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Download by: [University of Newcastle, Australia] Date: 14 February 2017, At: 03:32
Teaching Education
ISSN: 1047-6210 (Print) 1470-1286 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cted20
An analysis of the use of autobiographical
narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning
Anne Cloonan, Brandi Fox, Sarah Ohi & Christine Halse
To cite this article: Anne Cloonan, Brandi Fox, Sarah Ohi & Christine Halse (2017) An analysis of
the use of autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning, Teaching Education, 28:2,
131-144, DOI: 10.1080/10476210.2016.1212005
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2016.1212005
Published online: 17 Aug 2016.
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2. Teaching educaTion, 2017
VoL. 28, no. 2, 131–144
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2016.1212005
An analysis of the use of autobiographical narrative for
teachers’intercultural learning
Anne Cloonana
, Brandi Foxa
, Sarah Ohia
and Christine Halseb
a
Faculty of arts and education, School of education, deakin university, Burwood, australia; b
The education
university, hong Kong
ABSTRACT
The currency of intercultural education has risen worldwide in
response to increased diversity within societies resulting from
migration and global flows of populations. As intercultural education
becomes a core responsibility of schooling, critical, detailed analysis
of pedagogies for teachers’ own intercultural learning is largely
absent in education research, in contrast to attention to developing
students’intercultural capabilities and theoretical and policy analyses.
In beginning to address this limitation, this article offers a critical,
reflexive analysis of our use and the efficacy of using autobiographical
narrative for teachers’intercultural learning. Framing theories include
interculturality, autobiographical narratives for teachers’professional
learning, reflexivity, and the effects of silence and silencing in relation
to diversity and intercultural relations in schools. Three instances of
teacher autobiographical narrative elicited as part of a large-scale,
longitudinal study of intercultural education in Australian schools are
deconstructed to elucidate their explicit and hidden meanings and
effects.The analysis reveals that while autobiographical narrative has
productive potential as a strategy for stimulating teacher reflexivity
about cultural identities and intercultural relations, it also contains
hidden dangers and traps that caution against viewing it as a
pedagogical cure-all in the development of teachers’ intercultural
knowledge and skills.
Introduction
A key aim of intercultural education is to develop future generations with capabilities needed
for sustained convivial, harmonious and cohesive relations in increasingly multicultural soci-
eties (Kromidas, 2011; Lavanchy, Gajardo, & Dervin, 2011; Sarmento, 2014).These conditions
have occurred alongside concerns that multiculturalism, as a social and political policy and
set of practices, is vulnerable to asserting essentialised, static notions of culture and cultural
identities that shore-up the power and privilege of majority cultural groups and work against
social cohesion (Brahm Levey, 2012). In contrast, interculturalism has been constituted as
placing a stronger focus on the multiplicity and fluidity of cultures and cultural identities,
the impacts of cultural shifts during moments of cultural exchange with others, and the
© 2016 informa uK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis group
KEYWORDS
intercultural learning;
autobiographical narrative;
teacher reflexivity
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 22 September 2014
accepted 8 July 2016
CONTACT anne cloonan anne.cloonan@deakin.edu.au

3. 132 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
“culture making”that happens through everyday encounters, exchanges and transformations
(Sarmento, 2014).
Scholars have different perspectives on these distinctions (see, for example, the 2011
Special Issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies) and debate continues about the theory
and practice of intercultural education (e.g. Coulby, 2006; Perry & Southwell, 2011; Tupas,
2014). nevertheless, national and international agencies have adopted interculturalism as
a core responsibility of schooling and a strategy for ensuring that“young people have the
intercultural knowledge and skills necessary to halt racism and build inclusive, cohesive
multicultural societies” (Halse, 2015, p. 2). The United nations educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UneSCO), for example, argues that interculturality is a fundamental
capability that all individuals need to acquire through both formal and informal education
systems (UneSCO, 2006, 2013). Thus, education systems, schools and teachers“are respon-
sible for strengthening young people’s cultural identity and values, while also promoting
respect and understanding for the culture of others”(UneSCO, 2010, p. 9).
