Of teachers, teacher educators, and the translation of cultures: there's no place like home

Abstract

Teaching and teacher education necessarily raise issues of culture. Teachers and teacher educators move across cultures, translating and attempting to help students to feel ‘at home’ with unfamiliar concepts and cultures. This article explores aspects of ‘home’ and culture in teaching and teacher education: first, with respect to teachers' positions as ‘foreigners’ among students and in pedagogical considerations; and secondly, with respect to the positioning of ‘home’ for teacher educators within the larger university community. Issues of language and translation are explored. The author uses school-university collaborations and university-college collaborations to suggest an expanded understanding of home as a productive concept for teacher education, based upon Homi Bhabha's (1994) ‘third space’.