So much for academic freedom!

There is a familiar anxiety rising in my middle. Is there something that I have forgotten to do? Have I missed a deadline? The pursuit of the average academic has become how to stay ahead of the game, keep funding flowing through their research, fulfil their commitments to the "right" committees, keep their marking up to date, and get their teaching done. There are a plethora of demands coming at us from every side, and (for people like me - and there are many of us) a profound sense of responsibility to make sure that things are done right. We are easily locked in to getting through the "to do" list, and sometimes miss the opportunities to think deeply and critically about our discipline - never mind thinking outside our discipline! 

What we fail to do at South African universities is educate young minds broadly in ethics, values, reasoning, appreciation, problem solving, argumentation and logic. Locked into single-discipline thinking, our young people fail to learn that the most complex social and human problems cannot be solved except through interdisciplinary thinking that crosses these disciplinary boundaries. (Jonathan Jansen)

As a scientist teaching in a university, I want my students to get a grip on their place in the bigger picture and the way their discipline affects the world at large, as well as the ways in which they can interact with other disciplines in order to bring about a positive impact. And yet so often I am instead caught up in the "tyranny of small things" rather than having the freedom to grapple with the complex problems which we are meant to be here to help solve.

Not only that, we find ourselves caged by the limitations of our own humanity. I am not free - academically or otherwise - because I would rather stay with what is safe. I would rather not push the difficult boundaries too far in case I upset someone and get denied funding. I would rather not upset someone else, in case it costs me a promotion. I would rather not push my students too hard in case they report me for harassment, or fail my course (which reflects badly on my teaching), or take their hard-won skills and knowledge to another faculty member. I am not free because it is easier to play it safe.

I recognize that there is a bigger debate around academic freedom, and where the trend toward managerialism impacts on it, but what concerns me here is the way I relinquish my freedom too willingly in the cause of comfort and convenience.

Life is risky, and so is freedom. Ask a question that makes you look foolish. Challenge a popular perception. Say no to another (inane) committee – even if it would look good on your CV. Go on, I dare you!

think happy thoughts

We are again entering exam time. For academics in our institution this means a break of about 4 weeks when we do not teach, and instead frantically rush around trying to get research and admin sorted so that we will be ahead of the game when our marking comes around. And of course, there is the marking... but I have spoken of that in a previous post.

This is a time of self reflection regarding our teaching and coursework, and a time to get those last few edits done on a paper or two. It’s not really a time for starting new things. Well, not for me anyway! 

The challenge with being reflexive about teaching and research supervision is to be gentle both on ourselves and our students. So I have decided to think happy thoughts. The first rule as I look back over the semester behind me is to think happy thoughts - even about the things that I could have done better, the occasions when my students let me down (or appeared to), the experiences which would have been less painful if I had had the support of my colleagues. In every one of these situations, there is a glimmer of happiness, and I am going to find it.

It is not helpful to live in denial when things have gone badly, but neither is it helpful to dissect every course and every process to find what is wrong with it. Only dead things should land up on the dissection table! Living things like courses and students deserve a little more careful treatment.

So, what went right? What should I make sure I do again? What should we do more of? Who can I encourage, nurture, promote? The things that need to be thrown out will be obvious enough if I focus on the aspects that shine. 

Reading and editing a thesis

Yes, that is one of the most important services that a supervisor offers to their doctoral students. While some are of the opinion that a thesis is no longer relevant in the modern scientific context, it is the most thorough and detailed treatment of a topic that a student will do, and most likely the most that an academic will do. As I struggle through the thesis with each of my students we both gain a deeper understanding of the subject in the specifics of a particular focus. If it is done really well, we also gain a more thorough understanding of some of the broad sweeping aspects of the topic under consideration. We also learn a lot about eachother's limits and limitations! As I read A's work, I am impressed by her grasp of widely varied aspects of her study, and with the sheer volume of papers that she has read, and yet I am frustrated by her limited English language skills and mostly by her ability to reduce material to manageable amounts. B's langauage and scope were better, but his capacity to work was much less, and C has not yet achieved sufficient of any of the above! I think it is really the scope of work achieved and understood, and the way in which it expands on the current state of knowledge that comprises a student's achievement of doctoralness.
 

A supervisor needs to provide guidance without interfering. I should be guiding, but not taking control. The student must contribute most - including ideas. As supervisors we are producing students who must have confidence in their own ability to have ideas, to be able to take initiative, to think critically. This cannot be achieved if we batter down their confidence along the way and take every opportunity to criticise, but never take an opportunity to praise. We need to provide guidance when we and they encounter challenges, providing both freedom and focus. Students need the freedom to try out new ideas and experiment with ways of doing things which are unfamiliar to us and them, and also the focus to know when the thing they want to try is not likely to contribute to their project or thesis. 

What I am trying to say is this: students need a leader, not a manager! And even the management of the thesis writing, with all the editing and advice, is a function of academic leadership and not simply a chore.

we love grading papers... thats why we chose academia!

...and I have a real bent for sarcasm. Not that you would notice. I have just finished checking my email, reorganising my files, rearranging my desktop, filing, sorting old committee paperwork, and checking my online resources for students. That's right, I also have a stack of marking to do, but I keep finding other things to do so that I can justifiably avoid it. There is nobody I know who got into teaching in order to be able to grade students' work. We know that adequate and timeous feedback is essential, and it forms a valid component of the teaching and learning process for both the students and teachers. We know that it is best if it is done by the instructor themselves in order to become equipped to teach the material better the next time around. But there are precious few people who enjoy grading tests, tutorials, exams or essays.

I could spend this precious time (which I should be spending grading papers) talking about all the things that I hate about grading, but I won't. Those things are fairly obvious. Instead, I want to reflect on the quote we hear so often: "Find the job you love and you'll never work a day in your life"

"As great as the quote from Confucius is, the sad truth is that doing what you love is the dream of many, but the reality of few." (Jorgen Sundberg, http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/find-job-you-love-and-youll-never-work-day-your-life/)

The truth is, I love my job. But I have to work many days, because the standing and teaching, the one-on-one tutoring, the encouraging and inspiring that I love, even the getting-the-hands-dirty in the trenches that I thoroughly enjoy, are only parts of the job I love, and the tedious committee work, marking papers, filing, grant proposals and editing loom large on a daily basis. Nonetheless, each time I get stuck into such things and do what must be done, I have the satisfaction of reaping a reward in terms of seeing the whole academic project within which I work move forward. 

Every job has these little irritations (some quite big, actually) but if we look past the tedium, throw out the "waste of my time" attitude, we get to taste something of the whole enchilada.