In response, countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, UK, Austria, Finland,
Ireland, Italy, the netherlands and Slovenia have developed intercultural policies and cur-
ricula for schools to promote cultural knowledge and foster positive relations between dif-
ferent racial, ethnic and religious groups. Australia has followed suit.The national Australian
Curriculum, introduced in 2013, requires all primary and secondary students to acquire
essential intercultural capabilities by“learning about and engaging with diverse cultures in
ways that recognise commonalities and differences, create connections with others and
cultivate mutual respect” (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority
[ACARA], 2016a).
Such curriculum decrees pose challenges for teachers. Inserting intercultural education
into school curriculum documents does not automatically equip teachers with the intercul-
tural knowledge or skills to effectively build students’intercultural capabilities (Walton, Priest,
& Paradies, 2013; Walton et al., 2014). To the contrary, research in north and South America,
europe and Australia has consistently found that, as a group, teachers do not feel they have:
the knowledge or skills to teach culturally diverse students and develop interculturally capa-
ble students (Achinstein & Athanases, 2005; Leeman & Ledoux, 2005; nieto & Bode, 2012;
Pearce, 2012; Santoro, 2009), or the confidence to enable and guide intercultural discussions
in their classrooms (Walton et al., 2013).
These challenges cannot be rectified by merely providing “cultural diversity training”
(Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Kowal & Downing, 2011). Such programmes have been widely
critiqued as susceptible to portraying racial cultural differences in simplistic, limited ways
that solidify stereotypes and reinforce fixed, unchanging notions of culture and cultural
differences (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Kowal & Downing, 2011). In combination, these con-
sequences ignore the cultural practices of the racial, religious and cultural majority; present
minorities as the only groups that“have culture”; accentuate differences between“us”and
“them” and, in doing so, affirm the prejudices and racism that create differential power
relations and inequities in society (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Colvin-Burque, Zugazaga, &
Davis-Maye, 2007; Hollinsworth, 2006). A contrasting argument is that effective intercultural
education requires “deep shifts in consciousness” among teachers “rather than the simple
pragmatic and programmatic shifts that too often are described as intercultural education”
(Gorski, 2008, p. 517). In the absence of such shifts, intercultural education in schools can

4. TeACHInG eDUCATIOn 133
easily be reduced to essentialised content about the “food, flags and festivals” of different
ethnic groups.
One starting point for beginning the shift in consciousness among teachers is through
individual, reflexive work on the self (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Banks, 2011). Such work
typically involves acknowledging how cultural background and experience shape individual
subjectivities and identities, confronting and addressing one’s personal prejudices and rac-
ism, critiquing how these mediate one’s interactions with individual and collective“others”,
and beginning a process of intercultural exchange by sharing this self-knowledge with col-
leagues in the specific cultural context of school.
The logic for such self-work is that “being intercultural means acknowledging that we
belong to a culture and exploring how we are shaped by our culture just as others are shaped
by theirs”(Bredella, 2003a, p. 226). As the UneSCO statement on Intercultural Competencies
(2013) underlines:
Understanding one’s own culture and understanding cultures as human constructions are both
necessary steps in learning to cope [during] intercultural interactions, and usually precede learn-
ing about other peoples, other cultures, other ways of being. (p. 26)
In this article, we examine and critique the use of autobiographical narratives as one possible
approach to intercultural self-work by teachers. Critical, detailed analysis of pedagogies for
teachers’ intercultural learning is largely absent in education research and scholarship, in
contrast to discussion of pedagogies for developing students’intercultural capabilities (e.g.
Greco, Priest, & Paradies, 2010; Kromidas, 2011; Perry & Southwell, 2011; Walton et al., 2013)
and the extensive theoretical and policy literature (e.g. UneSCO, 2006, 2013). As a conse-
quence, Gundara and Portera’s (2008) observation still retains currency:“much of the work
on intercultural education still relies on‘hunches’and attempts to‘do good’rather than being
based on and structured around ethnographic, qualitative or quantitative evidence”(p. 466).
