Student Teaching in Diverse Settings

Abstract

Accepted: 22.07.2015 This study explores the cases of teachers who had overseas field experience. In this study, it is aimed at hearing what teachers say about their experiences and announce their reflections for others in order to contribute others’ learning that have not had cross-cultural experiences. In order to reach the aim of this study, the researchers have addressed the following research questions throughout this research: 1. Do participants perceive cross-cultural teaching as an aid to selfdevelopment?, 2. Do participants believe overseas experiences lead them to gain global perspectives?, and 3. What kind of learning has occurred within overseas experiences? In order to grasp the feelings and ideas of the teachers, semi-structure interview has been used. The respondent group of this study is four teachers. The findings of this current study obviously reveal that the participant teachers have benefited positively as a result of overseas experiences. These benefits include both personal and professional development. The participant teachers explained that they have learned much about instructional methodology, how to access children, and various classroom management styles based upon interaction with teachers in host nations and classroom observations. Also, by living in a different country, the participant teachers have reported that they have learned first-hand information about culture, tradition, folklore, history, and social condition of host nations. Learning these experiences help them, as teachers, to gain a meaningful perspective on other cultures, figure out the deepest ideas, assumptions, ideologies, which create that culture and it allows being aware of their own place in the world.