Decolonizing the Classroom: International GTAs and Reclaiming Authority

Abstract

Contrary to Karamcheti and Bulamur, Aparna Hebbani and Katherine Hendrix in their 2014 qualitative study attribute students defiance of IGTAs authority to the IGTAs academic status, English language proficiency, and teaching experience rather than foreignness, race, or ethnicity [ ]the new COVID-19 pandemic and its socioeconomic consequences give urgency to the issue at hand as feelings of animosity against foreigners are heightened According to Bulamur, those students use "the unintelligible ITA myth" as an excuse of low performance (2013, 171) According to one GTA and PhD candidate in the English program that I spoke to, "Some of the students seem to want a simplified experience where the instructor would be a blank figure, who is conceptually faceless and colorless, and merely present to impart information without drawing attention to his cultural background