NCSA 2024 John F. Schnabel Teaching Address: Teaching in These Times: Brave New World or Echoes from the Past?

We teach in tumultuous times. Some legislative bodies are placing constraints on what we teach. Various publics are expressing outrage over course content. Privately funded groups are orchestrating attacks on curriculum and faculty. The majority of the professoriate is contingent, and the corporatization of education has continued unabated. These are a few aspects of the current sociohistoric context. In this address, I ask and attempt to answer three questions surrounding teaching in these times: (1) Are these times so different from the past? (2) Has the current context in which we teach influenced what we do in the classroom? (3) What, if anything, are we to do about it? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]