Reclaiming Pedagogical Purpose During Difficult Times

A preview of CETL’s fall programs

At CETL, we collaborate with individuals at every level of UM’s teaching community. We know that these folks are committed to their work as educators and that they do their very best to create positive and meaningful learning experiences for their students.

We also know that they are tired. 

It’s been a rough few years, maybe even a rough decade, for teachers and students. Toxic politics, an ongoing pandemic, the potential for climate catastrophe—there are dozens of reasons to be panicked or discouraged. It’s no wonder that we’re facing a student mental health crisis. 

But students aren’t the only ones fighting to maintain their wellbeing. According to recent surveys…

• 61% of instructors struggle with their own mental and emotional health

• Around half say they are being asked to do more with less and finding it difficult to meet the increased needs of their students

• 65% say it’s a challenge to keep students engaged

• 76% expect to experience more burnout in the next five years

All of this, of course, makes it difficult to find satisfaction in our teaching. As one survey respondent noted, “I am feeling a sense of burnout and exhaustion. I’m still doing my job well, but I do not feel joy in it and sometimes dread it.” This sentiment echoes a lot of what we’re hearing from instructors at UM. Our teaching community, like many others, is committed but worn out. 

This is a feeling that CETL hopes to address in our fall 2024 programming. We can’t give instructors a five-step plan for conquering burnout or a checklist for bringing the joy back into teaching. But we can provide spaces to talk about teaching challenges with other instructors, share strategies that might help, and maybe even do a bit of healing. So, here’s what we’ve got planned:

Events on joy, meaning, and purpose in the classroom

Our fall lineup features a number of events to help instructors process their struggles in community and think about how to restore a sense of fulfillment to their teaching. 

In September, CETL Director Josh Eyler will facilitate a workshop on “Reclaiming Joy and Purpose in the Classroom—For You and For Your Students.” Participants will think about the obstacles to joy and purpose they are encountering in their teaching, as well as the obstacles they believe their students are facing. Then, collectively, we will consider ways to address these challenges.

Later that month, guest speaker Dr. Isis Artze-Vega, the College Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Valencia College, will visit campus to talk about “Relationship-Rich Education: Reclaiming Joy in the Classroom.” Dr. Artze-Vega is co-author of the recent book Connections Are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education, a kind of student sequel to Peter Felten and Leo Lambert’s Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College. She’s also a co-author of The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching. CETL staff heard Dr. Artze-Vega deliver an excellent keynote about human connection in college at a recent conference, and we’re excited to welcome her to UM!

Finally, we’re excited to recognize CETL’s own Liz Norell, whose recent work focuses on how to bring our authentic selves into the classroom even, or especially, when dealing with stress and insecurity. In December, we’ll host a book launch for The Present Professor, Liz’s new book from the “Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving In Higher Ed” series at the University of Oklahoma Press. Liz will discuss themes from the book in conversation with Josh and other invited guests. 

Faculty Reading Group on burnout

This year, the Faculty Reading Group will depart from the focus of previous years. Instead of reading a book on pedagogy, we’ll tackle Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal. The book draws on the author’s own burnout experience and tells the stories of other faculty members, particularly women, who have dealt with the fallout of chronic workplace stress. Pope-Ruark lays out four pillars of burnout resilience for faculty members—purpose, compassion, connection, and balance—and makes suggestions about how to address burnout on both individual and systemic levels. 

Workshops on teaching during difficult times

Did you know it’s an election year here in the US? That was a rhetorical question.

Many of us will be teaching subjects this fall that touch on politics or that are likely to elicit strong emotional reactions from students. If you’re planning to discuss current events with your students over the next few months, you might be interested in our September workshop on “How to Bring Down the Temperature When It Comes to Politics (in Classrooms).” If you’ll be facilitating conversations around any kind of sensitive issue, political or not, you may be interested in our October session on “Leading Difficult Discussions.”

Even if you aren’t dealing with sensitive subject matter, it’s likely you and your students will still be impacted by this year’s contentious election. Our workshop on “Teaching in the Weeks Surrounding the Election” is designed to help instructors in any discipline manage the emotions swirling around the political events of the fall. We’ll share strategies for responding to crises and sample scripts for acknowledging events outside the classroom. And we’ll talk about how to manage our own mental health during these weeks as well. 

Workshops on supporting student wellbeing

Finally, we’ll offer a few events focused on supporting our students’ wellbeing this fall. We’ll continue our exploration of neurodivergence and disability in the classroom with a session titled “Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act and Its Impact on Teaching.” This workshop is designed to equip instructors with basic knowledge of the ADA’s requirements and an awareness of how those requirements impact what teachers should (and should not) do in their classrooms and with students.

We’ll also reprise a session on “Developing a Trauma-aware Pedagogy” (originally planned for fall 2022 but interrupted by an untimely fire alarm!). The number of students with trauma in our classrooms is rising, so it’s important to be aware of how trauma affects teaching and learning. We’ll cover five elements of trauma-aware teaching: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; and empowerment, voice, and choice. 

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These are not the only events happening during the fall. We’ll also continue to offer our regular graduate student programs, including the Graduate Reading Group and the Fundamentals of Teaching series. We’re looking forward to joining our colleagues in the Academic Innovations Group for sessions on AI in teaching and learning. And we’ll keep collaborating with our colleagues in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement to offer sessions on Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Practices. We’ve got a full calendar for the next few months!

We hope that no matter who you are, what you teach, or where you’re at in your teaching journey you’ll find something in CETL’s fall lineup that can help make your work a little easier—any maybe even more joyful. If you’re a member of the UM community, you can view our full events calendar, and register to attend, on our website.