CULTIVATING COMPETENCES FOR DEMOCRATIC CULTURE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL EXCHANGE AMONG THAI AND JAPANESE PRE-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS
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Abstract
As the classrooms become culturally and linguistically diverse, teacher education programs are required to provide future teachers with appropriate competences to effectively interact across cultures. One such pedagogical practice is virtual exchange, which may be used as a tool for the development of intercultural and democratic competences of the learners through online cooperation between people coming from different cultural backgrounds. This research aimed at examining the effectiveness of virtual exchange in building competences for democratic culture (CDC) of Thai and Japanese pre-service EFL teachers. The research focused on the identification of competences which are being developed through virtual exchange; examination of the factors which facilitate such development; as well as on exploring the areas where improvement is still needed. The sample consisted of 22 pre-service teachers from Thailand and Japan collaborating online to create an ideal school. The participants filled out the CDC questionnaire before and after seven collaborative sessions, made a group video presentation, provided reflection sheets, and participated in semi-structured interviews (n=22). Questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while data from reflection sheets and interviews were examined through content analysis based on the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The findings revealed significant improvements in knowledge and critical understanding of language and communication (M = 3.46, SD = 0.63, t = 12.84, p < .001, d = 2.737), followed by linguistic, communicative, and plurilingual skills (M = 2.81, SD = 0.72, t = 11.01, p < .001, d = 2.348), and openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views, and practices (M = 2.12, SD = 1.03, t = 5.79, p < .001, d = 1.233). However, improvements in critical and civic competences remained limited. The effectiveness of virtual exchange depended largely on thoughtful pedagogical design that balanced collaboration with criticality, and interaction with reflection. Furthermore, virtual exchange can help develop pre-service teachers to be globally aware and prepare to address the challenges of diverse and multicultural classrooms in the future.
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