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Teaching Education

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Language, culture and dissonance: a study coursefor globally minded teachers with possibilities forcatalytic transformation

Anaida Colón‐Muñiz , Suzanne SooHoo & Evangelina “Gigi” Brignoni

To cite this article: Anaida Colón‐Muñiz , Suzanne SooHoo & Evangelina “Gigi” Brignoni (2010)Language, culture and dissonance: a study course for globally minded teachers with possibilities forcatalytic transformation, Teaching Education, 21:1, 61-74, DOI: 10.1080/10476210903466976

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210903466976

Published online: 25 Feb 2010.

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Teaching EducationVol. 21, No. 1, March 2010, 61–74

ISSN 1047-6210 print/ISSN 1470-1286 online© 2010 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/10476210903466976http://www.informaworld.com

Language, culture and dissonance: a study course for globally minded teachers with possibilities for catalytic transformation

Anaida Colón-Muñiz*a, Suzanne SooHoo*a, and Evangelina “Gigi” Brignonib

aCollege of Educational Studies, Chapman University, Orange, USA; bTeacher Education Department, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, USATaylor and FrancisCTED_A_447065.sgm(Received 2 February 2009: final version received 11 May 2009)10.1080/10476210903466976Teaching Education1047-6210 (print)/1470-1286 (online)Original Article2010Taylor & Francis211000000March 2010AnaidaColón-Muñizacolon@chapman.edu

The study explores the impact of a course taught abroad, with the objective ofpreparing globally minded intercultural educators proficient in second languageand culture pedagogy for English learners. The findings suggest that the coursecontent is more powerful when teacher candidates experience cultural andlinguistic immersion simultaneously.

Keywords: globally minded; empathy; English learners; intercultural education;study abroad; teacher education

To alight in a country without knowing a word of the language is a worthwhile lesson …one is forced to look at the eyes, the gestures, the intent behind the words. One is forcedback to a watchful silence. (Williams, 1998, p. 44)

Introduction

Teacher education programs in California are required to prepare teachers to workwith culturally diverse English learners (ELs) and to use effective language develop-ment instructional strategies. The emphasis in schools is to target English learners forrapid acquisition of the English language in order to become acclimated to therequired academic standards and standardized tests. Some policymakers haveproposed that students ought to transition into English within a year, as was originallyset out in Proposition 227 (California Education Code, 1998), a law that attempted toeliminate bilingual, bicultural education in California in 1998 (Quezada, Wiley, &Ramirez, 2000; Mora, 2000). As a result of this urgency to integrate English languageinstruction, multicultural and bilingual education has taken a back seat (Rumbaut &Cornelius, 1995) and students’ acculturation to a new society has suffered.

Although teachers may have questioned the elimination of bilingual and multicul-tural education, their experience or training is too limited to fully comprehend the differ-ences between assimilation and acculturation approaches with new immigrants (Ogbu& Signithia, 1986; Perreira, Harris, & Lee, 2006). There is limited research on the beliefsand attitudes of teacher candidates who work with linguistically diverse students, yetit is an area of intense importance (Grant & Zozakiewicz, 1995; McIntyre, Byrd, &Foxx, 1996) because of the decisions they make in their classrooms. Merryfield (2000)found in her study that most teachers, who tend to be white and middle class, have not

*Corresponding author. Email: acolon@chapman.edu

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had the preparation needed to work with diverse populations, with the exception of thosewho had the opportunity to live abroad and experience what it was like to be an outsider.

This study explores the impact of a teacher education study-abroad course with theobjective of preparing globally minded intercultural educators proficient in secondlanguage and culture pedagogy for English learners. The authors sought to have thefollowing questions answered: what happens when teacher candidates are immersedinto an unfamiliar cultural and linguistic environment while they are studying culturaland linguistic immersion? Can the experience result in becoming more globallyminded intercultural educators? What would the class discussions entail and whatwould be the focus in their written journals regarding cultural and linguistic disso-nance? Cultural dissonance is a “sense of discord or disharmony, experienced byparticipants in cultural change where cultural differences are found to occur which areunexpected, unexplained and therefore difficult to negotiate and which inhibit behav-ioral adaptation” (Macdonald, 1998).

