Exploring Discipline-Specific Education Abroad Programming to Support Preservice Teacher Learning About Race and Culture

• In Event: Exploring Race and Identity in International Education Experiences

Abstract

Objectives

This paper addresses the impact of an education abroad program aimed to develop the cultural competencies of preservice mathematics teachers. While the field of mathematics education recommitted itself to issues of access, equity, and racial justice, the subject is often seen as culturally neutral with students’ racial and cultural experiences as insignificant in the learning of the subject (Gutiérrez, 2002). To help teacher candidates see how language, culture, and incorporating students’ backgrounds in mathematics instruction impacts learning (Gutiérrez, 2002, 2007), we share key findings from a semester-long education abroad program in England. The impact of this content-specific education abroad program involved the participant’s understanding of race and culture.

Theoretical framework

Drawing on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) (Bennet, 1986) this paper highlights a continuum of ways one can respond to cultural difference ranging from monocultural to intercultural. Someone with a monocultural mindset evaluates other cultures according to their own culture while someone with an intercultural mindset values cultural difference and uses it to understand conflicts and miscommunication. Intercultural mindsets are, we believe, a prerequisite for incorporating students’ culture and backgrounds into the classroom.

Methods

We share the deep experiences of one student, Ben (pseudonym), presented as a case study (Yin, 2014). Ben’s demographics align with the demographics of majority of teachers in the US, as he is white, middle-class, monolingual in English, from a suburban majority-white town, with limited intercultural experiences. Two data collection methods were used: interviews and document analysis of student journals/coursework.

Results

At the outset of the program, Ben demonstrated little attention to his racial/cultural identity and those of his students. By the end of the program, he demonstrated an emerging intercultural mindset, including the desire to understand, consider, and incorporate his students’ race and culture into his teaching. He now believed that his students’ cultural identities would influence their experiences in the classroom, and he described wanting to take “it slow and not make assumptions” about his students based on his prior experiences, rather that he would consider his students’ prior experiences.

He was also acknowledging race and gender, observing in his internship that only the white females participated in a particular activity. Rather than concluding it was an unsuccessful lesson in which individual students lacked interest, he wondered if there was more to it—perhaps racial and/or cultural differences that contributed to the lack of student participation and enthusiasm. These types of reflections and considerations from Ben emerged, we propose, as a result of participation in this program. This paper shares rich narratives from Ben along with a depiction of the program that influenced this development.

Scholarly significance

Ben’s growth indicates potential for mathematics-focused education abroad programs. Few international programs offer such content-specific work, affording preservice teachers the opportunity to explore race and culture within the context of the discipline while also teaching. The implications for replicating this international content-focused program across other disciplines will be addressed.

Authors

• Blair Izard, Empire State University - SUNY

• David M. Moss, University of Connecticut