Context

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School has trained hundreds of international students since its founding. These students provide Trinity’s campus with valuable insights and perspectives from their home cultures, improving the learning environment immensely. Along with these diverse perspectives, foreign classmates bring distinct educational expectations. This initiative studied practical ways that professors could restructure their classroom environments to support students with non-American educational backgrounds.

Globalizing Theological Education

When this initiative began, academia at large was starting to address the complexities of welcoming multicultural students into a learning environment together. At the time, most of the work on this topic focused on administrative concerns, such as admissions, language skills, and personal counseling for internationals. The Globalizing Theological Education initiative took a far more practical approach. Educators and experts gathered together on Trinity’s campus for workshops, discussing which methods and structures might be useful in a diverse classroom setting. These gatherings paired participant experience with research and dialogue, producing specific plans of action for TEDS professors.