Global Intercultural Competence Through Practicum in the Global South

Nordic classrooms have become more diverse due to immigration from both European and nonEuropean countries. The increasingly diverse classrooms imply new challenges for teachers and teacher education. Most teachers and student teachers are from the majority culture with little experience or knowledge of other cultures. They are therefore unprepared to work with pupils from diverse backgrounds. An international practicum is one of the most effective ways to transform learners’ perspectives and prepare them for work in a diverse classroom, but it requires supervision and intervention. There is however very little literature or guidance when it comes to teacher interventions in relation to international practicums based on experiences from Nordic countries. Supervision and guidance of practicum students abroad have been developed by individual programmes and various teacher interventions have been implemented. The purpose of this project is to develop and test structured methods for intervention during international teacher education practicums that supports multicultural learning outcomes for students and thus leads to more competent teachers for the multicultural classroom in the Nordic countries