Why I Teach: Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Why I Teach: Dr. Scott Jenkinson
This episode features Dr. Scott Jenkinson, Assistant Professor in Clemmer College of Education and Human Development and a faculty fellow for Community-Engaged Learning at the ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence. He provides a snapshot of some of the ways in which community-engaged learning impacts our students and shares about his experiences with the ETSU Alternative Breaks program and some of the foundations for student success that he incorporates in his classrooms.
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Transcript
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Assistant Professor
So critical reflection is the linchpin. It's the linchpin in any sort of community-engaged learning experience. It really creates the learning. You know, we can have community engagement all we want, but the reflection is where it transitions from just an experience to actually something that changes who you are.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Host/Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach."
In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Scott Jenkinson, Assistant Professor in the Educational Foundations and Special Education Department in Clemmer College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Jenkinson earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He joined the ETSU faculty in 2015 as a clinical instructor, teaching and supervising pre-service teaching students. He is a strong supporter for community-engaged learning, serving as a faculty fellow for community-engaged learning at the ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence. He was also instrumental in the development of our Go Beyond the Classroom QEP.
In this episode, we will hear about his work in the classroom and beyond the classroom through community-engaged learning opportunities he facilitates.
Enjoy the show.
Dr. Jenkinson, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Well, Dr. McCorkle, thank you so much for inviting me to join you on your podcast. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about teaching. I talk about teaching all the time in my career with pre-service teachers, so I love to talk about it. So I apologize if I kind of go a little lengthy with some things. But taking myself back to that very first day, I think a couple things come to mind.
You know, presence, being present, being there to enjoy it, you know, being human and being not some artifice of what I think a faculty member should be, but actually being a real person in front of my students. I remember very vividly coming from the high school where I taught for 10 years, coming into the college classroom thinking that I was supposed to be one way. I was supposed to have the tie on, and I was supposed to be rigid, and I was supposed to be sarcastic, and that sort of -- I had this perception of what the faculty member was supposed to be, and I remember that causing me a lot of problems and causing me a lot of moments of identity and questioning who I was supposed to be and how I was supposed to be.
So if I were to go back into that first day, I would just say, "You know, relax, take a breath, be there, be present, be human, and make mistakes and talk about your mistakes." And I think that would have helped me and my students become -- have a better relationship and become more attuned to the space we were in.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
That's great. Kind of that authentic self, and they can connect to that, right?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
They can, yeah. I think our students are really adept, and high school students and college students very much so are adept at seeing through that facade. And when we put it up, they know, you know, they're aware that that's not who you really are. So I think, you know, telling myself then to just be, be you, be who you are, and the dad jokes and the whatever comes out is part of you in that space. And so be that.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you. So will you share a bit about your journey to becoming an educator and tell us what inspired you to pursue a career in education?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Absolutely. So this question, I love thinking about it. I love thinking about those – it gives me a moment to pause and reflect on those experiences. So I never intended to be a teacher, ever. That was not the plan. The plan was biology. My father's a biologist, so I was going to follow in his footsteps. Anthropology was on the agenda for a little while. And then English, and I was going to be a writer. All of those things were kind of swirling. And it wasn't until my junior year of college that my partner, who's a wonderful, a mirror for me, she really just kind of said, "You know what? You've been teaching people all your life. You just have never acknowledged it." And then when she said that, it really dawned on me. That's really true.
I was a Boy Scout from age-- I was a Cub Scout until I was a leader at age 23. I was in the Boy Scout system for that long.
Wow, that's great.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
And the ethos of being a Boy Scout in our troop was, once you learn something, you teach somebody.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Share it, yeah.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Yeah, and so that's really where it started. I remember vividly at age eight, you know, learning how to tie a knot. And someone taught me how to do it, and I turned to the right and taught somebody else how to do it. And that, as I think back on those moments, it just happened again and again and again, and that's how I ended up learning, interacting with the world. Feeling present in moments was by finding a piece of information and connecting it to a real experience and talking to people about it. So that just became where I felt grounded and where I felt at peace with who I was and the person that I was supposed to be. That authenticity was founded in that. Yeah, my partner gives me a hard time.
Anytime we go to the beach, if somebody catches something in the surf or an animal, I'm running over there like, "Oh, well, did you know this? Did you know that?"
