ESL student teachers' perceptions of a short-term overseas immersion programme

In recent years there has been an increasing demand for teachers to develop the international knowledge and skills necessary to help promote their students' global perspectives. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has seized the initiative to provide mandatory overseas immersion programmes for pre-service English teachers to enhance their language proficiency and cultural understanding. This study involved a group of Hong Kong English language student teachers who joined a six-week immersion programme in Auckland. The aim of the present investigation was to address our dearth of knowledge as to the impact of such a programme on student teachers, and the benefits that they could derive from it. Several obstacles that might hinder maximal benefits were also identified.     

Assessing multicultural competence (knowledge and awareness) in study abroad experiences

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the study abroad experience on student multicultural competence (i.e. knowledge and awareness) using the Multicultural Counselling Knowledge and Awareness Scale in two study abroad programmes during four separate yearly excursions. The first study abroad programme incorporated cultural immersion and two courses taught over five weeks in Germany. The second five-week study abroad programme focused on exploring non-governmental organisations and development as well as multicultural competence in India. Effect size results indicate that both direct and indirect approaches to increasing multicultural competence can be effective in exposing students to diverse immersive multicultural perspectives, norms, rituals, and practices.     

Disorienting experiences during study abroad: Reflections of pre-service teacher candidates

This study examines the study-abroad experiences of pre-service teacher candidates at the Faculty of Education, York University, using transformative learning theory. Disorienting experiences are a crucial first step for perspective transformation; students reported facing racial dynamics, “outsider” status, risk-taking behavior and power relations. Students’ utilized a variety of reflection opportunities; however, critical self-reflection imperative for transformation requires greater awareness of one’s frame of reference. Future studies need to examine how students’ specificities shape the realization of study-abroad goals for pre-service teachers and their ability to develop global consciousness and to work towards an equitable and just society.     

Consonance and dissonance in a study abroad program as a catalyst for professional development of pre-service teachers

This research examines the experiences of elementary and early childhood pre-service teachers from the U.S. engaged in a month long study abroad internship program in England. Using data from participants written journals, we use a hermeneutic approach to interrogate their evolving sense of professional development and their understanding of cultural differences in the internship in England. Informed by a theoretical framework of consonance and dissonance (Cochran-Smith, M. (1991). Reinventing student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 104–118), the emerging themes were related to the school context, the teacher's role, the learners, the buildings, and the community. Implications are for planning and facilitation of pre-service teachers study abroad experiences are discussed.     

Opening the black box of field experiences: How cooperating teachers' beliefs and practices shape student teachers' beliefs and practices

This study employed ethnographic methods to describe and explain changes to beginning science teachers' (n = 6) practices and beliefs during a year long internship. Teaching practices were strongly influenced by the cooperating teachers. Initially, all six interns attempted to re-enact lessons they witnessed their cooperating teachers teach, including following lesson structures and borrowing representations, anecdotes, and jokes. Later, they independently implemented instruction that emphasized similar strategies as their mentors, regardless of whether or not they were experiencing success. Interns who were successful also shifted their beliefs to match their mentors.     

Gender and intercultural competence: analysis of intercultural competence among upper secondary school students in Denmark and Norway

Abstract

The pluralisation of European societies has produced national and cultural diversification, increasing the need for communication and understanding to support recognition, equality, justice, self-determination and identification with others. This paper responds to the social and political challenges accompanying immigration by focusing on gender differences in intercultural competence among a selection of Danish and Norwegian secondary school students. Data came from questionnaires given to 895 students from four schools—two Danish and two Norwegian. One major finding was gender differences in intercultural competence, which is discussed using inclusive citizenship theory, gender socialization theory and feminist standpoint theory. For the control variables, cultural capital theory and intergroup contact theory were used to analyse students’ experiences of school diversity and their intercultural competence. School diversity contributed moderately to greater intercultural competence while moderate differences arose between national samples. Finally, teaching implications are discussed.     