In beginning to address this limitation in teacher professional learning for intercultural
education, this article offers a critical, reflexive analysis of our own application and the effi-
cacy of using autobiographical narrative for teachers’intercultural learning. The telling and
retelling of personal narratives is a powerful strategy for interpreting and re-interpreting
oneself and one’s relations to others (Bruner, 2004). Autobiographical storytelling is also a
key method used in Critical Race Theory to challenge and disrupt dominant narratives of
race, inequality and power relations (see Solorzano &Yosso, 2002).The logic for using auto-
biographical narrative for intercultural learning is that they bring together “a mixture of
evidence and imagination”that works to stimulate individual reflexivity and“to spur people
to act, to strike an emotional chord and to inspire educators to sketch a new society”
(Leonardo, 2013, p. 605).
We have structured our analysis in three parts. Part 1: Background elaborates on the key
theories pertinent to our discussion and analysis, in addition to the concept of interculturality.
These include the use of autobiographical narratives for teachers’professional learning, the
role of reflexivity, and the effects of silence and silencing in relation to racial, ethnic, religious
diversity and intercultural relations in schools. Part 2: Teachers’ autobiographical narratives
describes three occasions when teachers’autobiographical narratives were elicited as part
of their participation in a large-scale, longitudinal study of intercultural education in primary
and secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Part 3: Discussion deconstructs these three
empirical cases to elucidate both their explicit and hidden meanings and effects. Informed
by many of the same concerns of Critical Race theorists, our analysis reveals that

5. 134 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
autobiographical narrative has productive potential as a strategy for starting teachers on a
journey of increasing their reflexivity about cultural identities and intercultural relations, but
that it also contains hidden dangers and traps that caution against viewing it as a pedagog-
ical cure-all in the development of teachers’intercultural knowledge and skills.
Part 1: background
Personal narratives or storytelling are a critical strategy for asserting the experiences and
insights of marginalised individuals and groups, and contribute to the reshaping of dominant
social narratives and countering simplistic, oppressive stereotypes (Leonardo, 2013). Such
narratives have the potential to“build shared understandings, show other possibilities, cast
a light on ethics, enrich imaginations, engage conscience, highlight unjustified exclusion
[and] the need for a re-allocation of power” (Delgado, 1989, pp. 2414–2415). They are also
a strategic approach for building positive intercultural relations because:
Stories are the oldest, most primordial, meeting ground in human experience. Their allure will
often provide the most effective means of overcoming otherness, of forming a new collectivity
based on the shared stories. (Delgado, 1989, p. 2438)
The exploration of personal autobiographical narratives is a widely used and familiar part
of professional learning programmes for teachers (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). These aim
to access teachers’voices (Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996), narratives and life stories (Roberts,
2002) in order to help teachers make explicit and thereby comprehensible the personal–
professional connections, experiences and implicit theories, values and beliefs that underpin
their teaching practice and understandings of their identity as a teacher (Cole & Knowles,
2000).
Reflexivity is integral not only to the construction of teachers’autobiographical narratives,
but also to anti-racism education (Kowal, Franklin, & Paradies, 2013). Reflexivity requires
individuals to reflect on their own background and cultural baggage and the way these
affect their relationships with others (De Jong, 2009). In professional learning contexts, reflex-
ivity has been found to enhance learning about diversity, lead to more flexible behaviours,
increase awareness of one’s own prejudices, and willingness to engage with issues involving
race (see Kowal et al., 2013 for a review).
Byrd Clark and Dervin (2014) argue that there is a need for a“reflexive turn”in intercultural
education (p. 2). While recognising that there are different degrees of reflexivity and that
reflexivity is a process that cannot be understood outside of our own interactional, social
and historical experiences (p. 4), they argue that reflexivity in intercultural education involves
three overlapping or interconnected dimensions. First, an awareness of one’s own position-
ings and subjectivities or what can be described as“a turning back on oneself; a process of
self-reference”(Aull Davies, 1999, p. 4). Second, a criticality of macro issues and their effects
on social orders through attunement to unequal power relations between dominant and
marginalised groups.Third, hyper-reflexivity or an attentive foregrounding of personal biog-
raphies and subjectivities as socially located people through collaboration, and interaction
with others as we “perform the social, embrace our vulnerabilities and bring … dilemmas
to the forefront”(Byrd Clark & Dervin, 2014, p. 26).
