommendations for inclusive early childhood education.
• Project Newsletters: Publications describing co-creation, testing, dissemination, community activities and lessons learned.
• International Pilot Documentation: Reports of game testing and educator feedback, including activities in Belgian community centres.
• Scientific and Theoretical References: The Pedagogical Handbook draws on the Creative and Playful Learning framework and relevant literature concerning early childhood development, play and intercultural education.

Open access and licensing

The project explicitly promotes free access to its educational results through Zenodo.

The Pedagogical Handbook identifies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).

Before redistributing or adapting an individual game, users should verify the licence attached to its specific Zenodo record.

Transferability

The availability of physical and digital versions provides opportunities to use the games in classrooms, kindergartens, after-school programmes and family environments.

The editable resources are particularly valuable because they allow educators to adapt cultural content and translate the games into additional languages.

The Pedagogical Handbook provides support for implementation, while the White Paper offers recommendations for integrating intercultural play into broader educational practice.

The games can also be used with mixed groups of children, encouraging interaction between pupils with different languages and cultural backgrounds.

Replicability assessment

KiDLE offers a comparatively high level of resource availability because the official website is operational and the game materials are preserved in an established open research repository.

The five games are also available digitally, with documented rules and educational guidance.

However, reproducing the complete educational intervention and independently evaluating its effects would require additional information about session frequency, participant characteristics, implementation procedures and learning assessment instruments.

Replicability status: High for accessing and adapting games and pedagogical resources; partial for replicating the implementation and evaluation methodology.

Official resources:

• KiDLE – Intercultural Board Games
• KiDLE – Zenodo Community
• KiDLE – Digital Games
• KiDLE – Pedagogical Handbook
• KiDLE – White Paper and Policy Recommendations

KiDLE represents a valuable example of European Board Game-Based Learning focused on intercultural inclusion in early childhood and primary education.

Its main methodological contribution lies in combining participatory game development, multilingual educational content and age-appropriate opportunities for children to interact across cultural and linguistic differences.

The project’s five games demonstrate different approaches to incorporating inclusion into gameplay, ranging from conventional question-based formats to cooperative challenges in which participants contribute to shared objectives.

Methodological strengths

1. Participatory development with the target population. The involvement of children, parents and educators is one of the project’s most important strengths. Rather than designing all game content exclusively from the perspective of adults or external specialists, KiDLE incorporated the experiences and preferences of the intended participants.
2. Structured co-creation methodology. The project documents a coherent process based on orientation, creation, gameplay and elaboration. This provides an adaptable framework for future educational projects interested in developing inclusive games.
3. Recognition of children’s cultural identities. Several games invite participants to share their own experiences, traditions and languages. This approach allows children from migrant backgrounds to contribute knowledge rather than participate only as recipients of information about the host country.
4. Multilingual participation. The inclusion of language-sharing activities, including recorded phrases in Better Together, creates opportunities for participants to recognise the value of different home languages.
5. Cooperation integrated into selected mechanics. Space Inclusion requires players to work together to repair a spaceship, while Better Together involves collective progression and the construction of a shared home. In these games, cooperation forms part of the central objective rather than functioning exclusively as an external educational recommendation.
6. Symbolic representation of belonging. The final challenge in Better Together is particularly interesting because children contribute individual objects to a collectively created home. This links the game’s narrative and activities with its objective of building a sense of belonging.
7. Positive treatment of peer assistance. Friends and The Journey create opportunities for children to ask for and receive help. This is relevant in multilingual groups where participants may have different levels of familiarity with the language of instruction.
8. Open-ended intercultural discussion. Togetherland includes questions without a single correct answer, encouraging participants to share experiences and recognise diversity rather than simply identify predetermined facts.
9. Variety of game formats. The five games use different themes, mechanics and approaches, offering educators alternatives suited to different ages, group characteristics and learning objectives.
10. Use across formal and non-formal settings. The documented Belgian implementation in after-school centres demonstrates that the resources can be used outside conventional classrooms.
11. Physical and digital availability. The publication of analogue game materials and multiplayer digital versions provides flexibility in different educational environments.
12. Resource preservation in Zenodo. Depositing printable games, translations and editable templates in an established repository addresses an important sustainability problem frequently encountered in European educational projects.
13. Policy-oriented dissemination. The White Paper connects the project experience with broader recommendations for inclusive early childhood education, extending its potential relevance beyond the immediate game activities.

Methodological limitations

1. Uneven integration between learning objectives and game mechanics. The five games differ substantially in how inclusion and intercultural learning are represented.

