As educators we have all been there when we stand at the front of the class and have to “phone it in.” But, for those of us who relish teaching and think about pedagogy, teaching effectiveness, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, we know that we give more thought to teaching and the attendant points. I feel compelled to share a discussion that I had with my Feminist Political Thought Seminar the other day.We were reading and discussing articles related to reflexive teaching and learning.

I was struck with several things. The first point is that the students sense when an instructor wants to be in the class or is engaged with the material. And, this environment influences their interest in the class and its materials. Likewise, they also notice when an instructor seems disinterested in the material and has less “energy” teaching or interacting with them. I have been thinking about this. Ultimately, I know that I already knew this—most of the students are smart. They know how to “read” the instructor. What I was caught off guard with is this notion that their level of engagement with the course is influenced so heavily by the instructor’s pedagogy. It makes perfect sense, but to hear so many repeat these points—really stayed with me.

Boring material can be revitalized by an instructor, yes, makes sense. But, great material can also be marred by a less than enthusiastic instructor.

The points that the students kept on making also spoke to feeling like they were more than a number in the classroom. They wanted the instructor to speak to them.  They also want to have a personal connection—so that they knew that the instructor cared about their opinions or their work. The students noted how helpful office hour consultations are with an instructor. But, I wonder what else is helpful. Is it the quick hallway conversation after class or a thoughtful response to one of their email queries? I’m still thinking about our discussion and will post more in the next part of this discussion.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

They say that the abortion wars could not get worse. I beg to counter this statement, given my recent read of Neal Shusterman’s Unwind. The book takes place in the dystopian future. The second Civil War in the United States is the Abortion Wars between the Life Army and the Choice Brigade (the third group is the US military). While society seems fine—things are amiss. Abortion is now illegal, but parents or guardians can choose to have their kids (13-17) unwound. Yes, that’s right, the teens’ bodies are donated to society, so that s/he lives on—it’s not about death. Right. It ends up that teenagers see how ridiculous the law is. There are several references or allusions to how organ donation has become big business due to the availability of healthy organs. There are now suddenly lots of young healthy body parts available—part of the Bill of Life is that 99% of the body parts are reclaimed. Continue reading →

I did something today that I’ve only done previously in some of my American Politics courses. I shared that I had been assaulted years ago over a parking spot. Previously, I’ve used the assault as an example, when differentiating between civil and criminal cases. The students usually write away and understand the difference between the type of cases. A few students have approached me later in the term and acknowledged that he or she was a victim of some random act of violence or a survivor of domestic violence.

This week in my Gender and Politics class we are examining violence. Specific to Tuesday’s class, we had a student led discussion about violence and intersectionality. When I was in front of the students, I suddenly decided to quickly share my first brush with violence. (And, yes, I ruefully noted that it’s a shame that there was more). The Coles Notes (similar to Cliff’s Notes) version is that an undergraduate student chased me down and assaulted me. This was during my first year of Graduate School. This man attacked me in front of Fraternity Row and the frat brothers playing basketball did not intervene. They later told the detective that, “We thought she was his girlfriend.” Oh, that statement still speaks volumes.

I shared this story with my students, so that they could have a human face  in their minds, when we have these heady discussions about violence. I know that some of them have survived violence, too. I don’t know if this was an over share. Did some of them think this was unprofessional? I don’t know. I’m sure that the course experience surveys (evaluations) will speak to this, if they had a problem. The major reason why I did this–is we are uncomfortable talking about violence. Violence does not happen to us. But, it does.

I am hopeful that the Twitter exercise will field some honest points. I asked them to discuss the framing of violence via Twitter posts. You will see them (fingers crossed) with the #Poli335 hashtag.

So, I ask you, how do you see violence framed? Is it framed as an issue that only certain people are victims of violence?

As I noted in an earlier post, I have given the Teaching Assistants working for me some more autonomy. By and large this has been successful. I need to better explain my expectations to each of the TAs and perhaps individually. One thing that continues to be extremely important–being available for a quick chat with a TA. I know that they appreciate this. It’s a constant learning experience for them and for me.

The increased autonomy gives them a sense of ownership with their job, their apprenticeship. And, I hope this translates into a better learning experience for each of the TAs and a good tutorial for the enrolled students. I’m really looking forward to Summer school and working with two TAs for the course. Teachable moments!

Dear Hollman: This is a great conversation.

The first thing is that both the writers you cite are writers and not feminist writers or feminist activists and Shalit is a known, out conservative, as well. They are coming from a particular viewpoint with their research. And, I have read both books and numerous articles from them. So, I am not just merely disagreeing with the statements. And, I have actually taught sections of Levy’s book in my Women’s Studies courses.

Yes, besides the want for equal pay, naming marital rape and date rape, lots of work detailed the negative consequences with the objectification of women and how this objectification was raced/classed/sizeist/ageist, etc.

Lipstick Feminism is not a real strand or “flavor” of feminism, but rather a critical comment or label lobbed at young feminists. Now the hearts and minds might be in the right place politically, but there also might an attention to consumerism. But, this is part of the generation—one author has referred to youth as consumnivores.

Particular to Girls Gone Wild and other discussions of this nature—in my opinion we’ve witnessed some folks running with language from feminists—agency, empowerment and the like and using it for their own benefit and part of this is the hypersexualization of girls and young women. We certainly don’t see feminist advocates saying that the women on “The Bachelor” are feminists, right?

Let’s continue this…what do you think?

Janni

This last week I have graded more than 180 2-3 page paper proposals for my first year course, the Worlds of Politics. I have been quite pleased with a majority of the paper proposals. The students read the directions and responded accordingly. During the last two days, I also returned a good number of the assignments back to students and have reviewed their assignments with them. Honestly, this is one of the rewarding parts of my job. I enjoy helping the students with their writing and critical thinking. When I review the assignments with them, the vast majority of them appreciate this. And, then, this leads to a short discussion about their topic.

I think that office hours are completely under-rated. Office hours provide the perfect moment to connect with a student and demonstrate both my interest in the material and my want for the student to succeed. This isn’t about a woman faculty being good at “care” work. I know that I have had great office hour experiences with my mentors and some demoralizing ones with other faculty. Perhaps this is why I usually don’t have a problem when my office hours extend an extra 5-45 minutes. I’m fine doing this, when I don’t have to go teach a class or have to get kids at school.

Getting back to grading, I will admit that the marking process is frustrating when a student has not bothered to pay attention to the directions. I don’t enjoy not giving points because basic points outlined in the syllabus and text are not followed. This term I even included a sample strong paper proposal from last term and  know that this made a difference with the overall mean score. However, there were still some students who did not demonstrate that they had read the assignment. My hope is that with the next assignment the students will read the directions more clearly.