How everyday classroom experiences in an international teaching internship raise student teachers’ awareness of their subjective educational theories

Abstract

This study explores how 33 student teachers’ reflections during 106 ‘bumpy moments’ while in an international student teaching internship reveal their professional beliefs, and how the moments make the student teachers reflect upon their subjective educational theories. Student teachers described four themes of professional beliefs: (1) pedagogical content knowledge, (2) school context, (3) organisational skills and (4) self-reflection. Their reflections highlighted aspects of their subjective educational theories when they perceived they lacked an appropriate practical teaching strategy or they had pedagogical interactions with pupils or supervisors. The student teachers’ reflections on pedagogical interactions in a cross-cultural context made them aware of moral dimensions in teaching and their own position during normative (inter)actions. The findings of this study indicate that teacher educators should focus on everyday teaching details that occur during bumpy moments in a student’s teaching practice to explicate larger concepts such as the student teachers’ beliefs.