Welcoming Students: The Syllabus as Hospitable Practice
I know many of us hope that we create welcoming, hospitable environments for our students. That we, in some small way, encourage a space for community building and critical citizenship. Yet, we begin our semesters with the “reading” of an often woefully inhospitable and prescriptive document written in vaguely performative “legalese”—THE SYLLABUS. The syllabus is more than a mere delineation of our classes’ rules, regulations, policies, and procedures—though, these elements of the syllabus are important, to be sure. The syllabus is our students’ first experience of us as educators. This document represents us as educators nearly as much as the texts we chose to assign, the assessment portfolios we design, and the selves we share with our students.