A poststructural analysis of study abroad as teacher preparation pedagogy: Thinking through theory for generative practice

ABSTRACT

Scholarship in teacher education reflects study abroad as established pedagogy and part of ‘best practices’ in preparing K-12 teachers for diverse classrooms. Three discourses dominate the literature to affirm the positive role of study abroad: (a) changing White preservice teachers’ perceptions of self and others; (b) increasing their multicultural knowledge and global-mindedness; and, (c) developing competencies for culturally responsive classroom practice. In drawing from several scholars, this article uses poststructural analysis to trouble the above discourses that articulate study abroad within normalizing conceptions of self and other, universal worldview of multicultural knowledge and global-mindedness, and fixed conceptualization of culturally responsive teaching, so that new ways of thinking about disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical practice emerge. This article recommends teacher education pedagogies include critical frames of analyses when interpreting study abroad experiences for thinking through theory for generative practice and reclaiming epistemic reflexivity in how we do research.

Additional Resources

1. Kozleski, E. B. & Handy, T. (2017). The cultural work of teacher education, Theory into Practice, 56, 205–213, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2017.1336033. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1336033

This article advocates teacher educators consider their roles as cultural workers who create opportunities for students to co-construct knowledge in real-world situations. Teacher educators must engage students in teaching for social justice and equity by becoming critically conscious of the cultural-historical contexts that underscore the lives of students and communities. Teachers as cultural workers create a third space where theory meets practice. In this third space, teachers as cultural workers look at classroom practice from a cultural lens that begins with examining their own cultural identity, study classroom content through a critical lens to see who is represented in texts and who is not, and make teaching a reciprocal act between the teacher and student by co-constructing knowledge.

2. Feucht, F. C., Brownlee, J. L. & Schraw, G. (2017). Moving beyond reflection: Reflexivity and epistemic cognition in teaching and teacher education, Educational Psychologist, 52(4), 234–241, DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2017.1350180

The authors suggest in the present context of education, educators must move beyond reflection and practice to epistemic reflexivity in teaching and research. According to the authors, epistemic reflexivity engages educators with their personal epistemologies and is a critical stand toward one’s own knowledge base and essential to how we shape knowledge in the field of education.

3. Schlein, C & Garii, B. (Editors) (2016). A reader of narrative and critical lenses on intercultural teaching and learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

This book is an edited collection that brings together several scholars who are committed to internationalizing teacher education so that future teachers have the knowledge, skills and dispositions to work with students who are culturally diverse. The authors of the collection affirm that intercultural teaching opportunities create spaces for teachers to discuss personal, political, and theoretical knowledge aimed at transforming classroom life.