Teaching Courses Outside One's Area of Expertise

Here are comments from survey respondents describing how, if at all, they have dealt with the issue of teaching courses outside one's area of expertise.

• Avoiding curriculum drift. Limiting the number of courses each faculty member is responsible for helps but doesn't solve the problem. Limit the number of changes made in courses so that I'm not always reinventing the wheel.
• I think about who my students are, what would interest them, how to connect the themes in the classes with their lives and with their other courses, focus on paper writing as a skill gained from my classes, I link all of my classes together. I have a number of students who just like to take "Dr. X classes," because they have a similar format, they are interconnected and they always lead students to lead more examined lives.
• Here I've simply had practice with the one course somewhat outside my area of expertise, slowly refining readings and lecture notes over time. I have occasionally (though not often) read a book in this area, and that has shaped what I do in class. Conversations with colleagues have also been helpful.
• A great deal of research and reading.
• Essentially, it just substantially increases the prep time.
• In teaching cross-listed courses (such as aesthetics and philosophy of history), I have consulted extensively with the faculty and students of the other affected departments in order to determine their particular needs and interests for the course. I have also done research (for instance, through various professional societies and by viewing colleagues' syllabi posted on the Internet) to explore how others have framed such courses.
• Summer preparation.
• There are pros and cons here. It can be enjoyable to take up a new subject-matter, teach from a non-expert standpoint, and be creative in selecting readings, assignments, etc. On the other hand, it is a burden to prepare a new course in an area in which one has not researched significantly (or at all). It is also burdensome not to be able to turn this hard work into likely research projects. Finally, since these courses might keep one from teaching upper-level courses in research-active areas, it can be dispiriting to teach these other courses. To initially prepare such courses, I look on line for syllabi and other materials. I rely on textbooks rather than my own selection of primary texts & articles. I am more likely to remake such courses as these in order to make them more successful, and this requires work over the summer when I might be doing more research.
• Thankfully, I haven't had to do too much of this, but what there is was less complex by far than metaphysics, so I had very little problem, for instance, teaching media studies!
• Just work harder
• Read, read, read, and talk with scholars in adjacent areas.
• We structure the schedule so that no one ever goes too far outside their area of expertise. For example, I'm an epistemologist so courses outside my area are limited to: modern, metaphysics, and philosophy of language (i.e., core type courses). Our ethicist teaches philosophy of democracy and aesthetics (i.e., value theory related stuff).
• By doing it, frankly. Of course, there are degrees of 'outside my area of expertise,' and I suppose that self-selection kicks in: there simply are areas that do not get taught at my university.
• I only teach courses in my area of expertise.
• My training is multi-disciplinary, so several courses per year are in other areas. My college supports such interdisciplinary teaching. (If anything, being on my own in philosophy means I don't have to answer to other philosophers about my non-philosophical teaching!)
• team-teaching, learning
• If have to teach something outside of my AOS, I usually contact friends from graduate school who know more about that particular area than I do.
• Guest speakers, team-teaching, and being one of the students helps a ton!
• Do some reading in the area, and focus on aspects that I know more about and overlap with my areas of comfort.
• This I actually like, as I am provided the opportunity to learn about new issues, problems, and thinkers. I spend a fair amount of time during summers reading new material as well as secondary literature directly relevant to courses.
• By avoiding it!
• prepared readings in open source textbooks with online notes for coursework
• For me, this relates to teaching on more policing-oriented subjects (such as one concerning vulnerable populations and policing) AND to ensuring the ethics subjects I teach are relevant to police: I have spoken at length with serving police officers to try to understand the issues that they face and to ensure that my discussions of them in the class room are accurate and relevant.
• I don't.
• The concept of "expertise" is, of course, a relative one. Most of the courses I teach are outside of my area of research specialization, to be sure. Yet with a broad background in the history of philosophy, as well as a second doctorate in religious studies, I rarely feel out of my depth.
• Read a lot of secondary sources and be prepared.
• Lots of additional study. Which I really enjoy. This is one of the great things about a small department - I get to teach everything.
