Professional learning: Sharing intercultural perspectives through virtual connections

Abstract

Internationalising the curriculum in higher education offers cultural insights and exchanges to live and work in a changing and connected world. The authors are tertiary music educators working in three different countries (Australia, Spain, and the United States of America). Though geographically dispersed yet virtually connected, they delivered a series of five music professional learning workshops to Bachelor of Primary Education students at a university in Spain (March 2021-April 2021). They draw on narrative reflections and student voices to discuss intercultural perspectives of teaching and learning using the 5P model of professional development. The authors use thematic analysis to code and analyse the data discussing two overarching themes: collaborative professional learning and professional sharing. The authors contend that cultivating collaborative initiatives through virtual platforms can purposefully contribute to intercultural communication where ideas, knowledge, skills, and pedagogies are shared. While this paper focuses on one group of students, a limitation in itself, recommendations are offered that can be adapted and adopted across other learning areas. The implications indicate that further research is needed to assess whether intercultural teaching from cross-cultural and culture-specific perspectives stimulates sociocultural learning and growth for teachers and students for whom English is an additional language.