Teaching Philosophy
I have taught a wide array of grades, ranging from 6th grade to college, as well as many classes (e.g., reading, creative writing, mythology, British literature, AP English, first-year composition). All of these classes and students have informed my teaching in a variety of ways, which allows for constant reflection in order to refine my practices.
There are three key practices to my pedagogy:
Critical Pedagogy
Guided by the work of Paulo Freire, Ira Shor, and others, I want to create a classroom where there’s a “questioning of habits,” as Shor discusses. I believe in education as liberatory practice from the hegemonic and oppressive systems students occupy. Students are not vessels waiting to be filled with my knowledge, but instead individuals who are already knowledgeable. In this view, my critical pedagogy blends with an intersectional worldview. Using works from a diverse group of artists, writers and scholars, we do not examine only one oppressive system, but instead about how the systems overlap and fold to oppress many.
For instance, in my “Rhetoric and Writing” class, my theme was disruption. In this class, we engaged and read about various systems of oppression. We did writing, readings, and activities to look at privilege, oppression and difference for the entire semester in order to see how we may disrupt those oppressive systems. One project students did was a multimodal archive project where students first researched in the university’s archives and then found artifacts that they thought disrupted traditional campus narratives. This culminated in creating multimodal projects to showcase that, including videos, podcasts, paintings, and poems.
Rhetorical Situations: Collaborative, Authentic, and Practical
With my students’ lives being extremely interconnected to the world beyond higher education, I want my classroom to foster rhetorical situations that are authentic and practical to them. When I design any assignment, I question, “How can they use this beyond my class?” With this question always in mind, students write about their own experiences and how they connect with scholarly readings both inside and outside class.
For instance, students bring in examples and artifacts from their own lives and connect them to the texts, or we will break down scholarly texts by drawing on whiteboards, doing building activities, etc. Not only are these activities engaging, but they also allow students to make convoluted scholarly texts relevant and authentic. Additionally, I ask students to compose projects that they see helping their future careers, majors or interests. Some students have composed projects they could showcase on their resume and portfolios for internships and jobs.
Accessibility and Inclusion
To make the classroom and content relevant to my students’ lives, accessibility and inclusion are always on the forefront of my mind. I ensure all of my materials and technology can be accessed, perceived, and understood in multiple pathways. To account for this, I create transcripts for videos, ensure PDFs are accessible by screen readers, allow students to take notes in any way they need, and more. I also grade through labor-based grading in order to ensure I’m not grading students against “the ideal of something,” as Asao Inoue asserts, but rather meeting them where they’re at—educationally and positionally. I allow students to negotiate their labor expectations in order to account for their individual needs with time and labor. Additionally, I never require specific technology or textbooks, as they are exclusionary and prohibitive to learning, as they cost money.
In addition, I also deeply care about how each student is doing and have a classroom of care, empathy, and trauma-informed pedagogy, as these students have lives that are deeply connected and consequential outside of my classroom. For example, I constantly allow flexibility with due dates, in-class activities, assignment composition, and more because life is messy, and I believe that students learn more from grace than they do from rigid, abstracted policies. Over 70 percent of the student evaluation comments from Fall 2019 mentioned that I was understanding, flexible, accommodating, and/or caring. I also was a finalist for a university-wide Inclusive Excellence award as well as won my department's Graduate Assistant Teaching award. Therefore, I strive to make the classroom a braver, more empathetic space for all through inclusion, authentic rhetorical situations, and critical pedagogy.
There are three key practices to my pedagogy:
- structuring my classroom, assignments, and content around critical pedagogy and intersectional feminism;
- fostering a classroom where students can collaborate and engage with rhetorical situations authentically and practically; and
- designing my course with inclusion and accessibility at the center.
Critical Pedagogy
Guided by the work of Paulo Freire, Ira Shor, and others, I want to create a classroom where there’s a “questioning of habits,” as Shor discusses. I believe in education as liberatory practice from the hegemonic and oppressive systems students occupy. Students are not vessels waiting to be filled with my knowledge, but instead individuals who are already knowledgeable. In this view, my critical pedagogy blends with an intersectional worldview. Using works from a diverse group of artists, writers and scholars, we do not examine only one oppressive system, but instead about how the systems overlap and fold to oppress many.
For instance, in my “Rhetoric and Writing” class, my theme was disruption. In this class, we engaged and read about various systems of oppression. We did writing, readings, and activities to look at privilege, oppression and difference for the entire semester in order to see how we may disrupt those oppressive systems. One project students did was a multimodal archive project where students first researched in the university’s archives and then found artifacts that they thought disrupted traditional campus narratives. This culminated in creating multimodal projects to showcase that, including videos, podcasts, paintings, and poems.
Rhetorical Situations: Collaborative, Authentic, and Practical
With my students’ lives being extremely interconnected to the world beyond higher education, I want my classroom to foster rhetorical situations that are authentic and practical to them. When I design any assignment, I question, “How can they use this beyond my class?” With this question always in mind, students write about their own experiences and how they connect with scholarly readings both inside and outside class.
For instance, students bring in examples and artifacts from their own lives and connect them to the texts, or we will break down scholarly texts by drawing on whiteboards, doing building activities, etc. Not only are these activities engaging, but they also allow students to make convoluted scholarly texts relevant and authentic. Additionally, I ask students to compose projects that they see helping their future careers, majors or interests. Some students have composed projects they could showcase on their resume and portfolios for internships and jobs.
Accessibility and Inclusion
To make the classroom and content relevant to my students’ lives, accessibility and inclusion are always on the forefront of my mind. I ensure all of my materials and technology can be accessed, perceived, and understood in multiple pathways. To account for this, I create transcripts for videos, ensure PDFs are accessible by screen readers, allow students to take notes in any way they need, and more. I also grade through labor-based grading in order to ensure I’m not grading students against “the ideal of something,” as Asao Inoue asserts, but rather meeting them where they’re at—educationally and positionally. I allow students to negotiate their labor expectations in order to account for their individual needs with time and labor. Additionally, I never require specific technology or textbooks, as they are exclusionary and prohibitive to learning, as they cost money.
In addition, I also deeply care about how each student is doing and have a classroom of care, empathy, and trauma-informed pedagogy, as these students have lives that are deeply connected and consequential outside of my classroom. For example, I constantly allow flexibility with due dates, in-class activities, assignment composition, and more because life is messy, and I believe that students learn more from grace than they do from rigid, abstracted policies. Over 70 percent of the student evaluation comments from Fall 2019 mentioned that I was understanding, flexible, accommodating, and/or caring. I also was a finalist for a university-wide Inclusive Excellence award as well as won my department's Graduate Assistant Teaching award. Therefore, I strive to make the classroom a braver, more empathetic space for all through inclusion, authentic rhetorical situations, and critical pedagogy.
