Practice

The findings of this study offer three implications that may shape the practice of teacher education. First, the findings highlight the role of programmatic support in developing

support that presents teaching as a context-specific endeavor as a means of developing these capacities. Second, the findings suggest that ISTs may be useful in developing some cultural noticing capacity among PSTs who have little understanding of cultural context at the beginning of the program. The third implication is that ISTs may be useful in helping to deepen the capacities of PSTs who begin the program already with some intercultural competence.

The first implication for practice is that programmatic support during IST programs seems to make an important difference by leading participants to focus and reflect upon cultural context. Attending to cultural noticing through facilitator-directed reflection activities may help to build cultural noticing capacity among PSTs. These activities should occur before, during, and after an IST experience in order to focus PST attention on details in the IST cultural context. These activities may include responding to journal prompts and receiving facilitator feedback on responses throughout the IST experience, discussing interactions in a face-to-face facilitator-led group setting, or even through a facilitator-moderated on-line forum during the IST experience. This finding supports a number of recent studies that emphasize the need for programmatic support to help PSTs develop intercultural competence through IST programs (Johnson & Battalio, 2008; Karaman & Tochen, 2010; Marx & Moss, 2011; Trilokekar & Kukar, 2011; Willard-Holt, 2001). As the findings suggest, not all PSTs will independently engage in a closer examination of their interactions with others during an IST experience. This finding supports studies in the literature that contend that PSTs without programmatic support and guided reflection during an IST program may miss opportunities for intercultural development (Santoro & Major, 2012), as many will not reflect independently, fail to make sense of negative experiences, and miss cultural nuances (Mahon & Cushner, 2007). It appears that without

programmatic support for the IST experience, some missed opportunities for intercultural competence development may remain just that – missed opportunities.

Additionally, the findings also suggest that programmatic support that presents teaching as a context-specific endeavor may be particularly effective in increasing cultural noticing and cultural responding capacities among participants. RHU’s UAS program is an example of a teacher preparation program that presents teaching in this manner. It seems that the UAS features of offering multiple courses on-site at the K-12 school with integrated field experiences, regular opportunities for group processing and reflection during the experience with an eye towards viewing teaching as a process of reflective, thoughtful engagement between teachers and students, and a deeper investigation overall of the school community may all be useful in developing cultural noticing and cultural responding capacities among PSTs. Adding more of these activities throughout an IST program may help PSTs notice more about the cultural practices and values of the IST student body, and even respond to what they notice.

The second implication for practice is that participation in an IST may help PSTs with little or no cultural noticing capacity begin to develop this foundation of intercultural competence. Development of this foundation seems to be most vital for White PSTs in the U.S, as most White PSTs have little preparation related to cultural context or experiences with cultural diversity (Castro, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1999; Milner, 2010a; Sleeter, 2008). This IST experience may be particularly powerful for White PSTs, as for many, it is their first experience outside of the dominant culture and the first time they are immersed in an unfamiliar context (Marx & Moss, 2011; Zeichner & Melnick, 1996). The importance of intercultural competence development among White PSTs is underscored by data that suggests that 83% of all U.S. teachers are white (U. S. D. o. E. National Center for Education Statistics, 2012) and must cross

a cultural divide to communicate with many of their students. Cultural immersion outside of one’s home country, such as IST experiences, may be a useful way for some White teachers to begin to understand the cultural divide they face in U.S. urban classrooms. However, the findings suggest that month-long IST experiences may not go far enough – although they seem to help PSTs some with no prior preparation develop some cultural noticing capacity, simply noticing differences in cultural context is not enough to enable them to help culturally diverse students. PSTs need to be able to respond to what they notice. Continued support is needed for these PSTs to help them to develop cultural responding capacity as well.

The final implication of this study for the practice of teacher education is that ISTs may help deepen the capacities of PSTs who begin the program with some foundational capacity already developed. PSTs who were part of a context-specific teacher preparation program before participating in the IST program and appeared to arrive with some of these capacities seemed to continue to develop their cultural noticing and cultural responding capacities while in Mexico. This idea supports studies in the literature that suggest that differences in individual participant qualities inform what participants say they learn through IST programs (Jiang et al., 2010; Johnson & Battalio, 2008; Karaman, 2010; Malewski & Phillion, 2009; Matthews & Lawley, 2011; Trilokekar & Kukar, 2011; Zhao et al., 2009).

Overall, IST programs should be viewed as a good resource to develop and extend some intercultural competence capacities among PSTs. Although participants do not say that they develop all of the intercultural competence they need to work effectively in U.S. culturally diverse schools during a one month-long IST experience, some PSTs do say they learn some of what is needed. In this light, IST programs may be considered one path to supporting the development of intercultural competence among PSTs.

3.0 WHAT PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS REPORT AS LEARNING

OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO TRANSFER FROM INTERNATIONAL STUDENT TEACHING TO U.S. CLASSROOMS

Main research question: What do PSTs report as learning opportunities in international school classrooms that are difficult to transfer into the U.S. context?

3.1 INTRODUCTION