Remote International Student to Remote Teacher: Intercultural, Pedagogical, and Instructional Training for International Teaching Assisstants

Background

The orientation program for ITAs that is the focus of this chapter is offered through the teaching and learning centre at a large university in Canada. Over the past ten years programming for ITAs through this centre has evolved. Focusing on orientation events specifically, they have shifted in scope. Initially, there was one TA orientation day held exclusively face-to-face on campus, and specific teaching support for international graduate students consisted of at most one optional session among other concurrent sessions during this orientation. Later, there was recognition that specific and concentrated support for ITAs was needed. A research assistant was hired to investigate what was already happening at the large, generally siloed university, and what was needed as identified by the international graduate students themselves. This research resulted in the construction of an ITA handbook, and a 3-hour orientation session for ITAs, which was offered only face-to-face a few times a year, primarily in September. This 3-hour session was designed specifically for ITAs, discussing the context of the Canadian classroom and providing resources on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

A variety of factors influence shifts in programming at a teaching and learning centre, including changes in staffing and personnel, funding, legislation, and international events. The main drivers of change responsible for the orientation program for ITAs that is the subject of this chapter are a new passionate staff member with the needed experience and expertise, and the COVID-19 pandemic. When instructors were forced to deliver their classes solely online, the need for support provided by the teaching and learning centre increased 10-fold. Having the institution recognize this and increase funding to the centre to secure more fulltime support created opportunities for training to not only be adapted for remote delivery but enhance this training as well.

The authors of this chapter, herein referred to as the authors, are educational developers in the teaching and learning centre previously mentioned. They co-designed and co-facilitated the orientation program for ITAs. Prior to the pandemic they had plans to collaborate and update the teaching support offered to ITAs. At the start of the pandemic and throughout the summer of 2020, they experienced firsthand how the pandemic and the move to online teaching and learning affected teachers and students. This prompted them to focus their time on designing training grounded in evidence-based practice to meet the needs of a vulnerable group, new incoming ITAs.