Degree Name
Master of Arts
Graduate Program
Speech Communication
Advisor
Pensoneau-Conway, Sandy
Abstract
As U.S. universities continue to diversify, international graduate teaching assistants (iGTAs) play a central yet understudied role in communication classrooms. Guided by the framework of Critical Communication Pedagogy (CCP), this study examines how iGTAs interpret and embody critical pedagogical principles as they navigate linguistic, cultural, and institutional expectations. Using an interpretive approach, I held a focus group discussion with seven iGTAs to explore how participants’ identities, experiences, and emotions influence their teaching practices. Five main themes emerged, including (1) interpreting CCP through identity and positionality, (2) embodying CCP through collaboration and mutual learning, (3) negotiating ethical and shared uses of power, (4) understanding silence as both communicative and pedagogical practice, and (5) practicing care, empathy, and emotional labor as core elements of critical teaching. Findings indicate that iGTAs enact CCP not only through deliberate teaching strategies but also through their lived, affective negotiations of difference in the classroom. This study contributes to CCP scholarship by showing how international instructors turn their challenges into opportunities for critical pedagogy, offering new insights into justice-oriented and interculturally responsive teaching.