Do the students at both schools learn anything particular because of that diversity?
While the students may have certain assumptions about people from different cultures, they’re able to find out that, in reality, there are far more things they have in common — far more things that concern them or that they want to learn about in the teaching and learning process that they share with other prospective teachers from around the world. They find that the commonalties are very powerful. And while I could report that to them in class, it’s much more powerful when they discover it themselves through direct conversations with other students. And so they find that they change their perspectives. It’s been very, very clear to me they have a newfound understanding, and they’re less likely to make generalizations about teaching and learning for students that are different from themselves.
