Summer reading – bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress

The days are longer, travelling on the Tube has become unbearable, and City has become empty and quiet – this can only mean one thing: summer has arrived. Whilst I’m sure many of you will be using the summer to catch up with your research and writing, or to have a well-deserved break, this might also be a good opportunity to take some time to do some reading about teaching.

One of my favourite books about teaching was published 25 years ago, but the issues it raises are still very relevant today; it’s Teaching To Transgress, by bell hooks (Routledge, 1994). We have a hard copy available in the library, and you can also access the PDF online from the University of Texas. It’s a fairly short read, but very thought provoking. If you’re not familiar with her, bell hooks is a black, female, American academic who has spent her career thinking and writing about how our current system, a white capitalist patriarchy, can be critiqued and challenged – she’s possibly most famous for her book Ain’t I a Woman? which highlighted the ways in which feminism excluded black voices, which current debates about intersectionality are indebted to.

Teaching To Transgress takes this critical stance about the ways in which our world is structured, and considers how this applies to teaching at university. hooks talks about the emancipatory possibilities for education, and how:

The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (p. 207)

She discusses the ways in which a learning community can be constructed instead of the traditional classroom with its hierarchies and power structures that privilege the lecturer and often act to silence students. She demonstrates ways in which students can be empowered to have a voice in the classroom (especially those who often feel silenced, perhaps due to their race, gender, or other identity), through simple activities such as asking students to write a personal response to a topic before a seminar and have the rest of the class listen while they read it out. She argues that this doesn’t mean relinquishing your authority as a teacher, but instead demonstrating how the more analytic knowledge that you are sharing can be expanded through a consideration of experience.

One of the things I really like about this book is that she argues against a traditional separation of mind/ body in academia, where the mind is what’s focused on at the expense of bodily reality. Instead, she contends that a space should be made for emotion in the classroom:

When we bring our passion to the classroom our collective passions come together, and there is often an emotional response, one that can overwhelm. The restrictive, repressive classroom ritual insists that emotional responses have no place. Whenever emotional responses erupt, many of us believe our academic purpose has been diminished. To me this is really a distorted notion of intellectual practice, since the underlying assumption is that to be truly intellectual we must be cut off from our emotions. (p. 155)

This is something that I’ve been thinking about more recently, as I’ve become interested in how we can teach in ways which acknowledge emotion and create a pedagogy based on compassion.  She also discusses the benefits of teaching connected to how we can all learn from our students, suggesting that:

The classroom should be a space where we’re all in power in different ways. That means we professors should be empowered by our interactions with students. In my books I try to show how much my work is influenced by what students say in the classroom, what they do, what they express to me. Along with them I grow intellectually, developing sharper understandings of how to share knowledge and what to do in my participatory role with students. This is one of the primary differences between education as a practice of freedom and the conservative banking system which encourages professors to believe deep down in the core of their being that they have nothing to learn from their students. (p. 152)

As you might be able to tell, I find the ideas in this book really inspiring, and I think she has a particularly effective way of articulating some of my beliefs about teaching: that it should be inclusive, that it should be a collaboration, and that its purpose is to challenge received ideas and injustices. I don’t think I always live up to these ideals – indeed, she reminds us that this way of teaching is often harder than a traditional approach, and if students are not used to it, they may find it demanding or perplexing, and difficult to adjust to initially:

Students do not always enjoy studying with me. Often they find my courses challenge them in ways that are deeply unsettling. This was particularly disturbing to me at the beginning of my teaching career because I wanted to be like and admired. It took time and experience for me to understand that the rewards of engaged pedagogy might not emerge during a course. Luckily, I have taught many students who take time to reconnect and share the impact of our working together on their lives. Then the work I do as a teacher is affirmed again and again, not only by the accolades extended to me but by the career choices students make, their habits of being. (p. 206)

One final idea that she advocates is that there should be a space for fun in the classroom: ‘the first paradigm that shaped my pedagogy was the idea that the classroom should be an exciting place, never boring.’ (p. 7). This is another aspect of teaching that I’ve got more interested in lately – the extent to which we can encourage playfulness in the classroom. These kinds of ideas have inspired, for example, my use of Lego on the Establishing a Teaching Persona course, and last week I went to a conference which explored different aspects of playful learning for adults.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do – I’d be interested in your responses to the arguments and ideas, and what practical use you might put these to in your own teaching next year and beyond.

LearnHigher: teaching your students about learning

It’s the end of the autumn term, which means my office has a tin of Roses and cake available, and last week I came in dressed as a Christmas pudding. But for the students you’re teaching, the university closure period might entail stress about January assessment deadlines and exams as well as catching up with friends and family or seasonal indulgence.

