Reconstructing educators: stories about teaching international students in Australian higher education

This thesis examines teacher educators' perceptions of teaching international students in pre-service teacher education programs at two Australian universities in Victoria. My research question is: How do academics in Australia construct their everyday practice when teaching international pre-service teaching students from Asian countries? This study is important because it draws attention to the need for educators to develop their teaching practices to meet the universities expanding policies of internationalisation and increasing student enrolments from Asian countries into teacher-preparation courses.  <br><br>In order to investigate my research question I adopted an interpretive qualitative research stance, and employed a multiple methods approach to data collection. This included participant interviews, classroom observations and document analyses. The data were collected from eleven teacher educators, teaching in two Schools of Education at two Melbourne universities. The work of Hofstede (1994, 2001, 2009), Hofstede and Bond (1988), and Hofstede and Minkov (2010) inform the theoretical framework and data analysis, which enhances the readers understanding of the role of culture in teaching/learning.<br><br>The study reveals that the most challenging aspects of teaching and learning for international students and teachers educators in these two university settings were: (1) there is a disconnection between the cultural background of the educators and international students; (2) organisational and educational culture of the host universities were significantly different to the international students' previous experiences in tertiary study and students' required time to transition into this new environment; (3) there were also challenges for Asian students studying and practicing in a foreign language. These were mainly associated with English language proficiency, which primarily had an impact on practical placement and inclusion in class discussions. These challenges required the development of new strategies and pedagogies, including cross-cultural pedagogy, to be adopted by educators. <br><br>This study will be of interest and a point of compassion for university educators working with postgraduate and undergraduate international students from Asian countries.