Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception toward Global Learning Experiences

Implications for Teacher Intercultural Competency Development

Abstract

With the shifting makeup of the student populations and their needs in today’s changing landscapes of education, teacher education reforms in the U.S. have placed a premium on the development of knowledge and skills that characterizes culturally and linguistically competent teaching necessary for pre-service teachers to address the needs of a changing society. While there is no exact blueprint or recipe to follow for developing intercultural competence, numerous studies suggest that pre-service teachers need to be provided with opportunities that are grounded in a wide range of culturally and linguistically diverse classroom experiences and practices including exposure to overseas professional experiences and diverse worldviews to increase the focus on intercultural understanding and learning among the skills needed for beginning teachers to enter the profession (Moloney, Harbon, Fielding, 2016; Quezada, 2004; Shiveley & Misco, 2015)

Drawing on existing frameworks of orientations, pedagogical knowledge and skills for preparing culturally competent teachers (Cushner & Mahon, 2009; Hammer, & Bennett, 2012; Ukpokodu, 2011), the aim of this study is to better understand and gauge the skills and knowledge that pre-service teachers gained from their global professional experiences needed to support their diverse learners in a culturally and linguistically competent way in an effort to identify knowledge gaps relating to this area of study in teacher education. This study examined preservice teachers' (N =17) attitudes and perception of their international field experience in a core TESOL course where New York-based teacher educators conducted both a ‘virtual global visit’ to a school in New Delhi, India where they were ‘escorted’ and guided by their Indian global partners to survey the host schools’ learning environment and culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices.

Results indicate that while most participants are aware of pedagogical knowledge related to intercultural understanding and aware of the need to work with students from diverse cultures, there were significant levels of knowledge gaps when they were taken out of their cultural and linguistic comfort zones. In particular, teacher candidates were undecided as to the impact the intercultural competency development may have on their abilities to function in multicultural and multilingual contexts that differ from their own, or to communicate with teaching professionals, students and their families from diverse backgrounds. The authors recommend that teacher education programs incorporate a critical approach to global learning experience in teacher education programs to address these knowledge gaps in theory and practice throughout meaningful experiential learning in a comprehensive, long-term manner, so that candidates can develop the knowledge and competencies necessary to engage differences and in so doing, continue to strengthen their commitment to questioning oneself, to engagement with different perspectives, and ultimately more equitable learning outcomes for all of their students.