This book examines continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers in Finland. As one of the best-performing countries in terms of education, the Finnish education system is often revered and held up as an example to follow. However, the authors argue that CPD actually constitutes the Achilles' heel of this 'miraculous' system, demonstrating that in fact it is a victim of contradictory discourses and actions among decision-makers, teacher educators and practitioners. Including extensive interviews from CPD providers, teachers and other educational actors, the authors critically discuss the 'wonders' of Finnish education, in the process debunking various myths created both inside and outside Finland. The authors also call for a new approach to comparative and international education. Based on over 20 years of experience in Finnish education, this pioneering book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of Finnish education, continuing professional development and international education branding more generally.

Chinese ethnic minority education is virtually unknown to readers outside China. Based on extensive qualitative and quantitative data, this book examines the basic education policies for ethnic minorities in China and describes policy implementation. It also discusses successful case studies, restrictive factors, existing gaps and challenges as well as the associated problems, highlighting teacher training and the role of policymakers. The authors propose recommendations to address the challenges faced by Chinese education, and to develop and implement culturally sensitive basic education for ethnic minorities in the country. Offering a rare glimpse inside minority schools in different parts of the country, the book appeals to educators, scholars, decision-makers and anyone interested in diversity education (intercultural, multicultural, global education).

This book deals with the importance of interculturality in teacher education and training. It is mostly through the concept of intercultural competence that interculturality has been constructed and problematized for educators. However, different approaches and paradigms are available and differ and/or share similarities in terms of ideology, method, practice, theoretical frameworks, and ethical considerations. There is no global agreement on the meanings of interculturality in teacher education and training, although some principles might be common across national borders. There is thus a need for educators to consider these aspects of interculturality in education to be able to become better teachers in a diverse world like ours.

This collected volume examines the multifaceted contexts and experiences of Chinese students, teachers and scholars in Australia, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK and the US. It can serve both as an introduction to Chinese people's mobility and migration in Higher Education and as a thorough review for more knowledgeable readers.

This innovative book problematises the internal relationships within and between the intercultural and the political in education. It engages in a critical dialogue with current practices and discourses, and the focus on 'the political' offers an alternative trajectory to explore interculturality within education. Drawing on international research and consolidated with application of top interdisciplinary theories in the field, Dervin and Simpson alert us to the current dangers of treating interculturality loosely in education. The authors engage in a dialogue to encourage readers to examine the meaning of interculturality and the state of research in education today, suggesting that we move beyond merely rehearsing theories, concepts and methods. More importantly they urge researchers, teachers and students to question Western-centric ideologies of interculturality. Intercultural and the Political Within Education is a must read for those who are dissatisfied with current intercultural research and education. It will be of great interest to researchers and students of the philosophy of education and those interested in the contemporary debates concerning ideologies, definitions and ownership of interculturality.

The concept of Third Culture Kids is often used to describe people who have spent their childhood on the move, living in many different countries and languages. This book examines the hype, relevance and myths surrounding the concept while also redefining it within a broader study of transnationality to demonstrate the variety of stories involved.

The concept of culture has long been criticized, with many scholars reformulating it or discarding it entirely. The field of intercultural communication and relations, however, still relies on culture to examine interculturality and this volume provides a comprehensive examination of the problems that the concept poses today.

This volume revisits the notions of Orientalism, Occidentalism and, to a certain extent, Reverse Orientalism/Occidentalism in the 21st century, adopting post-modern, constructionist and potentially non-essentialising approaches. The representations of the 'cultural Other' in education, literature and the arts are examined by scholars working in Australia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA. Vinyl compilations, TV series, novels, institutional discourses and surveys, amongst others, are examined so as to better understand how people construct their identity in relation to an imagined and idealised Other. This book will appeal to all researchers and students interested in cultural identity and stereotypes of the 'East' and the 'West', in particular in the fields of academic mobility, cultural studies, intercultural education, postcolonial literature and media studies.

Takes intercultural research and education to a new level by focusing on how scholars, students and teachers can communicate around the notion Supports the reader in building up their reflexivity and criticality (two essential aspects of working on interculturality) Language and the issue of translation are given a central position in problematizing how to communicate around interculturality Stimulates new thinking on what scholars and educators can do about interculturality as an object of research and education

This book explores the decades-long use of the notion of interculturality in education and other fields, arguing that it is now time to move beyond certain assumptions towards a richer and more realistic understanding of the 'intercultural'. Many concepts such as culture, identity and intercultural competence are discussed and revised. Myths about interculturality are also unpacked and dispelled. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this book proposes a very useful framework to address theoretical and methodological issues related to interculturality. This somewhat provocative book will be of interest to anyone who wrestles with this knotty but central notion of our times.

