Teacher education: student teachers’ ethics-related experiences from their placements in Uganda

ABSTRACT

Practical experience and first-hand insight into the school systems of other countries enables student teachers to cultivate global understanding. Teacher education programme in Sweden has four placements. Student teachers are encouraged to complete one of these abroad. The aim with this study is to examine student teachers’ experiences of teaching primary school pupils in Uganda. The study underpins by the concepts of ethical literacy, the other and action readiness. Student teachers’ reflections on their experiences deal with the emotions that are aroused in their process work of becoming a teacher. The results show that the experiences from teaching in a postcolonial school system were overwhelming for the student teachers involved. The study raises concerns about the incentives to develop future teacher qualities versus arranging internships abroad to develop students’ personal growth.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• internationalisation
• professional training
• action readiness
• photo-elicitation

Introduction

Internationalisation in higher education in Sweden, and elsewhere, is a worthwhile objective. As a feature of teacher education, internationalisation is significant as it allows students to learn about the circumstances of other people in a globalised world, and prepares them for a multicultural society (Abraham and von Brömsen 2018; Svensson 2021). Kissock and Richardson (2010) suggest that international professional training opportunities may enhance deeper understandings of a culture and its practices. Offering placements internationally is in line with student teachers’ wishes to have a better connectedness to people around the globe and enhance their understanding of global issues, so that they can develop the necessary abilities (Bourn 2010; Chapman and Aspin 2013). Such abilities comes not least in the wake of demographic changes in Europe (Allen and van der Velden 2012). They are also in line with 21st century skills, and the category, ways of living in the world, and skills for living in the ‘real’ world, which involve local and global citizenship, and personal and social responsibility (Allen and van der Velden 2012; van Laar et al. 2020). However, international experiences need to be supported by the teacher education programme in order to include opportunities for students to reflect on issues evoked during their placement (Major and Santoro 2016; Hinojosa and López 2018).

Research focused on student teachers’ intercultural training is a relatively unexplored and marginal research field (Tarozzi 2014b; Hinojosa and López 2018). Student teachers’ knowledge about diversity and what it entails at a social, epistemological, and pedagogical level, is crucial to enhancing their feelings of being prepared to work in multicultural classrooms (Moloney and Saltmarsh 2016). Contact with people within different cultures, experiences of involvement in various cultures, and prior knowledge about cultural diversity, religion, and ideology are essential aspects to consider when implementing internship abroad (Marx and Moss 2011; Hinojosa and López 2018). This study intends to extend the existing knowledge about student teachers’ experiences of a placement abroad.

Aims of the study

Teacher education at the University of Gothenburg has a long tradition of international cooperation with established international relations with schools in a number of countries. This article is based on a small-scale research study of 14 Swedish student teachers, completing a two-week international professional training period in Uganda in 2020. Its overall aim is to gain better understanding of their experiences of their placement and of teaching primary school pupils in Uganda. Such understanding may assist in the coordination of future international placements, within and outside the University of Gothenburg. Following key questions guided the study:

• Which experiences were elicited from the reflections of student teachers using photo-elicitation?

• What kind of action readiness was enabled during this specific placement?

This study is an attempt to enhance knowledge about how international placements, over a short time of period, affect student teachers regarding their intercultural competence. This article, will also contribute to the discussion on the teaching-learning process, involving emotional and ethical issues. Furthermore, this article will provide knowledge about using photo-elicitation to encourage student teachers to reflect on their teaching experiences.

The process of becoming a teacher through reflections

Becoming a teacher relies on the socialisation process of student teachers entering the educational community (Moscatelli 2008). This process is multifaceted; it includes the forming of identity, the building of social relations, and the creating and negotiating of theoretical ideas about teaching and learning (Caires, Almeida, and Vieira 2012). Before entering a classroom as a preservice teacher, the student teacher has formed both visions and ideas about what the classroom will look like, and how to design and organise lessons, as well as beliefs about the ideal role of a teacher (Chiodo and Brown 2007; Moscatelli 2008). This is about making sense of the teaching profession on a number of levels, Moscatelli (2008) claims, which includes reflecting on how ethics, ideals, values and obligations relate to those within the teaching community. Reflecting on one’s practical experiences is crucial for professional development (Warren 2005). The more regular the reflections, the more useful they become. It gives students opportunities to draw attention to attitudes towards difference and diversity. This might bring colonial discourses and ‘Western’ perspectives visible (Major and Santoro 2016).

