Whitney Clay: Welcome to the West Valley College TEACH Center podcast.
Michelle Francis: TEACH stands for training educators advocating change.
Whitney Clay: I'm Whitney Clay, Instructional designer.
Michelle Francis And I'm Michelle Francis, Professional Development Coordinator and Instructor in Child Studies.
Whitney Clay: At the TEACH Center, we support faculty as they cultivate excellence in teaching and learning and welcome their students with engaging pedagogies.
Michelle Francis: In this podcast, we discuss hot topics in teaching and learning. We interview educators about what they are doing in their fields, and we talk to learners about what inspires them.
Michelle Francis: Today on the Teach Center podcast, we are talking with West Valley College physics professor Dr. Doug Epperson. Dr. Epperson has been instrumental in the development of our West Valley College Caring Campus behavioral commitments. But his overall favorite, and the one he will talk about today, is situational fairness. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Epperson.
Doug Epperson: Hi. It's nice to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
Michelle Francis: Thanks, Doug. So we have a question for you. Our first question really that we've been asking all of our guests is what is situational fairness?
Doug Epperson: Well, in my mind, we distilled it down to this one sentence. Everyone has different needs and obstacles that come up in their lives, and they need adaptations and tolerations in different ways at different times.
Michelle Francis: I love that. I love how succinct that really is about the definition of situational fairness. So I know for you, you really have come to situational fairness because of a student. So would you be willing to share your story about your student?
Doug Epperson: Yes. I brainstormed about all the different reasons for requests from students that I received in my 20 years of teaching. And here's a list of what I remember: weddings, funerals, sickness, championship sports competitions, college orientations, flat tires, stolen cars, lost luggage, multiple exams on a single day, power outage, childcare, adult care, overslept, forgot it at home, family vacations, demands from work, fires, relationship break-ups, I need more help and time to understand, etc. Each situation needed a decision from me and the decisions were certainly not consistent over the years. I most definitely am not the expert, but my lens of understanding has widened in recent years through readings, conversations with colleagues, and workshops.
One recent extreme example was a student living out in her car with a mother who needed regular medical attention. Sometimes her communications and assignments were clear and well-written, and sometimes they were extremely scattered. I tried to connect her up with help, but she was resistant and untrusting because of bad experiences in her past. She was continually behind and continually asking for small extensions. The course was a general education course. It was not a major prerequisite course. She was trying and I could clearly see her learning. In these courses, I hope that students will leave with some understanding and appreciation of what science is, what energy is, and how the world's systems work together with each other. But I don't expect them to remember all the details any more than I remember the details of the psychology, history or philosophy general ed courses I took. Should I have advised her to withdraw and take the course sometime when she was not homeless? Well, that would have been a setback. What I did tell her was to keep turning in what she could, when she could. I told her not to worry about the due date if she missed assignments. I told her to keep attending as best she could, keep asking me questions on Canvas. I told her if she did that, she would pass the course. I assessed whether she was learning and meeting the intent of the course, not whether she was checking all the boxes and ringing all the bells. I allowed her deservingly to take one more step in her educational path.
Would my decision have been different if it were a major prerequisite course? Quite likely. I would have asked her to withdraw and take the course again because then it would not have been a stable educational stepping stone and would not have successfully moved her forward. That was a big moment for me.
Michelle Francis: Yeah.
Doug Epperson: I know she was very appreciative, and I believe it was the right decision.
Michelle Francis: And, you know, Doug, one thing I want to mention on your story that really touched me was that you recognized this was about her learning rather than your assignments and your requirements. And I think that's important to recognize. You were looking at the context of the course, the situation in which she was in, and then making a judgment call about what was necessary to pass the course. That's the essence of situational fairness.
Michelle Francis: Yes, yes, I think so. So last but not least, this question keeps coming up. The notion of how do I know that they are telling me the truth?
Doug Epperson: Yeah. How do I know they're telling me the truth? This one, actually, I got a bit passionate about in our discussions. The first is how much does it matter that they're telling the truth if they're lying? Why are they lying? What are they hiding? They might be hiding a deeper reason that is also just as good of a reason. But one of the things that I say to myself is why should I be the judge and jury? And if I am the judge and jury, then I'm going to bring in my prejudices, my biases based upon my life, whether I want to or not. There's going to be some people who, because of just my cultural conditioning, I'm just going to believe them. Oh, of course. Sure. And there's going to be some other people that, because of my cultural conditioning, that there's going to be little red flags set up in my head that shouldn't even be there. You know, how do I believe you? Maybe you were doing something else. Often it doesn't matter the reason. If a student's coming to you and honestly needs some help, whether it be an extension or whether it be in a modified assignment, as long as it leads them forward to learning, to progress in their learning in the course, and as long as they're able to leave the course, with what the main intent of the course is, I think that's the most important thing.
Michelle Francis: Wow. That's powerful stuff. What you're essentially saying is, as faculty, we need to step back and question why we are so rigid about the kind of assignments and deadlines that we provide for students and whether it's really serving students the way it needs to, and whether it's coming from a place of bias, or cultural assumptions, or imposter syndrome. There's so many things that underlie situational fairness beyond just that the student isn't turning in the work on time. It took a lot for that student to come and tell you they were homeless. It took a lot for that student to come and ask for an extension because their A.D.D. had flared up or their depression had flared up. There's so many reasons why students come to us that to just assume good intent every single time is actually very freeing for faculty.
Doug Epperson: Yes. Yes. We don't have to judge and we don't have to jury. We just have to teach.
Michelle Francis: And Doug, on that, I mean, we're going to leave you today with that comment. You don't have to judge. You don't have to jury. Just teach. I love that. That's powerful. Thank you so much, Doug, for joining us today on the Teach Center podcast. We appreciate your time and thanks for listening.
Doug Epperson: All right. You're welcome. And you have a good day.