In our study we sought to bring together these related theoretical insights about the
value of autobiographical narrative and reflexivity in relation to teachers’ intercultural

6. TeACHInG eDUCATIOn 135
learning. In tackling this task we were cognisant of the importance of considering not only
the narratives articulated by teachers but also the unintended effects of these and what was
left unspoken and is silenced. In educational settings, silence speaks (Mazzei, 2008). This is
because the silences and acts of silencing that surround issues of race, ethnic diversity and
intercultural relations can“create and perpetuate an educational culture in which inequities
are ignored, the status quo is maintained, and Whiteness is both protected and silenced”
(Castagno, 2008, p. 314).
Silencing can involve colourmuteness or the deliberate non-recognition and erasure of
race and ethnicity that perpetuates racial inequalities (Pollock, 2009) by reinforcing, natu-
ralising and maintaining White cultural dominance (Frankenberg, 1993). Such silencing is
often most powerful in terms of the structural and social norms that contribute to the
race-thinking and racist practices that are rendered invisible because they are embedded
in the daily interactions, communications and exchanges between individuals and in the
operation of the social, economic and political structures of society (Halse, 2015, p. 2). For
these reasons, the discussion of our data attends to the invocation of critical race theorists
and Whiteness scholars to make transparent and interrogate the “silences” entangled in
teachers’autobiographical narratives (e.g. Arber, 2008; Castagno, 2008; Fine, Powell,Weis, &
Wong, 1997).
Part 2: teachers’autobiographical narratives
Our data are drawn from field-notes, observations and audio-recordings of the autobio-
graphical narratives and consequent discussions with teachers from 12 partner schools (six
primary and six secondary) in our larger study on intercultural education. The purpose of
the larger study was to identify factors that facilitated and impeded the development of
intercultural capabilities and positive intercultural relations among students and teachers
in primary and secondary school (Halse et al., 2016).
The partner schools comprised a maximum variation sample of schools in Melbourne,
Victoria, in terms of geographical location, school type, size, ethnic profile of the students,
languages spoken and socio-economic status. The demographic profile of the teachers
aligned with national patterns, with the overwhelming majority of teachers being middle
class and female. Most secondary school teachers were in their early 40s but primary school
teachers were more likely to be female and younger (ACeR, 2014; Weldon, 2015).
Data were collected on three occasions and in three different settings: a professional
learning workshop at our university for teachers who were leading the intercultural project
in their school; and two separate teacher meetings at two different primary schools: Fraser
Hills1
and Dalmorning. Fraser Hills Primary is an independent Catholic school with 600 stu-
dents in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Most students are of South Asia or Pacific Island
backgrounds and 80% speak languages other than english at home. Socio-economically,
19% of families are in the bottom income quartile and 20% are in the top income quartile
for Victoria. In contrast, Dalmorning Primary is a government primary school close to the
city centre. More than half (59%) of the school’s 500 students speak languages other than
english at home; the majority are first or second-generation migrants from countries in the
Horn of Africa; 20% of families in the school have incomes in the bottom quartile forVictoria
while 37% have incomes in the top quartile.2

7. 136 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
Autobiographical narratives at the university
In the first year of the study a professional learning day was held at the university for teachers
who were leading the intercultural project in their schools. One workshop activity, entitled
“Who am I?” engaged teachers in an activity designed to encourage them to reflexively
interrogate and share an autobiographical narrative about their own ethnic, religious and
cultural background and how this shaped their lives and relations with others. Two factors
influenced our decision to use this activity. First, Australia is a colonial settler society and
one of the most world’s most multicultural nations; the Indigenous peoples (>4% of the
population) are the only non-migrants and 50% of its current citizens were either born
overseas or have a parent born overseas. Second, the focus upon identity of the“Who am I”
activity is a long-established and familiar part of the primary school humanities and social
science curriculum (ACARA, 2016b). In this respect, therefore, we were engaging teachers
in an activity that many already used with their students in their teaching as part of the
formal school curriculum.
