Students are empowered by my passion for what I teach when I do so in dialogue and solidarity with their diverse needs and experiences. My daily interactions in and out of the classroom are guided by my principles of radical honesty, hope, and solidarity in co-education, and of grasping power, meaning to locate and critique power while empowering oneself and others.
I take inspiration from the critical pedagogy tradition of Paulo Freire in critiquing the “banking” model of education that treats students as empty, passive vessels who must adapt themselves to the teacher and passively soak up lessons given to them. I found important lessons in a “dialogical” and “problem-posing” approach to educating diverse learners that helps us demystify power relations, empower students, and improve transparency and accountability in a flexible learning process.
During class, both my students and I together actively engage course materials, offering our interpretations while reflecting on our positionality and that of the primary and secondary sources that inform our perspectives. This motivates us to grapple with the spoken and unspoken, formal and informal power, how power can be diffused and obscured by dynamic systems and hegemonic discourses, and how our one’s perspective contributes to crafting historical narratives. We situate texts and students’ own viewpoints in historical and social contexts to foster critical engagement and prepare students for their own research projects. Seeing students apply course theories and research methods to their chosen sources and topics in new lights is one of the most rewarding parts of my teaching.
The silences that I help students identify are reflected in institutions and curricula. As I diversify my syllabi, my university service focuses on facilitating networks and creating mechanisms for traditionally marginalized groups to access the benefits of higher education. I have facilitated workshops and developed teaching materials to alleviate fears of addressing culturally sensitive issues such as race and Islamophobia at the curricular and institutional levels.
To better understand the student body with consistent feedback, I begin new topics by asking students to share their knowledge and interests both publicly and anonymously. In the middle of the semester, I offer students an anonymous course evaluation survey of my own, asking students to rate and comment on course materials and instruction methods. This allows me to make small adjustments during the semester and prepare for future semesters.
I believe in “Universal Design for Education,” offering a range of curated tools to help students digest complex lessons and methodologies through diverse means. Some students have trouble grasping dense writings by academic experts, but find the texts more accessible after hearing or seeing examples of the argument in more familiar or accessible formats. Including international and non-academic sources also helps break down the amateur/expert binary that mystifies the power-knowledge relations of the academy and other professional institutions.
Some students struggle with participating in class, expressing themselves creatively, or absorbing traditional lectures. Employing a diverse array of instruction and participation methods in class offers something for everyone, and my course flexibility allows students to use their unique strengths and interests when engaging class discussions, materials, and assignments. I believe encouraging students to take charge of their education results in a more engaged classroom and makes those long-sought “eureka!” moments more common. I am most excited when students use the built-in flexibility and participatory structure of my classes to not only learn more but also explore and express their own interests and create innovative, socially impactful work.
Ben Arthur Thomson 