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Culture in Social Robots for Education

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Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

Abstract

Education is one of the predominant applications that is foreseen by researchers in social robotics. In this context, social robots are often designed to interact with one or several learners and with teachers. While educational scenarios for social robots have been studied widely, with experiments being conducted in several countries for nearly 20 years, the cultural impact of accepting social robots in classrooms is still unclear. In this paper, we review the literature on social robots for education with the lens of cultural sensitivity and adaptation. We discuss culture theories and their application in social robotics and highlight research gaps in terms of culture-sensitive design and cultural adaptation in social robots assisting learners in terms of (1) the robot’s role, (2) envisioned tasks, and (3) interaction types. We also present guidelines for designing cross-cultural robots and culturally adaptive systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/

  2. 2.

    https://www.oecd.org/education/asian-countries-top-oecd-S-latest-pisa-survey-on-state-of-global-education.htm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Barbara Bruno

  2. Department of Robotics and Mechatronics, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

    Aida Amirova & Anara Sandygulova

  3. Human-Computer Interaction, Institute of Computer Science, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Birgit Lugrin

  4. School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Wafa Johal

Authors
  1. Barbara Bruno
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  2. Aida Amirova
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  3. Anara Sandygulova
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  4. Birgit Lugrin
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  5. Wafa Johal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wafa Johal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Creative Robotics Lab, University of New South Wales, Paddington, NSW, Australia

    Belinda J. Dunstan

  2. Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore, Singapore

    Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh

  3. Creative Robotics Lab, University of New South Wales, Paddington, NSW, Australia

    Deborah Turnbull Tillman

  4. Creative Robotics Lab, University of New South Wales, Paddington, NSW, Australia

    Scott Andrew Brown

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Bruno, B., Amirova, A., Sandygulova, A., Lugrin, B., Johal, W. (2023). Culture in Social Robots for Education. In: Dunstan, B.J., Koh, J.T.K.V., Turnbull Tillman, D., Brown, S.A. (eds) Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_9

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