Preparing Globally Competent Teacher Candidates Through Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning

Abstract

This manuscript presents findings and implications from a larger case study of one global educator's attempt to develop globally competent teacher candidates in an elective teacher training course. Global Citizenship Education served as the framing paradigm for the course and human experiences of immigrants and refugees served as the milieu for teacher candidates to learn critical inquiry. Teacher candidates also participated in several cross-cultural experiential learning opportunities designed to facilitate the development of global competencies in teacher candidates. Students' reflective journals were analyzed determine the personal significance of different learning experiences and the extent to which teacher candidates perceptions of immigrants and refugees changed as a result of the course content and activities and demonstrate the potential of critical inquiry and cross-cultural experiential learning as transformative teaching practices.