Internationalizing teacher education curricula: opportunities for academic staff development

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of a collaborative workshop, aimed to support teacher educators in embedding a “global outlook” in the curriculum on their perceived professional development. Design/methodology/approach The workshop included working sessions, during a period of 13 months, and was structured as participatory action research, according to which volunteer academics designed, developed and evaluated global education projects in their course units. Data were gathered through a focus group session, conducted with the teacher educators at a final stage of the workshop, and analyzed according to the principles of thematic analysis. Findings Results of the analysis suggest that the workshop presented a meaningful opportunity for teacher educators to reconstruct their knowledge and teaching practice to (re)discover the importance of collaborative work and to assume new commitments to themselves and to others. Originality/value The study addresses a gap in the existing literature on academic staff development in internationalization of the curriculum, focusing on the perceptions of teacher educators’, whose voices have been largely silent in research in the field. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for a professional development program in internationalization of the curriculum.