International student teachers as intercultural experts?

Education should give pupils an understanding of the surroundings one lives in and provide tools for critical reflection and understanding of others (e.g. Sobre, 2017; Hernández-Bravo, Cardona-Moltób, & Hernández-Bravo, 2017). According to the aims of intercultural education, this can be done by taking the diversity of pupils’ linguistic, religious, and other backgrounds into account in teaching and by supporting pupils’ engagement in the local community and global world (Davis, Phyak, & Bui, 2012). The concept of culture is used in critical intercultural studies to describe a combination of various sets of values, worldviews and habits that change over time (Dervin, 2011). Like all social identities, cultural identities are created in certain contexts and they can have a strong impact on people’s lives (Davis, Phyak, & Bui, 2012). Furthermore, these identities are also ‘fluid’ (Bradatan, Popan, & Melton, 2010, p. 176) by nature and uniquely perceived by each individual (Dervin, Paatela-Nieminen, Kuoppala, & Riitaoja, 2012).