Teacher Perceptions of the Longer-Term Influences of Short-Term International Study Experiences (STISE): Professional Practices, Identities, and Career Trajectories.
摘要
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) had been expanding their international mobility offerings for students as a key dimension of their internationalisation policies. Many HEIs had developed short-term international study experiences (STISEs) to enhance their students’ intercultural skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Research has affirmed the short-term value of these STISEs in helping graduate teachers to be more inclusive and responsive when teaching students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. However, few studies have explored the impacts of STISEs on the professional identity and practices of teachers in the years after they have graduated. This chapter draws on narrative-based traditions of educational research to investigate the longer-term impacts of STISEs for graduates of initial teacher education (ITE) programs from three Australian universities at least five years post-STISE. Findings re-affirm the value of pre-service teachers’ STISEs long after graduation with respect to four themes: professional identities; intercultural experiences; dialogue and dialogic practice; and career trajectories. The study has implications for ITE curriculum and policy, especially in the design of STISE programs, at a time when questions are being asked about how Australian ITE can best prepare teachers to teach and remain in rural, remote, Indigenous, and low socio-economic regions.