This will be a long thread about a small but significant pedagogical victory today—like many, I’ve been struggling, to say the least, with student engagement in 1 of my classes—more pointedly trying to lead discussion has been 1 of the most frustrating experiences of my career Before I go any farther, I’ll just say right up front that I’m not claiming I found some magic bullet—I don’t know if this thread will address your precise challenges or if what I did will help meet those challenges—I don’t even know yet if it will help my challenges long term

The peer review crisis in higher ed may seem narrow, but its an example of how COVID exposed the precariousness of broader labor structures—peer review runs almost exclusively on the civic spirit of field professionals—so the systems only work while there isn’t *any* disruption A pandemic suddenly demands reimagining of teaching, strains research systems, increases care demands, &c.—suddenly lots of folks can’t add peer review on top—which puts unsustainable strain on editors & researchers—who in turn now can’t volunteer, amplifying the crisis further

Classroom is prepped for students wow, more folks dug this picture than I anticipated! For those wondering, here's the context/assignment—I'm also realizing that my phone really lit up this image, misleadingly so—it was much darker in the room than this implies!
s22bl.ryancordell.org/lab/2022/01/24…

Just really considered the fact that even if the pandemic magically vanished tomorrow, I will spend _the rest of my career_ teaching students whose educations were profoundly shaped by it. Students starting kindergarten in masks this year will graduate university in 2040. To be clear, I’m not worried about “learning loss,” which I think is mostly bs—& I hesitate to predict the long term effects of growing up in a pandemic—but it seems indisputable that the COVID generation will have different expectations for & needs in their educations

Senior academics, we need to stop equating our job markets with today’s. Fine—it was never a sure thing. But 1. That’s not proof it’s just or good &, crucially, 2. The odds don’t begin to compare. You won a church raffle. I won a scratcher. Today’s jobs are the gd powerball. this post inspired by a colleague who I *know* was trying to comfort—"things were hard for me too & I survived!"—but it came across as pure condescension—if we don't start convos from the painful reality that—practically speaking—there is no job market, everything else is empty

Most academics believe at some level that we can read our way out—that if we just put the right information in front of folks they'd change their minds & do right—we've all had students for whom it happened that way—but as a result we are ill equipped to counter "evil literacy" These Republicans speechifying & many of the coup leaders snapping selfies for Parler are not ignorant of history & they're certainly not lacking in media literacy—they are in fact literate & they are ready & willing to use their literacy to promote fascism and white supremacy

There are going to be *a lot* of news stories about cluster outbreaks in dorms, sorority/frat houses, &c. in the next weeks as more schools reopen. Reporters please focus your questions on admin—"why did you choose to bring these students together?"—rather than the students This story from A&M (ht @amyeetx) is *super* smart for using social media to demonstrate students aren't acting safely but the overall tone is too "gotcha, irresponsible students"—maybe b/c it's a student paper—rather than "this what admins have enabled" thebatt.com/news/10-cases-…