Rationale and purpose

The purpose of the study was to examine the merits of a teacher education course inMadrid, Spain, relative to its impact on second-language development and culturepedagogy and teacher empathy. Positioning this course abroad allowed rich contextualinput about culture and language that could not be obtained in the suburban collegesetting. Moreover, studying abroad could serve as the catalyst for facilitating an inter-national or global mindset in teachers (Mahon, 2007). Furthermore, recognizing theneed to prepare teachers with a critical approach to multicultural education (Banks &McGee, 1997; Grant & Zozakiewicz, 1995; Nieto, 1999), the teacher researchers wereinterested in the transformative potential of the course (Freire, 1973). Thus, we wantedto know if these juxtaposed learning experiences could have what we are calling acatalytic transformation capacity to facilitate the development of more effective andempathic intercultural educators (Bennett, 1993, 1998; Cushner, 2007; Cushner &Brislin, 1996). As Bennett asserts, it takes an impressive change of mental models toprepare intercultural educators:

Intercultural sensitivity is not natural. It is not part of our primate past, nor has it char-acterized most of human history … Education and training in intercultural communica-tion is an approach to changing our “natural” behavior. With the concepts and skillsdeveloped in this field, we ask learners to transcend traditional ethnocentrism and toexplore new relationships across cultural boundaries. This attempt at change must beapproached with the greatest possible care. (Bennett, 1993, p. 21)

We use the term “catalytic transformation” as a derivative from Gary Anderson andKathryn Herr’s work (1999) on catalytic validity to capture the significance ofchanged views as a result of a study-abroad experience. The study assesses theeffectiveness of the experience from the participants’ points of view through: (a) theirwritten and oral course assignments; (b) documentation of their own cultural andlinguistic experiences in journals; and (c) descriptions of how they related theirexperiences to their roles as future teachers in course debriefings and essays.

Theoretical framework

The study was guided by the combined work relevant to: (a) the role of the affectivedomain in teacher development in its importance to implementing effective second

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language development and culture pedagogy; (b) transformative/critical multiculturaleducation; and (c) the benefits of guided international educational experiences. Theimportance of the role of the teacher in the affective domain and academic learningwas recognized by Gandara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll (2005). Given the challengesof a wide academic achievement gap and issues of poverty and discrimination, coupledwith linguistic and cultural differences, English learners need caring and compassion-ate teachers who are also prepared to educate them effectively (Darling-Hammond &Bransford, 2005). Without compassion and understanding from their teachers, Englishlearners are left at the mercy of the curriculum guides: “Empathy allows learners [i.e.our teacher education students] to take experience, the raw materials of learning, intothemselves on an interior level and bridge difference” (Comerford, 2005, p. 120). Agraduate from the travel abroad course noted:

Now, I understand my newcomer students. They come into class not knowing the socialnorms, language and culture. And yet we expect them to succeed in school within two–three years. This is not enough time. I recommend study abroad programs to futureteachers. These teachers really need to live and experience being outside their comfortzone [and] go through … first hand what our students go through when they come to anew country. Study abroad programs will develop empathetic teachers. (Flores, Summer2005, personal communication)

Nurturing empathy is a challenging goal, but it is believed to be an attribute in thedevelopment of attentive and skillful intercultural teachers (Cushner, 1998, 2007;Cushner & Brislin, 1996). An intercultural teacher is one who assesses the emotionalneeds, knowledge capital, family settings, and cultural and linguistic development andwho uses these assessments to inform instructional decisions (Diaz Rico & Weed,2009). A high degree of empathy, according to Rogers (1980, p. 139), is possibly, themost potent factor in bringing about change and learning for the teacher. As Cushner(2007, p. 28) asserts from his research of the student teaching abroad experience, it“provides the opportunity for students to live and work in a significantly differentcommunity for an extended period of time, and to stretch beyond their traditional zoneof comfort”. This discomfort facilitates an increased awareness for students to experi-ence what their own students might feel (Mcallister & Irvine, 2002) and is related tothe discomfort we feel from cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957).

