2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Rapid Ethnographic Assessment of Workshops on Transdisciplinary Intercultural Competence, Community Engaged Practice, and Mixed Research Methods

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 4: Interdisciplinary Graduate Education

This paper is a rapid ethnographic assessment of six workshops on intercultural competence, community-engaged practice, and qualitative data analysis, which were designed for and offered to graduate students in different academic backgrounds. The intent of the workshops is to foster transdisciplinary education that leads to stronger solution-seeking processes in the face of intensifying climate change and efforts to sustain and enhance life on earth. The workshops are part of a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project, which was awarded to scientists from anthropology, education, and engineering. Participants in the first cohort included master’s and doctoral students from psychology, counseling, sociology, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and sustainable energy engineering. During the workshops, participants enacted a number of dynamic simulations and role plays as future transdisciplinary environmental professionals facing unprecedented challenges. Workshop elements included mapping your cultural orientation, positioning values along a spectrum, theorizing plateaus of adult and organizational development, analyzing interactions, identifying principles of community-engaged practice, completing community engagement plan components, utilizing qualitative research tools including interviewing and coding, and analyzing qualitative data. Interactive practices were deployed to simulate embracing radical differences and care (e.g., talking stick, consensus-seeking discussions and decision-making, and Johari window). The workshops provided opportunities for participants to engage in ways to understand their own cultural positioning, each other, and diverse ethnolinguistic marginalized communities that often suffer the most from the deleterious effects of climate change. The paper will present the general design and structure of the six workshops and report the results from rapid ethnographic assessment of the performance of the first cohort who completed the workshops. Ongoing participant validation strategies were deployed through dialogic engagement which the paper reports from inductive coding and analysis of student class notes, interviews, and workshop planning.

Authors

Ari Sherris Texas A&M University, Kingsville [biography]

Ari is an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. During the 2015-16 academic year, he was a J. William Fulbright Scholar at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. During June 2019, Ari was a distinguished guest researcher at the University of South Africa. He holds a PhD in Second Language Development, an MA in Applied Linguistics, and a BA in the Humanities. He is certified as an EFL and ESL teacher as well as a School Principal. Ari's research and language revitalization interests include Mikasuki, Salish Ql'ispe (aka Salish-Pend d'Oreille, Montana Salish, and Flathead Salish) and Safaliba. His ethnographic work documents situated practice in grassroots policy initiatives and school-based activism among the Safaliba in rural Ghana. His language documentation includes conceptual metaphors and formulaic language in Salish Ql'ispe and Safaliba. He also explores applications of task-based language teaching in the pedagogy of revitalization. His practitioner papers analyze integrated content and language instruction, academic English instruction for graduate students, and asset-based coaching for and by language teachers (e.g., peer coaching, critical friending in educational contexts). Ari has planned and facilitated language and literacy workshops and lectures, as well as curriculum development, in Ghana, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA. As a private person, Ari travels to the Israeli occupied West Bank of the Jordan river where he documents Israeli settlers who engage in violence, agricultural theft, intimidation, and threats. Ari's videos, notes, and presence support a coalition of non-government organizations working in solidarity with Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley to prevent the destruction of Palestinian villages and to prevent the displacement of Bedouins. Ari's international community service to Palestinian rights align with international law and the Geneva Convention.
Christine Reiser Robbins Texas A&M University, Kingsville
Dr. Hua Li http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-7306-8298 Texas A&M University, Kingsville [biography]

Dr. Hua Li, a Professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, is interested in sustainable manufacturing, renewable energy, sustainability assessment, and engineering education. Dr. Li has served as P.I. and Co-P.I. in various grants funded by NSF, NASA, DoEd, DHS, etc.
Jianhong Ren Texas A&M University, Kingsville
Dr. David Ramirez Texas A&M University, Kingsville [biography]

Dr. David Ramirez is a tenured Associate Professor of the Department of Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK). He is the graduate coordinator of the doctoral program in environmental engineering. He has served as the Director of the Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology – Research on Environmental Sustainability in Semi-Arid Coastal Areas, Interim Executive Director of the Eagle Ford Shale Center for Research, Education and Outreach, and program coordinator of several TAMUK’s education programs including the NSF-Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Talent Expansion Program, and the EPA-Multidisciplinary Approach to Educate and Train Undergraduate Students in Air Pollution Issues of the U.S.-Mexico Border Region. Currently, he is a co-principal investigator of the STEP-1B CASCADE program.
Prof. Kai Jin Texas A&M University, Kingsville [biography]

Dr. Kai Jin is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Co-PI of the MERIT project. Her research interests include Sustainable Energy, Green Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Multi Objective Decision Making and Optimization as well as Engineering Education.

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