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A story about the difficulties of navigating the first year of a new university program during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"f3a8af53-7cb7-477a-8f73-3e60d06ea95d"},"title":"Navigating & Advocating: Finding My Voice by Anonymous"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

My wicked problem was navigating through a rocky first year of a newly-developed program with lots of kinks--during a worldwide pandemic that no one saw coming! When I began my program last July, things didn't quite go according to plan. No one could have foreseen that we would be starting school in the middle of a pandemic-induced quarantine. The program, which was supposed to be fully in person, was now fully online...and that was only the beginning of the many issues me and my cohort would encounter in our first year.<\/p>\n\n

Because the program is new, we are sort of like guinea pigs. In some sense, it is to be expected that new graduate programs will have hiccups to work through, but a lot of the issues were intensified by the last-minute shift to online learning in this case. First of all, it seemed like the professors were determined to give us more work and keep us in class longer in light of being online. They often voiced their fears that we would not learn the material because we were not in person. But this led to a situation where we did not have a reliable schedule and were extremely overwhelmed by the amount of information presented. The irony is that prolonged synchronous online lectures are harder to pay attention to than in-person classes, so by keeping us for longer, they are actually making it harder for us to focus and learn.<\/p>\n\n

Our eyes were always hurting and we were, frankly, bored. We did not get sufficient breaks to stretch or use the restroom, and we were required to keep our cameras on the whole time. When we weren't in class, we were overwhelmed with assignments that we all agreed felt a lot like busy-work intended to reassure the professors that we were engaged despite being online. And, yet, the professors rarely stopped to see if we had questions, if at all. And we definitely did have questions! Sometimes we would try to use the hand raise function or type in the chat to say we had a question, but the professors were either not aware of those attempts or were ignoring them. There was no standardized way to express the need to ask a question because all the professors were using different online platforms--some used Zoom, some used Webex, and some used Blackboard Collaborate. We as a cohort felt that we did not know where to be and when.<\/p>\n\n

These problems might have been acceptable in light of the fact that our professors were adjusting to online learning, but there were other issues as well. For one, the course plan was problematic. They started us off in an accelerated 5 week summer session with what they told us was the hardest class of our entire program--a neuroanatomy class that they warned us many people fail even during the regular, full length semester. This was an extremely difficult course that was designed to be taught in conjunction with an anatomy lab to reinforce concepts. We were not able to benefit from the lab portion of the class at all because of the pandemic, and we had only five weeks to learn content designed to be taught in 14 weeks. It was an extremely difficult course to begin our program with, and it was not the only course we were taking during that first semester, so we were extremely overwhelmed. It was wholly unnecessary to do that course first, as the following semester was all about mental health, and our neuro classes did not begin until the Spring. In other words, it was not a prerequisite for the upcoming Fall content, and it could have waited.<\/p>\n\n

In our other courses, we felt that our questions and concerns were often dismissed. \"You'll understand this later,\" was a response we would often get. But we wanted to understand it while it was being taught, and we were being graded on the concepts now. Time and time again, we would ask for specific examples before we had graded assignments, and time and time again we were told that we could not have examples, because it might stifle our creativity. We are in a healthcare program, not an art program. We want to learn how to do things correctly because we felt that instilling proper technique for adequate patient care should come before creativity. This is to say nothing of the fact that we are paying tens of thousands of dollars to be taught, not to be forced to guess. All of these are only a few examples, but hopefully it captures the crux of the problem: this new program had a lot of kinks to work out, and it was extremely frustrating to navigate.<\/p>\n\n

