Reimagining U.S. dual language teacher training by teaching abroad

Seeking to improve teacher training to prepare U.S. teachers for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, teacher training should include a teach-abroad program. The diversity in classrooms across the U.S. needs to be reflected in the teaching staff, which can cause issues around culture and language. Studies demonstrate that the abroad experience challenges the pre-service teacher’s perceptions of culture. With the advent of internationalization and globalization of education, second language acquisition is a commodity. The advent of Dual Language Instruction further complicates the lack of cultural training for teachers. This case study compares the teaching abroad experiences of 6 teachers at various stages of their careers and how it informs their outlooks and perspectives while in dual language classrooms. Teachers need to enter the classrooms ready for cross-cultural divides, reaching students with multi modalities as well as from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Teaching abroad could serve as a catalyst for pre-service teachers (PSTs) to be ready for transformative multicultural education. The teaching abroad experience can foster empathetic teachers who travel beyond their comfort zones to increase their awareness of the experience of students in the U.S.; pre-service teachers can now better assess the student’s needs emotionally, culturally, and linguistically. The zeitgeist of this era should embrace the idea of global citizenry, it could be possible that second language acquisition is only one piece of the puzzle, the opportunity for U.S. teachers, especially Dual Language teachers to travel and experience other cultures firsthand could prove paramount to seeing this to fruition.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Cabrera-Prado, Alicia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Witt, Allison
• McCarthy, Cameron
• Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Liu, Wei

• Pre-service Teacher
• Dual Language
• Cultural Responsiveness
• International Student Teaching
• Teach Abroad
• Dynamic Bilingualism
• Critical Consciousness

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Alicia Cabrera-Prado

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120240

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120240