Some historians still hold back from assigning literature out of concern for historical accuracy, but using fiction and popular culture is no longer unusual and, if anything, using novels may be seen as outdated in some circles. The author suggests that one way to reinvigorate the use of the novel when teaching history is to center a class on only…

In this article, we discuss how sociolinguistics can serve as an entryway into conversations about diversity, equity, and social justice, as part of education for global citizenship. Our approach, informed by Critical Language Awareness (CLA) theory, engages students with both unfamiliar and familiar linguistic forms, in order to promote critical…

In recent decades, nationalism has emerged from the distant purview of history to become the primary driver of some of the world's biggest news. Given the prominence of nationalist conflict, students in political science increasingly study the subject with modern references in mind. This article describes the design for a timely undergraduate…

This piece builds upon literature using media to teach not only college students in economics, social justice, and sociology, but also those college students in family and interpersonal communication as well. I provide a resource aimed to engage and expand students' understanding thoughtfully of two well-known family communication and…

This article describes a year-long doctoral course on ethnographic case study research in which a communities of practice approach helped non-traditional students manage the challenging identity negotiations of entering a new academic field. Co-taught by faculty in two disciplines--Rhetoric and Composition and Teaching, Learning, and Culture--the…

Against the pressures of standardization, some argue for the need to expand teachers' awareness to their "teaching self" because teachers "teach who they are." This article acknowledges the importance of this orientation; however, it is suggested that its implementation requires overcoming social reproduction. Teachers may have…

College students receive countless messages about "following passion" and "doing what you love" (DWYL). What happens when these repeated messages ultimately do a disservice to some students? Although pursuing one's interests is strongly encouraged, the author explores the limitations of the DWYL advice at all costs, including…

Contemplative education courses and academic programs emerging in universities across the United States and internationally have a unique opportunity to help students gain both self-awareness and an awareness of how the self is situated in a larger context. Research utilizing meditation in higher education shows promise in strengthening stress…

In this article, Patricia Steiner describes a research problem that took considerable time and energy to investigate: the study of the "self-awareness" process. Steiner states that, if we believe in the concept of lifelong learning and development, then we must acknowledge the value of self-awareness as an important precursor to learning…

This article describes an innovative approach to introducing translanguaging in an English for academic purposes (EAP) course at a young Sino-US joint-venture university in China. To promote the use of Chinese students' full linguistic and communicative repertoires in an English-medium-of-instruction university, I intentionally incorporated…

The "Mbyá" culture forms a part of the Guaraní ethnic group that mainly inhabits the territories of south-eastern Brazil, in the Province of Misiones--Argentina, and the Republic of Paraguay. This article will focus mainly on field observations I have made in different communities in these countries, and which will try to synthetically…

Realizing that ESOL students often do not integrate naturally into their new communities, we developed a reading class that focuses only on topics such as history, culture, arts, nature and entertainment that pertain to Portland or Oregon. In addition to readings, we asked that students go out and "live" what they learned through a…

Malta is a small island at the periphery of Europe, often referred to as a bridge connecting Africa with the European continent. Discourse about multiculturalism opens a Pandora's box, albeit the very recently elected Labour Party won the election on the call of Malta Taghna Lkoll (Malta belongs to all of us). This was the first time that…

Prior to 2011, Year 8 students studied a single film as text, "Yolngu Boy." This had been on the syllabus for several years, and the consensus was that it was time to review the unit, refresh the text and introduce multiple film texts that would present varying visions and perspectives of notions of what it is to be "Australian". The authors aimed…

In this article we present an integrated curricular model for addressing the transition from the intermediate to the advanced language level through peer-assisted learning activities in the post-secondary German classroom. In a series of group projects between students in second- and third-year conversation courses, we employed a learner-centered…