• I have been able to select courses that I am at least quite interested in. I sometimes give assignments that help me develop course materials, such as having students submit news articles on events relevant to readings in Environmental Ethics.
• Just working really hard!
• I love teaching stuff that's in books, teaching students how to read. So it's a treat, not a problem, when I get to teach Shakespeare and Jane Austen regularly in an Honors "Great Books" course.
• Participated in faculty development projects
• I generally have about a years lead time if I am going to be teaching outside my area. I use that time to do extended prep for the course.
• I have not had to teach courses outside my area of expertise.
• I read a lot and talked a lot with colleagues.
• My Ph.D. was interdisciplinary, and was awarded by an English program with a highly theoretical background. So my dissertation covered the philosophy of technology using the Philosophy of Heidegger, and other major trends/ideas from psychology, Literary Theory, and Cultural Studies. When I came to this campus as a spousal hire, the chair of my department and one other faculty member were attempting to re-establish the philosophy minor, which had folded several years before I arrived. When they read my dissertation and discovered by background, they immediately invited me to help develop the minor. So, several courses I started teaching out of Philosophy were -- technically -- outside of my "expertise" (I was hired to teach English courses). I was not shy about pointing this out to administration and others on campus. But my superiors and administration were confident that I was qualified to teach these courses. I was as well, but I wanted to avoid campus politics and be accused of not being an "expert." Since then, my dissertation manuscript was picked up by a press, and will be published some time next year. So I think I can now rightfully claim my "expertise."
• Trial and error; researching during the summer to get up to speed.
• I just do my best. I try not to stray too far outside my areas of competence, but if I have to I let students know that I am not an expert and assure them I will do my best to find the answer to any question they ask if I don't know it right away.
• Hard work in preparation.
• Rely heavily on outside research at other institutions to prepare. Often new courses are developed on the fly since one ends up teaching a course when an instructor drops out at the last minute or unable to hire an instructor.
• I make sure that I teach brand new courses in the Fall, so that I have the summer to prepare sufficiently for the course content.
• Use textbooks, anthologies and internet resources.
• This institution offers a "January Term" which stresses extra-disciplinary teaching; the institution also requires a four-semester "Collegiate Seminar" modeled on the practice at St. John's College (Annapolis and Santa Fe), which is at once fairly fertile ground for recruiting and a "natural"--so far as it supposes close reading and discussion of primary texts from diverse genres--for philosophers.
• I am not sure what it means, I am commissioned into service as Philosophy Lecturer in Higher Education wherefrom almost 200 colleges are managed. Only three to four offer graduate courses in Philosophy and even in those places I am asked to let go Philosophy and teach English literature or other social sciences.
• We try to do this on a limited basis. Each of the three of us teaches in no more than three areas. And over the years, we have developed a little expertise in the areas in which we teach. I think that this has served us well, and the students.
• Work my ass off.
• Damn you for asking. I try to put it out of my mind. Recall that in a small college "outside the area of expertise" doesn't mean that the logician teaches aesthetics. It means that the philosopher teaches something non-philosophy. Our bitter pill is "Humanities". Who on God's green earth thinks that Philosophers should tell anyone anything about visual art? Perhaps Nelson Goodman can. But I really can't. Nonetheless I do. It amounts to studying, thinking, and reading. It's not all bad. In fact, I now see much more in, say, Plato's dialogues than the dialectic. I wouldn't have taken the time to catch those things had I not been forced to. I suppose I'm grateful for that. But I still would rather be reading David Lewis.
• Lots of time in the summer preparing, preparing, preparing.
• Primarily using summers to prep for new classes, though I have received development money to construct some courses.
• it required extra prep.
• I look for books and articles that can be read without any prior philosophical knowledge.
• Generally, I start by reaching out to others who have some experience in the field. I also read several "introduction to the field" texts. But, there is not teacher like experience, so I generally am learning as I go.
• Create a flexible major that doesn't aim to cover every possible area so as to minimize the problem. Complete coverage isn't possible anyway. Expand my area by reading. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has proved an excellent starting point. Make sure the other philosopher in the department doesn't overlap with me.