Seeking Asia literacy beyond and within: Examining the nature of future teachers’ learning through Outbound Mobility Experiences

This chapter examines how the development of Asia literacy was configured by teacher educators as a desired learning outcome for Australian pre-service teachers participating in an <i>Outbound Mobility Experience</i> (OME) in Malaysia together with an analysis of the ways in which participants responded to and reflected on their experiential learning. The literature on OMEs indicates that cross-cultural experiences facilitate intercultural knowledge and understanding (Deardorff, 2006) and that engaging in reflective practices is critical for deeper understanding (Vatalaro, Szente & Levin, 2015). While the advantages of experiential learning and reflection for pre-service teachers are documented in educational research, and intercultural communication theory advocates extensive, intensive cultural immersion as a prerequisite for cross-cultural understanding (Holmes & O’Neil, 2012), there is limited research on the ways in which pre-service teachers reflect on their intercultural experiences in terms of their Asia literacy and their perspectives as regional and global citizens. This chapter draws from a small empirical study that applied Nussbaum’s (1996; 2006) notion of cosmopolitan citizenship capabilities as an analytic framework to analyse findings from one iteration of a New Colombo Plan funded OMP for Australian pre-service teachers in Malaysia. Findings indicate that a carefully planned OMP can contribute towards the formation of future teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the transnational and cultural dimensions of Asia literacy together with their awareness of themselves as regional and global citizens. However, findings also reveal that such experiential learning was confronting and challenging for the participants as they grappled with learning in a culture ‘beyond’ their realm of experience and drawing on their strengths ‘within’ to manage those professional and personal challenges they encountered. The discussion contributes to a deeper understanding of study tours as pedagogical strategies for developing future teachers’ knowledge and understanding of Asia literacy