Intercultural Student Teaching

In response to the changing global climate and the growing recognition of the professional associations in the teacher education community, universities around the country are beginning to recognize the need to add a global dimension to their education programs. One way to prepare teachers to address the challenges associated with teaching children in a global age is through carefully structured, international and intercultural field experiences where candidates are immersed in another culture. Since student teaching requires candidates to show they can translate theory into practice over a sustained period of time, it is ideally suited for strengthening candidates' intercultural understanding. Intercultural Student Teaching demonstrates examples of these successful programs and provides documented experience from professionals currently engaged in intercultural teaching practice. Readers will learn from the contributor's experiences through carefully crafted chapters that focus on major elements of program implementation and delivery. The contributors report how they have created, organized, and maintained programs in their purview and address program features such as selection, orientation and supervision of participating candidates, interaction with host families and communities, and strategies for enhancing understanding of global and domestic diversity.

Highly recommended., Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence offers a visionary collection of essays drawing from the authors' experiences in innovative international student teaching programs, which in turn offer diverse approaches to preparation for teacher education in a globalizing community and world. The editors urge readers to move beyond locally reproductive 'comfort zones' and to encourage future teachers to have a range of intercultural experiences, which can help prepare them to 'collaborate with others in the resolution of global problems.', Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence brings student teaching in diverse cultures into the 21st century. Its focus is the development of beginning teachers who excel in intercultural competence, a goal that is significant for every teacher today given the diversity of American schools. Brennan and Cushner have grounded their book in intercultural research that demonstrates how people are affected by immersion experiences in other cultures and how educational structures can optimize acquisition of cross-cultural skills and understanding. The chapters allow the reader to gain insights from different stakeholders—program administrators, teacher educators, hosts in other countries, and the students themselves. Intercultural Student Teaching moves the field beyond conventional multicultural and global/international field experiences. It is the synthesis we all have been looking for in preparing teachers for equity and diversity in an interconnected world., Thanks to well-written chapters by experienced educators and revealing excerpts from student-teacher journals, this book delivers both inspiration and information. If we expect our children's horizons to extend beyond their own back yard, we need teachers who have crossed that "bridge to global competence" so eloquently promoted in this fine book., Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence, is a must-read for teacher educators.... Developing the cultural capacity of our teachers to better serve our students will be instrumental to the success of our teachers and our students in the 21st century. Cushner and Brennan have created a volume that provides a timely addition to the field. Bridging theory and practice, the authors focus on successful programs for developing inter- and intra-cultural competence for student teachers. This text examines the need for preparing teachers for the global world; one in which students and teachers must find areas of commonality, reflect deeply on their differences and come to understand one another better as teachers and as learners in the world. The authors provide a compelling and realistic view of the need of global teachers and the means by which we can successfully prepare teachers for all.

Kenneth Cushner, Ed.D. is executive director of international affairs and professor in the College and Graduate School of Education, Health, and Human Services at Kent State University, Ohio. He is author of numerous books and other publications in multicultural and intercultural education and is internationally known for his work in the professional development of educators through workshops and consultation. Sharon Brennan, Ed.D is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. She serves as director of field experiences and school collaboration and has interests in global education, teacher mentoring, and program development in teacher education.