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PurposeThis study aims to model the creative pedagogy of children's book development and then engages teacher education students in this work, as a way to explore and express conceptions of teacher quality, across cultural perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThis self-study engages a/r/tography and currere to explore teacher quality in a teacher education classroom in a Chinese university. A/r/tography (Irwin et al., 2006) considers teacher quality through the conventional lens based on standards and through a more aesthetic lens shaped by cultural nuances and personal experiences. This self-study engages currere (Pinar, 2004) as a methodology marked by contiguous living inquiry explored with an abstract lens aimed to see openings for insight leading to transformation (Pourchier, 2010).FindingsDiscussing similarities and distinctions across the presentation and conceptualization of teacher quality in the created children's books promoted dialogue considering intercultural, international pictures of a caring student–teacher relationship. A/r/tographic, currere approaches to exploring this enhanced reflective insight and supported acceptance of diverse notions of teacher quality.Originality/valueAs 21st-century global societies evolve, the meaning of progress also evolves from vertical linear trajectories to horizontal, webbed transformations, driven by differences leading to rhizomatic global connections. A/r/tography and currere are meaningful methodologies to explore the concept of teacher quality from aesthetic angles and on a more personal level so that our understandings may be shaped meaningfully by more diverse perspectives and voices.

Generosity is a shared virtue with distinct expressions across cultures and regions. This article engages 26 teacher education students in a/r/tographic exploration of local cultures and ecologies during a 1-week global teacher education program at a large, urban university in China. Participants across eight Chinese provinces/municipalities, and the nations of Brazil, Canada, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States reflected on and shared local cultures and ecologies via photo collage, autobiographical reflection, children's book creation, and lesson plan creation. This article presents a generosity-inspired theory for culturally and ecologically sustaining pedagogies to demonstrate how local cultures and ecologies shape global norms and understandings and make a case for why such local generosity must be sustained. A/r/tography emerged in this article as a meaningful pedagogical practice for examining, sharing, and appreciating local cultural and ecological generosity across global contexts.

This literature review updates and expands the authors' previous synthesis of empirical research on pre-service multicultural teacher preparation (MTP) conducted from 2006-2011 in settings outside the U.S. (Liu, Baker, & Milman, 2014). In this review, the authors synthesized research conducted from 2006-2015 about (a) how diversity is conceptualized in teacher education, and (b) how MTP is practiced across international settings. Their analysis demonstrates that researchers in non-U.S. settings conceptualized diversity as: (a) unspecified or undefined; (b) connected to self; and (c) a social justice issue. MTP practices similar to their prior review included: critical reflections on self and other, culturally relevant pedagogies, and theory-to-practice transfer. The authors' updated analysis additionally revealed a new approach that they termed interdisciplinary MTP. Implications call for initiating innovative collaborations in teacher preparation to explore complex, evolving definitions of diversity shaped by global and local discourses, and learning from each other about meaningful, effective MTP across international settings.