Don't They Want Power?

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How much power should be given to students is one of the questions we may still be asking ourselves as instructors and students at the same time. How much is too much? I know that we have had this discussion before, but I would like to ask about it from what I read in chapter 4 of In Our Own Voice.
I think we had this touched on this a little bit at the beginning of the semester, but I would like to see how our perception may have changed since we are about to finish our first semester as instructors at Ball State.

In this chapter, Deletiner cites Boomer when he claims that any teacher who is far from the idea of being a "judge" in the classroom is "devaluated as soft or even slightly crazy" (p. 95) This makes me think of what side I am taking in my teaching practices this semester. At least in my mind, I don't give place to the idea of being a "judge" or as someone who needs to be heard and "obeyed" in the classroom because I am the one who has the knowledge. During this semester, my intention has been to show my students that they can see me somehow as an equal in the sense that, as a writer, I relate to the struggles they face when crafting a paper or even a simpler writing assignment. Yet, I don't really know how much of my intention is getting to the right point. By reading this chapter, I started to fear whether I am preaching, but not applying. Probably, most of us have the intention to make our students feel how important they are by showing some sort of empathy towards their writing as a process. Yet, due to our inexperience in teaching FYC, there is still a big possibility that we end up doing what we have fiercely criticized.

It is paradoxical that we want students to feel free to make some decisions in our classes, but still, it seems like they sometimes reacted negatively to our proposals. An example of what I mean by this is what one of my ENG 104 students wrote in his reflection of the first project, which consisted of writing a blog about what they thought a famous person would have written about themselves. For this project, they had the freedom to choose the person they wanted along with the topics they were interested in about that person. While most of my students claimed to have enjoyed that project because they thought it was different from any other projects they had had in English or writing classes, this student said that he would have preferred to write an essay because he liked more familiar and structured things. Although I completely respect his opinion and it was probably the only case like that I had in that class, I wondered why he would prefer something in which he would probably be strictly instructed about what he should do instead of a project where he had so much freedom to make his own decisions. I know this fact might not sound like something meaningful, but I was and am still so curious about that attitude. In that sense, I agree with Deletiner when she claims that "resistance to traditional forms of authority is easier to address because it is familiar. Resistance to freedom is unsettling. It doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't anyone want to be free?"(p.100)

Then, I feel that resistance will always be in our classrooms whatever approach we embrace and regardless of the level of freedom we think is enough in our classes. Hopefully, we will keep shaping our teaching as we get more experienced to get to a point of balance where we can feel more comfortable not because we feel ok with our teaching method, but because we see its confirmed effectiveness in our students.

How do you measure the level of freedom you give your students? 
How much rejection of your proposed "freedom values" have you faced in your classes? How have you managed it?

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 20, 2020 at 9:07 AM

    Hi Cristian,

    I think the level of freedom I give my students depends on what we are working on and to be honest, the group of students. Some students just seem to be able to handle more freedom than others, but in general, I try to allow them the space to grow and learn.

    I think sometimes students reject the freedom given because they are not used to it and want to just be told exactly what to do so they can get through the course. I have tried to manage this by showing students that they are learning something that is actually valuable for their future, but it varies in terms of how it sticks with them.

    Abbie

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    Replies
    1. Shelbi TedeschiApril 20, 2020 at 10:20 AM

      Cristian,

      I'm going to agree with Abbie here. I think what giving students freedom looks like varies from class to class and assignment to assignment. One group may be more willing than the next.

      This touches back on our classroom conversation on forced empowerment a bit. While we want students to "be free," can we force freedom? Or rather, should we?

      Again, agreeing with Abbie, students can struggle with freedom in assignments or negotiating the course when they aren't used to it. As a student, I can admit that having to come up with my own assignment proposals or reading choices sometimes can feel like work that I wish the teacher was doing. It's already enough work to complete the assignment--should I have to create it, too?

      I liked the author's approach in this chapter, in that they gave students more freedom in the course for the second half. That way, the class has a chance to get comfortable with each other, and it's not so overwhelming that you feel like right as you're beginning all of your class and meeting all of your new professors, that you're also having to create the parameters of your class.

      I have mixed feelings about levels of freedom for students. I think students should have choice, of course, but as I mentioned, as a student, I sometimes hate having so many options, or having to construct what I think I should be learning/getting out of a class. Personally, I like the idea of giving students options and room to breathe within an assignment, but also not giving them an overwhelming number of options or making them start completely from scratch.

      Thanks for sharing.

      Delete
  2. JJApril 20, 2020 at 7:53 PM

    I think the response you got was probably due to the fact that most students have never been intellectually free: freedom is scary and uncomfortable for those who have never experienced it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Natalie KussApril 23, 2020 at 12:08 AM

    Hi Cristian,

    I've found that my students are a bit nervous about having power in the classroom, mainly because they are used to having this power taken away from them without warning in other classes. I allow my students to create the rubrics for their major assignments, so they are choosing how they think they should be evaluated. When I first introduced this concept, I had them free write about how it made them feel. So many of them were afraid I wouldn't use the rubric they created or that I would grade much harsher than what I said when we created it. I realized that for them, any change in power dynamics needed to be rooted in trust.

    I changed my tactics at this point and worked more towards getting them to trust me. I did this through showing them I was a human who made mistakes, expecting the same understanding from them and my own professors that they wanted from me in this power exchanges through telling them about my screw ups and struggles. I opened up to them in ways I didn't think I would, as I was terrified to be myself in the classroom. It paid off so much. They started really talking to me, sharing their ideas with me without the fear they started off with. They came in and told me they loved my class because they got to be themselves. I started to realized I loved teaching them because I got to be myself too.

    Once this trust came, they were much more comfortable accepting the power I gave them. I let them start to lead discussions, and many of them started to speak up. Even the quiet students started to talk. There was one day I was completely shook (I can't think of a better way to say it haha) because they even started to regulate the classroom themselves. A group of students started to talk over a student who had the floor, and she said "excuse me, I am talking" so I didn't even have to. We had reached a point where we shared the power in the classroom while still being respectful.

    Writing this just made me seriously miss my class, but I hope it provided some cohesive thoughts on power in the classroom.

    Thanks for sharing!
    -Natalie

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