To set up the activity we invited teachers to use a personal artefact or item that they had
with them, such as a piece of jewellery or digital photo, as a springboard for recounting their
own cultural autobiography.The activity was modelled to demonstrate how teachers could
share personal stories in a respectful, safe environment with their colleagues, and teachers
responded with interest, based on the ensuring smiles, sighs, nodding heads and applause.
Teachers were then invited to share their own autobiographical narratives. In doing so, most
teachers chose a physical marker of cultural difference, such as appearance, language, jew-
ellery, clothing or diet, as the starting point for their autobiographical story. For example:
My coloring is fair; probably from my Anglo-Celtic background – although I’m the fifth generation
of my family to have lived in Australia – it’s very obvious because I blush and sunburn easily.
Others focused on language as a cultural identifier and the challenges of living in a society
where mastery and proficiency in english was expected.
I was born in Greece. I migrated to Australia in the early 60s when I was three years old with my
parents and little brother I have a second language.Well I guess english is my second language.
My first language is Greek and I speak it adequately but could be better. Mum spoke mostly
Greek but was able to communicate in english and Dad is now able to speak english and Greek.
Others identified a diverse mix of factors as integral to their cultural identity including eth-
nicity, language, country of education and residence, diet and professional identity.
My father is German; my mother is Japanese. I was schooled inTaiwan then came to Australia to
attend Uni. I’m something of both but I was brought up in Australia.We speak three languages,
and have an interesting diet. My husband is from Australia and I have settled here now, although
I visit my family in Japan regularly or they visit me here. I can teach both German and Japanese
languages.
In contrast to those teachers who were relatively recent migrants, a recurrent theme among
those whose families had lived in Australia for several generations was that they were
“Australian”and this meant they lacked a cultural identity.
All these stories are so interesting. But I’m not sure what to say. I’m not very interesting. My
family came here after the Second World War but we’re not really Italian anymore. I don’t speak
Italian and neither do my children. We are Australian.
One teacher attempted to tackle the tricky question of what defined“being Australian”.
I’m Australian, so is it the beach, barbeques and football?

8. TeACHInG eDUCATIOn 137
The other teachers found this effort unsatisfactory and challenged the teacher to think more
deeply about the intersections of race, culture and identity in his life and that of his family.
After prompting and reflection, the teacher offered a fuller response about the intercultural
complexity in his life, including the ethnic diversity within his family and how this plays out
in their interests in different forms of football.
My grandfather played Gaelic football. But my wife is Persian and my children have that heritage
as well so it comes out in our food and some things we do as a family. Football means a number
of things to us. For me it was always Aussie Rules but my sons play soccer – theWorld Game.We
compare the differences in the games and try to come to a shared appreciation.
A professional learning day at Fraser Hills primary
The second use of autobiographical narrative occurred spontaneously during a professional
learning day at Fraser Hills primary school when one of the participants in the university
workshop modelled the autobiographical narrative activity,“Who am I?”to colleagues. As a
group, the staff decided the activity could be a productive individual and collective starting
point in their development of an intercultural education programme for their school.
Despite the fact that the teachers had worked together for many years, the activity gave
them new knowledge and insights into the personal histories, cultural backgrounds and
identities of their colleagues. As teachers shared their individual narratives, listeners
responded with laughter, tears, comforting intermittent sighs, and supportive smiles that
helped create a cohesive“collectivity based on the shared stories”(Delgado, 1989, p. 2438):
“I never knew that about you, I’m so glad that you told us”;“Wow, that sounds similar to what
happened to my family/friends”; “I know how you feel, that happened to me when I was
younger”. On hearing their colleagues’narratives, many teachers were prompted to reflexively
reconsider their own cultural histories, identities and experiences of racism.
I never thought about that until I heard you speak of it today, and then it led me to reflect on
how those aspects affected my own life. For example, my age during migration, being the older
sibling, my english language proficiency, the racism I faced as a child …
For the school principal, such responses affirmed the interconnectedness between teachers’
autobiographies and the school’s agenda to work together to build interculturality.
now that our staff has greater clarity about their own identities, they’ll be able to begin working
together more effectively as a team. They’ve always respected one another as people, but this
was much deeper. They now have a more nuanced understanding of one another and they’re
ready to move forward and start getting to know our students in this way.
