Vikki Sara Katz

Growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa gave me the opportunity to directly experience the profound social changes that accompanied the shift from apartheid to democracy. Perhaps the most enduring lesson I learned from these experiences is the unique capacity of education to change the social world in which one lives. Although I teach in environments far removed from the country where I first learned these lessons, I believe that education can have the same transformative potential in the United States as continues to be evidenced in the country of my birth. I have seen in my own classroom that learning to observe and critically evaluate one’s environment is the core of both personal and social development, and that this can be as true for the student who is the first in their family to attend university as for the most privileged of their classmates. My teaching philosophy draws from my dual commitments to developing innovative ways of encouraging students’ critical thinking and their respect for intellectual diversity.

On the first day of each class, I tell my students that higher education is a privilege no one can ‘give’ them, but rather, something they create through engaging course material. I conceive of my students as active participants in their own learning and development, and view my role as one of cooperative leadership in this process. The diversity of students’ worldviews becomes particularly salient in my intercultural communication courses, where we often discuss controversial topics. I believe that my role is to create a safe space for ideas to be shared respectfully, while remaining neutral on the topic at hand. I find that taking a neutral stance creates a learning environment in which students can advocate their opinions and learn to better articulate their stances on the issues. In the process of those discussions, students often come to consider new positions or counter-positions, thereby developing their capacities for critical thinking.

Developing a dynamic environment for student learning requires clarifying my expectations to students from the beginning of the course. I create detailed syllabi that not only describe course readings and requirements, but include the instructions for all assignments and a comprehensive description of how material will be tested in exams. Clarifying expectations from day one conveys the high level of preparation, participation, and written work that will be expected from students. My syllabus and verbal introduction to the course also communicate that they can expect as much from me as I expect from them. One of the first requirements of all my courses is that students commit to a short (generally 10 minute) meeting in office hours in the first two weeks of class. I have found that this is invaluable to my efforts to tailor classroom experiences and examples to students’ interests. Personalizing the teacher-student relationship in this way also makes it easier for students to seek me out with concerns and questions during the semester.

My respect for the intellectual diversity of my students guides the inclusion of a wide range of theories and methodologies in the selected readings, as well as my presentation of the material. Employing different teaching techniques, multimedia presentations, and classroom discussion topics can help students with different strengths engage the material in ways that are most meaningful to them. This awareness of intellectual diversity is also evidenced in my exams and assignments. While my students all agree that my exams are not easy, they also admit that they are fair. In large part, this is due to the design of the exam. I know that some students thrive on writing essay exams, while others are more confident with short answer questions, multiple choice, or having to apply course material to a case study example. My exams generally include all of these formats, with equal percentages of the points given to each type of question.

These exams are combined with challenging, personally framed assignments made relevant to students’ interests and social concerns. For example, students in my intercultural communication courses are required to interview someone who has immigrated to the United States in the last five years about their adaptation experience. In the process of completing this assignment, students learn to craft and revise interview questions, plan and conduct an interview, and write a paper where they interpret their findings by applying materials and theoretical formulations from class to the experiences of one individual. Assignments and lectures in my courses are built around the core theory in the subject area, accentuated by materials from a wide array of sources that show how theory actually ‘works’ through applications to current social issues. I teach the core theories of intercultural communication by embedding them in thematic applications to intercultural communication issues in health care, schools, interpersonal relationships, (inter)national conflicts, and so on. Students in my courses learn to see theory as a living entity that has real relevance when theories are integrated into applications.

These same ideas about integrating theory into application guide my empirical methods courses, which present a different set of challenges. The first challenge is neutralizing students’ resistance to a course they perceive as boring or difficult, and then to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of course material to students’ own research questions. I draw on my own enthusiasm for asking questions and designing research studies to help my students take ownership of independent research projects they find personally fulfilling. I view my primary role as showing students how to think about research and to guide their efforts to integrate theory and methods in ways that are useful to them beyond the classroom walls and after they graduate.

In all of my teaching, I draw from my own, mixed-method research experiences as a teaching tool. In the methods course, I bring in examples of interview questions and survey instruments from my research. I show them how good instruments go through many iterations, which demystifies the process of developing their own instruments, and demonstrates that perseverance is an essential component of conducting research. As my research program progresses, I find that my research projects enrich and are enriched by my teaching and by my rewarding relationships with students.

In sum, my teaching philosophy is rooted in my own early life experiences in South Africa, and in the knowledge that students similarly draw from their own life experiences when they enter the classroom. My commitment to presenting course material in ways that challenge and motivate student learning requires an understanding of, and demonstrable respect for, intellectual diversity that encourages development of critical thinking capacities that will stand students in good stead for the futures they shape for themselves.