In my previous post, I mentioned a strategy I recently used because I worried my class was getting into a slump. Almost every class will have these. Some are predictable–when the campus has a major event over the weekend, or when a break is approaching–but others are more difficult to anticipate. Regardless, good teachers develop strategies to address and break out of slumps.
But even those of us who are effective at getting out of slumps may not prioritize the importance of managing our emotional responses to these slumps. It is hard not to take it personally when students don’t do the work. It is hard not to feel like we aren’t good enough, that we don’t belong, that we are an imposter. And it is hard not to compare ourselves to those teachers who always seem to have everything together.
Of all the ways that doctoral students aren’t prepared for life as a teacher, this is one that still receives too little attention. Each of us needs to be empowered with strategies and approaches to our emotional well-being so that we don’t become demoralized by this work.
And even if we learn to successfully manage the slumps that come with each semester, we should also think about the cycles and seasons of academic life. In what is my favorite book about teaching, kindergarten teacher Julie Diamond describes how she intentionally prepares for each new year by creating a mental and emotional space to receive each new group of students. She also then talks about how she prepares for the unique mourning that comes at the end of each academic year. You spend an entire year getting to know and cherish a group of students, only to realize that this process will begin anew next fall.
Though these cycles are obvious, I admit that I was taken completely off guard by feelings of loss as a particularly great class was coming to a close, or as a senior who I’ve known since their first year in college was preparing to graduate.
Again, these cycles are wholly predictable, but many of us are woefully underprepared to manage them effectively.
Finally, I am tremendously grateful to Lee Knefelkamp for her powerful article, “Seasons of Academic Life.” In a culture that values productivity, it is helpful to remember that there will be times in our lives as scholar-teachers when we are passionately developing new courses, and there will be others when we are patiently waiting for new insight and inspiration. As well, there will be times when we are motivated to read as much scholarship as possible, and there will be others when we need time to discover what our next creative or scholarly project will be.
Learning how to manage these seasons, cycles, and slumps is a key to finding joy and fulfillment as a teacher-scholar. I hope to help–in my small way–our campus do this truly important work, and I also hope that more doctoral programs more intentionally do the work of preparing their graduates for a life of success, instead of doing whatever it takes to push a student (often exhausted and already demoralized) across the finish line and into their first job.