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Educator & Teacher-Leader
The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.
- Paulo Freire
The day of my graduation was the first time that I saw my mother and father’s names written on something that could never be taken away from us: my education. That is why I am deeply invested in education because I know the indelible impact that access to a quality education can have on an individual and their family. Being a first-generation immigrant, college graduate, and Woman of Color I have seen firsthand the ways in which learning has altered my life's trajectory and opened doors that I could not have even imagined. I see that same promise and fire in my students, and know deep in my bones that they are deserving of having educators who will champion them too.
From this frame and borrowing from Freire’s (1996) work on critical pedagogy, I position education as the practice of freedom. To live up to this commitment, by centering collaboration, inquiry-based learning, and authentic care in my classroom. This approach enables me to teach subjects like English, teacher-education, and gender and ethnic studies to diverse students in ways that are meaningful and compelling. In this way I am able to co-construct a community with my students that seeks to challenge power, center student voices, critically examine problems, and collectively build knowledge. My role as an educator then, is to facilitate their empowerment through their learning so that every single student can stand in their truth and wield their voice.
I do this by inviting my students to lead the collective learning through collaborative practices such as problem-posing. Through problem-posing students critically examine issues and learn through discovery and dialogue. For example, in EDU 280: Valuing Cultural Diversity students build their Equity Teaching Philosophies to identify the commitments they will make in their classrooms for promoting equity. To accomplish this, students go through a rigorous iterative writing and rewriting process that challenges them to critically analyze their mindsets through peer feedback, one-on-one conferences, and classroom dialogues. Through this process students are exposed to multiple perspectives, they learn to ask challenging questions, and also reflect on their writing choices. Rather than their writing existing in a vacuum, it exists in conversation with their classmates, to the readings, and to the world. Their papers evolve dramatically from the beginning of the semester to the end and students are left with a deep sense of understanding what their role is in relation to the topics that matter the most to them. This past year the Nevada Legislature approved the syllabi I co-redesigned for EDU 280, as a course that in-service teachers could take for their licensure renewal in order to support them in developing their critical consciousness. Consequently, from this approach students learn to work on a team, to honor and appreciate differences, and to identify their strengths as writers.
Moreover, as Freire compels us to do, students are recentered as experts of their realities and experiences. In speaking through their experiences, students learn to create meaningful connections to others, to learning, and to the world that can inspire them to make it better. This approach also strengthens the community that we co-construct as students learn that they have the capacity to create and recreate knowledge and can depend on one another for support.
In addition, I also create learning experiences that encourage students to contemplate and make connections beyond the classroom through inquiry-based learning. The popular adage, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn" captures the purpose of inquiry-based learning as a practice for deeper learning. This practice is informed by my previous experience as a public school teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada teaching Secondary English and coaching Speech and Debate. In fact, I attribute my pursuit of a doctoral degree to my high school students who inspired me to focus on developing strategies for creating more supportive school climates for immigrant students and students of color. It is precisely why I center writing as a vehicle for knowing ourselves and others more deeply because students learn best by doing. I construct experiences for students to make meaning through diverse and multiple representations. In every class, we engage in critical self-reflection, analysis, and dialogues to unpack the ways in which our experiences inform our worldviews. Additionally, this encourages a culture of risk-taking and creativity by learning in and with community.
A core part of my practice as an educator is authentic care, which is situated within the work of Latinx and African American scholars like Valenzuela (1999), Delpit (2012), and Love (2020). They have found that authentic care is a critical component to the success and learning of students of color. Authentic care requires establishing trusting relationships and upholding a rigorous culture of excellence through accountability and mentorship. The Maya called this concept In Lak’Ech, a vision of unity that humanizes each of us by tying us to a shared fate and destiny. This has enabled me to connect with students that are first generation and/ or from historically marginalized communities in ways that enable their engagement in my classroom. As one student shared that my course “ has improved [her] confidence personally by taking the time to speak to me on multiple occasions to make sure I was doing okay, and not falling behind in her class” (Teaching Evaluations, p. 51). This confirms for me two things: first, the importance of building trusting relationships with students from an array of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and second, the powerful impact that authentic care can have on learning and student engagement as students consistently engaged and invested meaningfully in their learning in my courses.
Whether I was teaching high school English, coaching Speech & Debate, training pre-service teachers, or teaching Gender and Ethnic Studies at the collegiate levels, students would share with you that my courses were “inclusive”, “open”, and “engaging” (p. 8). They shared that my courses were “engaging and informative discussions...A professor who truly cares for her students” (p. 25). They described my presence in the classroom as “unique and one of a kind...The information we got throughout the semester is stuck with me forever ” (p. 51). The success and efficacy to this teaching approach is evident through my students feedback and my course evaluations. In almost every category, I have outperformed both the Department and College wide average in my teaching practice. I take great pride in being able to establish a culture of excellence in my courses that holistically supports each student to be successful.
Through authentic care, collaboration, and inquiry based learning I have been able to create learning opportunities for students that enable their success, that empower them to become agents of change in the community, and to achieve their goal of graduating with their degrees. As an educator and scholar my teaching philosophy is shaped by my own positionalities that ultimately lends itself to creating inclusive and supportive learning environments for students from diverse backgrounds. Through this approach, I live out my commitment to ensure the success of all my students.
Delpit, L. D. (2012). “Multiplication is for white people”: Raising expectations for other people’s
children. New Press : Distributed by Perseus Distribution.
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.; 20th anniversary edition). Penguin.
Love, B. (2020). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon.
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. State University of New York Press.
Content Areas & Specializations
- High School Secondary English
- English Language Learners
- Teacher-Education
- Multicultural Education
- Critical Race Theory
- Latinx Studies
- Gender & Ethnic Studies
- Women's Studies