Pedagogy Oct 2019

In the Governess’s Room

Amber Pouliot

Abstract

This article considers the all too common experience of precarious employment in higher education, but under a unique set of circumstances: a three-year postdoctoral fellowship and residency in a stately home in the English countryside. The author explains how she harnesses the pedagogical possibilities of her precarity by operating a policy of radical honesty with her students, both inside and outside of the classroom. As a Victorianist, she petitioned to teach texts, including Jane Eyre, that allowed her to explore contingent academic labor with her students and compare the plight of the nineteenth-century governess—poorly paid, forced to lead an itinerant existence, and subject to dismissal when she outlived her utility—to the conditions that many academics currently face. She invites her students to share their struggles, and for her part, she frankly shares the difficulties of being a precarious academic, in the hopes of creating a place of mutual understanding, support, and solidarity.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2019-10-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-7615519
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy labor and working conditions
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References (10)

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  2. American College Health Association . 2017. National College Health Assessment: Spring 2017 Referen…
  3. Brontë (2008)
    Jane Eyre
  4. Brontë (2009)
    Wuthering Heights
  5. Buchan Lizzie . 2018. “Brexit: More than 2,300 EU Academics Resign amid …
Show all 10 →
  1. Finley Ashley . 2009. “Women as Contingent Faculty.” Association of Amer…
  2. Reetz David R. Bershad Carolyn …
  3. Rosenvinge Greg . 2018. “Why We Students Should Back Our Lecturers on St…
  4. University and College Union . 2014. “UCU Survey of Work-Related Stress 2014.” www.ucu.org.uk/media…
  5. University and College Union . 2016. Precarious Work in Higher Education: A Snapshot of Insecure Co…
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