Professor Sonya N. Martin (Korean name: 마틴 산야, 馬山野) has been teaching future science teachers as part of the College of Education’s Department of Earth Science Education since September 2011. Since 2014, she has also run the iSNUCE program, which supports the College of Education’s international students and promotes exchange between them and Korean students, and in September 2019, she was elected to a two-year term as president of the SNU International Faculty Association. In this interview, Professor Martin discusses her research interests, the International Faculty Association’s activities, managing iSNUCE, and internationalization and diversity at SNU. The interview was supposed to take place in person but ended up being conducted in writing due to the worsening COVID-19 situation.

I first arrived at SNU in August 2011, so next summer will mark my 10th year at the university. This semester, I was granted tenure and promoted to full professor, so I anticipate I will remain at SNU for many years to come. I am a faculty member in the Department of Earth Science Education in the College of Education. I am a researcher and science teacher educator with a focus on equity issues in science education. My research focuses on supporting science teachers to be able to effectively teach science to diverse students—including girls, students who are culturally and linguistically diverse, students with special education needs, and students who are disadvantaged economically. 

I have been a member of the IFA since 2016. In 2019, I was elected President for a period of 2 years. Since that time, I have been working with international faculty and the university administration leadership to improve communication, understanding, and collaboration opportunities to expand and improve the internationalization efforts of the university.

The IFA was first established in December 2016 with a meeting of a core group of 20 faculty members who sought to formalize a support system to advocate for improved integration of international faculty within the SNU community. Every 2 years, the IFA elects an Executive Board (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Member at Large) to run administrative tasks, convene meetings, and serve as a link between the organization and the administration. We are still a young organization, but we are working hard to develop our organizational culture and to establish short- and long-term goals. A critical aim of the IFA is to establish and maintain programs that will aid in the promotion of good fellowship among all members of SNU and to support and advance the interests of the international faculty and internationalization. Our members specifically selected the name “서울대학교 국제교수회,” “SNU International Faculty Association” rather than “서울대학교 외국교수회,” “SNU Foreign Faculty Association” because we wanted to emphasize that international members are not “outsiders” to the university community. Indeed, many of the international faculty members actually also identify as ethnically, culturally, and/or linguistically Korean. As such, our organization seeks to represent many diverse perspectives and experiences related to being “international” while trying address the unique challenges we each face while living and working as non-citizens at SNU and in the wider community. The challenges often present as structural and cultural obstacles that unintentionally limit participation or access to information or opportunities that should be afforded to all faculty. Changing structures requires time and dedication on the part of the administration to identify and resolve issues collectively—which is what the IFA is working towards.

While the global pandemic has greatly disrupted many of the normal functions of academic life, the effort needed to respond to the crisis has led to much improved communications with university administration and has helped us to better establish and strengthen our collaboration with the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of International Affairs. This year we have formalized our communication by making standing, monthly meetings with the administration to address and follow up on various initiatives. This has resulted in improved partnership and communication with staff members in different offices that can help to resolve issues more effectively. In addition, we have identified some benchmark activities to initiate for 2021, including developing and providing professional development opportunities in English (with Korean language support) to provide faculty with important information about issues related research and teaching. For example, we are currently developing our first professional development session that will inform faculty about how to access both internal and external funds to support research. We also have plans for developing sessions that describe the tenure and promotion process and that will educate members about the SNU Ethics Review Board process and procedures. These are all critical areas necessary for improving scholarship opportunities for international faculty and for the students—both domestic and international—that international faculty advise. In addition, we hope to develop and provide professional development sessions to introduce new pedagogical strategies to support improved teaching. We believe all of these initiatives have the potential to improve the productivity of international faculty and their students, which will also benefit the university.

Haha. Yes, actually I established this program for international students in our college in 2014 and I am still the Director today. The goal of the program is to provide support for international students in our college both academically and socially. iSNUCE has been generously funded by College of Education Dean’s Office each year. This funding supports three CoE students to work with me during the semester to provide a new student orientation program, to organize and run a language exchange program pairing international and domestic Korean students from our college in a 9-week program, and to provide activities twice a month to engage students to learn about academic issues and have fun social events. My student assistants and I provide support for various issues international students face during the semester and we communicate issues to the Dean’s Office to find ways to address systemic issues. Over the last 6 years, we have been able to improve access to scholarship funds, attend to various health care needs, and prepare a college-wide evaluation report of international students’ concerns to deliver to the administration. During the pandemic, our organization has needed to revise our approach and are now having online orientations, language exchange programs, and student information sessions and workshops. We are trying to provide international students with a sense of community while at the CoE by connecting them more closely with the administration, faculty, and other students. We look forward to when we can move our programs “offline” again and support students to explore our neighborhood and Seoul more actively so they can also experience and learn more about Korean culture and language in everyday life. I really appreciate the opportunity to meet and work with so many incredibly talented and kind students who have chosen SNU for their graduate education experience. 

