The Impact of Intercultural Experiences on Preservice Teachers’ Preparedness to Engage with Diverse Learners

Oct 15, 2026

Global student populations are becoming increasingly diverse faster than the teaching workforce, creating concerns about how well beginning teachers can support diverse learners. This qualitative study (n=40) examines how preservice teachers’ prior intercultural experiences shape their development for teaching diversity, using Hammer’s Intercultural Development Continuum. Findings show that sustained, quality engagement with diversity enhances intercultural competence. The study outlines how teacher education can better prepare preservice teachers to engage diverse learners.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Diversity in schools and teacher workforce

Intercultural competence and teacher education

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 43 | Issue 3 | Article 11 | | --- | --- | | 2018
The Impact of Intercultural Experiences on Preservice Teachers’ Preparedness to Engage with Diverse Learners
DeniseA. Beutel
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, [d.beutel@qut.edu.au](d.beutel@qut.edu.au)
Donna Tangen
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, [d.tangen@qut.edu.au](d.tangen@qut.edu.au) | | Recommended Citation Beutel, D. A., & Tangen, D. (2018). The Impact of Intercultural Experiences on Preservice Teachers’ Preparedness to Engage with Diverse Learners. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43 (3). Retrieved from [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol43/iss3/11](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol43/iss3/11) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol43/iss3/11](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol43/iss3/11) Australian Journal of Teacher Education The Impact of Intercultural Experiences on Preservice Teachers’Preparedness to Engage with Diverse Learners Denise Beutel Donna Tangen Queensland University of Technology Abstract: The diversity of student populations globally is increasing more rapidly than the diversity of the teaching workforce. Concerns are that beginning teachers are ill-prepared to meet the needs of the diversity of students in their classrooms. This lack of preparedness has been partially attributed to inadequate preparation within teacher education programs. We advocate that preservice teachers need to understand how their prior intercultural experiences can be utilised to better prepare them for teaching diverse groups of learners. This qualitative study (n=40) draws on Hammer’s (2009) Intercultural Development Continuum to explore the impact that these experiences have on shaping preservice teachers as teachers of diversity. We use the data to illustrate the breadth of positioning on the IDC of these preservice teachers. Findings indicate that prior quality engagement with diversity over time enhances preservice teachers’ intercultural competence. We describe how teacher education can better prepare preservice teachers for engaging diverse learners. Introduction Globalisation, and its associated mobility of people, has changed the demographic profile of schools to now include a greater diversity of students. However, while student populations have become increasingly diverse in areas of ethnicity, culture, languages spoken and disability, the profile of the teaching workforce has remained relatively slower to change (Florian, 2012). In Australia, for example, there is a gap in the extent of diversity of the student population and that of the teaching force, which has remained largely Anglo-ethnic (Cruickshank, 2004; Han & Singh, 2007) . Sawir (2013) suggests that because Australia is geographically isolated, higher education students from other cultures have the capacity to“introduce cosmopolitan notions and experiences”(p. 366) that are likely to change parochial narratives from the local to the global. We posit that teacher educators have been slow in utilising this valuable resource. Kumar and Hamer (2012), for example, argue that preservice teachers’ lack of preparedness to meet the needs of culturally diverse students may be traced back to poor preparation by teacher education programs. As such, we contend that preservice teachers should have opportunities to consider how their own cultural positioning helps to shape their willingness to engage with diverse learners while they are still training to become teachers. In recent years, there has been a greater intake of individuals from other countries into teacher education and that there are increasing numbers of new entrants into teacher education who have had broad experiential learning outside the classroom that can contribute to shaping their pedagogic engagement (McKenzie, Weldon, Rowley, Murphy, & McMillian, 2014) . At the same

FAQs

What problem does the paper address?

The paper addresses the mismatch between increasingly diverse student populations and the relatively slower change in the teaching workforce, leading to concerns about new teachers’ preparedness to meet diverse learners’ needs.

How does the study investigate intercultural experiences?

The study is qualitative (n=40) and draws on Hammer’s Intercultural Development Continuum to examine how prior intercultural experiences shape preservice teachers as teachers of diversity.

What do the findings suggest about teacher preparation?

Findings indicate that prior quality engagement with diversity over time strengthens preservice teachers’ intercultural competence, and the paper discusses how teacher education can better prepare them for engaging diverse learners.

Oct 15, 2026

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