A thematic analysis of international teaching assistants’ stigma experience in a U.S. university: English-proficiency determinism

Zhu, Yi; Bresnahan, Mary

doi:10.1080/17513057.2020.1762110

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…IGTAs, students who are enrolled in graduate studies outside of their country of origin and employed to teach college-level courses, are plunged into teaching positions as the instructor of record (IoR) requiring the development of an educator identity, intersecting it with their other salient identities. IGTAs enter this complex time of identity development with cultural and linguistic social identities that do not match the prototypical teaching assistant in United States' universities (Ates & Eslami, 2012;Kasztalska, 2019;Zhu Copyright © 2023 by the International Journal of Designs for Learning, a publication of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology. (AECT).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Often, non-native speakers of English (NNSE), IGTAs may struggle with self-efficacy related to their own command of the language, let alone their ability to teach it to others (Christiansen et al, 2018;Kasztalska, 2019;Zheng, 2017). Despite recent trends toward Translingualism and world Englishes that celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity (Ghimire & Wright, 2021;Kasztalska, 2019;Li, 2021;Zheng, 2017), the stigma attached to NNSEs continues to hinder the professional identity development of IGTAs (Ates & Eslami, 2012;Zhu & Bresnahan, 2021). As a result, IGTAs in these positions are subject to biases and discrimination from their students, fellow teaching assistants, and faculty, frustrating their ability to develop new educator identities (Duran & Jones, 2019;Yaw & Kang, 2021;Zhu & Bresnahan, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educator Identity Development for International Graduate Teaching Assistants

Gish-Lieberman

Macbeth

Rockinson‐Szapkiw

2023

IJDL

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The purpose of this design case was to document rigorously the process and decisions made during the development of a five-day, pre-semester virtual orientation for International Graduation Teaching Assistants (IGTAs) and their domestic counterparts, teaching in an English as a Second Language Composition (ESLC) Program of a large land-grant university. The design was grounded in a front-end analysis as well as a theoretical framework comprising Crenshaw’s (1989) Intersectionality and Wenger’s (1998) Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) theory. These theories were leveraged to focus the design on IGTAs’ educator identity development and their linguistic and cultural marginalization. VCoP theory provided a practical architecture for the virtual learning environment with its three modes of belonging (i.e., engagement, imagination, and alignment) as well as several enabling structures (i.e., support, sponsorship, and recognition). The design intended to purposefully engage IGTAs in social practices and dialogue that would support their sense of belonging and educator identity. While significance can be extracted from the pre-planned, explicit alignment of certain design elements with the modes of belonging, precedent can also be derived from elements that emerged during the design process.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educator Identity Development for International Graduate Teaching Assistants

Gish-Lieberman

Macbeth

Rockinson‐Szapkiw

2023

IJDL

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Speak English in the department or perish? A multimethod study on online public responses to an English-only incident at a US university

Zhu,

Bresnahan,

Wang

et al. 2024

Language and Intercultural Communication

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Sharing communicative responsibility: training US students in cooperative strategies for communicating across linguistic difference

Subtirelu¹,

Lindemann

Acheson

et al. 2022

Multilingua

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The internationalization of Anglophone universities could allow English-dominant students to benefit from experience with English speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds, but US students have often complained of difficulty communicating with such instructors, especially International Teaching Assistants (ITAs). Research has largely focused on helping ITAs assimilate linguistically and culturally, although many applied linguists suggest that ITAs’ students would also benefit from training in skills for communication across linguistic difference, through attention to their language attitudes, familiarity with diverse Englishes, and communication strategies. We report on an intervention designed to address all three, here focusing on students’ willingness to engage in collaborative communication strategies. The intervention, conducted in a computer science department and reaching over 300 first-year students from varied linguistic backgrounds, included an online and an in-class component, each lasting about an hour. This brief intervention resulted in small but significant gains in domestic undergraduates’ (n = 174) stated intention to engage in collaborative behavior with their ITAs, although our detailed examination of qualitative responses suggests important areas for continued improvement of the intervention. We discuss the potential for such interventions to facilitate institutional and cultural change, encouraging the recognition of the shared responsibility for successful communication.

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A thematic analysis of international teaching assistants’ stigma experience in a U.S. university: English-proficiency determinism

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

Educator Identity Development for International Graduate Teaching Assistants

Educator Identity Development for International Graduate Teaching Assistants

Speak English in the department or perish? A multimethod study on online public responses to an English-only incident at a US university

Sharing communicative responsibility: training US students in cooperative strategies for communicating across linguistic difference

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