From heads to hearts: digital stories as reflection artifacts of teachers' international experience.(Report)

The longest journey {people} must take is the eighteen inches from {their} heads to [their] hearts.

Introduction

On a humid Houston morning at the end of May, 13 Texas middle and high school teachers boarded a plane bound for China. The teachers and their two leaders from Texas A&M University were participants in the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad China Seminar 2010. When these travelers landed on a hot Beijing morning nearly 19 hours later, they had crossed many borders. Obviously, some were borders of time and space, but more profoundly, the teachers had crossed borders of culture, history, personality, education, and terrain. The experience transformed them as educators, learners, and people. Five weeks in China gave the teachers a new appreciation of both home and host countries, new tools and techniques to bring to the classroom, and knowledge of themselves and others as cultural beings. When they returned to Texas at the beginning of July, it was clear that, along with the 19-hour plane flight from Beijing to Houston, the teachers had taken the 18-inch journey from their heads to their hearts.

The China Seminar was organized by the National Academy of Education Administration (NAEA) in Beijing. The Seminar included classroom and field experiences, cultural tours, observations of teaching processes and lectures by experts in some aspects of Chinese life. There were several small group discussions and presentations involving local educators, comparing schools, pedagogy and curricula in Texas and China.

With the overarching goal of developing the educators' intercultural competence and enhancing their schools' world history/geography/cultures curricula, the Seminar provided opportunities for participants to acquire first-hand knowledge of the history, culture, language, geography, family structures, religion, education, economics, and politics of China and to dispel previously-held stereotypes and myths about China and its people. The participants visited cities across China: Beijing, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai, Lijiang, Shangri-la, and Huhehot. Here they came in contact with dominant and minority ethnic groups, many of whom are largely unknown in the U.S.

While every day in China brought adventure and revelation, the teachers understood from the outset that this was more than a "whoopee trip." They were expected to participate in research designed by the leaders to evaluate the impact of the Seminar. The leaders/researchers wanted to know how and in what ways participants in the China Seminar learned to cross borders, to understand and appreciate a culture, and to function in a setting that was so clearly different than their own.

As part of their research participation, teachers were expected to keep a daily journal of their experiences while they were in China and create a digital story based on a memorable event after they returned home. The researchers wanted to evaluate the impact of an international cultural immersion experience on cultural competence through analyzing and comparing the themes appearing in the journals and digital stories. The researchers were looking for depth of personal insight to determine if the digital stories actually became reflective artifacts that provided a window into the level of individual change that could enable the teacher-participants to navigate the multicultural landscape.

Theoretical Framework

There are many definitions of intercultural competence. Trask and Hamon (2007) defined it as the "ability learn from and relate respectfully to people of your own culture as well as people from other cultures" (p. 128). Taylor (1994) added the element of adaptivity, based on an inclusive and integrative world view. According to Landis, Bennett, and Bennett (2004), the intercultural skill set includes the ability to analyze interaction, predict misunderstanding, and fashion adaptive behavior. This skill set can be thought of as an "expanded repertoire of behavior--a repertoire that includes behavior appropriate to one's own culture but that does not thereby exclude alternative behavior that might be more appropriate in another culture" (p. 149).

Because most American teachers work with a diverse student population, they need to be interculturally competent to interact successfully with their students (Leeman & Ledoux, 2003). Roose (2001) believes that there is a relationship between cross-cultural experiences of teachers and their ability to help all students in schools, regardless of their backgrounds and cultures. And the impact will outlive the classroom. "How teachers manage diversity in the classroom has a direct influence upon future citizens on a local, national and international level" (Dooly, 2006, p. 18).

One of the best hopes for developing cultural competence is through an international experience. Findings indicate that time spent abroad enhances intellectual growth, personal development, and global mindedness (Adler, 1974). Studies show that individuals mature and acquire a new understanding about life, culture, self and others when they travel (Landis et al., 2004). Travel offers a perfect opportunity for reflection and change. Piaget and Inhelder (1958) said that change occurs during periods of discontinuity and displacement, which would certainly happen during an international experience in a totally foreign culture like China. For teachers, this experience abroad will increase their intercultural competence and will combine to demonstrate a new understanding of their role and ability to interact with and teach individuals from diverse cultures (Mahon & Cushner, 2002).

Additionally, curriculum units and lesson planning are impacted by the prospective teachers' international experiences. Teachers use their knowledge of the culture and values of their host communities to design materials and activities that are culturally responsive and validate the values, beliefs and experiences of the young people in their …