International practicum for what and on whose terms?

                                                                 Getahun Yacob Abraham

                                                                                       Senior Lecturer

                                                                                       Karlstad University

The aim of this paper is to investigate about the aims of international practicum and who is benefiting from it. If it is found that one side, the North or the South, is benefiting, to look at the possibilities to reconsider the practicum in order to benefit both. Review of literature in the field and my own experiences as a Swedish university lecturer involved in the teacher students practicum in the South will be the base for this paper. Some preliminary results of my literature review show that practicum in the South mainly focuses on giving the teacher students from the North the possibility of intercultural understanding with specific focus of dealing with change taking place at home, the diversity of students in classrooms (Abraham & von Brömssen, 2018; Bosire & Brigham, 2009;  Marx & Moss, 2011; Wiken & Klein, 2017). Long time experiences show that in the movement of students from the North to the South, the economically and politically dominant countries can dictate the terms (Bosire & Brigham, 2009; Yang, 2002). In addition to that the countries in the center gain more advantages than the countries in the periphery (Barnet & Reggie, 1995).

Keywords: Internationalization, International practicum, teacher students, North, South. 

References

Abraham, G.Y. & von Brömssen, K. (2018). Internationalisation in teacher education: Student teachers reflections on experiences from a field study in South Africa. Education Inquiry.  

https://www-tandfonline-com.bibproxy.kau.se/doi/full/10.1080/20004508.2018.1428035

Barnet, G.A. & Yingli Wu, R. (1995). The international student exchange network. 1970&1980, Higher Education, 30, 353-368.

Bosire, M.M. & Brigham, S. (2009). Preparing North American preserivice teachers for global perspectives: An international teaching practicum experiences in Africa, The Alberta Journal of Education Research, 55 (3), 415-428.

Marx, H. & Moss, D.M. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during a teacher education study abroad program, Journal of Teacher Education, 62 (1), 35-37.

Wikan, G. & Klein, J. (2017). Can international practicum foster intercultural competence among teacher students? Journal of the European Teacher Education Network, 12, 95-104. 

Yang, R. (2002). University internationalization: Its meaning, rationales and implications, Intercultural Education, 13 (1), 81-95.