Developing Global Educators and Intercultural Competence through an International Teaching Practicum in Kenya/Développer Des éDucateurs Globaux et Des Compétences Interculturelles À Travers Un Stage International D'enseignement Au Kenya

Given the diversity of Canada's population, education must be intercultural. If education does not address the cultural reality of students it risks becoming a tool for the inculcation of national or religious fundamentalism (Coulby, 2006, p. 246). In this paper, we explore the extent to which international teaching practicums achieve the goals of intercultural education. Simply stated, intercultural education aims to develop the capacity of to live in an ethnically and culturally diverse society (Leeman, 2003). Specifically, we explore through the lens of transformational learning, the personal and pedagogical changes of teacher candidates involved in an international teaching practicum in Kenya.Countries in the Western world are becoming nations of minorities in which no group, including Whites, will be able to claim a majority of the population. Canada's continues to be more racially diverse as current immigration and Canadian birth patterns change the face of the population (Ryan, Pollock, & Antonelli, 2009, p. 592), and is reflected in the student demographic of Canadian classrooms, particularly in metropolitan centers (Harvey & Houle, 2006). For many new teachers their first teaching position is in the heart of these settings (Hodgkinson, 2002). Levine's (2006) comprehensive study reported teacher education did not sufficiently prepare candidates in, among other areas, the individual needs of culturally diverse students, and students who have limited English proficiency.Many argue that teacher education programs do not significantly alter the beliefs and values of new teachers (Bullough, 1991; Knowles, 1992), and there is often a mismatch between what teacher preparation programs think they teach and what new teachers feel they learned (Kosnik & Beck, 2009). We, as well as others (Cushner & Mahon, 2009), believe teachers continue to graduate from preparatory institutions without the necessary competencies to ensure educational equity to support all students in achieving their personal and professional goals in a globalized world.Support for cross-cultural experiential learning to progress teachers' cultural perspectives has been evidenced since the 1960s (Taylor, 1969). In the 1980s, Wilson (1982) noted while there has been an intuitive acceptance of the value of intercultural experiences, few connections have been made between the teacher's cross-cultural experience and his or her experience as a teacher in the (p. 184). More recently, researchers (Armstrong, 2008; Cushner, 2007; Lee, 2011) acknowledged the need to support teacher candidates' cultural sensitivity and globalization to prepare for the increase in cultural mobility. Findings from this international practicum study will contribute to understanding the connection between teachers' development of intercultural competence and their teaching practices.The teacher candidates and two faculty facilitators (the authors of this study) had the unique opportunity to live, teach, and participate in many of the activities of a rural farming community in Kenya. The trip was supported by a Canadian non-governmental organization, Free the Children/Me-to-We, who organized accommodations, meals, and local travel arrangements. Our teaching assignments for the three weeks were in a primary school in grades three to seven. Although the official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili, all the students were English language learners whose first language was the mother tongue spoken by their tribe - either Kipsigi or Maasai. Many of the students also had significant gaps in their educational background due to family responsibilities.Our teacher candidates and faculty facilitators worked directly with the Kenyan classroom teachers in a collaborative teaching enviroment. Teaching resources were limited to a chalkboard (black paint on a cement wall), chalk, and a teacher textbook. In the classrooms, 30- 60 students sat three to a desk, and were limited to lined notebooks and shared pencils or pens. …

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