Introduction
On Day 2, we learned about racism, power, and privilege. At times, it can be difficult to identify these colonialist dynamics. Yet, their harmful influence continues to pervade our classrooms. One way to limit their influence in our classrooms is by reflecting on, deconstructing, and rebuilding our teaching philosophies.
A teaching philosophy or teaching statement is a reflective essay describing, illustrating, and justifying your pedagogical approach. You may already be familiar with this term if you were asked to write one when you applied for your position or created your promotion and tenure portfolio. However, teaching statements are not just for applications or portfolios. They also can be a component of your course syllabi, wherein you describe your teaching practices and your expectations of students. We understand that your institution may already require you to include a lot of components in your syllabi, which may lead you to question, “Why should I add yet another component to my syllabi?” In this module, we’ll learn about why teaching philosophies are important to include, their functions, their impact, and tips to craft a teaching philosophy using an anti-colonial lens.
Learning Goals
- Examine the function and value of a teaching statement for a course syllabus
- Reflect upon and describe your teaching philosophy prior to learning about colonialism and anti-colonialism
- Critically examine your teaching philosophy using an anti-colonial lens
- Revise or create an anti-colonial teaching statement for your syllabi
Teaching Philosophies in Course Syllabi
Objective 1: Examine the function and value of a teaching statement for a course syllabus
Estimated Time: 10-20 minutes
We begin with a broad examination of teaching statements in course syllabi, exploring their function and their impact on both students and instructors. According to McCormack and colleagues (2023), a teaching philosophy reflects an ongoing “evolutionary journey towards an understanding of one’s self as a learner and as a teacher” (McCormack et al., 2023). Understanding the importance and process of engaging in this journey will provide us with a basis for developing our own teaching philosophy for our course syllabi.
Learning Activity:
1. Choose one of the options below to learn about teaching statements in course syllabi.
| Option 1: “I have time to sit down and read.” | Read Richmond’s Constructing a learner-centered syllabus: One professor’s journey This article describes the purpose, process, and impact of creating a learner-centered syllabus. Richmond describes several components of learner-centered syllabi, including teaching philosophies in the context of power and control, two aspects central to anti-colonialism efforts. |
| Option 2: “I only have a couple of minutes to read.” | Read Mandernach’s Writing the “syllabus version” of your philosophy of teaching (pp. 9-10) This article describes the purpose of teaching statements in course syllabi. Mandernach explains the difference between writing a teaching statement for a course syllabus versus one for a job application or promotion and tenure portfolio and outlines steps for modifying your teaching statement for your syllabus. An example of a teaching statement for a syllabus is provided. |
| Option 3: “I don’t have time to read, but I can listen.” | Listen to Faculty Focus Live Episode 8: Establishing and revisiting our teaching philosophies and teaching personas In this episode, host Tierney King reviews interviews with Linda Shadiow, Maryellen Weimer, and Parker J. Palmer as they discuss their teaching identities, the process of discovering their teaching philosophies, and the importance of ongoing reflection. |
2. Click here to open the Padlet. Under “Post 1,” write 1 key point you took away from the articles or podcast.
Reflect
Objective 2: Reflect upon and describe your teaching philosophy prior to learning about colonialism and anti-colonialism
Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes
Now that you’ve learned about teaching philosophies in the context of course syllabi, let’s take some time to reflect on and describe our own teaching philosophies. Our teaching philosophies reflect our teaching identity and the “beliefs and values [we hold] about teaching and learning” (Bowne, 2017). However, they also tend to reflect other social identities (e.g., race, gender, age) and the beliefs and values associated with them. Thus, while you engage in the activity below, we encourage you to examine your social identities and consider how the beliefs and values associated with them influence your teaching philosophy.
Learning Activity:
For this activity, try to focus on the teaching philosophy you adopted prior to learning about colonialism and anti-colonialism.
1. Choose one of the two options below to help you think about your teaching philosophy.
| Option 1: I’ve got time. I’m ready to dive in. | Take the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI). This 45-item inventory assesses your orientation to teaching. Once completed, you will receive your results. We encourage you to read the five perspectives on “good teaching” to better understand your results. |
| Option 2: I’ve only got a few minutes now. I’ll dive deeper later. | Read and reflect upon the questions below. You do not need to write anything down. Simply use these questions to help you think about your teaching philosophy. a. What is your pedagogical approach or perspective? b. What are your goals for yourself as an instructor? What strategies do you use to help you achieve your goals? c. What are your expectations of students? d. What do you want to convey to your students taking your class? |
2. Open the Padlet using this link. Under “Post 2,” write a few sentences and/or add an image or GIF describing your teaching philosophy.