Our other problem was that we were afraid to advocate for ourselves. Because of the online format, we did not get to meet each other in person during our first semester, so it was hard to organize as a cohort. While we all knew we weren't alone in feeling frustrated, we were afraid to be the ones to speak out, especially because we were unsure if the rest of the cohort would have our back. I, for my part, wanted to say something, but I was also afraid of backlash from the faculty, or being perceived as being \"difficult.\" I knew that these professors had a lot of power over me and would maintain that influence for the next three years. The prospect of speaking up and making my concerns known was daunting...<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"ad10371d-2fcd-47ea-888a-519d7e8c0a24"},"title":"The Wicked Problem"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Ultimately, I partially overcame the problem by teaming up with some of the more outspoken people in my cohort to respectfully delineate our concerns. I say \"partially\" overcame, because I overcame my fear of advocating for myself and my cohort, but it did not solve all the problems with the program--although we have seen some improvement. That is often the case with advocacy, but if you do not say anything, nothing can be solved at all.<\/p>\n\n

The way that I approached this was in steps. First of all, I came to realize as I was working in groups with some people from the cohort, that the frustration I was feeling was shared by many of them, some to an even higher extent. I sought out the advice of friends in other grad programs, and they advised that it is acceptable for graduate level students to raise concerns respectfully. I brought this advice back to my friends in the cohort, who were still unsure how to proceed. I told them that I realized if we never speak up, the faculty might genuinely have no idea how things are going from our end of the experience. I also mentioned that it is likely their goal to identify and improve issues in the program as a natural part of its development. On top of this, several of us had friends that were joining the program the following year, and we realized that it was on us to help pave the way for them to have a better experience. Reframing the problems to realize that this was probably all very unintentional and also normal in the context of a newly-developed program helped us to step outside of our own personal fears.<\/p>\n\n

Next, working with some of the other students in my cohort, I helped to draft a document that was worded in a collaborative spirit. We basically approached this with the assumption that it is normal for new programs to have kinks that need to be ironed out, and that it was likely the faculty would want to hear from us. We first approached our advisor to let her know we had been compiling this document and ask her permission to bring it to the program director. Our advisor asked to review the document first, and then she confirmed that we should reach out to the program director to share it with her in a meeting. Finally, we had a meeting with the director. To our pleasant surprise she was fairly receptive and met us with that same collaborative spirit we were reaching out to her with.<\/p>\n\n

While this has not solved all the problems, it has shown us that the administration is open to our feedback, which has been instrumental in generating a dialogue, not just for me and my friends, but for the entire cohort. On top of this, some important changes have been made. For example, the incoming cohort will not have to take that neuro class in the accelerated summer semester--thanks to our advocacy, the faculty realized it was too taxing for a five week course in the very first semester, and they moved it to the Fall so that the students can have a full 14 week course. We have also seen our professors stop to allow us to have bathroom breaks as well as ask if we have questions more frequently.<\/p>\n\n

For me the most important part of all of this is that we are healthcare students, and we NEED to get comfortable speaking up when we notice issues. Our field is not very diverse in that we are overwhelmingly a female profession. While we bring so many strengths to healthcare and the workforce in general, we are highly socialized not to \"cause problems\" or speak up in ways that could be perceived as disruptive, at least in the USA. That advocating for fairness or a more accessible education is something we found so scary speaks to our cultural norms of what women should and shouldn't do. I am so glad that me and others in my cohort found the strength to move past that mindset, because it means we are that much more prepared to advocate for our patients in the future. We found our voices, and the program is better for it.<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"fecb581a-8c53-4c08-8f39-f5722b9c4e27"},"title":"Finding a Solution"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Do not be afraid to speak up about problems in your classes or program. You can use these situations as an opportunity to practice collaborative advocacy at least, and you can make a positive difference at best!<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"6e7c151a-c0e6-43d6-80cb-a808845f029c"},"title":"Final Thoughts"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Navigating & Advocating: Finding My Voice<\/em>. (2021, October 4). Liberated Learners. <\/span>https:\/\/wicked.liberatedlearner.ca\/collaborator\/navigating-advocating-finding-my-voice\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","subContentId":"59ed3b05-474b-4f7c-8096-a57850656f4d","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"}},"title":"APA Reference"}],"hTag":"h2"}

Navigating & Advocating: Finding My Voice

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Liam Peart