White Teachers' Learning about Diversity and “Otherness”: The Effects of Undergraduate International Education Internships on Subsequent Teaching Practices

I remember when my whole world was shaken; things were no longer the way they had always been. I was majoring in elementary education at a small liberal arts college and knew I wanted to be a good teacher. My college courses had begun to challenge my set ways of thinking, but I never imagined the change in my view of the world and how education works that would result from my studies in London during my sophomore year. As I visited infant and junior schools, read British education books, and talked to many people about education, my world ground to a halt and jump-started at the same time. I saw classrooms being run and teachers teaching in ways I had not imagined. Different materials, different time structures, different looking buildings, and different points of view. My vision of education grew; my ways of "doing education right" and treating children were challenged. I came back to the United States not sure that I wanted to be involved with the way I saw education happening in my country, but with visions of education for children and change in schools that still guide me today. Last week a young woman came to see me in my office. She had recently returned from five months in the Netherlands, working in a school with children from many different countries and cultures. The first sentences she uttered when she saw me were, "I am so glad the Education Studies Program requires us to go abroad. Without that requirement I would not have gone and it was the best and most powerful experience of my life. And I learned so much about education! " We have heard this sentiment many times from the students in our program as they have returned from Zimbabwe, China, Mexico, and Other countries. I know that cross-cultural education affected how I looked at education and how I saw myself as a teacher and the choices I made in my professional life. I sense that same influence on the students in the Education Studies Program at the college where I teach. But how specifically and enduringly can education experiences in other cultures affect later teaching practice in schools in the United States? The literature about global education often refers to abroad experiences and what students gain from them (Easterly, 1994; Mahan & Stachowki, 1990; McKay & Montgomery, 1995; Merryfield, 1995; Quinn, 1995; West, 1985; Wilson, 1982). On the other hand, although much is written in the multicultural education literature about teacher education (Dilworth, 1992; Gay, 1993; Sleeter, 1992; Zeichner, Melnick & Gomez, 1996), little is mentioned about the relationship between a global/international education experience and meeting the educational needs of students in a pluralistic society. Among practicing teachers who have had cross-cultural experiences, I believe there is a relationship between having had that experience and the ability to help all students succeed in school, regardless of their backgrounds and cultures. In this article I explore the responses from a number of teachers surveyed or interviewed, who graduated from a small liberal arts undergraduate teacher education program that requires a cross-cultural education internship. The interviews focused on how the teachers think their current practice has been affected by their previous cross-cultural internships. First, I describe the program, including the cross-cultural internship, and share the findings gathered from graduates of the program. After presenting how the findings relate to the goals and concerns of global and multicultural educators, I then discuss the implications for shaping teacher education, cross-cultural experiences, and multicultural education.