Learning how to count: Pedagogies of accountability in the pandemic university

Abstract

This article examines the pedagogical politics at play in the quantification of faculty labor in contemporary U.S. academia. It focuses on the author’s experiences at a large, land-grant, R1 university, going through the Promotion and Tenure (P&T) review process and reflecting on the various kinds of responsibilities that emerged from structural and personal transformations during the COVID-19 pandemic. By developing a pedagogy of accountability against quantitative compartmentalization, the essay outlines how to posit care, empowerment, and reflexivity as central to all learning, especially for teachers and particularly in times of crisis. In this context, ‘learning how to count’ means going against faceless metrics of one-to-one correspondence with other faculty or peer institutions and instead embracing what Paulo Freire called the ‘civic courage’ to teach as a commitment to others and the self.