M. M. Bakhtin as a University Professor

This article presents M. M. Bakhtin as a University professor through his own views of on the nature of university teaching: lecturing, seminars and colloquia, engaging students in debates and reflexive analysis of literary texts, “scientific thinking”, and working with bibliography. As a Chair of Russian and Foreign Literature department of the Mordovian National Pedagogical Institute (later the Mordovia State University), for a quarter of a century, Bakhtin was promoting teaching approaches that would support students’ informed, independent, analytical and reflexive learning. According to the minutes from different department meetings at his university, over the years, Bakhtin struggled to define and improve his own guidance and teaching in the Literature studies and the overall work of his department. His three pedagogical goals for a literary lecture were: 1) Communication of certain information on a given topic - establishing the level of students’ familiarity with the topic; 2) Fostering students’ scientific thinking; and 3) Fostering students’ aesthetic perception and taste. Some of his former students emphasized his erudition, pedagogic skill, and ability to stimulate his students’ imagination and reflective thinking.