Intercultural Teacher Education in International Policy Context: Challenges and Opportunities

Intercultural education has been a longstanding challenge for teachers’ professional development, as significant difficulties are encountered in attempts to integrate it into curricula, reduce prejudices, and strengthen school culture and social structures. This study aims to highlight the main points of international organizations’ documents on intercultural teacher education by applying a qualitative methodology. The methodology was mainly based on literature review of both primary (international organizations’ documents) and secondary sources (relevant academic papers) by following the research method of inductive thematic analysis. The data collected concerned the teaching methods and approaches in which teachers need to be trained in order to implement intercultural education effectively; the intercultural mindset and skillset that teachers should acquire through their education and training; the values of intercultural education that teachers are expected to cultivate through their intercultural training; the challenges that arise in the process of teachers’ professional development in intercultural education; examples of successful training programmes, and finally the role of school leadership in strengthening teachers’ intercultural education.