To address diverse student populations, some teacher education programs includeor infuse elements of multicultural education, mainly through the use of texts. Sadly,many texts use the tourist approach to culture, leaving the student “superficiallyprepared for the role of intercultural educator” (Cruz, Jordan, Melendez, Ostrowski,& Purves, 1997, p. 2). Courses at the home campus combine fieldwork in minoritycommunities for short periods of time. In this arrangement, teacher candidates canreturn to the comfort of their homes at the end of the day, thus escaping the fatiguecharacteristic in full immersion experiences. The second author has taught multicul-tural education for 17 years using numerous multicultural texts and activities to createconditions that support the development of empathy. She uses narratives of otherness(SooHoo, 2006) as a pedagogy of empathy. Students in the travel course have takenher other course as a prerequisite. Yet, in her assessment, there are no texts or activi-ties that surpass the value of the embodied experiences in a foreign country towardsthe development of empathy. A 24-hour, seven-day per week commitment abroadforces students to re-examine their perspectives and predetermined perceptionsthrough ongoing dialogue and reflection. Freire (1973, p. 45) describes dialogue

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taking place in a horizontal relationship, characterized by a “relation of empathy”. Asfellow travelers, we learned together.

Dissonance can be expected when educated and socially privileged Americanstudents are suddenly confronted by a culture with distinct values and a social struc-ture that views them as mere students with limited power and wealth. Dissonance inMadrid was likely to be increased when there was limited Spanish language profi-ciency and cultural understanding. Living in this new context could create uncomfort-able moments that would potentially marginalize their social, cultural, and intellectualcapital and help them understand how it feels to be the “other” (Anzaldúa, 1987).

While most study-abroad programs are not designed for future teachers, and thetypical participation in travel courses is small in comparison with other disciplines(Quezada, 2005; Schneider, 2003), some important research has been conducted onthe positive effects of study-abroad experiences in the preparation of globally minded,intercultural educators (Bennett, 1998; Cushner, 2007; Cushner & Brislin, 1996;Dantas, 2007; Quezada & Alfaro, 2007). Mahon and Cushner (2007, p. 59) found that“[s]tudents who study overseas have a tendency to demonstrate higher levels of cross-cultural interest and cultural cosmopolitanism than do those who remain at home”.

The value of learning and teaching abroad is to prepare future educators to workeffectively with diverse learners. In framing this study we also rely heavily on thework of Cushner and Brennan (2007), who have conducted extensive research onteaching in another culture. “Graduates of education schools must be equipped toaddress a range of needs in their classrooms, and they must have the necessary dispo-sition, knowledge, and skills to prepare their students to function in a global society”(Cushner & Brennan, 2007. p. 4). Given Mezirow’s (1994) work in transformativelearning in adults, we know there are several phases when adults first question theirassumptions, then engage in critical self-reflection, and finally transform their way ofthinking (Cranton, 1996).

Background and context

Located in Orange, California, Chapman University is a private university with liberalarts and professional schools. The student body consists of predominantly middle-class,white students from suburban Orange County. The College of Educational Studiessupports the University’s mission to prepare global citizens and to provide a person-alized education. The co-authors are three professors of Latin-American and Chinese-American heritages, with a total of 27 years of experience in teacher education. Theparticipants were female pre-service teachers ranging in age from mid-20s to 30s. Ofthe eight participants, there were four Asian/Pacific Islanders, one African of Indianheritage, two European Americans, and one Latina student. We assessed the students’Spanish language proficiency using the Proficiency Guidelines of the AmericanCouncil for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) (1983). The eight partici-pants ranged from novice to superior in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Twostudents were advanced Spanish speakers, one was an intermediate–low speaker, andthe remaining participants were at the novice level. Five were completing the combinedcredential and Master of Arts in Teaching degree, and three were completing creden-tials in elementary education. One of the students had a physical disability and waswheelchair mobile. All participants lived with Spanish families with the exception ofthe one wheelchair mobile student, who required special accommodation. The partic-ipants attended classes three days per week for two and a half hours, for a month.

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The goal of the course for each participant was not to be a tourist but a traveler,devoid of the comforts of a four-star hotel, fancy meals, and high-priced tour guides(Quezada, 2005; Williams, 1998). The idea was to engage the teacher candidatesdeeply in the day-to-day life of the European metropolis, crowded metros, classes, andthe Madrileños while experiencing, studying, and struggling with linguistic andcultural differences themselves. It was our intent to provide the participants with validlearning experiences rather than for them to become educational “tourists” (Quezada& Alfaro, 2007).

