University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing
Abstract
Teachers role in educating and preparing learners for global challenges assumes their competence and capacity to understand and engage with these challenges. This paper examines the potential of overseas volunteering to enhance teachers’ understanding of global development and to motivate them as global citizenship educators. The findings illustrate a translation dynamic between their experience and professional practices. This analysis is informed by practice theory where changes in dispositions are mediated within constraining or enabling factors of habitus. Habitus is viewed as the site of negotiation of between individuals’ agency and dispositions within social structures. This dynamic is demonstrated in two ways: how volunteer-teachers integrate relevant knowledge into their professional practices and teaching work, and how some volunteer-teachers struggle with their understanding of global development. There are clear professional gains in capacity for the volunteers from their work overseas, as it is clear and purposeful with applicability. However, they also witness global development challenges and their translation of learning is not as successful due to several hindering factors. This in turn affects their capacity and confidence in engaging with global education in their classrooms and affects their ability to become the necessary change-makers in moving towards sustainability and just behaviours.
DOI
https://www.doi.org/10.5038/9781955833042
Recommended Citation
Liddy, M. (2021). Teachers as change-makers: International volunteering as enabling or hindering their capacity to teach global development. In W. B. James, C. Cobanoglu, & M. Cavusoglu (Eds.), Advances in global education and research (Vol. 4, pp. 1–7). USF M3 Publishing. https://www.doi.org/10.5038/9781955833042
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
