My Philosophy Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

When I first became an instructor, I was a shy doctoral student eager to prove that I was worthy of being in the classroom. My self doubt was sowed from important expectations placed on professors in the classroom that often weigh heavier on women especially those that identify as Black, Indigenous, or instructors of color that prime us to believe knowledge holders and creators act and look a certain way. Research has long acknowledged how academia can be an alienating and even a hostile place for non-traditional instructors and students (Bernal & Villapando 2010; Viernes Turner 2016). I often reflect on how in my own student academic journey, I often opted to remain silent during class discussions due to fear that my ideas were not bright enough, my tongue not eloquent enough, and that I did not belong.

This lived experience is a core building block for my approach to teaching. Now that I have the power to lead and facilitate classroom discussions, I have transformed this personal experience as my pedagogical approach. My teaching outlook embodies my lived experience, public service, advocacy, and research that invites students to confront pressing governance demands in a manner that critically interrogates archetypes that inform our current institutions. My priority in any teaching arena is implementing techniques to create a safe space that encourages and actively incorporates all voices in the classroom.

One of the most rewarding aspects in the classroom has been watching students’ take ownership of their learning. It is always exhilarating when I can see a student go through their idea creation and application in real time. I enjoy watching their Aha moments unfold in a way that allows them to put things into perspective using their own personal experiences while being cognizant of others experiences as well. I believe learning is an intimate process for each student, as unique as their own personal experience. What might resonate with one student may not stick with the next one. I tend to agree with a constructivist approach to learning that holds that learning must be an active, contextualized process based on personal experiences and assumptions about the environment (David 2015).

Teaching Goals

Ultimately, my goal for students is to equip them with the tools they need to critically analyze and challenge theories and assumptions so they leave better able to make judgement calls that are both informed by research and lived experience. I create basic competencies in the syllabus that are applied to each lesson. Students do not necessarily need to be taught how to critically reflect. Instead they need to be given the tools, agency, and space to question underlying values and ideals. Following Jack Mezirow’s (2009) transformative learning theory, I use “disorienting dilemmas” to challenge students’ world views and claim making (Esthermsmth, 2017).

Methods for Teaching

The public academic, writer, and lecturer, Rachel Cargle has developed an unlearning framework that I have found useful in my teaching practice. Cargle’s Knowledge + Empathy + Action platform is rooted in providing resources and critical discourse to aid unlearning and provide education and inspire meaningful action (Rachel-Cargle). I find this approach allows transformative learning practices by requiring students to empathize and learn how the new information influences the world around them and how they utilize their power to act. 

In the classroom this is applied by creating opportunities for critical thinking via case studies, ample examples, and storytelling. I also support transformative learning by providing students opportunities to relate to others going through the same transformative process through the use of open class discussion, breakouts and pair share activities. Most importantly, I add opportunities in the syllabus and in the classroom for students to act on these new perspectives through writing prompts where they can acknowledge their new beliefs but also promote participation in events and spaces where they can continue the dialogue in their training. 

As a result, I expect students in my courses to gain a basic understanding of the topic at hand. But what I think ultimately demonstrates command of the subject, is being able to highlight what is missing or how the new information changes their understanding about the world. For example, when I teach students about democracy, I ask them to first define what democracy means to them by using a popcorn style method to capture everyone’s voice in the classroom. From this simple exercise, students quickly find how unreconciled the meaning of democracy is for people. Some students have a harder time when their assumptions are challenged or when they are called on to critique something they have taken as “natural” or a given. Therefore, I give students learning markers or benchmarks to ensure students are on the right track. I am clear about the content I want students to learn, but I am more open range in how they decide the best way forward is. When students leave my classroom they might have come to different conclusions from the lesson that I provide, even though they learn the same material. But they all leave with the same understanding of the benefits and consequences of specific arrangements and structures that do take shape across economic, social, political, environmental and racial categories. 

We are often taught that learning should be apolitical. But learning has always been a political exercise because it happens at the juncture of people's lives experiences and embedded values. I strive to connect class material to how people understand their role in society. I have had the privilege and immense responsibility to teach in a moment when democratic structures are being pushed to the edge and its structures are being rightly re-evaluated. I remind students that they are ultimately the ones who will determine what the future should look like. I love seeing the passion in students' eyes when they take this mandate to heart. Getting to that Aha moment requires rethinking teaching. I do not see myself as the knowledge holder or teacher–rather I give them the tools to profess and question those innate assumptions about how our society and world functions. 

Artifacts

I use a variety of techniques to meaningfully engage students. If you ever walk into my classroom, you will likely see self-stick wall posters and markers flowing around the classroom. I like to open discussion in breaking-out groups/pair shares to promote discussion. I find small break out groups help refresh readings or previous lectures in the student’s minds. Working in small groups allows bashful students to feel more comfortable to share their ideas. Most importantly it creates community in the classroom. While there is no substitute to the in-person classroom, meeting programs like Zoom with a little creativity allow similar online replications. 

In most of my courses, I find ways to incorporate individual presentations and group projects. I believe it is important to give students experience presenting and facilitating a class discussion. Moreover, I believe group projects help foster collaboration which is crucial in all future job prospects. 

When schedules align, I also strive to bring in guest speakers with a range of backgrounds, from elected leaders, advocates, consulate representatives, and non-profit leaders. Bringing in guest speakers helps students understand the variety of ways policy is made, but also capture how policy creates results and sometimes unintended results that come later in time and not always immediately visible.

Whenever possible I rely on storytelling and mix-mediums, such as film, poems, pictures, and music to engage students in methods that sometimes readings cannot. When I am discussing places my students have not been to, I find that various mediums help better convey important information that cannot always be imagined through academic texts. 

Methods for Inclusion

An effective instructor leads the classroom from the starting point of recognition that social, economic, political, and racial inequalities students navigate outside of the classroom are also replicated in the lecture hall. According to Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) social identity theory, a person’s concept of self comes from the groups to which that person belongs. Therefore students have multiple selves and identities that they reconcile throughout the learning process (David L. 2015). Creating an inclusive environment allows for student multi-dimensionality to blossom. Teaching that acknowledges past experiences and social structures, accommodates fluid identities and cultural factors play important roles in learning (Ertmer & Newby 1993; Cooper 1993). 

As an instructor, I am intentional about curbing these arrangements. That is because I believe learning must meet personal experiences and because these outlooks are all based on different epistemologies. While this is an incredibly personal journey as an instructor, I believe there are some important ideals that I must strive to uphold in the classroom–inclusion, participation, and critical assessment. 

I believe students learn best when the reading material is engaging and there is a diverse reading list that captures diverse voices. Just like learners do not start with a blank slate, neither do curriculums. Charles W. Mills reminds us that for centuries our epistemological and moral dimensions were restricted to the “knowledge of European cognizers” (Mills 2014, page 44). An ongoing priority in my syllabi is to incorporate Black, Indigenous, and writers of color to reach parity and create a well balanced canon of literature. A diverse reading list is essential to capturing diverse viewpoints and highlight blind spots in the topic at hand. I also find that when a reading list is diverse, students of those similar backgrounds feel more comfortable and engage more with the material because they can better relate to the topics. Diversifying my reading list is an ongoing and long term project that I do in every class I teach. As time progresses, my goal is to reach equal parity between white and non-white writers cited in my syllabi. 

Students learn best when their sense of  civic participation is reinvigorated, and mutual respect that leads to civility is harnessed. I begin each course with Community Guidelines that are crowd sourced and created collaboratively by the class. First, I provide space to provide guidelines and rules of engagement that we will follow throughout our time together. Student’s often take great pleasure in participating in these guides. Students bring to the table important insight and experiences from their other classrooms that they are eager to share. Second, after each student has provided their community guideline, we spend class time fleshing through the list until we get to a consensus. Finally, we implement the guidelines and ask for each student to be monitored so that we stick to our guidelines. Although I do spend instruction time on this technique, I find that the exercise immediately builds rapport and mutual respect among students. This process allows us to create a community. The technique also gives the class the first opportunity to analyze social contracts. 

Ultimately, I believe teaching is about giving students the tools they need to critically analyze our existing structures and improve the world around them. In the classroom I structure each lecture with practical takeaways that I repeat often. I also provide students with an evolving list of data sources that they can take with them beyond the classroom. I began teaching in a polarizing moment with endless newscycles. I found ways to incorporate these current events into the classroom by giving students a space to discuss these in the class or in our online discussions through freewrites, writing prompts, or simply a conversation. I found that giving students space allowed them to make sense of the current world of affairs and reconcile their feelings of anger, hope, or despair. 

My syllabi are structured with ample opportunities for extra credit that allow students easy methods for improving their grade. For example, I provide students with extra credit on any assignment when they seek support at the university’s writing center. While I encourage students to seek writing support, I am cognizant that English learning students may struggle to follow along in class and in their writing assignments. To remedy this, I include attending office hours as extra credit. I find that this technique encourages more students, especially non-traditional students to attend office hours and clarify any their questions (Gilardi & Guglielmetti, 2011). In my grading of written work, I have also significantly reduced my weight on grammar. While it is important that students are able to communicate clearly, being punitive on grammar discourages students from exploring their full intellectual curiosity in written assignments. Being inclusive, includes being inclusive to all abilities. I practice my lectures with verbal ample description of any visuals that may be used so that students with visual impairments can also follow along. 

I am continuously seeking new ways to improve my pedagogy and sustain an inclusive learning environment. Improving my teaching requires that I am continuously reflexive and reflective of the tools and strategies that I utilize. I am committed to the practice, reflection, and trial and error required to make the best possible learning experience for students that dares them to see themselves as knowledgeable creators and change agents.

Sources

Bernal, D. D., & Villalpando, O. (2002). An apartheid of knowledge in academia: The struggle over the" legitimate" knowledge of faculty of color. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 169-180.

Cooper, P. A. (1993). Paradigm Shifts in Designed Instruction: From Behaviorism to Cognitivism to Constructivism. Educational technology, 33(5), 12-19.

David L, "Constructivism," in Learning Theories, June 20, 2015

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective.Performance improvement quarterly, 6(4), 50-72.

David L, "Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, Turner)," in Learning Theories, December 15, 2015, https://www.learning-theories.com/social-identity-theory-tajfel-turner.html.

Eesthermsmth, "Transformative Learning Theory (Mezirow)," in Learning Theories, September 30, 2017, https://www.learning-theories.com/transformative-learning-theory-mezirow.html.

Gilardi, S., & Guglielmetti, C. (2011). University life of non-traditional students: Engagement styles and impact on attrition. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(1), 33-53.

Mills, C. W. (2014). The racial contract. Cornell University Press.

Turner, C. S. V. (2002). Women of color in academe: Living with multiple marginality. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 74-93.

Turner, J. C., & Tajfel, H. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. Psychology of intergroup relations, 7-24.

The Great Unlearn https://rachel-cargle.com/

Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard university press.