Professional development for intercultural education: learning on the run

Abstract

In many parts of the world, there is a visible increase in the numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students entering compulsory education. To explore the preparedness of teachers for responding to this diversity, this article reports the findings of an ethnographic study which had a specific focus on Samoan students. In semistructured interviews, teachers of a south-east Queensland primary school described initial challenges they encountered, as well as their opinions about the professional development they had received for intercultural education. In talanoa (Pacific Islandstyle discussions), parents in the school community shared their concerns about the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of the teachers compared to their previous experiences. Analysis of the findings revealed that teachers experienced 'culture shock' in highly multicultural classrooms perhaps related to the lack of opportunities for professional learning about teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. Too few opportunities for teachers to develop and sustain positive dispositions towards intercultural education may have factored into the school staff's focus on the 'how' of intercultural education, rather than the 'why'. A scarcity of professional and human resources in this area was also identified. The article concludes with ideas for future research.

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Prospective Teachers’ Intercultural Sensitivity as the Effort to Actualize the Multicultural Education

“…Intercultural competence is one of the goals of multicultural education. Students are expected to have the competence to interact with people of different cultures while respecting cultural differences (Jun, 2016;Tualaulelei, 2020). According to Byram et al (2002), there are five dimensions of intercultural competence, namely intercultural attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness.…”