On Being a “Scholarly” Teacher

• Published date: 01 March 2013
• Date: 01 March 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2013.01118.x

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 30, Issue 1, 195–200, Winter/Spring 2013

Perspectives on Teaching

On Being a “Scholarly” Teacher

Jamie Darin Prenkert*

A certain amount of irony accompanies my drafting of this “Perspectives on

Teaching” piece. In the first week of May 2012, I taught my last class of the

spring semester. I will not step foot back into a classroom to teach until

the third week in August 2013. That sixteen-month break consists of two

summers, a sabbatical, and a semester during which I have “cashed in” some

banked overload teaching hours.

My extended time away from the classroom also comes on the heels of

my completion of a five-year rotation on the editorial board of the American

Business Law Journal (ABLJ), the sister journal to the Journal of Legal Studies

Education. In fact, prior to sitting down to draft this piece, I finished my very

last edit of my very last set of article proofs for volume 49 of the ABLJ,the

volume for which I served as editor in chief. So, my break from teaching is

accompanied by the end of a significant—and significantly time consuming,

even if mostly enjoyable—service commitment.

Though I introduced this “Perspectives” essay by noting the somewhat

ironic juxtaposition of reflecting on teaching while on an extended break

from it and while being immersed in research, now that I have exploited that

attention-getting hook, I will not only retreat from the sentiment but also

completely disavow and contradict it. Plot twist! In fact, I think this is a perfect

time to reflect on teaching, because fresh perspectives often require a little

distance. Furthermore, do not mistake this extended break from teaching as

an indication that I lack enthusiasm for it. On the contrary, I love it. I will

not deny, though, that the classroom is not where my mind has been for the

past several months. Nonetheless, the fact that I am focused on my research

and publishing1this year is not antithetical to my engaging and improving

∗Weimer Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Business Law, Kelley School of Business,

Indiana University.

1I was tempted to write “scholarship” instead of “research and publishing”; however, in private

conversation with him and in his writing, Peter Shedd has convinced me that the restrictive

C2013 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2013 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

195