Internationalizing “Americaâ€: Critical Pedagogy in the Multinational Community College Classroom

As an historian and an Englsih professor working in a multiethnic, international environment, we are fortunate to work among colleagues dedicated to a critical pedagogy sensitive to the lived experience and identities of our students. At the same time, our pedagogies often reflect a U.S.-centric multiculturalism that fails to account for the racialized power heirarchies that operate both within the United States and between the United States in other countries. In our essay we outline the collaborative learning community we designed to redress this issue. We discussed how we use the new scholarship of America in the World in the classroom and use our indisiplinary approach to challenge the narrative of American exceptionalism and allow students to explore the inequalities and uses of American power around the world that affect our lives and communities. We evaluate our experiences in these courses and discuss the implications for critical educators who aim to empower students with diverse and international backgrounds.