Academic Dignity: Countering the Emotional Experience of Academia

A significant emerging body of research has articulated and critiqued the conditions and impacts of neoliberalism on academic institutions, particularly how the rise of the 'marketized' university has shifted the way in which academics are expected to engage in research and teaching. We highlight some of the key concepts evident in the research as they pertain to the emotional responses of academics to the ideological shift that has taken place within the academy. We focus on their perspectives in order to validate the emotional and lived experiences of academics and repudiate the neoliberal conceptualization of the academic as homo economicus. Referencing our ongoing research in Canadian universities as well as extant literature, we overview work on workplace dignity, a countervailing notion that mobilizes positive emotional concepts. Using this as a springboard, we finally begin to articulate an academic dignity-centered approach. By ‘academics’, we mean all those engaged in academic work within the academy, from tenured faculty to research specialists and contracted instructors. &nbsp

Bringing Life to Research: Life History Research and ESL

Despite its potential, life history methodology has seldom been used in TESL research. This article first defines what is meant by life history research methodology, and then examines how it might benefit our research in TESL. Answering the question, What are the benefits of life history research? the author examines how life histories in other fields and in her own research have shifted focus from the extraordinary to the mundane, and from the universal to the singular, while simultaneously adding previously marginalized perspectives, challenging and informing theory, allowing for comprehensive reinterpretation, locating research historically, and encouraging the production of invitational texts. The author further argues that participants in life history research benefit from being listened to and from framing their stories in terms of overcoming adversity, while the researcher benefits from becoming critically involved with her or his participants. The final section of the article addresses some of the potential pitfalls of life history research, including reliability, verifiability, the tendency toward exoticism, difficulties with translation and authorship, and the "afterlife" of research. The article concludes by asserting that life history is one methodology that is powerful enough to begin recording the complexities of race, class, language, history, and cultures in our classrooms

Feedback on Feedback: Preservice ESL Teachers Respond to Evaluation Practices

Although a number of studies have examined the role of teacher feedback in ESL students' learning, equal attention has not been paid to how ESL teachers make feedback decisions based on their preservice preparation. In this article, preservice ESL teachers respond to various forms of feedback that they received in their TESL Methodology course, and offer insights into how these individual responses will shape their own evolving feedback practices. Quoting from students' journal entries and audio taped group discussions, this action research project reveals that preservice ESL teachers were pleased with the wide variety offered back formats and sources used in this course and that they intended to replicate this variety in their own classrooms. In general, this small group of preservice ESL teachers liked feedback that was immediate, detailed, ungraded yet critical, and focused. They preferred feedback to come from credible and authoritative sources