Have you ever become so frustrated with
students and overwhelmed by your workload that you start questioning
what you are doing? At times it can feel suffocating. Baruti Kafele, an
educator and motivational speaker offers a perspective of being mission oriented
to educators and others working with young people in our nation’s
classrooms. He suggests affirming your goals and motivations to
facilitate successes among students. However, in the college classroom,
it is also essential that we, as faculty members, remember and affirm
our purpose, acknowledge the contributions we make in students’ lives
and professional pursuits, and respect the call or passion that brought
each of us to the teaching profession.
What is Mission Oriented?
In this context, mission orientation acknowledges how faculty members
serve, impact, and influence the lives of others. It begs to question:
How do faculty members, energize, reignite, and in some instances,
recapture that which motivates our work with students? What
contributions are we making to the lives of the students we teach? Have
we become derailed from the mission to contribute to others in a
profound and significant way? And, if so, how do we get back on track?
It is in the spirit of mission orientation that we offer in this
article two contributions faculty members should consider—thinking
deeply and building relationships. Both contributions represent and
respect a mission to teach and influence the lives of others.
Teaching and Thinking
Teaching and thinking are paramount to the mission. However, it’s not
just teaching students the content; it’s helping students think deeply
about the content that is most impactful. Faculty members are invested
in, and passionate about, their content. We seize upon opportunities to
impart knowledge to, and share their passion for, the discipline with
our students. We plan activities and exercises to help students apply
the content in a real world context. Faculty members comb the Internet,
attend conferences, and read professional literature to enhance our
expertise. We do all of this to ensure students have a deep and rich
pool of knowledge in which to swim.
Processing all of this new information often causes moments of
cognitive dissonance for many students. Faculty members engage in
discussions that require students to reflect, analyze, and synthesize
information in a larger context. As students begin to value and organize
this new information, old schemes of thinking are challenged, deepened,
or replaced. The freefalling emotionality of thinking can create
uncertainty and discomfort for students. As Henry Ford said, “Thinking
is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few
engage in it.” However, it is that cognitive dissonance which supports a
deepening of students’ thinking. Affording students opportunities to
think deeply about the information shared in college classrooms greatly
contributes to the mission of helping students find successes in their
personal and professional pursuits. Certainly, teaching students to
think deeply about their course content is arguably one of the most
important contributions we make. However, there is another contribution
that has the potential to impact students’ lives in a real and
significant way—relationship building.
Building Relationships with Students
When faculty members create quality relationships with their students,
it becomes a bridge between the faculty member and student to confer,
collaborate, and communicate. For example, it provides a path for
faculty members to support students’ disposition development for
learning and life. It helps faculty members advocate for students’
needs, and it creates a space to learn who our students are—their
backgrounds, cultures, and personalities.
It also can cushion the impact when we have to engage in difficult
conversations with students, or serve as a catalyst when we want to
recognize students who have distinguished themselves in an exceptional
way. Through the relationships that we create with the students, various
avenues open and honest conversations emerge about the student’s needs,
struggles, successes, and triumphs. It also allows for faculty members
and students to strategize together how best to bolster the successes
and address challenges.
Modeling relationship-building strategies contributes to the mission
of helping students find successes in all aspects of their lives.
Students can use the strategies they learned from faculty as a skill
later in life to build relationships with others. As a part of the
contribution, it is important for the faculty member to model and equip
students with not only the content knowledge of their discipline, but
also the skills to see other perspectives and seek opportunities to help
others find success, as they have. Building healthy and meaningful
relationships with students provides powerful opportunities to impact
their lives, and hopefully, the student will pay it forward.
In conclusion, helping students think deeply and building quality
relationships are certainly not the only contributions faculty make to
the mission. But, they do stand as two pillars rooted in the foundation
of the mission to teach and influence lives. As we remind ourselves of
this purpose, we must also remember and reflect on the contributions we
make to the mission, the many students whose lives are impacted, and the
unique gifts we offer. Remembering the contributions to the mission of
teaching can be energizing and uplifting, and may help answer that
question, “What am I doing here?” Hopefully, the answer is, “I am here
to teach and influence the life and professional pursuits of the
students I work with every day!”
Dr. Candice Dowd Barnes is an assistant professor at the
University of Central Arkansas. Dr. Patricia Kohler-Evans is an
associate professor at University of Central Arkansas.
