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SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

Shifting Perspectives and Pedagogies: The Impact of Student Teaching Abroad

Tine Falk Sloan, Hsiu-Zu Ho, Elizabeth Sciaky, Kara Otto

Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Corresponding author: Tine F. Sloan, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education , Education Bldg.

275, MC 9490, Santa Barbara CA 93106-9490; email: [email protected]

Author Note: The authors appreciate the participation of the teacher candidates who were

selected for the 2013-2014 teacher exchange program.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

Shifting Perspectives and Pedagogies: The Impact of Student Teaching Abroad

Improving the quality of the next generation teaching force is an issue of significant

public policy concern in the United States, and arguably one of the most important levers to

improving K-12 education for a 21st century world (White House Office of the Press Secretary,

2014). Demands on 21st century education arise in part from an increasingly globalized

economy and inter-dependent world—a world that requires students who understand, problem

solve, and think critically and creatively in ways that connect them with broad perspectives and

resources (e.g., Dolby & Rahman, 2008; Parker, 2008; Parker & Camicia, 2008; Spring, 2008).

A related though different demand speaks to the need for classroom practice that increases

success for all students, in part by meeting the gifts and challenges of an increasingly ethnically

and linguistically diverse schooling population (Gay, 2001; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzales,

1992; Nieto, 1996; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). The latter demand is especially true for California

classrooms, where the diversity of students with respect to race, culture, language, disabilities,

and socio-economic status is greater than most states, and where 73% of students are non-white,

but only 29% of teachers are non-white (Boser, 2014).

Learning to teach in globally competent and culturally responsive ways is one primary

argument for the internationalization of teacher education (Longview Foundation, 2008;

Merryfield, 2000; Schneider, 2003; Quezada, 2010). There are many ways scholars who have

conceptualized what internationalization of teacher education means and looks like (see e.g.,

Brennan & Cleary, 2007; Cushner & Brennan, 2007; Mahon & Cushner, 2002; Mahon &

Espinetti, 2007) but the crux of these ideas is that teachers need experiences with students from

multiple cultures (see e.g, Cochran-Smith, 2001; Goodlad, 1990; Ladson-Billings 2001),

experiences where they are a minority within a culture (Sleeter, 2001), and experiences with the

resources and perspectives of individuals from different parts of the world. In addition, we argue

that for the purpose of developing a new teacher’s practice and knowledge about practice, the

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

international experience requires the developing teacher to engage as a teacher (rather than as a

student or tourist), with supports that both help him/her make sense of an international

experience in terms of teaching and learning, as well as integrate new perspectives into

classroom practice upon return.

Concerned with the mission to prepare a 21st century teaching force for California,

researchers and administrators of a university-based teacher preparation program engaged in and

researched a pilot program designed to understand and enact what it means to internationalize

teacher education. Program faculty developed a teaching practicum exchange with programs in

Denmark, Singapore, and Switzerland. Within this exchange, teacher candidates engaged in a 4-

6 week student-teaching placement abroad, where the California institution hosted eleven teacher

candidates from their international partners in the fall (2013), and sent eleven of their candidates

abroad for the month of January (2014).

To aid in the programmatic development of the experience, and determine what is

essential for developing teacher candidates’ inquiry and practice, we engaged in a study

organized around three primary questions: 1) How did the teacher candidates process their

international experience? 2) What changed in terms of their understandings about teaching and

learning? and 3) How did they integrate and incorporate their new perspectives upon returning to

teach in U.S. classrooms?

Method

The Program

The teacher preparation program is housed within a graduate school at a large public

research university in California. The 13-month, post-baccalaureate program works with 75-100

candidates per year. It offers graduate students a California teaching credential in either

elementary, secondary, or special education, and an optional Master’s degree in education

(M.Ed.). The program is known to be rigorous and selective.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

Student teaching is continuous, spans the academic year and runs concurrent with

coursework. Teacher candidates are on school sites during the day and the university in the

afternoon and evening. The community in which candidates teach has a K-12 population that

includes students of primarily Hispanic or Anglo ethnicity, and English language learners

comprise approximately 25% to 80% of students.

The international teaching practicum was carefully designed to ensure the teacher

candidates received essential supports to participate in and process experiences while teaching in

a new country (e.g., weekly journal writing with specific prompts, guidelines and expectations

for the host country’s teachers and assigned supervisors). Prior to embarking on their

international placement, candidates spent three to four days a week in their first U.S. student

teaching classrooms for approximately seventeen weeks. During winter break they traveled to

their host countries to teach there for four weeks (January 2014). Upon their return they

immediately began a new U.S. teaching placement, where they remained until the end of the

school year (approximately eighteen weeks). During their month away, the program remained in

session for the rest of the program candidates. Therefore, a significant program design challenge

was how to support candidates while away, allow space for their work abroad, while still

ensuring they kept up with coursework necessary to become licensed to teach in the State of

California.

Participants

Candidates were selected via an application and interview process. Thirty-six applied

and eleven were chosen: Three elementary and one secondary candidate to travel to Denmark;

three elementary and two secondary candidates to Singapore; and two elementary candidates to

Switzerland. Seven candidates were female and four were male. Criteria for selection included

a strong academic and collegial standing in the program, openness to new experiences, and

strong communication skills. The present study focuses on the experiences of the eleven U.S.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

teacher candidates selected to participate in the international exchange; hereafter they will be

referred to as international teacher candidates or ITCs.

Data Sources

Data sources included weekly journals; evaluations from international cooperating

teachers and university supervisors; pre- and post-practicum responses to the My Cultural

Awareness Survey (Marx & Moss, 2011), administered in December 2013 and June 2014; M.Ed.

thesis chapters on the international experience as it related to the ITCs’ M.Ed. topic; ITCs’ focus

group interviews immediately upon return (February 2014); individual ITC interviews at the end

of the preparation program (June 2014); and focus group interviews of the university supervisors

at the end of the preparation program (June 2014). The work cited here draws primarily on the

individual and focus group interviews of the ITCs who were asked about the ways their

experience abroad changed their perspectives on teaching, learning or schooling, and if/how they

were incorporating these perspectives into their practice as educators.

Analysis

This study used Attride-Stirling’s (2001) qualitative method of thematic network analysis

to extrapolate common themes from interviews of the ITCs. The Attride-Stirling method is a

systematic tool for organizing and making connections among themes in qualitative data. In this

method, thematic networks are developed from three classes of themes: basic, organizing, and

global. The development of the network begins with the extraction of the lowest-order premises

that are evident in the textual data referred to as Basic Themes. The Basic Themes are then

grouped into a number of broader middle-order themes referred to as Organizing Themes. In

turn, the Organizing Themes are organized under a macro-theme referred to as Global Themes.

The Global Themes are considered a “summary of the main themes and a revealing interpretation

of the texts” (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Thematic networks are represented graphically as web-like

nets to emphasize the interconnectivity throughout the network (Attride-Stirling, 2001).

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Results and Discussion

Three “global” themes emerged from the ITCs’ interview data, which we interpret as:

Sense-Making of the International Experience, Perspective Into Practice, and Identity as Teacher.

The Sense-Making of the International Experience theme encompasses the cognitive sense-

making the ITCs engaged in while abroad and upon their return, as well as the mechanisms that

both supported and hindered this processing. The theme of Perspective Into Practice emerged

from the ITCs’ reflections on new perspectives about classroom practice and their attempts to

integrate these perspectives into their student teaching (or future planned) classrooms upon

return to the United States. The theme of Identity as Teacher is about the ways in which the ITCs’

values, beliefs, and sense of self changed a result of their time abroad, including impacts on their

personal and professional identities.

All three global themes are important to understanding the impact of the exchange on

these developing teachers, however, given space limitations and because there is more literature

that documents changes to teachers’ identities (see e.g., Barr, 1995; Mwebi & Brigham, 2009;

Rodriguez, 2011), whereas less that reports on actual changes to classroom practice, we have

chosen to focus this chapter on the first two global themes. Each of these global themes are

comprised of two or more organizing themes, each of which are, in turn, comprised of several

basic themes (again, due to space limitations we also narrowed our focus of basic themes). In

order to illustrate the themes, it is best to look at them separately, and to make liberal use of the

candidates’ own words when possible. A short discussion follows each global theme in order to

highlight important findings, the connections among themes, and implications for teaching

exchange programs.

Global Theme: Sense-Making of the International Experience

This theme was the broadest, and perhaps the most challenging to comprehend and

categorize, as it was often evident that the candidates (who had returned only four months earlier)

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

were still trying to make sense of their experiences. In the end the data clustered around two

organizing themes abstracted from the basic themes: Cognitive Comparisons and Mechanisms

for Processing. The relationship between these organizing themes and the basic themes from

which they were abstracted can be seen in Figure 1 below.

______________________________________

Insert Figure 1 about here

______________________________________

Sense-Making: cognitive comparisons. In order to make sense of their abroad

experiences, the ITCs frequently engaged in comparisons of their foreign and domestic contexts.

The candidates noticed many differences and similarities between the respective environments

and often (though not always) candidates would offer either a positive or negative assessment of

these differences and similarities. Sometimes, however, a comparison left the ITCs feeling

confused and uncertain, prompting them to ask questions in an attempt to resolve tension in their

observations.

Sense-making: cognitive comparison: similarities. While the data reveal that

comparisons generally focused on the differences, it was striking how often the ITCs would

notice similarities. Often these would help them relate to or connect with their host environment.

Sometimes these observations were expressions of solidarity, and appeared to be a source of

comfort and reassurance for the ITCs. For example, one of the ITCs placed in Singapore

remarked:

I think it’s valuable to see kids in a different culture that are just kids, and they laugh at

the same things our kids laugh about, and you can pick out that type of kid – the studious

kid, the goof-off kid, the shy ones – that sort of thing transcends culture, which is really

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

interesting, which makes you wonder if good education practices should be the same

everywhere if kids are the same everywhere.

Such observations helped the ITCs to envision themselves and their foreign counterparts

as equal partners, dealing with similar, relatable issues and working toward similar goals.

However, not all of the similarities observed by ITCs were deemed positive. For example, one

of the ITCs had been told to expect an eye-opening experience when it came to math instruction

in Singapore, but once she was there, did not feel that anything she saw abroad was dramatically

different from what she might see at home.

I feel like they were doing a lot of the same things that we do in my, in the classes that I

was with, that I was in for math. The way that they were teaching it, and even other

lessons, it was really similar to what, I don't think … there was a lot to change in my new

classroom, regarding the curriculum. I think it was really similar in my experience.

