Perspective Chapter: Teacher Education in a Multicultural Globalizing World – Field-Based Reflections

Abstract

International educational contexts are increasing rapidly, and many teachers find themselves working in contexts that they may not be fully aware of. The aim of the current study was to investigate how preservice English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers at an Egyptian higher education institution (HEI) conceptualize international mindedness in light of their teaching practices. To answer the current research question, a semi-structured interview was conducted using qualitative methodology where participants (n = 7) were interviewed online through Teams. These sample participants are in the course of their academic education as preservice English language teachers. The responses were afterward coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the participants showed some degree of international-mindedness. The responses also highlight that these preservice teachers’ perceptions of international mindedness are pedagogically-oriented, meaning that it is geared toward issues of teaching and curriculum content delivery rather than understanding the nature of international mindedness. The findings are discussed in light of the theoretical framework and the particular context of the current study. Implications for research and practice as well as research recommendations are presented.

1. Introduction

This chapter introduces the conceptualizations of international mindedness by preservice teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). In the context of current educational environments, teachers seem to find themselves in contexts where they need to be aware of the educational environment, equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to deploy in their teaching, and able to interact effectively with the school environment and the dynamics of the educational contexts. Overall, the study seeks to develop preservice English language teachers’ international and multicultural educational competencies, but this report focuses on understanding how they conceptualize inter international-mindedness starting point toward such a desired teacher development.

In the Egyptian higher education context, the teacher education system follows a nationwide government-led approach where teacher education follows a three-phase pattern. This educational pattern spans a period of four years (originally three and increased in the mid-twentieth) including teachers being educated in the subject area (major) of specialization, then pedagogical education is introduced either along with or after their subject area-related education, and afterward, some cultural education occurs. This cultural education includes some literacy subjects/courses such as basic computer literacy, environmental education, and human rights [1].

This way, I argue that it is likely that teacher education lacks the element of international awareness that is particularly important nowadays in rapid development and change. This is why there is a need for having a degree of international mindedness to engage effectively with the school and the wider international community that is characterized by differences and diversity in many aspects. I also argue that this mentality or mindedness seems to be graded or scaled and that we as human beings might have varying degrees of it. It can also be adapted, changed, and developed through suitable interventions such as teacher-led discussions, training workshops, and open dialog with teachers.

Specifically, preservice teachers may lack adequate preparation for a teaching career, particularly with reference to international dimensions. Increasing teachers’ awareness of international and cultural issues may be one suitable intervention in this regard to increase their teaching competencies and competitiveness in the educational marketplace. This argument receives some credibility in light of the reform efforts undertaken through the past decades on the Egyptian educational system [2, 3]. This claim is also supported by the studies that confirm that current teacher education is falling short of providing effective teachers for the marketplace [1, 4]. This current state of teacher education brings about the need to address issues of the status quo ineffective teacher education such as international mindedness in the teacher education process.

Hence, teacher education in the Egyptian context may need more improvement to equip competitive/effective teachers both inland (at local national institutions) and for the global educational labor market. The issue is that such educational reform endeavors focus on the curriculum and the (in-service) teachers, whereas preservice teachers seem to receive less scholarly research interest. Hence, there seems to be a gap to investigate how these preservice teachers conceptualize international mindedness and if the preservice teachers have a limited understanding of international issues.

The Egyptian teacher education reform efforts can be viewed as qualifying teachers with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, and necessary for effective functioning in international education contexts [5]. In the context of international education, the concept of international-mindedness seems to be recurrent and at the core of international education. International mindedness has recently grasped researchers’ attention given the massive widespread of international education as embodied by the globally increasing numbers of international schools, branch campuses, and twinning programs/collaborations in the global higher education systems [6, 7, 8]. Back to the definition, international mindedness can be viewed as an attitude toward global engagement and international awareness of issues going on in the world. Hill [9] provides a comprehensive view of the term:

International mindedness embraces knowledge about global issues and their interdependence, cultural differences, and critical thinking skills to analyse and propose solutions … it is about putting the knowledge and skills to work in order to make the world a better place through empathy, compassion, and openness – to the variety of ways of thinking which enrich and complicate our planet’ (p. 246).

In this study and in view of Hill’s definition, I contend that international mindedness is a degree of knowledge and awareness of and a set of attitudes toward international issues. International mindedness is multifaceted in nature [4] and embraces a set of features and attitudes. These features are numerous but of more importance is the awareness of global issues and interest in the world’s issues and problems, consideration for different perspectives, and awareness of international educational issues. International mindedness is a mindset, an attitude based on openness and understanding of the variety in the world. This brings about the pedagogical consideration that cultivation of such a mindset can be attained through teacher-related training workshops, open discussions, or dialogs on reflective practice. Pragmatically, though mindsets might be untrainable to some degree, exploring international mindedness can shed light on the concept for the preservice teachers who, I argue, might have limited to no understanding of it. This way, they can rethink their pedagogical conceptions, beliefs, ideas, and practices in light of this new paradigm of international mindedness.

International mindedness seems to be complex given the different dimensions that it embraces and it also seems challenging as well [10]. In Muller’s terms ([11], p. 26), international mindedness is “an understanding that individuals can prove the state of the world through understanding of global realities, and the accompanying acceptance of the responsibility to take action to do so.” To Elerian and Solomou, international mindedness has also to do with global engagement (GE) since both are closely related, referring to issues that cross beyond national borders, such as environment, conflict resolution, human rights, power and privilege, sustainability, world cultures, and awareness of the work of international organizations [12]. The current research is focused on this aspect of international mindedness that includes knowledge of the world and engagement with international issues. These global engagement indicators have to do with a learner’s being internationally aware of world issues. Operationally, these features address the multidimensional conception of international mindedness viewed in this study as a degree of knowledge and awareness and a positive attitude toward global issues. In view of the above sections, it seems that a scale of international mindedness is a requirement in educational spheres where global awareness and understanding can help students reap the fruits of the educational process.

2. Rationale

Understanding preservice teachers’ perceptions of international mindedness are important to identify the degree to which they possess some of the competencies required for international and multicultural education. Such competencies may be manifested in the teachers’ effective practices exhibited in the successful delivery of content knowledge, respect for students, and awareness of extracurricular global issues beyond the course content. Therefore, such competence might include the teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, skills, and attitudes that enable them to be effective teachers. This is further intensified given the role of globalization and internationalization of education in the arena of schooling [13], where classrooms are getting increasingly diverse, internationalized in nature, and intercultural/multicultural in principle. Teachers’ beliefs, which in turn are largely affected by how they conceptualize things, have a role to play in the educational process as they help us understand how teachers shape their work. This understanding is significant in understanding their teaching practices, such as the selection of particular methods and techniques, which in turn impacts students’ learning and outcomes [14]. Understanding that the preservice teachers’ conceptualization of international mindedness can help identify the differences between understanding and what is laid out in the literature.

Given the teacher’s role in educational success as the professional agent and the most directly responsible in the learning process [15], proper preparation of the teacher is evidently significant. Well-prepared teachers are teachers who can bring about effective educational outcomes, such as effective delivery of course content and respect for individual learners as evidenced by such studies as in Ref. [16]. These researchers found that there is a significant correlation between teachers’ training and student test results. One such positive outcome mentioned above is the requirement that teachers should be aware of how to respond to that complex globalized situation, which necessitates that teacher education curriculum should also prepare them for such a classroom, and for the whole world at large [17]. It seems like preservice teachers’ perceptions of international mindedness received limited attention from researchers in the Egyptian higher education context with a focus on developing their pedagogical and linguistic skills (e.g., [18, 19, 20, 21]).

This is the case of English teacher education that is the same across Egypt’s HEIs since the educational system is centralized although course content can vary from one governorate (county) to another. Given the globalizing and internationalizing educational atmosphere, teacher education can be questioned if it is properly preparing preservice teachers for such an educational environment in which the local seems to be interacting with the global. In this Egyptian higher education context, the teaching and learning atmosphere is more exam-oriented rather than reflection-based, and efforts for reform have continued to be conducted over the past few decades [22, 23, 24, 25]. The focus on passing exams and delivery of curriculum content seems to leave little space for teachers (preservice and in-service) to reflect and rethink their teaching—this comes at the expense of international mindedness that exhibits a tendency toward being inquisitive and reflecting/thinker [26]. There seems to be less focus on international aspects/issues of teacher education since the previous studies (e.g., decades) [22, 23, 24, 25] focus on the content at the expense of the teacher.

3. Review of literature

This review introduces international mindedness as the key concept in the current study, and a concept that might have received some scholarly interest and investigation in the context of international education. The current review of literature addresses the theme of international mindedness and subthemes related to it. One subtheme is the evolution and development of the concept of international mindedness. I also go through some features of international mindedness, indicating how international mindedness sits within international educational contexts. Another issue of interest is understanding why international mindedness is necessary for the educational process, and why having teachers with international mindedness is important too. Furthermore, the literature sheds some light on how international mindedness looks like in the teacher preparation curriculum and the state of the art of knowledge on international mindedness in the teacher preparation curriculum with particular reference to the Egyptian context. Therefore, a clear idea of the concept of international-mindedness can be formulated so that further practical research can then be conducted.

3.1 International mindedness: An introduction

Recently, the necessity to make university courses more internationally and culturally relevant/sensitive springs from the recognition that higher education is in charge of preparing all students for life in such an ongoingly diverse, interconnected, and the interdependent world. International mindedness has features including interest in human beings, openness to different cultures, the interrelatedness of people, and respect for cultural differences/backgrounds [17]. This concept can be seen as bringing into mind a set of attitudes that an educational stakeholder has to adopt to be described as internationally minded [27].

3.2 Definition of international mindedness

This section sheds light on some literature addressing researchers and practitioners defining international mindedness. Such definitions can help clarify how it is viewed by scholars while disclosing some of its core features and dimensions. Before starting to define international mindedness, the notion of international is worth a quick look. The very linguistic (morphological) analysis of the word international features the prefix inter meaning between, and national is an adjective indicating that the term international has to do with between-nations issues, problems, solutions, and interactions.

Bailey and Harwood [28] contend that defining international mindedness is a challenging task. Being internationally minded sounds like an attitude in itself as described by Singh and Qi (2013, 13) who defined international mindedness in light of the international diploma programs (IDP) as “an attitude of openness to, and curiosity about, the world and different cultures” [7]. It is concerned with developing a deep understanding of the complexity, diversity, and motives that underpin human actions and interactions. The issue here is that the definitions available seem to be generic and not considering the different local contexts, which might bring about localized definitions of international mindedness. Such localized definitions can have some features of international mindedness as described in the literature (maybe to some degree), but not necessarily all of them. In this study, I agree with Singh and Qi’s definition of international mindedness since it gives a clear clarification of the concept, and an operational definition of the concept can be derived from it.

3.3 Origins of international mindedness

The origins and evolution of the concept of international mindedness deserve some exploration in order to understand how it is contextualized in the context of international education. Knowing such origins can help inform the process of preservice teacher training simply by identifying which factors had an impact on the concept development and thus, such factors can be taken into consideration in future educational reforms. Originally, international mindedness is a call for peaceful coexistence, and this is indicated by Mead’s (1929), as cited in Cause’s [29] statement that international mindedness developed after the First World War (WWI) as a political concept where the history of the phrase goes back at least as far as 1929 [30].

At this stage of world turmoil, the need for international cross-bordering educational programs was much felt by educators and families at the time of world war [30]. International schools had sprung up in different spheres of the world to cater to educating the children of parents working outside their home countries (internationally), particularly for the United Nations (UN) agencies and outposts [31]. The longest surviving of these schools was the International School of Geneva founded in 1924, principally by UN employees. These forms of schools were meant to provide a curriculum that is described as being international. The international curriculum is the curriculum delivered at such international schools. One example of such an international curriculum is the international baccalaureate, which was an academic program thought to be able to promote peace and coexistence [29]. It was first founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968 and provides an international curriculum for thousands of schools across the globe [32]. Based on the above account of the origins of international mindedness within international schools, it sounds like the view of international education as cross-bordering educational institutions is quite limiting and narrow since the curriculum itself might be national rather than international.

Tracing the concept of international mindedness, Hill (2012) indicates that it was not until the 1960s that a curriculum for international mindedness appeared in the form of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), whose first examinations for official candidates took place only in 1971 [9]. The special aspect I could observe about the IBDP is the specification of the learner, as well as teacher profiles, and the emphasis on the international and multicultural environment of the teaching-learning process. But the concept has origins that date back much earlier than the twentieth century, as Hill argues that international mindedness is reflected within the philosophy of international education that first came into existence in the seventeenth century by the Czech pedagogue, philosopher, and humanist, John Comenius (1592–1670).

Comenius presumably places the beginning of international education that underpins the ethos of international mindedness. He argued for democratic education that incorporates both males and females at a time when girls rarely went to school. That education would serve to educate nations and aim to bring scholars from different countries to study together. Possibly, Comenius’s democratic education entailed a kind of mindedness that can be described as international as it was more inclusive (of deprived category/population of females) and democratic (equitable opportunities available for all learners). In this study, I might consider different experiences with training and educating international education teachers with a special focus on the International Baccalaureate (IB) program as it has been established for decades.

The concept of international mindedness continues to evolve through the following centuries as well. Hill (2012) mentions that, in the eighteenth century, international mindedness was reflected in the educational philosophy of Jan Jack Rousseau (the European philosopher and educationalist) about international mindedness in that learning should be heuristic, stemming from natural curiosity and personal experience, rather than imparting facts—which is an important pedagogical process for facilitating international mindedness. This, in a way, seems to be related to global engagement since engagement requires reflection, thinking, and openness to different perspectives [9].

3.4 Features of international mindedness

There are a number of features peculiar to international mindedness, which support the opinion that it is a mental personal attitude that can be activated within a certain social context. International mindedness has many features, but for the purpose of the confirmation process, this report will focus on only the following features by which an operational definition of the concept can be identified. The following list illustrates that:

• Curiosity and interest in the world: Haywood [33]; Singh and Qi [9]; and Whitmarsh [32]

• Global engagement: Syeda [34] and Wasner [8]

• Open-mindedness: Whitmarsh [32]

• Reflectiveness: Whitmarsh [32]

• Communication: Whitmarsh [32]

Operationally and in view of these features, international mindedness is an attitude of openness toward, interest in, curiosity about, and engagement with the world and its international issues and concerns. One concluding remark here is that international mindedness can be seen as a continuum as not all people (or teachers) are internationally minded similarly; some will adopt certain of the above features, while others will simply consider them based on parameters of personal background, experiences, and conceptions. Also, the same person can be said to be internationally minded partially or fully based on the degree to which he/she adheres to the above features.

3.5 Significance of international mindedness

International mindedness seems to feature a number of benefits that cumulatively provide a pedagogy that incorporates international mindedness in the curriculum. Educators need to nurture a degree of international mindedness in students to be world/global citizens. The fact that the world is being even more and globalized affords a space for the need for international mindedness to allow people to communicate globally based on a degree of respect based on an understanding of human nature. As illustrated by Metli and Lane [35], given that, the world is increasingly interconnected, globalized, and multicultural, there are more opportunities for people of today’s world to communicate easily with those with different cultures. Hence, the role of international mindedness is to facilitate such global-scale communication between world nations. In the world of accelerating global changes, global engagement and intercultural understanding might indicate that one needs to have a form of awareness that can facilitate intercultural human dialog and communication, and this is potentially supported by international mindedness.

3.5.1 Applications of international mindedness

Literature is generally learner-centered when it comes to consideration of issues on international mindedness in educational contexts. That is why the focus of the current research has shifted from that toward more consideration and emphasis on the position of (preservice) teachers while attempting to envisage how they primarily conceptualize international-mindedness as a critical element in international education contexts. By fostering an ethos of mutual respect and facilitating humans’ international understanding, international mindedness can facilitate respect and equality. According to Habib [36], the rationale for adopting internationally minded practices in pedagogical practices is the need for opportunities where people of the world are interacting with one another through education, media, business, technology, or in multiple other ways. An exploration of international mindedness centers around the learner and focuses on bringing to the foreground the learners’ understanding of how their teaching practice can be influenced by their own beliefs and cultures [37].

It seems that developing a globally competent teacher is justified in the context of international education. By adopting international mindedness, both the teacher and student can understand various cultures embodied in the school context, in such an atmosphere that promotes mutual understanding and respect. These applications did not go without its criticism. Belal [38] indicates that one such prominent application of international-mindedness in schools is the IB programs. In the International Baccalaureate Diploma four programs, international mindedness seems to be idealistic and implied in the IB school’s mission statement but not directly addressed. Belal also continues to clarify that participation in the IBDP can help achieve international mindedness, but it is the school’s diversity that contributes more toward achieving this attitude/mindedness. It might be the very nature of the educational process and curriculum that can help enrich or hamper the tendency toward international-mindedness.

This issue of school diversity highlighted by Belal [39] seems to have scholarly credibility among other researchers. For instance, as stressed by Hill [31], participation in an international community or activities like international fairs in itself is not sufficient for instilling an attitude of international mindedness, but the role of the school is to infuse that attitude via a formal curriculum, based on principles of international education. Hill further contends that international educational approaches can be adopted and integrated even into national educational contexts (e.g. schools) given they are open to the world, which further highlights the role a teacher and the school system can play to foster a culture of internationalism.

Additionally, challenges might arise when it comes to the application of international mindedness either at theoretical or practical levels. In the account of the deviations and challenges facing the concept, Savva and Stanfield [40] clarified that to provide any understanding of international mindedness in the IB context, the understanding needs first to fit within the broader IB mission statement. Practically, within the IB schools that feature the international student learner profile, some criticisms were raised as the profile has no theoretical justification and ignores the complexity of human nature while stressing the absoluteness of single characters [41, 42, 43]. It can be seen that one individual or student can have a feature of that profile in one aspect but not the other, and it might be so in one instance not in another. For example, being open-minded as a learner seems to be scaled since the learner may be open-minded to a degree that differs from the other. Also, a learner who is open-minded might not necessarily be a good communicator.

These challenges should not be a hindrance toward achieving the ethos of international mindedness as exhibited in the features of the concept. As suggested by Savva and Stanfield [40], despite challenges, schools can use a variety of techniques to develop shared understanding, and this can be achieved in various ways. For example, new staff and student orientation sessions, homeroom or advisory groups, assemblies, and parent-teacher conferences can be organized and promoted. One remark is the need for aligning the features or dispositions embedded in international mindedness with the context where it is to be implemented, meaning that adaptation to the various national contexts has to be taken into consideration for achieving the optimum benefit.

3.6 International mindedness in teacher education contexts

Now the question is about the role of international mindedness in practice. In other words, how international mindedness looks like in the teacher education (TE) curriculum? In essence, catering to an internationally minded teacher education curriculum is an issue that has to consider some points about context, teacher personality, background and readiness, and more.

One educational requirement of the curriculum in the context of international mindedness is to be sensitive (i.e., respective) to other cultures. The TE curriculum has to prepare teachers for a teaching context that is basically, ethnically, and culturally diverse. International mindedness can be developed in different aspects of student’s education continually through curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities [6]. One way the curriculum can help boost teachers’ international mindedness by fostering their self-reflection. It is critical also that teacher candidates understand the importance of knowing bout learners’ backgrounds and experiences and understand that language, culture, and identity are deeply interconnected, and how cultural groups and individual cultural identities affect language learning and school achievement [44].

