Webinar: Intercultural citizenship education in action: Mapping perceptions and practices of Portuguese teachers of English

Description

Byram’s five dimensions of intercultural competence (2021) are referred to and used as a guide for intercultural learning across educational contexts. Developing knowledge, attitudes, skills of discovery and interaction and skills of interpreting and relating are most evident in recommendations for practice in early language learning (Kolb & Shocker, 2021). However, children’s developmental preconditions are considered a hindrance (Brunsmeier, 2017) for the fifth dimensions, critical cultural awareness, which highlights the political facet of intercultural education and expands upon the civic action aspect of education.

In this presentation I share data collected during an Erasmus + project, ICEPELL, which aimed at providing professional development (PD) for teachers of EFL to foster critical cultural awareness using picturebooks to integrate Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICE) into EFL classes with children from 5 to 12 years old. I intend to map the perceptions and practices of the Portuguese teachers involved in the PD course in relation to their levels of confidence in using picturebooks with ICE themes and implementing ICE-related activities with their learners. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from a variety of sources including surveys, pre- and post-focus groups, reflect and review documents, teacher-created resources, and conference presentations, as well as trainer and mentor reflections.

The needs analysis survey suggested that the respondents were confident about planning for the intercultural domain and citizenship in their teaching. Nevertheless, actual described practices might point to a misunderstanding of concepts and learning objectives. Results from data collected during and post-PD indicate an increased confidence to plan for ICE and advances in attitude and beliefs towards a teacher’s role in their learners’ intercultural citizenship education during and beyond English lessons. My conclusions suggest that PD of sustained duration, which includes a practical implementation phase alongside active and collaborative participation in a professional community, will be more successful in ensuring English is exploited for purposeful, significant activities in the real world to develop learners’ critical cultural awareness in an age-appropriate manner.

Period	9 Nov 2022
Event title	Teaching Testing and Translation Team
Event type	Seminar
Location	Nicosia, CyprusShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International