The article written by Devon Price, Nonbinary Social Psychologist & Writer in Chicago, talks about the complex paradox of laziness in higher education. She is a psychology professor since 2012, and according to her she has witnessed many students procrastinating on assignments, papers, skipping presentation , letting due dates fly by, graduate students missing deadlines for applications or taking months to revise a simple dissertation draft or paper draft. The most interesting thing in her article is that she argues that she NEVER thought that laziness was ever at fault. In fact, she argues that she does not believe that laziness exists at all.
Instead, she argues when she sees students being "lazy" she ask herself: What are the situational factors holding this student back? What needs are currently not being met? What are the barriers to action that I can’t see? For her, barriers always exist and it is important that professors see those barriers an recognize them as legitimate. This is the first step to break "lazy" behavior patterns. In fact, professors should respond to a person's "lazy" behavior with curiosity and not judgment. This is important because when you do not fully understand a person's context, it’s easy to impose abstract, rigid expectations on its behavior. She says: "If a person’s behavior doesn’t make sense to you, it is because you are missing a part of their context. It’s that simple".
In the academic context, she says that most of the time laziness is a synonym for procrastination. But for her, laziness is anything but procrastination. People blame procrastinators for their behavior. Even procrastinators blame themselves for being "lazy" . " You’re supposed to be doing something, and you’re not doing it — that’s a moral failure right? That means you’re weak-willed, unmotivated, and lazy, doesn’t it?" For her, procrastination is more likely when the task is meaningful and the individual cares about doing it well. For her, professors should look for what is holding the procrastinator back. They need to understand student's barriers. Is it anxiety? What is person's context? For her, educators are not taught to reflect on what their students’ unseen barriers are.
And, since most professors are people who succeeded academically with ease, they have trouble taking the perspective of someone with executive functioning struggles, sensory overloads, depression, self-harm histories, addictions, or eating disorders.
What do you think about this topic? Does laziness exist for you?
I think this article raises a really interesting point, but I think there's some balance to be found. It's certainly wise to search for what other factors might be affecting a person before just applying the label of lazy to another person (or ourselves), but I thinking going as far as to say that laziness doesn't exist might be going to far. Environments and personal circumstances are doubtlessly important, but to chalk everything up to those factors might absolve our students and ourselves of trying to be hardworking.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the stress versus productivity curve? http://blog.readytomanage.com/stress-diagram/
ReplyDeleteStress was always my unseen barrier. I lived on the extreme right end of the curve, where I felt like I felt burnt out on how stressed I was but had very little to show for it. I think this is probably an unseen barrier for a lot of people, especially those who seem "lazy" at a distance.
I'm a they, not a she.
ReplyDelete