Enhancing action in supporting international pre-service science teachers via self-study

ROBERT CAMPBELL, ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY, TWICKENHAM, UK RACHEL DAVIES, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, UK  DAN COTTLE, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK  CAROLINE NEUBERG, LEEDS TRINITY UNIVERSITY, UK ELEANOR WYLIE, INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS, UK Introduction Since 2022, international pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) specialising in physics have also been eligible for a bursary, resulting in a fourfold increase in international applications to study PGCE courses in England (DfE, 2023). While many of these trainees bring substantial teaching experience from their home countries, they often face challenges in navigating the cultural norms, pedagogical expectations and institutional structures of the English education system (Campbell, 2025). The sudden and rapid increase in internationally educated PSSTs from widely different and culturally diverse backgrounds convinced five white Western science teacher educators (STEs) from different UK institutions to engage in a related collaborat