The student teachers in this study had no contact with their regular supervisor in Sweden during the time in Uganda. Furthermore, the amount of supervision provided during the time in the Ugandan schools, differed from school to school, depending on how much time the teachers had and what obligation they had. For this reason, the Swedish teacher educators arrange for a seminar while in Uganda, so that the student teachers could discuss their experiences with each other, a reciprocal interchange session, as well as with the university teachers leading the seminar. This reciprocal scaffolding between the student teachers built on the idea that situational scaffolding can be used for interactive discussions to co-create higher levels of understanding and capacity (Shulman and Shulman 2004). The aim of the seminar was to offer student teachers a collaborative learning environment. Here, they could discuss their views, pedagogical theories, expectations and experiences that could then be challenged in a positive and respectful way by fellow students. Collaborative learning environment inspires student teachers to re-evaluate their beliefs, expectations and pedagogical visions and ideas, while being sensitive to personal socio-cultural differences. The ability to relate to and understand the context and culture of each other’s placement experiences is a prerequisite for meaningful scaffolding feedback. Yet another characteristic of group reflection is the emotional aspect, which according to Askew and Lodge (2000) is a critical function in and dimension of co-constructive feedback in the learning process.

Internship abroad

Previous studies reveal that teachers in general have a naïve, superficial and limited view of cultural diversity and interculturality (Jaber 2009; Silverman 2010; Hinojosa and López 2018). In Hinojosa’s and López’ (2018) study, the participants believed that good education must accept all the existing cultural forms, without questioning whether there are cultural expressions and actions that are not tolerable from an ethical point of view. This lack of critical reflection, is defined by, Rodríguez (2005), as optimistic multiculturalism. International training placements in so-called developing countries may reinforce colonial discourses, Major and Santoro (2016) claim. It is crucial to situate and examine the positioning of the student teachers as expressions of self-reflexivity. That is to be aware of biases, and to acknowledge that their interpretations are historically, culturally and socially situated, and actually informed by interpretations of postcolonial theory, as Andreotti (2011) stresses. Swedish students’ comprehensions, will be connected to the operations of power. Still, first-hand experience abroad is critical to intercultural development, for enhancing cross-cultural awareness and to become culturally competent teachers (Mahon 2010; Lowe et al. 2008). Internship abroad has shown to enhance student teachers’ self-knowledge, personal confidence, professional competence, and an increased understanding of global and domestic diversity (Mahon 2010).

Conceptual framework

This study is underpinned by the concepts of ethical literacy, action readiness and the notion of the other, to describe the encounters of the student teachers’ new context and the meaning this has for them. These concepts can be linked to theories of postcolonialism, which focus on how colonial discourses influence and shape ‘ways of talking, thinking and being in the world that have material outcomes for people in postcolonial contexts’ (Major and Santoro 2016). Postcolonialism concentrates on why some people exercise power over others, and on inequalities in global power and wealth growth. Discourses construct non-Western states and peoples as ‘other’ and different, which make them appear to be inferior. Following Major and Santoro (2016), a consequence for the student teachers in this study is that they may judge education, teachers and pupils in Uganda by Swedish standards, instead of understanding them within the Ugandan educational structures. One aspect for the students is to be aware of is the concept of whiteness, and the structures that produce white privilege, since Swedish student teachers can be regarded as socially and financially privileged. Whiteness is a way of being and acting in the world that is historically, culturally and socially constructed (Yoon 2012). It is generally invisible, especially to white people. Western interference in the politic, economic, social and education systems of postcolonial states, justifies certain actions, such as aid arrangements. Aid and development discourses reproduce the Western hegemonic power and the image of postcolonial societies in need of assistance to join the developed world (Andreotti 2011). Emotions play a central role in experiences of social inequality, such as anxiety, fear, anger, and disgust. The construction of white guilt is described by Grzanka, Frantell, and Fassinger (2020, 47) as ‘the recognition of unearned and unfair racial privileges’. This guilt can lead people to counteract racist attitudes and tackle white supremacy.

Ethical literacy is here defined as being the ability of 1) recognise ethical issues, b) ethical imagination, c) critical analysing and d) ethical responsibility and acting (see also Campbell and Hare 1997). A teaching view on the concept is employed to connect the student teachers’ view of the role of education and the professional role of teacher, with the way this view influences their actions. The notion of action readiness ‘provides a more educationally operationalizable concept with its elements of willingness and capability to act and change’, claim Grice and Franck (2017, 261). Student teachers’ emotional responses to their own experiences are essential for them to attain action readiness. Student teachers’ participation, involvement and dedication during the placement, along with their critical reflections on their experiences, can contribute to enhancing their ethical literacy. This may increase their willingness to act on ethical issues to develop their action readiness for democracy (Grice and Franck 2017). Action readiness is described by the American Psychological Association as being a preparedness for action that is elicited as part of an emotional reaction. The communicative process of teaching involves various emotional aspects. Empathy and relationship-building skills are essential to the role of teacher. The integration of placements into teacher education may help student teachers increase their social-emotional and interpersonal skills.

The other, framed by Levinas (1979) as being face-to-face interaction, is applied to understand the emotions aroused in student teachers in the new context of Ugandan schools, with new teachers and young pupils. Levinas claims that such interaction evokes feelings of responsibility in terms of the vulnerability of the other. In line with Levinas’ reasoning, when this happens, the student teachers become aware of their obligations. Through an open acceptance, connections can be built between the student teachers and the Ugandan pupils and staff. As well, Levinas states that the sensuous experiences of the self and the other sets in motion concern for the other, which leads to a wish to make reality of righteousness and peace. However, the other has been described, throughout history, as deviant (Dervin 2016). A person labelled as the other places her or him at the margins of society. Othering is a way of ‘turning the other into another, thus creating a boundary between different and same, insiders and outsiders’ (Dervin 2016, 45). Othering also tends to restrain the other to a limited understanding of who she is and represents; often as someone who belongs to the socially subordinate category. Instead, Levinas (1979) argues, otherness and diversity is essential to the world; all humans (and others) are valuable for their otherness, and their diversities are meaningful because of diversity itself. The ‘distinctional’ sense of otherness is not a problem per se, Métais and Villalobos (2021, 3) explicate; it is just an entity as numerically distinguished from another. When using the other in ways that imply a certain order or hierarchy, the other will be considered secondary.

The context of the study

Uganda was a protectorate of Britain from 1894 to 1961, when the country regained independence. Uganda became a republic in 1962. After a military coup in 1971, the dictator Idi Amin seized control of the country, and carried out mass killings within the country. In 1979, the capital Kampala was captured and Amin fled to Libya, and a time of political instability and turbulence followed and a variety of rebel groups conducted a civil war against the Ugandan government. President Museveni has govern the country since 1986, both celebrated and criticised (Tapscott 2021).

Education was established in Uganda in the 1890s by mission schools and in 1924, the government established the first secondary school, although most schools were operated by religious organisations. British syllabus informed the organisation and structures of examinations until 1974. It takes 15–16 years for a child to complete their education in Uganda. Children usually start school at the age of

5 years and normally take 7 years to complete primary, 4–6 years to complete secondary and then 2–5 years to complete tertiary (Agamile and Lawson 2021).

The participants in this study were 14 primary school (grade 4–6, age 10–13) student teachers, who were in the third year of a four-year teacher education programme in Sweden. As part of their third placement, they applied for a two-week placement in schools in Entebbe, Uganda. This opportunity for third-year student teachers has been in place since 2014. Teacher education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has established a collaboration with several schools in Entebbe. Prior to this study, the author and colleague, had led one group of students each, and were familiar with the area and the schools; none of the student teachers meanwhile, had been there before.

