Session Information
10 SES 04 C, Narratives and Global Consciousness in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The topic of this study is how to nurture global consciousness through internationalization in teacher education. As a teacher educator, I have been giving pedagogical guidance through a workshop over 3 days, to 29 different student teachers in their three-month practice in Namibia and Uganda over a four-year period. Here I have focused on the students' experience according to global consciousness with a primary focus towards their global sensitivity. The two research question for this study has been:
1. What experiences do teacher students have after three months of practice in Namibia or Uganda
2. How can teacher education help stimulate teachers' global consciousness through guidance and practice abroad?
The two research questions relate to each other in such a way that the answers to the first problem are a prerequisite for finding answers to the second problem. In other words, I have to know what experiences the students have had in order to find out how teacher education can help stimulate teacher education's global consciousness through pedagogical guidance and practice abroad.
The purpose of this study is threefold. The first purpose is to describe the nuances of global consciousness and the connection between the three sub-areas: global sensitivity, global understanding and global self-representation. In this study, the concept global consciousness will be highlighted as an intersubjective process and appear as an pedagogical-psychological value and category more than a political-geographical term. Global consciousness is about being sensitive, registering and having an understanding of events both inside and outside ourselves. The two concepts intersubjectivity and attunement will provide a meaningful contribution in the definition of global consciousness. The second purpose is to argue that internationalization, as a 3-month long practice abroad in itself, is not sufficient to nurture global consciousness. The third purpose is to describe a pedagogical approach to nurture teacher student’s global consciousness through pedagogical guidance as a set of five different tasks. The theoretical foundation for this study is inspired by both Hegel and Mead when they claim that intersubjectivity constitutes subjectivity. Hegel's theory of recognition is about the human self and the elimination of the distance between sociality and individuality. In recognition, human beings cease to be an isolated single individual, but a self that meets themselves and the world through others. Mead, who has gained inspiration from Hegel, considers the intersubjectivity as a meeting place where the individual meets the community with his or hers own horizon of understanding and perspective on the one hand and the other's horizon of understanding and perspectives on the other side. Here, learning is understood as social action. In light of the concept of intersubjectivity, all experiences are rooted in interaction and in order to take the others' perspective. Both global sensitivity, global understanding and global self-representation presuppose an intersubjective room characterized by interaction and being able to take the perspective the others.
Method
Methodologically the study is qualitative and grounded in a phenomenological tradition where teacher students experiences related to the phenomenon of global consciousness has been explored. Global consciousness is in this context considered as a phenomenon that exists in teacher education at a pre-scientific level and which is constituted by human activity. Global consciousness is awakened through human intentionality by the fact that our consciousness is always directed at something or someone. This makes global consciousness both a subjective and an intersubjective matter, which a phenomenological approach can capture. The phenomenological analysis, based on coding, categorization and condensation, is aimed at the student's experience related to the development of global awareness as they appeared in the material. The study has been conducted among 4 groups of teacher students, a total of 29 students over 4 years (from 2012-2015) in connection with the students' three-month internships in Namibia and Uganda. All 29 teacher students approved to participate in this study. The material consists students practice reports, logbooks and a groupinterview. This in addition to fieldnotes taken from a three day workshop. Here the students 'experiences were discussed and illuminated through assignments focusing on the students' sensitivity and emotionality. The analysis of the material I based on coding, categorization and condensation based on the link between the emotions that students have been in contact with during their practice period and the three areas of global conciousness.
Expected Outcomes
The conclusion of this study shows that when students accomplish their practice in countries in the global south, they have significant and composite emotional experiences that require pedagogical support both before, during and after the students' international practice.The condensation of the material shows that the following seven emotions have been the most dominant: frustrated, love, insecurity, impressed, joy, inadequacy and being touched. All together all the students express the impression that their experiences from the workshop has strengthened their global consciousness. Based on this study, I will argue that students who accomplish their internationalization through practice in countries in the global south need even closer support than those who take their practiceperiod in their own country. This study has shown that nurturing the student`s global consciousness requires that the students are invited to get in touch with their emotional experiences and attunement.
References
Biestad, G. (2014). Utdanningens vidunderlige risiko. Oslo: Fagbokforlaget Duncan, E. (2014). Internasjonalisering av utdanning. Oslo: NUPI – Norsk utenrikspolitisk institutt. http://www.nupi.no/Skole/HHD-Artikler/2014/Internasjonalisering-av-utdanning Heidegger, M. (1927/2007). Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyers Verlag 1927. Dansk oversettelse: Væren og Tid. Forlaget Klim 2007 Honneth, A. (2000). Kamp om anerkjennelse. Pax forlag A/S, Oslo Løgstrup, K. (1983). Kunst og erkjennelse. København: Gyldendal. Mead, G.H. (1934) Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Van Manen, M. (1982). Phenomenological Pedagogy. Curriculum Inquiry, OISE/John Wiley (Toronto), Vol. 12:3. Mansilla, V. B og Gardner, H. (2007). “From Teaching Globalization to Nurturing Global Consciousness”. I: Suarez-Orozco, M. (red.), Learning in the Global Era. International Perspectives on Globalization and Education (s. 47-66). Berkely: University of California Press. Nilssen, V. (2015). Praksis i utlandet-en stimulans til kraftfull refleksjon? Uniped, 38(02), 112-126. Santoro, N. (2014). “If I’m going to teach about the world, I need to know the world”: developing Australian pre-service teachers’ intercultural competence through international trips. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17 (3), 429-444. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.832938. Vaage, S. (2001). «Perspektivtaking, rekonstruksjon av erfaring og kreative læreprossar: George Herbert Mead og John Dewey om læring». I: Dysthe, Olga (red.), Dialog, samspel og læring. Oslo: Abstrakt forlag as. Wind, H.C (1998). Anerkendelse- Et tema i Hegels moderne filosofi. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
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