Learning to See Teaching as a Cultural Activity: U.S. Preservice Teachers’ Significant Experiences With Nepali Mentor Teachers During an International Field Experience

Abstract

ABSTRACTPreparing educators to understand teaching as a cultural activity is a crucial element of teacher education programs. International field experiences have shown to accomplish this goal when combined with cross-cultural mentoring and critical reflection. This qualitative eight-month study used ethnographic methods to examine significant experiences of six U.S. preservice teachers while being mentored by five Nepali teachers at an early childhood center in Kathmandu. Findings illustrated how the preservice teachers negotiated their significant experiences around: 1) care routines, 2) adult-child relationship, 3) curriculum & materials, 4) mentor-mentee relationship, and 5) language differences. Findings indicated that the preservice teachers navigated significant experiences by using practices that tended to accept the Nepali school culture or, at times, by displaying perceived privilege and entitlement over the Nepali school culture. More specifically, the preservice teachers showed acceptance of Nepali cultural scripts related to the themes of care routines and adult-child relationships by following practices of the mentor teachers, but their perceived privilege and entitlement were evident when confronting the Nepali cultural scripts related to the themes of curriculum materials and mentor-mentee relationships. Implications focus on why intercultural conflicts might have occurred as well as recommendations to prepare educators to understand teaching as a cultural activity.