Chapter 3: Intercultural Teaching and Learning Through Study Abroad: Pedagogies of Discomfort, Oppositional Consciousness and Bridgework for Equity and Social Justice in Education

Intercultural teaching and learning through study abroad is not a new concept and operates on many registers in educational theory, research, and practice: at the political level in response to national security issues and international peace keeping post-9/11 (Stewart, 2007); at the economic level in response to market forces of globalization and technology (Cushner, 2012); in professional development as a response to growing global competition in teaching, research, and development (Darling-Hammond, 2010); and in response to immigration and diversity (Malewski, Sharma, & Phillion, 2012). In recent years, there has been growing awareness among multicultural teacher educators in the United States that along with the political, economic, and academic, a social and cultural positioning of internationalizing teacher education through study abroad frames discourses on multiculturalism in education (Keengwe, 2010), cross-cultural experiential development of educators (Kambutu & Nganga, 2008), and intercultural teaching and learning for promoting equity and social justice in education (Cushner, McClelland, & Safford, 2012).