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
A teaching moment.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Exactly. A teaching moment even on vacation, you know.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Right.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
But again, that's just how I'm there, I think, is that. So it was never part of the plan, but it ended up being, I think, the place that I've really found a home.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
That's a nice story.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Yeah.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
I mentioned your role as a faculty fellow for community-engaged learning. What does community-engaged learning look like for ETSU students?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
So ETSU, I think, has, ever since I heard of ETSU, the bonds that ETSU had in the community were apparent. So we moved, my partner, I moved up here so that she could go to school to become a physical therapist. And in the physical therapy program, they were engaged in the community. They were out there. So it was always part of the ethos of ETSU, always part of what ETSU was to be connected in the community. And so what it really looks like on our campus is that our students are intentional about taking what they learn and moving that beyond just the fixed confines of the campus to the community that they're in. So what it means is our students are out there. They're putting theory into practice. They're trying things out. They're connecting authentically with community partners. They are learning from our community members. They're taking in the nuances and the gray areas and the "weirdnesses" that are happening out in our community, and they're developing those further. They're using our community space as an opportunity to grow and change and be different and become engaged citizens and engaged individuals. And that comes through a process that is hard. It takes work to reflect. It takes work and time on the part of our faculty and our staff to facilitate that reflection. I have to admit, one of the greatest joys I have as the faculty fellow is I get to work with faculty who are and staff who are interested in their teaching and their learning doing something more. I've had, I can't tell you how many cups of coffee or tea I've had with faculty and staff that are just excited to get their students engaged and out and thoughtful about what it means to change and be impactful in their society. An example that comes to mind is I worked with a faculty member in our Sports Management Program who her students are working with Bristol Motor Speedway and Speedway Children's Charities.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Yes.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
And they're in a course around corporate responsibility. So what do corporations, how are corporations responsible for giving back to the community at large? And this group of students are working hard with Bristol Motor Speedway and Speedway Children's Charities to develop events and develop experiences that talk about that mission outwardly and try to get more corporations involved and get more people involved in charitable giving and developing connections to community. And seeing that happen in real time and seeing those students reflect on it and talk about how, "Oh, this thing I read in the book in week one, I saw reality right here in week 10 and now I can see a difference. I can see something I've done."
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Right.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
With that. And I think that leads to just the importance of the critical reflection piece in community-engaged learning.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Can you tell us a little bit more about kind of critical reflection and its importance?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
So critical reflection is the linchpin. It's the linchpin in any sort of community-engaged learning experience. It really creates the learning. You know, we can have community engagement all we want, but the reflection is where it transitions from just an experience to actually something that changes who you are.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Right.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
And Patty Clayton, who we had on campus, has shared a lot about this idea of critical reflection as a pair of sunglasses. It creates a new lens for us to see an experience from.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Yeah.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
So with our students, what we're doing is we're providing them an opportunity to pause, pump the brakes a little bit, and look at what's happening in a real way and ask, "Why is it happening? How is this fitting in with the community? How is it fitting in with me as a person?"
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Right.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
"How is it fitting in with the reality that I understand?" And then the most exciting question I think, is, "Okay, now what? Now what are you going to do with that? Who are you now?"
That idea of your change to something else, somebody else, that's exciting to me when I really think about it. And critical reflection is that tool that does that.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Yeah. Great. That's a great explanation. You've also been involved in ETSU's Alternative Breaks Program. Will you please tell us about that program and its impact on our students?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Absolutely.
Alternative Breaks, I absolutely love. I've been able to go on four Alternative Break experiences now to Chicago and then three times to New Orleans with our students. And the Alternative Break experience really gives students the opportunity to lead. So we have student leaders that work with faculty partners. And then those faculty partners and the students work with our Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement under Joy Fulkerson to develop the experience.
Who are we going to meet with?
Which community partners are we going to work with?
What's it look like to travel in a 15-passenger van for 10 hours?
All the facets of the experience.
So the students really get to take ownership of creating an experience for their fellow students, for their peers. And then once the trip is developed, we go. We go to a location that's different from what they, the norm, different from what they know, to experience and look at a very particular topic in that place. So for example, when we go to New Orleans, we're looking at education and youth development. What does that look like in the Louisiana Delta? And how might that compare to the Appalachian Highlands? How are those environments similar? How are they different? How are their histories distinct? And how do those histories influence the experiences that youth and folks have in education there? And the students, I think one of the most powerful things for our students is the student leaders and then their peers they're working with are actively engaged in that process of reflection the whole time. The whole time. It starts at 4:30 in the morning when you get in the van and we're tired, but we're still driving 15 or 10 hours. It starts then. And seeing students progress through that experience and work through that experience and talk to each other in real powerful ways is really endearing and amazing.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Yeah, that's great. What are some of the most rewarding teaching moments you've experienced?