Teaching, Learning, and the Holocaust: An Integrative Approach

Preface

PrefaCe Ever since the publication of Ernest Boyer’s College: The Undergraduate Experience, and particularly Scholarship Reconsidered, the idea that research on teaching and learning could be a legitimate form of scholarship has been debated in the academy. The scholarship of teaching and learning, often referred to as SoTL, looks to the classroom as a rich source of knowledge. Sadly, SoTL has not always been given the same prestige or recognition as other forms of research. It was the goal of Scholarship Reconsidered “to move beyond the ‘teaching versus research’ debate and give scholarship a broader, more efficacious meaning” (Glassick, Huber, and Maeroff ix). Although strides have been made in recognizing SoTL, it still often lacks the backing of committees on tenure and promotion, particularly in baccalaureate and traditional research institutions. Those of us teaching at community colleges face additional hurdles . In these institutions teaching is supposed to be the main function of the faculty. However, one of the main obstacles to SoTL at two-year schools is a bias against research, even if that research includes teaching as its subject. In fact, spending precious time reflecting on one’s teaching in an organized and disciplined way and sharing such knowledge through conferences and publications are often seen as luxuries. The majority of instructors in such schools do not see themselves as researchers nor are they viewed as such by administrators. We believe that teaching separated from reflective practice and collegial exchange runs the risk of stultification and that community college faculty who are afforded little time, few resources, and only nominal recognition to engage in scholarly reflection will see their own professional identities as knowledge makers diminished—in essence, they are becoming mere delivery systems. In this age of proliferating online instruction (including freely dispensed fare such as massive open online courses), such a threat is no longer merely an abstraction. The situation at public community colleges has worsened as state and federal budget cuts have decreased the number of full-time x n Preface instructors, thus increasing the burden of full-time faculty in the form of increased committee work and other administrative functions. Faculty at many community colleges are now teaching five or more courses, making it even more difficult to do necessary research. Often they work alone, with little opportunity to share their experience with colleagues. The majority of teaching is now done by adjunct faculty, who clearly have little time to do classroom research as they struggle to just make a living teaching in a variety of institutions that give them little support. Even as public colleges have seen funding decreases, faculty have experienced increased pressure to assess what they are doing and to push for higher completion rates, particularly at community colleges. One way, of course, to facilitate retention and increase graduation is to promote excellence in teaching, a fact that brings us to the scholarship of teaching and learning. It is only through organized inquiry, reflection , and critical exchange—all hallmarks of SoTL—that we can determine which forms of pedagogy work best. Two year–college faculty have an advantage over their four-year peers in that classes tend to be much smaller—and, although students who come from diverse backgrounds may be more challenging, that very diversity makes them rich subjects for scholarly inquiry. Those teaching at two-year institutions also have an advantage over their four-year colleagues in that community college faculty face less pressure to engage in specific disciplinary research and thus have opportunities to do the type of research promoted by SoTL. Fortunately, despite tight budgets and ambivalence toward research as a teaching-focused activity, there has been some important movement toward sharing information about teaching. At our college, for example , we were able to obtain a large grant to establish a center for teaching and learning. The center was retained after the end of the grant and remains a place where faculty can come together to share ideas and engage in classroom research across the curriculum. During the life of our grant, a journal was published, helping to facilitate the exchange of pedagogical ideas across disciplines. It was discontinued due to fiscal constraints, but we hope that it will be revived. Meanwhile, faculty at two-year colleges continue to engage in and facilitate scholarly con- Preface n xi versations. Howard was the editor of a peer-reviewed national journal, Teaching English at the Two-Year...