Teacher education programs require attention to the rapid changes in the world, in part because populations are becoming increasingly diverse. These rapidly changing classroom environments have prompted a need to train teachers who can communicate with and teach students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. In addition, they must have an understanding of cultural family values and practices which influence individual students among the various ethnic populations they teach. This paper will describe steps taken by one College of Education to create international partnerships and learning experiences in an effort to enhance their teacher training programs and develop an environment of global-mindedness.
Originally published in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, volume 19, issue number 3, 2007, pages 331-335. Available online at: http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE291.pdf. Paper published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.