Exploring student teachers’ experiences of engaging in Hands of the World, a contextualised global intercultural eTwinning project

This paper considers the impact of student teachers’ participation and engagement in the award-winning eTwinning international Hands of the World (HOTW) project which connects over 2000 students and their teachers in 50 schools across the world. Students participated in a wide range of educational collaborative experiences, before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, to develop their knowledge and understanding of intercultural education. Student teachers live and work in an interconnected and intercultural world and having a knowledge of how to embed diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness into their practice is important to ensure that their pupils develop a positive intercultural mindset. An explanatory design analysed students’ end of year reflections on participating in the project, which were publicly available on the project’s Padlet™ page. Data were analysed thematically focusing on participation and derived benefits. The findings revealed a continuum of engagement with some students participating at a lower level, where they would observe and question, whilst others had a higher level of engagement engaging in the activities and/or applying the project to practice. Our analysis enabled us to identify that although there were various barriers to participation, the design of the project enabled students to engage at various levels with a higher level of engagement evidenced during the COVID-19 lockdown. Our findings suggest that effective intercultural learning in teacher education requires a range of intercultural opportunities that can be accessed at a variety of levels and at different times throughout the year to provide a rich learning experience.