Government and Humanities
Ted Hadzi-Antich is an Associate Professor of Government, Founder of The Great Questions Project and a member of the Honors faculty at Austin Community College (ACC), where he has taught for over 19 years. Ted is the Founder and Executive Director of The Great Questions Foundation, a 501c3 promoting discussion-based learning focused on transformative texts and ideas at community colleges. He serves on the Board of the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC), the Independent Review Council of iCivics, the National Advisory Board of the Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College and the advisory council for the Chang Chavkin Center for Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College. His work promoting the liberal arts at community colleges has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, PBS Newshour and other venues.
How has your community college teaching experience shaped your character over your career?
Teaching community college students has taught me to become a better listener. Since all of my classes are discussion-based, I needed to learn how to step back and let my students take the lead in shaping the conversation, while also being engaged enough to allow me to judiciously nudge the inquiry toward fertile places. Building these pedagogical skills has helped me get to know my students better, and empathize with them. Because of the structure of Great Questions classrooms and the discussion-based pedagogy that defines them, caring about my students and their success is not something that feels like an obligatory job function I go though the motions to preform, but a natural consequence of the relationships I’ve formed with each one of my students. Developing this Great Questions pedagogical practice makes me both a better teacher and person.