Swedish student teachers´ perspectives on their short field study in South Africa

• This paper explores if and in what way experiences from a short field study can contribute to student teachers intercultural learning and professional development. The paper is based on focus groups and individual interviews, with two groups of Swedish student teachers that undertook a two-week field study in South African schools. Researches on internationalisation in higher education especially trying to show intercultural learning in teacher education, often last several months or a whole year. Thus, there is a knowledge gap on students’ doing shorter field studies, which our study wants to help fill. The findings show that even a short field study has an important impact on the individual student teacher’s understanding of themselves and awareness of teachers’ living and working conditions in a different culture like South Africa.  It is impossible to conclude that the student teachers became more interculturally competent through this short field study. However, the student teachers in their reflections turn their attention back to their own national context for critical comparisons. As underlined by the student teachers, experiencing the context of teaching and learning and meeting people “in reality” is something that really “grabs your heart”.   

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Field study

intercultural competence

internationalization

student teachers

Education

Pedagogik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)