In some cases, ITCs found that the U.S. and their international placements shared similar

challenges or weakness. In the following example, an ITC placed in Switzerland describes how

his host cooperating teacher complained about how, in Switzerland, they value German and Math

at the expense of other subjects. Consequently, as illustrated below, this ITC realized that in his

own American context, things were not so different.

And, he said, 'Yeah, we supposedly say that we care about everything, like arts and

history, and science, and characteristics like honesty and citizenship. But really, all we

care about is Math and German. If you want to succeed, all you have to do is Math and

German.' I came back here, and it's the same thing. If you want to succeed, you've just

got to speak English and do math. Other than that, no one [cares].

Sense-making: cognitive comparison: differences. Candidates needed to make sense of

the various differences they encountered in their foreign contexts. To do this, they often went

beyond simple observations and tried to understand the cultural reasons behind these differences.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

The differences were too numerous and too varied to fully account for in this publication. Also,

these observations naturally tended to differ somewhat according to the country in which the ITC

was placed. We will highlight the differences that appeared to have the biggest impact on the

ITCs, some of which were similar within two or more locations.

For example, the ITCs noticed that the members of their host countries seemed to have a

greater awareness of their place as one among many nations in the world, and that this awareness

could be seen in the curricula they chose to adopt. ITCs who traveled to Switzerland and

Singapore noticed this awareness through the outward appreciation of the linguistic and cultural

diversity in their classrooms, including the significant instructional time devoted to mastering

and maintaining multiple languages. In Denmark, ITCs perceived that, unlike the United States,

Danish schools seemed to be more culturally homogenous, yet still more internationally-minded

than the more diverse U.S. institutions. They were amazed to meet so many multilingual

children, and see how much time the schools spent on cultivating an awareness of the world

around them. One ITC shared the following about comparisons between his U.S. English

learners’ language use and his Swiss students’ language use:

I noticed a lot of code switching between Spanish and English, and students helping each

other in Spanish. And, the school kind of being - not really caring about that. Like,

oblivious… I mean, in Switzerland, it would be something that you would be proud of,

that you spoke French, you spoke German, you spoke Italian. There'd be tests which

would show your language proficiency in each of these. There's no Spanish proficiency

test [in the U.S.], or no one cares.

One of the ITCs placed in Denmark commented,

What's funny is that, as a culture, they are a lot more homogenous. They have pretty

strict immigration policies. But at the same time, they're very liberal too, and they accept

refugees from other countries… Everyone there knows at least two or three languages, or

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

four, or more. And they learn about geography, so they learn about different countries in

Europe. I feel like there's much more of an international feel there, which I think is really

good too… We are a very diverse country, but I think that we're pretty sheltered in a lot of

ways, and we don't know about other countries in the world. And I think that would just

be useful to know about in order to interact with people in, I think, other countries, and

have understanding and cultural awareness about other ways of doing things.

One country-specific difference that was observed was the way that Singapore’s

elementary schools had specialized subject area teachers for each subject. The ITCs interpreted

this as evidence that schools in Singapore care about each subject equally, as opposed to the

United States, which they perceive to care the most about Math and Language Arts. For example,

one ITC observed:

It just seems like they have more resources than we do here, and that every subject is

kind of treated equally, whereas science and social studies really fall to the wayside [in

the U.S.], and math and language arts are valued. But there, I felt like everything was

valued and given its resources and equitable time.

Regardless of where they went, ITCs noticed that schools in different countries had a

very different approach to discipline and different expectations of acceptable behavior. ITCs

who traveled to either Denmark or Switzerland noticed that schools in these countries did not

appear to micromanage their students in the same ways that they observed in schools in the

United States. They attributed this to a greater trust and responsibility that these cultures granted

children, even at very young ages. ITCs observed that students were left unattended, were not

expected to go from one place to another in an orderly fashion, and were allowed to use the

restroom when they needed to without asking. Others highlighted the ways in which this greater

trust influenced instruction, including more unstructured time for group work and the expectation

that students give each other useful feedback. For example, one of the ITCs placed in

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Switzerland commented:

When it was time for them to go to recess, or to go somewhere else, [my Cooperating

teacher] would just be like, ‘Okay. It's time to go there.’ And he would walk, and some

would straddle behind, some would run, be yelling, crazy, whatever. Then we'd get there,

we'd sit down, do whatever the next activity was... In my [U.S.] school, it's like a prison.

It's like, you need to be in a straight line. They have an acronym, SHARP - silent, hands

at side, attention, right behind the next person, and... I can't remember what the P is for.

But it's like, a big deal. Walking the students.

Another ITC placed in Denmark observed, “The students would present a lot, and then the other

students would freely critique and praise them. I really liked that. I liked it coming from the

students more than from the teacher.”

As the above examples show, many of these comparisons elicited positive evaluations

from the ITCs, and sometimes prompted them to express critical thoughts about their home

culture. However, sometimes an observation of difference resulted in a candidate sharing a

preference for certain aspects of his/her own culture. For example, one of the ITCs placed in

Singapore observed:

I think that discussion-based lessons are really important, so I tried to do that with the

math class there, and [the students] really don't know how to do that. And so I did the

best I could and facilitated it the best I could, but that's something I missed about being

here, is that the kids there don't know how to talk about math and how to get to answers,

they just know how to share their answers.

