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Intercultural Experience and Teacher Professional Development

School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, qinggu{at}yahoo.com

This paper examines the effects of intercultural experience on teacher professionalism. The main methods for data collection consist of semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. Analysis of participants’ experiences of Department for International Development’s (DFID) English language teaching projects shows that intercultural experience has a significant impact on both Chinese teachers’ and British trainers’ professional development. The impact on Chinese teachers is to induce a more rational view on teaching and learning practice and a more balanced attitude towards tradition versus innovation. Exposure to different teaching cultures and the intercultural experience itself is found to have led to a stronger awareness of the meaning of culturally sensitive pedagogy in both Chinese and British ELT professionals. The significant implication for teacher education is to take a holistic and cognitive view of educating teaching professionals and assist teachers to build up the capacity to act on their knowledge base in their teaching arenas.

RELC Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1, 5-22 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0033688205053479


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