Experiences of Cross-Cultural Team Teaching in Host Country Schools

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

Abstract

Objectives
In this presentation I examine experiential stories of cross-cultural team teaching. I focus on the professional practices of new teachers from Canada who started their teaching careers in schools in Japan and Hong Kong. I highlight some of the challenges, tensions, and possibilities that might exist through international educator professional collaborations.
Theoretical Framework
This narrative investigation is grounded in an understanding of education as experiences (Dewey, 1938). Furthermore, this study incorporates a focus on pragmatic details of teaching and learning for ongoing deliberation (Schwab, 1969, 1983). Research that examines intercultural teaching is seminal to this work (Cushner & Brennan, 2007; Garii & Schlein, 2011; Phillion et al., 2008; Walters, Garii, & Walters, 2009). I also consulted with inquiries that incorporate a narrative orientation to studies of intercultural teaching (Elbaz-Luwisch, 2004; Eng, 2005, 2008; He, 2002).
Methods
This study was conducted following the narrative inquiry qualitative research tradition of Connelly and Clandinin (2000). In particular, I collected stories of experience as data (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). This investigation was further framed within the construct of a self-study with co-participants.

Data Sources
Over the course of my investigation I interacted with three participants via five 90–minute informal, tape–recorded interviews. I logged extensive technical and reflective field notes following all interviews. Reflective writing, literature response pieces, and arts-based literary exercises were also included as reflective journal recordings and reflective field note composition for both the researcher and the co-participants to capture their experiences. I reviewed all data to uncover common narrative themes. I further made use of the narrative inquiry three–dimensional framework to search for patterns across the variables of time periods, personal and social interactions, and context or culture.
Results
Programs for study abroad often focus on developing intercultural competence in student teaching through engagement with professional practice in foreign countries. Their scope might encompass shaping global discourses across education professionals. In this presentation, I concentrate on some of the salient experiences of tensions and growth stemming from classroom-level international collaborations. Within this presentation, I share experiential narratives of foreign novice teachers in host country schools to examine facets and potential enduring influences of cross-cultural team teaching. I further deliberate over questions about the aims and potential of international educational collaborations from the vantage of teachers participating in such cross-cultural professional exchanges.


Scholarly Significance of the Study
Programmatic discourses are highly important for fostering education ties in an increasingly global and interconnected world. In turn, many of these interactions involve individuals working together and discussing specific curricular and cultural concerns. As such, there is a great need for further attention to some of the classroom-based international collaborations and the professional outgrowth of such collaborations. This presentation is significant for addressing some of the front line considerations of cultural and professional educational exchanges.

Author

• Candace M. Schlein, University of Missouri - Kansas City