Student Tribune
David Barnett (Associate Vice President of Program Curriculum Development) to Present at Filling Station
Dr. David Barnett (Associate Vice President or Program and Curriculum
Development) will present at this semester's first Filling Station today
(Friday, February 8) from 12-12:50 p.m. in 8-200. According to David, "The
broad aim of the presentation is to persuade the listener that one need not
literally teach abroad as a professional instructor to have teaching
experiences that are illuminated in their structure and dynamics by
reflectively examining them using a metaphorical conception of 'teaching
abroad.' Soon after I started teaching undergraduate engineering students in
Shanghai, China, I became aware to a degree that I had not been before, how
much 'at home' I had felt previously in college classrooms in New York City.
Degree of familiarity matters when we engage with other people - whether we are
teaching or conversing or arguing - not because the familiar is better but
because discounting the importance of cultural, experiential and other
disconnects to our engagement people outside our metaphorical 'home,' courts
avoidable breakdowns in trust, patience and goodwill. More concretely, I soon
realized after reaching China that my approach to pursuing the three key goals
I give myself when teaching - to be effective, authentic, and ethical - would
have to be reengineered for my exciting but challenging new environment. In the
presentation I will use examples related to his students' preconceptions about
Americans, my own preconceptions about Chinese, and the micropolitics of
teaching and promoting liberal arts disciplines in an authoritarian political
context. I will invite listeners to discuss whether, in their own teaching
experiences - from the formal to the very informal - they have ever felt
themselves moving between contexts that are more, and contexts that are less,
familiar and, if they have, to discuss adjustments they might make to achieve
their goals when 'teaching abroad.'"
This event is free and open to the entire MCC community.
Leuzzi, Anthony
English/Philosophy
02/08/2019