Well That's Unfortunate: When the Panel You Picked to Attend Doesn't Inspire
I’m still filled with conference thoughts. As I mentioned
previously, I heard some great ideas notably about accessibility, compassionate
pedagogy, and inclusive classroom best practices. I will be definitely
incorporating some of these suggestions with my discussions with faculty going
forward. That’s the great thing about conference, they afford you the space to
engage with different perspectives and to hear about different practices that
could work in your work places.
But sometimes, and to be honest it’s usually very rare, a whole panel just leaves you with the feeling of “well that was unfortunate.” You may end up in a panel of 3 or 4 papers where one doesn’t seem to share a thread with the others. Those panels are usually the best because a person in the audience (or the panel chair) will find that missing link and by the end of the question period everyone is filled with thoughts and excitement. But sometimes that does not happen...because the papers don’t lend themselves to such a theoretical construction.
I went to one of those panels last week. I am going to preface and contextualize this a whole bunch so bear with me. This is the first time I went to this conference and it’s not in my field. This panel had 2 different papers that spoke to 2 things I know a lot about, both in terms of research and pedagogically. I was with 2 people I know and we all left the panel scratching our collective heads (so there was some sort of consensus that something was off).
So what was exactly going on in this panel? I think one thing is that none of the papers had an argument but were rather just presenting some ideas they had found doing research without having worked out the significance of these findings yet. This is fine, and yes conferences should exactly be a space where that happens but you should frame it as a workshop instead if a panel so the conference goers know what is happening.
My friend spent a lot of energy days later still trying to hunt for an argument in the papers where her other friend told her to stop because it didn’t exist. I’ve been trying to think through these papers from an accessibility point of view and how to process or chunk information that is not readily available. I think that more than anything is what is keeping this panel in my head. From a compassionate pedagogy point of view there were no content warnings for at least one of the papers and I know the paper stuck with me for a while exactly because of that.
I know this is also a teachable moment. We give our students exemplars of good work and work that needs ...well more work, to give them context. This situation helped me frame what I would need to work on in my paper if in a similar situation. So there are always ways to think about these situations as a plus.
I know that if I was not in such a rather supportive space that the presenters would have been given not very nice questions or comments from the audience. I have been in a panel where a panelist was brought to tears by a horribly privileged senior academic. It was an experience that I hope I never witness again. (Said academic was called out later by another senior academic but that’s another story). However, I am wondering if any of you have had a similar situation where you were in a panel that didn’t inspire? What did you do? What did you say? How did you process it?
But sometimes, and to be honest it’s usually very rare, a whole panel just leaves you with the feeling of “well that was unfortunate.” You may end up in a panel of 3 or 4 papers where one doesn’t seem to share a thread with the others. Those panels are usually the best because a person in the audience (or the panel chair) will find that missing link and by the end of the question period everyone is filled with thoughts and excitement. But sometimes that does not happen...because the papers don’t lend themselves to such a theoretical construction.
I went to one of those panels last week. I am going to preface and contextualize this a whole bunch so bear with me. This is the first time I went to this conference and it’s not in my field. This panel had 2 different papers that spoke to 2 things I know a lot about, both in terms of research and pedagogically. I was with 2 people I know and we all left the panel scratching our collective heads (so there was some sort of consensus that something was off).
So what was exactly going on in this panel? I think one thing is that none of the papers had an argument but were rather just presenting some ideas they had found doing research without having worked out the significance of these findings yet. This is fine, and yes conferences should exactly be a space where that happens but you should frame it as a workshop instead if a panel so the conference goers know what is happening.
My friend spent a lot of energy days later still trying to hunt for an argument in the papers where her other friend told her to stop because it didn’t exist. I’ve been trying to think through these papers from an accessibility point of view and how to process or chunk information that is not readily available. I think that more than anything is what is keeping this panel in my head. From a compassionate pedagogy point of view there were no content warnings for at least one of the papers and I know the paper stuck with me for a while exactly because of that.
I know this is also a teachable moment. We give our students exemplars of good work and work that needs ...well more work, to give them context. This situation helped me frame what I would need to work on in my paper if in a similar situation. So there are always ways to think about these situations as a plus.
I know that if I was not in such a rather supportive space that the presenters would have been given not very nice questions or comments from the audience. I have been in a panel where a panelist was brought to tears by a horribly privileged senior academic. It was an experience that I hope I never witness again. (Said academic was called out later by another senior academic but that’s another story). However, I am wondering if any of you have had a similar situation where you were in a panel that didn’t inspire? What did you do? What did you say? How did you process it?
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