One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish...

As an instructor, one main objective is to educate our students and deliver information in a manner that allows for students to analyze and understand the material. Whether selecting what reading materials to include or how to present a specific issue and topic, we should be able to utilize all available means in an effort to ultimately provide students with the best opportunities to learn in the classroom. We may select various reading materials to integrate into our lesson plans, we may even decide to use different videos or images to provide further explanation in addressing a particular topic or issue at hand. According to Stanley Fish, instructors and professors are limited in academic freedom and should only use examples in lessons plans that "academicize" information, focusing on the analytical process of the material and less on the real world attachments. As an instructor in a university setting, being allowed academic freedom should provide more opportunities for students to learn and understand the material and undergo further analysis through the process of academicizing.

Fish describes the idea of academicizing as detaching an idea or concept from the context of real world urgency, using the idea or concept as a centerpiece for strictly academic and analytical purposes. (p. 27) When teaching students in my classroom, there are many occasions where I have used real world examples to help illustrate an idea or concept allowing the students to analyze the material and better understand the idea put forth. When discussing standpoint theory, I used the example of white privilege and socioeconomic status to further elaborate on how individuals who are underrepresented are more likely to see the inequities within a social hierarchy. Another example relates to when I provided personal narratives of how I viewed some aspects of the German culture differently when I visited Germany through my own cultural lens when teaching my students about ethnocentrism. When using real world examples and personal narratives in teaching, Fish states that we must only use real world examples as an avenue that leads to analysis and where we do not hold a position on an issue. Although I do believe some truth and benefits exist with the process of academicizing, teaching topics such as ethnocentrism and standpoint theory may be difficult to explain without providing more detailed and personal stories.

Fish also addresses the concept of academic freedom within the classroom, which he blatantly states as the freedom to be an academic (p. 80).To further elaborate on Fish's extravagant concept of academic freedom, he suggests that academic freedom allows an instructor to simply have the ability to select what texts, assignments, and exam questions will be selected for the course and have the most significant impact with students (p. 81). Being an instructor, having the ability to select the texts, assignments, and exam questions should be where we START our teaching of a classroom, the selection of organization of materials are the foundation of the course and students learning outcomes. Not only should instructors be able to select the assignments, exam questions, and texts, they should be able to select how each assignment is presented and taught, how each student should engage the information (group or individually), and what style of teaching should be used. For example, when I taught my students about nonverbal communication, I could have simply selected the words and definitions of the nonverbal behaviors (i.e. kinesics, proxemics, etc.), gave them a writing exercise to further define the behaviors and then the day is finished. 

Instead, I selected three children's books: Amelia Bedelia Does a Bake Sale, Biscuit Goes to the Library, and Berenstain Bears Respect Each Other, and read each book to the class. Placing an emphasis on my nonverbal communication behaviors, I made Amelia Bedelia sound like she was selling drugs, I made the owner of Biscuit the dog sound like someone who hates puppies, and the Berenstain Bears' book into a murder mystery. Each student in the classroom then filled out worksheet describing each one of my nonverbal behaviors as I read each children's story and turned the paper in at the end of class. Although Fish may have stated that I have the academic freedom to select such stories, I should also have the academic freedom to present the information to my students in a way that is engaging and allows for a more personal and in-depth understanding of the course material. Who knows how One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish would have turned out...

#shakenNOTstirred