An intercultural understanding committee meeting at Dalmorning primary school
The third instance also occurred spontaneously during a meeting of the Intercultural
Understanding Committee of Dalmorning primary school.The purpose of the meeting was
to plan an evening event for the school community showcasing students’artwork.The com-
mittee was anxious to engage families who rarely attended activities held out of school
hours. Many ideas were proposed, including a multicultural fashion parade of traditional,
ethnic dress. Some teachers thought this might help involve migrant families in the event;
others wondered if it was an overused idea in schools. One teacher, however, challenged
the idea of a multicultural fashion parade on the grounds that it presented a static, superficial,

9. 138 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
essentialised view of ethnic differences that was contrary to the school’s agenda to build
intercultural dialogue. When challenged, the teacher used the“Who am I?”activity to illus-
trate the problems she saw as inherent to the idea of a multicultural fashion parade. After
reiterating her own autobiographical narrative presented during the earlier university work-
shop, she invited others to discuss what they were wearing, the cultural influences on their
choices of clothing, and how these reflected the nuanced differences in their personal and
cultural histories and identities.The activity gave voice to the diversity within the Committee.
I’m from the Victorian surf coast. My whole wardrobe is from surf outlets. I wear clothes that
are comfortable and remind me of where I came from – of the sea. I wear my grandmother’s
claddaugh ring; it reminds me of my Irish background. And I wear a cross around my neck; my
godparents gave it to me on my Communion.
I am a Melbourne woman so it’s black, black, black for me. I think it links to new York and Paris
inspired fashion – Coco Chanel and clean uncluttered, sophisticated lines. Plus it goes with
everything. And I used to be a dancer; so I like wearing flats [shoes] and leotard-type tops.
The exchange led teachers into a discursive discussion of the influences on clothing choice,
including cultural background, place and occasion, family and friends, interests and affilia-
tions, and religion. Specifically, it bought into focus the potentially essentialising conse-
quences of a multicultural fashion parade of traditional ethnic clothing, and the unlikelihood
that such an activity could include the full range of racial, ethnic and religious diversity in
the school. In the light of this thinking, the Committee abandoned their idea of multicultural
fashion parade. Instead they decided to focus on“everyday clothing”but to use an approach
that would avoid objectifying students.They opted to modify and extend the autobiograph-
ical narrative activity by developing short, filmed interviews with other teachers in the school
and inviting them to respond to the question:“Why do you wear what you wear?”The film-
clips were presented as an installation during community event. Reflecting on the process
and decision of the Committee, one teacher commented:
If we had held a fashion parade of traditional dress, we would have been representing others
in quite stereotypical ways.Teaching about others. Instead I have realised that we need to start
with ourselves, to think deeply about who we are – sometimes quite obvious things like what we
wear. Then we need to think broadly about real cultural practices of others rather than melting
them down to stereotypes. This is a challenge for our teaching.
Part 3: discussion
Our aim in using autobiographical narrative or“stories of self”for intercultural learning was
to move beyond simplistic programmes of intercultural training designed to support inter-
actions with “special” groups such as “migrants, Arabs, Chinese, Asians, Africans, etc.” that
pervades much of what is described as intercultural education (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006, p.
477); Our purpose was underpinned by recognition of the empirical and theoretical evidence
that:
… understanding of other people requires that one work on oneself in order to avoid lapsing
into a projection and a game of mirrors or into a form of experimental tautology, where the
teacher, consciously or otherwise, simply reproduces what already exists. (Abdallah-Pretceille,
2006, p. 477. See also Gorski, 2008; Banks, 2011)
The readiness with which teachers responded to and spontaneously repeated the autobio-
graphical narrative activity in their schools testifies that they considered it as an accessible,

10. TeACHInG eDUCATIOn 139
doable strategy for working productively with colleagues. Such favourable responses do
not necessarily mean that the strategy was effective for intercultural learning, just as reflex-
ivity on self-identity alone does not produce intercultural understanding (Kowal et al., 2013).
nevertheless, the examples we present demonstrate the potential of autobiographical nar-
rative for building teachers’intercultural learning. Hearing others share details about their
lives stimulated several listeners to rethink and revise both their interpretations of their own
identities, as in the case of the“Australian”teacher at the university workshop, and familiar,
normalised curriculum practices, such as the multicultural fashion parade at Dalmorning.
