by Cassie Lynn Smith, Adjunct Faculty, Anthropology

In the summer of 2023, I was preparing for my new role as an Adjunct Faculty member with the Anthropology Department at Austin Community College (ACC) when I came across the announcement for the Global Education Faculty Learning Community (FLC). I was excited by the FLC’s structure, where I would work with a cohort of faculty and staff who had similar interests as me and who had their own resources to share for teaching about global studies. The opportunity also captured my attention because of my professional and academic experience in Latin American Studies and my work in Austin’s international communities. 

Throughout the FLC, I looked forward to learning from a variety of speakers from around the world who addressed a wide range of topics from art and music to global justice and international conflicts. This was a truly unique experience, as this allowed us to speak in a small group setting and ask experts questions about their work.  In addition to the guest speakers, I also learned from my fellow ACC colleagues. Engaging with my coworkers from various departments taught me about new resources and services to help my students, as well as ideas for integrating global resources into my curriculum.

When it was time to decide how to include what I had learned into my own class, I was a bit stumped.  Not because the topics didn’t apply to my course—quite the opposite. In my cultural anthropology course, we discuss international topics each week. My class textbook, readings, and media draw in voices and issues from all over the world. With so many global resources, how could I adjust my course to have an even more inclusive focus? After some brainstorming with my colleagues, I decided to adjust just one of my assignments—the final research project. 

The final project is a culmination of all of my students’ work throughout the semester. In my course, students learn the core concepts in cultural anthropology including the difference between cultural relativism and ethnocentrism and the meaning and effects of globalization. They also critically analyze their communities and their own ideologies about the world. I encourage them to connect their lived experiences with the global topics we cover in the class. These lessons are supported by our textbook and a variety of articles, podcasts, and videos. In class, we work on applying what they have learned through assessments. Discussion posts help students learn how to express their opinions while supporting them with the course texts. I require students to quote one of the course materials with an in-text citation in each discussion post to help them apply what they are learning on a weekly basis. The students also write three response papers focused on a thesis argument about a curated topic of their choice while employing the core concepts and resources for support and analyzing their findings.  Students also conduct field research where they observe an event or space, take field notes, and write up an analysis of what they observed. Their final papers combine each of these assignments into a culminating research paper and presentation based on a field observation.   

Interestingly, when I changed one small detail about the final project in my 2024 Spring and Fall courses, respectively, it dramatically changed the assignment and the resulting projects. I made it a requirement that students must conduct their field research in a global or intercultural context. This minute change led to both challenges and benefits. This new condition encouraged them to go outside of their comfort zones into new spaces. Students went to a variety of locations and events such as international exhibits at local museums, new religious spaces, and a variety of cultural events. Many students found pre-existing global connections in their daily lives, including where they had grown up on the US-Mexico border or on their respective campuses. This aided them in seeing the connections between global and local issues. Further, these papers helped them to analyze what they observed and connect it to what they had been learning in class. In addition to their research papers, students also presented what they learned to the class. Through their presentations, they taught each other not only about their findings but also introduced us to new global spaces and experiences in our community. By requiring these different modes of sharing their research, the students processed what they found in new ways and for diverse audiences. There were challenges to this assignment. Some students struggled with finding a global/intercultural connection that was accessible to them due to transportation or financial issues. However, because I had students begin working on this project mid-semester with a research proposal, we were able to address these restrictions early on and find a manageable site for them to observe. Each of the students’ final papers synthesized what they had been learning throughout the semester. 

Inspired by the work of Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire, this praxis research combined classroom anthropological theories with the applied practice of field research into a cumulative project that was meaningful to the student. At the same time, we practiced “reciprocal learning,” another one of Freire’s tenets, where we disrupted the traditional power structure in the classroom about who was the “teacher.” I learned from my students as they learned from me and from one another as well. The Global Education Faculty Learning Community provided the space and resources for me to think more deeply about my course design. While the change in my course assignment was not drastic, it added value to the course that helped students retain and apply what they had learned. The reciprocal nature of the monthly cohort sessions assisted me in doing the same, while connecting me to my colleagues and support systems.