The student teachers were divided into groups of two or three and each group was placed in a different school for the two-week placement. The first one of two days, they observed the teachers classroom work and teaching methods. Before they could teach, they were given information about the Ugandan school curricula and school system. The school system in Uganda differs in various ways from the one in Sweden. For example, the instructions how, when and what teachers will teach are described in detail in Uganda, while in Sweden the instructions are more generic and open for interpretation. Notable is the number of students in each class, in Sweden there are about 20–28 students in an average class, whereas in the Ugandan schools in this study there were between 40–90 students. A further prominent difference is the standard of the classrooms, equipment and school material. In addition, there are obvious differences in climate, landscape and languages. These factors made the context quite overwhelming at first for the Swedish students. After observing how the teachers in Uganda planned their lessons and taught, the Swedish student teachers proceed to plan their lessons and teach. Since the situation was new and clearly very different from what they were used to, they were allowed to teach together. In the second week they were examined by the Swedish university lecturers (the author and researcher of this study), while teaching Ugandan students. The examination included a pedagogical discussion about the lesson, and they were given feedback on their performance, their pedagogical ideas and lesson plan.

For the seminar, the student teachers were divided into new groups, in order to mix school references. Prior to the seminar, the researcher asked the students to reflect on their overall experiences from their placements in the new context.

Materials and methods

This study uses a visual research method, which is often termed photo-elicitation; this will be described in the following section. The empirical material consists of transcribed discussions and photographs, taken by the student teachers.

Photo-elicitation

Photo-elicitation is a visual research method that involves the use of photographs in interviews to generate oral discussions on a subject (Bignante 2010; Kronk et al. 2015). Its purpose is to elicit reactions and recollections, and to uncover the participant’s attitudes, thoughts, emotions, views, hopes and so on. The idea to use photo-elicitation in this study was to support and encourage the student teachers in their reflections and representations. Interviews based on the participants’ own images, invite the participant to take the lead in the conversation. In so doing, the student teacher becomes the subject, who establishes the agenda for the content and order of the discussion instead of being the researcher’s object. By this procedure, the interview/discussion becomes more of a dialogue and a conversation. Starting the interview with an image is a way of creating a narrative. The image serves as a reminder, and a source for reflection. The student teacher can reflect on her or his experiences, and the thoughts and emotions the experience evoked. When the student teacher has the opportunity to choose and organise the content of the narrative, the risk of un-reflected replications of dominating discourses can be minimised. The visual narrative framework illustrates the students’ experiences, ideas and thoughts, and offers new ways of thinking: as such, it differs from a non-visual narrative framework. The photograph represents a recollection, which will affect the student teacher’s comprehension of a phenomenon. An advantage of this method is that the conversation proceeds from each student teacher and her or his circumstances and learning process. In addition, this method exposes the student teacher’s pre-understandings, which may then be problematised and discussed if necessary.

Data collection and analysis

Using their cell phones, the student teachers took photographs of activities, scenes and special moments to capture and describe their placement experiences. Each student teacher was asked both to select two photos that could serve as meaningful visual representations of the experiences they wanted to share during the seminar, and to prepare a short presentation. The students were divided into three groups – five students in groups A and B, and four students in group C. The author conducted the seminar with group A together with her colleague, the colleague conducted the seminar with group B, and the author conducted the seminar with group C. The reason for conducting the first seminar together was to ensure that the seminars would be similar in the way they were conducted. The seminars were audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim, and then translated from Swedish. This article is about group C.

The seminar took place at the end of the second and final week in Uganda, and lasted one hour. During the seminar, the method of participant-driven photo-elicitation was employed. Using this approach, the student teachers led the discussions, by showing one photograph, and inviting the group to comment and share their reflections. The researcher took the role of active listener.

First, the initial analysis took place, after which codes and themes were developed by way of discussion. The analysis procedure was anchored in a hermeneutic tradition, based on interpretation (Ricæur 2007; Gadamer 2013). Hermeneutics enables the researcher to develop in-depth understandings of meanings of human practice and culture, i.e. the interest is to understand human behaviour, actions, motivations, attitudes and values. Here, attention was directed at how student teachers make sense of their experiences from their time in the Ugandan school system, of their future role as teachers and of the context in which they completed their placements. Following a hermeneutic tradition meant reading and rereading the transcript, coding it, paying attention to common words, and emerging themes. The process encompassed movements between pre-understanding and understanding, context and text, whole and part, general and particular, and the familiar and the unknown. As a whole, the emerging themes presented a multifaceted picture of the student teachers’ experiences.

