My PhD study explored how a group of migrant preservice teachers experienced the phenomenon of intercultural education in the Learning Area of Languages within the Australian school context. The study aimed to understand both preservice teachers’ perceptions of the intercultural capability and its implementation in their teaching practice. 

This study employed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the participating preservice teachers’ lived experiences of adopting an intercultural perspective in their classroom of Languages. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews from a cohort of seven preservice teachers enrolled in a graduate Initial Teacher Education program and completing a qualification in teaching Languages at an Australian University in Victoria. By investigating preservice teachers’ interpretations of the intercultural capability; their experiences in the classroom of Languages (what they observed and how they acted during their teaching rounds and how they intend to act in the future); and their beliefs about the need for the development of the intercultural capability in their learners, it was possible to delve into the ways in which these prospective secondary school teachers of Languages engage with the intercultural project.

This study focuses solely on practitioners and explores their engagement (or lack thereof) with the intercultural project, based on the rationale that ‘no education policy can operate successfully without the commitment of teachers’ (Starkey 2007, p. 60).

This study posits that, for the intercultural project to succeed and become more than ‘good intentions’ (Gorski 2008, p. 516), there needs to be a move towards a more politically engaged approach (Tarozzi 2014). Teachers should see themselves as responsible for creating an inclusive and just society (see Crozet 2016).

This study follows a Critical Intercultural Communication Pedagogy framework (Atay & Trebing 2018; Sobre 2017) coupled with an ethical paradigm based on the work of the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas (Bossio 2018; Ferri 2014; Ben-Ari & Strier 2010). Critical Pedagogy aims to transform society through education by locating the place of change in schools (Guilherme 2002), where the development of ‘critical cultural awareness’ should be fostered (Byram 2008). This aspect is essential for the success of intercultural education because it turns it into a broader social project. Crosbie (2014, p. 97) considers that this ‘quest for social transformation […] begins with a language-learning classroom in which students are encouraged to deal with cosmopolitan ideals, giving rise to a possible scenario where engagement with the world is shaped by social justice’.

The research findings, mainly deriving from individual in-depth interviews, indicate that both the critical and ethical paradigms appear as weak and uncertain, especially when it comes to translating ascribed meanings of the intercultural capability into the practice of teaching. This highlights the need for a strong theoretical (philosophical and epistemological) foundation for intercultural education to counteract neoliberal forces in the field. The critical turn in intercultural education scholarship is still far from being known and accepted outside the circle of those interested in it. In addition, the neo-social phenomenon in Australian education policy (Lingard, Sellar & Savage 2014) risks weakening the efforts made by critical intercultural communication scholars, since the social agenda is present in education policy. This ‘rejuvenated governmental interest in enabling healthy and positive social environments’, however, appears to exist ‘primarily for the sake of fostering greater economic productivity’ (Savage 2013, p. 187) instead of existing primarily for the benefit of all students, regardless of their linguistic, cultural, or socioeconomic background as proclaimed in the document underpinning the current Australian Curriculum. It is important to note that this well-documented and long-standing shift towards intercultural education is also typical to other countries, and its inception in Australian education policies mirrors developments internationally. 

Drawing on my PhD study, I reconceptualise intercultural education by adopting the philosophies of phenomenologists such as Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, and Emmanuel Lévinas. I will attempt to offer a stronger theoretical foundation for intercultural education, and to offer a methodology for doing research in the field. In particular, I wish to highlight the importance of interrogating the premise – and the meaning - of being intercultural in education, rather than focussing on providing answers. In a sense, the phrase intercultural education is tautological, for education can only be intercultural. In terms of reconceptualising intercultural education, I will present a model for theorising intercultural education in teacher education that joins critical pedagogy - needed to illuminate the shortcomings of existing intercultural education descriptions and models, and link issues of culture and communication to power issues - with the ethical paradigm based on Lévinas' phenomenology of alterity. In particular, Lévinas’ idea of ethics as the ‘first philosophy’ (Moran 2000, p. 320) can be utilised for an epistemological foundation for intercultural education, where ethics towards the Other, rather than knowledge of the Other, becomes the premise, not just of the intercultural capability, but of any form of education. In terms of research methodology, I will present my PhD methodology which allows to engage with issues of doubt and uncertainty that should never be excluded in intercultural scholarship. Grounded in phenomenology, this approach is nonetheless valid.

Although the participating preservice teachers subscribe to the general aims of intercultural education, they found it difficult to challenge fixed ideas of culture and the dominant narrative of a national culture associated with the languages they teach. Upon reflection, participants showed they understood culture as a complex and dynamic concept, and not necessarily tied to national borders. They recognised that the main aim of an intercultural pedagogical approach is to achieve a society where difference is an inherent feature of society, rather than a pigeonhole for those who do not conform to an ideal standard. Nevertheless, even when a more fluid view of culture was acknowledged in theory, they struggled to implement alternative pedagogies and address controversial topics in their classroom. They reported their intention to avoid stereotypes and harmful generalisations in their language classroom, however they seemed unsure about how this could be effectively achieved. Their commitment to the more engaged aspect of intercultural education might be explained by the fact that the preservice teachers who participated in this study were migrants and suffered some form of discrimination because of their difference. Yet, in their teaching practice, they could not escape the functional paradigm of culture (Martin & Nakayama 2010), possibly because of a lack of support and alternative models (see Young and Sachdev 2011). Relatedly, research participants admitted that they were not satisfied with their competencies in adopting an intercultural approach in their teaching. It is also possible that this is due to weak and ambiguous messages about what intercultural education is about, which impedes the impact of policy on practice. Based on these findings, I have developed a philosophical foundation for intercultural education.

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