Internationalisation and interculturality in early childhood teacher education

Schools and preschools in Sweden are culturally diverse arenas, with more than a quarter of children in Sweden having immigrant backgrounds (Statistiska Centralbyrån, 2017). The Swedish preschool curriculum acknowledges the importance of responsivity to culturally and linguistically diverse children and families. Thus, graduate teachers need to be equipped to work children and families from ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Simultaneously, universities have an internationalisation agenda but few students physically exchange abroad. These challenges have been taken up in the following two research projects focusing on the teacher education arena, including UBB researchers.

LITE project: LUN-financed Internationalisation in Teacher Education (2020)

This study investigated aspects of internationalisation in preschool teacher education. Four sub-studies were completed and published, including a curriculum and course documentation review (Jacobsson, 2022), an analysis of student teacher investigation project on internationalisation topics (Cooper, 2022), a questionnaire with student teachers (Abraham & Margrain, 2022) and interviews with preschool principals (Olsson, 2022). A further methodological article integrating the studies is in progress.

Project leader: Professor Valerie Margrain

Project participants: Dr Åsa Olsson, Dr Ami Cooper, Dr Getahun Yacob Abraham, Dr Andreas Jacobsson.

Project duration: funded January-December 2020, with ongoing analysis and publication.

Project financing: Karlstad University Teacher Education Board (Lärareutbildningsnämnden). 845,325 sek

Publications (all open access):

Abraham, G. Y., & Margrain, V. (2022). “We are Swedish preschool teachers”: Student teacher feedback on internationalisation and interculturality in preschool teacher education. World Studies in Education, 23(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.7459/wse/22.1.06

Cooper, A. (2022). Internationalisation and diversity in preschool teacher education: Representations in preschool student teachers’ projects. World Studies in Education, 23(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.7459/wse/23.1.04</div

Jacobsson, A. (2022). Interculturality and internationalisation in a Swedish teacher education programme. World Studies in Education, 23(1), 17-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7459/wse/23.1.03

Olsson, Å. L. (2022). Multicultural preschools in Sweden: Principals’ views on challenges and opportunities. World Studies in Education, 23(1), 59–76. https://doi.org/10.7459/wse/23.1.05

 

PIPPI project: Professional Interculturality in Practicum Project Inquiry (2023)

The project aims to bench-mark intercultural awareness of student teachers, and to explore the impact of teaching degree coursework including practicum on their intercultural awareness and practice.

The research questions and methods used to answer these questions include the below:

  1. What intercultural awareness is self-reported by student teachers? (standardised questionnaire, practicum documentation)
  2. How does practicum facilitate the development of these intercultural awareness? (course document analysis, practicum documentation, student teacher interviews).

Project leader: Professor Valerie Margrain

Project participants: Dr Nina Thelander, Hanna Räftegård

Project duration: funded January-December 2023, with ongoing analysis and publication.

Project financing: Karlstad University Teacher Education Board (Lärareutbildningsnämnden). 500,000 sek.

Presentations:

Thelander, N., Margrain, H., & Räftegård, H. (2023, May). Intercultural awareness in teacher education policy and student professional practice. Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference, Karlstad Sweden.

Margrain, V., Thelander, N., Räftegård, H., & Ekberg, J. (2024, February - forthcoming). Internationalisation in Swedish teacher education: Policy, practice and research-in-action.VALIANT / UNICollaboration conference, Léon, Spain.