Psychology
Kathy Frost is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Austin Community College (ACC), where she teaches Introduction to Psychology and Social Psychology courses. In her teaching, she employs high impact teaching practices such as study abroad (Romania), service-learning (Red Bench Dialogue program), interactive discussion, and application of psychology to self development. Professor Frost infuses cross-cultural themes into her research and teaching, focusing on social and developmental psychology. Many of her publications have developed connections between these sub-disciplines in psychology and the emerging anthropological study of mimetic theory.
How has your community college teaching experience shaped your character over your career?
The beauty of community college teaching is the honor of coming to know students from a variety of educational and demographic backgrounds. As the 21st century world collapses into narrow ingroups and silos, the community college experience opens up teachers and students to the rich complexity of human experience. With the honor of teaching in this environment comes a responsibility to meet each and every individual with dignity, respect, and gratitude. Students may sometimes appear to lack interest or motivation, but I aim to search for the need behind these initial behaviors which may represent concerns preventing an openness to the course content. Each encounter presents a new opportunity to cultivate curiosity, fairness, compassion, and humility. I am indebted to these student and collegial experiences for helping me develop into a better person in the world.