The course, “Second language development and culture: learning in new environ-ments”, took place in the summer of 2008 in Madrid, Spain, at a private institutiondedicated primarily to the teaching of English or Spanish as second languages. Weheld pre- and post-travel class meetings. The course focused on second-languagedevelopment theory and practice (Cummins, 1999; Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2009;Krashen, 1987), critical transformative multicultural education (Banks & McGeeBanks, 1997; Grant & Zozakiewicz, 1995; Nieto, 1999), and culturally responsivepedagogy (Gay, 2000; Hollins & Oliver, 1999). It was coordinated with guided fieldactivities, such as visits to schools with high numbers of immigrant students, visitingimmigrant communities in Spain, and observing English-language developmentclasses at two language schools. Participants were expected to learn about the socialand developmental linguistic needs of immigrant students within a cultural contextand the relationship between social and academic language through experientiallearning, classroom discussions, and personal reflections.

Methodology, data collection, and analysis

This study used action research to frame its work. It sought to answer the followingresearch questions: How do colleges of education effectively prepare globally mindedteachers of English learners? What differences occur in learning when an educationcourse is taught abroad versus a similar course taught at the home campus? Doescognitive dissonance play a role in transforming the views of teachers relative to theprocess of acquiring a new language and culture? Can future teachers becomeempathic to immigrant populations? Open-ended inquiry to discover and documentthe experiences of teacher candidates abroad was the focus of the work. Daily experi-ences and cultural and linguistic struggles routinely informed the direction of thecourse. Class time was devoted to integrating their experiences with course content.Departures from the course syllabus were made with class deliberation and consensus.The course syllabus outlined multicultural and linguistic content and integrated ethno-graphic tools to study the culture and language of Spain while studying cultural andlinguistic immersion. Participants used ethnographic eyes (Frank, 1999) as theyengaged in cultural assignments during the week in the city and as they traveled toother regions of Madrid and nearby countries on weekends. Thus, these students usedan ethnographic approach to learning Spanish culture and language as they comparedwhat they learned with American culture and English. They were also invited todescribe their daily experiences in class sessions as the instructors facilitated discus-sion and intersected course content. In a separate self-study (Garii, SooHoo, & Colon-Muniz, 2009), instructors found that problem-posing and critical pedagogy were farmore effective teaching stances abroad than traditional direct instruction, given thecultural dissonance and ambiguity that participants experienced in this new setting. Tofully understand the difference between assimilation and acculturation, the instructors

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integrated the students’ embodied experiences of cultural dissonance as part of thecurriculum. From this reference point, discussions of what constituted culturallyresponsive pedagogy were followed by second-language acquisition theory and prac-tice with examples from the field.

The study applied Anderson and Herr’s (1999) five points of validity to establishcredibility and to answer the question – what counts as research? They were outcome,process, democratic, dialogic, and catalytic validity. Outcome validity is the extent towhich outcomes are a result of the study. Process validity asks to what extent ongoinglearning occurs within an individual or system. Democratic validity refers to theextent to which research is conducted collaboratively with participants. Dialogicvalidity is the invitation to other “critical friends” who can give alternative explana-tions of research data. Catalytic validity (Lather, 1986, p. 272), “the degree to whichthe research process reorients, focuses, and energizes participants toward knowingreality in order to transform it”, inspired the term catalytic transformation, which theauthors have used throughout this article to convey the power of cultural dissonancein the awakening of new learning. Participants in the class were consulted about theresearch design and the intent of the study, and helped shape the scope of the study asweeks transpired. This study was presented at the American Educational ResearchAssociation in San Diego, California, where discussants provided the authors withcritical feedback. Process validity was established through the maintenance of jour-nals, photos, assignments, and class discussions. Participants were asked to signpermission slips. Their anonymity would be protected as Institutional Review Board(IRB) approval was obtained to conduct the study.

Participants reflected in their personal journals, classroom discussions and assign-ments, interviews, and final essays. Reflection was the most appropriate way forparticipants to take note of and realize their experiences and how these impacted themas individuals and as future teachers. Systematic revisiting and thinking about theexperiences in language and culture among instructors and participants helped deter-mine what were the most significant events. According to Korthagen (2001, p. 149),“A characteristic of the realistic approach is for teacher educators to work with studentteachers on the basis of their practical experiences … because reflective interactionsamong students deepen the learning process”.

Data were collected at different points, beginning with a pre-travel survey wherethey described what they thought they would learn during the course, and ending witha presentation of essays and portfolios after their return. The participants were askedto document in their journals and discuss in interviews their cultural and linguisticimmersion experiences during the travel course and relate them to their roles andresponsibilities as teachers of English learners. They responded to four guidingprompts on what they learned, including: (1) Spain; (2) themselves in Spain; (3) beingan American; and (4) being an educator. These would ultimately help us determinewhat they learned about being an intercultural educator (Diaz Rico & Weed, 2009).Participants recorded and reflected on what they were learning in class as interculturaleducators, relevant to second-language acquisition theory and practice in a newcultural and linguistic setting, as a means to understanding what it feels like in prac-tice. They also collected data on their experiences in exploring the Spanish communi-ties and their immigrants through interviews of people they met, informal and focusedobservations, and photos. Their final assignment was a formal reflective essay outlin-ing their learning, specifically highlighting the most transformative moments, usingexcerpts from their journals. They also analyzed their photographs to identify themes

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for their portfolios. Additionally, faculty kept written journals to verify whether theyhad met the course objectives and to assess what adaptations were necessary. To deter-mine the emerging themes related to the impact of the course on the pre-service teach-ers, the journal entries, assignments, portfolios, and interview data were analyzedusing the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Each author analyzedthe content separately to ensure reliability. The emerging categories and their relation-ship to other variables and categories (Hutchinson, 2001, p. 135) revealed severalimportant findings, which were organized according to the study questions. Toconfirm the themes, the data sets were revisited. As shown in Figure 1, three importantpreliminary categories emerged from this study. Participants reported that they hadgained a greater awareness of themselves as communicative and cultural beings; theyhad acquired greater empathy for newcomers; and they broadened their understandingof what it means to be a global intercultural educator. The context resulted in a height-ened sense of self-awareness and critical reflection by the teacher candidates, such asthe potential hegemony of a dominant culture (Macedo, Dendrinos, & Gourani, 2003),causing them to challenge or to debunk their own cultural assumptions (Romano,2007).

The course elements were deconstructed into their parts to assess to what degreeparticipants were prepared to complete the course assignments as designed. Followingthe guidelines of action research, modifications were welcomed and made during thecourse to address local demands, such as those imposed by a restricted timeframe orlocal events that curtailed or changed the nature of the sessions. Evidence of this wasfound in faculty journals, which revealed that the consideration for student needsbecame more important than the course outline at given points. Faculty also felt theneed to abandon some preplanned activities in favor of more relevant examples thatsurfaced while abroad. This finding repositioned the authors as teachers-as-learnerswhile accepting students-as-teachers in particular situations abroad.

Findings

The data strongly suggest that participants in the study had a catalytic cultural trans-formation which increased their sense of empathy and readiness to learn the coursecontent. The results indicate that the program had a strong impact on participants’understanding of the language acquisition process and cultural factors that affectacculturation, and how this might translate into their role as more effective teachers ofEnglish learners. This was made evident by how they viewed themselves as intercul-tural educators. These findings helped us to answer the major question: How do weeffectively prepare globally minded teachers of English learners? The primaryoutcomes and overarching themes were interpreted into major categories.

As shown in Figure 1, three important findings emerged from this study. Participantsreported that they had: (1) gained a greater awareness of themselves as communicativeand cultural beings; (2) acquired greater empathy for newcomers; and (3) broadenedtheir understanding of what it means to be an intercultural educator. Verbatimparticipant excerpts below exemplify the extent of the catalytic transformation.Figure 1. Themes and sub-themes.

Greater awareness of themselves as communicative and cultural beings

Participants had a greater awareness of themselves as communicative and culturalbeings, using visual and other codes to enhance communication in moments of need.

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They realized that other language elements like tone, volume, and non-verbal commu-nication were accentuated when English failed. Moreover, they understood that indi-viduals with a strong first language can transfer knowledge better into a secondlanguage when they already have a conceptual and contextual base (Cummins, 1999).The participants gained increased perceptions of language and cultural acquisitionwhile negotiating difference, and recognized how much more difficult it is to besuccessful than anticipated. They understood they were more vulnerable to intolerancebecause of it:

The counter coin of culture is language. In Spain, I became my language. I am anoutgoing, caring, and well educated teacher who is almost done with her masters but thatdid not matter in Spain. I was just as good as my language … I was nothing more andnothing less than my ability to speak the language. The world was instantly divided intwo parts, those who could communicate and those who could not … It became my newidentity! (Participant 2, 2008, reflective essay)

Participants also recognized the value of using effective second-language pedagogy,such as using referents or contextual clues (Cummins, 1999), as well as the value ofbilingualism and multicultural perspectives. They seemed to better understand the roleof the intercultural educator (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2009). The experience for participantsalso reinforced Vygotsky and Kozulin’s (1986) work in that it verified the value of initi-ating new learning from what students know and what is interesting and meaningful.

Figure 1. Themes and sub-themes.

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Cultural dissonance resulted in empathy for immigrant students

The researchers found that the cognitive and cultural dissonance experienced by theparticipants, along with the processes they were learning and putting into practice aboutculture and language, not only resulted in empathy but supported the premise that theexperience propelled a catalytic cultural transformation in the participants. This appearsto have been precipitated by their threatened sense of self-identity and privilege as theyfound themselves in homestays with families who were not familiar with their priorsocial capital, and a society that challenged their cultural and linguistic capital. Whatwe found was a new awareness of immigrant students who might be experiencing similarfeelings and who rely on them day to day in school to facilitate the learning process:

Feeling disconnected – I need to understand that my students may feel the same way –lost, ostracized, overwhelmed, and ultimately resistant … Especially for English-language learners, it can be extremely exhausting, trying to comprehend a language thatseems impossible to understand; yet, they are expected to complete assignments andreceive passing test scores. English-language learners come from various backgroundswith specific learning styles … Even after the numerous lectures on how to accommo-date to English-language learners at Chapman, and constantly practicing the use ofSDAIE strategies and graphic organizers, I would’ve never truly understood how to bean effective and culturally sensitive teacher, if it wasn’t for this experience of “cultureshock” that put me in my students’ shoes. You can read about it, talk about it, and prac-tice it, but you will never fully understand its fullness if you don’t live it. (Participant 4,2008, reflective essay)

Becoming a globally minded intercultural educator

Participants indicated that they felt more adept at understanding their role as global-minded intercultural educators (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2009). They began to view theclassroom from the students’ perspectives, not solely their own. They recognized theimportance of valuing the children’s cultural capital. They shared their newconsciousness for avoiding stereotypical assumptions about the international commu-nity and the need to know their immigrant students better, as a result. As important,they viewed themselves as more competent in using effective second-language peda-gogy not only to support students linguistically and academically, but to expose themto the world community:

Global mindedness – years ago in my undergraduate studies I took a class about global-ization and social studies for teachers. It was then that I identified the problem withteaching about other cultures and countries from a textbook. The topic of globalizationand social studies can be really dry … Then I realized it was because my teachers didnot possess a passion for other cultures. After my hands on experience of walking thestreets where so much history has taken place, with so much culture [the] stories [of] thelives of the people in Spain became alive to me. I am excited to teach students about howother people live and to add some content to simple discussions about America incomparison to other countries … I feel that after making another country real to me andpart of my memories and learning I can appropriately teach globalization with passionand [use] realia [real things or models] to make students connected and engaged.(Participant 8, reflective essay)

Discussion: cultural dissonance, catalytic transformation, and empathy

This study demonstrates how a specially designed study-abroad experience canincrease empathy in the participating teacher candidates and facilitate what we have

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termed as catalytic transformation in their views of teaching English learners, therebyfacilitating their understanding of effective teaching practices. It demonstrates thevalue of having pre-service teachers enter a zone of language and cultural discomfortto gain insights on what it is like to be a second-language and culture learner.

