“The Learning Process Is Mutual”: Connecting Student Teachers and In-Service Teachers in Intercultural Virtual Exchange

Abstract

This article reports on a case study where students of Initial Teacher Education in Spain and Germany collaborated with in-service teachers from around Europe on the theme of Foreign Language materials development. It examines to what extent engagement in this model of virtual exchange contributes to student teachers’ and in-service teachers’ intercultural and didactic competence development. The study also explores how students’ perspectives on teaching foreign languages and their future profession change through collaboration with in-service teachers and how the student teachers’ and in-service teachers’ roles unfold in this type of collaboration. It is based on a qualitative content analysis of focus-group interviews, learning portfolios, recordings of online meetings, and questionnaires with open-ended questions. The findings indicate that this type of collaboration can reduce the gap between theory and practice: through the classroom experiences of in-service teachers, student teachers gain intercultural, professional knowledge and motivation, while in-service teachers gain knowledge about recent methodologies and technology through the alternative perspective of student teachers. We use the findings of our study to make recommendations on how other teacher trainers can use this Virtual Exchange model in the classroom.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role of online collaboration and exchange in teacher education more than ever before. Throughout the two years of lockdown and restricted mobility, digital networks and platforms allowed both in-service and student teachers to maintain communication with colleagues, establish professional connections, and participate in professional development initiatives. Indeed, some scholars have regarded the pandemic’s impact as a catalyst for innovation and advancement in teacher education. Considering the potential of online professional communities to mitigate teacher isolation during the COVID era, Knight (2020) remarks, “[t]he impetus for online collaboration has perhaps never been greater than it is now during the COVID-19 pandemic. …particularly in the case of world language education, it also poses an opportunity to replenish a weak professional development infrastructure” (p. 303).

Prior to the pandemic, teachers were already extensively utilising online networks to facilitate collaborative endeavours. Scholarly investigations have established that platforms and networks, including eTwinning, School Education Gateway and Scientix, coupled with dedicated teacher communities on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, have enabled practitioners to surmount professional isolation (Chen et al. 2009). These networks have additionally facilitated the exploration and dissemination of innovative pedagogical approaches and educational technologies (Lantz-Andersson et al. 2018) while fostering intercultural dialogue and the establishment of collaborative partnerships with colleagues from varied cultural contexts (O’Dowd and Dooly 2022).

Initial Teacher Education students have likewise participated in online learning communities through Virtual Exchange programmes, which facilitate connections with partner classes internationally. Virtual Exchange is conceptualised as “the numerous online learning initiatives and methodologies which engage learners in sustained online collaborative learning and interaction with partners from different countries and cultural backgrounds as part of their study programmes and under the guidance of teachers or trained facilitators” (O’Dowd 2023, p. 11). This pedagogical approach has been extensively implemented in pre-service teacher education programmes to enhance students’ foreign language and digital competencies while developing aspects of intercultural citizenship (Carloni and Zuccala 2018; EVALUATE Group 2019; Dooly and Sadler 2020). Moreover, it provides students with a direct experience of online collaboration in educational settings, with the anticipation that they will subsequently implement similar projects in their future teaching practice (Grau and Turula 2019; Kurek and Müller-Hartmann 2019).

Notwithstanding the increasing attention given to online collaborative communities for both professional development and Initial Teacher Education, there remains a paucity of initiatives aimed at uniting cohorts of in-service teachers and student teachers in collaborative endeavours. This gap is particularly noteworthy, given the potential advantages such initiatives might afford both groups. Student teachers could gain invaluable insights into authentic classroom experiences, thereby strengthening the connection between school-based practice and theoretical university coursework—an aspect of Initial Teacher Education that traditionally presents significant challenges (Ulvik et al. 2021). Correspondingly, in-service teachers have the opportunity to share their classroom challenges whilst receiving feedback and support from an engaged cohort of students who possess knowledge of contemporary methodological developments.

In order to explore the learning outcomes of such an approach, this paper reports on a case study involving two classes of students of foreign language Initial Teacher Education in Germany and Spain that were brought together in online collaboration with in-service teachers of foreign languages from across Europe. Grounded in a sociocultural approach to teacher education, this study sets out to establish how engagement in this model of Virtual Exchange contributes to student teachers’ and in-service teachers’ intercultural and didactic competence development. It additionally focuses on how the experience of collaborating with in-service teachers influenced students’ perspectives on teaching foreign languages and their future profession. As the coordinators of this Virtual Exchange, we conclude by reflecting on the value of this model and by outlining principles of good practice for other teacher trainers who may be interested in setting up similar initiatives.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Sociocultural Approaches to Teacher Education

The rationale for this study, i.e., bringing student teachers and in-service teachers in online collaboration together around educational issues, is based on a sociocultural approach to teacher education and the idea that reflective processes are essential for teacher development. As Johnson’s approach (Freeman and Johnson 1998; Johnson 2009) exemplifies this sociocultural perspective, it will serve as a basis for this study. She proposes that the process of learning to teach is much more than learning about new methods or techniques (Johnson 2009). It is rather a long-term developmental process that occurs through participating in the social practices and contexts of teaching and learning. Proponents of a sociocultural approach argue that foreign language teacher education should go beyond traditional teacher training courses which involve transmitting ‘one size fits all’ knowledge on recent developments in linguistics, applied linguistics and language teaching methodology and, instead, explore ways of connecting teacher training to actual situations of teaching in real schools and classrooms (Freeman and Johnson 1998). In this way, student teachers stand to gain a greater understanding of the social, cultural and institutional factors that shape the process of language teaching and language learning. Johnson (2009) argues that “[l]earning to teach, from a sociocultural perspective, is based on the assumption that knowing, thinking, and understanding come from participating in the social practices of learning and teaching in specific classroom and school situations” (p. 13). To accomplish this objective, sociocultural approaches have emphasised the facilitation of collaboration and interaction between university-based training periods and classroom realities. This framework provides student teachers and practitioners with opportunities to learn through active engagement in educational activities, participating in communities of practice whilst reflecting upon and theorising from their own experiences (Johnson 2009; Wright 2010). The fundamental role of reflection in professional development, as articulated by scholars such as Schön (1983) and Crandall (2000), underscores the significance of establishing environments wherein student and in-service teachers can engage with colleagues to examine their profession.

Several practical implementations of this approach are evident in the literature. Johnson (2009) describes ‘Teacher Study Groups’, which establish enduring partnerships amongst public schools, universities and professional associations, thereby creating opportunities for university-based and school-based faculty to collaboratively identify and investigate practical challenges. The action research conducted within these study groups operates from the premise that teachers are optimally positioned to address challenges identified within their specific contexts and that such challenges are most effectively addressed through collaboration with colleagues from diverse educational settings. A comparable model is observed in ‘critical friend groups and peer coaching’, wherein teachers reported enhanced feelings of efficacy and empowerment (National School Reform Faculty n.d.).

Further examples of inquiry-based approaches can also be found in online contexts. Baek and Barab (2005), for example, examined an online community of practice designed for science and mathematics teachers, providing them with tools to explore and reflect on their teaching practices alongside colleagues. Within this network, teachers shared short video recordings of their lessons and engaged in online discussions, offering feedback and posing questions to the presenting teachers. A parallel example from the field of foreign language education is presented by Hanson-Smith (2006), who describes an online community of practice in which educators learning to integrate new technologies into their teaching mentored one another, exchanged resources, reflected on their experiences through online presentations, and collaborated on technology-based learning projects with colleagues and students. The author highlights the significance of peer mentoring and teacher-to-teacher collaboration in foreign language teacher education while also lamenting the scarcity of networks and support programmes capable of “creat[ing] teacher-to-teacher collaborations that would serve as apprenticeships in the practice of new technological knowledge and skills” (p. 304).

In the field of foreign language teacher education, there are few reports of inquiry-based approaches that bring together in-service teachers and classes of student teachers to collaborate and learn together, although the idea that student and in-service teachers can mutually benefit from the collaboration has long been established. Schick and Nelson (2001) described how such partnerships can bridge the “gulf of separation between the ‘ivory tower’” of universities and practitioners (pp. 301, 304).

Uniting these groups in collaboration can foster different directions of learning processes. In a “same-tier collaboration” (Chen 2012, p. 219), where only pre-service or only in-service teachers are involved, participants engage in horizontal learning, sharing knowledge and experiences at a similar level (Sauro et al. 2024). In contrast, a “cross-tier collaboration” (Chen 2012, p. 219), which includes both pre-service and in-service teachers, promotes vertical learning, i.e., insights from one group can initiate learning processes within the other group (Sauro et al. 2024). While technology facilitates collaboration among different groups, research on collaborations between in-service and pre-service teachers is still scarce. The following section examines some of the few examples available.

2.2. Online Collaborations Between In-Service Teachers and Student Teachers

As explained above, by bringing student teachers into contact with in-service teachers and engaging them together in collaborative activities based on the challenges and processes of real classrooms, new opportunities emerge for teacher education. Johnson (2009) describes practices such as these as reinterpreting teacher education and professional development “as learning systematically in, from and for practice. They recognise that participation and context are essential to teacher learning” (p. 112). The studies examined below put such an approach into practice.

In their examination of a Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) teacher education programme, Cutrim Schmid and Hegelheimer (2014) investigated collaboration between pre-service and in-service teachers. Their research revealed that this collaboration fostered the professional development of in-service teachers in numerous ways, including the procurement of technical support in designing and implementing technology-enhanced tasks, the acquisition of insights into novel pedagogical approaches from their student partners, and enhanced motivation through cooperative engagement. The authors attributed the programme’s efficacy to the shared reflective process undertaken by both groups, which occurred within the context of practice and generated insights grounded in systematic evaluation of teaching and learning processes.

In a comparable study, Meskill et al. (2006) documented a collaborative initiative that united novice pre-service teachers, experienced in-service educators and doctoral students. Within this framework, pre-service and in-service teachers collaborated in classroom settings, with the former contributing technological expertise whilst the latter provided pedagogical knowledge for the integration of innovative technology-enhanced activities into their practice. Throughout the project, doctoral students functioned as mentors to both groups. Their findings demonstrated that all participants derived benefits from the collaboration: pre-service teachers introduced innovative pedagogical approaches, in-service teachers shared authentic classroom experiences, and doctoral students contributed specialised knowledge in CALL. The authors conclude that “linking pre- to in-service education is critical to the successful growth of teaching professionals … and that such structures facilitate the important linking of procedural knowledge with theoretical knowledge…” (Meskill et al. 2006, pp. 295–96).

