Teachers’ perspectives and understanding of cross-border school exchange: A qualitative content analysis from the Dutch-German border region

Abstract Despite its reputation as ultimate opportunity to foster linguistic and intercultural competence in young language learners, school exchange has received little attention in empirical research (Borràs & Llanes, 2019; Dooly & Vinagre, 2022; Heinzmann et al., 2024). This especially concerns the group-based, short-term formats common in European secondary education (Heinzmann et al., 2024). Notwithstanding their central role in these projects, the perspective of the participating teachers is often overlooked (Brill, 2018; O’Dowd & Dooly, 2022). In this study, we investigated teachers’ understanding of school exchange and potential personal and professional characteristics influencing it. To this end, we interviewed 31 teachers participating in a publicly funded school exchange project in the Dutch-German border-area. In our qualitative content analysis we identified four key themes: (1) the goals and benefits teachers associate with school exchange; (2) the role they believe it should play in curriculum and school life; (3) their personal relationship to school exchange; and (4) the target groups they see as relevant. Regardless of personal and professional background teachers expressed a holistic and inclusive understanding of school exchange that transgresses conventional views of school exchange and reflects its personal significance as well as its contribution to their own personal and professional development.