This volume aims to stimulate interest in the under?researched role of silent partners (SPs) in multicultural education. Silent partners include formal and informal places?spaces in schools (e.g. architecture, classroom facilities, libraries, corridors, playgrounds, canteens), objects (e.g. teaching aids, furniture, wall decorations and overall interior design), interactive technologies (use of devices and applications) but also often taken?for?granted and not immediately visible patterns of thought, ideologies and assumptions. People involved in education all engage and work with a number of SPs that contribute to the delivery of curricula, but also to social life and well?being in and out of schools. The way places?spaces, objects and technologies influence the school community's experiences of learning, well?being and social justice is rarely observed and problematised in education - hence the adjective 'silent' in the term 'silent partners'. This book not only fills a significant empirical gap, but it can also inject public debate over future working environments in schools for multicultural education. It will be relevant to both researchers interested in developing their knowledge on these issues from a different perspective but also educators in search of inspiration for multicultural education.

 This book provides answers to the following questions: How could visual art support us in reflecting about interculturality critically? When we look at, engage with and experience art, what is it that we can learn, unlearn and relearn about interculturality? The book adds to the multifaceted and multidisciplinary field of intercultural communication education by urging those working on the notion of interculturality (researchers, scholars and students) to give art a place in exploring its complexities. No knowledge background about art (theory) is needed to work through the chapters. The book helps us reflect on ourselves and on our engagement with the world and with others, and learn to ask questions about these elements. The authors draw on anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and sociology to enrich their discussions of critical interculturality.

This book explores the concept of intercultural competence, focusing specifically on education. Intercultural competence can vary depending on the field of research or the context of application and has therefore developed over recent decades. As the world becomes increasingly global intercultural competence has become even more important but it is still not practiced satisfactorily. This book highlights views which are at odds with official and orthodox positions on intercultural competence to encourage fresh approaches to intercultural competence. It will be invaluable for researchers, practitioners and students interested in the global possibilities of education.

As the number of international students in Chinese higher education increases steadily, this volume is one of the first to focus on their many and varied experiences. With contributions focusing on such topics as intercultural adaptation, soft power and interculturality, language learning strategies and the intercultural, and transformations in perspective, this volume provides the reader with a broad overview of the latest advances in the field of interculturality and study abroad. While the book will appeal to a global audience of researchers, practitioners and students with an interest in Chinese higher education, it will also be of interest to all those who remain intrigued by conceptual and methodological issues of interculturality.

This book explores, and problematizes, what it means to be 'critical' in education research. Drawing together chapters from diverse global perspectives, this volume aims to stimulate dialogue about possible meanings of criticality in education research. In doing so, they question why criticality has become such an essential part of education, and what researchers expect of it. The book opens up and contests some of the deficiencies of criticality in education research: ultimately it is not a global term, but often creates a false binary between East and West. Offering an alternative trajectory to educational narratives surrounding criticality, this book will be of interest and value to scholars of critical pedagogy and comparative education.

Offering a unique reading experience, this book examines the epistemologies of interculturality and explores potential routes to review and revisit the notion anew. Grounded in different sociocultural, economic and political perspectives around the world, interculturality in education and research bears a paradoxical attribute of 'contradictions' and 'inconsistencies', making it a polysemous and flexible notion that has no definitive diagnosis and requires constant unthinking and rethinking. The author provides a toolbox of 'out-of-box ideas' in the form of fragmental yet standalone writings and follow-up questions concerning stereotypes about the very notion of interculturality and conceptual and methodological flaws in the way it is used. Readers are encouraged to critically reflect about interculturality as it stands today in global research and education. In identifying the paradoxes of interculturality and proposing alternative directions, the book stimulates a diversity of thoughts about the notion that goes beyond the 'West'. The book will be an essential reading for scholars, students and educators interested in education philosophy, applied linguistics and the broad field of intercultural communication education.

This book is unique in presenting new perspectives on how to introduce interculturality to children. It proposes critical ideas for introducing sensitive topics around culture, race and intersectionality. The book develops the reader's criticality and reflexivity, providing original and concrete tools to introduce interculturality to children and to make children aware of how intercultural issues matter in their lives and in the world at large. It includes case studies of children's realities from across the world, and provides insights into how to approach sensitive topics such as culturalism, discrimination, inequality and racism in relation to diversity in different contexts. Written in the spirit of critical interculturality, the book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the field of intercultural studies, global childhood and early childhood education, as well as trainee teachers and educators.