Looking through the lens of a teacher's life: The power of prototypical stories in understanding teachers' instructional decisions in mathematics

The focus of this narrative inquiry was to examine how teachers describe influences on their instructional decisions in mathematics. Using a lens provided by pivotal or prototypical stories teachers told about their past experiences, connections were suggested between these past experiences and their instructional decisions. These connections helped to illustrate how instructional decisions may be shaped by priorities and beliefs established earlier in life, as well as by current contexts. Further research on the use and characteristics of prototypical stories is suggested.     

Students in service of the state: Uncoupling student trips abroad and global competence

Student exchange programs and trips abroad are consistently portrayed in scholarship as a strategy for promoting students’ global competence. Through a thematic document analysis of a mandatory course developed by the Israeli MOE for students embarking on trips abroad and additional sources, I explore the discourse used to portray these trips in the Israeli context, showing an alternative model that places the state rather than students at the center of these programs. Although from an education perspective this discourse is distinct, political science scholarship suggests the goals it embodies could be embedded across many national contexts, albeit more discretely.     

Learning for professional life: Student teachers' and graduated teachers' views of learning,responsibility and collaboration

The focus of this study is on how final-semester students and newly-graduated teachers experience the formal objectives of teacher education, with a particular view of the concepts of learning, responsibility and collaboration. The ways of experiencing these concepts varied from conceptions in which only one dimension is discerned from in the student teachers group to conceptions in which several dimensions of the phenomena are discerned in the graduate teachers group.     

The role of growth mindset in shaping teachers' intercultural competencies: A study among Finnish teachers

Cultural heterogenisation of classrooms and existing achievement gaps have led to an acknowledgement of the need to develop teachers' intercultural competencies. A growth mindset (a belief that intelligence, personality and other such qualities can be cultivated) predicts positive intergroup attitudes and reduces stereotyping, but has not been researched as an aspect of teachers' intercultural competence. This study analyses the role of growth mindset in shaping three aspects relevant to teachers' intercultural competencies: process versus trait orientation to students, diversity beliefs and orientation to social justice and equity. Fifteen Finnish comprehensive schoolteachers were interviewed. Significant differences were found between teachers with fixed and growth mindsets. Teachers with a growth mindset were more likely to hold polyculturalist beliefs about the interconnectedness and changeability of cultures, and to recognise and combat issues of social injustice and inequity. Teachers with a fixed mindset made trait-focused interpretations of their students and did not easily recognise problems of social justice in school or in society. These results encourage us to suggest that a growth mindset is a construct with a lot of potential to introduce novel approaches to multi/intercultural and social justice teacher education, but more research is needed. The implications of the findings for teacher education and further research are discussed.     

Delving into the meaning of productive reflection: A study of future teachers' reflections on representations of teaching

This study incorporated multiple methods of analysis to explore the productivity of future teachers' reflections after viewing animations as representations of algebra instruction. Two groups of future teachers posted their reflections on an asynchronous, electronic discussion board with no instructor scaffolding. The productivity of the reflections varied depending on whether their content, connectedness, or complexity was considered. This highlights the need to consider reflection as a multidimensional construct. The role of teacher educators and the benefits of using animations to facilitate productive reflection by future teachers are considered. In addition, the studying and reporting of reflection data are also discussed.     

Initial epistemological beliefs transformation in one teacher education classroom: Case study of four preservice teachers

Education literature suggests that preservice teachers hold similar initial beliefs, viewing the teacher as the authority figure passing knowledge to the students. In consistency with constructivist practice, these beliefs should be challenged to enable the preservice teachers to develop alternative ideas, seeing the students capable of constructing knowledge with the help of the teacher. These beliefs are found difficult to change in the course environment. Drawing on surveys and teaching observations from four preservice teachers in an introduction methods course, the study showed that the four participants had different epistemological beliefs, some beliefs being more resistant to change than others.     

Kindergarten teachers' literacy beliefs and self-reported practices: On the heels of a new national literacy curriculum

This study took place six years after the introduction of a national early literacy curriculum in Israel. We compared the beliefs of kindergarten teachers on the importance of literacy goals with their perception of parents' and the educational system's beliefs. We examined teachers' self-reported practices and how these practices changed with the curriculum adoption. Teachers (N = 120) responded to a closed questionnaire, and 12 of them were interviewed. Incongruence emerged between teachers' own beliefs and the beliefs they attributed to others. This incongruence facilitates understanding of the rationales for their practices and their relationships with parents and professional partners.     

