Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence

In response to the changing global climate and the growing recognition of the professional associations in the teacher education community, universities around the country are beginning to recognize the need to add a global dimension to their education programs. One way to prepare teachers to address the challenges associated with teaching children in a global age is through carefully structured, international and intercultural field experiences where candidates are immersed in another culture. Since student teaching requires candidates to show they can translate theory into practice over a sustained period of time, it is ideally suited for strengthening candidates' intercultural understanding. Intercultural Student Teaching demonstrates examples of these successful programs and provides documented experience from professionals currently engaged in intercultural teaching practice. Readers will learn from the contributor's experiences through carefully crafted chapters that focus on major elements of program implementation and delivery. The contributors report how they have created, organized, and maintained programs in their purview and address program features such as selection, orientation and supervision of participating candidates, interaction with host families and communities, and strategies for enhancing understanding of global and domestic diversity. Review Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence, is a must-read for teacher educators.... Developing the cultural capacity of our teachers to better serve our students will be instrumental to the success of our teachers and our students in the 21st century. Cushner and Brennan have created a volume that provides a timely addition to the field. Bridging theory and practice, the authors focus on successful programs for developing inter- and intra-cultural competence for student teachers. This text examines the need for preparing teachers for the global world; one in which students and teachers must find areas of commonality, reflect deeply on their differences and come to understand one another better as teachers and as learners in the world. The authors provide a compelling and realistic view of the need of global teachers and the means by which we can successfully prepare teachers for all.--Beverly Shaklee, director, Center for International Education, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia Highly recommended.--CHOICE Thanks to well-written chapters by experienced educators and revealing excerpts from student-teacher journals, this book delivers both inspiration and information. If we expect our children's horizons to extend beyond their own back yard, we need teachers who have crossed that "bridge to global competence" so eloquently promoted in this fine book.--Education and Culture: The Journal Of The John Dewey Society One way of developing a global disposition is to teach in new cultural contexts. The 'lived' experience gives us cause to reflect on our personal world views as we come to personally redefine our own sense of identity and learn what it means to be flexible, tolerant, and culturally sensitive. This book challenges us all to develop a global disposition in our work as teachers.--Russell Matthews, professor, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia The book's editors...bring extensive experience in the field of intercultural education, drawing on their work as professors and directors of the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST).... Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence is an important contribution to the field of multicultural teacher education.--Timothy Jester "Comparative Education Review " About the Author Kenneth Cushner, Ed.D. is executive director of international affairs and professor in the College and Graduate School of Education, Health, and Human Services at Kent State University, Ohio. He is author of numerous books and other publications in multicultural a