Student Resistance

Student Resistance to Authoritarianism

I could also call this “How to Share the Power with Students,” but both titles are pretty cheesy. However, these ideas have proved very helpful for several colleagues and me. Drop a line if you have any more suggestions!

During their entire education experience prior to college, your students were probably forced to attend classes they neither chose nor necessarily liked—both by legal mandate and parental coercion. Since they had no official “say,” these students made use of a number of strategies to assert their personal agency in classrooms, usually amounting to blocking the teacher from teaching the lesson in any way possible. Do you remember doing this when you were in high school? Pretending not to understand assignments, moving desks into a circle v e r y s l o w l y , lying to substitutes about the class work left by the teacher, praying for fire drills, blessing the movie days, and so on?

Now that they’re in college, your students actually get a choice in the matter! They can choose most of their classes and even choose whether to attend or sleep in. The resulting difference in student attitude, I find, is that high school students automatically disrespect the teacher because he or she is the authority, and college students automatically respect the teacher because the students feel more personal authority in that situation.

However, sometimes you might still run into student resistance in college courses—especially if you're teaching a required general course like freshman comp or Math 101—but not really be able to put your finger on it. Maybe you feel like you can’t get through to the group, or that you’re a bad teacher. Maybe you're disappointed with the discussions or you even sense rudeness or disdain sometimes. Classroom problems can originate from a number of causes, of course—maybe you don’t care about the class and the students are picking up on it—but problems may also arise because students feel that you the teacher are too controlling. Maybe they think you dominate the discussions too much, that you’re not truly asking for their answers/opinions, but are instead searching for a specific answer that’s hidden in your brain (have you been on the other end of this with any of your teachers or profs? frustrating). Or maybe they feel your attendance policy is overly strict, but they don’t feel comfortable talking to you about it. And then again, maybe they have nothing against you; they’re simply required to take your lower-level General Education course, and they’re determined that the system can have their bodies but not their souls.

In any case, the result is that you’re the only one who wants to accomplish your agenda, and you’re sorely outnumbered by very intelligent and even crafty adults who are prepared to protect their right to choose what they learn.

Forms of Student Resistance
Everything amounts to “gunking up the works”—keeping teaching from happening. Here are some forms of general resistance I’ve compiled from a few studies that sometimes deal with pretty intense forms of subjugation, but can be applied to your class as well.

From James C. Scott’s Domination and the Arts of Resistance: The Hidden Transcript:

• silence (you know those moments after you ask a discussion Q?)
• lying (about homework or even about being happy with the class)
• venting to other students (instead of talking to the teacher)
• rumors/gossip (snickering during class discussions and talking over the teacher)
• daydreaming/fantasizing about being out of class (the window gazers, and sometimes even the students who are looking straight at you)

From Ira Shor’s Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change:

• playing dumb (claiming to have read the wrong chapter, asking too many questions, etc.)
• getting by (slacking till the end of the semester, then begging for extra credit)
• cutting class (Shor includes this one, but I personally prefer a student cutting class over attending with a bad attitude)

How to Avoid It

1. Only teach students who want to be taught. Make sure you don’t overstep your boundaries; know what you can expect of yourself and your students—after all, they just might be justified in resisting your attempts to control them! It is the student’s right to choose whether he or she wants to learn what you’re teaching or fail the course. It is never acceptable for us to force someone to learn something, even if we know it will be beneficial in the long run. As I’ve written before about students who choose to plagiarize or fail, we as teachers do not have the right to cheat students of learning from their mistakes (though, like anyone else, I make exceptions with discretion). What you do have the right to is a healthy teaching and learning environment; you can require students to leave their attitudes outside the class or take themselves outside the class.

My personal mantra for these situations is “I will only teach students who want to be taught.” I announce early on and remind my students often that if I sense that someone doesn’t want to be taught by me, I ask him or her to leave. Yes, I’ve done this several times—I simply tell the student (who is sleeping or sassing or continually talking over me) that he or she doesn’t seem to want to be taught by me that day and is welcome to come back when he or she does want it, but goodbye for today. They’ve always come back with apologies.

Your job is to teach, not to make students learn. Check your expectations of yourself.

2. Immediately put the work of learning in your students’ corner. Acknowledge that they are capable adults who are responsible for achieving the grade they choose. I like to give a talk like this on one of the introductory days:

· First, as much as I would like to believe otherwise, I understand that my class is not the most important thing in the world. Families and jobs sometimes take precedence, and that’s why I give them a certain number of absences right off the bat.

· Next, I tell them they’re free to do anything they want in my class, as long as they’re prepared to accept the consequences—a low grade for poor work or too many absences, a look of disbelief from the teacher if they walk out in the middle of class, whatever.

