Dr. Das is a University Instructor of Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Das has served the University of New Brunswick (Canada), and teaches – global & Canadian healthcare systems, international development, gender & health, Sociology of evolutionism, and Anthropology of South Asia (Indian subcontinent).
Previously, Dr. Das has taught – Sociological theorists (Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim), and Sociological theory (Marxism, Functionalism, Exchange & Conflict).
Dept. of Social Sciences: University of New Brunswick – Saint John
SOCI 2007: DARWIN, HUMAN EVOLUTION & SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Dept. of Sociology: University of New Brunswick – Fredericton
SOCI 4264: HEALTHCARE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
SOCI 3523: SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Dept of Anthropology at the University of New Brunswick – Fredericton
Teaching Philosophy
I define teaching as a service-oriented profession, where a teacher provides the service of empowering students. The objective of teaching is enabling students to become autonomous, self dependent, and a contributor to their fraternity, families, communities and society. And the role of a teacher is to develop agency in students, which is the capability of expressing one’s own thoughts and beliefs, and acting sovereignly. Hence, my teaching philosophy & practice involves sensitising about choices and consequences, at personal, local/regional, and global levels; so that my students can clearly identify their individual (or collective) aspirations and standpoints, and act in an informed and mindful matter. In Canada, I have been teaching undergraduate Sociology & Anthropology courses, on Healthcare systems, Social Determinants of Health (particularly gender, culture and health behavior), International Development, Evolution and Social Sciences, and Indian subcontinent (South Asia).
The first step to successful teaching is thoroughly knowing your students. I have always deeply interacted with my students, which enabled me to comprehend their social and cultural backgrounds (and how that may affect their learning). In my case, majority students belong to the Atlantic region of Canada, urban middle & lower-middle class, and predominantly Caucasian with Anglophone European ethnicity. With respect to the topics that I teach, such a student group can encompass disadvantages like lack of exposure to cultural diversity, to non-western societies, to extreme poverty and social disparity, and to dense or overpopulation. So, how do I educate a Canadian, brought up in Western lifestyle, about barriers to medical care in a slum of India? How do I teach a Caucasian North American woman about racism and excessively high domestic violence faced by an aboriginal woman in North America? How do I guide a University-educated student to comprehend that lay reproductive beliefs, of a community with no formal education, cannot be dismissed as superstition or ignorance?
Hence, empathetic comprehension is an important aspect of my pedagogy, and is necessary due to the nature of the topics and subjects that I teach. In my classes, I always convey that even if one may not sympathise with an individual or group or cause, it is crucial to be empathetic for gaining knowledge. Consequently, I encourage students to temporarily ‘become’ the ‘other,’ to fully comprehend their subjective point of view. Occasionally I suggest separating empathy and sympathy while learning. For example, one may not sympathise with perpetrators of rape and sexual assaults; but a student learning gender-based violence has to empathise with perpetrator’s viewpoint in order to understand their motives and actions. Only by using such perspectives, vital findings have been uncovered, like ‘cycle of violence’ (i.e. some assault victims becoming perpetrators in later life).
The next step to successful teaching is addressing apprehensions. To illustrate, many students fear that they will get low marks because of their lack of acquaintance with the topics, or because within just one term, they will never learn enough of an unfamiliar subject to perform well. To address this fear, I passionately clarify that my role as a teacher is not to penalise for what they do not know, but to facilitate the foremost role of a student: trying to know about what they are uninformed of. Moreover, I will evaluate them also for their attempts to learn, and not just the final results. Furthermore, I spend considerable time producing a detailed syllabus, outlining the expectations from students and the exact criterions for assignments, which reduces students’ anxieties about how to perform well in class.
My teaching practice entails a three-pointed focus, which comprises of:
(1) conceptual and applied elements: 1/3rd of my teaching is about clarifying the theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Furthermore, a crucial aspect is how the topics of my course (e.g. gender & healthcare) links to topics in other courses, taught by other instructors (e.g. Sociology of Gender), and to other disciplines (e.g. to History courses on Right to abortion debates in North America). I also demonstrate how to convert theoretical frameworks into operational designs, and/or how to apply concepts to examine social issues in order to provide practical solutions.
(2) participative learning: some of the course content originates from students, and hence, I encourage students to express their concerns or curiosities regarding the topics of my course. To illustrate, at the beginning of a course on International Development, a prior cohort expressed how can Canadians support the youth in the Caribbean region. Accordingly I attuned about 1/3rd of my course, via later classroom lectures, student presentations, and analysis of actual development projects in the Caribbean region.
(3) employment centric: a section of my course content focuses on information and skills, related to the topics of the course, that will assist employment. For instance, in my course on Healthcare systems, I impart job facilitating materials, such as, how to use patient-centric approach to improve health service delivery, or how to asses effectiveness of medical care programs for vulnerable groups. Furthermore, I also collaborate with University units that place students as interns with various agencies; and with non-profit and governmental institutions, for admitting students as trainees for actual program implementation, so as to gain employment experience.
My teaching practice also includes a multiformat evaluation, as I firmly believe (and evidenced by past experience) that only classroom-based and written assessment (like tests or essays), is a narrow and inadequate measurement of a student’s merit. Many students do not perform well in this format, but do excellently in other formats like classroom presentations and practicum. That is why I use a comprehensive testing method, such as a combination of – essays and reports; classroom tests, presentations and debates, and in-class participation; and if feasible, practicums. I also accommodate students with performance barriers, which may not be strictly bio-medical, such as overly panicky, negatively body conscious, slow writing, socially shy, and so on.
My immediate teaching goal is always replacing the fear of university-level learning (which I have noticed among many students) with a love for curiosity, as well as, providing stress-free learning environment. For the same, I encourage students to unhesitatingly ask questions and express opinions, which I incentivise through a percentage of the final marks. Additionally, I refrain from expressing my own opinions on various topics (e.g. legalisation of marijuana usage or sex work); as I have observed that, due to the power imbalance in classroom settings, students either unmindfully follow the teacher’s standpoint, or become unexpressive in an attempt for self censorship (which, to me, is a failure of the teacher).
The long term teaching goal is regarding retention of knowledge. Via earlier students, I have learned that after 2 to 3 years students are unable to retain most of university curriculum, especially if their employment is unrelated to their education. Therefore, I try to impart knowledge that will be retained, even if fractionally, for a long time. Presently, students navigate an environment of constant spectacular symbols, visuals, and events, which can drown the teacher’s message, especially on complex topics (for e.g. consequences of ethnic hatred). However, current students are very fast learners as well. Hence, I combine these factors, by using a lot of visual medium (images, videos) in teaching, which is absorbed faster and retained longer by students. I have been successful in my endeavour, as former students state that in diverse contexts, such as a business meeting or social gathering, they remembered an image (and the connected argument), and used it to understand and/or provide their stance on an issue.
–Dr. Baba Das (Dec 2018)
alekhyadas.ca 