Often, as a teacher, you notice the worries your students have about how to prepare themselves for exams, or how to research or write their assignments. It’s not always easy, however, to work out what you can do about it. It’s also common to assume that students might have come to university fully cognisant of what it means to revise or write a report or essay – but they will only know how to do these things if someone has explicitly explained to them, so it’s best to discuss this in class.

The website LearnHigher can help with both of these things – it includes an array of free, peer-reviewed resources for teaching students about different aspects of learning in Higher Education. LearnHigher has got a whole section on assessment. This includes items that focus on exams: such as a revision podcast that you could recommend to your students, or slides that you could use to teach your students about memory and revision. It also has lots of useful material on writing assessments: from teaching your students how to interpret their assessment questions, to brainstorming ideas and then paraphrasing the research they use.

It’s worth taking a look around LearnHigher to see if there’s anything that you could use or adapt when teaching your students, or provide to them as a resource. And if you have anything relevant, as a member of the website’s working group I can confirm that we’re always looking for new materials if you’ve got something you’d like to share!

Susan and Robert: whom might you be teaching?

Teacher or student centred?

When I began teaching during my doctorate, I was pretty terrified. The first seminar I taught was on Old English literature, and I spent most of the week before worrying about my understanding of the texts, my ability to translate each word, and explain the grammar of every line. I didn’t really think too much about how I was going to teach the session – that much was obvious. When I’d studied Old English myself as an undergraduate, my lecturer went round the class, asking us to read a line from our translation in turn, correcting it or discussing points of interest as we went – so clearly I’d do exactly the same and assume that the students would behave just as I did.

A few months later, however, I was shown this University of Aarhus video which made me rethink things:

What resonated with me is that you’ll inevitably be teaching different kinds of students – the video describes Susan, the kind of well-prepared and engaged student who ‘you can hardly stop from learning’, and Robert, who comes late to class and is distracted by other concerns. It’s really tempting to go into  a ‘blame the student’ mode (where you moan about how no-one has done the pre-class work, there’s a sea of blank faces when you ask a question, and they all seem glued to smartphones rather than paying attention), or alternatively, start thinking that you’re a terrible teacher, and that you need to put more and more time into making your performances more entertaining and polished. Yet, as the subsequent videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfloUd3eO_M and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6rx-GBBwVg) demonstrate, it’s crucial to focus on what your students are actually doing and how this will enable them to learn what you want them to learn in your sessions.

Active learning

Thinking about what your students are doing will enable you to take more of a student-focused approach, rather than just worrying about what you’re doing and expecting their learning to straightforwardly follow on from this. The University of Leicester has lots of ideas for meaningful student activities to use whether you’re teaching large or small groups. Many of these are simple but effective, such as asking your students to explain a point you’ve just made or a theory you’ve just explained in their own words – Padlet can be an effective method for recording and comparing these kinds of responses. If you’re starting to introduce a new kind of activity, I’ve always found it useful to explain to students why you’re asking them to do this, and to get them to reflect on what they’ve taken from it afterwards.

Inclusive learning

Another important point that the video makes in its comparison of Susan and Robert is the perhaps rather obvious one that students are different: they will come from different backgrounds, have different levels of confidence in their own abilities and willingness to participate, and have different motivations for doing their degree. Considering all these differences might make you feel a bit panicky – how do you teach a whole class with all these variables? How might you adapt your materials for students with particular disabilities or needs, or to appeal to students with different identities? An easier approach is to start by making your classes as inclusive as possible – this means thinking about ways in which you can structure your teaching to make it accessible to all students, building in flexibility where possible (students might want to participate in different ways – some might be happy talking in front of a whole class, whereas others might want to write their thoughts down, or have time to prepare contributions) and being explicit about expectations (what do you want from your students?) and diversity issues (you might not be able to influence the choice of curriculum, but if the texts, theories or examples you use over-represent a white, male, Western, or heterosexual perspective then it’s worth discussing this as well as offering alternatives).

Inclusive learning resources

The University of Sheffield has produced a handbook which covers many practical aspects of teaching in an inclusive way. This includes guidelines for producing PowerPoint slides and handouts, key issues to discuss with your students, such as critical thinking and what a pass mark means in the subject you’re teaching (the fact that, in the UK, anything over 70 is a top mark often seems a bit nonsensical to students who aren’t used to this system), and advice about accessible language. The handbook also includes case studies about inclusive learning in different subjects – some of the ideas might be hard for you to implement as a PhD student rather than a module or programme leader, but there might be small changes you can make to your classes which can be very effective. Plymouth University also offers a quick overview of some key aspects of inclusivity to consider, such as communication and group work.

