Teaching courses in Sociology and Women’s Studies, Kathleen Blee runs the gamut from nurturing nervous undergraduates to advising seasoned doctoral candidates. To work with students at many levels, she has developed a set of personal guidelines and principles that shape her approach to teaching and advising . In her undergraduate courses she emphasizes active learning, critical thinking, and skill development. Blee points out, “I combine various techniques, including lecture, small group discussion, case study methods, and student-led ‘mini-teaching’ segments to help students become involved in their own learning process.”
This emphasis on active learning, critical thinking, and skill development, in turn, requires that all her courses must be constantly updated. Because “students have the right to expect the most up-to-date materials,” Blee revamps her courses every term, designing materials “with an eye to what students need to know, not just what I am most comfortable teaching.” For example, she has worked assiduously to incorporate global/international content into her courses even though her research focus is the United States.
To help students build confidence in themselves as scholars, Blee goes to great lengths “to take my students’ work seriously.” By providing extensive and constructive feedback in a timely manner, she underscores the value of their work. Recognizing her high regard for their efforts helps students take pride in their accomplishments. She takes particular pride in her efforts to be available and accessible to students long after they had been enrolled in her courses.
Finally, Blee sees undergraduate education as extending well beyond the teaching and learning that occurs in the classroom. To that end, she supervises many undergraduate theses, honors projects, independent studies, experiential education placements, and research internships. Blee works with students to design projects that fit their learning objectives and research plans and to secure the funding that will make these opportunities possible.
In her role as teacher/advisor of graduate students, she has adopted additional principles. First, she values collaborative learning. She wants her advisees to learn from their peers, thereby developing a sense of collaboration and respect for diverse ideas, and makes this happen in a noncredit “workshop” in which her graduate advisees develop their research plans and provide one another with feedback and support. Additionally, she nurtures their skills as mentors by, for example, pairing graduate research assistants with undergraduate interns.
Because many (if not most) graduate students are unaware of its subtle, implicit norms and processes, Blee wants to demystify the academy. For example, many graduate students regard the process of publishing scholarship as a venture shrouded in mystery. To help students understand the process, Blee developed Graduate Writing for Publication, a course that develops the skills of writing, revising, and editing that are essential to success in the academy.
And, finally, she wants to provide emotional as well as academic support to students seeking advanced degrees. Because Blee remembers graduate school as a grueling experience where she felt “battered and off balance,” she conveys strategies to help her students persevere. Honestly sharing her own scholarly missteps, she encourages them to rebound and learn from their own failures and mistakes. Most important, however, she tries to “empower students to live as scholars by helping them develop the intellectual skills, emotional resources, and networks of support that will allow them to be happy and productive throughout their academic careers.”
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