Reflections on ethics

The use of photos, both in the school context and in research, raises ethical questions. These include concerns about the substance of the photographs, consent and power relations, and anonymity. The researcher must be aware of ethically sensitive topics, avoid exploration of young pupils, and the creation of the other. Therefore, students were cautioned to be sensitive to such factors prior to taking photographs. Instead of using photographs of concrete and actual episodes, the student teachers were encouraged to use symbolic visual language. Nevertheless, the prior analysis showed the majority of the student teachers took photographs of classroom practices, some that showed young pupils.

It was also made clear to the student teachers that the photographs should be used carefully, and only upon with permission from those depicted in them. However, unlike in Swedish schools, it was enough to ask the teacher for consent, in Sweden you have to acquire informed consent from the pupils’ parents, the pupil and the teacher. This being the case, great responsibility lay with the researcher in this study. Accordingly, photographs of children in this article will not be included. The study follows the core ethical principles described in both The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA, 2017) and Good Research Practice, from The Swedish Research Council (2017), both of which guide the researcher through the practical, ethical and intellectual challenges of research. Four key principles are reliability, honesty, respect and accountability. The researcher also followed information requirements and agreement requirements, confidentiality requirements and utilisations requirements. Qualitative research gives access to personal, private and sensitive content, which has to be dealt with in sensitive manners. The students were informed that the photo elicitation seminars would be used in a research study, and that participation was voluntary. All names have been removed.

Result

This study examines student teachers’ experiences as elicited through photographs. Their experiences involve encounters that raise ethical questions in meetings with the other and from time spent in a school system in another country, a rather non-familiar context. Student teachers’ reflections on their experiences deal with the emotions that are aroused in their process work of becoming a teacher. The process of teaching and discussing their experience, seemed to be a way to enhance their ethical literacy for their future role as teacher. These are the main themes that emerge from the results, which will be presented in the following sections.

Embracing the other

The relationship between the teacher and the pupils caught the student teachers’ attention in terms of viewing both teachers and pupils in Uganda as The other. They observed differences between teachers and pupils in Uganda and in Sweden. The student teachers discussed how the Ugandan teachers managed a large number of students, in crowded classrooms. One student teacher showed a photograph of a classroom situation in which pupils are raising their hands, stated, ‘What is the most efficient way to teach in a class of about 80 pupils? I think it would be quite difficult to start a good and workable discussion in such a big group. It has to be in small groups, but then again, the sound level would be rather high. I feel it would be hard to manage, and also, hard for the pupils to have a proper discussions. Maybe, we should try to understand the reason for how they teach here. Uhm, you have to consider how to teach 80–90 pupils in one classroom as a single teacher’.

When the student teachers talked about the young pupils, they sounded compassionate. One student teacher talked about the lack of access to food, and the fact that many of the children in the school do not eat at all during the school day, ‘In Sweden, we are in such a good position (good well-being), and yet we always complain. Here, they have so little, and never complain!’ Another student teacher confirmed this: ‘Even so, they are always so happy! They laugh, they play and they smile!’ One student teachers changed the subject to talk about how the children seemed to accept and appreciate them being there. He talked about a lesson he gave, which, according to him, he did not do a very good job. ‘Despite that, the children did so well, and they were lovely! They listened to everything I said, they understood what to do, and as soon as they understood, they started with the task, without complaining, and at the end of the lesson, they said so many nice things to me, they really liked me! In Sweden, I would have lost the class the first minute’.

During the seminar, they also talked about the young Ugandan pupil’s ability to cope with long school days; uncomfortable benches; overcrowded, small, dark classrooms, and, what the student teachers perceived to be long and monotonous lessons, based on repetitive pedagogy. One ability they noticed was the children’s ability to listen. As one student teacher said: ‘I am really impressed by their ability to listen and to concentrate! First, the teachers talk in a very low voice; second, they do not always finish their sentences, because they want their pupils to complete them. And they do! If they weren’t listening, they wouldn’t be able to do that’. Another student teacher agreed: ‘I know! When we had the Swedish midsummer celebration the other day, we taught them some Swedish songs, and they just picked up the Swedish words, and the pronunciation! They are so used to listening, I think, not like Swedish children’.

