Fare Forward!
Mari Ramler, Guest Editor
Mari Ramler is currently Assistant Professor of Professional and Technical Communication in the English Department at Tennessee Tech University, where she teaches numerous courses, including graduate seminars on the rhetoric of STEM professions and writing the body in/for new media. Her research on the rhetorics and hermeneutics of the human body in digital media has been featured in Constellations, Capacious, Screen Bodies, and Technical Communication Quarterly.
“Here between the hither and farther shore
While time is withdrawn, consider the future
And the past with an equal mind.
At the moment which is not of action or inaction
You can receive this:”
The idea for a pedagogy pop up came when I noticed an emergent pattern on Facebook and Twitter about a year ago. Right before a new semester, instructors in higher education often request ideas, projects, and syllabi for upcoming courses. When, during the Spring 2020 semester, we were collectively constrained to pivot to alternate delivery and online instruction, I witnessed an outpouring of generosity: instructors reaching across disciplines, institutions, and even countries to offer suggestions and help. The gesture moved me. As an instructor suddenly tasked with transitioning my face-to-face courses online, as a single mother suddenly tasked with homeschooling two elementary-aged daughters, and as a part-time graduate student in divinity school suddenly tasked with synchronous online learning, I couldn’t help but appreciate this exigent collaboration. And so, when Kevin asked if I was still interested in guest editing my proposed pedagogy summer supplement, I knew that I wanted to focus the special issue on this extraordinary moment. I called Dan Frank, a good friend in the field and one of the most engaging and fun instructors in higher education I know, to ask for his expertise in shaping the theme. I told him that I remembered he was still teaching on the quarter system at the University of California, Santa Barbara and that I understood if he was swamped with work and had to say no. Before I could even finish, he interrupted, “I’m in.”
The submissions to our CFP often brought tears to my eyes. We called, and you answered. You wrote that teaching in a global pandemic taught you what it means to teach: you re-examined standards, you cut projects, you streamlined. Further, you wondered about how to educate the whole student, and so you introduced mental health check-ins and reflective journaling as a way to communicate with students, some of whom were living in their cars because, forced to leave school, they had nowhere else to go. Many of you wrote about feelings of failure; all of you wrote about learning.
This special issue of Textshop Experiments honors your creative resilience and pedagogical wisdom. You modeled for students how to problem-solve outside the box of “regular education.” Beyond that, you made it fun! You designed student-centered projects and experimented with other forms of technology and communication. You co-authored zines, podcasts, and videos. You worked with your students to create knowledge and unforgettable experiences. We see you. Thank you for your tremendous effort. As we head into a still uncertain future, we offer this special issue as a resource for our colleagues. We may not know what this academic year will demand, but we will rise to the occasion of our own lives with grace and speed.
~ M