Reflections from a short-term study abroad program to build cultural competencies for K-12 educators

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Proposal

As one’s professional practice becomes more repetitive and routine, it is difficult for a practitioner to recognize opportunities in which to contemplate one’s habitual actions (Schon, 1983). Many educators have difficulty engaging in the cognitive dissonance needed to identify held conceptions and promote their own transformation of practice without support. As educators are introduced to new conceptions about their practice, they must engage with their held conceptions and link these new ideas to prior knowledge. The cycle of simply assimilating the new knowledge within one’s currently held conceptions does not lead to sustained transformations in practice (Posner, et al., 1982).
As K-12 school populations continue to diversify, being able to implement pedagogy that envelopes the linguistic and cultural assets of students who do not identify with the majority cultural norms forces educators to question the demographic imperative so that students’ lives become the bridge between the cultural disparities instead of the gap (Kondo, 2022). This study away program was engaging K-12 teachers in the identification and acknowledgment of the factors that contribute to one’s cultural identity. As Pedersen writes, “all behaviors are learned and displayed in a particular cultural context (2002, pg. 1). Therefore, it is crucial for all educators to grapple with these factors so they can fully acknowledge the linguistic and cultural assets of one’s students and avoid intentionally or unintentionally creating gaps among cultural identities.
This study examined reflections from three secondary science educators who engaged in a short-term study abroad program centered on comparative education to identify and assimilate cultural competencies within one’s instructional practice. This short-term study abroad program was designed to engage participants in the development of the following skills and dispositions:
• implementing intercultural competencies to live in an increasingly diverse world and to successfully interact with diverse people;
•identifying evidence of intercultural competencies: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, communities within one’s current educational setting;
•developing an understanding of a host country’s historical, political, religious, economic and geographical features and the impacts on educational contexts;
• cultivating a critical eye for intersections of community, culture, and schooling in both the host country and one’s current educational setting.
In this professional development experience, educators had the opportunity to learn from colleagues at host schools located in Northern Ireland (UK), Belgium, and Germany. During these visits, the participants were able to observe familiar educational practices while gaining a new perspective based upon this globalized context of learning can encourage educators to question their held conceptions and accommodate practices that are aligned with global competencies. In all, this professional development initiative provided educators a shared experience in which to explore common barriers to academic achievement for all learners regardless of their socioeconomic, ethnic, or linguistic backgrounds. Participants had opportunities to observe educational practices from a cross-cultural perspective in order to develop awareness of the factors that influence underrepresented populations in K-12 education and how those factors can impact the competencies and dispositions needed to support these students best.

Author

• Robbie L. Higdon, James Madison University