Teaching Interculturally : A Framework for Integrating Disciplinary Knowledge and Intercultural Development

How can I simultaneously support students' critical engagement with course content and develop their intercultural awareness?

Most faculty have multiple diversities present in any given classroom or academic program― whether from an influx of international students or an increase of students from low-income, first generation, and/or racial/ethnic minority populations― and are concerned about how to maintain a rigorous curriculum and ensure that all their students succeed, given disparate backgrounds and varying degrees of prior knowledge.

This book provides faculty and instructors with a theoretical foundation, practical tools, and an iterative and reflective process for designing and implementing an intercultural pedagogy. The authors bring to bear the expertise of their various disciplinary backgrounds to offer a responsive, integrative framework to develop and continually refine a pedagogy that both promotes deep disciplinary learning and supports intercultural outcomes for all students.

The authors offer a framework that is flexible enough to be responsive to the experience, environment, and particulars of a given teaching and learning situation. The text incorporates narrative text by the authors, as well as first-person reflections, classroom activities, and annotated assignments that illustrate the dynamic process of intention, experiment/implement, critique, and refinement that characterize pedagogy and intercultural interaction.

The authors bring to bear the expertise of their various disciplinary backgrounds, a deep knowledge of effective pedagogical practice, and their experience and grounding in intercultural practice: Amy in composition/writing studies, Mary Katherine in international education with rich experience as a faculty development trainer, and Bob and Catherine, respectively, an historian and a family scientist.

This book is intended both for individual reading as well as for collective study in learning communities.

Amy Lee is a professor at the University of Minnesota. Her PhD is in English/Composition Studies. Her scholarship focuses on teacher-education for postsecondary faculty with a goal of supporting equity, diversity, and inclusive excellence in college classrooms. She has published 6 books in this area and a number of articles. Amy has taught a range of graduate and undergraduate courses, including first year writing and basic writing; U.S. literature; multicultural education; doctoral seminars in composition theory and research methods, and critical pedagogy. She has served in program- and department-level leadership positions at multiple public universities, and received university teaching awards from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Minnesota. She is currently earning an M.B.A in executive leadership.

Peter Felten is Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Professor of History at Elon University. His publications include: Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins, 2014), and Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 2014).

Robert K. Poch is a senior fellow in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. He teaches undergraduate history and graduate courses in postsecondary multicultural teaching and learning and college student development theory. His current research focuses on problem-based approaches to teaching history within diverse classrooms. Robert is recipient of the Horace T. Morse - University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. He holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Virginia.

Mary Katherine O'Brien is a researcher for education and outreach in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She has worked in the field of international education since 2002, holding positions in the areas of international student advising, education abroad, internationalization of the on-campus curriculum, and international program development. O’Brien holds a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Development Education and focused on the academic engagement and classroom learning experiences of undergraduate international students for her dissertation. She conducts research on the internationalization of higher education, cross-border partnerships, on-line education, and the intercultural aspects of teaching and learning.

Catherine Solheim is a faculty member in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on family finances, family theory, and global and diverse families. She has led multiple learning abroad courses to Thailand, focusing onhow globalization impacts family, communities, culture, and the natural environment. Solheim studies ways that culture, socio-economic status, and relationships impact the diverse ways families make decisions about their resources. She has conducted research on decision-making in Thai families, transnational Mexican-Minnesota family resource and relationship decisions, and the values and financial practices of two-generation Hmongimmigrant families in Minnesota. Her current research examines mental health and economic transitions of newly arrived refugee families from Burma (Myanmar) using a collaborative community-based research approach. This research has a keen aim to contribute to systems and policy changes that improve refugee family transitions and well-being.