Teaching Philosophy

During the 2020-2021 academic year, I began sharing my teaching philosophy with students in the form of an infographic. Embedded below, you’ll find the version I shared for my Spring 2021 course, Native American Women’s History at UC San Diego. To access the text-only version, scroll down.

Text-Only Version of My Teaching Philosophy Infographic:

Page 1: 

Hi, I'm Prof. Klann!

My Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy in 4 Words: Share Learning, Share Joy!

Teaching brings me joy!  So does learning. I don't see teaching and learning as separate. I learn new things from and with every group of students I get to teach. I am committed to providing a safe, engaging, collaborative, and flexible learning environment so you can find joy in your own learning.

In Progress: 

At the end of this course, we won't know everything there is to know about Native women's history. (We only have 10 weeks!) But, we will have new ideas, connections, and learning experiences that you can apply to your future endeavors. 

Collaboration: 

The basis of this class is collaboration. We will work together to annotate readings, answer questions, analyze primary documents, and share our own original research!

Autonomy:

In this class, you get to determine your own grade. You'll get full points for every assignment you complete and "declare" in Canvas. No judgment from me or your peers. Take risks! Fail a few times. We all will.

Humanity: 

Even though our class is fully online and asynchronous, you will not be isolated. You aren't teaching yourself and this isn't a "self-paced" course. We'll give and receive lots of feedback and check in frequentIy. I am a human and so are you!

Flexibility: 

In this class, there is an automatic 2-day grace period for all assignment deadlines. Extensions are granted, no questions asked. Never any punishments for late assignments. Take the time you need to succeed.

What are you most looking forward to in our Spring 2021 class, Native American Women's History? Let me know in the word cloud!

Access it here.

Page 2:

I'm an adjunct professor. 

What does that mean? 

I'm not on the "tenure-track." 

You might see faculty at UCSD with different titles: "Assistant Professor," "Associate Professor" or "Professor" (also known as Full Professor). These are labels applied to different ranks of the tenure track. When someone is hired as a tenure-track faculty member, they are an "Assistant Professor." After about 5 years, if they've met the requirements established by their departments (publishing a certain number of things, serving on committees, and demonstrating effective teaching), they get promoted to Associate Professor and are granted tenure. Tenure = more job security, and an increase in pay. 

Adjunct and contingent faculty (Visiting Assistant Professors, postdocs, and lecturers) have the same qualifications as those on the tenure track. But we haven't been hired in a full-time position with job security and benefits. This article  is helpful for teasing out the distinctions between all the different levels of professors.

I get paid by the course. 

So if I don't have a full-time position, what do I have? I get paid for every class I teach. When I can teach more classes, I get paid more. I am hired temporarily, every year (well really every quarter). I don't really know year-to-year how many courses I'll be offered, so I don't have a set salary. I also don't qualify for health insurance because I don't teach enough classes at UCSD. 

In the UC system, almost half of all undergraduate instruction is delivered by lecturers like me. (Though nearly 25% of lecturers are full-time, meaning they have yearly contracts and qualify for benefits.) You can see some more stats here.

I teach at more than one institution. 

Since I'm not full time at UCSD, that means I teach at other places in San Diego. (This year I'm teaching at Miramar College and Cuyamaca College.) There are things about this I really like—for example, getting to meet a wide variety of students, and seeing former community college students in my classes at UCSD! But, there are things about this that are logistically quite a pain. For example, non-COVID times, this means I plan my day around how I can drive from one campus to another to make it to class. Each institution pays me a different rate. At the community colleges where I teach, I make a little more than $4,500 per class (before taxes). At UCSD I make a little over $6,000 a class (before taxes). (Adjuncts in other parts of the country can make much less.)

Page 3: 

So, why am I telling you this? 

Well, I usually don't. But...why? 

I didn't know anything about the different ranks/levels of faculty members until I entered graduate school. I came to grad school to become a professor. I didn't know the intricacies of the system until I was fully participating in it. The more you know, the better. The most important thing to note: adjunct/part-time faculty make up the majority of faculty in the United States. Just under one-third of all college faculty are on the tenure-track. That means that MOST college classes across the country are taught by folks like me, who have the same qualifications as tenure-track faculty, but who get paid significantly less, with no job security, and no benefits. There's a lot more info here!

How does this impact your education? 

In a few ways. Does the fact that I'm an adjunct mean I'm not as "good" as other professors? No. (At least I hope not!) I love teaching and put a lot into it. But, to me, one of the most important things about being in college is being part of a community (through scholarly work, social life, and a shared campus). Pretty much by definition, adjuncts aren't really a part of the community since our jobs are so variable and temporary. 

Read more about this in a recent article published by an undergraduate student here. Reading this article inspired me to share this information with all of you. And please reach out to me with questions!