An assistant professor and director of graduate studies for the master's program in biostatistics at Duke University was removed from her administrative position after Chinese students were singled out for speaking Chinese in informal interaction. While she will retain her faculty position, the Dean of the Duke Medical School announced the removal and wrote to students, "To be clear: there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other. Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom. And your privacy will always be protected."
The linked article provides text from the director of graduate studies' communication to students, which included patronizing comments about understanding how challenging studying in another language can be. Duke's Medical School made the right call in reassuring international students that they should feel free to use whatever language they wish and that their privacy and prerogative would be respected. Other cases of language insensitivity have resulted in faculty removal from teaching responsibilities. Academics condemnations of such conduct have come from multiple places.
Li Jin and Jason Schneider, who surveyed faculty at DePaul University, indicate that the intolerance demonstrated in the Duke example is not unusual. They indicate that faculty believe "that the challenge of international student adjustment to the U.S. academic reality falls wholly on the students. Or differently, ... any teaching challenges that we may have as faculty can be attributed to those supposed shortcomings and deficiencies, not to our own inability to rethink our pedagogies in response to changing demographics."
To add a disparaging element to the neglectful attitudes that faculty and staff sometimes exhibit, students complained about a professor at the University of Maryland who was accused Chinese students of cheating on an exam. Criticisms of Chinese students were also posted to Maryland's learning management system. The students filed a complaint and the professor resigned before university action could be taken.
The linked article provides text from the director of graduate studies' communication to students, which included patronizing comments about understanding how challenging studying in another language can be. Duke's Medical School made the right call in reassuring international students that they should feel free to use whatever language they wish and that their privacy and prerogative would be respected. Other cases of language insensitivity have resulted in faculty removal from teaching responsibilities. Academics condemnations of such conduct have come from multiple places.
Li Jin and Jason Schneider, who surveyed faculty at DePaul University, indicate that the intolerance demonstrated in the Duke example is not unusual. They indicate that faculty believe "that the challenge of international student adjustment to the U.S. academic reality falls wholly on the students. Or differently, ... any teaching challenges that we may have as faculty can be attributed to those supposed shortcomings and deficiencies, not to our own inability to rethink our pedagogies in response to changing demographics."
To add a disparaging element to the neglectful attitudes that faculty and staff sometimes exhibit, students complained about a professor at the University of Maryland who was accused Chinese students of cheating on an exam. Criticisms of Chinese students were also posted to Maryland's learning management system. The students filed a complaint and the professor resigned before university action could be taken.
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