Teaching as a Global Scholar at UNSW: Adaptations and Insights Gained
Facilitated by Colina Mason and Felicity Rawlings-Sanaei

The purpose of the session was to explore the extent to which an academic’s educational and cultural background impacts on three domains of learning and teaching: classroom practice; discipline knowledge and teacher-student relationships.

The session started with Colina and Felicity identifying the benefits of sharing experiences, including: improving campus cross-cultural communications and helping academics to work effectively inter-culturally.  They outlined some of the scant academic literature in the area.  ‘Global scholar’ was defined as someone who adapts their knowledge from one cultural setting to another.

Following this was a facilitated discussion where a number of issues were raised, including:

• It can be positive for students to learn about a lecturer’s global experiences; this can enculture them as global citizens and encourage them to explore inter-cultural opportunities in their own lives.
• Importance of contextualising curriculum and providing international examples for the students to see relevance.
• Try and learn a few words of greeting in the languages of your students as this will go a long way in building relationships.

Follow this link for resources and references linked to teaching International students: http://learningandteaching.unsw.edu.au/content/LT/diversity/welcome.cfm?ss=2.
Follow this link for resources and references linked to ‘Cultural Diversity’: http://learningandteaching.unsw.edu.au/content/LT/diversity/welcome.cfm?ss=2

Please contact Felicity (ext 51645) or Colina (ext 56977) if you would like to discuss the topic further.