Intercultural competence in teacher preparation programs in the United States and Canada: A meta-synthesis study

With a growing linguistically and culturally diverse population among our student demographics, it has become a necessity for teachers to create culturally responsive and sustaining classroom environments that can value and leverage students funds of knowledge. Teacher preparation programs are tasked with helping pre-service teachers develop intercultural understanding and competence as a means to aid in preparing them for culturally responsive and sustaining teaching. This meta-synthesis systematic review explores how pre-service teachers enrolled in teacher preparation programs in the United States and Canada progressively develop their intercultural competence skills. The findings highlight a progression of seven stages, across eight studies, that pre-service teachers experience when interacting and working with those that are linguistically and culturally different from themselves. Although many of the pre-service teachers progressed through these stages in study abroad programs, others were able to follow similar progression stages in their local communities, thus pointing to the need of teacher education programs reevaluating a dependency on study abroad programs as mechanisms for intercultural competence development