Similarly, also based on sociocultural approaches to teacher education, Schocker-von Ditfurth and Legutke (2002) combined the work student teachers do in their university classrooms with the work of actual foreign language classrooms. While participating in their university course, student teachers coordinated with an in-service teacher to prepare online projects for their students and then accompanied the in-service teacher to class in order to carry out the projects. They then returned to the university to share and reflect on their experiences in their teacher training course. Based on various data sources and their experiences as the coordinators of the seminar, the authors conclude that their seminar could offer student teachers valuable practical experiences in foreign language teaching practices.

As Schocker-von Ditfurth and Legutke (2002), Chen (2012) examined the collaboration between 13 student teachers and 13 in-service teachers. However, in this study telecollaboration was utilised to facilitate their six-week experience. The author’s qualitative analysis of weekly reflections and recordings of their communication contributes to the research field by portraying detailed insights into their learning processes within eight distinct themes. Of particular relevance for the study at hand are the following results. Both student and in-service teachers could gain more confidence in their occupational choice: the collaboration with student teachers could “rekindle” (p. 223) the in-service teachers’ passion for their profession, while student teachers felt encouraged by the experience. Chen (2012) highlights that it “generated a sustainable impact on both groups’ professional growth” (Chen 2012, p. 223). Furthermore, the collaboration helped students to face the realities of their future classrooms and served as preparation for prospective challenges, particularly concerning technological infrastructure and how in-service teachers worked within specific circumstances. While both groups learned by taking on the other group’s perspective, the course served as a “reality check” for student teachers on the one hand and provided “new input that might revive their teaching career and update their skills” for in-service teachers on the other hand (Chen 2012, p. 226). Additionally, both groups learned to appreciate the technological possibilities of telecollaboration for teaching.

The aspect of professional growth also plays a central role in the research conducted by the VALIANT project. Similarly to Chen (2012), the project VALIANT utilised Virtual Exchange to bring together teachers and student teachers in facilitated online collaboration around real-world educational issues. One of the objectives of the project was to test the efficiency of this form of Virtual Exchange for providing students of Initial Teacher Education with access to the realities of the teaching profession through regular interaction with in-service teachers integrated into their study programme. The research focused on the impact of Virtual Exchange on “aspects of teachers’ and student teachers’ professional development, their motivation levels, sense of professional isolation, as well as on their intercultural, digital and other soft skills” (O’Dowd 2023). Results of quantitative and qualitative investigations showed that in-service teachers could function as role models, which increased motivation and confidence on the side of student teachers (Arispe et al. 2024, p. 174). In-service teachers, on the other hand, benefitted through the student teachers’ “alternative […] perspective on classroom practices” (Arispe et al. 2024, p. 178). The authors conclude that Virtual Exchanges may serve as a form of “internship” regarding professional skills (Arispe et al. 2024, p. 181). Concerning intercultural skills acquired, the learning primarily focused on education, such as differences in educational systems and identifying commonalities in problems across differing teaching contexts (Gutiérrez and Rogaten 2024, p. 144). Additionally, similarly to Chen (2012), the results show that motivation increased through the cross-tier Virtual Exchanges: student teachers and in-service teachers gained motivation for their (prospective) profession (Soulé et al. 2024, p. 84).

To conclude, the literature suggests that connecting teachers and students through online collaboration facilitates an alternative, sociocultural approach to teacher training and professional development, underpinned by several key principles. Firstly, teachers’ informal, social and professional networks, including their own classrooms, constitute optimal environments for professional learning. Secondly, both teachers and student teachers can enhance their professional knowledge, overcome isolation and improve their career trajectories through collaborative engagement with colleagues from diverse contexts. Finally, through collaboration with colleagues across all levels of experience and expertise (including student teachers), educators develop mutual respect, challenge and support one another whilst collectively striving towards standards of excellence in their practice. The present study sought to implement these principles.

3. The Study

3.1. Context and Method

The case study reported here took part within the context of the above-mentioned VALIANT project. This particular case study involved engaging two classes of ITE in English language teaching in Spain and Germany in online collaboration with each other and with in-service foreign language teachers from around Europe. Both classes of student teachers were studying for MA degrees, and the Virtual Exchange programme was integrated into their respective courses on foreign language teaching methodology. Students were informed that the goal of the Virtual Exchange was to provide them with first-hand experience of using online technologies to collaborate with other (future) language teachers and to learn about the challenges and realities of English language teaching in different classrooms through interactions with in-service teachers.

To achieve this, working groups of student teachers from both countries and in-service teachers from various European countries were expected to complete different tasks related to the theme of foreign language teaching. These included agreeing on the working rules for their international working groups; discussing with the in-service teachers the concept of digital natives, which relates to learners who grew up with digital technologies and are therefore supposed to be especially tech-savvy (Prensky 2001), and its role in education; interviewing the in-service teachers about different national approaches to teaching during the COVID-19 crisis; and finally, working together to develop teaching tasks involving online technologies and resources which the in-service teachers could then trial in their classrooms. The timeline of the tasks during the Virtual Exchange is presented in Figure 1 below.

Students and in-service teachers were organised into ‘working groups’ in order to facilitate communication and relationship building over the duration of the exchange. Each of these groups involved two German student teachers, three Spanish students and two or three in-service teachers from different European countries who had registered to take part in the VALIANT Virtual Exchange programme. Working groups met at least twice a week. Students from both classes met first via videoconferencing during class time to prepare the task each week and then met with their in-service teachers to complete the task later in the week. The Virtual Exchange used Moodle, a Virtual Learning Environment, as a home base for the project. This platform contained all the relevant documents and information for the project. Participants also used videoconferencing tools such as Zoom and instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp to coordinate and hold meetings together.

