The academic culture of the US is something most of us take for granted, but to someone from another country, it can be quite unfamiliar or even inspiring.
Dr. Li Li is an associate professor in the Communication and Journalism (COJO) department at the University of Wyoming, and a published communication researcher. Li has been at the university since 2012, but her journey as an educator began in China.
“Both of my parents used to be high-school teachers, and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence on campus,” Li said.
“I have loved observing both teachers and students since I was very young,” Li said. “I found even though both my parents and most of their colleagues appeared to be very strict teachers, their students listened to them, adored them, and highly respected them.”
This early experience evaluating the teacher-student relationship would be a persistent theme of Li’s experience.
Not only did it encourage self-reflection in her own teaching, but it also would become a primary focus of her later research.
After acquiring a Master’s in English, Li began teaching at the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC) in 2004 where she would begin evaluating her own teaching methods and delving into the academic culture of China.
“During that time, I stopped approving my parents’ advice of “having a stern face to be an authority so that students will listen more.”,” Li said. “Instead, I explored other ways, such as teacher immediacy, teacher caring, having a dialogical teaching style, etc., to establish my credibility and to foster student learning.”
Li had hoped to lower the sense of authority and distance between herself and students to create a different kind of environment.
Despite her attempts, she found that students would still treat her the same.
“There is an old saying in Chinese: Once a teacher, always a parent,” Li said. Describing that even when attempting to change the nature of the relationship, students would still see her as an intimidating authority figure.
While working at BIGC, Li was assigned to work as an interpreter for various international events where she would get her first chance to explore the academic world of the United States first hand.
Li immediately started noticing other differences between American and Chinese education practices outside of the power dynamic between teacher and student.
“Throughout my time in China, as a student and as a college teacher, I never saw a syllabus,” Li said. She further noted that any kind of schedule was more assumed than planned out.
Li described it as “life is people oriented, not time oriented.”
She also noted that privacy was not as important in China, so grades and personal information being kept hidden as a much more foreign concept. In China, student grades were published publicly and influenced the classroom in unique ways.
“Sometimes, students’ seats would be arranged based on their exam performance, with top students seated in the front row,” Li said. “Back rows are, in that case, a symbol of shame and public humiliation.”
Following this, and experiences at Ohio University, Li found herself at the National Communication Association Job Fair as a doctoral candidate. At this fair, she met professors Justin and Mitzi Stewart who are currently faculty of the UW COJO department.
Li said that she was, “Immediately attracted by the unique job opportunity of utilizing my specialized training and research on distance learning to focus on teaching live video-lectures to state-wide students. Plus, I had always dreamed of exploring the wild west of America.”
“So, ever since the fall of 2012, I have been able to enjoy the beauty of mountains, sunshine, snow, community lives, and very importantly, teaching at UW,” Li said.
Since then, Li has been able to conduct research on all aspects of student communication, including a personal favorite of Li’s which centered on student note-taking and exam styles.
Her findings included information to suggest that perceived learning does not correlate to actual learning, and that note-taking does not increase the sense of teacher clarity for students.
Parts of this research are still ongoing or planned, as Li continues to explore the world of education communication on campus and beyond.
