Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

Teacher trainees can be “rooted in their own context,” and need to experience “a similar phenomenon in a different context” (Silver, 2022) to fully define and accommodate conceptual understandings of one’s instructional practice. Participants in teacher training typically have positive conceptions about their secondary educational experience, it can be difficult for these students to understand that their conceptions and understandings about teaching and learning is not necessarily the same for all learners. Therefore, teacher trainees need multiple and varied opportunities to engage in an in-depth, self-reflection of their held conceptions regarding teaching and learning. The American Council on Education (ACE) has provided a framework for comprehensive internationalization as one way in which teacher preparation programs can help their candidates recognize the need to not only identify their held perceptions about cultural norms but also how these same norms can look vastly different within various educational contexts. Participating in a study abroad experience with a lens of comparative education can allow teacher trainees the opportunity to experience the needed cognitive dissonance to help them self-evaluate their held conceptions about one’s cultural identity and intercultural competencies. In this short-term study abroad program, teacher trainees had the opportunity to learn from colleagues at host schools located in Northern Ireland (UK), Belgium, and Germany. During these visits, participants were able to observe familiar educational practices while gaining a new perspective based upon this globalized context of learning can encourage educators to question their held conceptions and accommodate practices that are aligned with global competencies.