Sarah Emory, Harvard University, MA, USA
Liz Tummons, University of Missouri, MO, USA
Alissa Cohen, Michigan State University, MI, USA
Haley Dolosic, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA

The ITA Working Group: A History

When the world moved suddenly to remote-only teaching and learning conditions in 2020, there was a bright spot for many ITA professionals that emerged. As Sarah Kegley reported back in Summer of 2020, it was a group of our compatriots facing the same strange challenge of turning our largely in-person orientations and courses into dynamic online interactions that helped our students to teach their classes with grace in a time of unique difficulties. Thanks to the work of Kim Kenyon and Liz Tummons, these meetings started and continued to be a watering hole where ideas were shared, challenges discussed, and online tools piloted. As questions emerged, a Google Document slowly filled with insights and ideas as breakout rooms discussed synchronous learning, asynchronous lecturing, games and conversation starters, and reformulating complex interactive testing into online Zoom calls. As many professionals joined week after week, new ideas were shared and a community of practice contributed to a shared set of materials and ideas that were tested and implemented throughout the ITA community. Since May of 2020, these meetings have continued at least once a month, even as we returned to TESOL in-person and began to teach our students without masks, many repeated the call for this regular meeting to continue, and each semester a leader has pushed it forward, allowing it to continue serving as a gathering space as we embark on new approaches to our work and in the face of challenges to our field.

Practical Reasons for Staying Power

The pandemic may have introduced many new challenges, but it did not surprise anyone in the ITA space that isolation tends to be a part of this role, with many ITA professionals serving as teams of one at their institution. As we know all too well, many of us were seeking out a larger professional network to share ideas with and learn from. While the panic and strangeness may have heightened the initial need for these Zoom meetings, as Sarah highlighted, they remain a touchpoint for ITA professionals because they are also helping to meet this unique need in a way that in-person conferences cannot in our budget constrained, post-pandemic university settings. Overall, we say that there are several reasons that we return each month to greet our ITA friends and settle into another interesting conversation: knowing people makes connecting on specific questions easier, meeting with practitioners leads to practical solutions, having a space to ask questions and grapple with complexity is, and connecting with other interests that are adjacent to our daily work allows for interesting and meaningful conversation.

Through this regular meeting of a relatively small group of practitioners, we’ve come to know each other, and, as a result, we can reach out to follow-up to conversations and build on what was discussed with greater specificity. We have loved the moments when emails are exchanged in chat and then a one-on-one conversation emerges. Sarah drew attention to another central component of these conversations - they do not end when the hour ends. As many of us have complex schedules, the notes and questions that follow-up to these conversations provide a great deal of information and meaning, even to those who missed a meeting or two. As Haley reports, it was these kinds of conversations that led me to develop a new database to track my students and advocate for different policies. I was able to ask questions and then share what I learned with those in power. This helped me to bridge that challenge that Liz highlighted in a recent conversation: many of us lack of colleagues and administrators in our universities who clearly understand what we were actually doing and why.

Liz goes on to highlight one of the crucial reasons we return: while in a larger interest group practitioners might be more hesitant to speak ahead of researchers, our small but mighty group is, for the most part, practitioners. We are seeking practical support and solutions, not esoteric discussions. This makes our group one who knows each other on equal footing, ready to encourage and offer any advice we have to share.

Not only does this group help us to get answers to questions we know we have, but it also provides us with the ability to talk about the broader context. As Alissa shared, I discovered that there are a few other folks in the group who are also interested in one of my longtime ITA-adjacent interests: working with undergraduates in ways that help them to understand and develop strong active listening skills and greater global communication strategies so that they can better communicate with culturally and linguistically diverse instructors and better share in the reciprocal process of meaning-making in classroom interactions. By making these connections we are better prepared to meet the needs of those we work with.

Notably, these are just a few reasons why this group continues to hold the attention of so many ITA professionals. There are many more, including the social aspect of connecting with others who are working to support international students’ successes in the classroom.

Challenges & Plans to Continue

Despite the on-going challenge of finding times to meet that work across the many time zones and class schedules we have, this group has continued to meet. As Liz and Sarah highlight, anyone can set-up an additional ad-hoc meeting at another time to suit a specific question or interest. Recently, one working group member did just this, having a timely conversation that met the needs of a sub-group among the ITA folks.

At present, there is no plan to stop. We have agreed that we still have questions, and these questions do not have easy answers! We encourage you to join, connect, and collaborate with this ITA Working Group as they choose a new “business as usual” of maintaining contact across universities, time zones, and teaching models.