A major objective of this book is to identify the key determinants of the "East" and the "West" in the field of intercultural communication. It examines but also counter-attacks essentialist and culturalist analyses of intercultural communication between China and the rest of the world. Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows two fields of research, which are complementary but rarely found side by side, i.e. the Arts and Intercultural Encounters, serve as illustrations for theoretical and methodological discussions about intercultural communication between China and the West. Scholarly and media discourses will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

This unique book starts from the premise that students, scholars, and educators should be given access to a form of global education that is genuinely global. Using the notion of interculturality as change and exchange as a basis, the authors examine fifty discourse instruments (e.g. idioms, neologisms, slogans) related to what they call 'Chinese stories of interculturality'. China, like other countries, has a rich and complex history of intercultural encounters and her engagement with the notion today, which shares similarities and differences with glocal discourses of interculturality, deserves to be unpacked and familiarized with. By so doing, digging into the intricacies of the Chinese and English languages, the reader is empowered to unthink, rethink and especially reflect on their own take on the important notion of interculturality.

opens up new trajectories withn the conceptual labor in interucltural communication education and research reviews the most fundamental notions in interucltural communication education and research co-written by two scholars from different gepolitical locations providing complex and profound analysis a liberating book in the sense that it invites scholars and students to take the intiative to doubt, engage and critique what has been popularized, asserted and normalized

This book continues the two scholars’ endeavours for opening up more spaces for alternative perspectives, analyses and praxis in interculturality. The main text features fragments that bear relevance to a wide range of topics including education, politics, experiences, social realities, hierarchies, self-critique, language and locus of enunciation. The book takes a step forward by using fragments as an alternative way of doing research and writing scholarship. The premise here is that fragments are human and they reflect our fleeting, inconsistent and unsystematic production of knowledge that today’s scholarship has presented to be linear, structured and aligned. The authors draw on fragments to make their points as forcefully as possible by constructing sentences that destabilize themselves and readers to consider other paths and perspectives. That is, writing otherwise may propel thinking otherwise since the very bases, upon which we force our insights to mould through and by, are shaken and ultimately transcended. The chapters include questions with (temporary) answers as an attempt to induce readers to think for themselves and to move beyond what this book has to offer. The book will be a great read to scholars and students in the field of interculturality, education, and sociology. The authors hope that this book will be seen as a genuine example of breaking away from mainstream writing and thinking conventions about interculturality in communication and education without compromising epistemic depth and nuance.

An up-to-date discussions of interculturality, especially in teaching Adopts critical and reflexive perspectives Presents varied international voices Helps unthink and rethink interculturality for the 21st century

This book examines how the two educational systems of China and the Nordic countries intersect. Over the past decade, there has been increased growth and interaction between China and the Nordic countries due to both government encouragement and academic curiosity. This book rejects a simplistic approach that presents both spaces as culturally uniform, confronting 'East' and 'West' entities, and suggests a comparative and contrastive approach that is critical and reflexive in both theory and methodology. This does not solely concentrate on difference, but emphasises similarities, including studies on philosophical, conceptual and methodological issues. This nuanced edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of Nordic and Chinese education as well as globalisation and interculturality.

China is often seen as a monolith outside its borders. However, heterogeneity and interculturality have characterized the Middle Kingdom for centuries. Today, China's take on diversity is too easily disparaged or perceived as ambiguous - as if China was not legitimate to take part in conversations about it. The authors wish to contribute to global discussions about interculturality in education, which have often been dominated by 'Western' voices, by problematizing a very specific Chinese perspective called Minzu ('ethnic') education. Minzu is presented as a potential companion to other forms of diversity education (multicultural, intercultural, transcultural, cross-cultural, global education). Without claiming that they have found a miraculous and one-size-fits all recipe, they argue that the lessons learnt from researching various aspects of Minzu in Chinese education can also help students, researchers, educators, and decision-makers unthink and rethink the central issue of interculturality. As such the book introduces the complexity, contradictions and benefits of Minzu while helping the reader consider how compatible and complementary it could be with discussions of interculturality in other parts of the world. The book also aims at making readers observe critically their own contexts. This book was written with an open mind and it should be read with the same.

This book critiques models of intercultural competence, whilst suggesting examples of specific alternative approaches that will successfully foster intercultural competence in teacher education. Bringing together diverse perspectives from teacher educators and student teachers, this volume discusses the need to move beyond essentialism, culturalism and assumptions about an us versus them perspective and recognises that multiple identities of an individual are negotiated in interaction with others. Intercultural Competence in the Work of Teachers is divided into four sections: critiquing intercultural competence in teacher education; exploring critical intercultural competences in teacher education; reflexivity and intercultural competence in teacher education; and indigeneity and intercultural competence in teacher education, providing a methodological approach through which to explore this critical framework further. This book is ideal for teacher educators or academics of education specialising in global education who are looking to explore alternative perspectives towards intercultural competence and wish to gain an insight into the ways it can be utilised in a more effective and productive manner.