· Kindergarteners learn when they’re entertained, but adults learn only if they choose to. In other words, no teacher can finagle or trick adult students into learning something they don’t want to learn. In fact, no teacher can stop students from learning either, not with the internet, libraries, Amazon.com, and so on. (In addition—for all composition teachers reading this—Patrick Hartwell argues that grammar cannot be taught in “Grammar, Grammars and the Teaching of Grammar.”) I acknowledge this and I tell students that they get to learn as much as they want and, while I want them to aim for an A, they’re free to choose any grade they desire, and it won’t hurt my feelings. This may not be kosher, but I also encourage students to drop my class and sign up for a different section if they don’t like my policies (or, heaven forbid, me), because that’s a part of their right to choose.

· Finally, I teach the list of forms of student resistance right away. I let them know I’m aware of how much power they have in the classroom and, since I respect their decision either to excel or fail, I ask that they respect my teaching time if they choose to stay in my class and attend.

3. Give students a chance to talk back. Usually, we only find out what worked or what flopped when we receive our student evaluations a semester later, and by then it’s too late to augment the class. Ensure dialogue between you and your students for something closer to a democratic education experience (I recommend Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed for more on this), and learn from what they’re telling you. Here are a couple things I’ve tried and liked a lot (and students have told me they like these practices because they’ve never had a chance to explain themselves or answer the teacher):

· When I hand back papers, I have the students circle any of my comments that may be illegible or unclear in a different colored ink and respond to any questions I asked on their paper or defend their grammatical or stylistic choices.

· I also hold regular in-class 5-minute conferences (about once every two weeks) to touch base with students in a seat near my desk while everyone works quietly on in-class essays. I love this practice! I try to have a conference for major papers and revisions, in which case I ask questions like “Do you feel like you understand the assignment?” and “Do you understand the comments I made on your draft?”

· I have students write “cover letters” to me when they hand in papers; I imagine you can do something like this for tests too. They usually answer 4 questions:

1. What do you think is the strongest part of this paper?
2. What do you think was weakest?
3. What grade do you expect and why?
4. Any last words?

4. Give students a say in the syllabus:

· When you have a choice in your curriculum, let the students vote on what they want. Or if you really don’t care how much homework versus participation is worth, let them vote on the percentages. Or take a bigger risk and let them vote on things you do care about!

· I recommend the grading contract (email me and I'll be happy to send you a copy) I’ve adapted from Ira Shor. Ask them to make revisions to the contract before they sign it.

· Shor also writes about offering students “protest rights” when the material gets too boring or seemingly pointless in exchange for required attendance (see When Students Have Power: Negotiating Authority in a Critical Pedagogy).

One of my own experiences:
I encountered some of these forms of resistance when I taught an English 101 block-scheduled class who traveled from course to course with one another everyday. In other words, they were living the high school experience, and they acted like it; in fact, they were calling it the “thirteenth grade.” The students were shockingly disrespectful in class, talking over me to one another, chuckling over whispered jokes, and staring out at me from behind folded arms much of the time. The implicit accusation was that I was forcing them to be there, but they were going to show me that they didn’t have to enjoy it. I left everyday for the first 4 weeks feeling completely demoralized! I’d already been teaching for 10 years, but I couldn’t figure out why the particularly resistant ones wouldn’t just drop the class—or at least skip a few! Then I found out their scholarships stipulated a certain schedule with no leeway and even monitored their attendance, so they were rightly upset about their limited options, but taking it out on the wrong person—me.

In my case, it was enough simply to teach the modes of student resistance and offer them a chance to address the persons who could do something about their situation—that is, a chance to problem-solve instead of accept their circumstances. First, I wrote a list of the forms of resistance on the board and began to point out some examples I’d seen in class. “This tells me,” I told them, “that you feel you don’t have a say in what happens in this class, when I actually am hoping for much more feedback with which I can shape the course.” I don’t know if that’s the magic formula—I certainly wasn’t expecting it to change all that much—but when I went over those forms of student resistance again in the next class, I got the best student participation I’d ever had. They knew that I knew that they knew what they were doing when they pretended they couldn’t answer my questions; our next discussion was very peopled! Next, I had them write persuasive business letters to the administrators of their program for their next major writing assignment. They had to research their program, review the contracts they had signed, find the best contact, and write a polite but persuasive letter requesting that they be allowed to choose their own schedules, classes and teachers. After that, the rapport between the students and me changed for the (much) better.

It takes a lot of honesty and self-criticism to keep from getting defensive in the face of student resistance, but it’s worth it.