3.2. Research Questions

The researchers, who were also the teacher trainers of the German and Spanish student teacher classes, were interested in identifying the impact of this model of Virtual Exchange on both in-service teachers and student teachers. In order to investigate this, three research questions were established. These were as follows:

• What do student teachers consider that they learn from taking part in this model of Virtual Exchange?
• What do in-service teachers consider that they learn from taking part in this model of Virtual Exchange?
• How do students’ perspectives on teaching foreign languages and their future profession change through collaboration with in-service teachers?

3.3. Research Methodology

In order to answer these questions, various qualitative data sources were collected during the project. These included portfolios written by both classes of student teachers in which they reflected on their learning experiences during and after their Virtual Exchange and used their working groups’ online interactions to illustrate their learning outcomes. To ensure that the workload for in-service teachers was kept to a minimum, we utilised different data sources to gain their perspectives and complement the student teachers’ views. This included transcripts of online focus group meetings where the in-service teachers reflected on their collaboration with student teachers at the end of the Virtual Exchange. Similar meetings were held with the student teachers. Finally, we used the responses of both in-service and student teachers to questions in the VALIANT pre-mid-post surveys (O’Dowd 2023). Here, we focused on the answers to open questions in the questionnaire.

The data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach outlined by (Kuckartz 2019; Kuckartz and Rädiker 2019), a process which commits to an in-depth interpretation of the data and brings the participants’ perspectives into focus (Selvi 2019, p. 442). For the topic under investigation, an inductive approach that facilitated the emergence of themes from the data was selected, and no pre-existing theory, model, or hypothesis was applied in the coding of the data (Selvi 2019, p. 443). Thus, the categories developed by the researchers were not defined prior to the coding process but partly “derived inductively from the data analysed” to allow for an “interpretative analysis of the underlying deeper meaning of the data” (Dörnyei 2007, pp. 245–46). Opposed to a concept-driven approach, this data-driven, or inductive, coding is characterised by the fact that the codes, which are divided into main and sub-codes, are continuously organised and systematised in a step-by-step procedure until saturation occurs (Kuckartz 2019).

Each researcher coded all three research questions and followed the same coding process (Kuckartz and Rädiker 2019). As the dataset was quite large (including 32 portfolios; the responses of both student teachers and in-service teachers in pre-, mid-, and post-exchange surveys, as well as the transcripts of three online focus group meetings; see

Table 1. Data collection.

Data Type	Number	Participants Student Teachers	Participants In-Service Teachers
Learning portfolios	32 (student teachers)	20 students, University of León, Spain	11 teachers from Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Russia, Germany and Hungary
Pre-survey	32 responses from student teachers 11 responses from in-service teachers	12 students, University of Bochum, Germany
Mid-survey	26 responses from student teachers 8 responses from in-service teachers
Post-survey	26 responses from student teachers 8 responses from in-service teachers
Transcript of focus group meetings	1 meeting with in-service teachers

), the first step of the coding process involved initial text work to familiarise oneself with the data sources, as Kuckartz and Rädiker (2019) recommend. In a subsequent step, the first cycle of coding, also called “basic coding”, main categories were built, based on the data itself as well as the research and interview questions (Kuckartz and Rädiker 2019, p. 57). The categories that emerged due to the described process were mainly thematic, which “denote topics, arguments, or patterns of thinking” (Kuckartz and Rädiker 2019, p. 39). The whole dataset was coded with the main categories, and in a second coding cycle, the “fine coding”, all text sections of each main category were viewed to develop subcategories based on the specific aspects of each main category’s content. This process refines the coding framework and facilitates the subsequent category-based analysis which will be portrayed in the following section.

To ensure a shared understanding of the coding process, the researchers used intra-rater reliability and consensual coding. Each coder performed various iterations of intra-rater reliability, which involved analysing a portion of the data later to test for consistency. In addition, one of each document type was coded consensually. The main codes and subcodes identified by the researchers are listed in

Table 2. Codes used in the first round of coding.

Code	Sub-Code	Definition
Intercultural learning	Online Cross-Cultural Collaboration skills	This code includes all statements in which participants reported what they learned about collaborating online in intercultural groups.
	Behavioural aspects (adapting/changing behaviour and communication style)	This code includes all statements in which participants reported adapting their online communication style in order to collaborate successfully with their partners.
	Perspective-taking	Statements that show how the VE led to students becoming aware of other cultural or professional perspectives.
	Interest in learning about other cultures/professional perspectives	Statements that show that the VE stimulated participants’ interests in other cultural or professional practices or perspectives.
	Learning about cultural products and practices	Statements that show that participants learned factual aspects about different cultures or educational systems.
	Rejection of learning	Statements that show participants reporting that they did not learn interculturally from the VE.
The model of exchange	How to improve the VE model	Suggestions as to how the VE could be improved in some way
Teaching Foreign Languages	Communicative Language Teaching	Statements that emphasise a communicative approach to teaching (in contrast to teacher-centred approaches).
	Innovation and technology	Statements that show what role technology should play/plays in teaching according to students and that highlight the need for innovation in foreign language teaching.
	Heterogeneity of classes	This code includes all statements in which students point out they have learned that classes are heterogeneous, and they need to plan tasks/structure lessons accordingly.
Approach to profession	Motivation	Statements that highlight the importance of motivation for teaching languages/being a teacher
	Realities of teaching	Statements that show how the VE led to a more realistic understanding of the profession and foreign language teaching at secondary schools.

