Chapter 20- Service-Learning and Community-Engaged Projects for International and Domestic Students

It’s a good idea to help the local community by sharing something from our cultures and support each other as well. It really makes a big difference for all. An anonymous student comment, spring 2020 Reflecting on my years of teaching, one of my most gratifying and powerful memories as an educator deals with developing a sense of community and belonging in my students. More generally, higher education instructors have come to understand the value of community building and creating a sense of belonging in various areas of our lives and for different populations in diverse teaching contexts (Hoffman et al., 2002; Streyhorn, 2019). I believe that in teaching, these two concepts—community building and belonging—are of particular importance. We can also relate these two concepts to various Habits of Mind that we want our students to develop while in college. Many of these Habits of Mind focus on becoming good thinkers and communicators and on gaining skills in developing meaningful relationships. Through service learning and engaging our students in helping and learning from local communities, we can facilitate their development of Habits of Mind as well as promote their sense of belonging and civic responsibility

Promoting Intercultural Competence in Diverse U.S. Classrooms Through Ethnographic Interviews

To meet the demands of contemporary society, students needs to develop the ability to interact effectively with people from different cultures. To advance this goal, a project involving ethnographic interviews was introduced to an intercultural communication course. Participating students\u27 attitudes toward other cultures were measured on a Likert scale at the beginning and end of the project. The findings show that through the interviews, the students developed greater awareness of their own cultures and of themselves within their culture and deepened their knowledge of other cultures. Yet, the majority of the students did not show greater interest in learning a foreign language at the end of the project. Further, even through the students did learn about other cultures, their responses to becoming more open to other cultures were inconclusive. The article discusses possible reasons for these outcomes and outlines future research directions

Teachers’ Stories about Teaching: Collaborative Dialogues as Open Educational Resources

This paper examines the nature of teacher learning through a social-constructivist perspective and describes instructional strategies utilized with teachers during an international teaching assistants’ (ITAs’) training workshop offered at the Utah State University (USU). The strategy used involved eliciting and structuring exemplary teachers’ stories about teaching to serve as a basis for class discussions and other assignments. These teachers’ stories, recorded on video, were then shared online through the university website and YouTube. In this way, new teachers gained access to co-constructed and pedagogically appropriate teacher knowledge represented by authentic teachers’ voices

Teaching Listening Skills with Digital Resources to ELLs

These are open-source instructional materials designed for intermediate/high-intermediate and advanced learners of English. The materials feature multiple online resources and help students improve listening comprehension by practicing note-taking skills and listening strategies in a variety of contexts (e.g., podcasts, movies, lecture excerpts)

International Teaching Assistants’ Experiences in the U.S. Classrooms: Implications for Practice

Recently, a number of studies have examined the lived experiences of the international teaching assistants (ITAs) in the U.S. classrooms. The findings show that the ITAs face many challenges such as classroom management, instructional, linguistic, cultural and social challenges. Following this line of research, this interview-based study examined the lived experiences of a group of ITAs using a qualitative methodology. The qualitative approach was intentionally selected to add an interpretive stance to the quantitative analyses prevalent in the current research on the ITAs. The paper aims to: (1) to provide insights into the ITAs’ perspectives on their first semester of teaching in the U.S. including determining the challenges they face and (2) to consider possible revisions to existing ITAs’ preparation programs based on the ITAs’ own perspectives and a review of the available literature. This study contributes to the field by presenting information that has the potential to prompt future empirical investigations into educational cultures as they apply to novice instructors in international contexts and to inform and renew curricula for ITAs’ preparation programs at the U.S. universities

Exploring the Transformative Impact of Language Teachers\u27 Autoethnographies in a Teacher Education Course

