Mississippi Delta Community College

Hargett Named Humanities Teacher of the Year

MOORHEAD, Miss. (Feb. 1, 2022) – Jenni Hargett has been selected as Mississippi Delta Community College’s (MDCC) Humanities Teacher of the Year.

October is Arts and Humanities Month, proclaimed annually by the president of the United States and the respective state governor. In honor of this, the Mississippi Humanities Council celebrates the occasion by supporting humanities teacher awards and recognizing them in the following spring semester.

Hargett was encouraged by her selection but believes the entire Humanities division at MDCC is special.

“I was honored to be selected MDCC's Humanities Teacher of the Year. We are lucky to have an extensive Humanities course offering at MDCC, and our instructors provide an invaluable service to our students,” said Hargett. “It is through learning in these Humanities courses that MDCC students learn to think critically and ask important questions.”

MDCC’s Vice President of Instruction Teresa Webster is excited to see Hargett receive this honor.
“I am delighted that Ms. Hargett has been selected as the Humanities Teacher of the Year for MDCC,” Webster said. “She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the classroom and is extremely dedicated to her profession and to her students.”

Hargett explained that with the world moving and changing so quickly, the faculty owe it to the students to provide them with the tools required to navigate a culturally complex world.

As part of the award, Hargett will present, "The Case for Code-meshing in the Community College Classroom" on Thurs., February 17 in the Yeates Fine Arts Auditorium.

“My presentation will likely look and feel different from those of previous years. I will be sharing about pedagogy that is relatively new to me,” explained Hargett. “So my presentation will likely feel a little rawer and a little less polished-- but, truthfully, that is more thematically representative of my topic.”

Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

“I'd like to use my presentation space to explore ideas about code-switching and code-meshing. These terms may be unfamiliar to many of our students, but most of our students are experts in these areas without even realizing it,” Hargett continued.

Code-switching is the changing of one's language, dialect or speaking style to fit one's environment. Code-meshing involves the "meshing", or blending, of multiple language methods or dialects within oral or written communication.

“In other words, code-meshing allows writers and speakers to draw on their individual life experiences and cultural backgrounds through linguistic choices,” Hargett further explained. “This does not mean abandoning ‘proper’ English altogether; on the contrary, code-meshing allows writing instructors and students to bridge gaps in life experience to work together toward a greater understanding of how language and communication actually works-- outside of the bubble of the Composition classroom.”

Hargett concluded by saying that language is powerful and that she has come to acknowledge that there is value in uncovering the voices of students without stifling their diverse heritages.