Enhancing cross-cultural competence in multicultural teacher education: Transformation in global learning

Abstract

Teacher education needs to engage teacher candidates in developing cross-cultural competence so that they may be able to transmit global learning to their future students. This study theorizes cross-cultural competence (CCC) from the perspectives of multicultural and global education. During a four-year project at a mid-western US university, utilizing Web 2.0 technologies, the authors implemented and evaluated a pedagogical approach intended to foster cross-cultural competence with an emphasis on dispositional transformation. A mixed-method design assessed students on CCC standards and found that they developed affective as well as cognitive CCC. By implication, the model can be adapted in other teacher education classrooms to foster cross-cultural, multicultural global learning.