There’s this famous story about a person who falls into a hole. They fall in, realize they’re stuck, and yell for help. Their friend walks by, hears them yelling, and jumps into the hole with them. The first person says, “Why did you do that? Now we’re both down here!” The second says, “Yes, but I’ve been down here before, and I know the way out.” As a teacher, I don’t know all the answers, there is no way for me to have climbed out of every hole my students have and will fall into. But my role in the classroom is to use my experience and education to help them become the scholars and citizens they want to be, show them new and interesting ways to think about the world, and enrich their intellectual experience.

 

In order to fulfill this role, I view my students holistically, in line with Rachel Kauffman’s “Holistic Learning for Real-Life Writers: A Call for Affective Pedagogy in First-Year Composition” (2018). I acknowledge that my students have lives outside of my classroom and interests that differ from my own; in order for students to be engaged, they must be active participants in their learning. I make an active effort to relate the content of my course to the larger world, ensuring that students understand that their own interests matter and are worthy of intellectual curiosity. Relating course concepts to pop culture and current events helps ground them in a student’s reality and show them how the ideas they are exposed to in my classroom can better help them understand the world around them. In doing so, I aim to teach them transferrable skills that enrich their experience not only in other English classes, but in classes and other departments and the larger world beyond university. Understanding intersectionality is crucial to moving through the modern world, and I aim to incorporate instruction materials that challenge oppressive systems and introduce students to a more just and equitable worldview.

 

This focus on student interests and transferrable skills leads to, by design, a student-centered classroom where engagement is critical to student success. Following bell hooks’s “Engaged Pedagogy,” I believe that centering students in the classroom means not only creating course content that speaks to them where they are, but adopting course policies that are empathetic to the struggle of the modern student. Implementing an expectation of communication leads to not only more comfortability and discussion in the classroom, but less pressure around grades and deadlines that might drive students away out of fear of failure or perfectionism. I believe teaching should always be focused on discussion over instruction; by creating an environment where both instructor and student can be human and vulnerable with each other, honest intellectual conversation becomes possible and fulfilling.

 

Much of this teaching philosophy is heavily influenced by fan culture, where my main research interests lie. Much like fanfiction and fanworks only exist thanks to a community of engaged thinkers bringing different ideas into conversation with each other, a classroom only functions when ideas are viewed not as hard truths, but as malleable forms that can be shaped by a community of writers. Adapting the central tenants of these fan communities into my teaching means my classroom is a place where academic work can be transformative, using new forms to tackle old ideas, and where no interest or idea is too frivolous for academic inquiry. I aim to be seen as a peer in these discussions, rather than an authority, and I encourage my students to challenge and question the ideas I put forth in the same way they would respectfully challenge and question the ideas of their peers. In doing so, I hope students learn the value of their own ideas and input, and view themselves as participatory scholars rather than vessels into which information flows without critical examination.

 

I believe in the central tenants of writing instruction. I believe in the power of a well-crafted sentence, I believe in the power of narrative and storytelling, and I believe it is of the utmost importance that I communicate these beliefs to my students in ways they can understand and engage with. I believe there is value in studying writing and literature, but I also believe that there is perhaps even greater power in focusing my teaching on the critical thinking and writing skills that students can use in all aspects of life, and teaching them the ways that viewing the world through the lens of rhetoric and narrative can lead to a greater and richer understanding of their surroundings. This is, I believe, what should be the goal of all education: the coming together of learners and thinkers of all skill levels to form a better understanding of themselves and each other. It is this overall goal that I strive to achieve in my writing classroom.