Grading Papers Quickly

As an adjunct English teacher with many other responsibilities, I’ve tried to memorize and apply every technique for becoming a quicker paper grader I’ve heard throughout the years. The main thing seems to be keeping the attitude of letting your students learn from their mistakes instead of micro-managing their every rhetorical move. Here are a few strategies I’ve collected:

1. Grade for only a few things at a time per paper since (1) it’s quicker, of course, and (2) students learn better when they can concentrate on only a few issues at a time. For each assignment, though I may mark a few extra things on the paper to let students know about things they can think about for future papers, I only evaluate and figure into the grade a few certain items that I announce beforehand. For example, one paper may focus on thesis statements, clear topic sentences, and paragraph cohesion.

2. Time yourself. Only spend 10 minutes on each paper; when the timer rings, move on. I know first-time teachers who take up to an hour per paper, which probably indicates that these teachers are addressing these papers as graduate-level work and providing feedback that will be over the students’ heads. You may take a little longer than 10 minutes and feel very stressed at first, but after a while you’ll get quicker at looking for the specifics you need for assessment while also engaging with the content.

3. Only mark 1 or 2 paragraphs. There’s no need to mark every grammatical deviation your students make, since they tend to make the same error over and over. You can mark only 1 or 2 paragraphs, and then let your students know that the rest is up to them. Otherwise, you can fall into editing (rewriting) your students’ papers for them instead of encouraging them to learn from their mistakes and practice. In other words, you might end up teaching your students to simply follow directions instead of write well.

These are only a few suggestions. Please feel free to email me more ideas and I’ll add them.

The Launch of Equity Curricula

With Campus Equity Week beginning next Monday, the Adjunct Project is launching our Equity Curricula in several ways, including email forwards. This is the email we're sending out -- of course, you'll have to email me for the attachments, but please feel free to copy, paste and send to an inbox near you!

Every other year, Campus Equity Week (CEW) is observed to raise awareness of adjunct working conditions and the university policies that shape them, but often the people who are most profoundly affected by this unequal labor system—students and adjunct/part-time teachers—are the ones who are least aware of these issues. This year at CUNY, however, the Adjunct Project is releasing Equity Curricula, materials deigned to educate both adjuncts and undergraduate students, as well as to make a statement to our CUNY-wide administrations: Exploiting part-time adjuncts is unjust, and it injures CUNY's capacity to educate. Please read on and pass this information on to every adjunct you know!

Equity Curricula:
For at least 15 minutes of 1 day during CEW (October 29 – November 2), the Adjunct Project is asking both adjuncts and full-time faculty to incorporate information on adjunct teaching conditions into your class lessons—be it a class discussion, a persuasive letter exercise, a statistical analysis of adjunct and full-time wages for the same workload, or an extra-credit assignment to find a link between course materials and adjunct labor. Simply let students know that it's CEW and challenge them to view adjunct issues through your field's lenses for 15 minutes or more.

The Adjunct Project has prepared "Equity Curricula"—several department-specific assignments (http://adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com/2007/09/equity-curricula.html), as well as a general presentation of the issues that you can use for a class discussion (see attachment). We have also made available a PowerPoint presentation, which you can request by emailing us at adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com. For further information or to design your own lesson, see the list of helpful articles and contacts below.

Why this is good pedagogy:
Let us stress that we aren't asking you to bring politics into the classroom; the politics are already there. After all, "our working conditions are their learning conditions." We're simply asking you, in the spirit of academic freedom, to make those politics explicit and, as conscientious educators, to pursue excellence in teaching by creating a pedagogically effective environment for critical thinking, a goal for which Equity Curricula is particularly ideal.

Paulo Freire argued that rote memorization is not true learning, but actually trains students to receive unquestioned orders like good workers. Instead, he endorses a pedagogy of problematizing real-life situations—for example, students' educational context—and asking them to assess and solve the problem. Freire sought to foster in students critical thinking, the ability to see injustice as a problem to solve instead of circumstances to accept. This approach is student-centered, rather than teacher- or discipline-centered, and it encourages students to APPLY the material they're learning in your class to their real-life conditions—that is, to become practitioners in your field.

When: 15 minutes of 1 day during CEW (October 29 – November 2)
What: Equity Curricula (see resources below and attachments)
Where: your classroom
Why: create awareness among students
Who: you and everyone to whom you forward this, adjunct or not

CUNY administrators have relied on adjunct/part-time teachers to carry half their course load for less than half the wages, and they have also relied on our keeping our mouths shut about it. However, we're not content with this labor system and, just as we hope for our students, let's act as democratic citizens and change our circumstances by exposing them.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO TEN OR MORE ADJUNCTS, and anyone else who might be interested in Equity Curricula. We rely on your lateral support for this project! Also, look for our open letter in The Advocate and other newspapers.

