Gaps in the Research Underpinning Teacher Education Study Abroad: An Analytical Review of Research

• In Event: Preparing Teachers Through International Collaborations: Reconnecting the Local With Global Worldviews for Educational Change

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher educators have been encouraged to develop programs that support preservice teachers’ development of intercultural competence (McAllister & Irvine, 2000). Teacher education study abroad experiences are posited to be a potentially powerful vehicle towards these efforts (Cushner & Mahon, 2009; Malewski & Phillion, 2009; Marx & Moss, 2011). Recently there has been increased research on this type of program’s impact on U.S. preservice teachers’ ability to work across cultures. Though there is a growing body of research on teacher education study abroad programs, there has not been a systematic analysis of the literature in this area.
Method
This paper presents the final analytical stage of a literature review that examined empirical studies conducted over the past ten years on teacher education study abroad programs. The study followed guidelines for conducting a systematic review of the literature suggested by Cooper (2010). The research questions for this final phase of the study sought to synthesize current understandings, identify gaps in the research, and consider the lines of inquiry and research approaches not currently being pursued that could inform the ways teacher educators collaborate with international partners to prepare pre-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be able to teach for educational change.
Data Sources
The study began with a data-base searches, and snowball sampling technique, to initially examine 86 studies. A second level coding scheme identified thirty-eight (n= 38) studies that met the following criteria: a study abroad or international experience as a formal element of a teacher education program and a peer-reviewed journal article published between 2009 and 2019. The coding scheme was refined recursively throughout an initial process. The lead author then did a comprehensive read of each study, using the codes to categorize articles. After discussing the codes for clarity of meaning, the second author also utilized the codes to categorize the data – consensus was achieved between these multiple coders. Data were analyzed to identify gaps and consider lines of inquiry not currently being pursued.
Results
Findings from this analysis propose that researchers need to attend to the theoretical frames they use in study abroad. While the majority of studies stated that they found evidence of impact on growth, there were few studies that identified a theoretical framework underpinning student learning. As suggested by McAllister & Irvine (2000), we propose that research seeking to understand the impact of international teaching experiences on preservice teachers should look to theories of intercultural development (Bennet, 1986) or transformative learning (Mezirow, 2008) to analyze growth and to identify best practices in program design.
Scholarly Significance of the Study
Our analysis also uncovered a gap in the research regarding the negotiated context of these international experiences. There is a need to examine nature of the intercultural collaborations between the home and host country to challenge and support preservice teachers’ intercultural growth. Finally, researchers should seek to identify best practices of the host country collaborators who play the key role as intercultural guides; a role that as proven pivotal to preservice teachers’ intercultural development (Marx & Moss, 2011).

Authors

• Helen Marx, Southern Connecticut State University

• David M. Moss, University of Connecticut