.

The aim of the analysis is to show, through a description of selected examples, the scope and depth of students’ responses to specific aspects of their online collaboration with teachers, which means that in this analysis, we pay less attention to quantitative aspects of coding (mainly because students were asked about specific aspects, and thus these appear more frequently in their responses).

The forming of the main and sub-codes enabled the researchers to draw up six themes (following Braun and Clarke 2006). Thematic analysis is defined by Braun and Clarke (2006) as “a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data” (2006, p. 6). The researchers were able to generate themes by examining how different codes connected to form broader patterns of meaning. Both researchers collaborated closely together in the development of the themes in order to ensure that they accurately represented the data and were distinct from each other.

Theme 1: Increased knowledge of cultural differences in educational practices

Theme 2: Students’ rejection of intercultural learning

Theme 3: Increasing knowledge of teaching methodologies through feedback from ‘experienced peers’

Theme 4: In-service teachers learn from the alternative perspective on classroom practices

Theme 5: Increased motivation and self-confidence through teachers’ function as role models

Theme 6: Increased understanding of the realities of teaching

In the following section, we illustrate the diversity of student teachers’ and in-service teachers’ perspectives on their collaboration and identify the potential benefits and challenges of such collaboration.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Research Question 1: What Do Student Teachers’ Consider That They Learn from Taking Part in This Model of Virtual Exchange?

In regard to what student teachers reported learning from the Virtual Exchange, various themes were identified in the data.

4.1.1. Theme 1: Increased Knowledge of Cultural Differences in Educational Practices

The first of these themes is related to the increased knowledge of cultural differences in educational practices. Responses from student teachers indicated that intercultural learning in this context primarily involved gaining knowledge about teaching methods in different countries and their approaches to teaching foreign languages. This is exemplified by the following quote:

“Countries have different approaches in teaching and focus on different aspects while teaching. While the Spanish school system prepares the students for their graduation and final exam and thus the improvement of their writing skills, the Slovenian system focuses more on reproducing not only writing but also oral skills”.

This finding aligns with Gutiérrez and Rogaten (2024), who could identify a similar focus on educational aspects within intercultural learning as well as similarities and differences in teaching contexts across countries. In contrast to their results, the participants in the study at hand appeared to focus more specifically on educational practices in foreign language teaching, rather than general educational practices (see Theme 3).

Beyond that, it becomes clear that learning about different cultural or national approaches to education led students to reflect more critically on their own country’s approach to education. Collaborating with the in-service teachers from other countries, who implement innovative practices to improve their teaching, served as an incentive to share experiences and approaches and served as motivation for changes in future educational practices.

Furthermore, the opportunities to contrast national education systems led students to confront and move away from national stereotypes. For example, Spanish students had assumed before the exchange that Germany would have a modern and technologically developed infrastructure in their schools. However, they learned from their partners that this was not always the case and identified limitations in the field of Germany’s educational system, as the following quote shows: “The debate around the COVID situation had a big impact on me because it made me realize that the situation in other European countries was not as advanced and good as we tend to think, at least in the field of education the limitations of Germany were noticeable”.

4.1.2. Theme 2: Students’ Rejection of Intercultural Learning

A second theme that could be identified in the data collected from student teachers was a number of different reasons for rejecting intercultural learning. Although it does not necessarily relate to the collaboration with in-service teachers, it is a crucial aspect of the intercultural learning process in the Virtual Exchange. When asked in the surveys and interviews about what they had learned culturally from the project, numerous students rejected that the project had made an impact on them in this area. This tendency for students to underplay or negate cultural differences and to emphasise what they and their international interlocutors have in common has already been identified in other recent studies on Virtual Exchange (EVOLVE Project Team 2021; O’Dowd 2021) and has been referred to in the literature on Virtual Exchange as “the illusion of commonality” (Ware and Kramsch 2005, p. 200). This usually involves recognising superficial cultural differences in, for example, food, traditions, etc., while emphasising human similarity and assuming an adherence to universal values. For example, when asked what they had noticed about cultural differences in communication styles between the two classes, some students reported that they had perceived no particular cultural differences between themselves and their partners. One replied: “Not really. Interacting with Germans is not that different than with Spaniards”.

However, unlike previous studies, the data here also revealed that some students felt that they had not developed interculturally because they felt that previous experiences had meant they had already successfully developed this competence. For example, some suggested that their previous experiences of physical mobility programmes such as Erasmus+, or the multicultural nature of their home societies, meant that they did not need the intercultural experience provided by the project and that they had already ‘achieved’ intercultural competence. One student from Spain reported: “I can say that because I was an Erasmus student in Germany, I learned a lot about this situation and about different cultures in that country, so this is not really brand new to me”. Another explained: “I don’t think the project has strongly impacted my interaction with people from other cultures. But this is probably due to the fact that I have already had a lot of contact to people from other cultures during stays abroad”.

Another student from Germany reflected: “The only problem I have are the questions like: “Has it changed the way you think about collaborating with people from other cultural backgrounds?” I think that this question is maybe a little old-fashioned, because—at least in the Ruhr area [in Germany, where the student lived]—there are so many migrants and children with migrant parents that it is part of the everyday life to interact with other cultures”.