Because teachers’ sharing of their autobiographical narratives provided a catalyst for
surfacing and communicating insights into the diverse cultural identities among participat-
ing teachers, the activity worked to elucidate facets of teachers’personal/professional lives
that are usually unrecognised and unacknowledged, silent and silenced. It also provided an
opportunity for teachers to ask questions or make observations about colleagues’ experi-
ences of their ethnic identity and living in multicultural Australia. In this respect, the sharing
of autobiographical narratives increased teachers’knowledge and consciousness by making
ethnic and cultural differences knowable and known, while also acknowledging and affirm-
ing the value of the personal cultural histories that impact on teachers’lives in different ways.
Giving voice to what is normally silenced not only makes culture diversity visible but is
productive and necessary for teachers in understanding the families and communities they
work with (Goldstein, 2014) and being effective intercultural educators of students (Bredella,
2003a, 2003b). In these ways, teachers’ self-work in articulating and sharing their autobio-
graphical narratives carries the potential to strengthen intercultural dialogue and cohesion
in school communities. As one Dalmorning teacher observed,
I have worked with these people, seen them every day, but not known about their backgrounds.
It was great to realise the diversity of our staff, of who we have right here in this school and the
resources we can call upon.
Articulating and sharing autobiographical narratives of cultural identities and affiliations
can also be an effective catalyst for engaging teachers in questioning and rethinking com-
monplace practices in schools, as the Dalmorning Committee’s discussion of the multicultural
fashion parade revealed. It can be an entry point for stimulating teachers to see and revise
their pedagogical practices in ways that are more sensitive to the power dynamics teachers/
students and minority/majority ethnic groups in schools.
nevertheless, the dialogue during the university workshop and during the Dalmorning
Committee meeting showed how readily discussions of cultural identities can be reduced
to material signifiers of physical racial, religious and cultural differences between groups,
such as different coloured hair, eyes and skin, dress and food. In part, this may have been
influenced by our initial suggestion to use an artefact as a starting point for teachers’narra-
tives, even though our intention was to make the disclosure inherent to the activity easier
and more comfortable for teachers. nevertheless, unless the limitations of such signifiers
are acknowledged, they can carry the potential to essentialise, exotise and“other”minority
ethnic groups in ways that stereotype and entrench racism and prejudice. Moreover, what
is silenced by any intentional or unintentional emphasis on physical, material signifiers is a
more complex, nuanced engagement with culture and intercultural relations as “a way of
being, relating, behaving, believing and acting which people live out in their lives and which
is in a constant process of change and exchange with other cultures”(UneSCO, 2009, p. 9)
that underpins intercultural education policy and curricula in schools.

11. 140 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
Teachers whose families had been in Australia for many generations, or who identified
as Anglo-Australian, found narrating their personal cultural identity challenging.This reflects
how deeply notions that only identifiable minority groups “have culture” are embedded,
even among interculturally, well-intentioned teachers. Such notions paper over and silence
the raced identity of the (predominatelyWhite) cultural majority. One positive consequence
of the autobiographical narrative activity is that it provided a context in which teachers were
challenged to actively engage with the idea of Whiteness as a culture (Fine et al., 1997).
Further, hearing the narratives of teachers who were second and third-generation migrants
alerted teachers to the fact that ethnic and cultural identities affiliations are not fixed, but
are fluid and change over time as a consequence of immersion in different social contexts.
Despite these productive consequences, our experience of using autobiographic narrative
for intercultural learning alerted us to the limitations of this activity for teachers’intercultural
learning. The professional contexts (a university workshop and school staff meetings), in
which the activity was conducted may also have constrained the sorts of disclosures made
by teachers and even encouraged performative representations that focused on their per-
sonal histories but avoided confronting the more difficult matters of how this mediated their
attitudes, beliefs and relations with cultural“others”(see e.g. Halse, 2006).
