Abstract

This paper reports findings yielded by a qualitative study involving 9 former student teachers who translated their teaching abroad experiences in their professional teaching back home in the USA after completing an eight week student teaching in a nontraditional setting abroad. Four themes emerged through van Manen’s (1989) selective highlighting approach and were categorized as (1) impact at personal level, (2) impact at classroom level, (3) impact at school level, and (4) impact at community level. Contrary to claims that students returning from student teaching abroad may find themselves lonely with nobody to share their experiences ( Cushner, 2004), the analysis of the emergent themes revealed a significant overall impact on K-12 audiences and beyond.