Faculty Learning Community

Teaching to Transform and  Writing to Thrive! 

On behalf of the AAPI THRIVE project, you are invited to apply for a professional development opportunity sponsored by the U.S. Dept of Education AANAPISI Grant under the Chancellor's Initiatives. We are offering a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) dedicated to increasing faculty awareness about the talents, cultures and diverse perspectives of our Asian American and Pacific Islander students (AAPI), many of whom are first generation and Pell eligible. Together, we will ask "How do we implement teaching strategies that honor the unique experiences of our students and their communities?; How do we assess student learning that is culturally relevant and sustaining?" Our FLC work will draw on evidence-based methods, center student voices, and engage with critical research by AAPI scholars. Broadly, participants will engage reflective practices about positionality, culturally sustaining pedagogies, the anti-bias classroom. Additionally, we will discuss how to support student agency and self-authorship. 

This year's FLC will be facilitated in partnership with UW Tacoma's Director of Writing and the Writing Center. Our theme for 2024-25 is Linguistic Justice* which involves three categories that position student diversity as a strength that encapsulates the ideals of equity, promotes democratic education and advocates for humanizing approaches to teaching and learning. Our topics will include: 

• Literacy Pedagogy and Curriculum Development

• Engaging community difference as a classroom practice for literacy learning

• Reflection practice as a central pedagogy in diverse contexts

• Rethinking Assessment and valuing students' lived experiences, communities and languages

  *See the 2018 position statement, "Expanding Opportunities: Academic Success for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students" by the National Council of Teachers of English and Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Participants will take a field trip, engage in group and self-paced activities that include discussion boards, written responses to journal articles/essays/videos and the time necessary to make revisions or additions to your syllabus, lesson plan or other classroom activity. Participants will also develop individualized goals. Upon successful completion**, you will demonstrate evidence of your efforts by sharing your work with a small group of students and colleagues in a showcase format. 

**To receive an addition to your salary, participants are required to participate in the final showcase and attend a majority of the regularly scheduled meetings.

The contents of this program were sponsored by and developed under an AANAPISI grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.