Teaching Philosophy

Inspired by David Bartholomae’s idea that students need to learn how to "invent the university,” Luis Moll’s belief in celebrating students’ funds of knowledge, and Susan Ambrose’s research on building upon students’ prior knowledge, I see the classroom as a vibrant space where students discover and extend their voices across communities and spaces. To do this work well, I believe in slow pedagogy—taking time to support students deeply and intentionally, giving them space to reflect, explore, and grow at a slower pace.

Helping Students Explore Their Writerly Identities

To grow as a writer, one needs to explore who they are as a writer—what writing they have done, what writing they will do, and who has influenced them as writers. Across all my classes, from first year students to graduate students, I design assignments that allow my students to explore and reflect upon their writerly identities. This approach builds upon their prior knowledge, values their backgrounds and experiences, and shows them the many ways they might think about writing as future scholars, professionals, and global citizens.

Building Agency and Voice

However my students engage in writing in their futures, I want them to know they have agency as writing. Writing isn’t like driving a car on auto-pilot; it requires conscious choices and decisions. Teaching students to be aware of their agency requires a slower-paced approach with many drafts, revisions, workshops and peer reviews to teach students to recognize and name the choices they make (consciously and unconsciously) in their writing. When my students realize they can make choices about their writing and how they want to engage with their audiences, they actually enjoy the writing process. Rather than treating writing as a task to accomplish the night before it is due, students become more invested in their writing choices and want to put in the time to think through their choices. My classroom isn’t just about writing; it’s about nurturing confidence, agency, and the ability to engage deeply with their learning and the world around them.