Although it is important to recognise that the main aim of this project had been on foreign language teaching methodologies and not on intercultural learning per se, we believe that this theme is nevertheless significant as it highlights the need for teachers and teacher trainers who implement Virtual Exchange projects to make students aware that intercultural competence is not somehow a ‘box to be ticked’ but rather a lifelong learning process which should be developed through numerous experiences of intercultural contact and exchange. As increasing numbers of students—especially those at the postgraduate level—come to their Virtual Exchanges already having had previous experiences of study abroad, it will be increasingly important for teachers to help students continue to learn from these new episodes of intercultural contact and to refine their skills of intercultural communication. Additionally, it shows that it is important to highlight that intercultural learning in such cross-tier collaborations may focus more on other aspects that evolve around educational practices and professional aspects. Coordinators should make students aware of what intercultural learning can comprise, such as comparing different culturally embedded teaching traditions in (foreign language) teaching.

4.1.3. Theme 3: Increasing Knowledge of Teaching Methodologies Through Feedback from ‘Experienced Peers’

The coding process revealed that, in addition to intercultural learning, three aspects of (foreign) language teaching were particularly highlighted in the students’ responses when they were asked what they learned in this Virtual Exchange. Students’ responses indicated that their knowledge increased due to the vertical learning embedded in this exchange, as highlighted by Sauro et al. (2024) and Chen (2012). Since student teachers and in-service teachers belong to different “collective groups” (Freitag-Hild 2018, p. 167) within their cultures, they can access different experiences and knowledge. Student teachers could learn from the in-service teachers’ classroom experiences on these three topics that they themselves lack.

The three aspects included features related to communicative language teaching, the role of innovation and technology in (foreign) language teaching, and the consideration of their future students’ abilities in lesson planning. Each of these will now be looked at separately.

Regarding the first aspect, communicative language teaching, students reflected on aspects such as how important it is to engage students in communication, as this Spanish student points out: “I used to think of teaching as just me speaking in front of people for about an hour, but I do no longer think that way, as it is a self-centred and rather counterproductive way of approaching language teaching”.

Apart from comparing different teaching methodologies (teacher-centred and more communicative methods) and realising the importance of more communicative approaches in the FL classroom, collaboration with in-service teachers provided students with more confidence and willingness to use such methods in their future teaching. A Spanish student reported that they felt more encouraged “to implement dynamic methods as a future English teacher and to try to contribute to change the focus of education from artificial learning to a communicative-based approach”. Furthermore, students’ responses show that working with teachers enabled them to reflect on the balance between different communicative competencies in foreign language teaching and to better adapt this balance to the realities outside the classroom, for instance, using more audiovisual media instead of written text.

Another aspect of this theme relates to the role of innovation and technology in foreign language teaching. The student teachers’ reflections showed that they not only learned about new, innovative tools through in-service teachers but also benefitted from the experiences of teachers who were already using these innovative methods and tools in their classrooms. In particular, the student teachers indicated that the experience of in-service teachers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic made a major contribution to their learning process.

A German student further reflected on the role of technologies in the FL classroom, which for them serves to make “teaching easier and more interesting”. She explained that “teaching out of the book is not contemporary” and that through discussions with the in-service teacher, they have come to the realisation that the potential of technologies and the Internet, although it has existed for more than 30 years, remains mostly unused. However, some students also stated that they have learned it is not useful to implement technology for its own sake but to consider the goal and students’ abilities. These findings show how the Virtual Exchange could contribute to linking “procedural knowledge with theoretical knowledge” (Meskill et al. 2006) and unite student teachers and in-service teachers in the reflection of different teaching approaches, including technology-supported teaching (Cutrim Schmid and Hegelheimer 2014).

Another important aspect to consider is the diversity student teachers will find in prospective classrooms. By sharing their experiences and emphasising the individuality of their students, in-service teachers helped the student teachers recognise the importance of considering individual abilities when planning lessons. One of the students described what she had learned from the experiences of in-service teachers, namely that “each student is completely different, and that their needs, goals, or capacities might not match the rest of the class, but that does not mean that we have to ignore those differences. In fact, it is crucial to consider them and adapt the classes”. This is also mentioned by another student, whose choice of words suggests that this point was, on the one hand, new and, on the other, surprising since “what really struck my mind was that one needs to always consider their target group”. This fact may be clear to more experienced teachers and teacher educators but cannot be taken for granted, as the students’ statements indicate.

In the course of the exchange, this aspect is taken up again, but from a different perspective. The feedback from the teachers who implemented the tasks planned in the working groups showed the students how differently a task could be carried out by two groups of learners. This observation made the students aware of the importance of considering contextual factors such as the learners’ situation and the language learning environment when planning a lesson. This last aspect especially shows how student teachers can benefit from a sociocultural approach to teacher education and how reflecting on classroom practices and situations (Johnson 2009) can contribute to their professional growth, as shown by Arispe et al. (2024). It strengthens the finding that this Virtual Exchange “contained core features of an internship, providing student teachers with access to the reality of the teaching profession, which represented a valuable, practice-oriented learning opportunity for them” (p. 181).

