Internationalizing teacher education curricula: opportunities for academic staff development

Mónica Lourenço

doi:10.1108/oth-07-2017-0053

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the impact of a collaborative workshop, aimed to support teacher educators in embedding a “global outlook” in the curriculum on their perceived professional development.Design/methodology/approachThe workshop included working sessions, during a period of 13 months, and was structured as participatory action research, according to which volunteer academics designed, developed and evaluated global education projects in their course units. Data were gathered through a focus group session, conducted with the teacher educators at a final stage of the workshop, and analyzed according to the principles of thematic analysis.FindingsResults of the analysis suggest that the workshop presented a meaningful opportunity for teacher educators to reconstruct their knowledge and teaching practice to (re)discover the importance of collaborative work and to assume new commitments to themselves and to others.Originality/valueThe study addresses a gap in the existing literature on academic staff development in internationalization of the curriculum, focusing on the perceptions of teacher educators’, whose voices have been largely silent in research in the field. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for a professional development program in internationalization of the curriculum.

Highlights

Introduction ePreparing tomorrow’s teachers to take their place as ethical citizens and professionals in a globalized world is complex and requires that academic staff is both engaged and committed to the task
More empirical studies are needed to shed light on this issue and foreground academic voices. This is the aim of this study, which sought to understand the impact of an internationalization of the curriculum (IoC) workshop on the professional development of teacher educators through analyzing their discourses on the workshop and on their teaching practices
Professional knowledge on Regardless of their working experience and roles, all the teacher educators who participated in this workshop mentioned that they hadconstructed knowledge related with IoC and global education (GE)

Summary

Introduction

Introduction ePreparing tomorrow’s teachers to take their place as ethical citizens and professionals in a globalized world is complex and requires that academic staff is both engaged and committed to the task. (Childress, 2010; Stohl, 2007); to insufficient skills, knowledge and attributes to do so effectively (Leask, 2007; Sanderson, 2008); or to disciplinary differences, with staff in science and technology being generally less open to innovation than those in the humanities and social sciences (Clifford, 2009; Sawir, 2011) This makes it important to create times and spaces for academics to (re)construct knowledge in a collaborative way, and to ensure that IoC extends beyond those disciplines where staff have an existing interest or predisposition. More empirical studies are needed to shed light on this issue and foreground academic voices This is the aim of this study, which sought to understand the impact of an IoC workshop on the professional development of teacher educators through analyzing their discourses on the workshop and on their teaching practices.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion