Understanding the Impact of International Travel on Pre-Service Teachers

Research supports the idea that travel, especially abroad, can be influential in the broadening of an individual's personal and professional perspectives. The shift and change in perspectives have shown to be especially important for pre-service teachers in their ability to address diversity in the classroom (Asteskan, 2016; Constantiou, 2015; Egeland, 2016; Francis, 2015; Marcus, Moss, 2015; Salmona, Partlo, Kacynski, Leonard, 2015). Our goal is to understand how international travel and education experiences can change pre-service teachers personal and professional identity and cultural understanding. We modeled the current study based on the theoretical framework developed by Constantiou (2015), which encompasses four themes: (1) teacher identity, (2) cultural competencies, (3) attitudes and behaviors, and (4) empowerment and confidence boosting. To execute this study, we adopted the City as Text model developed by Braid and Long (2000). City as Text is a program where students immerse themselves in communities exploring the culture and geography of immediate neighborhoods. Students are challenged to be sensitive and reflect about the human experience in the local environment. Students explore the local communities observing the architecture, the people, and daily life activity by interacting with local peoples. For this study, we are expanding this framework to include teaching experiences within local school systems. Data analysis will be conducted using procedures for qualitative content analysis described by Schrier (2012) to apply the theoretical framework developed by Constantiou (2015) and the City as Text model (Braid & Long, 2000) to the data. We will use the NVivo 12 data analysis software to analyze the data in the following order: (1) decontextualize, (2) recontextualize, (3) categorize, and (4) compile. Data collection will begin during the March 2020 Spring Break Programs; IRB approval is pending for this study.