Are We Doing This Again?
It's 5:30 am and I am up writing this blog post for this week because I have had trouble sleeping this week. Most of it is tethered to how I haven't really had time to think think this week and so my think think time is actively eating into my, hey brain you should be sleeping now time. So I am up and it is super foggy outside like an M. Night Shyamalan movie in some sort of foreshadowy, symbolic representation of the thought processes and the world right now. Or maybe some pathetic fallacy of how the air cannot see it's way through to clarity just like we are facing in HigherEd right now.
Okay enough with the wee morning literary devices. The point of the blog this week, and to take these wee morning hours to actually sip instead of gulp my first coffee before running to catch the bus, is that as I have given myself fleeting moments to think think, in between all the meetings and the to dos, is that I've deeply realized that we are educationally living in a "plus ca change" moment. And for those wondering, think think, is different than think. Think think is actually creating time to reflect on what is happening and how pieces are interconnected, and how choices have holistic impact, including inclusion and equity and ethics (as in morals) as opposed to think, which is a quick reflection towards an action. Part of the circular "never new" motion we are stuck in, is that academe very rarely gives time for think think, unless you are lucky enough to have a sabbatical (the etymology of the term sabbatical is very interesting) as part of your employment which is by very definition, time to think think.
But you see, these two paragraphs above already demonstrate what happens when you have time to think think. There are links to other readings that appear, there are rabbit holes that are chased in thought. And what is bringing this topic up as I note is that honestly what I keep seeing is a reverting back to pedagogical choices that were a la mode in the 90s and early 00s as folk try to manage some sort of semblance of a learning environment that they are used to or that feels comfortable to them, while we are all living in a time where educational technologies and socio-political forces mean that everything is changing and quickly.
The amount of times I have said, "oh, are we doing this again?" in relation to things I have heard or seen on various social media is a lot. Quizzing, blue books, no devices, locked down every thing, no remote anything, all things that we have worked through many times pedagogically, and studied many times pedagogically, and have come to the same result which is um not really, or more like um sure, but only in very very specific situations and contexts, and chances are it is not your very very specific situation or context. And for you to know that, or realize that you need more think think time.
And part of this is very Benjaminian in nature. We are deeply struggling with coming up with anything innovative in relation to pedagogical design, because well, it has been done hasn't it. And the folk who are like well I am just going to use the Ai to come up with ideas fail to realize holistically at how anything Ai would come up with is informed by what has already been done because the models, well they model. The aura, the ethos, as opposed to the ethics, of pedagogy have been emptied out in large part because scaling of education with more students and less members of the teaching team as support leaves no time for think think. It leaves no time for fun or reflection on how we can do a thing contextually in a way that is deeply impactful. Even when you give yourself time to think think, as a group, it often reverts to side conversations and never a solution to the issue folk were gathered about to think think.
It is no surprise that folk who are seemingly having a better time of it this term are the folk who are ramping up into the semester from a longish break. A time to think think and contemplate what could or could not happen with the physical, human, and digital resources at their disposal. I am sure I am not the only one noting the repeating patterns of pedagogical design that are about as current as the Lilith Fair bucket hat I shall wear while watching this documentary this weekend.
As the folk who know me in real life know, I am very much in to spiritual things that help one identify patterns in life. And they (whom ever your they is) note that you will repeat patterns in your life such as dating the same kinds of people, having the same kinds of toxic jobs, being friends with the same kinds of people, until the lesson you have to learn is learned. And I can't help but thinking that HigherEd en masse still has not learned it's lesson, and won't until the ultimate end point which is that none of this exists in the ways we know it anymore. Maybe folk should read some Benjamin (all the artists and art historians are like yes please read some Benjamin), and reflect on the idea of the aura of authenticity. Because the sort of uncanny valley, almostness, that we seem to be stuck in in a repeating loop in academe, will only lead to it's own downfall. The call is coming from inside the house folks. You can only do so much with so much for so long, and then the cracks show, the foundations crumble, the whys disappear. It is not a coincidence that the refrain of "what are we doing here?" that we see so much on social media right now, is happening at a time where we keep repeating patterns from 20 to 30 years ago pedagogically, that is not the inspiring or progressive educational design we need. It is like seeing the clothes you used to wear in the 90s on sale at Walmart and shaking your head as how we are now again back here. But it is the design we have, this circling of sameness, and that's because think think time hasn't been on special at HigherEd Costco for decades.
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