Inclusive Educators Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Graduate students working within the constraints of a given course and expectations of a traditional academic career, may experience a lack of sense of agency. Listen to advice that former graduate students have on ways in which graduate students can continue developing their agency to pursue careers and work of their choice within and outside of academia. We also discussed the value of having grad student TA and instructors in higher ed as well as ways in which they can be better supported in the second part of the 2-part conversation CTL’s graduate professional lead Preston Cumming and I had with the co-editors of the book Teaching Gradually: Practical Pedagogy for Graduate Students, by Graduate Students.

Teaching Gradually, Pedagogy by and for graduate students was conceived at Cornell University's Center for Teaching Innovation and how lessons shared by graduate students have impacted the co-editors Dr. Kacie Armstrong, visiting assistant professor of Psychology at Bowdoin College; Dr. Lauren Genova, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware; Dr. John Wyatt Greenlee, medieval historian turned professional cartographer, running his own business surprisedeelmaps.com; and Dr. Derina Samuel, the Associate director of graduate student development and the international teaching assistant program in the Center for Teaching Innovation, at Cornell University. At the end we also discussed our current inspirations when thinking about education taking place within and outside academia, linked below:

What the best college teachers do by Ken Bain (Harvard University Press)

Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom by Viji Sathy & Kelly A. Hogan (West Virginia University Press)

Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks (Routledge Publishing)

Radical Hope: A teaching manifesto by Kevin Gannon (West Virginia University Press)

Historians at the Movies Podcast by Jason Herbert

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Graduate students TAs and instructors form the backbone of the teaching mission of the university, however their roles and pathways into academia are often unclear for the undergraduate students that they teach. In this episode, listen to former graduate students turned educators within and outside of academia, discuss their pathways into teaching, how the book Teaching Gradually, Pedagogy by and for graduate students was conceived at Cornell University's Center for Teaching Innovation and how lessons shared by graduate students have impacted the co-editors as well-as educators across the country. Teaching Gradually was released in October 2021 by Stylus Publishing Company (Acquired by Routledge/Taylor and Francis group in 2023) as a compilation of short 2000-word essays on practical pedagogy contributed by graduate students across universities in Canada and the United States.

Dr. Kacie Armstrong is now a visiting assistant professor of Psychology at Bowdoin College, Dr. Lauren Genova is an assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, Dr. John Wyatt Greenlee is a medieval historian turned professional cartographer, running his own business surprisedeelmaps.com where he takes requests to make custom maps and Dr. Derina Samuel is the Associate director of graduate student development and leads the international teaching assistant program in the Center for Teaching Innovation, also known as the CTI, at Cornell University. Dr. Preston Cumming is the Graduate Professional Development Lead at CU Boulder, and joined in for this two-part episode.

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In this episode, I talk to Dr. Kevin Gannon in-person to discuss his motivation for working in education development as a tenure-track professor of History, what are key principles of inclusive pedagogy, why it is important to continue this work despite pushback from peers, administrators and legislation, how to support students in current times and as instructors how to continue our work with radical hope! We also chatted about his upcoming work - a volume of essays on campuses in crisis and a book titled “Zombie Ideas” in higher education. Our conversation draws from Dr. Gannon’s book titled Radical Hope: A teaching manifesto, published by the West Virginia University Press in the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series.

Dr. Gannon currently serves as the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of History at Queens University of Charlotte, in North Carolina. His writings have also appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vox, CNN, and The Washington Post. In 2016, he appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay. You can find his writings and other updates on his website thetattooedprof.com.

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In this episode, we are in conversation with Dr. James Lang or Jim as we will refer to him to discuss small teaching, its relevance in higher education, the importance of contextualized knowledge in deep thinking and what small teaching practices are applicable in the age of online learning and AI. This episode's discussion revolves a lot around Jim's book on Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (2nd Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2021), which emphasizes how to "spark positive change in higher education through small but powerful modifications to our course design and teaching practices.” Jim has written extensively on various aspects of teaching in higher education. He is the author of six books, the most recent of which are Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2020) and You can find more of Jim's writing on his website: https://www.jamesmlang.com. Some other books and people referenced in this podcast include:

Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby and James Lang

Connecting in the Online Classroom Rebecca A. Glazier

Educator and Philosopher, John Dewey

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