Politics, Perspectives, and Expectations in the Classroom

Chapter 14-Institutional Politics in the Teaching of Advanced Academic Writing: A Teacher-Researcher Dialogue

I was really interested in the discussion about the author’s perception of her role in the class. When it comes to the politics of the L1 or L2 classroom, the discussion usually focuses on the power of the professor and the powerlessness of the students. Rarely does the discussion turn towards the expectations of the students in the class, their expectations of the professor, fellow classmates, and themselves. The expectations that students and faculty carry into the classroom with them do have a profound impact on the interactions that take place in the classroom.
I’m not sure how other students orient themselves when they enter into a new class, but I tend to evaluate the professor, the professor’s stated and implied expectations, my classmates’ backgrounds as they are presented during the mandatory class introduction, and my perception of my own role within this framework.

I was also really interested in the way that the author acknowledged how low of a priority her class was considered in comparison with the rest of the load being carried by her students. I’m not sure that I can imagine feeling anything less than discouraged at the thought that my class needed to balance so very finely between being effective and being low pressure enough that students would choose to take rather than avoid it.