Who has the power -- professors, GTAs, or students?

After reading "Students' Use of Compliance Gaining Strategies with Graduate Teaching Assistants: Examining the Other End of the Power Spectrum," an article documenting a study conducted and written up by Tamara D. Golish, I feel pretty good about the perception of my own future power as a GTA. The findings in the study claim that students felt they have more power in a classroom ran by GTAs than one ran by professors, and that students perceived professors to have more legitimate power and more expert (meaning the power is based on a person’s competence in a particular area) than GTAs (22). Even so, students still considered GTAs to possess a great deal of authority in the classroom. Therefore, I am confident in entering the classroom because students can and will view me as a legitimate source of authority.

The article commented on a lot of things regarding the authority of professors, GTAs, and students within the classroom. For example:

“students’, rather than teachers’, perceptions

of power use are the important measurement

of power in the classroom” (13).

This is a pretty obvious statement because any person in power -- a king, a politician, a parent -- is only as powerful as the people they serve. Therefore, the power dynamic in the classroom is dependent upon the respect students have for the teacher, as well as the respect the teacher has for his/her student. Thinking this way, a GTA needs only to recognize the capability of the students to be an authority in writing and workshopping for the student to become an authority in each.

The focus of the article -- compliance-gaining -- is defined as “the communicative behavior in which an agent engages so as to elicit from a target some agent-selected behavior” (15). This method of teaching asks for active rather than reactive students--or students who are actively engaged in the learning process. Goodbye, Charlie Brown's teacher!

The article also points out issues with idealism in inexperienced teachers.

"Teacher training tends to portray the
classroom in a humanistic and idealistic
light. New teachers often enter the classroom
with unrealistic expectations, where
classroom management is merely creating
an environment where all students can learn
as individuals” but eventually, “these new
teachers tend to become more custodial over
time as they gain experience in the classroom
with student misbehaviors” (15-16).

The initial idealism leaves teachers frustrated as students exhibit apathy or disruptive behavior. May be a problem for GTAs who do not have the experience or training of other educators. As their authority as teacher is challenged, a GTA may begin to turn to custodial practices to emphasize their place in the classroom.

Like in other articles, Golish points out reasons that GTAs may feel they do not have as much credibility -- age, limiting factors like a lack of office, etc -- and that may instill in students a feeling that the teacher is not as legitimate as a full-time professor. However, Golish recognizes the possibility for these things to be both good and bad.

“Students may feel they have more power
with GTAs than professors because they
sense a level of ‘uncomfortableness’ some
GTAs might have with their role as an
authority, because GTAs are closer in age
to them than professors, or because GTAs
are perceived as more approachable than
professors” (16).

It is nice to hear that these "limiting factors" may actually be positives. As GTAs, we should use all the tools we have accessible to reach our students, including the fact that we are students as well!

Until later,
--M

Oh, me! What to do? The trouble with disruption!

Let's face it. If there is a classroom, there will be disruption. Jennifer Meta Robinson writes about instances that may cause and offers suggestions on how to handle disruption in her article "A Question of Authority: Dealing with Disruptive Students." Obviously, graduate teaching instructors face many disadvantages when they walk into the classroom. She elaborates on them as follows:

"Graduate-student instructors in particular
may face problems with disruptive students
because they may be perceived as less qualified.
As one graduate-student teacher said, 'Our
position as graduate students marks us as not
quite in the academy yet. That’s not the case;
to some, however, like our students, that may
seem to be the case'” (119-120).

Students receive the perception that TA's aren't quite as powerful as other professors for many reasons such as a lack of offices, telephones, and instructional support. Also, there is the small age gap between teacher and student and an overall sense of inexperience and nervousness. All of these things can lead to student disruption because, in their mind, the classroom has been disrupted when a person becomes teacher that doesn't seem to have the authority a student would expect.

“While some students have high thresholds
for disruptive behavior of both students and
instructor, others will hold culpable instructors
who permit distracting activity to continue” (120).

Disruption doesn't necessarily mean a person threw a piece of paper or that someone spoke out of turn. In fact, disruption can be the fault of the teacher. Teachers are disruptive when they seem distant or uncaring, when they surprise students with tests or grades, if they come late to class or cancel class all together. There needs to be a sense of continuity in the classroom, and failing to create this kind of atmosphere may cause a rift in the classroom environment.

For Robinson, “gender became an issue in [her] mind” because both of her examples of disruption came from “men [who] were at least six feet tall” that “easily outweighed” her (122). Unfortunately, the gender power struggle does apply in the classroom as research points out that “more female than male instructors seem to be faced with disruption” (123). Females, then, need to show a greater sense of self-awareness and self-confidence in order to descrease disruption in the classroom.

How can one handle disruption?

• Set course policies and expectations on the first day.
• Begin with and maintain “immediacy,” meaning learn names, interests, and meeting with students early to create an appearance (and actually create) an interest and openness.
• Encourage active learning
• Seek feedback.
• Avoid trauma during the semester – no surprises!
• Maintain high self-esteem

Hopefully, with these little tips, a TA can maintain. But noone should be surprised -- in fact we should all sort of expect -- to have little moments of disruption. Afterall, if there is no power struggle in the classroom, students are probably not looking at themselves as capable of having authority within the learning environment.