Benefits of teachers\u27 autoethnographies are well-documented in current research. This study adds to the research literature by directly analyzing how the insights gained through writing autoethnographic essays may impact second language (L2) teachers\u27 classrooms. To collect the data, the study incorporated autoethnographic essays into a graduate course for language teachers and asked the participating teachers to design lessons that reflected the insights they gained about themselves through this project. Adopting the transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978, 1997) that scaffolds teachers\u27 self-reflection, this paper explores the transformative potential of teachers\u27 autoethnographies through tracking qualitative changes in the teachers\u27 narratives and practice across one academic semester. The results show that as a learning tool, autoethnographies can facilitate teachers\u27 developing more empowering teaching identities and have a potential for enhancing their teaching practices. The paper adds empirical evidence and a new perspective in the investigation of teacher learning. It concludes with pedagogical and research implications for L2 teacher education. Autoethnography is viewed as an effective and valid research method and a pedagogical tool in teacher education by an increasing number of researchers (Hancı-Azizoğlu, 2018). Ellis et al. (2011) explain that autoethnographers view research and writing as socially-just acts; rather than a preoccupation with accuracy, the goal is to produce analytical, accessible texts that change us and the world we live in for the better (para. 40). Research studies showed insights into the impact of using autoethnographies on constructing teaching identities (Canagarajah, 2012; Solano-Campos, 2014; Yazan, 2019a), on promoting teacher\u27s creative writing abilities (Hancı-Azizoğlu, 2018), and on increasing second language (L2) teacher educators\u27 reflexivity (Park, 2014). However, to the best of our knowledge, no research investigated the impact of teachers\u27 engagement with autoethnographies on their practice. The study takes a case study approach (Yin, 2003) and focuses on the insights gained by three language teachers engaging with autoethnographic essays in a masters-level teacher education program. The study adopts the theory of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1978, 1997) to explore the transformative potential of teachers\u27 autoethnographies. The theory explains how adult learning occurs and how to make it more effective in formal educational settings. Our purpose is not merely to report a case of successful teachers\u27 learning through the lens of the adult learning theory, but to explore the mechanisms that make such experiences transformative (Whitney, 2008). The study first overviews the transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978, 1997) and the use of autoethnography in teacher education research and practice. Next, in presenting the analysis, special attention is paid to teachers\u27 authoring their own narratives … articulating their identities to themselves, understanding the situatedness of their identities in sociocultural contexts, and exercising agency in the contours of their identity formation (Yazan, 2019b, p. 4). Our analysis is grounded in not only tracing qualitative changes in teachers\u27 narratives but also exploring the kinds of changes teachers choose to implement (or not) into their practice. In conclusion, implications for teacher educators and limitations concerning the length, scope of the study and its main sources are discussed

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success

Although content knowledge remains at the heart of college teaching and learning, forward-thinking instructors recognize that we must also provide 21st-century college students with transferable skills (sometimes called portable intellectual abilities) to prepare them for their futures (Vazquez, 2020; Ritchhart, 2015; Venezia & Jaeger, 2013; Hazard, 2012). To “grow their capacity as efficacious thinkers to navigate and thrive in the face of unprecedented change” (Costa et al., 2023), students must learn and improve important study skills and academic dispositions throughout their educational careers. If we do not focus on skills-building in college courses, students will not be prepared for the challenges that await them after they leave institutions of higher education. If students are not prepared for these postsecondary education challenges, then it is fair to say that college faculty have failed them

Language Teachers’ Intercultural Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective

Responding to the call to build teacher interculturality in more dynamic ways, this paper analyzes developmental trajectories of three pre‐service teachers enrolled in a course on language and culture in a master’s in second language teaching program at a U.S. university. From a sociocultural theory perspective, the article illustrates the various ways in which the pre‐service teachers incorporated (or not) the mediational means available to them. The article findings support the claim about the sociocultural nature of human learning, while the analysis informed by a sociocultural perspective on learning explicates why intercultural learning can be more enriching for some participating pre‐service teachers than for others. In line with the sociocultural perspective on human learning, the article highlights the importance of the affective dimension and activity for promoting teacher learning and argues for the need to better understand the process of teachers’ application of new understandings into their practice. Besides, the article demonstrates the value of teacher educators’ reflection on their work. It ends with pedagogical implications for language teacher educators

Becoming a Language Teacher: Exploring the Transformative Potential of Blogs

Over the last two decades, Internet and advances in technology more generally have allowed to support and enhance teacher learning in both school and university contexts. Computers and other technological innovations have created more collaborative learning environments, expanded the contexts of teacher communication, and facilitated teacher engagement with digital literacy such as blogging. This paper presents case studies of two pre-service language teachers involving analysis of the teachers’ blogs and interviews. Developmental trajectories of the participating pre-service teachers during one academic semester (15 weeks) are analyzed through the lens of transformative learning theory. The transformative learning theory allows to investigate the ways in which teachers change (or, transform) through the activity of writing. The analysis reveals that some pre-service teachers may not always react positively to the requirement to maintain a teacher blog and such lack of involvement prohibits teacher transformation. The study suggests that teacher educators provide more guidelines regarding blogging to more reluctant participants or even offer alternative arrangements such as, for example, face-to-face meetings. Lastly, the paper argues for greater consideration of adult learning and adult development theories as a basis for furthering our understanding of and fostering teacher learning

Using Reflective Dialogic Blogs with International Teaching Assistants

Given the growing number of international teaching assistants (ITAs) on US campuses, ITAs have become critical members of US academic communities. Research related to ITAs’ experiences in US classrooms reveals certain challenges that ITAs encounter as instructors in this new educational context. These challenges can be instructional, social, linguistic, or cultural in nature. In response to the need to provide incoming ITAs with both ongoing institutional and personal support, this pilot action research study investigates the impact of the use of reflective dialogic blogs on the ITAs in terms of their development of teaching expertise, cross-cultural awareness, and language skills at the completion of the ITA training course offered at a southwestern US university. The study involved a group of ITAs in online interactions via blogs with the ITA-training course instructor for the duration of one academic semester. Data collection focused on the content of the ITAs’ writing and their perceptions of the effectiveness of reflective dialogic blogs in regard to their development as instructors. The results suggest that more attempts to use tools such as reflective dialogic blogs should be made in the future. The article also suggests possible modifications for the use of reflective dialogic blogs with prospective students