This third theme shows that this type of Virtual Exchange offers many learning opportunities in different areas of foreign language didactics. These are in the areas of communicative foreign language teaching, the use of technology in innovative teaching and raising awareness of the diversity of their prospective students. The student teachers’ reflections suggest that this learning experience has the potential for students to reflect on how they approach their own foreign language teaching in the future. It shows that the experiences of in-service teachers play a crucial role in this exchange and the learning process. They offer ample opportunities for student teachers to gain practical knowledge and classroom experience through in-service teachers who can access classrooms and provide feedback to them, for instance, Schocker-von Ditfurth and Legutke (2002) report. How in-service teachers benefitted from the collaboration will be the focus of the following section.

4.2. Research Question 2: What Do In-Service Teachers Consider That They Learn from Taking Part in This Model of Virtual Exchange?

Theme 4: In-Service Teachers Learn from the Alternative Perspective on Classroom Practices

When in-service teachers reflected on the benefits of the Virtual Exchange, they noted that their interactions with student-teachers provided them with a new and valuable perspective on their teaching methods and their interactions with students. In the online meetings, in-service teachers reported valuing the ‘student’ perspective on activities and classroom practices. One teacher from Slovenia explained:

“The learning process is mutual. I get a lot of feedback from students who are still on the other side of the learning process. Even though some of them have teaching experience. They are still very young and have lots of ideas and practical examples of how they would deal with the situation. When I had a conundrum, I shared it with them, and they offered some advice. And I can take that into my class and just try it out and see how it works. I think it’s very good. They are closer in age, and in some ways, they are closer to my students than they are to me. But at the same time, they are like colleagues or peers and they can share their experiences that they have had in teaching and how they struggle when teaching”.

The response of the Slovenian teacher illustrates how the collaborative experience benefits student teachers as well as in-service teachers, as reported by Meskill et al. (2006), Chen (2012), Cutrim Schmid and Hegelheimer (2014), and Arispe et al. (2024). It demonstrates how vertical learning did not only occur from in-service teachers to student teachers but vice versa—manifesting a sociocultural learning process. As the teacher elaborates, student teachers’ roles in their collaboration do not appear to be as clearly defined and resemble those of peer in-service teachers, as some of them had teaching experience as well as less-experienced, younger student teachers, which seems to be a benefitting factor of their collaboration. Therefore, it is vital to take a closer look at the negotiation of the students’ role in the Virtual Exchange.

Additionally, in-service teachers valued students’ familiarity with recent methodological developments and new digital tools: One teacher explained: “I would like to add that the students bring theoretical knowledge and we are experienced teachers and the meetings are like an exchange that helps us to exchange practice and theory”. This quote shows how student teachers and in-service teachers benefit from linking “procedural knowledge with theoretical knowledge” (Meskill et al. 2006) as described above. In-service teachers also appreciated the enthusiasm and positive attitudes of the student teachers. When further explored, this appreciation may strengthen the confidence of in-service teachers in their chosen profession and increase their passion for teaching, as reported by Chen (2012).

Considering the negotiation of roles in this exchange, it appears that this process and identification as student teachers or in-service teachers were not always as clearly defined and that this could be a challenge, too. As one of the student teachers reported, she felt like being treated as a pupil rather than a prospective colleague (e.g., being called out for not contributing enough in front of other student teachers, resulting in feeling uncomfortable in the meeting). Her reflections also show how other fellow student teachers jumped in to “defend” her. She reports, “We have grown [n] into a very tight group […] and while answering very politely, we still managed to convey our feelings to (the teacher)”. It shows that students, even if they are from different cultures, might relate more closely to each other as they are part of the same “collective group” (Freitag-Hild 2018, p. 167), i.e., that individuals may identify with characteristics that cut through traditional cultural boundaries. Hence, in this scenario, their identities may be more diverse and hybrid than the term ‘intercultural’ sometimes implies. This example further shows how participants learn to be flexible in their roles and communicate with another group, highlighting a different aspect of transcultural learning in this scenario.

These findings are significant because they highlight the value this Virtual Exchange model offers in-service teachers. While the value for student teachers of engaging with in-service teachers about their day-to-day practices may be more evident, these findings confirm that teachers themselves can benefit from these interactions. The feedback, insights and support they receive from their university partners can have great motivational value and can help to shape the way teachers approach the challenges and teaching situations in their day-to-day lives.

4.3. Research Question 3: How Do Students’ Perspectives on Teaching Foreign Languages and Their Future Profession Change Through Collaboration with In-Service Teachers?

Two further themes emerged in relation to the third research question, which focuses on how students’ perspectives on their future profession might have changed as a result of the Virtual Exchange with in-service teachers. From the students’ accounts, it appears that they gained new insights into the role of motivation and also into the realities of teaching which might await them in their future profession.

4.3.1. Theme 5: Increased Motivation and Self-Confidence Through Teachers’ Function as Role Models

The role of motivation and how teachers understand and carry out their profession is a recurring theme in the students’ answers. In an online focus group meeting with the student teachers, they highlighted the significance of motivation and defined it as “one of the key factors” in teaching (foreign) languages and that it is important to be “passionate,” and that being a teacher is “more than a job”.

