Teaching Philosophy North Carolina Wesleyan College
Literature gestures beyond itself toward the universe, of which [we] are vanishingly small parts.
—Scott Russell Sanders, Writing From the Center
My teaching philosophy stems from two principle origins: experiences that I have had as a student learning with successful and inspiring teachers and as a teacher beginning to put into practice my own theories and ideals in the classroom. Both of these experiences have helped to mold me into a teacher who values both working with and learning alongside my students. In my view, teaching is an exercise that must evolve according to our changing students’ needs, classroom dynamics, college environments, and larger society. As evidenced by the above quote by Scott Russell Sanders, literature, and I would maintain all writing, helps us to situate ourselves in a world that is everchanging. As such, one’s pedagogical goals and strategies must also evolve to meet these shifting needs.
Students should be exposed to ideas, time periods, beliefs, and lifestyles different from their own in an effort to give them a larger view of the world. A teacher should not be a mouthpiece for certain agendas, but rather act as a neutral communicator for a variety of views. Since so much of my own research focuses on issues of diversity, whether it is in gender, race, or class, I seek to expose my students to lifestyle differences. For instance, in a recent “Studies in Genre: The Literature of Immigration” course, my students looked at fiction and non-fiction narratives of immigration. Students read works by writers including Pietro Di Donato, Amy Tan, Nola Kambanda, Achy Obejas, Jamaica Kincaid, and Richard Rodriquez. Many students were exploring for the first time the complex issues surrounding immigration, and the discussion of these literary texts acted as a starting point for discussions about last May’s “A Day Without Immigrants” protest and current immigration legislation. By exploring the lives and writings of those with backgrounds very different from their own, students were able to interrogate the current political debates about immigration.
Collaborative learning and group discussion encourage active versus passive learning. Students must engage more when they are speaking, exchanging their ideas, and participating in an active way. Learning occurs best when students feel they have something to add to the conversation and when they can find points of connection with the reading and writing they are asked to do. I always include a collaborative component in my classes as a way for students to find ways to work together to produce a cohesive document. In my recent “Fundamentals of Communication” course, students were asked to produce a collaborative proposal that solved a community problem. One particularly successful project looked at lack of voter turnout in the United States. This group, in both its paper and oral presentation, was adept in showing ways in which particularly younger voters could become more active and how the government could make changes to encourage great voter participation. While challenging in many respects, this assignment helped students learn from each other and further develop their own writing styles, and this particular group demonstrates well how four students with very different skills were able to draw upon one another’s strengths in a collaborative effort. I also apply this theory of collaboration to my own professional development. Throughout my graduate school experience and now as an Assistant Professor at North Carolina Wesleyan College, I have found myself part of a community of teachers who take very seriously our development as effective educators. Through meetings, workshops, and collaboration with one another, we strive to discuss the most effective means by which we can engage our students.
Students should be treated with respect in terms of their personal views and learning differences. As each class has its own dynamic, each student has his or her own background, beliefs, and opinions. The classroom should be a friendly and comfortable environment in which every student has the opportunity to express his or her ideas without retribution. This means not only a tolerant attitude on the part of the teacher but also in terms of other students. Though students will not always agree, they should be taught techniques to understand and respectively respond to varying points of contention and difference. It is also important to contextualize such a philosophy in terms of academic discourse and goals. For instance, if a student makes a derogatory or stereotypical comment about another individual or group of people during class, I ask him or her to consider his or her ethos when making such a statement. I find that situating such a discussion in terms of rhetorical strategy, though it may not change the student’s viewpoint, often helps a student reconsider his or her language use and persuasive style.
To be successful writers, students must be engaging readers. By becoming strong and active readers, students see successful models of writing and are better able to analyze these texts. This helps them to more effectively develop their own writing strategies and language. I encourage my students to approach reading as a type of dialogue between themselves and the author. Instead of merely absorbing all of a writer’s ideas and accepting them without question, students should instead enter into conversation with this writer and learn to analyze not only the content of his/her work but also the writing strategies employed. One effective means of doing this is through response journals. In composition classes, I ask students in response journals to analyze both the content of and the rhetorical strategies used in a given text. In literature classes, students are asked to respond to issues such as historical significance, social commentary, literary themes or applications, and/or personal identification. Allowing students opportunities to write about their readings makes for both better analysis and more directed class discussion.
Students’ education should extend beyond the classroom, into the community and workplace. I envision as one of the goals of my classes to be that of aiding students in acquiring skills that will help them to become successful and responsible members of cultural context. I encourage my students to find points of connection with the readings they encounter and the writings they produce. Whether students are going out in the community to conduct primary research in the form of interviews or surveys or they are analyzing “real-world” rhetoric in the form of public discourse, I always encourage my students to move what they have learned about writing and rhetorical effectiveness beyond the classroom. I have found that students who are genuinely interested in the subjects they read and write about are better engaged, become more successful scholars, and gain information that can contribute to their future goals.
I see my role as a teacher as one who encourages students to realize and capitalize on their own potential and expertise. By showing students the connections between readings, writings, research, and their own lives, students will be better engaged with what they are learning. Additionally, by exposing students to a variety of opinions and viewpoints in the classroom, I hope they will become more open-minded, critically active, and responsible citizens of the academic community and larger society. Students should, of course, learn the proper techniques to achieve success in an academic environment, yet I also strongly advocate teaching them skills and modes of thinking that will cross into other realms. While most students will exist in the academy for four years, they will be lifelong members of the workplace and their communities.