Reimagining Study Abroad for Teacher Preparation Programs: An International Collaboration Around the Inclusion of Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous Populations

• In Event: Exploring Possibilities of Alternative Study Abroad Programming: International Project Design and Implementation for Educational Equity

Abstract

Objectives

This paper highlights a teacher education partnership between a bilingual education department at a San Diego university and a university in Oaxaca, Mexico. This collaborative was started to reimagine the preparation of future bilingual teachers in both regions. With a more inclusive approach to teacher preparation that focuses not only on US marginalization but also underrepresented groups in our society that are often ignored, such as indigenous and Afro-Indigenous populations—this work adds a needed approach and population to the training of future teachers (Author, 2009; Urrieta, 2016). This collaborative attempts to shift the practice of educators by immersing teacher candidates in a series of courses that fulfill their teaching program in the US but are completed abroad. By focusing on Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous approaches and pedagogies to incorporate in teacher education as cultural mediation that includes the unique understanding of such concepts as land, healing, justice, circular time, language, the arts, parenting, and consensus building.

Theoretical Framework

Using Critical Latinx Indigeneities (CLI) (Blackwell, Boj Lopez, & Urrieta, 2016), a collective and collaborative interdisciplinary framing that reflects how Indigeneity and Afro-indigeneity are defined and constructed across multiple countries and across overlapping colonialities. CLI addresses how Indigenous people from Mexico and Latin America are created as colonial subjects and re-positioned in their countries of origin and in receiving countries, often encountering racial hierarchies within hybrid hegemonies. The CLI framework was utilized by both universities for examining culturally responsive alternatives in teacher education that are respectful of the lives of Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous Peoples in the US, abroad and within schools.

Methods and Data Sources

This study used data from three years of collaboration looking at teacher credential programming in the US and Mexico. Qualitative research methods were used to collect data from two years of an international experience to a teacher credential program and one semester of a virtual international experience. Because this research study focuses on how an international experience with a teacher preparation program changed when two institutions engaged in CLI (subordinated groups either absent from or misrepresented in historical accounts), narrative research methods (Merriam, 1998) were coupled with multiple interactive methods (Creswell, 2003) for data collection across multiple settings. The research team collected surveys and questionnaires that addressed transformational components of the international collaborative within a teacher preparation program.
Results and Scholarly Significance
Results from this study highlight the need for teacher preparation programs to be more inclusive of populations not typically included within the US curriculum. It also serves as a model for transformative collaborations around issues of national and international cultural appropriation, social justice, language rights and use, curriculum development and pedagogy. The reimagining of teacher preparation to include a more holistic approach to learning abroad leads to a new model of international collaboration around teacher preparation with an international experience. The significance of this study is to expand our understanding of the rationale for teacher preparation programs and the need to reimagine international collaboration for teacher education that incorporates Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous communities and learning.

Authors

• Margarita Machado-Casas, San Diego State University

• Fernando Martinez, University Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca

• Sarah Maheronnaghsh, San Diego State University