This quote shows how the student’s own perspective on their future profession was influenced, as far as the aspect of motivation is concerned, by the positive impression of one of the teachers they worked with. The teachers’ attitude towards teaching and their students, which they shared with the students, seems crucial in this process. Through their individual narratives, they were able to make their passion for teaching visible and communicate it to the students. As one of the students explains, this motivation is vital when you are a teacher to motivate your students to learn. Hence, she described teaching not as a job but as a “profession”. The responses show that the teachers in this exchange acted as role models as they exemplified the importance of “to keep learning” through their participation in this project and their accounts of teaching experiences. As the student teachers describe, this passion for the profession had an impact on their attitude towards teaching. Another student indicated that the motivation of the teachers had an impact on her own motivation, as the teachers shared positive experiences from teaching. She also pointed out she was now more motivated to “getting immersed in this professional sphere”, suggesting that by working with in-service teachers, students are able to identify more with their future profession. These findings resonate with the results of Soulé et al. (2024) as well as Chen (2012) who emphasise that the cross-tier collaboration contributed to student teachers and in-service teachers’ passion for the profession and confidence in their occupational choice. The results of the present study add to these results by giving a more detailed account of how this process unfolded and that, for instance, individual narratives play a vital role.

In summary, the analysis shows that motivation constitutes a significant part of this theme. Four related aspects are the importance of motivation in the teaching profession, how teachers understand and perform their profession, that teachers serve as role models who motivate their students, and lastly, that it can be a challenge to stay motivated throughout their careers. The findings imply that working with ‘passionate’ teachers can lead to an increase in the students’ motivation to become teachers.

4.3.2. Theme 6: Increased Understanding of the Realities of Teaching

Another thematic area in which students’ perceptions of the teaching profession were influenced is the understanding of the realities of teaching. Here, the students found the reports of what happened in the classroom particularly helpful. They were valuable in the sense that they gave the students an insight into everyday classroom life but also because the teachers’ accounts could, in this way, prepare the students for challenges they might encounter in their future careers. This resonates with the sociocultural approach of teacher education as outlined above. The findings further add to the idea that such cross-tier collaborations can serve as a “reality check”, as mentioned by Chen (2012, p. 226); function as an “internship”, as demonstrated by Arispe et al. (2024, p. 181); or as an “alternative to the practicum”, as described by Schocker-von Ditfurth and Legutke (2002, p. 170). This is illustrated in the following example of the present study:

“Listening to the in-service teachers’ experiences constituted one of the most helpful moments of the meeting since it made us aware of real situations and problems that we may have to face as future teachers”.—Spanish student

A further aspect that was mentioned by only a few students is that they have a changed perception of the workload of the profession through participating in discussions with the teachers. One student saw “the amount of work teachers have to actually carry before even coming to the actual classroom and are able to teach”. Another student noted that the role of a teacher is undoubtedly more challenging than she had initially anticipated. These aspects were often related to the pandemic and the challenges teachers faced and also led to reflections on the importance of mental health in the profession.

5. Conclusions

This study set out to explore the learning outcomes of a particular model of Virtual Exchange which brought together groups of student teachers in online collaboration with in-service teachers from different countries. The qualitative analysis of portfolios, focus group interviews and online interactions revealed how projects such as this one can benefit both student teachers and in-service teachers in their professional development. Student teachers were seen to benefit from increased knowledge of cultural differences in educational practices, as well as increased knowledge of teaching methodologies through feedback from ‘experienced peers’, thereby exemplifying how a sociocultural approach to teacher education unfolds in the context of a Virtual Exchange. They also reported gaining a better understanding of the realities of teaching and coming to see their partner teachers as influential role models in their profession. However, many student teachers also reported not perceiving the intercultural learning potential of the project as they considered themselves already to have sufficient experience in intercultural contexts. In-service teachers reported that they benefited from student teachers’ alternative perspectives on classroom practices, knowledge of current teaching methodologies, and knowledge of new technology tools and applications.

Yet, their collaboration was not without challenges. Occasionally, student and in-service teachers appeared to have struggled to find the roles they would like to assume within this exchange, as they did not seem clearly defined. It can be seen as a challenge for in-service teachers to detach from their roles as teachers and to identify with their new role as learners in this type of Virtual Exchange. Therefore, a closer mentoring of the collaboration involving a clear demarcation of participants’ roles is necessary for future iterations of the model. Additionally, teachers who take part in these kinds of projects besides their workload are likely to have a high level of motivation. Thus, this case study cannot account for the vast majority of teachers. Additionally, this study cannot account for long-term effects and does not demonstrate whether participation in such collaboration influences the future teaching practices of the participants. Longitudinal studies are necessary to explore this research gap.

Teacher trainers who wish to consider integrating similar projects and a sociocultural approach to teacher education in their courses should consider the following issues. First, the Virtual Exchange should be designed so that it is of benefit to both student teachers and in-service teachers. Teachers should feel that they will benefit from interacting with students due to the particular insight, perspective or knowledge that their partners will provide them with. This should influence the choice of topics to be worked on in the project. Second, both groups of participants should be prepared beforehand for this particular type of online interaction. Teacher trainers should consider, for example, providing ‘task sheets’ which outline various questions or issues which the working groups should attend to during each online session and which participants can reflect on before their meeting. Third, teacher trainers should encourage reflection on the intercultural learning outcomes of the project by providing a portfolio or focus-group interviews where participants are given the opportunity to discuss cultural aspects of their online collaborations. Finally, the organisers of the project should ensure that all participants receive some form of recognition for successful participation. This may involve a percentage of a final grade for student teachers (usually 2–3 ECTS credits), and for teachers, this could involve at least a certificate or official letter from the course organiser detailing the workload and learning outcomes of the project.