Teaching Abroad – International Education and the Cross–Cultural Classroom

Gordon E. Slethaug is Visiting Lingnan Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. Formerly Chairman of English at the University of Waterloo and Director of American Studies at the University of Hong Kong, he works with the Lingnan Foundation (New Haven, CT) linking the University of Hong Kong and Sun Yat-sen University through a Transnationalism and America project that focuses on American culture, interdisciplinary methodology, and team teaching. He has recently been Senior Fulbright Professor in American Studies and English at the University of Southern Denmark-Kolding. His research interests center on cross-cultural pedagogy as well as the contemporary American novel, film, and culture. In addition to Teaching Abroad: International Education and the Cross-Cultural University Classroom, he is the author of Beautiful Chaos: Chaos Theory and Metachaotics in Recent American Fiction, The Play of the Double in Postmodern American Fiction, and co-author of Understanding John Barth.

This well crafted and richly illustrated book will be essential reading for teachers who cross cultural and pedagogical borders, either overseas or at home in increasingly internationalized classrooms. Slethaug examines 'Eastern' and 'Western' approaches to teaching and learning and provides invaluable suggestions for teachers on culturally sensitive pedagogy and more pluralistic curricula. -- Janette Ryan, Monash University

• Introduction; 1. Internationalizing Education: The Example of China; The Development of Chinese Universities in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; Lingering Structural Constraints: Financial, Ideological, and Linguistic; Curriculum Reform; American Studies; Interdisciplinary Inquiry and "American-Style" Teaching; The Market Economy and the Flight from Arts and Social Sciences; International Collaboration and Faculty Exchange; Library and Internet Resources; 2. The Individual, the Group, and Pedagogy; The Pedagogy of the East; The Pedagogy of the West; 3. The Classroom Environment: Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Spaces; Physical Spaces; Three Spaces for Teaching: Lecture, Seminar, and Circle; Emotional and Intellectual Spaces: Ideology, Race, Ethnicity, Class, Family, Gender, Religion, and Age; 4. The Teacher-Oriented Classroom; One Teacher/One Classroom; Team Teaching and Interdisciplinarity: Many Teachers/One Classroom; Classroom Tools for Lecturing; 5. The Student-Oriented Classroom; Problem Solving, Group Work, and Presentations; Shared Responsibilities for Groups and Teams; Extending the Boundaries of the Student-Centered Classroom; 6. Film in the Cross-Cultural Classroom; Film and Cultural Contexts; Film Adaptation as a Cross-Cultural Tool; 7. Assignments and Assessments; Appropriate Kinds and Levels of Assignments; Cultural Considerations in Student Assessments and Marks; Cultural Considerations and Plagiarism; Classroom Assessment; 8. Conclusion: Descent, Consent, and Cross-Cultural Affiliations; Cross-Cultural Affiliated Identities; Affiliated Identity and Cultural Markers in the Classroom; Blending Creative Opposites: The Best of All Possible Worlds?