“The novel has simply made me more aware of how I meet other people”–attitude awareness in intercultural education

Abstract

To prepare student teachers for the diversity they will face in schools, they have to develop intercultural competence. This paper analyses an assignment in teacher education, where the purpose is to impart this competence to student teachers. Student teachers read and reflected on a novel related to a multicultural context, and we examined in what way(s) fiction, in teacher education, may contribute to their awareness of attitudes related to othering and stereotyping of Third Culture Kids. The data consists of individual texts, group discussions, and group presentations. We found, first, the student teachers were made aware of how their ways of expressing diversity may contribute to othering. Second, they became aware of their stereotyping and questioned accepted truths. Third, they demonstrated they can transfer knowledge from one situation (the novel) to another (the society). Our understanding is that the assignment analysed can be a valuable supplement to theory in teacher education.