Exploring empathy-based stories about intercultural education : perceptions of intercultural education among teachers with an immigrant background in Finland

This study explores how immigrant teachers and international students describe successful and unsuccessful intercultural education classes. Additionally, it examines how immigrant teachers and international students understand the concept of culture in the context of intercultural education. By analyzing the respondents' perceptions of intercultural education, this study aims to provide new insights into development of an intercultural education curriculum in the context of teacher education and continuing training in Finland. This is a qualitative study based on empathy-based stories. The data (N=88) were collected by using the method of empathy-based stories (MEBS) from immigrant teachers (n=50) and international students (n=38) in two universities of Finland between December 2016 - February 2017. The comparison between these two groups can aid teacher educators in understanding both the great assets and the hindrances of teachers with an immigrant background. MEBS was chosen as a data collection method in this research in order to examine how the respondents describe culture in a circumstance in which they need to pay attention to class dynamics, the students' interests, their own mental condition, and the contents of the lecture and the pedagogy used in teaching. The set of data was analyzed by conducting qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, in the detailed analysis of the conceptions of culture, the respondents' description of their home country and its culture were closely examined. The results of the study suggest that for the majority of the respondents, one essential success factor is giving an enjoyable, entertaining session to the audience that will consequently arouse its interest in the different culture. There are indications that other important success factors include the aim of promoting students' understanding of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in society and teaching the importance of respecting diversity in a multicultural society. Upon close analysis of the stories collected from the immigrant teacher group, the findings suggest that many of the immigrant teachers are able to offer learner centered activities and encourage interactions and dialog in the classroom. Their superior pedagogical practice can be considered a great asset in terms of conducting intercultural education. The finding also indicates that many of the immigrant teachers are still caught in essentialist view of culture in regard to their perceptions of intercultural education. There is a definite need for immigrant teachers - and also teacher educators - to rethink and advance the discussion on the use of the concept of culture. This research consists of three parts: 1) a co-authored scientific article which is under peer review, 2) another co-authored article on MEBS which is also under peer review and 3) this research summary