Community of Practice, Cross-Cultural Instructor Collaboration
A page within Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning (CATL)
CATL is starting a new Community of Practice for Academic Year 2024-2025. This community of practice is designed to foster dialogue and mutual learning between U.S.-born/educated faculty and their foreign-born/educated counterparts. The primary goal is to enhance the overall teaching experience by bridging cultural divides and encouraging collaborative efforts. This community will serve as a valuable resource, particularly for junior international, foreign-born/educated faculty members, offering a platform to address challenges and exchange effective teaching strategies within the context of a Midwest regional university. Additionally, it aims to provide U.S.-born/educated faculty members with opportunities to enrich their teaching practices through insights gained from the experiences of foreign-born/educated faculty.
Potential topics include:
- Classroom interactions with U.S. Midwestern GenZ.
- “Foreignness” as a teaching resource.
- Academic rigor from an international perspective.
- Teaching as an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor.
- Cross-cultural faculty collaboration.
Target Population
This CoP intended to connect instructors who are foreign-born/educated with their U.S.-born/educated counterparts. It is intended for instructors of various backgrounds who are interested in learning from each other to improve their classroom instruction.
What are the benefits of participation?
Participating in a COP provides instructors with…
- an opportunity to be more intentional, specific and clear about quality teaching and learning and the various ways they may go about achieving it.
- independence and flexibility to enhance their teaching quality by helping them identify the areas they want to focus on.
- opportunities to develop and improve their collegiality within a team that has the potential to provide support and encouragement
- a chance to explore teaching and learning from a different perspective.
Who can participate?
Anyone who is interested in bridging the gap between international and local education experiences.
What is the time commitment?
To participate in the experience over the academic year would take about 15 to 20 hours of your time.
Fall 2024 meeting dates...
Facilitators
Megan Litster, CATL Fellow
Weixu Lu, CST Faculty
Antonio Martin Gomez, GCL Faculty
Learn more about COP.
Want to participate in a future Community of Practice? Have a theme idea for a COP? Contact CATL@uwlax.edu to discuss your ideas and interest.