The emotional process of becoming a teacher

The students’ reflections on their time in Ugandan schools showed that the process of becoming a teacher is emotional. They recalled the emotions they experienced when they met with pupils and teachers. For example, they described how it felt when the children showed interests in them, in what they taught and in their culture. It made them feel ‘happy’ and ‘warm inside’. However, teaching in an unfamiliar way made some of the student teachers feel ‘uncomfortable’, ‘ambivalent’ and ‘frustrated’. In their general reflections on both the opportunity to complete part of their placement in Entebbe, and on everyday life in the Ugandan school, they described how they felt ‘grateful’, ‘humble’, and ‘reflective’. The fact that pupils treated them so well and showed them so much respect, made an unexpected impression. One stated, ‘My self-confidence has grown a lot since being here, and my confidence as a teacher has really increased during the time here and while I have been learning’.

When the student teachers talked about the children in Uganda, they became emotional in a way they said does not happen in schools in Sweden. One word to describe this is love. One student teacher explained: ‘The teacher I shadowed today is like a mother hen to the younger pupils, and she takes such good care of them. She pats them on the shoulder, and says “good children’”, “good learning”. It is genuine. There is love, which is something I have not experienced in a Swedish school’. Another student teacher continued: ‘I have seen the same thing. I am so happy to have met these teachers, who are so driven, and who love children so much’. A third student teacher added: ‘I have learnt not to take anything for granted, and I have seen that everything can be solved; as long as we are together, there are no obstacles. That has been an eye opener for me, because, at home, it is like “oh, no, it is this meeting now”, or “when will I ever have time for this and that”. But, seriously, it will all work out! It has been so beautiful to witness this!’

Encountering ethical dilemmas and enhancing ethical literacy

All student teachers in this group described various ethical dilemmas that they encountered during their time in Ugandan schools. These related to the impact of religion education, differences between theories in teaching and learning, and socio-economic circumstances. One student teacher showed a photograph she had taken of an image of Jesus Christ – an image that was displayed on walls in all classrooms in ‘her’ school. She said that she was surprised to see that Christianity permeates the school curriculum and that it was so profound in the everyday work at the school. She explained: ‘I am trying to understand how the curriculum can be based on Christianity and the Bible. In Sweden, we teach about all different religions, but the teacher here said: 95% of the population are Christians, why teach about other religions? But, I cannot understand this’. A second student teacher confirmed this, added: ‘In the syllabus for English, it says that you should teach the children to be good Christians’. A third student teacher also reflected on this: ‘I have seen that it is not about letting the students know about the content of the Bible, but letting them understand actions in the Bible, in relation to how “the holy spirit” can change one’s life, which I thought was interesting’. The first student agreed: ‘I saw that the pupils wrote letters to the Swedish pupils and referred to the Bible, which I think will really confuse Swedish pupils’. The second student teacher said: ‘I think it is significant that we can inform Swedish pupils about the impact of religion’s effect on people’s lives here in Uganda, which we do in Social Science. It’s us in Sweden, who are sort of extreme, being secularised and everything. It is probably very worthwhile that Swedish pupils learn about religion around the globe’.

As the student teachers were in Uganda to practise their teaching skills, they naturally focused a great deal on teaching and learning theories. The approach of the teacher to pupils was a reoccurring theme in the seminar. Two of the student teachers had taken similar photographs that showed how the student teacher crouched next to the student while teaching. The first said, ‘They are not used to seeing teachers sitting down beside them, and they go like, what is happening? It is nothing they expect the teacher to do, but the more you do this, the more okay with it they seem to be. In Sweden, we always do this, because relationship is important to us, as are and meetings at the individual level, but here, the teacher always view the students as a group’. Another educational aspect they elaborated on during the seminar was how the Ugandan and Swedish curricula differed in terms of the learning theories on which they are based. One student teacher noted, ‘This is how it works here. We have two disparate perspectives on learning; here in Uganda it is more behaviouristic; in Sweden it is more socio-cultural. And you never know, in ten years there might be something totally different’.

