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Teaching Philosophy
I come to academia as a first-generation college student. With no generational knowledge of the academy, I often share the unique position with many of my students of being “on the outside looking in.” This position as a first-generation student, and subsequently a first-generation educator, is not an uncommon one and yet I find that it allows me the privilege of seeing barriers in the classroom that others may not fully recognize. Such barriers include recognizing the temporal and spatial inaccessibility of the physical classroom; the linguistic differences in neurodivergent communication; and the often difficult-to-understand jargon of academia among others. I continually challenge the notion that higher education must be an elusive performance in which the choreography is a mystery. I aim to create an equitable classroom for first-generation students by demystifying the academy and, by extent, the various processes of learning and pathways to success.
In the classroom, I approach writing as a recursive process; there is never a “finished” product. This allows students to consider individual writing assignments as steppingstones to improving as writers. I emphasize the process rather than the product. In making writing a recursive, personal process, students are then encouraged to experiment with their writing. I’ve found that this method of writing instruction eliminates some, though not all, anxiety when it comes to student writing. The end goal here is to allow students to produce genuine work that improves in genre and form over time. I acknowledge that students often come into the classroom with a vague notion of “how to write correctly” and look to me to sharpen their knowledge. I aim instead to deconstruct what it means to write correctly, and recontextualize writing as a continuously evolving process entangled in the landscapes of their own lives.
In approaching teaching as a holistic practice that considers students not only as writers but as whole people with lives outside of the classroom that influence and inform their writing, I implement bell hooks’ philosophy on teaching. She emphasizes the importance of teaching “in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students” (Teaching to Transgress 1994: 13). hooks’ engaged pedagogy acknowledges that the students themselves do not exist in stasis. It is irresponsible to assume that student writing likewise exists outside of current social, political, and cultural contexts. In acknowledging this, I aim to foster a classroom in which student writing responds to and engages with contemporary climates. I do so by creating in-class writing prompts that respond to contemporary literature and by holding discussions on real-world events as they relate to literacy. But literacy, like students, does not exist in stasis either.
On the dialogue about the United States’ literacy crisis, Jacob Babb suggested approaching composition pedagogy as “a means of helping students improve their abilities to engage in public discourse in all its varied forms” (About What Good Writing Is 2017: 15). For Babb, composition is not a process of remedying a mythological literacy crisis but rather addressing the changing definition(s) of literacy so as to improve instruction for students that best suits their current needs. I do so by exploring the different modes of literacy and communication throughout lessons. Such examples include identify through in-class actives the various ways in which communication can be tailored for different mediums; teaching a lesson on information literacy in the digital anthropocene; and relating literacy-based communication to real-world scenarios. By the end of the semester, I aim for my students to leave my class feeling confident in their ability to write and in their identity as writers.
My position as an early-career educator means that I have the responsibility to educate myself on the history of pedagogy and to decide on the best practices for my classroom. I aim to do so by continuing to study historical and contemporary pedagogy on holistic teaching with the goal of providing accessible, equitable, and student-centered teaching. It is my hope that through in-class experiences, I will discover the new methods of approaching the various challenges students are facing today in literacy and composition. I look forward to continuing to learn within and outside of the classroom, and providing my students with relevant composition instruction.
In the classroom, I approach writing as a recursive process; there is never a “finished” product. This allows students to consider individual writing assignments as steppingstones to improving as writers. I emphasize the process rather than the product. In making writing a recursive, personal process, students are then encouraged to experiment with their writing. I’ve found that this method of writing instruction eliminates some, though not all, anxiety when it comes to student writing. The end goal here is to allow students to produce genuine work that improves in genre and form over time. I acknowledge that students often come into the classroom with a vague notion of “how to write correctly” and look to me to sharpen their knowledge. I aim instead to deconstruct what it means to write correctly, and recontextualize writing as a continuously evolving process entangled in the landscapes of their own lives.
In approaching teaching as a holistic practice that considers students not only as writers but as whole people with lives outside of the classroom that influence and inform their writing, I implement bell hooks’ philosophy on teaching. She emphasizes the importance of teaching “in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students” (Teaching to Transgress 1994: 13). hooks’ engaged pedagogy acknowledges that the students themselves do not exist in stasis. It is irresponsible to assume that student writing likewise exists outside of current social, political, and cultural contexts. In acknowledging this, I aim to foster a classroom in which student writing responds to and engages with contemporary climates. I do so by creating in-class writing prompts that respond to contemporary literature and by holding discussions on real-world events as they relate to literacy. But literacy, like students, does not exist in stasis either.
On the dialogue about the United States’ literacy crisis, Jacob Babb suggested approaching composition pedagogy as “a means of helping students improve their abilities to engage in public discourse in all its varied forms” (About What Good Writing Is 2017: 15). For Babb, composition is not a process of remedying a mythological literacy crisis but rather addressing the changing definition(s) of literacy so as to improve instruction for students that best suits their current needs. I do so by exploring the different modes of literacy and communication throughout lessons. Such examples include identify through in-class actives the various ways in which communication can be tailored for different mediums; teaching a lesson on information literacy in the digital anthropocene; and relating literacy-based communication to real-world scenarios. By the end of the semester, I aim for my students to leave my class feeling confident in their ability to write and in their identity as writers.
My position as an early-career educator means that I have the responsibility to educate myself on the history of pedagogy and to decide on the best practices for my classroom. I aim to do so by continuing to study historical and contemporary pedagogy on holistic teaching with the goal of providing accessible, equitable, and student-centered teaching. It is my hope that through in-class experiences, I will discover the new methods of approaching the various challenges students are facing today in literacy and composition. I look forward to continuing to learn within and outside of the classroom, and providing my students with relevant composition instruction.