Intercultural Student Teaching

Highly recommended. * CHOICE *
Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence offers a visionary collection of essays drawing from the authors' experiences in innovative international student teaching programs, which in turn offer diverse approaches to preparation for teacher education in a globalizing community and world. The editors urge readers to move beyond locally reproductive 'comfort zones' and to encourage future teachers to have a range of intercultural experiences, which can help prepare them to 'collaborate with others in the resolution of global problems.' -- Beth Blue Swadener, professor, curriculum and instruction and policy studies, Arizona State University, Tempe
Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence brings student teaching in diverse cultures into the 21st century. Its focus is the development of beginning teachers who excel in intercultural competence, a goal that is significant for every teacher today given the diversity of American schools. Brennan and Cushner have grounded their book in intercultural research that demonstrates how people are affected by immersion experiences in other cultures and how educational structures can optimize acquisition of cross-cultural skills and understanding. The chapters allow the reader to gain insights from different stakeholders—program administrators, teacher educators, hosts in other countries, and the students themselves. Intercultural Student Teaching moves the field beyond conventional multicultural and global/international field experiences. It is the synthesis we all have been looking for in preparing teachers for equity and diversity in an interconnected world. -- Merry Merryfield, professor, Ohio State University, Columbus
Thanks to well-written chapters by experienced educators and revealing excerpts from student-teacher journals, this book delivers both inspiration and information. If we expect our children's horizons to extend beyond their own back yard, we need teachers who have crossed that "bridge to global competence" so eloquently promoted in this fine book. * Education and Culture: The Journal Of The John Dewey Society *
Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence, is a must-read for teacher educators.... Developing the cultural capacity of our teachers to better serve our students will be instrumental to the success of our teachers and our students in the 21st century. Cushner and Brennan have created a volume that provides a timely addition to the field. Bridging theory and practice, the authors focus on successful programs for developing inter- and intra-cultural competence for student teachers. This text examines the need for preparing teachers for the global world; one in which students and teachers must find areas of commonality, reflect deeply on their differences and come to understand one another better as teachers and as learners in the world. The authors provide a compelling and realistic view of the need of global teachers and the means by which we can successfully prepare teachers for all. -- Beverly Shaklee, director, Center for International Education, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
One way of developing a global disposition is to teach in new cultural contexts. The 'lived' experience gives us cause to reflect on our personal world views as we come to personally redefine our own sense of identity and learn what it means to be flexible, tolerant, and culturally sensitive. This book challenges us all to develop a global disposition in our work as teachers. -- Russell Matthews, professor, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
The book's editors...bring extensive experience in the field of intercultural education, drawing on their work as professors and directors of the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST).... Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence is an important contribution to the field of multicultural teacher education. -- Timothy Jester * Comparative Education Review *