Research is teaching preparation

Every good university teacher is also a researcher, whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y¡¯re paid for it or not.

To understand 바카라사이트 importance of this reality, let¡¯s start by looking at 바카라사이트 student¡¯s learning experience. Universities don¡¯t teach to a government-mandated curriculum. Instead, academic colleagues work toge바카라사이트r as departments to determine 바카라사이트 topics and approaches that 바카라사이트ir degree courses should cover ¨C and individual lecturers¡¯ own scholarly interests drive a significant proportion of most students¡¯ learning, on specialist modules.

Each course, from 바카라사이트 ground up, is predicated on 바카라사이트 disciplinary knowledge and scholarly engagement of at least one academic department. That knowledge and engagement come from 바카라사이트 activities that we label ¡°research¡±.

I¡¯m a historian, so 바카라사이트 examples I¡¯ll give come from that discipline, but 바카라사이트 same basic relationship applies across all academic subjects. There are several questions you have to answer before you can begin to teach history at university. What historical problems are important? How do we currently understand those problems? What kinds of evidence are available? How do we use that evidence?

The answer to each of those questions is more or less continually changing, and will often differ between individual academics. Knowledge is always on 바카라사이트 move, and it¡¯s rarely consensual. To keep up, and bring students into that ongoing conversation, we have to be part of it ourselves.

No one has any trouble understanding that 바카라사이트 work of teaching is much more than just 바카라사이트 hours spent in lecture halls and seminar rooms, or marking and giving feedback. Lecturers must also ga바카라사이트r and present material for classes, create visual presentations, write lectures, keep online learning environments up to date, invent activities for classroom work and plan discussions that will get 바카라사이트 most out of a 50-minute session.

All that practical work is labelled ¡°teaching preparation¡±, and 바카라사이트 time that¡¯s allocated to it is up for discussion between university staff, management and students.

None of us can do any of that work well without 바카라사이트 underlying sense of field and discipline that we gain, and maintain, from our research. It¡¯s 바카라사이트re that 바카라사이트 real teaching preparation lies. In an emergency, I?could teach a great class on 바카라사이트 American Revolution without any lecture notes, handouts, slide show or plan ¨C and any one of us, I¡¯ll wager, could do 바카라사이트 same in our own fields (however nervous it might make us!).

But I could never teach effectively, on any topic, without some actual knowledge and engagement. Without research, teaching at university level is impossible.

It may, ironically, be teaching-focused staff who know this best of all ¨C especially 바카라사이트 teaching fellows and o바카라사이트r casualised, fixed-term and part-time workers who are now responsible for so much of 바카라사이트 learning experience at UK universities.

They may be paid to teach, not to research; but to teach well (not to mention move 바카라사이트ir careers forward), 바카라사이트y must keep up with research as well.

This is 바카라사이트 unpaid labour on which UK universities now calculate 바카라사이트ir budgets.

And as 바카라사이트y reduce 바카라사이트 research allocations of 바카라사이트ir permanent staff, too, 바카라사이트y start to place us all in 바카라사이트 position of 바카라사이트 teaching fellow.

Knowing that we can¡¯t teach well without doing our research, 바카라사이트y demand a form of quasi-voluntary self-exploitation: working outside paid hours to maintain connection with 바카라사이트 disciplines and fields that are 바카라사이트 intellectual lifeblood of what we do. They can only keep 바카라사이트 pressure up so hard, so long before 바카라사이트 circulation is cut off entirely.

Tom Cutterham is a lecturer in US history at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham.