As a younger instructor, I have had issues in the past with maintaining authority in the classroom. The hardest part is trying to maintain a relaxed/open atmosphere in the classroom, while still being an authority figure. Being a younger instructor I feel that the students sometimes feel that they can take the relaxed atmosphere a little too far. They sometimes see me as another student or a friend that happens to be teaching the class. This can be helpful during class discussion because they feel like it is easier to open up and talk about things, but they also don't care as much about staying on topic or getting assignments in on time. Then they are shocked when I'm not "cool" with their lax attitude toward class.
I've also had quite a few nontraditional students in my classes. While most are super respectful, I have had a few incidences with age. For instance, the closer the students are to my age, the more they see me as a peer and not a teacher. I had one student that was maybe a year older that I was and during a class about narratives I gave some examples from my own that I thought would help the students better understand the activity. For this particular student, we'll call him Joe, those examples must have seemed familiar because he decided to shout "How old are you?" from the middle of the class. I tried to play it off with humor and told him I was 55. That just made him more insistent. Then he started asking when I graduated from high school and saying that we had to be the same age. I basically told him that my age didn't matter and we needed to focus on the activity. The class went back to what they were doing, but for the rest of the semester Joe was more outspoken and much more likely to interrupt class. He also was one of the students that I had the most problems with when it came to turning assignments in on time. I can't definitively say that my age was the only factor that could just be how he is, but I do think he felt much more comfortable doing these things in my class because we were close to the same age.
I think with age it is your prerogative whether you want to tell students how old you are or not. Personally I would not make it an issue because I think that teachers of all ages can be excellent at what they do and it should not matter, definitely. I always appreciate when students don't ask me how old I am because it makes it easier for us to focus on the task at hand instead of getting caught up in extraneous details.
ReplyDeleteI have had similar experiences with a non-traditional student. For the most part, I have found non-traditional students to be easier to guide through units and reach with new information, especially if it's an abstract idea. I feel like they are the students that are sincerely in your classroom to learn; they know what the "real world" holds for them and they have chosen to come back. During my first semester teaching composition I had a male non-traditional student in his mid-thirties (probably). Being over a decade older than myself he said something that was a bit ageist toward me in one class period. I had been warned by my peers and the director of the writing program that this may occur, but I had never given it too much thought. Although it threw me enough for me to remain silent for a moment, I simply asked the student to think about what he just said and if he thought he should have said it to an instructor. After class he apologized, I believe sincerely, and he never disrupted in a negative manner again. He remained active in contributing to the class but remained focused on the task at hand. I don't know if my response to him would have worked with everyone, but I would probably pose the same question if I had a non-trad in my class again who said something that was inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, I miss my non-trads! The students in my course at BSU are all very fresh. I miss the attentiveness and drive that typically comes along with non-traditional students. Hopefully by the end of the semester I can see my students focus more on their studies and less on their extra-curricular activities. The great thing about fresh students is that they are very open with their freewrites, so you get to know your students (and their interests) pretty quickly!
The only class I've taken that was taught by a TA was my first composition class as a freshman. She was a second-semester MA student, and I believe it was the first class she'd ever taught own her own. At first she seemed a bit anxious. The first thing she said as she opened our first class session was, "Hi, everyone. I'm Stacey, and before you ask, yes, I am old enough to teach this class." She then told us her age, educational expertise, etc. I think she was surprised that her age was never really the issue she thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the campus and the makeup of the student body. I co-taught a composition and literature course last year, and we had several non-traditional students. As a regional IU campus, our student body was approximately 25-30% non-traditional students -- adults with careers who wanted to further their education. Even as someone who was sometimes less than half their ages, I never noticed any signs of disrespect or distrust in my expertise in the field. Several even came to me during office hours for one-on-one tutoring. That's a bit of surreal experience for me -- teaching and being somewhat of an authority figure to someone who is my parents' age. But the students themselves never seemed put off by my age.
That said, I can see how in some situations it could be an issue, as you describe, particularly for the non-traditional students who might think their "life" experience outweighs your educational expertise. I think it would be less of a problem with traditional freshmen, though -- for many, it's their first year of college and they don't know the difference between a twentysomething TA and a fortysomething prof.
This is one of the concerns perpetually on my mind. I am concerned that my young age may be something students or even other colleagues to take advantage of during my first semester of teaching. I am thankful that the BSU program at least offers one semester of shadowing a class, because it has significantly reduced my concern with finding my authority in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI find that remaining in constant conversation with my mentor is enormously helpful. Not only has she been through this transition and process herself, but she has also mentored grad students each year and has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of how to respond to situations that do question the authority of the instructor.
I think you bring up a great point about nontraditional students. I can only speak to this from experience at my undergrad university in the WC. I worked with many adult students and international students. Most of the time they understood that they were coming to me for help, because I had a skill that could benefit them. In that sense, they were grateful to me because I knew more than they did on the subject and could help them to be successful. Much like I go to a mechanic or doctor or fellow professors, because they are knowledgeable in an area that I may not be. While most of my experiences were positive, there were from time to time adults who were impatient with me and thought they could figure it out and didn't need my help, yet they signed up for the appointment. Or I would have the opposite, and an adult would take well over their appointment time because they felt their studies were more important or they deserved more help. I rarely encountered those. More often it was sexism that presented as a problem. Some students refused to work with female tutors. In group emails, they would only respond to men. Or they acted like the female tutors were second best and didn't know as much. This, like the age/authority problem, is something I anticipate struggling with on both a student and colleague level. My best strategies so far are honesty and sometimes humor. Like Jesse's story offered the TA making a joke about her age, using humor to get things out of the way in the beginning I find effective. However, as a feminist and gender studies minor, I find honesty my best weapon for sexism. Explaining my education background and qualifications is something I can do, but I shouldn't feel like the only reason I am doing so is to convince a sexist person to trust me. In that case pointing out the logical flaw in their thinking and maintaining confident authority is a must.