Resources
Equity Curricula: http://adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com/2007/09/equity-curricula.html
General Presentation: attachment
PowerPoint Presentation: by request (adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com)
AFT Campus Equity Week: http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/cew/
"The Corporatization of Higher Education": 2-page attachment (good for assigned reading)
Articles for Campus Equity Week: attachment (for further research)

Email us adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com to let us know that you're participating, or if you are unable to access the attachments.

Peer Review

Peer review, though few people think of it in these terms much anymore, is your opportunity to induct your students into your discipline community’s main practice: proposing ideas, then having them read and critiqued by equals. I mostly hear peer review discussed as a nice way to break up the monotony of classroom instruction or simply as an exercise you’re supposed to do for whatever reason, and I think it’s for this reason that peer reviews often fail. I know several instructors who have attempted peer review and, frustrated with weak student response, abandoned it for a more traditional teacher-centered grading approach. My peer reviews have been pretty successful, so I’ve compiled a few tips I’ve picked up over the last 8 years. First, the objectives of peer review exercises:

• To decenter teacherly authority (a truly difficult task) and encourage student responsibility.
• To help those students who are interpersonal (social), kinesthetic (hands-on), verbal and “teaching” learners (others will learn better from writing it on the board, listening to a song, acting it out, thinking of it metaphorically, and so on (see Howard Gardner’s theory of MI for more on that)).
• To allow students to “get each others’ backs”—to catch an “error” before the teacher sees it with her red pen (if you give grades).
• To teach collaborative learning and working (this is one of the most desired skills in hiring, according to employment surveys).
  

Classrooms have different ends, and should thus have different means. Peer group practices will vary. What do you want to teach in your classroom? Creative writing? Self-actualization? Academic discourses? Your peer group questions and practices will need to be shaped accordingly. What won’t vary is the students’ need to be comfortable and honest with one another. Here is an outline of how I conduct peer reviews of writing assignments in my English 101 class; please feel free to take from it what you can. First-time teachers, just keep in mind that the most important elements in this exercise are being comfortable with honesty, mistakes and criticism.

Preparing Students for Peer Review:

1. Play Host(ess): One thing that will never change for peer groups is that students need to be authentically comfortable with each other in order to take advantage of this exercise. During the weeks or days leading up to the peer review, I encourage them to become friends. This involves a certain attitude, not just practices. I have to truly be interested in my students and want them to enjoy each other.
• First day introductions: I have everyone in class meet one other person and find the answers to a few questions that are designed to help them find someone with similar interests. They then have to introduce their new “friend” to the rest of the class. When there’s an odd number of students, I get to participate too. During the introductions, I periodically point out random students and ask the class for a name or major to quiz them – just makes it fun and makes them want to pay attention. See my post on What to Do the First Day of Class.
• Explicitly tell students to make friends. I tell them to get a few fellow students’ phone numbers for days they end up missing so they can make up the notes. I announce on the first day that I will never “re-teach” a class, but that they’re still responsible for everything they missed. When a student asks me what she missed, I refer her to another student (“You missed a lot. Ask Wayne; I know he takes good notes. Make sure he tells you about the email list.”)
• Prior experience in groups: Warm the students up to the group thing by having them meet for several assignments leading up to the revisions. I generally have at least one group project per week, but it can’t be something completely open-ended (such as “What do you think about the chapter you read?”). It should invite different opinions and encourage the students to recognize the insights around them. I like specific prompts like "Describe the two intended audiences for the two articles you read."
  
• Encourage group solidarity in class discussions: I invite short, personal-ish anecdotes when we discuss readings, and I often ask if anyone else can relate in order to promote “shared experiences” (things like dealing with bureaucratic processes, differences in addressing grandparents and friends as an exercise in audience awareness). I also often say group-defining things like “We’re smart today!” or “This is such a great class” (I know, Polyanna), and I ask about their weekends and other classes when I first come in.
2. Explain Peer Review in Detail
• On the board, I write: “An enemy multiplies kisses, but wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Jewish proverb).
• Pep talk: I give a few scenarios to help my students understand the practical aspects of what they’re doing and to encourage them to be honest with each other:
  
• Honesty is good: I ask the class which they’d prefer—someone telling them about the green thing in their teeth or someone pretending it’s not there to avoid embarrassing the owner of the mouth (and other situations: whether the jeans make them look fat, fly is open, booger hanging out their nose, etc.).I invite stories from the brave and then relate those to catching each other’s errors before the teacher sees them with my evil red pen.
• Mistakes are good: the toddler learning to walk must fall many times. They’re trying something new, so they should make mistakes. If their papers aren’t full of errors, they’re probably not trying anything new. I tell them this so that they feel comfortable with lots of marks.
• Criticism is good: I have them raise their right hands and repeat after me: “I will not be offended today at the comments my peers make on my paper.”
• The guidelines:
• I have the students tell me about the assignment requirements we’ve already established and write those on the board. I prompt them with “Who is the audience for this paper?” and then list the things as they call them out that are important for being effective in that context. For the academic ad analysis, the important things are 5-P essay structure(thesis statement, topic sentence, paragraph cohesiveness, etc.), MLA format, grammar and spelling, things like that.
• I tell the students to look specifically for this list of things in each other’s papers. I think this is really important because otherwise they’ll just look for grammar, or else they’ll give the paper back and say it looks good.
• They make groups of 3 and trade papers every 30 minutes. I often count their revisions of each other’s essays as a quiz grade.
• Those who don’t bring a draft are often some of the best writers (perfectionists, in fact, which is why they don’t bring a paper), and their insights can be very helpful, so I allow them to revise too as long as everyone else has had a chance first.

