kvarterakademisk - Akademisk kvarter - Aalborg Universitet

akademiskacademic quarterkvarterTeaching against the TideCamille Alexanderthe authors, the reading topics, their own ideas, and society’s structures— is crucial if these same students are to positively contributeto the society in which they live. As instructors, we can no longerafford to step delicately around “touchy” subjects by avoiding thesetopics and the texts that address them at all costs. We cannot alwaysaccept the academy’s proclivity for selecting instructional materialsfrom the canon and must find ways to incorporate canonical textsand newer, more transgressive texts into our syllabi.The challenge to university instructors is to combine meeting thecomposition course’s instructional requirements with exposing studentsto a variety of new and different ways of seeing the world andthe varied groups that occupy it. We meet this challenge by sometimesworking against our academic environment. “Swimming”against the academic tide can be problematic for instructors. Thoseof us who choose to transgress the norm may find ourselves labeledradicals and summarily dismissed by our colleagues. This poses achallenge as we try to build our careers and forge professional relationships.However, despite our reservations, we should still striveto encourage our students to explore the many experiences that alltexts have to offer.Notes1. I use Black to identify all people of African descent living in the U.S.The use of this term instead of the more popular African Americanis to acknowledge that many Blacks in the U.S. may identify withanother nationality.Volume03 78