The socio-economic circumstances of the children in the Entebbe schools became an emotional topic for the student teachers. One showed a photograph of a school-fee list for children, including actual costs for attending school. (In Sweden, education is free; taxes cover school expenses, as well as lunch, books, pencils etc). The student teacher explained: ‘To me, this is quite symptomatic; I have never had to pay for my education. When I look at the sum at the bottom of the list – I had a meal the other night for that amount, and I felt like, uhm, well, wow. It became very clear to me. It broke my heart. A whole semester’s payment, spent on one meal. It was hard to acknowledge. (…) And to know that for them this is very much money, and to us, it is peanuts’. Another student teacher replied: ‘I hadn’t thought about it like this! When you compare it with a meal, it is appalling’. The first student said: ‘And to have to pay this sum, three times a year, for each child, and no lunch. This has made me think. What can we do? Is it okay to contribute? And how? I mean, here I am, a white male’. The fourth student teacher stated, ‘This is a common feeling, wanting to help more, but would we really make a difference? I think this is a bigger issue’. The first student teacher added, ‘absolutely, but then again, did I need that meal? It is that aspect, too’.

Discussion

Photo-elicitation showed to be a sensible method that worked well in terms of visualising student teachers’ various experiences, perceptions and ideas as well as their comprehension and thoughts on their experiences, and the emotions they evoked. Several important aspects of becoming a teacher during a placement in Uganda have been identified, and these elucidate the significance of the learning potentials that comes from such an experience. These aspects can be categorised as follows: 1) Acquainting oneself with the position of the other, 2) Learning about the relationship between teacher and pupil, and 3) Experiencing eye-opening moments. These respond to the study’s first research question, and will be discussed under three subtitles. In order to respond to the study’s second research question, some remarks on becoming a teacher will be re-addressed before ending this article with the implications for placements in postcolonial countries.

Acquainting oneself with the position of The other

The results demonstrate that the student teachers positioned themselves as the other in several ways, both as the teacher with those challenges this may present, and as the young pupil. Positioning themselves in this way evoked various emotions, and the student teachers moved between recognition and alienation and seemed to be ambivalent about this. Their frustrations were probably their way of expressing an inability to connect ethical values of relationships and how to emphasise with The other. In this new context, new value considerations informed the student teachers how to think and act, which they expressed through their photographs as well as in oral presentations. None of the representations was value free, however, the student teachers were not always aware of these values. In line with Yoon (2012), this could be expressions of the invisible whiteness and of white guilt. In their conversations, they shed light on their values and confronted them. For example when they talked about the impact of religion on education. The other was first regarded as the ‘alien’, who teaches about Christianity through Christianity, however, when they drew comparisons, it was the secular Swedes who became The other, the alien. The results show how the student teachers negotiated the notions of the well-known and the unfamiliar, the standard Ugandan ways of teaching in relation to those in Sweden. They were both impressed and anxious, positively surprised and troubled. They were struggling with understanding the educational context using Swedish standard instead of understanding them within the Ugandan educational structures. They learnt things that they did not anticipate they would learn and they were left astonished. They learnt something about themselves as Swedes in a global world, and they were grateful both for the new experiences, and for being born in Sweden. Feelings of guilt and gratitude were mixed. They were experiencing white guilt, that is, unearned and unfair racial privileges.

Learning about the relationship between teacher and pupil

When the student teachers talked about the teaching methods they saw while training in the Ugandan schools, they returned to the relationship between the teacher and the students. This was one aspect they reacted strongly to. As stated by one student teacher, relationship is important in Swedish schools. According to Levinas (1979), the experience of self and the other, leads to a readiness of fair and justice and non-violent actions, because encountering the other involves a concern for the vulnerability of the other. In the results, several examples of this occurred when the student teachers talked about the life circumstances of the young pupils. One student teacher compared them to those in Sweden, stated how Swedish children would not have accepted his lesson, while the Ugandan pupils were described as lovely for accepting and appreciating him. This is also an example of the ambivalent attitude elicited here. On the one hand, they wanted children to be empowered and emancipated (as in Sweden), and on the other hand, they thought it was wonderful that the children in the schools in Entebbe listened to them, did what they were told, and stayed calm and quiet. Such interpretations echo colonial discourses (Major and Santoro 2016); they reveal uncritical, superficial and a restricted view on interculturality (Jaber 2009; Silverman 2010). They were not questioning whether there are cultural expressions and actions that are not tolerable from an ethical point of view.

