Bay de Noc Community College
Dean of Arts and Sciences
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow (UW-Colleges, Manitowoc), 2011-12
Leading through SoTL Inquiry
As a literary scholar, some of my favorite works of criticism are those that provide narrative elements, frameworks for analysis, and taxonomies. Perhaps that’s why Pat Hutchings’ “taxonomy of [SoTL] questions” is a touchstone for me. In “Approaching the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,” Hutchings describes several of these questions, which I use to frame my SoTL journey.
What is?
Shortly before my third-year review as a tenure track faculty, my women’s and gender studies colleagues Dr. Holly Hassel and Dr. Amy Reddinger invited me to join a SoTL project focused on teaching students the concept of patriarchy. I learned about lesson study, threshold concepts, and SoTL through this project, and knew I wanted—needed—to shift my scholarship from literary criticism to SoTL. Teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, one of the former UW Colleges campuses, was fundamentally different than my previous teaching at four-year public institutions, both regional and R1. My students needed me to show up differently, and to meet them where they were at, which was often a place of uncertainty, unknowing, and anxiety.
I applied for the WTFS program in 2010 and was not selected but encouraged to apply again the following year, when I was selected thanks to coaching from several colleagues. From that point, my teaching and learning were transformed; I was transformed. I found community in that first experience as a fellow, and frustration as debates about qualitative and quantitative analysis flourished. I remember venting a lot about the inequities on my own campus, and I’m retroactively embarrassed I was that person. As much as I cringe now, I realize that I felt psychological safety within the cohort; I was desperately trying to find the support I lacked on my small campus.
After earning tenure, I continued to work on SoTL projects with colleagues, and to ask the key questions myself when faced with a teaching situation. I also stepped into leadership roles, including program assessment coordinator, associate chair, faculty senator, and UW Colleges gender equity coordinator. I began to consider a future in academic affairs administration.
I found support in my colleagues and leaders, and in departmental colleagues who were also SoTL practitioners. They helped me find a path to scholarly inquiry that matched the realities of my students’ needs; they provided community and informal mentoring. They co-authored articles with me and helped me rise together in scholarship and leadership.
In 2018, the UW Colleges was dismantled, and my campus became part of UW-Green Bay. Many of my leadership roles disappeared; I was heartbroken and bereft. I intentionally focused on improving my teaching as I grieved the loss of my institution, colleagues, and roles. I signed up for most Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning workshops and joined several communities of practice. I widened my circle of acquaintance with UWGB faculty and found allies. I was selected for a one semester sabbatical in Winter 2020 to analyze data on romance novels and threshold concepts in women’s and gender studies classes. When COVID-19 hit, I focused on reading, researching, and finding strategies I would use when returning to the pandemic classroom in Fall 2020.
I wanted to return to WTFS as a scholar and was selected for the 2020-2021 cohort. Given the nature of the pandemic, our group participated in a community of practice in which we read and discussed Stephen Brookfield’s Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher and Kevin Gannon’s Radical Hope. The following year, our official WTFS program began, and I started my project on co-creating communities of care and well-being in the women’s and gender studies classroom.
In late fall 2021, I accepted a position as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bay de Noc Community College in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One of the hardest parts was leaving the WTFS program mid-year. I ensured my IRB approval was solid, I connected with the relevant folks at Bay and saved all my data with hopes of returning to that project, which I have yet to do formally. Informally, I draw on my tentative findings, research, and learning from that project to supervise faculty and to share teaching and learning practices that might work for Bay students and faculty.
What works?
Ironically, the extra year provided some of the most impactful resources I draw on today. Stephen Brookfield’s Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher has become a touchstone for me. As co-chair of the Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness working group at UWGB, I suggested we use some of his framing on multiple sources of feedback to guide our evaluation of teaching. The survey I adapted from his critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) became a primary data point in my WTFS scholar project, as I was curious about well-being and what elements could help enhance student well-being and learning. What better way to learn than to ask students? As a dean, I evaluate faculty and regularly recommend ideas from Brookfield’s book, especially the CIQ, to increase engagement and create a culture of mutual feedback in the course.
