New immigrants. An incentive for intercultural education?

Abstract

This study was inspired by an inclusive intercultural perspective on education, and developed empirical knowledge concerning the intercultural professional development of in-service teachers. The study was conducted during the first year of a newly-designed master's programme that focused on "education for refugees". In the Netherlands master's programmes in education qualify inservice teachers to contribute to school development, together with giving them a specialisation in a specific topic. The findings were based on the teachers' written work, and interviews with the teacher educators. They show that the intercultural professional identity of the teachers was developed by a combination of pedagogical approaches. These include the following: new knowledge from an inclusive intercultural perspective, critical socio-cultural self-examination, real encounters with newly-arrived refugees, and a reflective, intervention-based approach to professional learning and curriculum renewal. The intervention-based approach turned out to be the most important for the teachers' agency in intercultural school development. The challenges experienced concern mono-cultural practices in mainstream education for refugees, together with the dominance of an instrumentalist approach to teaching and learning. Windesheim University is a large university of professional studies situated in a medium-sized city in the east of the Netherlands. The department of education of this university includes educational research and teacher education (ba and ma). Over 500 students study for a master's degree. The 19 specialisations offered vary from learning & innovation to religious education and education for newcomers. The University of Humanistic Studies is a small university situated in one of the major cities of the Netherlands.

Professional development for cultural diversity: the challenges of teacher learning in context

“…Familiarity with these pedagogies rather depended on teachers´previous life and professional experiences as well as self-initiation, rather than a shared vision on cultural and linguistic diversity in pedagogy that PD could facilitate. This finding adds to previous indications that teachers need pedagogical support in the classroom in meaningfully developing classroom strategies related to cultural diversity and support student learning (Leeman andvan Koeven 2018, Forghani-Arani et al 2019).…”

“…PD focusing on emotional aspects often develops cultural sensitivity and positive intergroup relations by engaging in interactive, cooperative activities. As mentioned before, rather than segmenting the aims and contents of PD for cultural diversity, it is suggested to see PD as a system aiming at transformation, integrating critical reflection and supporting teachers in finding pedagogical responses (Szelei and Alves 2018, Creemers et al 2013, Leeman and van Koeven 2018. Forghani-Arani et al (2019) add the need for PD to persistently reconnect practice to theory, to be driven by teachers and supported by school leaders.…”

“…Teachers from across Europe seem to experience personal and professional dilemmas with cultural diversity (Zembylas 2010, Fine-Davis and Faas 2014, Flores and Ferreira 2016, Ben-Peretz and Flores 2018, and studies consistently suggest that teachers´professional development (PD) is needed on the issue (Burns andShadoian-Gersing 2010, Acquah et al 2016). Despite this general call for PD, research studies have been rather engaging with preservice teacher learning for cultural diversity, and it is still less investigated how schools support in-service teacher PD in everyday school contexts (Leeman andvan Koeven 2018, Forghani-Arani et al 2019). Consequently, this article is a contribution to understanding practicing teachers' PD for cultural diversity by portraying a case study (Stake 1995, Simons 2009) of a school cluster in Portugal.…”

A Qualitative Study on the Intercultural Educational Sensitivity of the Professors at the University of Malaga (Spain)

“…Translating this approach to interculturality, this research has recognized the importance of promoting, during the educational trajectory at the university, a wide variety of learning experiences with which to learn about cultural diversity, teachers being aware of their roles as education professionals, and understanding the complexities they will encounter when working in multicultural contexts. These data are consistent with other studies [8,24,[33][34][35][36][37], which emphasize the need to open university classrooms to the intercultural reality, as a way to promote experiential learning and provide students with the necessary tools to work optimally on interculturality during their professional careers.…”

Designing Pedagogical Practices for Teaching in Educational Spaces Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

“…Studies in education indicate that there has been very little preparation in the teacher training process for learning the intercultural dimension, developing intercultural communication skills, and enriching cultural knowledge (Byram, 2014;Gorski, 2012;Lázár, 2011). However, other researchers (Bringle, Hatcher, & Jones, 2011;Leeman & Koeven, 2018;Schutte, 2018) found that educators who met directly with people from (Agmon-Snir & Shemer, 2016;Deardorff, 2006Deardorff, , 2011Fantini, 2007;Malewski et al, 2012;Stephan & Stephan, 2013) other cultures and were exposed to an ethnically-culturally diverse environment opened their eyes and developed cultural sensitivity and emotion. Bradford, Allen, and Beisser (2000) have indicated that the concept of "intercultural competence" is defined as knowledge, skills, attitudes and policies developed by professionals in ongoing learning processes in order to create effective work with people from different cultures in various fields, such as communication, psychology, linguistics, anthropology and education.…”