front cover of On Teacher Neutrality
On Teacher Neutrality
Politics, Praxis, and Performativity
Daniel P. Richards
Utah State University Press, 2020
On Teacher Neutrality explores the consequences of ideological arguments about teacher neutrality in the context of higher education. It is the first edited collection to focus exclusively on this contentious concept, emphasizing the practical possibilities and impossibilities of neutrality in the teaching of writing, the deployment of neutrality as a political motif in the public discourse shaping policy in higher education, and the performativity of individual instructors in a variety of institutional contexts. The collection provides clarity on the contours around defining “neutrality,” depth in understanding how neutrality operates differently in various institutional settings, and nuance in the levels and degrees of neutrality—or what is meant by it—in the teaching of writing.
 
Higher education itself and its stakeholders are continually exploring the role of teachers in the classroom and the extent to which it is possible or ethical to engage in neutrality. Amplifying voices from teachers in underrepresented positions and institutions in discussions of teacher ideology, On Teacher Neutrality shapes the discourse around these topics both within the writing classroom and throughout higher education. The book offers a rich array of practices, pedagogies, and theories that will help ground instructors and posits a way forward toward better dialogue and connections with the various stakeholders of higher education in the United States.
 
Contributors:
Tristan Abbott, Kelly Blewett, Meaghan Brewer, Christopher Michael Brown, Chad Chisholm, Jessica Clements, Jason C. Evans, Heather Fester, Romeo García, Yndalecio Isaac Hinojosa, Mara Holt, Erika Johnson, Tawny LeBouef Tullia, Lauren F. Lichty, Adam Pacton, Daniel P. Richards, Patricia Roberts-Miller, Karen Rosenberg, Allison L. Rowland, Robert Samuels, David P. Stubblefield, Jennifer Thomas, John Trimbur
 
[more]
front cover of Once a Professor
Once a Professor
A Memoir of Teaching in Turbulent Times
Jerry Apps
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2018
Farm boy professor shares a life of lessons.  

“I never wanted to be a professor,” writes Jerry Apps in the introduction to Once a Professor. Yet a series of unexpected events and unplanned experiences put him on an unlikely path—and led to a thirty-eight-year career at the University of Wisconsin. 

In this continuation of the Apps life story begun in his childhood memoir Limping through Life, Wisconsin’s celebrated rural storyteller shares stories from his years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1957 to 1995, when he left the university to lecture and write fulltime. During those years Apps experienced the turmoil of protests and riots at the UW in the 1960s, the struggles of the tenure process and faculty governance, and the ever-present pressure to secure funding for academic research and programs. 

Through it all, the award-winning writer honed a personal philosophy of education—one that values critical thinking, nontraditional teaching approaches, and hands-on experiences outside of the classroom. Colorful characters, personal photos, and journal entries from the era enrich this account of an unexpected campus career.
 
[more]

Send via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter