The Boredoms
I write about boredom (and its close cousins, distraction and procrastination,) both academically and creatively.
BORED IN THE CLASS:
HELPING STUDENTS LEARN FROM BOREDOM.
In March of 2024, I spoke at SXSW EDU on the importance and usefulness of boredom in the classroom. Too often, we can see boredom as a lazy feeling to be ignored, when, in fact, the research shows us it is a “change signal,” like pain, which is meant to teach us to make important changes in our lives.
Studies show that since COVID, boredom increased among high school and college-aged students-- and the end of the pandemic, boredom didn't subside. Feeling bored usually stems from a desire for agency, and is a condition of "wanting, not of apathy." Knowing this helps instructors and administrators work with bored students to USE the feeling of boredom to figure out what they want and better find a sense of agency and purpose in their classes. Listening to students' reflections on boredom also helps instructors and administrators identify opportunities for agency-building systemic change.
For a recording of the session, visit the SXSW website here.
THE PROCRASTINATION STATION
My colleagues, Shauna Chung and Rebecca Mazumdar and I recently developed a new website based partially on my boredom research, as well as other research on education and emotion. It’s called The Procrastination Station and it’s meant to help students and faculty understand the emotions that block engagement. It has exercises, lesson plans, readings, and, you know— an insta.
Again, feel free to use these resources, but please acknowledge Shauna Chung, Carrie Hall and Rebecca Mazumdar from The New York City College of Technology when you do.
You can also read my study (a survey of 708 freshman writers) that gave rise to the site.
The Politics of Paying Attention:
Literacy Learning in the Era of Covid
Abstract: In the coronavirus era, we find the restraints on attention in the literacy classroom, as elsewhere: trauma, grief, financial difficulties, anxiety and the demands of new technologies skyrocketing. And we find, as with all demands on attention—the new constraints don’t affect everyone equally. Through looking at “attention structures,” which are the “cultural tools distributed across individuals, mediational means and interactional conventions that determine how cognitive and social attention are distributed in different kinds of social practices,”(Jones) we can examine the attentional politics of the literacy classroom during this era of heightened attentional constraint: what skills and performances we teach and value as well as why students may be performing different, though equally valid skills and practices, especially under duress. If we build upon the attention that is being paid, however mismatched to performance expectations, we can work with students to develop a foothold from which to better engage with literacy learning.
In Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis, Peter Lang, 2022.
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WATCH A LITTLE PIECE
OF PAPER?:LITERACY AND LEARNING UNDER DURESS
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the troubling fact that many students struggle to pay attention to literacy learning while they are in situations of extreme duress. This duress did not begin with pandemic, nor will it end with it. Neither is it distributed at random; those negatively affected by the nation’s prejudices, as a general rule, are under more duress than those who reap the benefits of these systems. To achieve an equitable curriculum, we must teach with the attentional needs of those under duress in mind.
This article explores how writing instructors can develop curricula that work with these needs. It looks at research on learning under duress as well as student work that was written in crisis, building upon the strengths of those under duress (who often, for example, write with a sense of urgency and keen awareness of their immediate surroundings) instead of trying to “cure” what we may perceive as weaknesses. A pedagogy that speaks to the strengths of students with these experiences will be vital both during the pandemic and beyond it.
Composition Studies Journal, Fall 2021 49.3
THE RESEARCHER ON HIS OWN ROUTE
SUPPORTED AUTONOMY AND THE DISENGAGED STUDENT
Abstract: Stemming from research on boredom, this article outlines a pedagogy designed to engage, one of "supported autonomy," in which students are given a great deal of choice over their readings and even assignments. It then goes on to outline one particular unit (a book club unit, in which students choose the books) that is based on this philosophy.
Some may worry that this pedagogy creates more work than the professor can handle. It is true that supported autonomy requires flexibility on the part of the instructor, but experience and research show us that the more input students have, the less energy instructors spend on student “buy-in,”and the more interesting, and therefore the more akin to a "flow" experience the class is for both professor and student. This pedagogy aims to help the students teach the teacher, to arouse the curiosity of instructors as well as of students.
Published in Reader: Essays in Reader-Oriented Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy. Fall 2016.
A while back, I wrote a few blog posts about my thoughts on boredom and attention. Just noodling around, really, with nothing to do. If you’re interested, click the button.
“Allright, dollface. C’mon and bore me.”
— Iggy Pop