The Efficacy of Collaborative Networks in Preparing Teachers

Overview & Synopsis

Within the last two decades intercultural teacher education has become a priority in many European countries. The consensus among researchers, it seems, is that intercultural education should begin with the initial training of teachers. In this paper we present the implementation of a collaborative action research programme in which we built a collaborative network through which we tried to help student teachers develop practices of intercultural education. First, we briefly examine the existing situation regarding teacher education in Cyprus and we discuss generally teacher education in relation to intercultural education. Subsequently, we explain the term "collaborative networks" and then analyse the methodology we followed for the research that led to this paper. Finally, we present and analyse, with additional research, the themes that arose through our paper's former data analysis.