Teaching
To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.--Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks (1984)Approach to Teaching Philosophy
I ground my teaching in the critical pedagogy theory of education that examines dominant discourses and works to empower students to identify their personal values and help them realize that these values function within larger socially-constructed communities—our classroom, their families, their peer groups, work environments, etc. To help students relate rhetoric to their participation as engaged citizens, I allow them to self-select topics in their majors or ones relevant to their personal communities. I schedule private and group reflections throughout the semester during which I encourage a John Trimbur-like “rhetoric of dissensus,” inviting honest, constructive feedback on the effectiveness of my content delivery and on how well the student accomplished what they hoped to achieve on a particular assignment. My primary goals are teaching students that language is connected to power and that engaging productively in society is not a matter of homogeneous conflict avoidance but rather thinking critically, having logical reasons for one’s choices, and articulating those reasons assertively.
To support successful college-level writing for students from all fields of study, I work to foster the eight "habits of mind" defined in the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (CWPA, NCTE, & NWP, 2011).
- Curiosity—the desire to know more about the world.
- Openness—the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.
- Engagement—a sense of investment and involvement in learning.
- Creativity—the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.
- Persistence—the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.
- Responsibility—the ability to take ownership of one's actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.
- Flexibility—the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.
- Metacognition—the ability to reflect on one's own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.
To illustrate my consistent effort to reinforce these habits of mind, this section includes evaluations ratings and student comments, example completed assignments—shared with permission from the student authors—and a description of courses taught during my time at UHCL. You may navigate with the top "Teaching" menu or the subpage links below.