Teaching Philosophy

During office hours one semester while teaching my First Year Writing Seminar, a student confessed to me that while she was currently majoring in biology because her parents were encouraging her to become a doctor, she had always wanted to pursue creative writing. Her work in my writing seminar was excellent, particularly her theatre review of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which exemplified the use of rich, evocative description of live performance we had workshopped in class. I suggested that she explore Cornell’s creative writing program. Concerned about her parents, she was hesitant. As a first-generation college student, she felt a weight of responsibility to make the most of her degree. Searching for a middle ground, I suggested that part of undergraduate study is giving oneself the opportunity to explore various interests. I pointed out that she could minor in creative writing while still majoring in biology, and that there are careers, such as science journalism, where she could combine these disciplines. A year later I received a lovely email from this student saying that she was now pursuing a creative writing minor and credited our conversation as the reason why.

This moment encapsulates many of my beliefs and goals as an educator. I believe deeply in a liberal arts undergraduate education where students are encouraged to discover and explore their intellectual passions, experience meaningful mentorship with instructors, and encounter a diverse array of ideas, values, and people. As a teacher within such a system, I bear a responsibility to my students to share my expertise, admit and learn from my limitations, and strive to expand my own, and others, understanding of my field of study. My goal as an educator is to foster and support the natural curiosity that exists in every person, believing that with our innate inquisitiveness encouraged, we become lifelong learners and active, investigative participants in social and civic discourse. These beliefs and goals are reflected in my constructivist classrooms that employ experiential and student driven learning, my syllabi that center the performances of marginalized individuals and communities, and my interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and pedagogy.

As a theatre director I employ a collaborative approach to theatre making, believing that a diverse group of artists with a voice and stakes in the creative process creates a stronger product than ideas generated individually through a top down model. As a teacher, the same belief applies to my pedagogy—a dynamic, collaborative process between teacher and student generates a more engaging, relevant and productive learning environment. For example, I foster a “brave space” classroom by beginning each semester facilitating a discussion with my students that establishes the classroom’s code of conduct. Brave space pedagogy acknowledges that conversations on privilege and oppression are necessary to the work of justice but often challenging emotionally and intellectually. Together, students and I share possible models of classroom decorum and consider a series of questions including: how do we define active participation? How do we hold space for students who are less inclined to speak in class because they are shy, or they process internally, or they have experienced systemic marginalization in classrooms previously? Additionally, we discuss and amend the grading contract for the course. Utilizing a grading contract provides students clear rubrics for assignments and metrics for their assessment. Inviting students to amend this contract empowers students to establish their own goals and values for course outcomes. This process gives students shared ownership and agency in our classroom’s rules and procedures.

The notion of shared learning with students, or what Paulo Freire termed the “co-creation of knowledge,” is the foundation of my pedagogical practice. Freire believed, as I do, that if we, as educators, can ally ourselves with students and journey together in our classrooms then and only then can true education begin. By utilizing pedagogical practices that actively engage students such as theatre games, small group work and discussion, solo and group presentations, and assignments where students can choose the form of the final product, my classrooms encourage students to rehearse for multiple roles: learner, teacher, artist, citizen. One example is my use of individual presentations in my Cornell First-Year Writing Seminar, Exploring Drag Performance. During the semester, each student is asked to find a piece of drag media that interests them and share it with the class in a brief presentation. Students must explain why this particular piece of drag is compelling to them and demonstrate how it reinforces or challenges aspects of drag we have studied so far. This assignment places students in the role of teacher, inviting them to become experts on a particular piece of drag media that they find meaningful. It also brings a diverse array of drag traditions into the classroom from a variety of time periods and cultures. Students are then invited to continue their exploration by building their presentations into research papers thereby encouraging them to connect their teaching to scholarship.

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My pedagogy challenges students to disrupt the lines between the study and practice of theatre. In courses such as theatre history, I assign a group project that asks students to craft and present production elements of the plays we read. The focus of the content of the presentation can vary based on group interest; students who are interested in acting and directing may perform a scene from the play and discuss how their staging encompasses or rejects the historic elements of the particular play. Design students might instead present renderings of costumes or sets that are informed by the play’s original place and period. This assignment encourages students to apply their artistic work to the study of theatre history and models the interconnectivity of theatre practice and research.

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I measure my success as a teacher through actively learning from each student who enters my classroom. I view trying to grow with my students as directly linked to my continued development not only as an educator but also as a scholar and practitioner of theatre. The rewards I have experienced teaching—a struggling student coming to office hours every week to work on his writing, students spontaneously applauding our semester of work on the last day of the term, the improvement of my own writing and research—these examples and so many more all compel me to continue to hone and practice my pedagogy.