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ABSTRACT
Using an interdisciplinary, post-qualitative, pedagogical methodological (Burke, Crozier, and Misiaszek Citation2017) practice of timescapes (Adam Citation1998, Burke Citation2018a), I explore my longest teaching/mentoring relationship, spanning two decades. I conceptualize this process as a post-qualitative encounter (Davies et al. Citation2013). The first half of the paper explores higher education teaching/mentoring through this timescapes practice, incorporating studies across higher education, gender, gerontology and the humanities. In the second half, I present four critical conjunctures in this teaching/mentoring relationship. Ultimately, I argue that expanding what is understood by the concept of a ‘teaching/mentoring relationship’, particularly through studies of long-term relationships and through practices such as timescapes encounters, is a powerful counter-hegemonic tool in the face of neoliberal pressures and measures of impact in teaching in higher education.
Acknowledgements
Francie Cate-Arries, professor, mentor, and friend, of whom Jonathan is partner, and who, from my first course with her, has continuously modeled for me that this life path is possible; Greg Misiaszek, my own partner and first reader – both of whom have sustained our mentoring relationship since the beginning; their influence in our lives and presence throughout the timescapes of this article should be recognized and are deserving of an article in themselves; Robert Tierney, mentor and friend, who always makes time for me to try out early ideas; and the reviewers who strengthened this piece with their very close reads, and encouraged it on.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 All bolded emphases in this article are mine.
2 These include intersectional privilege (which requires constant self-subversion (see Hale Citation2014)); always having a range of mentors of different gender identities orbiting in and out of my world in different timescapes; my own SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) fluidity that off-centers heteronormative dynamics (notably, queerness is a topic largely omitted from Janice’s book); a history of socially-heteronormative relationships with older, men partners who themselves have knowledge of the academy; parents fulfilling healthy roles; long-standing therapists who regularly unpack the above relationships with me (though this is not to say there have not been major ruptures in my own sense of self), and many mentors who do this same work in their personal practices.
3 For more on post-qualitative, see also Lather and St. Pierre (Citation2013), Lather (Citation2013).
4 There are well-known links: Tich Nach Hahn, known as Thầy (teacher in Vietnamese) and Freire, are often cited by hooks; and hooks in turn is also important in Hocker Rushing’s work.
5 Jonathan Arries, Professor Emeritus, holds an Education PhD and is uniquely based in a Modern Languages and Literature department in Hispanic Studies, a cultural studies program taught in the Spanish language.
6 Within education, the humanities, and in other fields, such as health and law.
7 I am fully immersed having been based in a Mandarin-speaking country for the last 7 years; Jonathan has studied at his university.
8 Jonathan played a major role in me applying to work with one of Freire’s closest friends, my graduate advisor and doctoral mentor, Carlos Alberto Torres, whose advising and pedagogical practices, I realized in the encounter of writing this, I explored six years ago in ‘Torres profesor, Torres consejero, Torres pedagogo: una reflexión sobre los componentes epistemológicos de la sociología política de la educación de Carlos Alberto Torres’ (Torres the professor, Torres the advisor, Torres the pedagogue: a reflection on the epistemological components of Carlos Alberto Torres’ political sociology of education’ (Misiaszek Citation2013). This progression of mentors provided a continuation of teaching/ mentoring conducted in Spanish, at the intersections of the humanities and social sciences, the latter of which I have explored in ‘The synergistic relationship of the humanities and social theory in Carlos Alberto Torres’ First Freire’ (Misiaszek Citation2015).
9 I have only used Jonathan’s feedback with his permission.
10 Sondra Hale, whom I also call a mentor, is an activist-scholar and recipient of top university teaching awards.
11 See also Burke (Citation2018b, 8), Burke and Lumb (Citation2017).
12 Please see our 2009 article (referenced in this section) for more on how we question the notion of international ‘service-learning’ as we engage with intersectional issues, e.g. of class, race, geography, migration, with predominantly middle-class, white, U.S. students in Nicaragua, always connected to our experiences living and working there during various periods since 2004 (me) and 2005 (Jonathan).
13 The full letter had been printed and bound along with dozens of other such letters from former students and given to Jonathan celebrating his retirement in May 2018. He arrived in my classroom in China one week later.
14 In its ‘natural or original place’ (Merriam-Webster Citation2019).
15 ‘Yo sueño por los talleres de poesía’ (‘I dream of the poetry workshops’)’
16 Nicaraguan-Salvadorian poet Alegría, Nicaraguan poet Cardenal, and Cardenal, leader of the UNESCO-honored Nicaraguan Literacy Crusades. Cardenal passed away as I was writing it, and Alegría, who knew Jonathan from a stay at his university, also passed away, before the poem, excerpted here, reached her foundation.
17 A feminist, Freirean research network in which I am a Fellow and Founding Member, and of which some of the authors referenced in this article are also members.
18 Before writing this piece, in May 2019, I wrote a short poem for Jonathan with similar roots:
For living how one makes meaning
Until I could make it for myself.
19 To give just one example, I am always struck by a recent policy of many Chinese universities that if a visiting foreign colleague is from a ‘Top 100’ university per different rankings, they can visit and teach 9 h over the course of 10 days. If outside this ranking, they must commit to teaching 18 h over 30 days, a much more laborious, almost punitive, commitment that discourages potential applicants. As many teaching-centered colleagues are in teaching-focused institutions outside of this ‘Top 100’, they often fall through the cracks of these global mobilities. Besides, Top 100 colleagues (and those who wish to engage with them) are limited by the shorter visit, making any sort of in-depth teaching/mentoring nearly impossible – in person, at least.