Experiences of International Teaching Assistants in the US Classroom

Abstract

Most research focusing on the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter in U.S. classrooms employs a linguistic perspective. The present study furthers that research by examining other challenges unique to ITAs, through the lens of an intercultural competence framework. Through individual interviews with 15 ITAs, the study highlights the challenges related to competencies in knowledge and skills faced by ITAs in U.S. classrooms. Findings reveal that knowledge about the U.S. education system, expectations of the classroom culture, and assumptions about student–instructor relationships pose the greatest difficulties. Additionally, the ability of an ITA to demonstrate communication skills remains a significant challenge, including the negative perception of speaking with a foreign accent and selecting effective word choices to accurately represent content. The study findings present practical implications for training ITAs for their pedagogical duties at U.S. colleges.

Lesson study as transformative learning for international graduate teaching assistants: “It's like we have a second life”

“…In their study interviewing 15 IGAs at US universities, Adebayo and Allen (2020) found that knowledge about the US education system, expectations of classroom culture and assumptions about student-instructor relationships created challenges for IGAs. They call for additional studies to substantiate these findings.…”

“…Although there have been limited studies of trainings for IGAs, the findings suggest IGAs benefit from training to help them navigate nuances of American culture and to explicitly teach pedagogical norms that may be implicitly understood by domestic teaching assistants. Additionally, IGAs benefit from flexible training, enabling individual concerns to be addressed (Adebayo and Allen, 2020).…”

“…Increasing numbers of international GAs (IGAs) face additional challenges (Lee, 2010). IGAs may have had previous schooling experience very different from the undergraduate students they teach, and expectations for instruction in higher education may differ from those in their home countries (Adebayo and Allen, 2020). More broadly, cultural expectations, such as values about formality of interactions, directness, control, personal space and respect, may differ among instructors' and students' cultures (Storti and Bennhold-Samaan, 2011).…”

“…Our review of research reveals few training opportunities targeting IGAs, however. Existing research suggests trainings should be differentiated to meet IGAs' varied needs (Adebayo and Allen, 2020;Williams and Case, 2016). A promising approach for differentiated professional development is lesson study (LS), which has been utilized mostly in K-12 environments.…”

An Intersectional Analysis of the English-Competency Experiences of International Teaching Assistants

“…In this context, most of the literature on ITAs characterizes their linguistic experiences as challenges (e.g., see Adebayo & Allen, 2020;Arshavskaya, 2015;Fitch & Morgan, 2003). This literature reports ITAs' linguistic proficiency as lacking even if they have had significant exposure to English as a medium of instruction and communication through their prior educational or work experiences.…”