My Teaching Philosophy

I strive to create a community of learners where we support each other on our learning journey throughout the semester. I want students to walk away from class with skills and curiosity that will benefit us beyond the semester. My first task as an educator is to create a community that allows all members to be comfortable with not knowing, taking risks, being wrong and asking for help. This includes me.

Anthropology is a field suited to this goal with lessons as diverse as kinship, ethnography, conservation and evolution. I design a variety of activities labs, group work and assignments for each class period that help underresourced students build belonging in the classroom. I assign readings by authors of color and indigenous scholars as well as materials not traditionally considered “academic” such as blog posts, podcasts and short films. This demonstrates for students a more diverse representation of ideas, voices and ways of knowing.

It is my belief that all students can thrive in the classroom when their individuality is understood and respected. In addition to my research and time in academia, I have worked in the college access field for over five years, particularly with low-income, first generation students. It is through this experience that I have developed an understanding that each student enters the classroom with their own unique life experience, skills and abilities. It is not enough, however, to acknowledge that all students enter the classroom at different levels and with different backgrounds. As a teacher I must know how to adapt my teaching to meet students where they are and ensure their unique skills are being honored and cultivated.

Students’ interest in the subject is piqued because they are able to show their understanding of the subject in a way that is most fun and meaningful for them. For summative assessments, I encourage students to complete in a variety of forms including art, music, essay or visual media. I use ungrading in the classroom as one form of formative assessment: giving a grade for timely completion and not based on correct answers. These assignments build on each other throughout the semester which encourages students to incorporate feedback in their future assignments. This allows our community to focus on learning instead of rankings and students can absorb feedback without fear of failure. I gauge student learning throughout the class and semester with periodic questions, quick writing prompts and quizzes and share common misunderstandings with the whole class so that we can learn together. I ask for student feedback through an informal, unidentified survey at the midway point in the semester and review the results and any adjustments I plan to make with the students. I also encourage feedback throughout the semester via email, Blackboard or office hours.

Students should leave any course with skills that benefit them beyond the classroom. A fundamental skill is how to find information, decode specific terminology, and access resources. I begin each semester by introducing students to the resources available to them and how to access them on campus and online. I provide explanations of higher ed “jargon” vocabulary in my syllabus and discuss these concepts throughout the semester to ensure that everyone in our community has an equal understanding of the resources and expectations. As the semester progresses, I encourage students to access the different resources as part of completing assignments.

I hope that students leave my courses with a deep understanding of how anthropology can help solve current problems. In my course, I tie current, real-world examples directly to the topic in each class to demonstrate our disciplinary relevance. In my introductory courses, students must find and analyze a news article that presents the day’s topic well or misrepresents it. Students learn how to judge the credibility of a source and apply their knowledge from class to interpret the representation of information. They begin to see the connections between what they are learning in school and what is happening outside of the classroom. In my upper division courses we connect anthropology to national and international issues through conservation, advocacy and science communication.