A critical sociocultural approach to pedagogy

My pedagogy marries critical and sociocultural perspectives.

• All course activities are framed by critical lenses that consider issues of power and oppression in relation to ways of knowing/being/teaching/leading

• I take an apprenticeship approach and purposefully scaffold all concepts/practices with supports such as models, reading focus questions and graphic organizers.

• Activities are characterized by dialogue-based meaning-making in pairs/small groups and making deliberate connections from course content to student experiences/lives/professional contexts.

Supporting academic writing as a social justice issue

Academic writing is a social justice issue: it often functions as an exclusionary mechanism that keeps folks of color out of positions of power and knowledge-creation. From a critical perspective, academic writing is the “language of power” in higher education, because it represents the ways of knowing of the dominant culture (white elites). While recognizing that it has been/is a tool of exclusion and elitism, we still need to be conversant with it to interrupt dominant research narratives and pursue alternate, socially-just change in the broader educational community.

To do so, I draw on insights from systemic functional linguistics. The different writing requirements for research studies and publications (e.g., problem statements, literature reviews) can be considered genres of doctoral writing, and each features specific characteristics and linguistic patterns. I study these patterns, explicitly teach them in my classes, and embed guided opportunities for students to practice them through activities and assignments.

Teaching critical, complex ways of thinking and researching

My teaching focuses on Illuminating and problematizing dominant linear, dualist, anthropocentric thinking and researching, while engaging in activities that help students develop relational/connected, multiplistic, fluid worldviews that emphasize difference as a creative, productive force.

Putting Theory to Work

One of the most challenging areas of research is developing a theoretical framework and using it to shape research design, analysis, and interpretation. My classes emphasize not just the “what” of different critical educational theories, but also how we can use them to think differently, to disrupt entrenched inequities, and to create alternatives.