Learning to Teach Failing Pupils in Europe: the experience of a group of American students

Abstract

Shared global concerns in education have recently focused on underachievement and the difficulties associated with the education of the children of migrant labour. These priorities unite the communities of Europe and the United States in a growing unease that a large number of young people are not realising their academic potential through failing at school and, in consequence are becoming excluded from mainstream society. The Children at Risk in Education (CARE) project was focused on the professional development of fifty three student teachers who worked in Europe and the United States as an integral part of their undergraduate programmes in an attempt to learn how to address underachievement in a global context. This paper analyses the professional development of twenty seven of those students, the American student teachers who studied in Europe for a period of one semester. The paper considers the professional development of the student teachers in the context of three theoretical...