Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Self-Study in International Teacher Education: "Visiones, Preguntas, y Desafios"

Overview & Synopsis

This paper works to shed light on challenges and possibilities of helping teacher education faculty to be competent as international teacher educators. This collaborative self study of a USA teacher educator's international experiences provides ideas that might be considered that will help support teacher education faculty in movement toward this competence. These experiences abroad must be of a quality (authenticity) and quantity (length of time) such that they provide teacher education faculty with opportunities to construct and re/construct understandings of phenomena, including how education is conceived of and carried out differently, so that it approximates a better understanding of the perspective of the international "Other" regarding education. Without this quality and quantity of experiences, the teacher educator risks completing the international education experience within the framework of the culturally insular wherein the perspective they attain is negative (reinforcing negative cultural stereotypes and misunderstanding the aims of education in that country) or superficial (having a general idea of how things work, such as cultures or schooling systems, but at such a superficial level as to be of little value upon return). These emerging themes suggest that the most robust experiences abroad must put the teacher education on a path toward (a) reflective practice as assumptions are reconsidered and expectations are clarified; (b) flexibility and creativity in acknowledging the always evolving identities as an open-minded perspective is formed; (c) understanding teaching as a political activity; and (d) seeking and strengthening authenticity without trivializing these experiences.