Sometimes a comparison led them to an uncertain conclusion. Was what they observed

abroad better, or worse? Would it be possible to bring the strategies that they witnessed into the

U.S. teaching context? Why, or why not? This type of questioning seemed important for ITCs

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to move beyond valuing statements to more expansive understandings of what they were seeing.

As one ITC shared: “At first sight, we might think that something is worse or better, but then

maybe on second thought, we realize that it's just different. So I think that was really valuable.”

In sum, the data that clustered around Cognitive Comparison reveal a great deal about the

ITCs’ learning and insights that might translate into practice upon return to the United States.

These sense-making experiences offer great potential for developing inquiry skills in addition to

new teaching strategies, and seem essential to consider when designing mechanisms for

supporting sense-making processes.

Hence we turn now to the Mechanisms for Processing Abroad organizing theme. This

theme is linked to the Cognitive Comparison theme, as both are part of sense-making and each

are necessary for the other. It seemed useful to separate out the data that revealed the “physical”

processes from the “cognitive” ones. It also became important to separate the mechanisms the

candidates experienced while abroad and those they experienced upon return.

Sense-Making of the international experience: Mechanisms for processing while

abroad. While abroad, many factors had an impact on the ITCs’ sense-making process, for

example, carrying out program requirements, debriefing with peers, or reflective writing. ITCs

also described the impact of circumstances – the incidental conditions surrounding this

transition – on their ability to process their experiences abroad. The data clustered around two

basic themes categorized as Supports or Challenges.

Sense-making: mechanisms for processing while abroad: supports. In general, ITCs

agreed that they had ample support from a variety of sources while they were abroad. These

support systems aided their processing in two key ways: debriefing discussions and reflection

(usually facilitated by writing). ITCs debriefed with one another (except in Switzerland, where

the two ITCs did not interact at the home stay or on the school site), with host families (for

Denmark and Switzerland), and with individuals encountered at the school site (host cooperating

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teachers, supervisors, and students). Some ITCs described the beneficial impact of receiving

feedback on their writing, which served to prod their thinking. This feedback usually came from

the host cooperating teacher or supervisor, although one also received frequent feedback from

her supervisor in the United States. Most expressed a desire for more feedback. Finally,

students engaged in self-reflection by writing in assigned journals and keeping blogs.

Debriefing consisted of asking questions and receiving explanations. Engaging in this

process with a variety of people was immeasurably valuable to the ITCs as they attempted to

process everything that they learned. Host nationals were important sources of information and

guidance for the ITCs, either through formal meetings or informal interactions. The candidates

praised the individuals that they encountered for their accessibility, and willingness to provide

explanations when something did not make immediate sense. For example, one of the ITCs

placed in Denmark expressed:

Everyone there, we felt free to ask questions of, knowing that they would help us out.

There was no one that I felt that I shouldn't talk to. Even the students would help us

understand a lot of things.

Another ITC, placed in Singapore, explained how important it was to her that the international

supervisor made time to meet with her regularly in order to debrief with her about her

experiences.

I thought that [the meetings] were important. I think it's important for teacher candidates

to keep that structure, because you have it here, you're gonna have it when you get back,

and I think it's a good support system to go over planning. You're just there for such a

little amount of time, that weekly meeting is kinda integral to what you're learning while

you're there.

Since the ITCs who traveled to Denmark and Singapore were often placed at the same

schools, or lived close by, they had the benefit of being around one another (and in Singapore the

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ITCs also lived together in a student dorm). This was an important source of comfort and clarity

for the candidates. They explained that, as welcoming and helpful as their host colleagues and

families might be, comparing notes with members of one’s own culture helped them to feel

comfortable expressing confusion in an environment where they knew that their listeners would

understand and relate to their feelings. In this peer environment, they felt greater freedom to ask

questions and make comparisons than they did when talking to members of the host culture. For

example, one ITC placed in Denmark shared:

…but the actual processing of thoughts and being able to articulate what I was seeing as

compared to what I knew, were definitely my peers… we had a lot of time to sit down

and be like, look, this is what I'm seeing. Are you seeing this? Like, do you agree that

this is different than the way we know it? Or do you see this as something awesome, or?

For many, the program’s requirement of journal writing turned out to be a significant aid

to their sense-making while abroad. Reflective writing gave the ITCs a chance to be alone with

their thoughts, and to push and challenge their thinking on their own. They desired feedback on

their reflections, and some of them took the extra step of keeping a personal blog in order to

document and share their thoughts and experiences. For example, one of the ITCs placed in

Denmark commented, “I don't know if I would have seen the transformations in thinking that

occurred if I hadn't had something like a journal and blog to record it.”

Sense-making: mechanisms for processing while abroad: challenges. The challenges

the ITCs experienced while transitioning in to the host environment were usually connected to

the newness of the pilot program, and in most cases, these were viewed as hiccups that the

program should iron out before its second year, rather than significant problems. The ITCs

expressed that it was not always clear what they were supposed to be doing (teaching?

observing?), and that it seemed like the various individuals who were responsible for guiding

them while they were abroad were not always in tune with each other, or fully aware of the

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program requirements. For example, in terms of expectations, one of the elementary ITCs

placed in Singapore commented:

One of the biggest things for Singapore was setting up the expectation for what we were

going to do. The school system runs very differently from ours, so a teacher doesn’t stay

with one class all day and teach all subjects… I think [the program coordinators at my

home university] weren’t sure if they wanted us to catch a whole bunch of different

subjects, or stay with that one teacher doing the same thing in different places.

