Title: Professor of English
University: Saint Joseph’s University
Email: agreen@sju.edu
Description of your work
Currently I am working on an article that draw together slow medicine (McCullough, 2008, Sweet 2012 and 2017), narrative medicine (Charon 2006, Frank 1995 and Robillard 2019) and critical service-learning (Mitchell 2007, 2008, 2015). By looking at narrative and slow medicine together, I am developing a theory/practice of slow pedagogy that applies to the medical humanities. In this piece, I use my mother’s experience on hospice as an example of slow medicine and braid this narrative through writing about the pedagogy of “Hospital Stories,” a writing and critical service-learning course I teach to pre-med undergraduates.
The pedagogy that I use in my service-learning course, “Hospital Stories” is deliberately “slow.” I consider how teaching *about* slow medicine in “Hospital Stories” can be done with the parallel practice of “slow pedagogy,” pedagogy that, like slow medicine, is based in community and involves care of the whole person spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. In the case of the critical service-learning classroom, slow pedagogy involves attention to the intersectionality of the students in the room as well as the clients at the community-partner organizations.
Of course, the critical service-learning classroom, done well, is already “slower” than the traditional. To create spaces in the classroom for discussion, reflection, and writing about the community partner organization and the service, the course cannot cover as much content as traditional seminars, nor can the course cover material in the same ways. As both a teacher of writing and service-learning, I conclude the essay by reframing concerns with content coverage in service-learning courses—a common worry– in terms of the *depth* of knowledge that students retain. In critical pedagogical terms, this essay ultimately argues that students in both writing and service-learning courses are not only absorbing content, but also *creating* new knowledge and retaining more of their learning. It is not about how much content one gives up, but rather, the increased integration of student learning for transformation.
This article also insists that slow pedagogy in the critical service-learning classroom gives students control of their own learning, time at the community partner organization to build relationships with members of the community, and time to reflect on systemic inequalities like race, class, and gender, both orally and in writing. With “slow pedagogy” we spend more time where there is confusion, conflict, or interest. The course begins with deliberate community-building so that the writing can reflect the dynamic of the class and the community partner organization, as well as the students’ needs. When we are discussing social justice and other complex concepts, it is helpful for us all to be “in relationship” with one another.