The responsibilities of physical education teachers are responding to increased migration and wider political shifts in Europe. How might tertiary institutions prepare the next generation of PE teachers to address issues of social inclusion and cultural pluralism? This article critically reflects on an experiential learning intervention in Jyväskylä, Finland, in which trainee PE teachers facilitated kinaesthetic language-learning workshops for asylum seekers. We focus on how this intervention may have transformed the trainee PE teachers' understandings and expectations of their emerging professional identities. We interpret the trainee PE teachers' written accounts of the experience through contemporary theories of acculturation.

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Purpose: This article is based on a study that explored learning processes related to intercultural competence of PE teacher trainees. The context of the study was the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The study was conducted in connection to two courses that focused on equality in physical education and sport in 2020–2021.Methods: Adopting an interpretive, as well as a critical approach, the authors focused on how the students described their conceptions and learning experiences. Based on their analysis they have then aimed to shed light on how interculturality, equality, equity, and diversity may be addressed in higher education in a more profound manner. The students' accounts were analyzed first through an open reading and subsequently through a more critical lens. The analysis was supported by theories of transformative learning, embodied learning, and intercultural education.Results: Students' initial interest toward equity, equality, and interculturality seemed to expand during the courses. They increasingly reflected on the complexity of these issues and discussed the widening professional responsibilities of future PE teachers in promoting equality and supporting pupils in cultural heterogeneous classes. Discussions and practical activities that involved emotional and embodied elements seemed to be important in facilitating their learning processes. However, it is difficult to foresee how permanent the changes in their habits of mind and subsequent actions are.Discussion: The authors suggest that embodied, practical approaches where the student is fully engaged in the learning process, and where conceptual, reflective, emotional, and affective levels are connected, may be a key in developing teachers' intercultural competence. They also suggest that it is crucial to revise higher education curricula from the perspectives of intercultural competence and structural inequality. In addition to separate courses, equality, equity, and diversity should be seen as red threads throughout higher education.

Today, multiculturalism is increasing in the Nordic societies. It is also evidently reflected in the arts, including dance. Simultaneously, understanding different dance cultures is becoming more important in the field of dance pedagogy. This article discusses the pedagogical conceptions of Finnish teachers of transnational dances and their experiences in teaching African dance, Oriental dance and flamenco. Through a process of a phenomenographic data analysis, the authors have identified three different ways to understand the nature of transnational dances: 1) Dance is art, 2) Dance is culture open to all people and simultaneously art and physical education, and 3) Dance is a part of well-being. These different views seem to be reflected in the teachers’ pedagogical conceptions that are the main focus of the data analysis. The article includes descriptions of the different pedagogical ways of thinking of the teachers. The present findings can be used to increase the awareness of teachers who focus on teaching the dances of different cultures. They are also relevant for the future development of physical education and dance teacher programs, where cultural consciousness is considered relevant.

This article is based on a phenomenographic study that focuses on identifying the pedagogical conceptions of Finnish teachers of transnational dances. The purpose is to uncover and understand teachers' conceptions concerning the implications of the cultural contexts of their specific dance forms for their pedagogical practices. Through a process of phenomenographic data analysis, the authors have identified three different ways to understand teachers' conceptions and experiences: (1) Dance as a path towards personal expression, (2) Telling a story of being a woman through dance, and (3) Self-approval and the collective nature of dance. The study aims at facilitating discussion about the process of cultural dialogue, especially within dance pedagogy. Understanding the complexity that diverse cultural contexts create is particularly important in countries like Finland, which have only brief histories of multicultural education.Dance reflects the values and attitudes of its time and contemporary society (Hanna, 1979, p. 170;Hoppu, 2003). It is therefore obvious that strengthened multiculturalism and cultural globalization also reverberate in dance (Shapiro, 2008). Finland has traditionally been a relatively homogenous society and this has been reflected in our dance culture. The authors of this paper share an interest in multiculturalism in dance and physical education, and the new challenges it creates in teacher education. Their backgrounds as educators in physical and dance education programmes and researchers provide the context for understanding dance in this study (see, e.g., Anttila, 2008).The aim of the present article is to uncover and investigate the conceptions of seven experienced Finnish teachers of transnational dances-West African dances, Oriental dance, and flamenco. It focuses on the following research question: What kind of pedagogical conceptions do Finnish teachers of transnational dances have concerning the implications of their dance forms' cultural contexts for their pedagogical practices?