Topic Area: Information Session
Presented By: Joyce Meier
Abstract:
Our international/multilingual students face unique challenges: not only differences in language and academic cultures, but also time differences, online communication blocks, visa issues, and the recent toxic nationalist movement in the U.S. Yet we need the diverse views that such students contribute. How can we ensure that these students feel welcome and included in our courses, even when the courses are on-line, and the students studying from 12 hours away? How can we encourage our multilingual students to participate more, both synchronously and asynchronously? What can we do to minimize any possible communicative gaps? How might our courses be reframed from a translingual perspective, so that the students’ languages and cultures are seen as assets that contribute to rather than detract from the course learning goals? Supported by a Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant, and winner of a Research-in-Progress Award at the recent Diversity Showcase, our team of three undergraduates, as mentored by two faculty, has produced a video examining these challenges ‘from the inside out.’ Surfacing the students’ concerns, our faculty workshop uses this video as a starting point to name challenges faced by these diverse learners, and for collaboratively inviting participants to propose solutions that work within their own teaching contexts.