This question is interesting to me. I think a lot about position and status in society in my own research because I try to understand how different social factors influence science teaching and learning in schools and society. As a result, I am very conscious of how my various intersecting identities, including my nationality (American), my mother tongue (English), and my race (White), all provide me with various levels of privilege in Korean society, especially relative to other immigrants living in Korea who have come from other countries and who may not be native speakers of English and who may not be White. I am very conscious that my experiences relative to other immigrants in Korean society—even at the university—are differently affected by these intersecting identities. I also recognize that while I experience privilege in my daily interactions with people, I also experience a kind of “Othering” because these are differences I have not been able and will never be able to hide no matter how long I live here. I have learned to be aware of and critically reflect on how different factors shape my experiences with others and to be thoughtful about how to use my privilege to support other people with less opportunity. For this reason, I think it is important that I advocate for the support of international students and faculty and that I conduct research that seeks to improve learning opportunities for marginalized students and communities here in Korea. With regard to being a female faculty member, I also recognize our university has a lot of room for improving both parity in terms of hiring more female faculty and staff, but also for improving gender equity by expanding leadership roles for female faculty, staff, and students. These changes can support the administration to transform structures in the university that have an impact on curriculum decisions, funding, hiring and promotion, and revision of policies that can better support gender equity practices in higher education and in society. 

Internationalization has to be viewed as something more than an action item on a checklist aimed at improving the university ranking in world reports. Internationalization requires vision and commitment from the leadership in administration and buy-in from people in different levels of authority throughout the organization. There needs to be shared understanding and plan for how internationalization can and should strengthen and benefit the teaching/learning and research of Korean faculty and students. Decision-making about how to advance these ideas also needs to include long-term planning and commitment beyond simply hiring some “international” faculty and staff and admitting some “international” students to programs that are not designed to support their learning or to integrate them into the university in ways that value what they bring with them. Similar to the issue of gender equality, we cannot address equity issues simply by hiring or admitting more female faculty, staff, and students. It requires a cultural shift in the way the university decision-makers view gender and understand the value of being informed by different perspectives. I think that dialogue with a commitment to shared action in the form of short- and long-term goals for addressing specific issues at different structural levels within the university has the potential to be most transformative.

For me, diversity refers to difference. I think it is important to understand and value the differences that exist among individuals and groups of people. And more important, I think it is critical that we learn from these differences and across our differences. To do this, the university needs to embrace and make space for different kinds of people to become a part of the fabric of the community. We need to actively seek and learn from people who are different in terms of not only race, language, nationality, and economic class but also physical ability, religious, social and political beliefs, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The world consists of not only the people who have self-selected to belong to this small academic community: It also consists of the people who have been excluded and of the people who have no interest in this community. To educate students, to develop leaders, and to engage in meaningful research that reflects the realities of the world, universities need to invite and learn from different perspectives and lived experiences. 

I do not believe that SNU is a singular community, but rather groups of communities within a network of communities. Some of these spaces value diversity and learning from difference more than others. Changing historical, cultural, and social norms surrounding academia takes time and committed leadership. I believe that this university, like other academic communities in the world, is reckoning with many complex issues and changes that are taking place in very short time spans. As I am an optimist, I believe that SNU is already in the process of becoming more inclusive, but it is a process and not a destination, so there is much to be done as we all continue to grow, develop, and learn more about how we can more effectively learn from and respect difference (diversity). We can already see that change is happening on campus, as evidenced by the work being done by groups such as the Diversity Council, the Women’s Faculty Association, and the International Faculty Association. With the continued support of the administration, I expect we will see more evidence of SNU’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the future.

I think sustainable change requires leadership that encourages and supports—in both spirit and practice—individuals and groups of people to actively work to identify and resolve the structural problems within the university—and society—that limit equitable participation and that result in marginalization of different groups of people. The problems may manifest as actual physical problems (such as lack of elevators for people with mobility differences), organizational problems (such as lack of understanding about how laws/rules affect people differently depending on visa status or gender), or lack of access to resources (such as information and social networking important for making connections, conducting research, and being promoted and tenured). To address these kinds of systemic issues, we need to bring people with different expertise and experience together to problem-solve and suggest solutions. And critically, leadership needs to equip people with the ability to actually implement the reform measures needed. This community is full of intelligent, passionate, talented, innovative people who could affect lasting changes—but they need to be empowered by leadership to propose and enact the suggested practices.

Different universities are organized differently, but universities that have the most innovative policies for supporting and nurturing diverse educational environments are those that share leadership and responsibility for affecting change with the students, faculty, and staff. Universities that establish strong advisory committees consisting of staff, students, and faculty that monitor the needs of underrepresented and underserved groups and make policy recommendations that are taken up by the administration can be very effective. Student-, faculty-, and staff-led initiatives can support concrete changes that address the needs of different communities on campus. Improving access to information and transparency about decision-making related to equity issues is another important way to engage community members in on-going dialogue about how to improve the work and mission of the university. Finally, establishing and adequately staffing administrative offices that are dedicated to dealing with issues, such as a university human resources service to deal with employment-related issues and an office of diversity and inclusion to deal with student- and faculty-related issues, are also recommended. These organizations can work to coordinate, educate, and implement programs and policies recommended by advisory committees, and they engage evaluation of and report on the outcomes of various initiatives. Programs that include a strong research component to evaluate and reflect on the outcomes of various initiatives are also useful for sharing best practices about how to promote and support diversity and inclusion in other contexts in the local community.  

 

I would just like to thank you for inviting me to speak to you about diversity and inclusion issues. I appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you and share my experiences.