Friends and The Journey largely use traditional movement and thematic question cards, whereas Better Together and Space Inclusion place stronger emphasis on collective objectives and shared participation.

This distinction is important because learning about cultural differences through questions is not identical to experiencing cooperation and mutual dependence through game mechanics.

2. Limited evidence of measurable educational effectiveness. The project documents co-creation, implementation and formative evaluation, but no controlled study demonstrating improvements in children’s intercultural competence, language development or sense of belonging was identified in the reviewed sources.

3. Challenges in assessing inclusion. Social inclusion is a complex construct that cannot be established solely through participation in a game or positive observations during a session.

Appropriate evaluation would require measures addressing peer relationships, participation, classroom belonging and relevant social behaviours over time.

4. Different levels of adult support. Some activities require reading, language interpretation, drawing or digital interaction. Children aged 4–8 may therefore need different levels of assistance depending on their age, language proficiency and previous experiences.

The role of the facilitator should be carefully documented when comparing implementation across settings.

5. Potential duration challenges. Several games have estimated playing times of up to 60–90 minutes, which may be demanding for younger children unless sessions include breaks or are adapted to their attention and developmental needs.

6. Cultural knowledge versus intercultural relationships. Learning facts about countries, traditions or food does not automatically produce changes in attitudes or relationships between children from different backgrounds.

The educational process is likely to depend on how games facilitate meaningful interaction, shared experiences and recognition of other participants’ perspectives.

7. Variability of game experiences. The five games differ in themes, complexity, player counts and mechanics. Their educational effects should therefore be studied individually rather than assuming that all games produce comparable results.

8. Digital accessibility and supervision. Online multiplayer games offer additional opportunities for participation, but may require suitable devices, stable connectivity, adult supervision and support for children unfamiliar with digital environments.

9. Lack of a standardised debriefing protocol. Although reflection is embedded in several activities and is documented during game development, the reviewed materials do not establish a uniform post-game discussion procedure applied across all games.

10. Long-term transfer remains unverified. No sufficiently documented longitudinal evidence was identified demonstrating that game participation led to sustained improvements in school inclusion, language proficiency or peer relationships.

Ludus Magnus assessment

KiDLE is particularly valuable because it addresses intercultural inclusion from a participatory perspective, involving children and families in the development of the resources intended for their use.

This approach recognises that meaningful educational games should take account of the experiences, languages and perspectives of their intended participants.

However, the project also offers an opportunity to examine an important distinction within educational board game design.

Some games introduce cultural content through conventional questions and challenges attached to roll-and-move mechanics. Others require cooperation, assistance and shared construction to achieve the game’s objectives.

From a Board Game-Based Learning perspective, Better Together and Space Inclusion are particularly interesting because their cooperative structures have a more direct relationship with the intended educational goals of belonging, mutual support and inclusion.

The final shared-home activity in Better Together is especially noteworthy. Each child contributes something individually meaningful to a collective result, creating a symbolic representation of inclusion through gameplay.

Friends and The Journey offer a different contribution through exposure to languages, cultural traditions and opportunities for peer assistance.

Nevertheless, their educational impact may depend more strongly on the content of the questions and the quality of the interaction encouraged by facilitators.

Togetherland occupies an intermediate position, combining a conventional board structure with open-ended questions and opportunities for children to share personal experiences.

The project’s diversity of game designs creates an interesting opportunity for comparative research.

Future studies could examine whether games with intrinsically cooperative mechanics produce different outcomes from games based primarily on cultural questions, using comparable participant groups and validated measures of inclusion, communication and social interaction.

Another relevant research direction would be to compare KiDLE’s purpose-designed games with existing commercial cooperative board games accompanied by suitable intercultural educational materials.

Such a comparison could help determine whether developing original educational games provides additional benefits beyond those achievable through the pedagogical adaptation of established recreational games.

KiDLE also provides a positive example of resource sustainability. The preservation of printable games and editable templates in Zenodo increases the likelihood that educators and researchers can access the results beyond the original funding period.

This should be regarded as an important methodological and organisational strength, particularly compared with European projects whose educational outputs disappear when project websites cease to function.

Transferable methodological lesson: Intercultural Board Game-Based Learning can be strengthened by involving children and families in game design, recognising participants’ home languages and embedding cooperation and shared objectives directly into gameplay. However, successful participation and positive feedback should be distinguished from demonstrated improvements in social inclusion, and future evaluations should examine the educational contribution of different game mechanics through appropriate outcome measures.