Exploring Shifts of Dialogue in Cross-Cultural Teaching and Curriculum Design

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how my gradually growing teacher knowledge has changed and shaped a new interpretation of the same interview data through those years of learning and teaching in different cultural contexts, and furthermore, to deeply understand how the shift of teacher identity impacts the comprehension of Schwab's (1973) commonplaces theories. Through the interview data, I shared students' and teachers' experiences in a new culture and lay alongside my own stories as an international student, a teacher, and a researcher. This research reveals the perceived future needs consist of teachers' higher English proficiency, more classes on professional communication skills courses, more opportunities for professional instructors' professional development, more ESL teacher assistance, scaffolded instruction within mainstream classes, and a better educational atmosphere. The investigation process itself was important but more important was whether or not the discussions and results provided useful information to the community. Having an overall outlook of commonplaces is as essential as the curriculum design. This dialectical shift caused me to investigate the balance among Schwab's commonplaces and the findings will contribute to the future developments in curriculum design as a researcher. Upon reflection, I utilized this research by investigating the equilibrium between the four common places and the current curriculum as well as comparing all the stakeholders' perspectives to the common places identified within the target curriculum.

Citation

Chen, Q. (2023), "Exploring Shifts of Dialogue in Cross-Cultural Teaching and Curriculum Design", Chan, E. and Ross, V. (Ed.) Smudging Composition Lines of Identity and Teacher Knowledge (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 46), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-368720230000046008