Most teachers in the U.S. have gone back to school by now, but I don't start teaching until Monday. This fall I'm teaching at two very different institutions: the large University of California campus where I also consult with faculty to improve their teaching, and a small private university where I'm an adjunct instructor in museum studies. It's my ninth year teaching at the university level, but I find the longer I stay within higher education, the more conflicted I feel about U.S. education in general and about higher education specifically. Worse than conflicted, actually--I feel complicit in institutional failures to improve students' motivation and ability to learn. I suspect I'm in this game for the long term, but it makes sense for someone at my age and stage of my career--university staff member and perpetual adjunct (vs. tenure track) instructor--to assess what exactly I'm contributing. Factory farming of undergrads? First, in my staff job, I consult with faculty to help them become more thoughtful about teaching undergraduates. That means being available to nearly 2,500 teaching faculty, plus thousands of graduate student teaching assistants. It feels overwhelming until I realize that my colleagues and I--a total of 2.5 consultants--work face-to-face with just over a thousand of these teachers every year, and 600-700 of those are new teaching assistants who show up only for orientation. I wish more instructors would tak ...
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