A phenomenological study of an international teaching practicum: Pre-service teachers' experiences of professional development

This article reports a research project planned and organized by the School of Educational Studies of Universiti Sains Malaysia to provide an international teaching practicum experience to six pre-service teachers for six weeks in Maldives. Using qualitative data from an open-ended questionnaire and reflective journals, the six pre-service teachers' experience of professional development during their international teaching practicum is examined, analysed and described. The findings show that the six students experienced beneficial and meaningful professional development. Some challenges and limitations of the international practicum are also highlighted. Based on this study, implications for teacher education/training of TESOL/TESL teachers are suggested.     

The development of personal,intercultural and professional competence in international field experience in initial teacher education

This paper reports a qualitative case study of four preservice student teachers’ professional learning experiences in an international field experience programme situated in the language and cultural immersion component of a PGDE(Primary) Programme in Hong Kong. Two of the student teachers undertook the international field experience in Australia and Canada. The other two had their “non-local” field experience in mainland China1. The findings reveal student teachers' development in personal and intercultural competence in cross-cultural experiences. Their professional learning experiences in the action context, socio-professional context, and supervisory context of the cross-cultural school settings, and their reflection upon these experiences constituted the development of their professional competence. Suggestions for improvement of the international field experience programme and implications for future research are discussed.     

A typological approach to investigate the teaching career decision: Motivations and beliefs about teaching of prospective teacher candidates

This study utilized cluster analysis to identify typologies of prospective teachers enrolled in a teacher education program in the U.S. based upon their self-report motivations for teaching. A three-cluster solution generated three distinctive typologies of prospective teachers (N’s of 93, 70 and 52), and further differences among typologies were investigated with respect to participants’ beliefs about teaching.Follow-up semi-structured interviews confirmed meaningful differences found between the clusters with regard to unique combination of motivations and beliefs about teaching relevant to each typology. Implications for teacher education and teacher development are further discussed in relationship with study findings.     

It's not all about school: Ways of disrupting pre-service teachers' perceptions of pedagogy and communication

Many pre-service teachers enter teacher education with problematic or unexamined assumptions about learners and teaching. This article reports on an authentic learning opportunity offered to 22 pre-service teachers in their first year at university, which attempts to disrupt these perceptions about learning and pedagogy. Using a new application of Butin's conceptual framework we show that during the project these participants developed more complex notions of learners and ways of making meaning. We argue that these ‘real-world’ experiences, when offered before pre-service teachers begin practicum in schools, provide more ‘resources’ to problematise the practices and institutional discourses encountered in schools.     

The Difficulty of Change: The Impact of Personal School Experience and Teacher Education on the Work of Beginning Language Teachers

This case‐study investigates the impact of personal school experience and initial teacher education on the work of six beginning language teachers. Insights into the thinking and acting of the subjects are gained through an interpretative analysis of their interviews. The findings indicate that one’s own school experience has an important role in constructing practical knowledge during the first years of teaching. Part of this experience is unconscious and difficult to express in words; nevertheless, it has an impact on the actions of the beginning language teacher. Furthermore, the ability of the teachers in the study to use knowledge learned during the teacher education is dependent on their ability to self‐reflect.     

Intercultural learning in English as foreign language instruction: The importance of teachers’ intercultural experience and the usefulness of precise instructional directives

The development of intercultural competence, especially in foreign language instruction, is considered a key goal of teaching in German schools. The present article sheds light on the teaching of intercultural topics in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). It presents the results of an analysis of data from a larger study (DESI study – Assessment of Student Achievements in German and English as a Foreign Language) bringing the intercultural experience of teachers and observable aspects of instruction into focus. Videotapes of EFL-classroom instruction of 9th and 10th grade students are analyzed in order to assess characteristic of the implementation of intercultural topics. The study reveals the impact of teachers’ intercultural experience on the quality of their intercultural instruction. Furthermore, the results indicate that precise external directives for particular lessons can help teachers put intercultural topics into practice.