Creating a Third Space: International Professional Development for Early Child Teacher in Uzbekistan

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  In Roundtable Session: Working Toward Remedy and Repair in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation and Professional Development (Table 8)

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to document how Uzbek early childhood teachers negotiated international professional development experiences for their teaching. Currently, Uzbekistan has been going through fundamental innovations and reforms in education both in public and private sectors experiencing active internationalization in early childhood education. Guided by the Third Space theory and postcolonial perspectives, the US based teacher educator partnered with three private preschools located in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, to design and implement a multimodal professional development program. The author highlights cultural tensions and a third pedagogy the Uzbek teachers recreated as they translate and appropriate the given resources for their classrooms. Critical recommendations for more equitable and meaningful international partnerships and teacher development are discussed.

Author

• Shin Ji Kang, James Madison University