My Teaching Goals:

Over the course of my graduate work, I’ve had the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant for many courses and hundred of students. Through that work, and through my research on Indigenous education, I have developed several goals to orient my approach to teaching.

Developing philosophical skills

Philosophical skill is not a natural quality which students either have or lack. Instead, philosophy is a set of tools - for analysis, criticism, exposition, and argument - which can be developed. My approach to teaching is to focus on developing these skills in students through careful assignment and course design. Throughout my courses, I focus on each of these skills individually and encourage students to think in terms of each skill while they develop competence with the course material. The goal is to bring the skills together for a final assignment that demonstrates facility will all four.

Supporting collaborative learning

My classes include a variety of students who each have different backgrounds and bring different experience and knowledge to classroom discussions. I work to take advantage of the different backgrounds of my student by including discussion and reflections into my course design, to allow students to benefit from the knowledge of others in the classroom in addition to the course content.

Empowering Indigenous Students

My research focuses on Indigenous knowledge, and my approach to teaching is to approach course and assignment design in all my courses in accordance with the principles of wahkootowin: mutual support, reciprocity, decency, and order. Attention to these values helps me include cultural knowledge in the content and structure of my courses, and to give Indigenous students an experience in their University careers that takes their cultural knowledge and unique insight seriously.