Smudging Composition Lines of Identity and Teacher Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Narrative Inquiries into Teaching and Learning

Teachers must consider what it means to work with students in an increasingly diverse global community. Classrooms increasingly comprise of students and teachers of different social, cultural, language, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, needing to adapt in order to accommodate for differences, both expected and unanticipated, that each individual brings to shared classroom contexts. Smudging Composition Lines of Identity and Teacher Knowledge uses a comparative narrative inquiry approach grounded in long-term research to learn about experiences and complexities of cross-cultural teaching. The chapter authors identify and explore differences in the structure of schooling, student experiences, teacher education, school partnerships, parents, and members of the community, and the ways in which diversity is addressed in school practices and curriculum. Gaining insight into complexities of teacher identity formation and development in cross-cultural teaching contexts, they explore ways in which teaching goals might be achieved using practices commonly used in the host country not often used in one’s home country. The dilemmas and tensions uncovered directly from the perspective of teachers and teacher educators develop narrative inquiry as a methodological approach to examining teacher knowledge in cross-cultural teaching, providing invaluable findings for teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers internationally.