A Scholarship of Resistance: Bravery, Contingency, and Higher Education
April 01, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Lee Skallerup Bessette and Jesse StommelDigital pedagogy, or any experimental critical pedagogy, is necessarily dangerous, often with real risks for both instructors and students, much of which can be valuable for learning. But when we experiment with our pedagogies, we confront an establishment that can be hostile to anything new -- an establishment that often punishes rather than rewards innovation -- that increasingly enforces the standardization of curriculums and classroom practice. With approximately three-quarters of all classes being taught by contingent faculty, any deviation can trigger a non-renewal, leaving the critical pedagogue on the outside looking in. Read More...
Comments
Pushing Back on Contingency in #HigherEd: Josh Boldt Twinterview
February 13, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete Rorabaugh
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Josh Boldt joined me on Twitter for an hour-long discussion of his work. Boldt, a lecturer in English at the University of Georgia and founder of the Adjunct Project, has made quite a name for himself in the last year. From attending the New Faculty Majority Summit in January 2012 to being an invited speaker at MLA's Presidential Forum "Avenues of Access: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members and American Higher Education" in Boston last month, Boldt spent 2012 at the nexus of a central problem in higher education -- reliance on and conditions for adjunct faculty.
Read More...
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Josh Boldt joined me on Twitter for an hour-long discussion of his work. Boldt, a lecturer in English at the University of Georgia and founder of the Adjunct Project, has made quite a name for himself in the last year. From attending the New Faculty Majority Summit in January 2012 to being an invited speaker at MLA's Presidential Forum "Avenues of Access: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members and American Higher Education" in Boston last month, Boldt spent 2012 at the nexus of a central problem in higher education -- reliance on and conditions for adjunct faculty.
Read More...Who Are We? Scholarly Identity Under Interrogation
March 03, 2012 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete Rorabaugh
On my first day as a student-teacher in a public high school (1999), my mentor teacher left me in the room at 8:20 a.m. to take a call in the front office. As students began filing into school for the day and eventually into her room, the minutes dragged on. It was 8:30. The bell rang. More minutes. Eventually, at 8:35, one of the students in the Senior Literature class said: “Are you our sub?” I was wearing a tie, but I was not the sub. I hadn’t taught a day in my life.
Read More...
On my first day as a student-teacher in a public high school (1999), my mentor teacher left me in the room at 8:20 a.m. to take a call in the front office. As students began filing into school for the day and eventually into her room, the minutes dragged on. It was 8:30. The bell rang. More minutes. Eventually, at 8:35, one of the students in the Senior Literature class said: “Are you our sub?” I was wearing a tie, but I was not the sub. I hadn’t taught a day in my life.
Read More...