Inviting culture and environment for student learning: A case study of student teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education

The understanding of oneself has become an important area of study in the school curriculum. This is usually done through the guidance curriculum to enhance children’s self-understanding, empathy, and relationships with others. This is a worldwide trend in a comprehensive school guidance system (Gysbers & Henderson, 2000; Luk-Fong, 2005). This chapter documents students’ active learning about their own selves, as well as the selves of their future students, in a “Self-Personal Identities Module” in a teaching preparation institute in Hong Kong. The learning and understanding of oneself can best be done with other people in a group (in this paper, in a class) in a safe and inviting culture/environment. Grounded in the core values of respect, trust, optimism, intentionality, and care of invitational education, which was founded on democratic values, the perceptual tradition, and self-concept theory, this chapter demonstrates how educators can create an inviting learning culture and environment in a higher education setting to help student teachers to study their own personal identities and learn how to study the identities of their future students. Implications for student teachers’ learning in other higher education settings are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Lexington Books.