Teachers’ Collaborative Conversations About Culture: Negotiating Decision Making in Intercultural Teaching

Abstract

This article presents findings from a study that investigated intercultural teaching through teachers’ collaborative conversations about critical intercultural incidents in schools. The data were generated through Web-CT and face-to-face dialogues between preservice, inservice, and university teachers about critical intercultural incidents identified by the preservice candidates during practicum experiences. Findings focus on teachers’ intercultural decision making within two broad categories: “minding” (making choices, enabling cultures, respecting and sharing power, and arbitrating and agonizing what is just) and “responding” (fostering intercultural communities, opening “safe” spaces, protecting students and surroundings, and “stepping up” to address it). Implications include the role of social and emotional learning and power dynamics in intercultural teaching and the potential for a case-study approach to intercultural teacher education.