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Well, right off the bat, I would absolutely say that the Alternative Break experiences have been very rewarding. I have had the chance every time I've gone, I've had current or former students go with me, current or former students of mine go with me. To see those students really grow from where they began as undergraduate students to now in some cases graduate students and see them take the reins of challenging topics and facilitate those experiences so that they have objectives in mind and they're working with this idea and they're creating experiences and knowing those right moments to ask the right question that's tough, that's a little messy and a little uncomfortable, but they're identifying what it means to be engaged, to be there, to be present. And to see that happen, that is amazing. Two students I had this last time, Mallory McClelland and Taylor Cooper, are two students that are leaders in New Orleans most recently. And just both of them flourished as teachers, as leaders and learners, and they were engaged every moment of every day we were there and asking questions, but working with their peers to have a really amazing experience. That was fulfilling for me as an instructor to see students that I had worked with that I had helped facilitate their experiences to now share that on in the future. You saw the transformation of that.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Absolutely.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Now we talk about, in community-engaged learning, we talk about transformational versus transactional learning. And the idea that the learning that I want to invest in is that transformational learning where students are becoming somebody new and they're changing and challenging themselves to be something new, someone new in a new world.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
I love those examples. So you teach or have taught several key foundation courses at ETSU, including "Foundations of Education" and "Foundations of Student Success." What are some of the most important foundations you try to establish for your students to help them succeed?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
So, well, a couple of them I think we mentioned. Your presence, authenticity, you can't learn something unless you lean into it. And so the idea of being there, being in it, being in that moment is I think a big part of it. I think those times where I think back to educational experiences that I've had that I learned the most from, it's because I wasn't paying attention to other things. I was really there about that thing, whatever it was in front of me. I couldn't be distracted by it. So that presence, I think, is a muscle, something we train for. And so I think that's a big part of the foundational piece, is training yourself to be present. And I think as a tool for that, one thing that I want to encourage my students to do is reflect. Is take the time and take the energy and take the effort to think back and understand the why behind whatever it is you're doing. You may not like whatever that Gen Ed course is, but it's there for a reason.
I was an English major, so that first chemistry course that I took in college was like, "Whoa, no. What is this chemistry thing all about?" But understanding after time that, "Oh, that chemistry thing actually helps me understand some of the literature that I'm reading. Or helps me understand the world that I'm interacting with." Or this question that my eight-year-old has now around why this thing happens -- that comes back to that chemistry class that I got a C in, that I didn't really feel like was useful at the time, but it really was. Yeah, there's connections between the learning and...
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Absolutely. Can you share a book, a podcast, or another resource that has influenced your teaching philosophy?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Oh, man. You're asking an English major to recommend books about teaching. Well, the first one that comes to mind is a really...it's a heavy...I would say a heavy philosophy, but that's okay. It's Paulo Freire and Myles Horton. "We Make the Road by Walking" is what it's called.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Excellent.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
And one of the things I love about this book is they spoke the book, and they're very intentional about that. Paulo Freire traveled in to visit Myles Horton in New Market, Tennessee, and they recorded the book. So they recorded a conversation over three days, and then they edited it down to this really insightful, philosophical, and ultimately humbling kind of understanding of how their philosophies about interacting with people were similar and different all at the same time. I like that text because both Myles Horton and Paulo Freire bring such nuanced perspectives from their own lived experiences, and I think those perspectives and those experiences are really valuable.
And then the second book I would suggest is "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. And I was so excited to get a chance to shake his hand and meet him at the Festival of Ideas last year.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Delightful.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
But the "Tuesdays with Morrie," I promise I've read that book 20 times in my life.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
That's great.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
I used to read it out loud to my students at the high school level.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Did you really?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Yeah, every semester. That was the book we read over the course of the semester was that one. And I like that book a lot because it comes back to a lot of those same principles of presence and honoring the humanness that we have. And understanding our roles as teachers is more than just delivering content. It's about who we are as people. I tell my students every semester, teaching is an inherently human act. It's something that human beings have to take part in. And when we take that human out of it, we lose something. And so the "Tuesdays with Morrie" and Mitch Albom's writing really takes me back to that idea often.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Thank you for sharing both of those.
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
Yeah.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students?
Dr. Scott Jenkinson
I hope that my students see themselves as unfinished and see themselves as individuals that can evolve with the world. And should, I would argue, but can at least. And that they're questioning, they're curious. They seek out experiences that might make them a little uncomfortable, but they're ultimately things that they are learning from and taking from. I've been thinking a lot about the language I use when I think about myself as an educator. The word that comes to mind so much now is a "facilitator of experiences."
So I hope that out of my teaching, my students become their own facilitators of experiences. That they are empowered to think about how experiences can change them and impact them and really be embedded in the experience and be present and use the tools of reflection to really become something new after they have that moment. That's what I hope.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Thank you, Scott. I really enjoyed our conversation today. And I also appreciate your commitment to community-engaged learning at ETSU and your work in student success. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Jenkinson, the Clemmer College of Education and Human Development, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.
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East Tennessee State University was founded in 1911 with a singular mission: to improve the quality of life for people in the region and beyond. Through its world-class health sciences programs and interprofessional approach to health care education, ETSU is a highly respected leader in rural health research and practices. The university also boasts nationally ranked programs in the arts, technology, computing, and media studies. ETSU serves approximately 14,000 students each year and is ranked among the top 10 percent of colleges in the nation for students graduating with the least amount of debt.
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