Legend Series #6 - Paul Silvia (University of Greensboro UNC)

Go to Episode #131

For our sixth interview in the Legend Series, we meet Paul Silvia. I could say “we meet again,” as Paul Silvia has returned several times and is always a good choice by Jonathan, as his style is approachable yet learned, and Jonathan always manages to find ways to get more from him - details Paul is always happy to provide and discuss at length. However, this was not a return of Paul Silvia: this interview was his first appearance on the podcast, covering his book “How to Write a Lot”. As someone currently in the midst of a large-scale writing project, I found Paul's advice and counsel very helpful.

In order that I don’t breach my own copyright (I analyzed this interview in my book “Using podcast interviews as a source of qualitative data” in my chapter on the topic of publishing), will focus on an area of the interview I have not yet covered in other publications. And that area is the tension between being an academic and being a teacher. Late in the interview, after discussing the difficulties of the writing process and how to overcome them by embracing them as part of the process, Paul talks about one of the key problems in turning research into a career: the need to acquire additional skills to meet employment requirements.

[1:08:46] 

I do think I mean teaching and writing are in a real tension ... If someone's at a big time research university, there's in some ways less of attention because the university has has picked a side for the most part, like they've picked the side of if you're a tenured, tenured-track professor here, you do research and we have people to do the teaching, either horribly exploited adjuncts or graduate students or a non-tenure track, it's it's bad, it's, it's bad, and unjust.

The act of research can become a career, but for the vast majority of academics who want to work in universities for an extended period of time, even their whole career, what Paul is describing here is the norm. There are times when the research you want to do almost becomes a hobby, a side hustle you do in your free time. While I wouldn't necessarily consider it 'unjust,' it can be disheartening, especially when you know your prospects for promotion are based on your productivity in the area of your career where you sometimes have no time to work.

Although this stage of your career can be difficult, it doesn’t always get easier over time; the route becomes clearer.

[1:10:43]

As you get more experience, you start to, I think, you become better at teaching, maybe a little less idealistic, but maybe just a little bit more insightful. A lot of the teaching cliches you hear, there's a lot to them, and it's things like we can't invest more into students than they're going to invest in themselves, that students need to meet us at least halfway.

This is good advice, particularly if you are considering how much of your own time to devote to improving others. The 'better at teaching' you are, the more naturally you can allocate your time to the students who need it more; the 'little less idealistic, a little bit more insightful' is a good way to consider experience.

Then, once you have mastered your craft, as much as one can, you have more time to correctly evaluate your role in the class as you teach, out of class as you prepare and administrate, and the way your attitude affects the image your students have of you:

[1:12:19]

At a certain level I think teaching starts to look a lot like, a lot more like coaching, that someone really wants it ... it's not our goal to make them really want it, like professional athletes, and people want to be professional athletes, like we can't make them want to do that, they, they came to us because they wanted to do that, and we can, we can help galvanize their expertise and hopefully show them some things and cultivate their potential and their skills, but we can't make them want, like, I can't make someone want to be an academic psychologist. It's in some ways just kind of not appropriate, like if someone wants to, I can, I can show them how to do these things, but if someone doesn't want to, I should just respect and honor that, like that's actually always a perfectly sensible thing to not want to do. 

A fair evaluation of career development, in my opinion. I could go on, but I recommend you go and listen to the whole interview. These sections were taken from after the hour mark, which some listeners might not get to during their commute, but this interview held my attention the whole time. Insightful, helpful, and thought-provoking.

Go on - have a listen!

Go to Episode #131