--Missy

Grading + Curriculum = Major ?

Carole Deletiner asks a lot of questions in "Negotiating the Negotiated Curriculum" which are not easily answered. In fact, she concludes the article by saying that answers are "provisional, conditional, and fluid" and that, to her, "the questions are much more important" (103). What are her questions? Her article explores the negotiated curriculum -- one where students help decide the path of the class -- and the issue of grading versus evaluation. I will not lie. These topics are super tough.

Her article documents a trial period between two classes, one of which is an overall success and the other a complete failure. Ultimately, she concludes that her own apprehension affected the attitudes and participation of the students. In the end, both classes seemed to gain something from the experience. Where the class which engaged successfully in the exercise considered it a positive experience full of inspiration, insight, and surprises, a student in the other class claims that he at least learned more about himself and his writing. This alone is a major accomplishment as writing teachers ought to be helping students discover their own voice in a writing classroom.

Some points of interest? Here we go --

The relationship of teacher to student is
often looked at as “one is assumed to have
knowledge and one who does not, between
one who possesses authority and one
who has none” (95).

The negotiated curriculum clearly breaks down this barrier as students take control of their learning and, essentially, are given the power to decide the direction of the course and the writing. However, the difficulty is the role of the teacher. S/he should be engaging in the course and the workshopping, but also shaking of the image of "one who has knowledge" so that students can recognize their own knowledge and authority. How is that trouble?

“If [students] are to know what I know
(that there is no-thing to know), I have
to simultaneously renounce and assume
my authority. One way to achieve this
paradoxical end is to implement a
negotiated curriculum which upsets the
idea of teacher as locus of authority
in the classroom” (96).

Ultimately, students are as smart as teachers. I'm okay with that. Every person has their own area of expertise. But how can a teacher simultaneously push away authority while asserting his/her place in the classroom? What a fine line to walk... Done successfully, as Deletiner seems to do with one of her two classes, walking that fine line offers students the opportunity to see the teacher as another learner, one who learns from them as much as they learn from him or her.

As for grades, this is what we are dealing with:

“Grades are a weapon of power, very
often used as weapons against the
powerless by those who wield them as a
way not to feel powerless. Evaluation is
different. Evaluation is an exercise in
developing authority and autonomy.
Encouraging students to ask questions
about their learning can offer them the
authority that no grade could confer” (96).

This seems pretty obvious. In assigning grades, the teacher makes or breaks a person's future. Everyone had the teacher who was "out to get them," who seemed to purposely toss D's simply to assert their power. Therefore, evaluation -- a method of carefully studying or appraising a piece of writing -- offer constructive feedback. The letters A, B, C, D, F tell a person nothing about moments where their voice truly shines through or instances where s/he wavers stylistically. The difficulty, though, is helping students to transition into a classroom where evaluation -- the constructive -- holds greater importance than a letter. Breaking the mold. Revolution is always difficult.

Until next time, I'm hoping for more revolution.

--Mis

Collaborative Writing Groups: Effectively Enhancing Student Authority

Wow. Leanne B. Warshaurer says a mouthful in her article "Collaboration as a Process: Reinforcing the Workshop." Not only does she stand up for the writing workshop, but she backs her argument with personal experience and some great minds! The focus of her argument is that teachers of the writing workshop need to decenter their authority within the classroom. In doing so, students are given the opportunity to develop their own sense of authority in the work they do. Again, I picked out some quotes that really stood out to me. They are:

“[One professor] explained that he pairs his
students together, “strong” and “weak,” and
has them edit each other’s papers” (87).

In separating students in such a way, this professor is developing a writing hierarchy in his classroom; he is giving power to those deemed "strong" and stripping those labeled as "weak" of authority in their own writing. Because the labeling comes from the professor -- who has obviously not decentered himself in this workshopping environment -- students will automatically assume that the labels are correct because he is the authority figure. Plus, students will realize which category they are supposedly in. The strong will assume take the powerful role granted to them by the authority whereas the weak will revert to submissiveness. In the end, this workshop will make little progress.

Warshauer points this exact idea out in saying that a student chimed in to point out that “such a pairing is demeaning to students;” however, the student's ability to speak out against a professor's writing pedagogy creates a special dynamic in which the "students were the authority” (87). By this she means that students have a greater capacity to understand the feelings of other students than professors. Therefore, the professor who feels students can easily be separated into "strong" or "weak" is quickly reminded that his authority is limited. There are arenas in which students rule. This is best described when Warshauer says:

“As a teacher, I had the authority of my
training and the authority granted to me
by the institution; as students, they had
the authority of experience” (88).

Again, we are left with a hierarchy in which the university is the authority of professors who are the authority over students. However, this scenario gives the students a place where they can be more powerful than teachers. This is called “a plurality of power and of authority among teacher and students” (88).