Although a number of teachers talked about their personal experience of racism and its
impact on their lives, the contexts and time constraints in which the activity was conducted
meant that although participants reflected on and shared their autobiographical narratives,
they did not necessarily voice or confront how their personal histories shaped their attitudes,
beliefs, prejudices or practices. They did not necessarily consider how, intentionally and
unintentionally, personal histories worked to discriminate or privilege individuals or groups
based on their racial, ethnic, cultural or religious identity, and thereby perpetuated social
inequities and privileges. Similarly, while a number of teachers compared their histories with
others, this was a serendipitous rather than structured occurrence, even though deep under-
standings of the nuances of both one’s own culture and those of other cultures and“ques-
tioning one’s identity in relation to others is an integral part of the intercultural approach”
(Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006, p. 476). As a consequence, the way the activity was structured
and taken up incompletely encompassed the three dimensions of reflexive intercultural
education identified by Byrd Clark and Dervin (2014): an awareness of one’s own positionings
and subjectivities; a criticality of macro issues and their effects on social orders; and a
hyper-reflexivity about personal biographies as socially located.
In addition to these limitations there is always risk with any intercultural professional
learning that participants will equate participation with an automatic increase in intercultural
knowledge, skills and capacities. To the contrary, research indicates that short-term or one-
off professional learning may increase teachers’knowledge but fails to promote respect for
cultural diversity, positive attitudes or behaviour, or provide teachers with the skills to work
with diverse students (Cotton, 1993; Greco et al., 2010; Macnaughton & Hughes, 2007). For
these reasons, research indicates the importance of a multi-level, multi-method approach
to teachers’intercultural learning (Halse et al., 2016). Autobiographical narrative, therefore,
ought only be one part of a larger, long-term programme of personal and professional
intercultural learning and growth.

12. TeACHInG eDUCATIOn 141
Conclusion
Teachers in schools have an important role in designing opportunities for students to par-
ticipate in stimulating cultural exchange within respectful dialogic spaces. By critically reflect-
ing on their own cultural identities teachers are in a stronger position to instigate and engage
in self-revelatory reciprocal exchange with colleagues in their school contexts and in their
work with students (Cloonan, O’Mara, & Ohi, 2014). Sharing is a critical part of intercultural
exchange. Teachers’ sharing of autobiographical narratives about their cultural identities
proved a valued and valuable starting point for illuminating and building understandings
of the (often silenced) cultural complexity and diversity in schools. In these ways, autobio-
graphical narratives about teachers’ personal and ethic identities provided the sort of
exchange that is central to intercultural education (Byrd Clark & Dervin, 2014). As one teacher
reflected,
If we are going to engage students in discussion of their cultures, we need to lead by example,
to move from just teaching about others to a situation where we are also talking about our-
selves in all our richness. We need to build in more of that kind of talk. It’s something that gets
overlooked in the busyness of school life.
nevertheless, our analysis highlights some of the constraints and limitations that accompany
the use of autobiographical narrative for teachers’intercultural learning. Some of these issues
might be resolved by providing more time and structure for the activity. However, teachers’
narratives also revealed the deep embeddedness of simplistic understandings of racial, eth-
nic, cultural and religious diversity, even among interculturally well-intentioned teachers.
This phenomenon underlines that autobiographical narratives ought only be used as one
part of a larger, coherent programme for building intercultural knowledge, interactions and
cultural exchanges.
Notes
1. School names are pseudonyms.
2. Figures from the Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage (ICSeA) reported on the
MySchool website: myschool.edu.au. This is a national, public website that provides detailed
demographic and performance data on each school in Australia.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project Scheme [LP120200319]
with partners including the Department of education and early Childhood Development Victoria,
Together for Humanity, theVictorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, and PukunuiTechnology.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the teachers and students from the par-
ticipating schools and Catherine Hartung, Fethi Mansouri and Yin Paradies for their comments on an
early version of this paper.
Disclosure statement
neither the authors nor their employers have any financial interest in or a financial conflict with the
subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript.

13. 142 A. CLOOnAn eT AL.
Funding
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project Scheme [LP120200319]
with partners including the Department of education and early Childhood Development Victoria,
Together for Humanity, theVictorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, and PukunuiTechnology.
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