Pedagogical Philosophy

My teaching philosophy and the research that supports it is based on student-centered literacy. By cultivating the unique voice of the individual writer and encouraging its expression, we empower students as rhetorically situated agents. Individual literacy serves as a site for the emergence of voice and authenticity in composition pedagogy.

The sense of self that emerges from the intersects of one’s history (where you come from), identity (how you see yourself), and story (your version of narrative truth) empowers students as communicators and invested agents in their own learning. The individual student is then positioned to rhetorically situate themselves autobiographically to act on, influence, and change all other rhetorical agents and artifacts (audience, topic, purpose, text, medium, and method).

My pedagogy is innovative and based on real-world applicability. It is my goal to prepare students for the challenges of an increasingly globally-connected, digitally-mediated, technology-driven world.

At my pedagogical foundation is an attempt to coalesce the works of Bronwyn Lamay (Revision, Agency, Love), David Kirkland, and Gholdy Muhammad (Cultivating Genius) toward a model that is as inclusive as it is expansive, and as responsible as it is sustainable.