Overall, ITCs perceived that their experiences abroad were successful. They felt

supported by the individuals whom they encountered abroad and also by each other. ITCs

learned a lot through discussion and observation. There was strong agreement among the group

that the reflective writing assignments were useful to their sense-making. Regarding other

assignments, ITCs suggested their home institution be mindful of their limited time abroad, and

design coursework that will capitalize on and enhance the abroad experience while keeping them

up to speed with what they are missing in their classes while away.

Sense-Making of the International Experience: Mechanisms for Processing Upon

Return. Just as they had described the process of sense-making while abroad, the teacher

candidates also shared a good deal of insight into the processes surrounding their re-integration

into their teacher preparation program at home. Responses could still be categorized into the

same basic themes as Processing While Abroad (i.e., Supports and Challenges), however, their

descriptions of sense-making upon return were different in tone from what they described while

abroad; candidates generally agreed that while they could see their colleagues, professors, and

program leaders at home making attempts to provide them with re-entry support, these attempts

sometimes backfired or were insufficient for meeting the candidates’ needs.

Sense-making: mechanisms for processing upon return: supports. The ITCs

appreciated and made use of several different opportunities to make sense of and process their

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experiences upon their return. The elementary school teacher candidates were given the

opportunity in one of their university classes to present to their peers, and for some, this was a

powerful sharing experience. ITCs also mentioned the supportiveness of their M.Ed.

supervisors, who encouraged them to share their experiences in their small-group discussions.

And although not all candidates felt this way, several of them believed that their teacher

preparation program had given them sufficient preparation and warning about upcoming

expectations. Upon return, an ITC from the elementary credential program who had been placed

in Singapore praised the preparation she received: “We knew what was expected and when

things were due, which was really helpful.”

Much like they had done while abroad, ITCs attempted to make sense of their

experiences through reflective writing. Although this was not initially expected of them, the

candidates described how the program responded to this method of processing by encouraging

them to write about their international experiences in their Masters’ theses. This decision met

with strong approval from the candidates, and aided in their processing. For example, one of the

ITCs remarked:

I also think, in my M.Ed. group and in my interactions with the other student teachers at

the [U.S. school] with me, they've benefitted from this different perspective that I have.

I'm able to, sometimes add clarity to their own thoughts because of what I've seen or

examples that I have to show from Denmark.

Again, similar to what they did abroad, the ITCs appreciated opportunities that they had

to share and debrief with one another upon their return. A gathering held by one of program

coordinators a few weeks after their return provided such an opportunity, and several ITCs

described it as a beneficial and necessary experience. As one ITC reported:

That was a great meeting time and place to hear all the experiences. I came back trying

to make sense of everything I experienced and everything I saw, so it was nice to sit

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down and be able to talk about it and hear what the people from Singapore had to say, as

well as what everyone else had to say.

Sense-making: mechanisms for processing upon return: challenges. The teaching

abroad experience was very powerful for the ITCs, and for many, it was difficult for them to

return and get back into their old routines. Some of them did not feel that all of their instructors

had properly considered in advance how to handle their absence and had to hastily modify

assignments and grant extensions. Some ITCs reported that as a result of constant extensions,

however well intentioned, the ITCs ended up feeling perpetually behind the rest of their peers.

However, the greatest challenge for many of the ITCs was their perceived lack of

opportunities to share what they had learned. Several ITCs had been expecting more

acknowledgement from the program and their peers, and when these expectations were not met,

they described feeling negative emotions (frustrated, overwhelmed, isolated), and for some, the

perception that they were very much lacking in support upon their return. One of the ITCs

placed in Denmark remarked:

That was probably the hardest part of the whole process, was coming back and not having

people understand exactly what you had seen, and also having to completely re-focus on

edTPA [a teaching performance assessment required for licensure]. It felt like I was

entering back into a war zone.

Similarly, an ITC placed in Singapore expressed:

I think I was chosen because they knew I would be able to handle all that, but, at the

same time, we weren’t able to talk about it. I remember talking to [one of my professors]

about it a few weeks later at an event. He asked me something about Singapore and I

was happy he asked because no one else had asked me about it. We didn’t get to share as

much as I would’ve wanted to right when we came back.

Another ITC reflected on how she unsuccessfully sought feedback from several people, both

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peers and instructors, upon her return:

I wrote my whole second [M.Ed.] chapter on my experience over there. I sent that to

people, I sent journals to people, and for the most part they were like, ‘That's great!’ But I

didn't get them prodding my thinking about it at all. I don't think that's because they

weren't willing, it was just there wasn't the time for it… But, I could have used feedback,

and for them to help me understand what I saw a little more clearly.

Discussion of the Global Theme: Sense-Making of the International Experience

In making sense of their international field experience, the ITCs reflected upon their

encounters in a new context, analyzing them critically as similar or different to events/practices

in their home institution/environment and evaluating their advantages, disadvantages, or

ambiguities. Through these types of critical evaluations, the ITCs widened their perspectives and

world views on teaching and learning. As one might expect, the findings revealed that making

sense of perceived differences elicited the most reflection with respect to the ways ITCs thought

about teaching and learning. That said, even perceived similarities had an impact on how ITCs

might relate to students (kids are kids wherever you go), and how they might understand that

regardless of cultural norms and needs, there will be curricular foci that must be managed by

teachers whether they agree with it or not (e.g., the Swiss and U.S. focus on language and

mathematics). Ultimately, however, the data suggest that ITCs could not always come to

conclusive evaluations of either similarities or differences. In other words they needed to

question, reflect, and further investigate, which served as an opportunity to expand their inquiry,

and potentially come to deeper understandings about teaching and learning.

