Teaching Philosophy

I incorporate four primary themes into my teaching:

interaction
practicality
exploration
empathetic empiricism

The goal of interaction should be empowerment of the student and represents a state in which both the teacher and the student are active in different ways. The pedagogical responsibility borne by political science instructors must not shade over into indoctrination, and the learning responsibility borne by students should include open-mindedness to a critical examination of issues.

In this sense, I see interaction as an engagement of mutual responsibilities. High-quality interactions require the instructor work to relate knowledge that to knowledge why. Once this mindset is established, students are better able to enter into a higher-order engagement with material. As such, I attempt to incorporate different perspectives (historical, economic, racial, social, etc.) of a topic so that I can present valuable critical lenses in the classroom.

In practical terms, the interaction part of my teaching philosophy favors experiential learning, bidirectional feedback, and a multimodal approach (discussions, simulations, lectures, and presentations) to classroom engagement. Kolb’s theory of experiential learning proposes that learning is a process where knowledge is created through experience. Kolb theorizes that learning takes place when the student engages in a novel or concrete experience, reflects upon this experience, conceptualizes it, and tests its authenticity by applying it to future experiences. This aims to increase student knowledge and capacity for analysis while promoting personal development.

By working together on simulations with students, both sides are interacting by doing. In a course on international relations, students engage in competitive role-play as United Nations representatives from different countries with complex and conflicting objectives. In a course on United States foreign policy, students work together as members of the National Security Council to develop policies addressing significant crises. In a course on elections, students learn about the nomination process by participating in mock caucus and primary days. These activities represent an excellent opportunity for interaction because the specialized expertise that students develop provides a chance to engage one another and the material in different ways.

While I am enamored with political science as an academic discipline, I am also aware of, and respectful toward, the fact that many undergraduate students will not pursue political science as a major, let alone a career path. Therefore, I am eager to ensure that all students leave with something of value to them. For example, my approach to teaching theory begins from the presumption that theory is a tool for understanding the world, and, in particular, the world of each student. Some students might be able to connect to Foucault or Agamben on a formal level, but every student can—and should be encouraged to—extract the aspects of these theories that make sense of everyday life, and not merely political life. We approach them as explanatory lenses of flexible relevance.

Finally, my teaching philosophy includes empathetic empiricism. A focus on empiricism has become increasingly important when disinformation and misinformation can so easily find its way into our students’ lives; to slightly alter Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous quote, I believe that “Every student is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.” In every course, we first establish a fact-based foundation upon which we can engage in the critical exploration of issues.

In 2019, I published a paper on the subject of “political empathy” as it relates to citizen attitudes and negative partisanship. Empathy in the classroom includes not only showing respect and kindness toward others but being able to step outside and examine perspectives other than our own. In an English literature course, students are asked to understand a character's feelings and experiences. In sociology, anthropology, and psychology courses, students are asked to expand their understanding of other people, societies, and experiences. Political science should be no different. Studies have shown that this kind of dialogue enhances rather than impairs understanding, and so it is my intention to encourage and facilitate my students' understanding of the world and those who live in it.