I have had the opportunity to put these goals into action through my role as co-instructor in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Practicum. The course aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of climate diplomacy, most notably through attendance at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP). As the instructor, my role was, first and foremost, to introduce students to the complex world of climate negotiations. In order to do this, I structured the class to focus on the history and process of the negotiations. Ultimately, as someone who has never worked in the climate negotiation space, I determined that for about half of the classes, students would learn from a guest speaker ranging from a U.S. climate negotiator, to a leader of the UNFCCC secretariat, to an activist from an organization of youth, and more. In order to tie together the lessons taught by each of the speakers, I structured a discussion with the students which not only cemented their learning but also surfaced their remaining questions. 

Because of the impact a mock negotiation had on my learning experience and the relevance to this course, I also implemented a mock negotiation whereby students chose a country to represent. They prepared their country position on an issue of relevance for the upcoming COP in the form of a policy memo before class and, once in class, engaged in a structured negotiation modeled after a much shorter form of the climate negotiations they would soon witness. They were assessed not based simply on their success in achieving their goal, but on (1) their ability to clearly and accurately articulate their country’s position including the non-negotiables and the areas where movement was possible and (2) demonstration of listening to other country positions by speaking to their interests, forming coalitions, or acknowledging where overlapping interests existed. 

Students mentioned that experiencing the mock negotiation, helped them to understand the challenges that negotiators face before entering into COP. Once at COP, I sought to ensure that students were finding their own unique niche, taking advantage of the myriad of opportunities available to them, and, ultimately, reflecting on their experiences. Students each had a client organization that they worked with at COP, based on their interests, in order to structure their experience. As such, each day I checked in with each student to ask about their plan for the day and ensure that they felt confident asking their client for what they needed to make the most of their experience, whether it be some hours to attend a side event of their interest, or requesting to serve as a notetaker in a specific negotiation room, for instance. Each day, I hosted a debrief session with all of the students to foster critical reflection and share knowledge amongst the group. Throughout COP and once afterwards, students also were asked to write blog posts reflecting on their experience, which made up a portion of their grade. In doing so, students were not only being asked to make time to process their experience but also share their knowledge with the broader Duke community, who may not have had the opportunity to attend. 

While each time I taught the course, I made adjustments based on what the previous students had taught me, I was lucky to have brought my experience serving as the student instructor of a course on biocultural diversity, which took students from Stanford University to Oaxaca, Mexico for a month-long experiential learning course. Along with coordinating all travel and safety logistics throughout the month, I also helped mentor and guide students through a research project with original data collection. Some students conducted forest transects to measure the diversity of tree re-growth in previously deforested areas. Others conducted random samples of market stands to assess the biodiversity of fruits and vegetables on display. For many, it was their first time conducting research, and I found that having frequent check-ins to address any issues they were having, review their methodology, and have discussions that tied the steps they were taking that day to the greater picture of the overall project they were aiming towards proved beneficial for students. Ultimately, the professor and I organized a conference with a local university where our students presented the results of their research and the Oaxacan students presented their own work, thereby fostering cross-cultural connections.

While these intimate courses have greatly shaped my perspective on teaching, I have also had experience teaching classes with over 100 students in them. I served as the head teaching assistant for a course on Intergroup Communication four times, whereby I not only gave lectures in the course and ran my own discussion section, but also managed a team of fourteen teaching assistants and ultimately was in charge of the grading and logistics of the entire course. Through this experience, I learned about the unique challenges of managing a large course with many different instructors and graders, and thus honed my organization, communication, and standardization skills to ensure that (1) consensus and understanding at team meetings was reached regarding the approach to lessons for the week, (2) detailed input-driven lesson plans were provided, (3) and blind grading based on a specific rubric after calibration sessions occurred in order to reduce bias and discrepancies between graders.