Economics for Teachers: Musings about Teaching Economics

In my last post , I wrote about my resistance to calling myself a leader and how I think I've figured out where that resistance comes from: 1) it feels like bragging, 2) I don't fit the mental image I hold of what a leader looks like (i.e., white male), and 3) I don't want the responsibility I associate with being a leader. So the next questions I'm asking myself are: Does it really matter if I claim the leader label? And if it does, how do I get past this resistance I feel? Some of the conversations I had with colleagues earlier this week are helping me see that yes, it does matter, and what's particularly interesting to me is that I think some of the reasons why it matters are actually going to help me get over the resistance. For starters, a big reason I think it matters if I call myself a leader, and that also definitely makes it easier to do so, is that those first two sources of resistance are essentially founded on sexist and racist beliefs, and that's...

This week I participated in a Faculty Leadership Institute at school that has my brain kind of spinning. There are many things I want to write about but I am particularly grappling with the title questions right now. Basically, I know that I am "doing leadership" - for most of my life, I have always done work that others would call leadership, like I was in student government in high school and college, I always held leadership positions in other student organizations, I've been on Boards of professional associations, I've chaired committees, etc. And currently, I'm not only the CTL Director but a University Senator and the chair of one of the more "powerful" Senate committees. And I know I'm pretty darn effective at all that work. But a few years ago, when a colleague first referred to me as a 'faculty leader', I had an almost visceral negative reaction and immediately wanted to disagree with him. And in the last couple weeks, I have been ...

I don't usually mind missing the ASSA meetings - I hate to travel, I live in California so going to meetings almost always means going someplace a lot colder and an earlier time zone, and 90% of the economists I encounter at those meetings are the type of economists I dislike (and the other 10% are people I can see elsewhere). But there are occasionally sessions and papers that make me wish I had gone. One such paper in Atlanta is by Amanda Bayer, Syon Bhanot and Fernando Lozano, part of a session titled Gender in the Economics Profession I (the fact that there is more than one session with that title also makes me happy). The paper is " Does Simple Information Provision Lead to More Diverse Classrooms? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Undergraduate Economics " (link is to download the preview paper from the AEA conference site) and here's the abstract: Significant gender and racial/ethnic gaps have been observed in the economics profession, a reality with roots...

So, here I am, back to trying to blog more consistently. There are a number of things that have led to me finally getting off my butt, or out of my head, and actually sitting down at the laptop. One is that in my role as CTL Director, I repeatedly tell faculty that one aspect of being an effective teacher is being reflective - being willing to step back and look at what you're doing in the classroom, asking what is working and what isn't, how do you know what's working and what isn't, and what needs to be done to keep improving. For many years, this blog was basically my way of doing that reflection 'out loud'. I wouldn't exactly say that I've been a hypocrite in telling my faculty to do something I don't do anymore myself - I do believe I reflect regularly on my work as a faculty developer, even if not in a public forum - but I could do more, and hope blogging will help me think through a number of things in a more systematic and concrete way. I act...

In the endless stream of stuff that comes at me in various news feeds, I recently saw an article about how, instead of making New Year's resolutions, you should choose just ONE WORD and basically use it as a mantra for the year, reminding you of whatever your other goals might be. Turns out this one word idea is A Thing (just google 'one word for the year') so clearly I'm not the only one who thinks it makes some sense. The word that immediately came to my mind was "DO" - as in, I need to stop talking  about all the things I need/want to do and just go do  them (yes, like getting back to blogging - see, it's working already!). One issue I'm having is that it's hard to think "DO" without my mind expanding that to "Just Do It", and while I have nothing against Nike (especially after the Kaepernick ad campaign :-)), it's sort of annoying to think of a brand's ad slogan every time I am trying to motivate myself. And yet......