Open AccessPreservice Teachers’ Discursive Constructions of Cultural Practices in a Multicultural Telecollaboration
Author(s) -
Babürhan Üzüm,
Bedrettin Yazan,
Netta Avineri,
Sedat Akayoğlu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of multicultural education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.472
H-Index - 16
ISSN - 1934-5267
DOI - 10.18251/ijme.v21i1.1777
Subject(s) - pedagogy , sociology , multiculturalism , multicultural education , social justice , diversity (politics) , cultural pluralism , cultural diversity , cultural competence , intercultural communication , space (punctuation) , psychology , linguistics , social science , anthropology , philosophy
The study reports on a telecollaboration exchange between two teacher education classes in the United States and Turkey. In synchronous and asynchronous conversations, preservice teachers (PTs) engaged in social justice issues and made discourse choices that captured culture(s) and communities as diverse or essentialized. These choices were affected by PTs’ positionings and impacted how PTs connected to individuals only and/or to broader society. PTs asked questions that created space for critical discussions and facilitated awareness of diversity, yet sometimes led to overgeneralizations. The study has implications for designing telecollaborations that promote language and practices to unpack the issues of social justice.