Session III a: July 25-29, 2011

31. Designing the Culturally Competent Pedagogy Lee Knefelkamp All learning environments are inherently intercultural—composed of individuals who differ greatly in the shaping influences that affect their approach to learning and their understanding of the learning process. This workshop will explore how we can design a culturally responsive pedagogy, where the classroom climate is infused with intercultural competence, attentive to the complex cultural variables in both teaching and learning. Intercultural competency is now widely recognized as one of the core competencies expected of college graduates, as well as for the faculty who teach them.

Designed for Objectives Learning Activities Lee Knefelkamp College and university faculty as well as intercultural educators in both the profit and nonprofit sectors. We will study the latest research on the effectiveness of culturally competent pedagogical approaches, review case studies, practice course design, study new learning assessment methods, and work with actual student data. Participants will have the opportunity to: Assess learning styles and culturally influenced ways of learning Analyze how classroom messages communicate marginality and mattering/exclusion and inclusion Explore how to help learners “listen to understand” and participate in dialogues of civility Comprehend perspective taking and taking other’s perspectives seriously Review research on “micro-aggressions” in the classroom Recognize how levels of intercultural sensitivity and intellectual complexity influence learning Examine how to facilitate intercultural learning teams and team learning These will include designing a culturally competent pedagogy that takes into account: Who the students are The facilitator’s knowledge and skills Content and conceptual material High impact practices Complex assessment for complex learning   Dr. Lee Knefelkamp is a professor in the Social and Organizational Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has been a faculty fellow with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington D.C., an academic dean of Macalester College, dean of education at The American University, and professor and director of the graduate program in college student development at the University of Maryland. Lee was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, and she has written widely in the areas of college student development, intellectual development, cultural diversity, curriculum transformation (especially with respect to ethnicity, gender, race, and class), liberal arts, and professional curriculum design. She serves on the national advisory boards of Diversity Digest, the Internet project Diversity Web, and Cable in the Classroom. Lee has also served as a member of the national panels for AAC&U’S “American Commitments” and “Greater Expectations” projects, and she wrote an update for the reissue of William Perry’s Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development. As senior scholar with AAC&U, she designed the campus cultural assessment for colleges and student outcomes.