Curzan and Damour, the Tenzing Norgays of Teaching

"Few great accomplishments are achieved single-handedly, Wrigley. Most have their Tenzing Norgays." --Miles Massey, Attorney at Law

Like most everyone else it seems, I found the chapters this week to contain some great practical advice and some needed cheerleading. One thing that I appreciated was the reminder that "your students are not worrying about your class as much as you are" (9). That might seem obvious to us, but teaching tends to skew perceptions about what students actually care about, as the Rebekah Nathan book we've talked about in class (My Freshman Year) details. They're not going to be too worried about how the class is working, per se, and it's up to the instructor to "think about what went right so that you can repeat it" and to resist kicking yourself when things go badly ("just fix it"). I also liked Curzan and Dafour's assertion that "Fundamentally, most of your students assume you are qualified and do not necessarily care too much about your official qualifications as a teacher. What they do care about is your interest in and knowledge of the subject you are teaching" (16). Of course, that begs the question as to whether I'm interested and knowledgeable, but I'm going to hope like hell that I am.

Chapter 9 had some great ideas and like others have said, I plan on incorporating meta-teaching and mid-semester evals (through MoCat) into my courses. I like Curzan and Dafour's assertion that "Feedback always needs to be a two-way street" (166), as well as their comment that meta-teaching puts instructors and students on the "same team in figuring out... what can be done to improve... class dynamics" (168). To me, these techniques do the work of critical pedagogy, helping to level the roles of students and teachers so that the latter take on more of the role of facilitator (Bean uses the word "coach") and gives everyone an investment in how the course is conducted. As they put it, letting students give you feedback is actually conducive to teaching: "This move (and your willingness to make it) will reinforce your authority in the classroom" (ibid). This echoes what good ol' George Justice and ET@MO said at the "What Do You Wish You Had Known about Teaching?" seminar last Thursday. Their point was that using MoCat to do mid-semester evals is great for teachers because students appreciate being able to give feedback when it can affect the course while they themselves are still in it, rather than only after the fact. Claire's comments toward the end of her post are a testimonial to that.

One thing in the reading that kind of bothered me--and this is totally tangential, and it's probably because it came up before with the Theatre of the Oppressed skit, as well--is the example Curzan and Dafour give about potentially offensive behavior (18). They say that "If you suspect that" offensive behavior is "a result of ignorance, use your role as a teacher to provide students with important information. For example, you might try to catch a student after class or write a note on their paper letting them know that most Native Americans prefer not to be referred to as 'Indians.'" My problem is that while it's true "Indians" alone is typically offensive (unless you're talking about people from India), "Native Americans" is problematic, too. The 1996 and 2000 census data reveals that "American Indian" edges out "Native American" as the preferred term among those who identify as having that ethnicity.

A similar problem arises in advocating the use of "African American" over "black," which is what everyone in my neighborhood growing up--a predominantly black neighborhood--used. "Black" was reported as preferred over "African American" by something like 45 to 28%. But I had classes early on in my college career where I was corrected for using "black" and there was an implication that I was being insensitive or even offensive. When I went back and told my friends back home about it, their response was that it was just one more reason why college is overrated. I guess my point is that often our reflexes--while well-intentioned--don't necessarily provide the whole picture. Things are often a lot more complex and that's something I'm going to try and keep in mind when I encounter these "teaching moments."