Framing

What’s Your Frame of Mind?

As you inventory your material, you may feel, well, deficient, as if you may not have done enough.  You may be surprised to find, though, that when you delve into the standards and criteria, they do not actually say you must delight students or publish X number of articles in only Y and Z journals.  (A few departments at some universities do say that, but most don’t.)

Each criterion’s description usually includes multiple dimensions. Emphasize the dimensions congruent with your strengths. Acknowledge the others; elaborate on those that allow you to shine.

If you have trouble connecting with any bit of “shine” in your work, take a break and write about why you did what you did. What was your intention, your hope? Often recalling our intentions sets us free to reflect on the good parts, as well as the disappointing parts, of the outcomes. These intentions and reflections may also find a place in your narrative. People who live out their careers in higher education often value and admire colleagues who demonstrate learning.

Your Feelings Will Show

I have read tenure candidate dossiers that were dense with accomplishment and, at the same time, breathless with the tone of “not enough!” Reading one person’s dossier, I wanted to reach through the page and ask the author to breathe, relax. Yes, it is enough.

We always want to do more. That’s a downside to being bright innovative people. We have more ideas than we can bring to life. But just because we can think about doing something does not mean we should have done it.

Because what we feel leaks into what we write, please consider framing your work as Enough.  Maybe it’s Good, perhaps it’s Great!—but it’s certainly Enough. Framing and reframing ask us to attend to the private, internal tone that will manifest in the public, external tone. Make sure that the tone is what you want to share in the open air.

To articulate your framing of a particular narrative, write your answers to these questions:

• How do I view the other (here, the readers)?
• How do I view myself?
• Therefore, how do I view the task at hand?