During the Peer Review

1. Bring candy! Food makes people talk, so before we begin I toss out candy for correct answers and pass around a bowl of sweets (be sure to bring both chocolates and fruities). I think it creates kind of a party atmosphere, so the students feel a little more free to talk and ask questions.
2. Continue playing host(ess): I walk around in the groups answering questions and looking over shoulders and encouraging them. I find they relax when I tap a comment they’ve written and say, “Good point,” or tell the owner of the paper, “Hey, you’ve got a good friend here! He’s really helping your paper.” For other papers, I cry, “More ink! Don’t you even care about this person?”
3. Be there for the questions: I get a lot of questions about MLA format and grammar, and I almost invariably get another student to answer.

The up side to peer review is that students truly do catch one another’s “mistakes,” so after a revision, I get papers that are already on their second draft. Plus, I get to answer a lot of questions that students didn’t have until they were actually writing the paper at home, and consequently didn’t ask, also leading to better second drafts. It’s usually a pretty fun class too.

Personal Research Paper

I wrote a teaching narrative for a column in this issue of The Advocate, in which I described a twist on the traditional research paper for English 101, so I thought I’d include it here in case anyone's interested. This assignment is good for community colleges, where students are often more career-minded and a little less patient with deconstructing metaphors in French theory (though French theory is, of course, no less important).

The purpose is for students to research their own projected careers so that they can anticipate requirements (including time and money) and choose appropriate internships and classes along the way. I adapted this from an assignment Dominique Zino passed on to me from her 101 class (thank you, Dominique; I love this assignment). Unfortunately, I can't attach documents to posts in this blog, so I'm including it as text. Feel free to copy and paste, adapt it, pass it on, and do let me know if you have any suggestions.

Personal Research Paper

Requirements:

• approximately 5 - 6 pages
• MLA format
• summaries of 3 sources due Tuesday, May 1
• annotated bibliography with 5 sources due Wednesday, May 3
• draft due on Tuesday, May 8 (conferences)
• paper due Thursday, May 10

Research Question: How can I achieve the career I want
in 10 years (or less/more)?

There are two major parts to this paper: the what and the how. You may decide to change your chosen career as you research the process to getting there, but that’s quite all right. It's why we do research: to explore all our options before making a choice.

1. Career: What is your ideal profession (not lifestyle)?

• income you can expect, mitigating factors (gender/race, ability, location, availability/demand, education)
• working conditions you can expect (long hours, travel, stress, conducive to having a family, early retirement, vacation time, burn-out rate for others in the profession, etc.)
• type of personality and skills needed (verbally proficient, social, competitive, decisive, analytical, etc.)

2. Steps: How will you make yourself a serious candidate for the profession of which you hope to be a part?

• degree and classes, as well as GPA and requirements for transferring to 4-yr college
• experience (internships, volunteer work, skills you can acquire at certain jobs now that will be helpful later)
• other certifications
• contacts (who you know now and how you can make more)
• length of time required to achieve career
• amount of money required

Caution: For this assignment, avoid diary entries in which you write what you hope will come true. Give a pragmatically delineated plan that maps out how you can move from point A, the person living the life you have at present, to point B, the person living the life you want. Demonstrate how this plan works.

Tip: If you know someone currently in the profession you’re interested in, ask as many questions as you can. A formal interview may be included as part of your bibliography.

Equity Curricula

Every other year, Campus Equity Week is observed to raise awareness of adjunct working conditions and other issues. This year at CUNY, we don’t just want to celebrate being adjuncts or settle for feeling honored. Let’s do something! The Adjunct Project at CUNY is creating what we call "Equity Curricula": lessons designed to be incorporated in classrooms in order to raise awareness among students and make a statement to our administration, as well as to accomplish real results.

Please scroll through these ideas, copy and paste them, and send them around your department to both full-time and contingent faculty. Feel free to let your administrators know that, as a concerned and dedicated teacher in your field, you’re helping your students make connections between the material and their real-life conditions: that is, you’re telling them the truth about their adjunct teachers’ working conditions.

