Thread by @Jessifer

So proud to call you a friend and colleague, @saragoldrickrab, and glad to have had the opportunity to collaborate with you in so many ways over the years. Your work with #RealCollege students has fundamentally transformed my own research, writing, and teaching.

https://twitter.com/saragoldrickrab/status/1558504931400761344

Most of my work over the last decade has been centered around a simple premise that we need to "start by trusting students." This means we need to ask students when and how they learn, ask what barriers they face, then listen, and believe the answers.

https://twitter.com/Jessifer/status/1545077078399127553?s=20&t=TyLFqQI8FA_8EFdKap_Z4A

For years, I've pushed back on the notion of "best practices." In their place, I've advocated for good-for-some-people-in-some-contexts practices, because the work of teaching is deeply idiosyncratic. But there are structural barriers for so many teachers and students.

Increasingly, I've also argued for "necessary practices" over instrumentalized lists of best practices. This is the stuff we have to challenge or overcome in order to make space for our other work, the values expressed through our pedagogical practices.

Pay teachers a living wage. This includes academic staff, support staff, librarians, substitute teachers, etc.

Know whether or not your students had breakfast. Don't expect representative performance on standardized assessments or high stakes exams from students whose basic needs aren't met.

Know whether your students have a safe place to live. Don't require homework, especially not graded homework, unless you know that every one of your students does. Build flexibility into all assignments to account for students who are basic needs insecure.

Work to minimize harm. Compassion and trust are the things that should drive our pedagogical work and our policy work.

We have to design for the least privileged, most marginalized students, the ones more likely to have felt isolated even before the pandemic: disabled students, Black students, international students, indigenous students, queer students, those facing basic needs insecurity, etc.

We need to write policies, imagine new ways forward, for students already struggling, already facing exclusion.

All of this, @saragoldrickrab, is stuff you taught me, stuff I learned alongside you. I look forward to seeing what comes next and how we can continue to collaborate.