In 2024-2025, I’m a fellow in the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) Leadership Academy, a state-wide program preparing mid-level managers for higher administrative roles. We attend in-person convenings around the state, meet on zoom, read common texts, and work on student success projects together. Each session features fellows sharing their expertise. I was invited to speak on teaching and learning, answering questions about working with faculty to improve teaching and learning effectiveness and, ultimately, student outcomes. As I prepared my answers, my mind immediately traveled back to WTFS and how the modes of inquiry I learned there, as well as the knowledge of pedagogical research and publications, have become a foundation of how I lead faculty. Not only that, but my work on co-creating communities of care and well-being informs how I connect with and communicate with the faculty I supervise. I recently developed a monthly check-in survey for faculty based on the survey I used in my classes which was, as mentioned above, based on Stephen Brookfield’s CIQ.
Visions of the possible
When I completed the WTFS program in 2012, several exceptional teachers and SoTL practitioners left the UW System and teaching for administrative positions elsewhere. At the time, I didn’t understand how exceptional teachers leaving the classroom benefitted students. Years later, as I worked on my application materials and prepped for interviews for my current administrative position, I understood. As a full-time instructor, my knowledge of teaching and learning was impacting a few hundred students a year. As a SoTL-trained administrator, I could influence more faculty, who could then impact even more students. For true transformation, more higher education leaders across the campus could use SoTL knowledge, theory, and practices to guide decisions about teaching and learning.
My MCCA leadership academy group project is focused on data and analysis. I am once again in the middle of discussions about how and why we use data, where we find it, and how it shapes student learning. Drawing on my SoTL skills, I’ll advocate for qualitative data and empower folks to use their own skills and knowledge to guide their inquiry. I see SoTL questions as crucial to becoming institutions that thrive in our current higher education landscape.
Learning in diverse communities with colleagues across the state is powerful. As I drive home from our MCCA in-person meetings, I’m reminded of my WTFS experience, and similar drives across a large midwestern state. My thoughts turn nostalgic, and I think of the UW colleagues who shaped me. I am grateful for this program that developed me into the teacher, leader, and person I am today.
Biography:
Jessica Van Slooten (she/her) is Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bay College. A first-generation college student and native of West Michigan, Jessica earned degrees in English from Alma College (BA), Michigan State University (MA), and Auburn University (Ph. D). She taught first-year writing, literature, and women’s/gender studies courses at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc/University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for fourteen years. Additionally, she served as the UW Colleges Gender Equity Coordinator and participated in the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program twice. She brings her expertise in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to her current role, searching for ways to create more effective, humane instructional environments for learners and instructors.
SoTL Publications:
“Assessing Student Learning in GSW: Curricular and Faculty Development in the Two-Year College,” with Drs. Holly Hassel, Ann Mattis, and Amy Reddinger. Theory and Praxis: Women’s and Gender Studies at Community Colleges. Eds. Genevieve Carminati and Heather Rellihan. Gival Press. December 2019.
“Surfacing the Structures of Patriarchy: Teaching and Learning Threshold Concepts in Women’s Studies,” Scholarly SoTL Article, with Drs. Holly Hassel and Amy Reddinger, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5.2, July 2011.
SoTL Presentations:
“We’re All in This Together: Co-creating Communities of Care and Well-Being in Online Classes,” Upper Peninsula Teaching and Learning Conference, May 2024
“Carry Me Over the Threshold: Using Popular Romance Novels in Women’s and Gender Studies Classes to Teach Disciplinary Threshold Concepts,” Presentation. Popular Culture Association Annual Conference. 2021.
“Building an Assessment Program through Threshold Concepts: Student Learning and Faculty Development in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.” With Dr. Amy Reddinger.
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2017.
“Digital Feminist Pedagogy: Student Blog Projects in the Women’s Studies Classroom.” Co-presented with former student Lindsay Brookshier. Wisconsin Women’s Studies Conference and UW System LGBTQ Conference, Madison, WI, 2013.
SoTL Service:
Peer reviewer for Currents in Teaching and Learning
Peer reviewer for The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Professional Organizations:
Michigan Liberal Arts Deans, vice-president
Higher Learning Commission Assessment Academy
American Council on Education, Michigan Women’s Network, Institutional Representative
American Association of University Women, Institutional Representative