| As the lives of citizens around the world become more globalized, the need intensifies to examine the learning process that is negotiated when an individual crosses borders. The borders we cross may be external, physical ones, but more significantly, as human interaction is sustained, they take the form of cognitive and internal transformations.;The need is urgent in U.S. public schools where the teaching cohort is predominantly White and monolingual while the student population is increasing in cultural and linguistic diversity. In a teacher education program, how do teacher-learners transform their monolingual and first culture life experience to move towards some degree of intercultural competence? What specific teacher education practices can move teacher-learners towards 'political clarity' and help them to analyze assumptions that are subsumed in our views towards the educational system This study investigates the cognitive activity of intercultural development as novice ESL teachers become border-crossers in a TESL preparation program which includes a short-term immersion experience in a Spanish/Quichua-speaking community in Ecuador.;Using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as a theoretical framework, the study theorizes the complex web of interaction that unfolds as teachers negotiate a new culture, language(s) and ESL teaching practice. CHAT views human action as deriving equally from agency (the power to act and make deliberate choices, rather than be guided by the context) and structure (social and material) and in this way highlights the relations between micro-interactional activity and macro-social structures. Significantly, the study illustrates how a short-term cultural and linguistic immersion experience brings up tensions surrounding home, university and school-based ideologies, and most importantly, how teachers respond to contradictions, resulting in far-reaching transformations to their social identities and teaching practices.;Qualitative data from participant journals, interviews, classroom observations, and ethnographic observation offer a holistic view of teachers as they interact over a one year period. This study fills a gap in the existing literature to advance understanding of mechanisms that variably promote or constrain teacher learning about culturally responsive instructional practices in public schools. |
