My research in human rights and social justice education has led me to deeply value the lived experience of students in my classes. Educational systems have often positioned difference as deficit and caused harm to students of diverse backgrounds in grading, absence, and late policies. I recognize that concepts of respectability, linguistic purity, and demonstrative engagement have roots in colonialist and white supremacist ideals. I am committed to identifying student diversity as academic, social, linguistic, and political strengths.
If you were to walk into my classroom, you would likely see students set up in small groups or in a circle. You would hear student voice as much as or more frequently than my own. You may hear guest speakers, research talks, or a moment of quiet music during critical reflection. You would observe students building on each other’s thinking, either using their voice or a learning management platform to write when they feel shy or anxious speaking aloud. Before or after class, you might note a check in with a student research assistant or a moment of relationship-building with a student seeking support or mentorship. You might notice our democratic classroom norms projected onto the board. Each semester, I facilitate the development of student created classroom norms based on the following principles:
Valuing the unique contributions each of us bring to the class.
Creating space for shared decision-making and authentic inquiry.
Seeking knowledge and understanding through collaboration across difference.
Orienting our work toward increasing democracy and justice inside and outside of the classroom.
Establishing and maintaining mutual accountability for the learning environment and shared progress.
The Learning Environment
Criticality
The concept of criticality is fundamental to my teaching and research. I consider the ways that power inequities, systemic under-resourcing, and oppression persist in my own methods and in common pedogeological approaches and materials. Critical love is vital to my practice. Critical love considers the whole person, understands the lived experience, eschews isolating or segregating practices in favor of healing, growth, and community. This love is without condition, but it is not without criticality. My love my students extends to their whole person—are they healthy? Are they safe? Are they capable of offering their best? I choose to honor my students for the self they choose to bring to class each day. I honor the decision to arrive despite coercive politics of respectability or oppressive, unjust forces—I honor the mother who may need to bring her baby to class because she lost safe childcare. I honor the student with an invisible illness who asks to join class remotely. I honor the international student who uses unconventional grammar choices in her essay and includes phrases in her native language that cannot truly be captured when translated to English.
Courses
Developmental Psychology
Educational Psychology
Learning Science
Introduction to Science of Creativity
Creativity and Social Change
Human Rights and Social Justice Education
Multicultural Education
Power, Privilege, and Public Education