The various facets of the ITCs’ cognitive sense-making were facilitated by particular

mechanisms that supported their processing, and when absent, hindered their ability to make

sense of the experience in an effective way. As expected, the international “hosts” were a critical

element to their sense-making, though the communication of expectations for host programs can

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be improved, and modifications for these expectations can be better explained to ITCs.

Additionally, the findings show the importance for ITCs to have their U.S. peers with them while

abroad. Just as someone from the host country is important for processing comparisons, so are

peers who share a U.S. schooling experience. This seems vitally important to attend to in future

placements.

Finally, there is much to be learned from the ITCs’ experience upon return. Clearly they

did not experience enough support with processing their experiences or connecting what they

had experienced abroad with what they were now facing and desiring to do upon returning home.

Nor was there a clear programmatic mechanism for the candidates to share experiences with their

peers who did not teach abroad—an important element of ensuring all program candidates

benefit in some way from the international experience of their peers. The sense-making

processes were vitally important to the ITCs’ enactment of new teaching strategies once they

returned to their U.S. student teaching classrooms. The next theme captures the elements of their

changing teaching practice.

Global Theme: Perspective Into Practice

Perspective into Practice was an intriguing global theme, as its conceptual parameters

came to reflect candidates’ intentions to integrate ideas they learned abroad into their U.S.

teaching placements, whether implementation was successful or not. This global theme has three

organizing themes, each of which are connected to several basic themes. The organizing themes

include: Teaching Strategies, Contextual Differences, and Challenging the Contextual

Differences. The various basic themes and their relation to these larger organizing themes are

illustrated in Figure 2.

______________________________________

Insert Figure 2 about here

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______________________________________

Perspective into Practice: Teaching Strategies. This organizing theme represents the

concrete ways ITCs attempted something new learned abroad once they had returned to their U.S.

placement. Examples included the use of technology, supports for ELLs, group work, and

community building. For some candidates, this was expressed as future plans or hopes for

implementation. As shown in Figure 2, Teaching Strategies is comprised of two basic themes:

Strategies for Future Use and Strategies In-Use.

Perspective into practice: teaching strategies: strategies for future use. While some

ITCs made immediate use of new strategies and reflected upon their degree of success, others

formulated plans for future use. Some candidates expanded upon their comprehension of

teaching strategies by actively examining the use of concepts they had previously not understood

as well. Their experiences abroad made them realize there were shortcomings in their

comprehension, and they now felt more prepared to make eventual use of these teaching

strategies. One ITC reflected:

I'm going to honor collaboration a lot more with my students. The project based learning,

inquiry, discussions, social-emotional growth… I feel like before, I would have used

those same words, but I don't know if I really knew what that looked like in the

classroom.

Perspective into practice: teaching strategies: strategies in-use. In addition to making plans for

future use, most ITCs attempted direct use of new teaching strategies developed abroad,

immediately upon their return to U.S. student teaching classrooms. These newly adopted

strategies represented their changed perspective as put into classroom practice. At times this was

reflected in the ITCs’ attempts to emulate their foreign Cooperating Teachers (CT) whose

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approaches they found inspiring. One ITC discussed how her Singapore CT made regular checks

for student comprehension, even at an advanced level.

She was very interactive with them. I’ve tried to do that and, whenever I have to

lecture – because there are times we have to – I really try and incorporate Q&A between

me and the students, and between the students during the lesson. She really helped me

see that.

Sometimes, strategies were related to a particular classroom spirit the foreign placement upheld,

as with one of the ITCs placed in Denmark:

I wanted to see, I wanted to cultivate that same ethos, that heart of working together, in a

discussion. What I look for in a discussion and try and foster is students building off of

each others ideas. So, I want them listening to each other, and then letting... another

student's ceiling be the next student's floor.

Another ITC was affected by the transition between subjects in Singapore where teachers were

subject-specific. She began making use of subject transitions to ease the mindset of her students

and commented:

We would do more of an intro than I would do in [my first placement prior to going

abroad] just because I realized how important that shift is, where you're literally

transitioning your state of mind to be a different kind of learner according to the subject

that you're in.

Another ITC who went to Denmark commented on a seemingly small change he made during his

“takeover” back in the U.S., which reflected larger realizations about the different kinds of norms

teachers can establish in the classroom:

[Students in Denmark] had a lot of, they had a lot of freedom just to do things. They

didn’t have to ask to go to the bathroom. I also did away with that during my two week

takeover…Just the idea that they have to ask before they go to the bathroom is, uh, I

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never thought of it before I’d gone over there. But it’s a little ridiculous.

Another ITC recollected Singapore’s prioritization of diversity and directly made use of related

strategies for teaching.

They valued diversity so much, and I don't think that we always fully do, and so I think it

just gave me a better appreciation for diversity in the classroom and that every child

really should value where they come from and I just wish that was more prevalent here...

