Teaching, Learning, Engaging: a Call for Comments, an Awareness of Controversy

There are times, as the Director of a teaching and learning center, when I may feel detached from the consideration of politics and socio-economic stressors in my work of discovering and recovering theory and practice in the day-to-day work between faculty and students. And then a discussion of low student participation in an honors program reveals assumptions about students’ responsibilities to family and work outside of college coursework; a series of union and administrative emails underlines the increasing privatization of once public infrastructures and resources; a panic over pressures to teach online unravels deeper concerns of free speech and privacy.

We will open the Lehman Teaching & Learning Commons blog to these questions and concerns from time to time, although the blog is primarily intended for audiences interested in current teaching and learning issues as well as professional development in higher education. Our office staff, composed mostly of students and recent alumni, will contribute content that may be controversial. Comments and rebuttals are welcomed; we ask that feedback and contention be expressed with the professional respect and courtesy that characterize positive academic debate.