I'm not busy enough, so I thought I'd apply for a professorship. Having never put together a Teaching Dossier before, because, let's be honest, I never really planned to become a university instructor, I have to figure out what my philosophy and strategy for teaching are, and I need to reflect on and summarise the teaching I've done. Thankfully, this application isn't due until later in January, because I can already tell it's going to be a lot of work for which I won't have time until all five-bazillion assignments have been graded. Anyway, one of the problems I've realised is that iSchool TAs don't get evaluations. We might be evaluated within course evals, but we don't see those. So, unless a professor puts something down on paper, it's hard to show what you've done and whether your work is good or appreciated.
Back in the autumn of 2020, when we were all reeling in the first year of the pandemic, I TA'd for Jenna Hartel, a professor for whom I'd never worked before. I was given two principle roles, to develop a lecture on Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and to help design and co-ordinate the novel assignment "Giving Thanks To..." which was a deep learning, reflective assignment in which students choose new or marginalised information scholars, researched their work, and then wrote them an old fashioned thank you card. Teaching the Indigenous Ways of Knowing lecture was interesting for me, but challenging for my person ethics as I am not Indigenous. Some of my curatorial work explored Indigenous-Settler interactions (Beads: patterns in time, 2007, and Unsettling the Thames, 2011) and I've always been interested in issues of repatriation and cultural appropriation, but to lead a class on an Indigenous topic, as a settler, was uncomfortable. In order to do it justice and to make sure I used the opportunity to raise Indigenous voices, I consulted with a number of friends who are Indigenous educators for advice (and their blessing), and chose readings from the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. In delivering the lecture, I spoke candidly about my discomfort leading the class, and made sure to clearly centre all the Indigenous scholars and Knowledge Keepers I quoted. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it, but I hope future lectures were delivered by Indigenous teachers.
The so-called "gratitude project" was an entirely different experience. This work took a majority of my TA hours and I worked with Jenna to develop how the assignment would be structured and assessed. I helped with the writing of the brief, and in the end, I graded all the submissions. What I initially considered something of a "fluff" assignment for a class of Masters students, I came to see as a deeply meaningful, reflective, and pedagogically inspired project, not only for the students, but for me as well. Jenna seated the assignment within a deep-learning or "Sentipensante" pedagogy as a way for students to not only discover the works of new or marginalised information scholars, but to help students find emotional balance and gratitude in a world in chaos. Jenna presented this assignment as an alternative learning approach at a conference, paper, and video, and in all cases she made very sure to include the work that I put into the project. It remains the only work I've done as a TA that has earned public gratitude from the professor and for that I, too, am grateful. You can watch the video below, or read her paper here.
Working as Jenna Hartel's TA was an inspiring experience. I'm not quite sure how I landed the class, as I almost always spend my fall semesters grading two other courses, but this worked out very well. It was the first time I was heavily involved in course assessment design, but more importantly, it was an opportunity to see a very different pedagogical approach in action. Jenna was heart-felt and gentle in her course leadership and made an effort to profoundly connect with her students (and me!) although everything was done online. My personality is very different from hers and I don't think I could emulate her teaching style, but I can, and do, take her approach to deep meaning-making, empathy, and compassion to heart when I work with students. And, if I'm ever given the opportunity to teach a course (or courses), I will also take inspiration from her creative approach to teaching and student assessment. I am profoundly thankful for having had the chance to TA that class.
