Encountering and Accounts of "the other:" Teachers' perceptions and curricular planning following an immersion abroad
Open Access
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 03, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Stephanie Cayot Serriere, Dissertation Advisor
- Joseph M Valente, Dissertation Advisor
- Jeanine M Staples, Committee Member
- Mindy L Kornhaber, Committee Member
- Keywords:
- Global education
- intercultural immersion experiences
- social studies education
- teacher education
- professional development
- Abstract:
- While intercultural immersions can have a significant impact on the personal and professional lives of teachers, it is important for immersion providers, like the Fulbright-Hays program, as well as the research community to have a clear picture of how teachers are using these experiences to teach within their classrooms. This study highlights the experiences of three teachers who partook in the same four week Fulbright-Hays program to Tanzania. Critical discourse analysis (Gee, 2011) was used to deeply explore each participant’s perceptions of Tanzania, the Fulbright-Hays program, and global education. In addition, exploration of participants’ intended and enacted curriculum was analyzed. Despite being exposed to similar experiences while preparing for, and participating in, the immersion experience in Tanzania each teacher attuned to different stimuli, as evidenced in each teacher’s blog postings and interview utterances. Likewise, each teacher wrote and enacted lessons in a very unique fashion. The enacted lessons ranged from placing an emphasis on the history and geography of the Swahili Coast to critical examinations of children’s literature. Importantly, the ways in which each teacher responded to the program was significantly more complex than the premise that 1) teacher travels, 2) teacher learns global education, 3) teacher teaches global education to her K-12 students.