Teaching Philosophy

My teaching is informed by anti-racist pedagogies to promote linguistic justice. The anti-racist movement acknowledges language’s historical weaponization as a tool of the oppressor against under-served and silenced identities (Ibram X. Kendi). Anti-racist writing pedagogies aim to empower under-served and silenced students by actively resisting institutionalized racism and uplifting non-traditional students through writing and language. As a writing teacher, I guide students as they explore the relationship between language and power. I strive to promote a brave space for learning through a socio-constructivist, dialogical, and decentered classroom. 

I teach my students composition meta-language and rhetorical literacies to help them engage critically with their world. To ensure my teaching applies to my diverse students, I implement a Writing Across Contexts (WAC) curriculum, focusing on writing skills that transfer effectively into my students’ personal and professional discourses. When students complete my course, they are equipped to write across genres, think critically about texts, and engage in discourse communities. My goal is to create sustainable and self-regulating writers. 

To create an anti-racist writing classroom, I follow the best practices in my field and am guided by four specific methods:

• Learning by Challenging Writing Myths: Many nontraditional students enter the classroom with writing misconceptions rooted in language traumas--being told that their writing, speaking, and use of language is ‘bad,’ ‘wrong,’ or just ‘not good enough. My pedagogy reframes writing misconceptions with “writing truths,” students are challenged to consider the racist subjectivities of “good writing” and are encouraged to think about writing in rhetorical contexts (Kuglitsch; Downs & Robertson). 

• Learning through Multimodality: Media is inherently multimodal in our digital age. To ensure transferability and engage nontraditional students’ multimodal literacies, my pedagogy creates abundant spaces for image-based learning, from poster-making activities to visual/auditory essays (Selfe; Jinnifer; Griffin & Minter). My multimodal approach promotes accessibility as lectures and learning materials are housed in Canvas for review at any time. I individualize my feedback by letting students choose their preferred modality, including video, audio, screencasting, and written feedback. 

• Learning by Collaborating: I implement a dialogical and formative feedback approach when guiding student workshops. In my class, I frame our class, including myself, as a community of co-writers. I dismantle my authoritarian power in the classroom by encouraging a co-constructivist classroom environment. My feedback offers suggestions rather than corrections. I promote constructive dialogue by asking questions to guide student exploration. 

• Learning by Expressing: Students thrive as writers when they share their passions. By giving students the space to write about preexisting knowledge and expertise, I strive to validate their wholeness and encourage self-autonomy as writers (Murray). I encourage my students to use writing as a tool for expression and exploration. 

My teaching philosophy reflects a moment within an ever-evolving cycle of praxis (Freire). As I challenge my students to reflect on their knowledge in my classroom, I also reflect on my shortcomings as a teacher and my position within a systematically racism-embedded country. A pedagogical ethic of love requires humility and self-examination to move past educational transaction and toward mutual recognition of student wholeness and personal transformation (Hooks). While I strive to leave a transformative impact on my students, I also prioritize their feedback and experiences when revising my teaching praxis.

Language and Power

I believe the students entering my classroom are complex, diverse, valuable, intelligent, and already intentional users of written and spoken language. I also recognize that many students enter the classroom with writing misconceptions rooted in language traumas--being told that their writing, speaking, and use of language is ‘bad,’ ‘wrong,’ or just ‘not good enough.’ College classrooms are increasingly diverse, composed of multilingual students, young running start students, and returning students, including mothers, veterans, and those seeking a career change later in life. These untraditional students come from groups intentionally silenced and subverted by our country's embedded racist and supremest institutions. As a result, untraditional students carry the internalized notion that they ‘can't write’ or ‘have nothing to say.’ As an educator, I believe that the only ethical response to this reality is to frame my courses in a way that breaks these myths, and empowers students to reflect on their identities, discourses, career goals, and passions through intentional language and writing. 

Discourse Transfer

My teaching approach recognizes how students are already writing and language practitioners in their specific discourses. All students are language experts in the identity worlds they inhabit. My teaching will acknowledge and engage with students’ pre-existing expertise and encourage students to reflect on their rhetorical decisions while communicating within their discourses. My teaching will introduce students to meta-language concerning rhetorical situations, discourse communities, and writing processes that apply to every student's diverse identity groups and the discourses they aspire to enter. By affirming students’ pre-existing expertise in language and communication, I deconstruct any misconceptions that writing exists only in an academic vacuum. Instead, I argue that everyone uses language in beautiful, valid, and intentional ways within their own homes, communities, and worlds.

Reflection over Reduction

To deconstruct the misconception that ‘good’ writing should not include the self, my philosophy asserts that self-reflective, reflexive, and identity-based writing should be the framework of a first-year composition classroom. Language and writing are essential tools for discovering and defining one's self. Students identifying with groups who have been denied language and told their writing is not good or needed are forced into an oppressive cycle of disempowerment and silence. In my assessment process, I prioritize feedback that encourages self-reflection and critical thinking instead of over-critique of grammar and syntax. My formative-focused teaching philosophy aims to break the cycle of disempowerment and silence by focusing on the writing process rather than the final product alone. 

My teaching philosophy prioritizes transferability, so all students are recognized and valued in my English class. Students taking English 101 enter the classroom with the misconception that English has nothing to do with their careers and lives. They think they are simply there for the credit and to learn how to write ‘right.’ This myth is grounded in the history of academic English, which has been used as a gatekeeping mechanism to maintain power structures. My teaching goal is to re-equipt and develop students with language and writing skills as tools to be active contributors in their communities and discourses rather than passive bystanders. 

Uplifting the Student Voice

As a teacher, I believe that my student's voices are invaluable and that writing and composition are the necessary tools we need to equip students to dismantle the writing misconceptions that silence them. Language is an essential part of our identities. But simultaneously, language is not this lofty and inaccessible, ‘perfect’ thing that is unattainable and therefore not worth a student's while. Writing is inherently a social act. When individuals understand how communities are built around language, they can participate more actively. My teaching and assessment philosophy is rooted in healing, empowerment, connection, love, and practicing how to be critical participants and contributors in our communities and world.