Love in a “Glocal” World: Living and Learning to Teach Through Study Abroad

This article explores how love informed by thinking and feeling within the context of a unique and cutting edge study abroad professional development program in Concepción Chile for preservice teachers might serve as an antidote to the challenges that engaging in culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) present. The article draws upon rich qualitative data, along with some descriptive statistical information, from a longitudinal study of this program to highlight the potential for a love-informed thinking-feeling pedagogy. Through sharing stakeholder participant data, the authors examine how the experience of being othered, particularly in a study abroad context, may provide an opportunity for preservice teachers to better understand students from diverse backgrounds and may offer lessons while doing this work that might be applied to a variety of contexts. The authors also provide a framework drawing upon the ideas that communication matters, challenging is important, intensive 360-degree processing and support facilitates growth, and service-learning teaches to chart out pathways for educators interested in change beyond study abroad programs.