Teaching Statement

My teaching philosophy encourages students to examine our society and think of ways to make it better. As such, I enter the classroom as a critical/reconstructionist educator and lead with the culturally relevant pedagogy of education professor Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings. Over the past two years of teaching five courses, I have engaged in learning, unlearning, and sharing experiences in the classroom, and this has made teaching a transformational experience for me.

Culturally relevant pedagogy encourages not only the development of a critical consciousness but encourages us to bring ourselves—teachers, as well as students—into the classroom. It is what I have practiced in class and in my field research in Cancer Alley. 

When I taught Civic Engagement, Media, and Youth, for example, I had students choose an activist that interested them and then apply concepts of social movements, public opinion, and uses of mass media to models of civic engagement. They also formed semester-long book groups, reading primary and secondary material about activists. Activists ranged from the Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton’s To Die For the People to C. Riley Norton’s discussion of Black trans activists Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris in Black on Both Sides.

In Media and Policy Processes, students applied concepts of propaganda, internal colonialism theory, and Walter Lippmann’s “intelligence work” to various contemporary policy issues of choice. In their course evaluation, one student commented, “I enjoyed this course because it taught us to [take] a deeper dive into where we are truly getting our information. The professor did not force his opinion onto anybody but instead listened to what everyone had to say.”

As a pragmatist, I prioritize project-based and experiential learning over lecture. It is a philosophy of doing rather than just seeing. Inside the classroom, learning is a process, and a classroom should be an iterative and generative learning experience—a two-way flow of information. My primary role is to create a learning environment where student action prompts timely feedback and reflection. One undergraduate student remarked, “I appreciated that we always got to share what we had been working on with the class…” I use this quote and the one above to fuel my teaching philosophy because I hope that my very existence as a student, teacher, researcher, and presenter is useful for instructing students, regardless of the topic.

In addition to teaching, mentorship is an important part of who I am. I began mentoring in high school and, most recently, I was a McNair Scholars mentor, where I connected with another first-generation student like myself who was navigating higher education while considering graduate school. As a mentor to students, I would provide advice on capstone, major projects, creative pursuits, and campus and community involvement, as well as theses and dissertations. 

I aim to encourage students to pursue their intellectual and creative desires while also preparing them for civic life in a world that scrutinizes those who engage race or politics “too much.”