One of my sabbatical goals has been to draft a new Teaching Statement from scratch, and I have just done that! See Teaching Statement for where it sits. One challenge, of course, is that my previous statement was quite polished, after many iterations over many years of applications and submissions and reflection. I’ve sensed a shift coming for a while now, and you can clearly see my wheels working hard in this post from earlier this year: On Becoming a Student of Drawing, Part 5: Transformation.
Of course, as I step back to see its posted form, I see the next draft taking shape. It lacks a deeper why of transformation, beyond this is where I’m at in my life. Sure, I can prioritize transformation, but why do I think it is important value for teaching? Some brief notes:
- there is privilege, of course, to have had experiences of formal education and teacher-guides that are helpful to draw from–though not all positive, many were, and many more were transformational in good ways
- needs to recognize drawing from Kirkness & Barnhardt’s 4R’s, which have indeed impacted my teaching, sometimes aligning with while helpfully extending SDT toward transformation… especially Respecting autonomy of students (including students who have been harmed by education systems)
- bell hooks’ work (stemming from Friere) is another voice who deepens the conversation about transformational power of education–her stories of forging her own way are coming to mind
- and Mezirow is the “transformational learning” jargon that probably needs a nod
That was quick, but I have to run, and wanted to capture these thoughts. Feedback is welcome 🙂