Teachers’ Lived Experience of Acting and (T)acting in Culturally Heterogeneous Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Vulnerability and Care in Teacher Education

Abstract

Within the framework of a large-scale research project on a current Austrian school reform, this paper reports on and reflects the results of two empirical case studies on teachers’ experiences in dealing with culturally heterogeneous classrooms at secondary schools characterized by a significant population of immigrant students. The paper sets out to analyze teachers’ lived experiences of handling situations, by zooming in on particular moments where teachers respond, assess, judge, decide and act – on the spot – as they work on bringing their project at hand into effect, in interaction with their students. In doing so the paper draws on the construct of pedagogical tact and asks what tact looks like in the special case of interculturally significant situations.

Author

• Neda Forghani-Arani, University of Vienna