This will be a joint effort. Please email me to add more departments and to suggest curricula incorporating important concepts in your discipline and adjunct issues.

Anthropology: After presenting the info in the general lesson, the main discussion question might be, "Using the principles we've covered so far, how would you assess the university culture?"

Criminal Justice:

Economics: Examine trends in increasing university reliance on adjuncts (see general lesson info), and discuss why this pattern has been established. Predict where these trends will take us at this rate in 2040. Also, have students read Ellen Balleisen's article, "Adjunct Pay: More Experience Means Less Money" to examine the effects of inflation on nearly stable salaries.

English:

• Business Letter: For those of us teaching composition courses, we can teach the business letter format together with persuasion in an assignment about adjunct teachers, and the result is the launch of a letter-writing campaign to the administration sincerely from our students. This is an amazing assignment because, for one, students learn best when they are writing to real-life situations, not for formulated, in-class projects (Matsuda, Bartholomae). And, two, this sort of assignment creates a critical awareness both of the system in which the students are studying and a process for changing it. (Thank you to Pam from UL Lafayette for that idea.)
• Research: I personally think it’s asking too much of students to require an end-of-the-semester research paper on adjunct issues; however, as you provide a model of research in class, your sample topic can be something dealing with adjunct issues. In other words, in case you don’t already do this, it’s a good idea to select a topic and demonstrate research techniques (e.g. brainstorming, formulating a research question, then a thesis, searching databases, fleshing out the argument with facts and statistics), and it’s good for this topic to be something that none of the students will choose but that you’d like them to know more about (global warming, female genital mutilation, etc.)

History:

This discussion assignment is appropriate for U.S. History or Labor History (thanks to Carl Lindskoog, CUNY). Begin by presenting the information in the general CEW presentation and follow up with discussion questions. Once the class has discussed the experience of “contingent labor” in American universities and at CUNY have the students fit this knowledge into historical context by reading the brief article “Fixing the Academic Labor Crisis: Lessons History” (located on page 2). Ask the students to think about the following things when reading the piece:

· What is the main argument?
· How does the author fit the contemporary experience of adjuncts and “contingent workers” into American history?
· Is the argument convincing? Why or why not?
· Based on what we have learned in this class, what other lessons from history might help us solve the academic labor crisis?

Mathematics:

Philosophy: Perhaps use the adjunct labor system as an example when teaching the problem of evil, heh heh.

Political Science:

Social Science:

Discussion questions regarding the definitions of equity and inequity:

· How does equity relate to concepts such as: justice, fairness, and a living wage?

· How does inequity in faculty salaries impact student life inside the classroom?

Student Reading:

From The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2007: Equity: principles of justice originally developed by the English chancellor. In Anglo-American jurisprudence equitable principles and remedies are distinguished from the older system that the common law courts evolved. One of the earliest functions of the king's chaplain (the chancellor) and of the chancery (the office that he headed) was to govern access to the royal courts by issuing on application the appropriate original writ . At first the chancellor had great discretion in framing writs, but in time he was limited to a few rigidly circumscribed forms, and in certain cases worthy claims could not be satisfied. From this inadequacy arose the practice of appealing directly for aid to the chancellor as the "keeper of the king's conscience." By the early 16th cent. a fairly well-defined jurisdiction was exercised by the court of chancery in rivalry with the common law. In the 17th cent. it was definitely established that the court of chancery would decide any claim to jurisdiction that the courts of common law disputed. The early chancellors purported to dispense equity in its original sense of fair dealing, and they cut through the technicalities of common law to give just treatment. Some of their principles were derived from Roman law and from canon law . Soon, however, equity amassed its own body of precedents and tended to rigidity. Equity, even in its more limited modern sense, is still distinguished by its original and animating principle that no wrong should be without an adequate remedy. Among the most notable achievements of equity were the trust and the injunction . Because the decree (final order) of an equity court operated as an order of the king, disobedience might be punished as contempt ; in legal remedies, on the contrary, the plaintiff was limited to enforcing his (monetary) judgment . The fact that equity trials were decided without a jury was thought advantageous in complex cases. The coexistence of different systems of justice and delays in the courts of chancery came to present such great procedural difficulties that in England the Judicature Act was adopted (1873) to amalgamate law and equity. In the United States amalgamation had begun with the New York procedure code (1848) drafted by David Dudley Field . Today only a few of the states have separate equity courts. Of the remaining states some divide actions and (to a lesser extent) remedies into legal and equitable, while the others have almost entirely abolished the distinction. Even in those states where law and equity remain unmerged, they are often handled by two sides of the same court, with relatively simple provisions for the transfer of a case that is brought on the wrong side.

