Pictures from The House of Stuff interwoven with insights into the themes of fun in learning (Zinn, 2004, 2008) and the work of caring, creative, and connective teachers
2. Home•Makers of the Academy The Valuing—and Devaluing—of Teaching Dr. Wilkins-O-Riley Zinn • Southern Oregon University
3. Quotations Quotations without attribution are from conversations, workshops, and other events during winter and spring quarter 2010. The faculty whose words appear here hold a variety of appointments at Southern Oregon University, but none of them is tenured or on the tenure-track.
4. I love my students.I love teaching.And that’s no bull.
5. What do you do that works with students? I listen to my students. They know I care, but as an adjunct faculty member, I feel a bit disconnected from the school myself. Students often ask questions I can’t answer and I’m never sure where to find the answers they—and I—need.
6. Connective & Creative Teaching for Learning Invitation Inspiration Information Integration Implementation (Zinn 2004)
7. Teaching teachers means focusing on how I teach as well as what I teach. Very time-intensive.
8. Student advisory board advice: Number one: Provide rationales for your instructional choices. We sometimes wonder why. Explain. Number two: Provide a syllabus with clear expectations. “Emerging” and ever-changing plans are frustrating for people with other classes, jobs, families, and lives! Think about us, yet challenge us. Number three: We are people filled with insights and ideas. Treat us as though we have something to offer. Have a very good reason for everything you do. • Laurence Oliver
9. I work damn hard to make it interesting and involving!
10. Six Keys to Dropout Prevention (Zinn, 2008) Relevance: I have reasons to be here that are meaningful to me. Rigor: Expectations are high, and work is scaffolded to support my achievement. Recognition: My efforts are seen, appreciated, and celebrated. Respect: I am treated like a unique and valuable person; my interests are respected. Relationships: There are people here who care about me and about whom I can care. Responsibility: I am supported in the developmental processes of becoming an interested and intellectually responsible lifelong learner and can make meaningful contributions here.
11. Mattering(Schlossberg, Lynch & Chickering, 1989) Attention: students believe that they are recognized/seen as individuals. Instructors can address this through comments on papers, encouraging students to get to know one another, and learning student names. Importance: students believe that instructors/advisors care about student's goals. Updated information is provided, advising—formal and informal—goes beyond the formulaic and is linked to student needs. Absences are noticed. Dependence: students feel that they are an integral part of class and that others depend on them. They are not allowed to be invisible in discussions and other class interactions. Ego-extension: students believe that others will be/are proud of their accomplishments. Appreciation: students are recognized for who they are and what they have done, receiving credit for life experience, for example. The multiple life roles that adult learners are juggling are seen and taken into account. Learners are trusted.
13. Mandateering(Zinn, 2004) Mandateering refers to the kinds involuntary volunteer work that almost all employees are asked to do, but that contingent and untenured faculty may be particularly vulnerable to. Many such activities are part of creating what has been called “the smell of the place” and help create an institutional home for students. These same kinds of activities, when done voluntarily because of the ways in which faculty define their work and commitment to students, provide unpaid benefits for the institution. Also known as being “voluntold” to do something.
14. The Six Themes of Fun in Learning C • Choice R • Relevance E • Engagement A • Active Learning T • Teacher Attitude E • Eiredaramac (Camaraderie) • Zinn, 2004, 2009
15. Malcom Knowles' (1990) Theory of Adult Learning Adults want to know why they are learning something. Adults need to learn experientially. Adults approach learning as problem-solving. Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.
16. I model lifelong learning: I love the ongoing searching of teaching and students know this is more than a paycheck to me. I don’t make enough to do it if I didn’t think it mattered. I couldn’t do this if my partner didn’t work. I continue to research and share related interests; learning is fascinating and I think students see that in my life. I provide relevance and link to other subjects as well as to students’ interests. I’m always looking for connections. I believe in the power of education to change lives and I love to advise and mentor students even though this really isn’t part of my job. I’m only here part-time, so I have the time to invest in exploring possibilities with students, even if I don’t get paid for it.
17. I read, read, read and share it with my students. I hope they’ll love reading and the pursuit of knowledge too!
18. The Five Rs(W-OZ, 2005) • Respect • Recognition • Roles • Responsibilities • Rewards
19. Mattering Doesn’t Just Matter To Students I know what I do matters and I know I make a difference. I still hear from students I had years ago. But I really wish I felt as though my work wasn’t invisible to my colleagues. This is lonely work sometimes and I don’t know how to begin to get connected. I know that it’s probably all in my mind, but I feel like an interloper, even in the halls I’ve been walking for years. I hope you figure out how to help everyone feel like they matter to the institution.
21. What can we do? We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. • Calvin Coolidge
22. Just One Thing On the card provided, make a note of just one thing you can do to encourage recognition and respect for the work of all participants in the life of your campus. When you return to work, take a first step.
25. A Final Thought: [W]e all know that what will transform education is not another theory, another book, or another formula but educators who are willing to seek a transformed way of being in the world. In the midst of the familiar trappings of education—competition, intellectual combat, obsession with a narrow range of facts, credits, and credentials—what we seek is a way of working illuminated by spirit and infused with soul. •Parker J. Palmer (1999), “The Grace of Great Things”