Experiencing eye-opening moments

The results show that the experiences from teaching in a foreign school and working within a new school system were overwhelming for the student teachers involved. Their placements gave rise to several eye-opening moments, as they experienced first-hand the, foundation of the Ugandan educational system, socio-economic standards for families and of schools, and classroom teaching. These moments led to, what one student teacher described as questioning the ‘take-it-for-grantedness’. Both implicitly and explicitly, the student teachers criticised the Swedish way of living, teaching and being. Coming from a wealthy country and encountering a poor part of the world forced them to consider global injustices. The students reacted to the small amount of food in school and compared this with conditions in Sweden, where food is free, and children can choose between fish, meat and vegetarian meals – and they still complain. Such eye-opening moments left student teachers both very emotional and often frustrated. The feeling of guilt, described as white guilt, was evident here, as were emotions associated with operations of power (Andreotti 2011), inequalities in wealth growth (Major and Santoro 2016) and of being privileged. Some of the students seemed to have adopted the aid discourse, and the image of postcolonial societies in need of assistance (Andreotti 2011), quite uncritically, while some tried to broaden the discussion.

Becoming a teacher

Professional development is about shifting focus from how to teach to how pupils learn. This change in focus develops from the recognition that teaching often differs from learning. This insight is about the relationship between teaching and learning, and the balance between what the teacher should do, or how the teachers should teach, stress Linor and Brody (2016). It is about viewing the teacher as a learner who learns from her or his students, and from how they learn, experience and comprehend the teaching and learning event, so that they learn from their own practices. The result of this study shows that the student teachers moved between these two focuses when they talked about enacting teaching. Becoming a teacher was about how to deal with the new situation as a teacher, for example how to reach out to every pupil, and not only to the pupils as a group, while simultaneously reflecting on the pupils’ learning opportunities to learn through the implementation of the teaching methods used in their training schools. In this study, it is not clear in what way the student teachers will benefit from teaching in Uganda, since the circumstances are very dissimilar.

The results show that the student teachers did not focus on only what and how to teach; rather while reflecting on their experiences, they elaborated on both their role and identity as teacher. That means including both the performance required as a teacher, and the feelings of being a teacher. Social skills, self-awareness and critical aspects of oneself as a leader, were features that the student teachers brought up during the seminar. It seemed as if all of them grew in self-confidence during the course. Previous research show similar results (Mahon 2010).

As part of this study, the level of action readiness the professional training course in Uganda enabled was examined. The results shed light on the student teachers’ emotional responses to their experiences, which is necessary for action readiness. The question is how long this readiness can lasts. As long as the student teachers were affected and engaged in, for example, the ethical issues, they were preoccupied with this reaction. The question is how they can connect their experiences with a willingness to act. I cannot establish that from this study. However, they recognised opportunities for action because of the emotions they experienced. They wanted to act on the socio-economic issues they witnessed in Uganda, and they wanted to change their teaching approach upon their return to Sweden.

This study is in line with Kissock and Richardson (2010), who suggest that international professional training opportunities may enhance deeper understandings of a culture and its practices. However, it is unclear in what ways the intercultural competence the student teachers may have achieved will be of pedagogical use when they become teachers in Sweden.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Margaretha Häggström

Margaretha Häggström holds a PhD in Educational Practice at the University of Gothenburg, and is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, with an orientation towards multimodal and aesthetic perspectives on education. She is involved in the Teacher Education Programs at the University, and is currently involved in research on teaching methods in general and The Storyline Approach in particular, in both teacher education and primary school education. Her special field concern aesthetics as didactical tools, participation and communication, and inclusive pedagogical methods, as well as multimodality in education. Her research interests concern aesthetic experiences, theory and practice and transformative learning.