Bridging Borders: Toward a Pedagogy of Preparedness for Visiting Faculty

Abstract

This analytical article largely draws on the experiences of visiting faculty teaching at post-secondary institutions overseas. What is largely understood in the literature is that visiting faculty need to navigate the sociocultural, professional, and contextual differences that shape the work context. Drawing on the theory of border pedagogy, this article takes the scholarship further by proposing and elaborating on a pedagogy of preparedness that may help to facilitate visiting faculty acculturation and analyze dominant and marginal narratives in the new work situation. This pedagogy is based on (a) pre-departure learning, (b) deconstruction of transnational teacher and teaching background, and (c) decolonizing learning spaces.

University Educators’ Experiences of Teaching Abroad: The Promotion of Cross-cultural Competence

“…The current study did not delve into participants' experiences of living abroad which, while a part of teaching abroad, can have its own unique challenges and rewards [see Marx, Housen, and Tapu's (2016) collection of autoethnographic stories of living, teaching, and parenting abroad]. Incorporating local sociocultural characteristics (e.g., cultural beliefs, communication patterns, social values) into teaching approaches tends to improve relationships with students (Mizzi, 2017) illustrating the importance of the cultural context. Future research could examine educators' experiences with individuals from diverse cultures outside of the classroom during their teaching abroad opportunity.…”

International staff contributions to their host institution: a case study in South Africa

“…A growing body of cross-boundary literature explores the conditions for successful teaching experiences needed for reducing mismatched expectations between foreign teachers and their host institutions (Smith, 2014;Volet & Jones, 2012). A large share of the literature promotes the mutual learning of faculty from diverse cultural back-grounds (Bovill, Jordan, & Watters, 2015;Lai, Li, & Gong, 2016;Mizzi, 2017). The various collaboration opportunities between host and international lecturers are framed by the institutional culture, structure, and processes of the host university that together delimit the scope of their interaction opportunities (Lai et al, 2016;Shagrir, 2017).…”

Co-teaching within diversity: A disruptive productive source of professional development

“…For example, the conceptions of culturally diverse lecturers regarding their expected roles and the proper interactions between students and teachers vary (Kainzbauer and Hunt 2014;Ma 2014;Merriam and Kim 2011). Sharing their diverse points of view, lecturers can widen their perspectives and understanding, in other words, interfacing their conceptions of reality (Lai, Li and Gong 2016;Mizzi 2017).…”

“…misunderstandings can easily arise in cross-cultural environments as communication styles and teaching-learning preferences differ(Brett, Behfar and Kern 2006;Brooks and Brooks 2015;Mizzi 2017). English words do not necessarily hold the same meaning from one country to another, and it can create confusion when both parties think they understood each other, but realise later they did not(Brooks and Brooks 2015).…”