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Never a Safe Place to Grumble
Aug. 28th, 2009 11:44 amPerhaps I am overcautious, but as a general rule of thumb, I try to be extremely careful when writing about sensitive school/work-related subjects on teh internets. After all, some day I will be looking for a different job, and I want to be able to look interviewers in the eye and clearly tell them that all of my internet-based activities are conducted in a professional manner.
But there are some potentially inflammatory subjects that I can't help but talk about because they're on my mind and I am hoping that talking about them will help me cope with them and move on with my life. The current subject relates to some specifics of my teaching responsibilities, but I am going to try and talk about the situation in as abstract of terms as I can.
The fundamental situation is this: what should a person do when they believe that there is a disconnection between stated learning goals and the mechanics of how a course is taught, and yet this person is not in a position to make decisions or changes related to this disconnection, or to even engage in dialogue about it?
I have a feeling that my friends who work in corporate environments will recognize this type of situation as a management problem, because of the involved communication issues (and personally I feel like I have tried and tried and tried and tried to communicate, to no avail...).
My personality type is such that I still feel compelled to correct the situation because my primary responsibility is to the students I teach. But time and resources are limited, and I am also charged to teach in such a way that my instructions parallel the instructions of the other teaching assistants for the course. Basically, I feel set up for failure.
I will get over this feeling, to some degree. I know that I tend to get really passionate about teaching, and that I am a really opinionated idealist (though I hope I still stop to listen!). I also agree strongly with a lot of the concepts/methods with which I have personally been indoctrinated, which may make me closed-minded about other ways of knowing (I am particularly scornful of purely factual knowledge, and tend to find more value in reasoning skills).
Altogether, I just feel like maybe I have outgrown my current teaching environment, but there isn't much I can do about it at the moment, other than to carry on and not get too invested in the situation.
But there are some potentially inflammatory subjects that I can't help but talk about because they're on my mind and I am hoping that talking about them will help me cope with them and move on with my life. The current subject relates to some specifics of my teaching responsibilities, but I am going to try and talk about the situation in as abstract of terms as I can.
The fundamental situation is this: what should a person do when they believe that there is a disconnection between stated learning goals and the mechanics of how a course is taught, and yet this person is not in a position to make decisions or changes related to this disconnection, or to even engage in dialogue about it?
I have a feeling that my friends who work in corporate environments will recognize this type of situation as a management problem, because of the involved communication issues (and personally I feel like I have tried and tried and tried and tried to communicate, to no avail...).
My personality type is such that I still feel compelled to correct the situation because my primary responsibility is to the students I teach. But time and resources are limited, and I am also charged to teach in such a way that my instructions parallel the instructions of the other teaching assistants for the course. Basically, I feel set up for failure.
I will get over this feeling, to some degree. I know that I tend to get really passionate about teaching, and that I am a really opinionated idealist (though I hope I still stop to listen!). I also agree strongly with a lot of the concepts/methods with which I have personally been indoctrinated, which may make me closed-minded about other ways of knowing (I am particularly scornful of purely factual knowledge, and tend to find more value in reasoning skills).
Altogether, I just feel like maybe I have outgrown my current teaching environment, but there isn't much I can do about it at the moment, other than to carry on and not get too invested in the situation.
