“My Name is Sonrie, and I Come from Afar!” – Co-Designing a Social Robot for Multicultural Early Education

Co-design is widely used in educational contexts to involve stakeholders and make them active participants in the learning process. This study presents the co-design process conducted with teachers, educators, and families before introducing a social robot in four Italian preschools and a nursery. The robot is expected to promote intercultural awareness in a highly culturally diverse educational environment. We consider the co-design process an essential step, as teachers and educators, by knowing the social rules and pedagogical concepts of each specific educational context, can tailor the unique characteristics of the robot (being embodied and equipped with social behaviors) to effectively benefit their pedagogical reality. In addition, stakeholders, through co-design, can incorporate cultural awareness of children and their families into the robot design. The results obtained after the co-design process highlight that the co-creation of robotic applications and the robot's imagery before its actual introduction into activities is fundamental for developing a framework tailored to a specific educational context, for reformulating the project's prerogatives in such a way that it becomes part of the educational reality, and for giving teachers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the robot, understand its capabilities, and exploit them according to their educational context.