When you’re thinking about how to involve all of your class in discussions or activities, Cathy Davidson has some great strategies for enabling participation, such as:

  • Getting everyone to raise their hand in response to each question (even if they don’t know the answer)
  • Making a list of people who’ve commented to ensure that the same voices don’t dominate the discussion
  • Requiring each student to respond in writing at the beginning or the end of the class (such as noting down one idea each from the reading onto the board as they enter)

What ideas for inclusive learning have you tried and found useful?

Derek Bok Centre for Teaching and Learning (Harvard)

I came across this following a recommendation from a colleague at Kings College, London. Harvard University (in the US) has a centre for teaching and learning which provides extensive advice for people teaching in HE. I think the ‘in the classroom’ section is particularly relevant for PhD students. It begins with a discussion of building rapport with students, making the point that the relationship with your students is crucial. This is something that we’ll be discussing in Establishing a Teaching Persona, as this might be a bit different for PhD students to someone employed as a permanent lecturer – the website includes the advice to establish your credentials, which might seem a bit more intimidating as a PhD student.

There’s a useful section on ‘classroom contracts’ and how to negotiate and establish your expectations for students from the outset, especially if you’re going to be seeing this group of students on a regular basis. A good point is made about being explicit – don’t forget that although, as a PhD student, you are likely to be very used to HE and what it involves in your subject, many students might not be aware of how teaching and learning works, and so it’s important to be upfront about how things will work in your classroom.

The sections on ‘active learning’ and ‘a catalogue of instructional strategies’ might give you some ideas for how to teach the material on your module. As a PhD student, you have a varying amount of freedom to choose what you’re doing – I know that some of you might be given slides by the module leader which you have to use. Nevertheless, there’s often some opportunity to slightly modify the way you teach what you’ve been given – if only by adding in some activities or short discussion sections.

I found the discussion on ‘technology and student distraction’ interesting, as I know people are often concerned that they might be teaching to a room of heads bent over phones or laptops. This acknowledges the issues with the distractions of technology – as multi-tasking is a myth, using technology involves a constant switching between your device and what’s going on in the room. Nevertheless, I’ve found that technology can be a great aid to teaching – I’ve found the online noticeboard Padlet really useful for collecting anonymous contributions to discussions (the anonymity means that some students will contribute who wouldn’t have wanted to shout out in class, and answers can be easily shared and compared). Frustratingly, Padlet is now generating income through subscriptions, so they’ve limited the amount of Padlets you can create using the free version. The site notes that technology can also be needed for students with disabilities – similarly, I’ve taught many international students who will often be using their phones to translate words they don’t understand so it becomes an invaluable aid to learning (few of these students would have the confidence to stop and ask me what I mean directly).

Phil Race – In at the Deep End

When I asked colleagues from other universities about what resources they’d recommend for PhD students who teach, the most popular one was Phil Race’s booklet called In at the Deep End, which is available to download from his website as a PDF.

This was written for any one new to teaching in HE, rather than PhD students specifically, but includes lots of practical ideas. It’s broken into several sections – ‘large-group teaching’ addresses lecturing, which I know some of you will be doing. It covers structure, how to guide students to make notes, how to encourage questions, and some guidance of PowerPoint, some of which was beneficial to me – I hadn’t realised that you can go to a specific slide during your presentation by pressing the relevant slide number (very useful if someone asks you about a diagram or quote on a previous slide, and you’ve printed your slides out so know which is which).

In small group teaching, Phil explores the ways in which both students and tutors can ‘spoil’ small-group work, and how to deal with issues such as student preparation, non-attendance, or not making it clear what the students are supposed to learn. There’s a section on common problems (and how to deal with them), and a check list for both large and small group teaching.

Finally, the booklet addresses assessment, marking and feedback. This may not be relevant to all of you at the moment, but it’s worth a read as even if you’re not doing formal marking, such as assessing essays or exam scripts, during your teaching classes you’ll be giving feedback to students to enable them to see how well they’re doing (such as when you go around and see how different groups are getting on during an activity, or when you respond to the answers students provide to your questions). It’s particularly important to note Phil’s points about feedback needing to empower students and be developmental. This involves thinking about how negative feedback can be given in a way that students don’t feel demoralised and know explicitly what they need to do to improve. Language is really important here – one technique can be to use the word ‘yet’, which suggests that there’s a clear opportunity for a student to do something in future. Also, it’s best to avoid giving a piece of positive feedback, and then saying ‘but’ or ‘however’ before you say something negative – this often leads to students not really hearing the praise as it’s been negated by the problem.