Bibliography: See F. W. Maitland, Equity (1909, repr. 1969); R. A. Newman, Equity in Law (1961); H. G. Hanbury, Modern Equity (9th ed., ed. by R. H. Maudsley, 1969); G. H. Webb and T. C. Bianco, Equity (1970).

Definition of inequity, Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition 1989: Want of equity or justice; the fact or quality of being unfair; unfairness, partiality. 1556 J. HEYWOOD Spider & F. lvii. 10 Equite, in all things..is a vertew pewre. Inequite, for wrong, no waie can make. 1682 J. SCARLETT Exchanges Pref. Aij, To discern between the justice and injustice, the equity and inequity of these Exchanges. 1876 BANCROFT Hist. U.S. VI. Index 614 Many of her statesmen confess its inequity and inexpediency. 1886 SYMONDS Sidney iii. 48 The inequity and the political imprudence of freeing great nobles from burdens. b. with pl. An unfair or unjust matter or action. 1857 J. PULSFORD Quiet Hours i. §1 Thine iniquities are in-equities. 1884 H. SPENCER in Contemp. Rev. July 38 Our system of Equity, introduced..to make up for the short-comings of Common-law, or rectify its inequities.

Sociology: See if you can look at the adjunct labor system through the lens of social stratification, group interactions, or work economy.

Statistics: Have students research the average and minimum cost of living in NYC. Then, using the info in the general presentation or PowerPoint, have them calculate how much debt adjuncts can expect to incur in one year, considering their average salary vs. that of full-time, tenure track faculty working the same amount. Also, have students consider how much work adjuncts do outside of class (preparation, grading, responding to student emails), and calculate how much the truly earn at an hourly rate. As another option, have students check statistics of increasing adjunct labor in the Digest of Education Statistics and project figures for 2040.

Urban Education: Compare ratios of adjunct to full-time faculty at lower income institutions and ivy-league institutions.

How to Handle Plagiarism

The art of nabbing and disciplining those dirty, lying thought thieves. Plagiarism is one of the oddest concepts, considering that Western societies are the only ones that even think it’s possible to steal “intellectual property” (a very capitalist notion, yes?), while there is simply a collective of knowledge in places like China that everyone owns and anyone is free to use without citing sources. After all, hasn’t everything already been written and said? “There is nothing new under the sun,” right?—wait, let me get that source (Ecclesiastes 1.9b).

Add to that cultural discrepancy the fact that we teachers freely steal, copy and disseminate our own ideas, assignments and handouts (not to mention copyrighted material—you know who you are) when it comes to teaching. This is plagiarism. But nevermind that we don’t practice what we preach; here are some good ways of handling student plagiarism.

1. Cover your bases ahead of time. Include a long section defining plagiarism and delineating the horrible consequences thereof in your syllabus, and have students read it aloud (as a class or in turns) when you go over the syllabus. It does feel like second grade reading class, but this exercise ensures that everyone is accountable for the information. You can find your university’s plagiarism policy on its website, usually under “Policies” or something like that, or you may find it on a colleague’s syllabus (in which case you should promptly plagiarize it). My university has this great process of creating an ad hoc committee to “try” the student and determine his or her consequences (up to expulsion). I doubt you’ll ever have to go that far with a student, but that assignment should be automatically failed.

2. Design plagiarism-proof assignments. Avoid assigning generic topics or generic formats that can be easily lifted from cheat-sites. “Social issue” papers (legalizing marijuana, gun control, etc.) are sure to turn up some cheating, so rather than approving/assigning a paper on, say, global warming, shape it to fit the student: “define global warming, demonstrate the potential impact on your community, and suggest some solutions you can initiate within your community.” Many teachers have found it helpful to create paper assignments that are different from typical papers. Also, have the students brainstorm and create outlines in class (and even begin writing) so that they won’t be tempted by a profound writer’s block at the last minute to grab something off the internet.

3. It’s pretty easy to spot plagiarism. One, there will be a drastic difference between their in-class writing and a plagiarized assignment, and I’m not just talking about Spell Check and the shift+F7 function (thesaurus). I require tons of in-class essays, so I notice when their writing has suddenly become graduate-level. However, if you don’t teach a writing-intensive course, there are other things you’ll notice. For example, students often neglect to change formatting when they copy and paste from the internet. The spacing before and after lines is often still set to “auto,” so there are odd paragraph breaks. Or the student has a couple of different fonts (a sans from the internet and the default TNR from Word). Or you may see a slightly gray background he or she didn’t notice in the document.

Google usually works, because it’s probably the search engine your student used.. Enter a string of words in quotations marks (to search for those words only in a series) that doesn’t look like your student’s writing. It’ll usually be the second or third item to pop up. I’ve also heard of plagiarism software and search engines, but I’ve never come across or needed them. If you know of some, let me know and I’ll post them.