Deconstruct
Objective 3: Critically examine your teaching philosophy using an anti-colonial lens
Estimate Time: 10 minutes
In our previous modules, we learned that taking an anti-colonial approach means continuously and critically…
- examining institutional power structures, hierarchical relationships, and policies and practices that reinforce them
- questioning sources of knowledge and the disciplinary perspectives we uphold
- decentering and rethinking the use of white intellectual traditions as the “norm”
- recenter and support diverse ways of knowing and making meaning to forge a critical pluralistic standpoint toward knowledge and knowledge development
Let’s use this framework to analyze our teaching philosophy.
Learning Activity:
Use the questions below to critically examine your teaching philosophy. This process requires us to be honest with ourselves and, perhaps, a little vulnerable. Thus, rather than synthesizing your thoughts and posting them, we suggest using this time to reflect deeply on your responses to the questions below.
- Power: What implicit or explicit messages are being conveyed to students about the power dynamic between instructor and student? For instance, how might your descriptions of student expectations (e.g., attendance, late work) communicate these power dynamics? In what ways might your choice of words or tone (intentionally or unintentionally) convey power? How might students perceive these words or tones (e.g., supportive or punitive)?
- Knowledge: Where do you know from? Who is in control of knowledge? Which sources of knowledge do you uphold and reinforce in your discipline? Upon what values are these disciplinary sources of knowledge based? Are these values rooted in colonialism? If so, how is colonialism reflected in your discipline? If not, how is it free from colonialism?
- Norms: What educational norms are you implicitly or explicitly conveying in your teaching statement? In what ways might your scoring criteria communicate norms? How might your grading practices advantage or disadvantage certain students? Revisit the social identities you identified on Day 1. How might one or more of your social identities influence your perceived norms and subsequent teaching philosophy?
- Diversity: In what ways might your teaching practices center certain perspectives and exclude or marginalize others? What does your pedagogical approach communicate about your values regarding the use of student knowledge and experience in learning? How does your description of student expectations express your beliefs about academic conformity and diversity?
Rebuild
Objective 4: Revise and/or create an anti-colonial teaching statement for your syllabi
Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes
Writing an anti-colonial teaching statement takes time. Your teaching identity and practices, and thereby, your teaching philosophy, will evolve as you continue to reflect and learn more about yourself, your students, and anti-colonialism. However, we encourage you to begin the process of creating and/or revising your teaching statement for your course syllabus by doing the following activity.
Learning Activity:
1. Skim Wilson’s Revolutionizing my syllabus: The process
In this article, Professor Chanelle Wilson reflects on the process she used to “decolonize” her syllabus. If you are short on time, skim the article, but focus on Entry 3: Finding Your People. Note the author’s approach to dismantling power in the syllabus and identify strategies you might apply to your own teaching philosophy.
2. Write one sentence in your teaching statement explicitly indicating your anti-colonialist and anti-racist stance.
3. Click this link to open the Padlet. Under “Post 3,” write 1 thing you plan to do next to revise your syllabus teaching statement using an anti-colonial lens. Feel free to comment on other posts and discuss ways you might incorporate or modify ideas for your own teaching statement.
Conclusion
Today, we learned the importance of including teaching statements in our syllabi, identified our own teaching philosophy, and described ways to revise our teaching statements using an anti-colonial lens. Writing a teaching statement is a reflective practice that encourages us to reexamine our identities as teachers and the impact these identities have on our students. While our teaching statements can seem like static documents, they are dynamic, changing as we deepen our understanding of our pedagogical perspectives and our students’ ways of knowing. In the next section, you’ll have the chance to learn more about diverse ways of knowing by exploring the Indigenous communities upon whose land your institution occupies as you prepare to create land acknowledgment statements.
References
Bowne, M. (2017). Developing a teaching philosophy. Journal of Effective Teaching, 17(3), 59-63.
King, T. (Host). (2021). Episode 8: Establishing and revisiting our teaching philosophies and teaching personas [Audio podcast episode]. In Faculty Focus Live. Retrieved from https://www.facultyfocus.com/faculty-focus-live-podcast/#episode8
Mandernach, B. J. (2009). Writing the “syllabus version” of your philosophy of teaching. In Faculty Focus Special Report Philosophy of Teaching Statements: Examples and Tips on How to Write a Teaching Philosophy Statement (pp. 9-10). Magna Publications. Retrieved from https://scs.illinois.edu/system/files/inline-files/Teaching%20Philosophy%20Examples.pdf
McCormack, C., Schönwetter, D. J., Ruge, G., & Kennelly, R. (2023). Promoting university teacher resilience through teaching philosophy development. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 14(1).
Richmond, A. S. (2016). Constructing a learner-centered syllabus: One professor’s journey (IDEA, #60, 1-14). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573642.pdf
Wilson, S. (n.d.). Revolutionizing my syllabus: The process. Inside Bryyn Mawr. Retrieved from https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/academic-information/centers-institutes/teaching-learning-institute/creating-rethinking-syllabi-open-learning/revolutionizing-my-syllabus-process