Effects of enhancing multicultural knowledge competence through an international teaching practicum programme for Korean student-teachers

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of an international teaching practicum (ITP) in terms of reinforcing the student-teachers’ multicultural knowledge competence through ITP participation. The data were collected from three surveys at three different points in time: before the ITP, after the ITP domestic pre-orientation programme, and after the completion of the ITP. The participants of this study were 32 students at G university who were finishing their 2nd and 3rd years. The collected data were analysed with SPSS 23.0. This research shows the effectiveness of ITP in terms of enhancing student-teachers’ multicultural knowledge competence. It also shows the importance of domestic pre-orientation before participation in an overseas on-site teaching practicum.

KEYWORDS:

• Student-teachers
• international teaching practicum (ITP)
• domestic pre-orientation (DPO)
• multicultural competence
• multicultural knowledge
• South Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant NRF-2017S1A5B8059786.

Notes on contributors

Youn Ock Kim

Kim, Youn Ock is a professor in the department of education at Gongju National University of Education, South Korea. She is also the dean of ‘the international Student & Faculty Exchange Office’ (ISEO), and in charge of international teaching practicum programme implementation. Her research interest is on two areas; firstly, special education and teaching students in special needs. Secondly, she is interested in international teaching practicum and student-teachers in the programme. She conducted various research in relation to student-teachers’ meta-cognition, long-term effect of international teaching practicum and teacher development via participation into international teaching practicum.

Soyoung Yun

Yun, Soyoung is a full-time researcher of The Centre for Global Teacher Education at the Gongju National University of Education. She is also a part-time lecturer at Gongju National University of Education. She received her PhD in Education from the University of Birmingham, U.K. Her research interest mainly lies in teachers: teacher development and their identity construction. In addition to this, as a researcher, she currently undertakes research of international teaching practicum and pre-service teachers’ development who were in the international teaching practicum and now in-service teachers. She is also interested in Teaching practicum, teacher education, identity construction, Communities of practice (COP), Situated learning, and positioning theory.

Yang Hwan Sol

Sol, Yang Hwan is a professor in the department of education at Gongju National University of Education, South Korea. He is also the director of ‘The Centre for global teacher education’. His current research interest is on development of both domestic and international teaching practicum model. He is also interested in the teaching practicum programme development and supporting platform development for teaching practicum. He conducted many research related to teaching practicum and teacher education. He also translated many books about teaching methods and educational technology and teaching practicum and into Korean.