Pedagogical Training

Teaching experience at a range of curricular levels, and development of a strong pedagogical vision are highly valued aspects of the doctoral program in Hispanic Studies. Teaching and pedagogical training therefore play an important role in the program as we strive to prepare students for the academic job market and a range of career outcomes. Such training also enhances students' communication and leadership skills.

Emory's TATTO program is a degree requirement for all PhD students.It introduces graduate students to teaching in a graduated manner. Teaching responsibility increases as skills grow. The TATTO experience has proved to be a major asset in preparing students to be successful educators and in offering prospective employers the teaching credentials they are looking for.

1. Workshop

The first stage of TATTO is a short course offered in August, before the fall semester begins. It should be taken immediately prior to a student's first teaching experience. Faculty for this course are drawn from among the best teachers across the University. The syllabus covers general topics of importance to all students, including syllabus writing and grading, lecturing and leading discussions, the use of writing as a pedagogical tool, the conduct of lab sessions, and the use of new technologies.

2. HISP 610: Pedagogy of Language and Culture

In the second stage, the program provides training that addresses specific concerns and teaching strategies of teaching a foreign language.HISP 610 presents the fundamental theories and methods of teaching second/foreign languages, texts/discourse, and culture, with particular attention to the goals and challenges of teaching language and Iberian/Latin American/Latinx cultures within North American educational institutions. It integrates throughout critical approaches to the teaching of language, culture, and intercultural communication, along with attention to curriculum design for courses at all levels of the undergraduate language and culture program. Optimally, students enroll in this course at the same time they participate in their first teaching opportunity.

3. Multi-Section Course Instruction

Following the tradition of language studies departments, graduate students normally teach their own sections (i.e., they do not serve as actual assistants to other faculty). In their first year of teaching they are assigned sections of lower-level multi-section courses which have a common syllabus, textbook and exams, as well as an experienced course coordinator who serves as supervisor and mentor. This allows graduate students to focus on methods and issues of effective classroom teaching. Students entering without teaching experience will teach Spanish 101, Elementary Spanish and Hispanic Cultures, and then progress to the intermediate course Spanish 202. Students entering with prior teaching experience will begin with Spanish 201 (third-semester intermediate level) and progress to Spanish 202, or they will begin directly in Spanish 212, Introduction to Hispanic Texts and Contexts, the multi-section introductory course to the undergraduate major in Spanish.

4. Upper-Level Course Instruction

The 300-level courses provide structure but also allow much more autonomy for graduate student instructors than lower-level courses at the 100 and 200 levels. The 400-level seminars requires that the student take full responsibility for the design of a syllabus while taking into account how it will fit within the undergraduate curriculum; syllabi must be approved by the DGS and/or Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. While teaching at the 300 and 400 levels, graduate student instructors will be assigned a teaching mentor (normally from the tenure-track or lecture-track faculty of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and in many cases, the student's advisor.) to help them with their teaching responsibilities and to further their pedagogical development.

Alternative Teaching Opportunities

We are aware that students may wish to acquire other sorts of teaching experience in other departments, perhaps serving as teaching assistants in a large lecture class or co-teaching (in Spanish or English) with a faculty member from Spanish and Portuguese or some other department. Those students who plan to pursue alternative careers may also substitute the teaching of the fourth course with other experience that will be relevant to their career goals, such as team research, community engagement, and digital scholarship. All these options are open to discussion and will need to be decided on a case-by-case basis in collaboration with the DGS and the dissertation advisor.