Pedagogical Experiences among International Student Exchange Interns from Selected Higher Education in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how international student-teacher interns enact day-to-day pedagogy during cross-border practicum placements under the SEA-Teacher Project of SEAMEO. Data were collected from eight interns representing higher education institutions in the Philippines (n = 4), Indonesia (n = 2), and Thailand (n = 2) and analysed using a narrative-informed thematic approach to capture both lived experience accounts and cross-case pedagogical patterns. Findings show that interns’ classroom practice was shaped by a dynamic interplay of instructional autonomy in lesson design, adaptive use of student-centered strategies, balancing structure and empathy in classroom management, and combining formative and summative assessment approaches. At the same time, pedagogical choices were constrained and redirected by institutional and structural conditions, curriculum expectations, material resources, infrastructure, pre-deployment preparation, and accommodation realities, together with communication and cultural adjustment demands. Across contexts, mentorship functioned as professional mediation by strengthening feedback cycles, emotional support, and interns’ professional confidence. The study provides insights into how teaching competence develops in international practicum settings by clarifying what interns actually do to plan, teach, manage, and assess under cross-cultural and resource-variable conditions, and by identifying program supports that most directly enable adaptive, context-responsive teaching.