And while I would like to thing that the unfortunate experience of my semester teaching at Fordham University was no big deal, I must acknowledge it plunged me into a psychological paralysis. The fact that I was able to continue to listen to my favorite music radio station, Fordham's public radio WFUV-FM, largely ree from anger and self-loathing says a little something about the paralysis being not rock-bottom deep. Still...It has seemed to me that other college professors get to have sufficient leeway in how they conduct their courses, but not me.
I posted an open letter to my colleagues in the Media Ecology Association on the association's listserve on December 19, 2013 , being it was through connections there I landed the course at Fordham and to whom I thought to complain. I enter it here to let others know.
"It happened yet again: As usual, the instructional order, learning objectives, pedagogy and assessment of the course I was given to teach this concluding semester were premised on judgment developed from nearly forty years cultivating the deepest understanding of Human and Hard Tech Communication processes and affects on individuals, cultures and societies through time from both a “George Gerbner-U of Penn Annenberg-ICA” and a “Nystrom-Postman-Moran-NYU Media Ecology-MEA” perspective and of learning theory, pedagogy, practice and experience in Experiential Learning, Cooperative Learning, Socratic Method and Developmental Lesson Planning across levels of schooling from junior high to college, especially the collegiate. Well, as happens, the exercise of professional judgment upset a small number of young adults who had difficulty adjusting to my course construction and who complained up the chain of command to the effect that I was called on the carpet for exercising this acumen and required to implement a “course correction” in the methods and the substance of the course I was given to instruct.
(This is a farewell message. For those who think it improper to be posted on the list, then, please, stop reading, now. All others I encourage to continue.)
David Linton, when working for him at Marymount Manhattan, said I possessed an articulate rebelliousness. While that, indeed, flattered my profound desire to see and to project myself aligned with the great Irish rebels and the equally great European and American tradition of free thinkers and non-conformists, the reality is that all I am about is putting in the service of good learning the pedagogical practices of Experiential Learning, Cooperative Learning, Socratic Method and Developmental Lesson Planning. More, I import the personal responsibility component from Democratic Education starting the movement in students away from the learned helplessness of the elementary-high school years to a self-actualization of the collegiate, from the infantilization of conventional primary and secondary teaching/learning toward the empowered adult of whole cognitive developed higher education. So, yes, David, I have ends in mind other than the specific content mastery of the course.
If there is anything authentically different from conventional exercise in these education strategies is that I employ them within the same course and, frequently, within the same class period giving students an array of means by which to acquire the content of the course and providing students an authentic responsibility to accept or reject the conditions of inclusion in each class and in the course along with the consequences of their decisions. I take as given that this is the first exposure to these methods and to these conditions for students and I fully recognize the adjustment difficulty visited upon them, especially on those holding expectations that they will be doing the same thing they have been doing from almost all of their schooling lives; thus, I incorporate personal support into each course prominently among which is individual one on one instructional/counseling sessions during and outside office hours.
David, this time around, I did not get the chance to be articulate. In fact, what was student complaint was given validation by all supervision without even a cursory chat with me to ascertain its authenticity. It is clear that there may be academic freedom for others but not for me. So, that’s it: stick a fork in me and pop me out of the oven, I’m done. I have always done the best for each young adult I was given the privilege of teaching, even those who complain. But, the conditions of employment whereby I am forbidden to use my professional judgment, and where I am being forced to employ pedagogical methods which even the schools in which I’ve taught hold workshops and seminars to get faculty to greatly move away from, have become intolerable. If being rebellious means I will not accept having to implement the least effective pedagogy just to stay employed as an adjunct, just to not upset, not to differently cognitively challenge, any student then, I am a rebel. Unfortunately, the consequence of being a rebel is to be marginalized and equally to marginalize oneself. So, on the margins of education I am to return. However, I can no longer afford to be there.
I am stepping away from the field of education completely as there truly is nowhere for me to be. I am also leaving the MEA, although I take with me the deepest knowing of how the world works. I want to thank all in the MEA who continue to believe I have an insightful thing or two to say and who in one way or another have acknowledged that over the years, especially those convention conveners who accepted my panels and those who graciously accepted inclusion. I wish everyone all the best. From now on if anyone wishes to reply to this or to keep in touch, please use ljfayhee@gmail.com.
As “an old friend use to say”, Good Night and Good Luck."
I'm still not done with education as the many successive blog posts here will attest. But, unless something of a miracle happens I doubt very much that I will see the inside of a college teaching opportunity again.
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