‘You just can’t do it like that—it's just wrong!' impressions of French and English trainee primary teachers on exchange placement in primary schools abroad: the value of experiencing the difference

Recent research (2000–2006) into applied linguistics and language teaching with specific reference to L2 French

“…In a study of nine foreign national trainees enrolled on a postgraduate training course (PGCE) in London, Block focuses on the comments of four French nationals interviewed over the duration of the course in 1999-2000. Newman et al (2004) have also examined the context of boundary crossing in language teacher education. 301).…”

“…The authors make a plea for greater interdepartmental dialogue. Newman et al (2004) have also examined the context of boundary crossing in language teacher education. Their study focuses on the exchange placement experiences of primary language student teachers at a university faculty of education in England and at an 'Institut de Formation de Maîtres' in France.…”

Between the Familiar and Strange: Understanding Good Teaching in Transnational Education Settings

“…As Alexander (2000) states: "Without comparison we simply refashion the world to fit our individual, collective or political interests and remain imprisoned by local or national habits that are too deeply ingrained to allow us to countenance alternatives" (p. 49) thus generating little or no change when experiences "conform to our expectation and confirm it" (Gadamer, 2004, p. 347). Thus, the Erfahrung experiences of the international field placement context provided deeper insights into the participants' own personal values around "good" pedagogy, while also highlighting taken for granted understandings and norms of "good" pedagogy -a finding that is supported by international field placement literature (Driscoll & Rowe, 2012;Mahan & Stachowski, 1992;Maynes et al, 2012;Newman, Taylor, Whitehead, & Planel, 2004). Or as Brindley et al's (2009) study noted, perhaps it was the time away from the everyday hectic lives of initial teacher education that allowed the study participants time "to stop and reflect on teaching and learning [while] being out of their comfort zone caused them some dissonance and required [that] they were open-minded in order to make sense of the experience" (p. 531).…”