Questions:
Stenberg and Lee say that one of the assumptions about being a professor is that professors develop their ideas in isolation rather than in collaboration with students and peers (327). At another point, Stenberg and Lee suggest that the professor’s work becomes a product that is brought to the classroom (329). Does this mentality help fuel the neoliberal policies that are currently eroding the academy? Why or why not?
Stenberg and Lee discuss how, in their work, they could not impose a community on their coworkers (335). bell hooks outlines how students will often not embrace liberatory practices because of preconceived notions of what a college classroom/professor should look like and behave (142). As teachers, how do we tow this line between enforcement and buy-in? What strategies can we use to increase buy-in? If we don’t have the support of colleagues or administrators, is it still possible to create the sort of learning atmosphere discussed in the reading?
Response
Transgression in teaching comes from challenging the traditional model of what it means to be a professor. The typical professor can be imagined as standing at the front of the classroom lecturing. They are more concerned with study and mastery of their discipline than teaching—professors are scholars, not teachers. I hope to challenge or transgress against these notions in my own teaching career. I am in no way suggesting that all professors are like this. I know there are a lot of really great professors out there, and I know that there are a lot of professors who could use some work. I will refer to the professor in need of assistance as the traditional professor or some variation of that phrasing. I will outline some of the ways that I will seek to transgress the traditional model of a professor below.
When teaching, it is important to move around the classroom and relinquish the power that is garnered from standing at the front of the room (hooks 138). The front of the room is a safe place for the instructor. It automatically commands authority. However, it is important to relinquish this authority in favor of facilitating student participation (hooks 14). This transgression against the traditional professorial model allows the focus on the class to shift to the students rather than being solely focused on the professor. Without student engagement, learning is difficult. Making a classroom student-centered is valuable, and giving the students a voice is important. This happens when professors are flexible with students and allow them to participate in their authentic voice (hooks 170-172). It is important to encourage students to think differently about the study of English and the writing process. Teachers can do this by trusting that their students have something to say that is valuable (hooks 152).
Mastery of the subject that the professor is teaching is important. A teacher needs to know the content and be passionate about the subject that they are teaching. The traditional professor is tied to this notion alone, and when they received their Ph.D., there is a belief that they have reached the pinnacle (Stenberg and Lee 327-329). There is nowhere left to go. Bell hooks ties this idea of the bourgeois traditional professor to a refusal to engage in self-actualization, or another way to interpret this would be that the traditional professor believes that they have already achieved this actualization (15-16). However, subject matter is not the end-all be-all of teaching, and the mastery should not lead to the professor creating a sort of product that can be sold to students. Mastery of a subject is not the mastery of every subject. “A central tenet of pedagogical inquiry is that teaching can never be learned finally and totally” (Stenberg and Lee 340). Being a lifelong learner is essential to being a teacher.
At the same time, teaching, like writing, is a recursive process. In other words, it can never be perfected. There is always room for growth or the pursuit of self-actualization. As a teacher, this means being open to criticism from students (hooks 133-134). It also means being open to feedback from colleagues (Stenberg and Lee 342-344). There are so many opportunities to grow, but professors have to be willing to listen and think critically about the feedback that they receive. The traditional professor might be closed off to these opportunities. The function of the academy does not help with this either, as feedback from both students and colleagues is tied to job promotions and raises. It is important to create a feedback loop that is disengaged from this process. That is done by creating a community on the campus—a feat easier said than done. Dialogue is a simple and effective way to get the process going (hooks 129-139).
Finally, and for me, this is my biggest goal: I hope to transgress the traditional model of being a professor by instilling in my students the idea that education is an end in itself rather than a means to an end. Yes, students will use their education as a means of progressing and improving themselves, but I hope that I can impart to them a desire for lifelong learning. I hope to do this by sticking to the tenants I discussed above.
Works Cited
Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress . Routledge, 2014.
Stenberg, Shari, and Amy Lee. “Developing pedagogies: Learning the teaching of English.” College English, vol. 64, no. 3, 1 Jan. 2002, pp. 326–347, https://doi.org/10.58680/ce20021252.
Jordan Cagle 