Statement of Teaching Philosophy

In my teaching, I challenge students to participate in their own education by creating an environment that nurtures collaborative inquiry, engaged learning, and transformative experiences. My philosophy reflects these three aspirations and strategies:

Collaborative Inquiry By asking students to bring their own unique perspectives, lived experiences, and areas of emerging disciplinary expertise to, for example, small group projects and a series of related but independent assignments that culminate in a final portfolio, students develop self-direction and self-motivation in a cooperative context, spark their curiosity, and become accountable to the investigative process through shared listening and learning.

Engaged Learning My teaching urges students to study problems, like those identified by my own research, that are emerging in and relevant to the public square. I offer them learning opportunities grounded in “real world” problems.

Transformative Experiences It is my goal that students not only learn the theoretical foundations of my academic discipline but become more critically self-aware by recognizing how they themselves are transformed by and can apply what they have learned in the classroom.