I already tried to incorporate it in my placement. Like, we did different language

greetings in the morning, and then, the kids that - there was one student in my class that

spoke French, and another that spoke Bulgarian, so they would do the dates in those

languages every morning, just so that they could share their, their native language with

other kids in the class and myself, cause I don't know French or Bulgarian. So just little

things like that, that you can just look for and incorporate into your morning meetings.

Some teaching strategies were not as successful at home as they had been abroad. This

led some candidates to reflect upon the need for further planning prior to use. One ITC

attempted to imitate her Singaporean teacher’s well-rehearsed strategy, but did not spend much

time planning to modify it for her own use. She reflected upon how this strategy could be

improved in the future, again relating it to what she had originally witnessed.

I just thought of it in the moment, cause it was really loud, and I had tried so many

different strategies, and I was like, “Alright, we're gonna do this.” It might have worked

for the first ten minutes, after that it was just “Nope.” But I think having the visual would

have helped a lot, cause I think that's what helped her too.

Perspective into Practice: Contextual Differences. The immediate or future use of new

teaching strategies was affected by how the ITCs perceived their teaching context as either

receptive or resistant to such innovation. ITCs reported experiencing difficulties or barriers in

the U.S. context when attempting teaching strategies learned abroad. These differences appeared

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as either structural in form or having to do with the people the ITCs worked with upon their

return.

Perspective into practice: contextual differences: structural: Structural differences

resulted from particular structures or systems of individuals that an ITC perceived to be in

opposition to their newfound perspective. They were generally of a less personal nature, and

included such things as school districts or boards, governing documents, political initiatives, or a

shortage of time.

ITCs were sensitive to the larger barriers within which they operated. They knew that

freedom in one cultural context did not align exactly with that same notion in another context.

A lot of the stuff that I liked in Denmark isn't allowed here. Like, I can't say “Pull out

your cell phones!” Not that - again, not that I would - because the students weren't raised

that way, so trusting them with it would be different. Even if I wanted to - yeah, even if I

wanted to, I couldn't.

At times, structures of opposition took the form of the actual classrooms where ITCs worked.

The incompatibility of physical space was difficult for candidates to overcome.

I did the best I could at my placement when I got home, but we don't have a science lab.

Or, we're not changing [classrooms] to go to math, or coming back for language, where

they did in Singapore.

Furthermore, ITCs in Singapore noted stark contrasts in the resources classrooms contained,

making it cumbersome to put their new perspectives into practice: “They have so many tools

available for them that we don't have here.”

Because of explicit or implicit regulations, some ITCs expressed an unwillingness to

even attempt teaching strategies they had admired abroad. One example was the incorporation

of multiple languages other than English, which made some ITCs anxious about related attempts.

One said, “I can see there being barriers in the future with the cultural aspect of it and trying to

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

raise awareness of that. I know that can be kind of a political issue in [the district].”

Finally, structural differences were conflated with differences in people or student

populations the ITCs worked with. In the case of one ITC who tried to import Denmark’s

community values into a perceptibly less receptive U.S. environment, she blamed student

resistance to her new perspective not on the students, but on the structure of U.S. education.

By the time they get to 7th grade it is so ingrained in them that their role is to push back

against every rule a teacher has, and they are not to trust the teacher, and that they need

structure and rigidity and a rule for every single thing, and if you don't set that up, then

they will fight it and they will defy it.

Perspective into practice: contextual differences: people we work with. Whereas

structural differences refer to the larger systems at odds with an ITC’s newfound perspective, the

people we work with are more immediate. They include particular individuals personally known

to the ITC such as students, immediate supervisor(s), or other officials who oversaw the ITC’s

U.S. teaching. This theme captures the personal interactions that were part of the ITCs’ attempts

to integrate new classroom practice learned abroad.

Some classroom styles could not be imported from one context to another, as with

Switzerland, where young students are commonly given breaks in between subjects or topics.

This made it challenging for ITCs to directly emulate classroom qualities they admired abroad.

One ITC perceived that the freedom afforded the Swiss students would not sit well with some

supervisors in the U.S.

I can’t really give students breaks in between subjects, really, cause there’s still a lot of

things we have to get done. We’re not allowed to just give breaks… If my principal

were to enter the room, I don’t think it would go well.

Struggles also related to the students the ITCs taught. One ITC noted the influence of her

Denmark experience on her changing classroom goals. She surveyed her U.S. students in an

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

effort to assess the potential for implementing these goals, but found that her students were not

receptive to her goal of improving classroom community. Although she also earlier attributed

these dispositions to systemic, or structural issues, here she discusses the immediate barrier in

regards to the students she teaches.

I knew what my goal was. I knew that I was looking to have a group of students who

were supporting each others' learning, and where students felt able to be open about

things, or able to challenge each others' ideas, or all of those sorts of things. And that was

exactly the opposite of what was happening in my class, and my students knew it too.

Perspective Into Practice: Challenging the Contextual Differences. Amid perceived

contextual differences and even barriers, some expressed that they persevered with support or

interest from relevant parties (such as the CTs and University Supervisors). Others shared that

they persevered through forms of silent resistance, circumventing systems and individuals they

perceived as contrarian to their new goals. In these cases, ITCs created their own means to get

around or challenge barriers they experienced or anticipated with future teaching. The data

clustered around two basic themes: Classroom-Based and Beyond the Classroom.

