International Education and the Chinese Learner

9 - Learning for All: Cross-cultural, Interdisciplinary Team Teaching between China and the USA

9 Learning for All: Cross-cultural, Interdisciplinary Team Teaching between China and the USA Zhu Weibin Whilemanychaptersinthisvolumeregard“Chineselearners”asyoungpeople,both Miller (Chapter 7 in this volume) and I make the case that there are older learners as well. The “Transnationalism and America” project funded by the Lingnan Foundation1 and taking place at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) in Guangzhou indicates that Chinese professors, graduate students, and undergraduates can all learn from interdisciplinary inquiry and team-teaching methodologies. Exciting and challenging as it may be, team teaching by professors from different cultures and speaking different languages is not an easy task for any of the participants. As its name implies, team teaching is an activity in which several instructors work together in fulfilling teaching tasks (Slethaug 2007, 88–89). In interdisciplinary team teaching, instructors from different disciplines form teaching groups and deliver lectures to students. Cross-cultural work adds another complication as faculty members from different countries (using their native languages as the medium of instruction) teach in the same classroom and try to learn from each other. At SYSU, team teaching took various forms: (1) co-lectures by instructors with student participation; (2) interactions between instructors and students in the classroom and discussions of diverse topics among instructors in and out of the classroom; and (3) presentations of theories of knowledge inside the classroom, with application of that learning to the social service sector outside the classroom. Though such teaching methods are uncommon and have just been implemented in China, there is great interest in their possibilities for staff and students. In September 2004, the “Transnationalism and America” project began in SYSU. The project continued for three academic years until the summer of 2007, and was administered for the most part by the history department (under my Ch09(P.161-171).indd 161 08/07/2010 12:15 PM 162 Zhu Weibin supervision) and supported by the International Office of SYSU. Although there were both American and Chinese scholars involved, the education principles and teaching methods were purely American because one important aim of the project was to introduce interdisciplinary team teaching to SYSU, which has been one of the universities designated by the central government to look into new modes of pedagogy. According to the plan, the “Transnationalism and America” project offered three to five courses each academic year on a first-come-first-served basis to all interested undergraduates. The elective courses focused on American culture and history in this age of globalization. Professors from different disciplines were invited to participate in classroom teaching. Native Chinese teachers came mainly from the School of Humanities at SYSU, including Dr Li Aili, Dr Pan Yining, Dr Wen Qiang, and myself of the Department of History. Professor Wong, Dr Karsten Krüger, and Dr Michael Fitzhenry from the Department of Anthropology were also involved, and there was at least one graduate student helper for each course. Overseas teachers came mainly from universities in Hong Kong, Macau, the United States, and Europe. The core foreign teachers were Dr Staci Ford, Dr Gina Marchetti, and Professor Gordon Slethaug, who were all from the United States and were teaching at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). They specialized in American history and culture and had gained abundant experience in interdisciplinary course designs and team teaching from the American Studies program at HKU. During the three-year program, the Chinese and American team set up the following courses — some of them were offered more than once in the Humanities and Medical Faculties — on both the Guangzhou and Zhuhai campuses: • Asia on American Screens • In/Visible Histories: Making Documentaries for Social Service • Asian American Culture • The American City • Urban History and Culture of New York City • American Myths, American Movies • American Culture and Globalization • The Road in American Culture • America Today • The History of the World in the Twentieth Century These courses were jointly taught by local and foreign specialists, working to realize the values of interdisciplinary team teaching for native teachers and students. I was the program coordinator at SYSU and also taught some of the courses, and have some observations about the Chinese learner in relation to Ch09(P.161-171).indd 162 08/07/2010 12:15 PM Learning for All 163 interdisciplinary team teaching that involve faculty members from different countries, languages, and cultures. In the following section, I will introduce the pedagogy adopted for the project, compare it with...