The literature verified the existing need to prepare teachers of English learnersmore effectively and demonstrated how the affective realm can extend instructionbeyond English language instruction and academics to include issues of culture anddissonance. The participants made authentic connections between their livedexperience of cultural and linguistic immersion and their future roles as teachers ofimmigrant and English learners. This process “afford(ed) participants an opportunityto become more comfortable with: (1) their own feelings about themselves and others;and (2) with the processes of exploring and understanding feelings and attitudes inothers” (Pinderhughes, 1979, p. 313).

Although empathy is difficult to measure because it is intangible, in this study theparticipants’ accounts in archived data, participant journals, essays, and in-class testi-monials asserted remarkable change when viewed over the four weeks abroad.

It emphasized how we helped students find their empathy quotient through classdiscussions about their own cultural dissonance, and by reflecting on themselves andcultural and linguistic experiences in Spain through journal writing. Our studentslearned to reason their way through cultural tension in Spain, which prepared them toguide immigrant students to adjust to a new life in the United States (Romano &Cushner, 2007).

The course facilitated teacher understanding of effective and promising practicesfor teaching English learners. Three areas became clear for us as teacher educators:

(1) Study abroad through a specially designed travel course for teachers can serveas a rich cultural and linguistic context for experiencing dissonance. Suchtravel courses offer challenging experiences in cultural and linguistic acquisi-tion that cannot be replicated on the university campus because of the globalcontext.

(2) Lived experiences appear to have a greater impact on the development ofempathy than books.

(3) Catalytic cultural transformation is powerful and dynamic learning. The travelcourse can have a life-changing impact on participants’ views of themselvesas linguistic and cultural beings.

For this study, classroom instruction on cultural and linguistic immersion, coupledwith structured and unstructured field experiences, were designed to put participantsin a place of otherness while encouraging them to reflect continuously on how thecontent and experiences related to their role as future teachers. This context resultedin heightened self-awareness combined with a clear vision of cultural nuances andcritical reflection by the teacher candidates.

In summary, the study showed that future teachers can become more globallyminded intercultural educators through a guided-travel study course abroad wherethey learn second-language and culture pedagogy while simultaneously beingimmersed in a different language and culture. They can acquire a more empatheticdisposition to the challenges English learners face in Californian classrooms. Asteacher educators, we discovered that this personalized experience was a powerfulway to realize course objectives as well as to facilitate a transformative experience so

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compelling that it seems unlikely it can be replicated in a traditional classroom setting.Thus, we need to re-conceptualize where and how our future teachers gain the capac-ity to teach English learners.

Implications for teacher education programs and research

The study has implications for teacher education programs globally, given theincreased growth of transient and immigrant populations throughout the world. Itsuggests that such programs would benefit from creating learning conditions thatplace teacher candidates in guided unfamiliar learning environments to simulate theexperience of newcomer students. Many of the pre-service teachers who take thecourse at the home campus leave the course with some understanding of the teachingprinciples and methods that work best with English learners. They have a technicalknowledge of cultural and linguistic issues and pedagogy but they do not have anembodied frame of reference on what it is like to be an “other” in a foreign countryunless they have had previous opportunities to travel abroad. However, after thecourse abroad, faculty notice that participants seem to understand better the complex-ity of adjusting to a new language and culture and the need for specialized instruction.This contrast of learning experiences at home and abroad suggests that pre-serviceteachers who participate in a course abroad become more empathetic teachers ofEnglish learners as a result of their own travel experiences and thus are more willingto use appropriate cultural and linguistic pedagogy.

The course affirmed the value of imparting affective as well as cognitive experi-ences to these eight pre-service teachers. However, a follow-up study of their work asin-service classroom teachers is necessary to determine the extent of this impact. Theultimate test of this teacher education travel course in Madrid will be the long-termeffect that it has had on teacher candidates. Thus, future research needs to beconducted to determine if participating teachers in fact become more effective inaddressing the linguistic and academic needs of English learners in their classroomsthan teachers prepared in the traditional university setting:

● Will teachers make better teaching decisions that are appropriate to the socialand academic growth and transition of English learners?

● What accommodations will teachers make under the pressures of testing and astandards-based curriculum?

● Will these decisions and resulting instructional practices increase studentachievement?

Ultimately, as teacher educators we seek ways to facilitate the development of teach-ers’ dispositions, knowledge, and abilities in working with diverse students that willresult in a more compassionate, invigorating, and productive learning community.

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