Perspective into practice: challenging the contextual differences: classroom-based.

ITCs often reported that because of incompatibility, new classroom practices were modified,

partially applied, or renamed to fit the U.S. context and related educational values. For example,

one ITC sensed restriction early in a U.S. placement, but was able to persevere and convince

hesitant supervisors of the value of innovations acquired abroad.

The teacher I was with - she wasn't old school. She was a few years older than me. But

she just has not been super trained in inquiry, or project-based learning, or common core

at all. Like, she was a little apprehensive.

This same cooperating teacher ultimately liked what her teacher candidate was using from

Denmark, even going so far as to,

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[bring] the principal in to show her what was going on. And, uh, she said that even

though it was really cool, she still felt a little uneasy about the kids having so much

freedom. But as we saw by the end of the year, they were able to handle it really well… I

had to show her that it would work, and that I had a plan. The school was great that it

allowed me the space to do whatever I wanted to try.

Another strategy was to reformulate a teaching practice learned abroad, as in the case of

taking breaks. Though one ITC observed that breaks were common in Switzerland, this practice

appeared to be incompatible with classrooms of young U.S. students. One ITC hoped to emulate

the practice outright, but realized it was contentious. Instead, he modified what it meant to take a

break, giving students opportunities to move around the room via game play or search-and-find

activities. He explained, “I try to do it as best I can. But, I give my students little wiggle breaks

and I’m not really allowed to give them just five minutes of free time.” Thus, he designs

alternate activities, “[allowing] them to get up and it’s still enough to get their wiggles out. It’s

not really a break break, but it gives them a break from just sitting there and doing academics all

the time.”

Perspective into practice: challenging contextual differences: beyond the classroom. In

order to avoid directly using new practices that were deemed incongruous, ITCs found that they

could instead integrate new practices elsewhere in the school setting, often with increased

distance from the classroom and other immediate perceived barriers. One ITC described how the

Swiss appeared to value the multilingualism of their students. However, the ITC was also aware

that multilingualism is a touchy topic in U.S. schooling. Therefore, he avoided direct use of it in

the actual classroom setting, instead taking his newfound teaching perspective outside. “What I

try to do – I can’t really do it in the classroom – but when I’m outside on the playground, I talk

to the students in Spanish, and I feel like the students react to it very positively.” In further

describing the rationale for this, he said, “While I can subtly teach in Spanish or different

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES AND PEDAGOGIES

languages, I feel like the districts don’t really want that, especially in [this city].”

Discussion of the Global Theme: Perspective into Practice. Upon returning to the U.S.,

the ITCs had another eighteen weeks of student teaching in which to incorporate new strategies

and understandings into their developing teaching practice. It is interesting to note that ITCs

reported more challenges and barriers than opportunities. It may be that new ideas and

techniques were not easily transportable to their U.S. contexts, or it could simply be the nature of

student teaching—there are limits to what one may change in another teachers’ classroom. Even

so, it is important to note the extent to which ITCs felt it difficult if not impossible to emulate or

incorporate their newfound ideas. An implication for programs would be to purposefully design

supervisory mentoring to include questioning/probing about how ideas learned in international

settings are being, or can be, integrated into their current practice. Just as the mechanisms for

processing the international experience were important to sense making, so too are they for

enacting changes to actual teaching practice. Supports to enact teaching upon return will be an

important mechanism for the program to design in its second year.

Summary Discussion and Implications

How teachers’ classroom practice is influenced by an international experience is one of

the most compelling research questions around the efficacy of international exchanges. While

the self-report research of the current study can document some of that within the context of a

student teaching experience, this research was limited to self-report data and would have

benefitted from direct documentation of practice such as pre and post classroom observations,

and the analysis of classroom artifacts (e.g., lesson plans, instructional materials, student

assessments). The research does inform development of future observation protocols which

could be designed to capture elements of practice the ITCs described as being influenced by their

international experience (e.g., classroom environment, peer-to-peer processes and group learning,

and the transition between and among subjects in elementary school settings).

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All in all, an international teaching placement allows teacher candidates professional

learning experiences in different cultures, different schooling systems, and different languages.

These experiences are increasingly important as our world becomes more globally

interdependent and classroom student populations become increasingly diverse. The present

study identified ways that teacher candidates’ made sense of their international teaching

experiences, and the factors surrounding the incorporation of their new perspectives into their

teaching back home. The ideas that made sense to them are in turn ideas that build teaching

practice for a 21st century education system. For example, many were seeing students as capable

of having more autonomy, an important pre-curser to inquiry and project-based learning. Many

expressed a greater understanding of the “whole child,” an important foundation to classroom

practice that develops well-rounded citizens and members of a humanistic enterprise. Many

developed new insights on the value and importance of ethnic and linguistic diversity, an

essential pre-curser to culturally responsive teaching that supports success for all students.

Another idea repeatedly expressed was the importance of creating a community of learners who

listen to and critique one another in ways that require critical thinking and a valuing of what each

brings to the community, an important pre-curser to developing students who can effectively

participating in an inter-dependent world. All of these strategies and understandings aided the

ITCs in developing practice that was more global minded, humanistic, and culturally

responsive—in short, what we hope to see in our next generation of teachers.

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Figure 1

Global theme: Sense-making of the international experience

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Figure 2

Global theme: Perspective into Practice