Abstract
In exploring the best practices for preparing new teachers to meet the challenges of the changing demographics present in contemporary classrooms, cross-cultural internship experiences emerge as an important component to teacher training curriculums. The authors present information based on the experiences of American student teachers spending three weeks teaching English and American Culture in Szent István’s Practice School, making presentations to local clubs, churches, libraries, and traveling throughout Hungary. This exchange program presented a great opportunity for the authors to conduct a study related to exploring the impact of the student teaching abroad experience in their teaching dispositions as well as in developing an understanding of working within a culturally and linguistically diverse environment.
Keywords: cross-cultural education; study abroad internships; perspectives consciousness; immersion experience; sociocultural relationships
Recommended Citation
Greene, Jackie & Elia Vázquez-Montilla. “Bridging Cultural Borders: American Students’ Cross-Cultural Teaching Experiences in Hungary.” AHEA: E-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Volume 6 (2013): http://ahea.net/e-journal/volume-6-2013/13
Biography
Jackie Greene has been working with pre-service teachers as Student Teaching Coordinator and as a member of the Literacy Faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University since 2005. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and has worked with the faculty of Szent István’s Egyetem since 2008 to facilitate multiple student teaching exchanges. She has been a Guest Lecturer at Szent Istvan Egyetem and presented at state, national and international professional conferences. Her most recent research is in the area of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards personal literacy and on how these attitudes impact literacy pedagogy.
Elia Vázquez-Montilla has been working with linguistically and culturally diverse students and families in Florida since 1987 and is a founding faculty and professor of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2003 she was the recipient of the University Senior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. She has published numerous articles and has presented at state, national, and international professional conferences. Her most recent research interest is in the area of teacher’s dispositions and beliefs about working with culturally and linguistically diverse students.