4. Confront the student respectfully. Accusations are never cool; they can make the student more defensive and prone to deny it, leading to lots of uncertainty. You might not know for sure about the plagiarism, so you won’t know what to do and, regardless of your decision, the student will feel guilty or insecure around you, making for an uncomfortable student/teacher relation for the rest of the year. You’re trying to help this student make good decisions, not “bust” him or her, so avoid accusations. I hear it is a power trip, though, if you ever want to try it.

Here’s a method I learned while teaching in New Orleans; I really like it, and I’ve shared it with a lot of people who latched onto it as well. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which teacher gave me this; otherwise, I’d certainly give her her intellectual props. Print a hard copy of the internet version of the plagiarized essay. Hand back all essays at the beginning of class except for Plagiarizing Patty’s, and ask her to see you at the end of class. She knows what’s up, so this gives her time to think about her decision and work through some of her defenses. At the end of class (I wait till the other students are gone so I can confront her privately), place her essay on the desk in front of you and, next to it, your internet print-out. Simply ask, “Is there something you want to tell me?”

The student will probably come clean (I’ve never had a student deny the plagiarism). Then put the ball in their corner again by asking, “What are the consequences for plagiarism?”

The rest is up to your discretion. I always fail that assignment, but I usually catch the plagiarism on first drafts anyway, so they can revise (rewrite) and still pass the assignment. Depending on the university’s policies, I may have students sign an Academic Dishonesty Form (which does not follow them past college, but stays on record in case they plagiarize again). I rarely receive plagiarized essays, but those few cases were not repeated by the students. I suppose I would consider asking them to drop the class if that happened.

In the cases of accidental plagiarism (for example, paraphrasing or not citing sources correctly), I still hold the students after class and fail the assignment, but provide specific instruction and assure them that a revision will replace the F. Again, it’s up to you.

5. Don’t ignore plagiarism. It is a disservice to your students to pretend it didn’t happen (either because you’re too tired or too scared to deal with it). Though you may feel merciful for not confronting Plagiarizing Patty, you are denying that student her agency as a human being. She has the ability to make choices with good or bad consequences, and she has the right, like you and I, to learn from her mistakes. And though plagiarism is indeed only a construct, she and you have agreed to the terms of the class, which include treating plagiarism as an offense.

What to Do the First Day of Class

Let's get down to business. What do you do when you walk in the first day? In short, be strict. Sounds authoritarian and awful, I know, but my disclaimer is that, while it's easy to loosen up on standards later, it’s nearly impossible to tighten up on them mid-semester. After you've taught for a while, you'll know what works best for you, but this is a good strategy for a first-time teacher.

1. Dress professionally, particularly if you’re female or young-looking (or just plain young). On issues of student respect, I once heard a tall, male professor say, “I find that it’s helpful to be tall and male. " If you’re unsure of yourself as a teacher and you possess neither of those qualities, it’s a good idea to wear a suit or blazer.

2. Walk in on the dot. If you get there early, it's weird to sit at your desk with nothing to say and nowhere to look, and even weirder to have to wave your hand, quiet everyone down and announce that class is beginning. Better to walk in, say "Good morning," and get started.

3. Begin with an assignment: a freewrite, “diagnostic” essay, pop quiz (which you won’t count, of course), contact information (email addresses are wonderful) or things you want to know about the students (last book read, grade they expect to make)… anything. You can simply walk in and say, “Get out a pen and sheet of paper, please.” Beginning every class with an assignment is an excellent way to get students “in the zone,” and doing it the first day lets students know how your class is going to be. They will choose either to drop your class or, more likely, rise to meet your expectations.

As an English teacher, I typically assign an essay the first day (what grade do you expect to make in this class—really?, or a literacy narrative), and students are free to leave when they hand in their essays.

4. Present your policies. You know this one—the syllabus! Either you can present this the first day or save it for Day 2 because your first assignment takes the whole class or because you know more students will add late (often the cases of community colleges). I present a grading contract on the second day (see my post on syllabus).

5. Have students introduce themselves. Same thing goes for introductions—decide whether you want them on the first or second day. Particularly if you’re teaching a discussion class, it’s important for students to develop a rapport with one another. I have each student meet another, procure the answers to four questions

• name
• origin
• major
• last song heard,

and introduce that student to the rest of the class. Meanwhile, during introductions, I regularly quiz the class on students who have already been introduced. It’s a great way to learn names, and you can quiz students on names any time (and any day) you need a reminder.

During this time, it's also a good idea to have students make "buddies" and take down contact info for making up notes they missed or to send messages to you. After all, you're only paid to teach the class once, so it's only fair that you shouldn't have to re-teach your lesson to students who were absent (though, of course, you'll willing to answer Qs and fill in gaps in info).