Diving In

What fortuitous timing that I would be developing a brand new class at the same time I've started making conscious efforts to make my craft of teaching more transparent. This may not make a whole lot of sense, and I definitely don't claim to be an expert by any means, but I should share my progress (and setbacks) as things develop for my new Multicultural Literature course.

Step one in this journey has been to acquire just a sheer crap ton of material. This is the thrilling part. When I think about it more consciously, this seems to be the starting point whenever I've prepared for any large intellectual task. I remember writing research papers in college and especially in grad school, and before I began any "real work" I would spend hours at the library just collecting and piling anything I could find that was 1) related to my topic, 2) of interest to me, and 3) easily attainable. It's like an intellectual shopping spree (nerd alert). There were days when I would bring an extra backpack or sack with me to the library because I knew I'd be leaving with several extra pounds of potential research, literally bearing the weight of my future work all the way home. This time around seems to be no different...except that now the UPS guy is delivering the books.

Step two will be organizing the acquired sheer crap ton of material. This is the difficult part. It includes cutting out about 30-40% of what I had to begin with. This seems like a messy way to operate, but for me, it's necessary and makes sense. Just like when I write a paper and end up over the page limit, I'd rather have an excess of material to work with and pare down rather than not enough at the start. The difficulty in this is making informed decisions on what to keep, what to exclude, and how to negotiate space for everything I want to do. Here are some of the specific questions I've been asking myself as I prepare for this step:

1. What cultural/literary voices both need and deserve to be heard by my students? On a more panicky and philosophical level, who am I even to determine that? When I think about the tremendous opportunity I have in teaching this course, I also feel the weight of the tremendous responsibility I have in doing justice to the content and making sure these voices will be heard thoroughly and powerfully. With at least four cultures/units I want to cover and only one semester to do it in, the task is daunting to say the last. Deep breaths...in and out...in and out. Maya Angelou, give me strength.
2. How far back do I begin in a culture's literary history in order for my students to understand its contemporary issues? If we don't start at the beginning, am I doing that culture a disservice? Am I doing the students a disservice?
3. How much do I allow for this class to take on sociocultural conversations in order for students to appreciate the literature we read? I'm not a social studies teacher, but I am a human preparing younger humans to take on and live in the world. How much of that angle can I claim to be legitimate and necessary?
4. What perspectives can I (should I, am I obligated) to offer as a racial/ethnic minority teacher leading my primarily white population of students? 

A third step here would make this blog post round and tidy, but I just don't have it yet. As I wait for more books to arrive from Amazon, and determine where in my current pile I should begin, I think it's safe to say I'll be dancing around step two for the majority of the semester. At this point, I need to give a big thanks to Julie Husband, the Department Head of Languages and Literatures at UNI who equipped me with several books, syllabi, lunch, and rich conversation about the potential of this class earlier this week. For every question I approach Dr. Husband with (which included all of the above), I leave with an answer and three more questions, but it doesn't bog me down like I might be making it sound. Whether it's been thesis work, this class, or regular Englishy conversation, I leave her feeling like my brain has shotgunned a Red Bull, excited and energized for more work. She's been like an intellectual defibrillator for me, and for that, I am so grateful. 

So here I sit with more questions than answers, more work to do than has yet been accomplished, and more weight of responsibility being heaped on my shoulders. There's nothing left now but to just get started and remember to breathe.