The Pivot
The Pivot is an occasional series in the Wabash Center blogosphere in which professors reflect upon current teaching experiences wherein issues of race, racism, violence, and/or politics of inferiority have caused shifting or necessitated change. The responsive teacher, having planned for the course to proceed in particular ways, is interrupted when current human events create a need for change. The Pivot invites reflections on these times as they effect our classrooms.
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Wisdom in Crisis: A Pivot Does Not Have to Be a Full 180 Degree Turn
Blog Series: Social Justice and Civic Engagement | The Pivot
April 09, 2021
Tags: self care | ANTI-ASIAN VIOLENCE | PIVOT | AAPI PERSPECTIVE | ATLANTA | EARLY CAREER ADVICE | MID-CAREER | MINORITY TAX
When I began my first full-time professor gig in 2008, I quickly learned to be fiercely protective of my own time. I understood that the long game of an academic career necessitated the publication of my first book. I loved teaching, but I intentionally restricted my own preparation and grading time ...
When Teaching Pivots to Meet the “Fierce Urgency of Now”
Blog Series: Praxis: The Responsive & Expanding Classroom | The Pivot
April 02, 2021
Tags: student centered learning | syllabus | ANTI-ASIAN VIOLENCE | CLASSROOM COLLABORATION | CONSERVATIVE SEMINARY TRAINING | COURSE CONTENT | MARTIN LUTHER KING | JR. | PIVOT
For the past twelve months, I have made several pivots in my teaching to meet what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. identified in his 1967 speech on the war in Vietnam at The Riverside Church in New York City as “the fierce urgency of now.” Dr. King began by affirming the ...
The Impossible Possibility of Conversations about Race in the Classroom
Blog Series: Social Justice and Civic Engagement | The Pivot
March 26, 2021
Tags: anti-racism | activism | classroom conversation | Fania Davis | hate speech | Ibram X. Kendi | racial incident | Reinhold Niebuhr
Twenty-five springs ago I sat in a class on African American literature. On a small, rural midwestern campus, this course was taught by a white professor. Two of the seven Black students on campus at that time were in the class, the remaining twenty-five or so students reflected the demographics ...