Teaching CIE: Facilitating discussions with diverse, international and multidisciplinary students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Teacher Development and Professional Identity: Epistemological, Emotional, and Cultural Dimensions of Practice

Proposal

We will be presenting a chapter that we have been invited to write for the upcoming book entitled “Teaching Comparative and International Education: Educator Experiences and Insights”. The book is being co-edited by: Will Smith (University of Edinburgh), Helena Dobrochinski Candido (University of Helsinki) and Caroline Manion (OISE, University of Toronto). The book is being published by Brill and has an anticipated publication date of 2026. In the Call for Proposals, the co-editors stated that this book “explores the diverse experiences and perspectives of educators teaching in the broad and dynamic field of Comparative and International Education (CIE). [This book] seeks to address a critical gap in the existing literature by focusing not on the historical evolution or theoretical foundations of CIE (as important as these are), but on the practical aspects of teaching in this complex field”. Contributors to this volume have been asked to reflect on their teaching practices and offer practical lessons and strategies for others in the field.

The lead author in this chapter has been teaching courses in the field of comparative and international education at a Canadian university for over 15 years. In reflecting on the three suggested foci that the editors included in their Call for Proposals, the lead author chose: Facilitating discussions and learning with a class of diverse, international students who may have multidisciplinary backgrounds. The conceptual framework guiding the research and reflective writing process related to this focus on facilitating discussions and learning envisions a core grounding pedagogical principle which argues for the creation of a collaborative community of inquiry (CCI). Three key elements contribute to the engagement and learning within this CCI: relationships and relevance; philosophical/theoretical lens; and pedagogy (why? what? how?).

To broaden the insights and to center the voices and experiences of graduate students who have experienced the pedagogical approaches utilized by this teacher in CIE courses, the lead author invited three graduate students to collaborate with them in the research, reflections and writing of the chapter. These three co-authors are all international students and have studied (or are currently studying) in other disciplines besides education. In addition to bringing their own experiences and perspectives into the chapter, the writing team has also engaged in qualitative analysis of the data from students’ key take-aways and course evaluation comments in CIE courses taught by this teacher from over 140 graduate students, in 7 sections of CIE courses (over a period of 8 years). The data has been drawn from two different CIE courses: (1) 4 sections from CIE1001 (the Core/Introductory course for Comparative, International and Development Education (CIDE)), and (2) 3 sections from CIE1006, a special-focus tri-university CIE course which arose from a collaboration with universities in Canada, the UK and Australia. It should be noted that a specific connection will be made to the CIES2026 conference theme of ““Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World” as we discuss facilitating discussion in CIE1006 (Transnational Perspectives
on Democracy, Citizenship, Human Rights and Peace Education).

Data analysis (using NVivo) has just completed its first stage of coding to identify initial themes. In August, 2025, the writing team met to review the stage one findings and will be moving into the second stage in which they will identify the key findings (4-5 emerging themes which respond to the focus (facilitating discussions to deepen engagement and learning). In addition to discussing these key findings, attention will also be given to the opportunities/considerations and complexities of using technology to facilitate discussions in CIE courses. The chapter concludes with Lessons Learned to Guide Future CIE Course Development (including 3 practical resources which have been highlighted by students as strong contributors to engagement and learning in discussions in CIE courses).

Authors

• Mary Drinkwater, OISE (University of Toronto); Yorkville University

• Dareen Fatimah, O.I.S.E. University of Toronto

• Jiyoung Kang, OISE - University of Toronto

• Irum Chorghay, University of Toronto