Cultural Globalization and Teacher Education: A Local Perspective

Abstract

This article examines the nature of cultural globalization and its effects as experienced and confronted in a teacher education program that is located in New Zealand's most ethnically diverse and fastest growing city. The students in the program bring a wide range of cultural, social, and experiential perspectives to their tertiary study, and are a crucial future teaching resource for the community within which their educational institution is situated. Through interviews, the students examine the importance of their educational environment, and acknowledge the wealth of resource they have found within their pre-service group in preparing them for teaching careers in which cultural identity and intercultural awareness will be central. Their interpretations of their interactions and activities enable the exploration of how this occurs, as cultural dynamics are played out on a daily basis often at a conscious level in a multicultural context where relations among indigenous, colonizer, and migrant populations interconnect.