Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Academics: Reconsidering the Ethics of Training Apprentice Scholars

Many academic writing courses train apprentice scholars. It is an approach that draws on the “community of practice” pedagogy of Jean Lave and Etienne Wegner. Here, students, as novice, apprentice scholars, work on authentic, academic research projects “while learning fundamental concepts and practices from active and experienced scholars” (“WRDS 150A”). The implied promise of this approach is that, as students learn these concepts and practices, they will be able to move from the periphery toward the centre of a research community. This promise is reflected in the introduction of Academic Writing, which “invites students to enter the discourse communities where researchers conduct their work” (23). However, as many critics have pointed out, the pedagogy of Lave and Wegner is deeply flawed. One of the largest flaws is that it does not adequately account for the numerous “apprentices” who never make it to the centre of the community of practice, and are instead left to balance precariously on the periphery. This flaw is evident in academia. The majority of students who choose to pursue an academic career find themselves in contingent positions that do not allow them to fully participate in research communities. In this paper, I take a closer look at the experiences of people in these precarious academic positions from the United States, The U.K., Australia, and Canada, including contract instructors connected with the Department of English Language and Literature at Carleton University. Ultimately, I will argue that we should reconsider the ethics of training apprentice scholars because of the false promises imbedded in that pedagogical approach.

Dr. Andrew Connolly completed a PhD in English at Carleton University and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Dr. Connolly’s research and teaching are in the field of American Literature, and he has particular interests in popular print culture, religion, and spirituality.