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Study Abroad Programs: Are They an Effective Tool for Developing a Social Justice Standpoint for Preservice Teachers?

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Teacher Education in Globalised Times

Abstract

Overseas study abroad programs to Asia are funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and offered to Australian undergraduate students. In this chapter we investigate the theme of social justice in teacher education programs through short-term international mobility programs. Research aims reported in this chapter identify the benefits and challenges encountered by preservice teachers when they participate in international study tours. Data findings draw attention to the effects of international study tours on the development of intercultural competency skills for preservice teachers. Preservice teachers articulated the benefit of exposure to a pedagogy of discomfort and its connection to interculturality. In many cases encountering a pedagogy of discomfort (Boler & Zembylas, 2003) created opportunities for ‘mindshifts’ to occur for preservice teachers. This assisted their movement from an ethnocentric standpoint to an ethnorelative standpoint (Bennett, 2004).

No culture ever developed, bloomed and matured without feeding on other cultures … reciprocal influences and intermingling.

(Maria Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, as cited in Zaidi et al., 2016, p. 1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria University, Footscray, Australia

    Marcelle Cacciattolo

  2. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Catherine Lang & Gillian Kidman

Authors
  1. Marcelle Cacciattolo
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  2. Catherine Lang
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  3. Gillian Kidman
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Correspondence to Marcelle Cacciattolo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Australian Catholic University, Banyo, QLD, Australia

    Jillian Fox

  2. School of Education, Australian Catholic University, Banyo, QLD, Australia

    Colette Alexander

  3. Kaplan Australia and New Zealand, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tania Aspland

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Cacciattolo, M., Lang, C., Kidman, G. (2020). Study Abroad Programs: Are They an Effective Tool for Developing a Social Justice Standpoint for Preservice Teachers?. In: Fox, J., Alexander, C., Aspland, T. (eds) Teacher Education in Globalised Times. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4124-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4124-7_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-4124-7

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