The TA Time Bind: The Arrhythmic Dilemmas of Research and Teaching

The labor of teaching assistants (TAs), as full-time students and part-time teachers, faces a “time bind.” Although research together compose graduate school for TAs, through this ethnography TAing I argue these domains tend toward arrhythmia. Research engage distinct work rhythms that persistently interrupt one another, rendering individualized, improvisational coordination an organizing principle TAing. Coordination is complicated by the commitment to meaningful projects. autonomy develop projection good “responsibilizes” channeling surplus effort teaching. highlight preparatory like lesson planning crucial site which understand competing coordinative projective pressures close outlining some implications arrhythmia contemporary US higher education sociology labor.