Professional (re)visions of language teaching for interculturality

Abstract

The profession has generated many theories of intercultural competence as well as curricular models and practical guidelines aimed at cultivating it in modern language classrooms, and yet we do not see significant shifts in classroom practice with regard to intercultural dimensions of language teaching or widespread adoption of innovative curricular models and approaches. To better understand this overall stasis in the face of available alternatives, this chapter introduces the theory of professional vision and its tools for analyzing professional practice. The theory simultaneously supplies the analytic means for examining why desired change in the practice of language education has not transpired while also suggesting paths forward. Specifically, professional vision has inspired an approach to teacher preparation called a core practices pedagogy; examples from the implementation of this approach in one institution are shared to illustrate the potential of the approach and what it might yield in terms of tools for the profession, more meaningful teacher learning and possibly broader scale change.