Another quote...

“Collaborative learning can lead students
to an appropriation of the types of discourse
valued in an academic setting” (88).

Using the talents of others, students can gradually adapt their language so that they may achieve an authority professors have already obtained – the authority that exists within academic discourse. Reading this, I thought to myself "I need more workshop in my life" because I am still trying to achieve this level of authority! Any suggestions or volunteers to workshop with me?

Finally, Warshauer seems to make her greatest argument for a teacher's decentering his or her self in the classroom in saying:

“As a teacher I have an undeniable,
unrelinquishable authority in the classroom.
Even in my workshop classroom, I’m still
an authority because the very choice to
have a workshop classroom is an
authoritative choice. However, I’m only
‘an’ authority, not ‘the’ authority” (91).

Well said! This should be the goal in every classroom. Students recognize the role of teacher as an authoritative role; however, an effective teacher will not stifle the academic and social growth of his or her students by stripping away the authority students inherently have within their thinking, collaborating, and writing.

It is nice have some tool to give students in order to help them take control of their thinking and writing. Workshopping. It's definately not a new idea, but this approach seems far more effective than the one used by my teachers in high school!

Au revoir pour maintenant!

--M

Who has the authority in language matters?

I have just finished reading Mary R. Boland's article, "Teaching that Language Matters." Her commentary on the masculine nature of the English language really makes a person (in this case, a woman) think about the stereotypes and expectations of women especially in terms of how our language oppresses. While reading, I picked out a few quotes that really spoke to me. Here we go...

"A lot of scholarship on feminist pedagogy…
suggests the necessity of making the classroom
a safe haven for negotiating social differences.
For feminists, this necessity arises from the desire
to establish environments that respond to
women’s particular orientations to learning
and the related desire to find alternatives to
masculinist paradigms that value hierarchy,
individualism, and power” (67).

I found this quote important because the masculinist paradigm seems to fit well with a theme in academia-- that being an “age/education paradigm” that suggests older, more educated teachers are more valuable than younger, still-learning teachers and even more valuable than the student. Afterall, who hasn't experienced a moment where communication across generations was difficult. Stereotypically, youth is less mature linguistically.

(Click to enlarge.)

Does it have to be this way, though? The term power in the previous quote suggests that the older generations (as well as the masculinist and academic paradigms) have been assigned (self-assigned?) authority. Parents, teachers, and of course ALL men are situated (whether they put themselves there or not) at the top of the hierarchy. Intimidating. Sadly, this hierarchy places female graduate TA's in a world of trouble. Woe is me!

“In [classrooms geared towards feminine ethic],
teachers often adopt a maternal orientation
in teaching, relinquishing a position of central authority
and employing collaborative tasks to help
students develop their own sense of authority
with language” (67).

In reading this quote, I couldn't help but think that this follows the stereotype that women are not deserving of authority. A "nurturing" style of teaching would, therefore, further the masculinity of our social order. A woman would then be fitting into her role in the masculine world. In the end, what does this really teach students? Boland says just that in claiming that “the female teacher who brings a nurturing attitude to her work with students may simply be viewed as “appropriate” instead of radically challenging. The male teacher who adopts a maternal approach in his classroom may more successfully validate a traditionally feminine social orientation because he will be regarded as making choices about his teaching style” (68). Does it seem fair that men can act like me -- being that I tend to be maternal with family, friends, small children and animals -- as a tool, but me acting like me only enforces the sexism of our world?

“What seems especially significant is the
flexibility of the maternal role: mothers
set rules and encourage autonomy; they
judge behaviors and sit on floors to join
in play groups. ...This flexibility offers a
compelling model for the classroom. Rather
than positioning the teacher as either central
authority figure or nurturing facilitator,
I’m interested in the possibility of teacher
as one who pivots between ‘mothering’ roles,
exerting a directive hand and asserting an active
membership in the classroom community” (71).

Reading this, I felt quite satisfied with my gender. It is true that mothers are for more than a shoulder to cry on. It makes sense that the tactics of mothering would be beneficial in a classroom as a teacher must be able to engage students emotionally and academically. A female graduate TA's can take solace in knowing that a maternal nature allows her an upper hand; she is capable of "exerting a directive hand" while also acting as a nuturer.

How nice to beat the system. And all it takes is following one's nature!

--Missy

Welcome!

Hello, readers! Welcome to my critical research blog! Here, I intend to make initial responses to the texts I read while researching for my composition theory multimodal project. My goal is to consider the issue of authority in college English classrooms and to consider methods graduate teaching assistants can employ in order to make learning engaging and beneficial to students.

I am reading chapters from In Our Own Voice: Graduate Students Teach Writing as well as other articles. Through these readings, I hope to gain a greater understanding of the power struggle graduate teaching assistants face as they enter one classroom as teacher and another as student.

I hope my responses give you a little insight to the issue. Hopefully, my thoughts will serve as a nice supplement to my final analysis of the issue of authority for graduate TA's and their students!

Until later--
Missy