Authenticity

I have been following John Will's blog for some time and regularly find inspiration in and resonance with his work. One of his recent entries covered the topic of authenticity in teaching. He writes:  

"I have also, over the years, come to understand the importance of being totally authentic. I am what I say I am – I deliver what I say I can deliver – I am true to myself – and true to my students. Authenticity is very important to me and I believe that people, more than ever, are seeking the authentic experience and become more fully engaged themselves when they are exposed to it."

I strive toward this lofty and important goal when teaching university students. My first exposure to teaching University level students was admittedly a minor disaster. I wandered into my classroom for the first day of classes with a few minutes to spare. Not too many, however - I didn't want to seem over anxious and I knew that "good" professors were never too early lest they had to engage with their students. I wore my very best professorial costume - because that's what I thought professors wore. 

I was never comfortable. Although the students were kind, I was quite dissatisfied with my place at the front of the class. Don't get me wrong, I knew the material. What I didn't know was who I was as an instructor. I was focussing too hard on being a professor, such that me, Bryan, was lost. Taking university classes and being indoctrinated through graduate school provided me with a guise, or mask, that I could don that enabled me to pass myself off as a professor - whatever that meant to me at the time. But, I was never comfortable. 

Two things in my life forced me to take stock. First, my first son, Ayden, was born. Being a father changed me in fantastic ways and forced me to take a look at who I was and was becoming. To do it right, being a supportive and sympathetic father, like being a devoted teacher demands (in my humble opinion) authenticity. I just can't lie to my son - except maybe about the existence of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny! 

Second, jiu jitsu forced me to confront some very uncomfortable truths about myself. The demands of the art/sport/etc. encouraged a (re)evaluation of my essence and being in the world. The end result is that when I tell people I am a professor, they stare back in disbelief. I don't look like or don't act like the mask I donned not too long ago.

The result being that I'm more genuine to my students and, more importantly, in my everyday being in the world. Now, if only my colleagues would take up jiu jitsu!

Bryan

bjjstudy@gmail.com

Evaluation

I had a meeting yesterday with the instructors for the martial arts course. Evaluation seems to be the topic with which we are somewhat stuck. Given that this is a University level course we require some manner through which to appraise students. Further, because we are delivering the course through Sociology (co-listed with Phys-ed) we cannot rely solely on physical measures. 

On its face, this course is meant to be a radical alternative to the run-of-the-mill and every-day practice endemic to almost every university. In the established version, the professor takes her/his place at the front of the room at the designated hour and lectures for the set time and then leaves with little or no interaction with students. No doubt, many in my field find cold comfort in this reality. Our course, by contrast, demands a more hospitable and relaxed environment. Really, in what other course is there potential to batter your prof? - I'm certain many have considered it!

Given its radical constitution, how should students be graded (no, their ability to tap out the prof would not be useful)? I am not certain that Denis Rancourt's approach of giving A+s to everyone is viable. Ain't academic freedom grand! Such that this is a university course we are (somewhat) bound by institutional rules (there's always some latitude), so we HAVE to have students perform some tasks which we can then evaluate.

Keeping in mind that one of our goals is to have students confront their inner self and ask critical questions about their being in the world through training, I want to know: How do you think we should grade our students? What assignments should we prescribe? What readings would you recommend? Please feel free to be as radical and "outside the box" as your mind allows.

Bryan

bjjstudy@gmail.com

Where there's a will...

In my previous post I discussed some difficulties I have encountered in receiving bureaucratic support for my sociology of martial arts (or whatever) course. To date, my colleague and I have been unsuccessful in obtaining OFFICIAL sanction for our course. That being said, we recently may have uncovered/derived (this sounds devious?) an alternative way of going about this.

In lieu of university endorsement, we plan to teach the class as an independent study course. Traditionally, these classes are open to any student (undergrad and grad) for whom a topic of interest is not covered by existing course offerings (i.e. martial arts). Students interested in pursuing this course would then locate a supervisor who would assist the learner in locating resources and decide upon a plan for evaluation. In our case, we have inverted the process by flagging and filling a gap in course offerings. 

So far so good. However, because we are subverting the usual routes we will not receive credit, in the usual university bureaucratic sense, for our efforts; which is fine with me. I would teach this course for free, anyway. The life of an academic, however, is hectic (FYI - we DON'T get our summers off!). In addition to research, teaching, supervising grad students, we are heavily burdened with committee work at the departmental, faculty and university levels. I'm not complaining because I love my job, only putting into perspective the time draw this course presents. 

All this being true, I think such a course is important. Martial arts, and especially BJJ, teaches us so much about ourselves and the social world around us. To this end, the deafening silence in the academy around martial arts ought to be shattered. The question becomes, how do we get the University bureaucracy to buy in?

BJJ in the University? Oil and Water or perfect fit?

For some time a colleague and I have been batting around the idea of a University course along the lines of Sociology of Budo, Sociology of the Martial Arts or something of this ilk. The name is, really, irrelevant. Along the lines of what is taken for granted at many Japanese Universities, this year we proposed a course that would take the ethics and mentality of the martial arts quite seriously. Despite our dedication and enthusiasm for the project the University powers turned down our rather modest request. It wasn't our intention to modify curriculum of the Faculty nor to alter substantially the course of the University. We simply wanted to teach one section of the course.

At this particularly university most faculty members design, propose and eventually teach courses which are in their area of expertise - I would hope, anyway. I already teach several core topics in my field and teach somewhere in the neighbourhood of 600 students per year (depending on the year). My colleague, similarly, teaches core high enrollment undergraduate sociology courses (intro, theory, etc.). In fact, for the bureaucratic rationale that we teach so many students per year could account for our rather lukewarm reception.

I think this is an important course - one from which students will learn a great deal and derive significant benefit. Gaining acceptance and understanding of BJJ in the wider community is paramount to my research and my work. Pushing for this course, likewise, is elemental to this  end!