This fall, I’ll be instructing a graduate level course on teaching for first-time TAs in the Philosophy Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I’m currently a PhD student. For months, I thought carefully about everything I wanted to impart and how to model best practices for accessible, inclusive, feminist, and learner-centered teaching, while also giving practical advice on how to survive the first semester of a TA-ship.
Two months ago, my advanced planning stopped abruptly to focus on emergency online triage. Now that I’m free to pick it up again, I’m confronted with a whole new set of questions and concerns for what this class needs to address and how best to prepare new TAs for teaching philosophy under new and unprecedented circumstances, in addition to my original goals. I’m now thinking through the many new and evolving issues that will be facing teaching assistants this fall and I want to share those thoughts here.
Almost every instructor and TA is facing a steep learning curve in the recent switch to online instruction. Many instructors lack previous experience in online teaching. This is especially pressing in a field like Philosophy, which flourishes with a lot of back and forth conversation, and so is not best suited to online platforms. Moreover, many graduate students are already semi (or complete) beginners in the classroom. A good online course takes six months to produce; however, we only have what’s left of the summer to adapt and develop an online course. This is assuming that we are informed by our institution that classes will remain online; many of us are still unsure of this.
Because instructors are likely inexperienced in online teaching, TAs might be burdened in one or both of two ways: (1) they will perform extra labor in having to help the instructor with online course construction and implementation through new technologies and/or (2) they will have to make-do with a course which is likely ill-designed for online instruction, placing additional burdens on the TA to help students succeed.
TAs also face new challenges in assisting and engaging students online: how do we build community and communication between and with students in asynchronous and distanced learning environments? If we are able to hold synchronous discussion sections, how do we cultivate effective and valuable conversation between students through a computer screen and within the limits imposed by platforms such as Zoom? How do we reach and help the students, even more of them than before, who are falling through the cracks, and how and when do we decide we’ve done all we can?
These questions are just the tip of the iceberg, but they are concerns that present a fairly sharp change in what a class like mine—that is, a course dedicated to teacher training in philosophy—and my students (i.e. first-time TAs), would normally have to consider in light of challenges brought forth by the pandemic. One concrete step that I plan on taking is to coordinate as early as possible with the fall instructors and their assigned TAs, so that everyone has a clear idea of what will be needed and expected from the TAs and so that I can both advocate for and prepare my students for the semester ahead.
We should all be paying close attention to new and evolving burdens placed upon instructors and teaching assistants at this time and should advocate for each other and our students going forward—we’re going to need it.
Bailey Szustak
Bailey Szustak, is a PhD student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They work primarily in body aesthetics, philosophy of art, feminist philosophy, and gender and women's studies. They also have strong interests in pedagogy scholarship, cat parenthood, and LEGO construction.
