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Arts and Humanities

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Marshall W. Gregory

Selected Works

2011

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

The Many-Headed Hydra Of Theory Vs. The Unifying Mission Of Teaching, Marshall W. Gregory Jul 2011

The Many-Headed Hydra Of Theory Vs. The Unifying Mission Of Teaching, Marshall W. Gregory

Marshall W. Gregory

A persistent myth in departments of English posits a golden age when tweedy English professors humanized the world with thrice-weekly doses of literary instruction, exchanged witty conversation and recondite literary allusions at the Friday afternoon sherry hour, and generally agreed with each other about which books to teach, how to teach them, and the importance of teaching them. This golden age must have ended right before I entered the field. My whole history within the discipline suggests that getting English professionals to agree in large numbers about almost anything is nearly as difficult as herding cats or training king cobras …


Curriculum, Pedagogy, And Teacherly Ethos, Marshall W. Gregory Jul 2011

Curriculum, Pedagogy, And Teacherly Ethos, Marshall W. Gregory

Marshall W. Gregory

In considering how curriculum and teaching influence education, it is revealing to note that most faculty members treat curriculum the way bankers treat investments. They generally spend much time, planning, and careful thought on curricular matters-reasoning here, analyzing there, relying on experience, and carefully considering both the long-term and short-term dividends of knowledge - but when it comes to teaching, many faculty members operate less like bankers and more like barnstormers, flying by the seat of their pants and guiding themselves primarily by instinct or by repeating whatever worked yesterday.