Practically, the emphasis on curriculum sensitivity toward cultural issues is a call for change, a need for rethinking teacher education in a world of ongoing rapid change. One starting point can be through adopting a teacher-centered approach toward teacher education (and training) development pursuits, and this can be facilitated through listening to (preservice) teachers’ voices and understanding their viewpoints regarding curriculum development and reform. Such reform can start by first understanding teachers’ basic conceptions about trending issues, such as international education and international mindedness, particularly if their teaching backgrounds did not consider nowadays educational trends.

3.7 International mindedness and Egyptian teacher education

Through the past decades, international mindedness was considered in different school contexts in different parts of the globe. For example, in the Latin context, a study by Castillo-Clark (2018) explored the development of international-mindedness in teacher candidates. Using interviews with preservice teachers, the study could investigate preservice teachers’ perceptions of international mindedness with the purpose of developing it among this group. In a Western context, Budrow [45] examined international mindedness in a Canadian international school-based context with three in-service teachers (ISTs), who are Canadian of Anglo-European descent and beginning their formal careers in international schools international mindedness. Findings suggest that some elements of international mindedness are more readily appreciated and practiced by these novice teachers, such as curiosity and openness, to know and understand others and the world, while others require greater awareness and effort to attain, such as gender-related issues. The findings also suggest foregrounding the importance of critically reflecting upon one’s “localness” in the world.

In another study within the Middle Eastern context, Habib [36] endeavored to examine higher education faculty members’ understanding of international mindedness. Participant faculty members also reflected a lack of professional development and understanding of local and international dynamics, where specialized educational programs were important factors. Finally, the study concluded with implications for professional growth platforms to foster international-mindedness in educators so that they can promote international-mindedness in students in return.

Similarly, the Arabic context seems to exhibit some interest in such global scholarly interest in these educational concepts as international mindedness. For instance, Alhuthaif [46] explored the conceptions and practices of international mindedness of four English as a foreign language (EFL) faculty members in higher education programs at a Saudi university. The study had the following four conclusions: (1) basic language skills, grammar, and intercultural understanding are intertwined in Saudi EFL programs; (2) education technology promotes intercultural communication through interactive learning experiences; (3) the participant Saudi EFL faculty were able to describe international mindedness and use it in the classroom through intercultural competence although they might have not heard about it previously; and (4) references to international perspectives in EFL curricula and practices seem to be minimal in the data collected and thus require further attention in the Saudi EFL curriculum in future research.

In the Egyptian context, very little is known about the concept of international mindedness by both teachers and students, whether at policy or practice levels. Surveying literature across some notable educational databases, I could not identify any pertinent literature or research that addresses the issue of international mindedness in the context of (preservice) teacher education whether at the policy level or the practice level. Despite international education increasing in the Egyptian context, given the notable increase of international schools and universities, such as the case of branch campuses, teacher education has encountered no change in response—hence the contribution of this study.

A study by Belal [39] addressed international-mindedness in international schools in Egypt. Belal clarifies that although the rapidly expanding International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a well-recognized program perceived to offer best practices in education, including developing international mindedness in students and engaging with the local communities, there is little empirical evidence to support these outcomes. This study concludes that engagement with the diverse local community was not perceived by participants as one of the main outcomes of offering the IBDP, whereas the diversity of the school student body was perceived as an integral factor in helping students develop a wider worldview and international mindedness. The study has a learner-centered approach, while teacher preparation received no attention.

Studies on international mindedness are a bit limited in the Egyptian context and the above instances are, to the best of my knowledge, the most pertinent ones. Therefore, the gap that this study attempts to fulfill is finding out how international mindedness is perceived by (English as a foreign language) preservice teachers, thus giving insights into prospective research endeavors aiming toward the development of teacher education curriculum.

4. Concluding remarks

This chapter was used to provide an understanding of international mindedness as an important educational concept that resonates in different international educational contexts. The review discussed issues on defining international mindedness, its origins, features, and how it is contextualized in the curriculum. A special emphasis and reference have been made in the context of the Egyptian teacher education curriculum as the context of this study. This further has led to the design of the current research methodology being quantitative, in nature, so that preservice teachers can be given the opportunity for reflecting on what it means to be an internationally minded teacher—which is the focus of the next chapter.