CTSI Equity Roundtable – Promoting Greater Equity of Learning Opportunities: Insights from Using Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with Chinese students that Can Benefit All

Facilitators:
Dr. Elaine Khoo, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream; Coordinator, English Language Development Support, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC
Dr. Xiangying Huo, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC 

At the U of T, Chinese students form 65% of the undergraduate and 46% of the graduate international student population (U of T Fact and Figures, 2021). They represent a tremendous diversity resource if we create opportunities for them. While many Chinese students perform well academically, those with very low proficiency levels struggle. Chinese students are likely overrepresented, along with other equity-deserving groups in plagiarism charges (Eaton, 2022; Friesen, 2023) but their language burden seems under-represented in institutional data and practice. What might be some inequity issues we need to consider?

We will share some useful insights that we have gained through supporting students with extremely low proficiency in the Reading and Writing Excellence (RWE) program by implementing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Huo & Khoo, 2022) that can inform our roundtable discussion on pedagogy for active learning so that more students with language limitations can participate with necessary institutional support to help them overcome their initial barriers. We will also collaboratively reflect on our future course design and scaffold for academic integrity practice in this roundtable.

Learning Outcomes:

By attending this roundtable, participants will

• become aware of research-based and practice-based evidence of Chinese students’ challenges, aspirations, and potential to contribute/engage
• learn how to create learning experiences in their courses to encourage more student transformation from “powerless” to “empowered”
• understand culturally responsive pedagogy and the application of anti-deficit mindset
• learn about harnessing differences as strengths and promoting equity and interactional diversity

NOTE: You will be asked to answer additional questions when registering.

Eaton, S. E. (2022). New priorities for academic integrity: Equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(1), 10, s40979-022-00105–0. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00105-0

Friesen, J. (2023, February 16). Hired exam-takers, blackmail and the rise of contract cheating at Canadian universities. Globe and Mail.

Huo, X. Y., & Khoo, E. (2022). Effective teaching strategies for Chinese international students at a Canadian university: An online reading-writing support program. In C. Smith & G. Zhou (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching strategies for culturally and linguistically diverse international students (pp. 241–264). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8921-2.ch013

University of Toronto Facts and Figures 2021. https://data.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Facts-Figures-2021_final_v2.pdf