Dr. Jennifer Collins-Elliott, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies has valued education from an early age. “I was the kid that spent much of her summer at the public library, did the summer homework, and played teacher.” As a first-generation student, her parents gave her the freedom to pursue her passion. “When I went to college, they (her parents) supported me in whatever I wanted to study.” Her passion to teach emerged from her passion in religious studies:
I wanted to share my interest in religion and the study of religion with others. I wanted to impart that same excitement, that same experience of learning how to see the world, people, and history in a new way. I taught my first class as a second-year graduate student at Florida State University. It was as addictive as it was scary, and I’ve been teaching ever since.
Dr. Collins-Elliott’s teaching philosophy is summed up by the familiar adage, “Meet students where they are.” She goes on to say that this philosophy “has shaped how I conceptualize course content and assignments, giving me the confidence to expand my own knowledge and skillsets in order to make my courses resonate with students.” She states that students “come into class with both intellectual and personal interests.” However, given that the content of her courses often focuses on gender and sexuality, taking her classes can be “intimidating for students.” By committing to a personal call “to treat students as individuals, to be flexible, and to recognize our shared humanity”, Dr. Collins-Elliott has been able to teach effectively across teaching modalities as well as teaching and learning circumstances.
Dr. Collins-Elliott has many examples of how she meets students where they are in her classroom. She describes one particularly innovative practice that allows her students to make connections with what they are learning in class with their everyday lives:
I have a “pop culture project” in my Judaism, Christianity, and Islam class in which students choose an item of pop culture and analyze how this item (a TV show/episode, movie, social media account/post, etc.) reflects and shapes what we think about Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Media literacy is hugely important, and this kind of practice encourages students to be consciously aware of how religion is depicted in the media, who gets to create these depictions, and the consequences of this.
This exercise, along with many others that Dr. Collins-Elliott uses, as well as her philosophical approach to teaching has created an impactful learning experience for her students:
Some of the best feedback I’ve received from students is that they’ve been able to broaden their horizons, appreciate perspectives they hadn’t considered before, and felt that they could better relate to those around them, particularly among friends and in the workplace. This is something I have heard repeatedly from students who were majoring in medical fields. It is heartening to know that these students are already thinking about the diversity of patients they will one day treat and that they want to be able to best serve them.
As with most instructors, Dr. Collins-Elliott has reflected upon her teaching experiences. She has identified two that have particularly impacted her career. The first was in Spring 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic:
I was already slated to teach online that semester because I was pregnant and due to give birth in late February 2020. I was so struck by the understanding, flexibility, and kindness that all my students showed in the face of uncertainty and my being newly post-partum. My exchanges with students that semester and subsequent semesters in which I was teaching online from my dining room, sometimes with a baby on my lap, will forever stay with me. I honestly had some of my best classes and teaching experiences those semesters. During that time, I learned so much about how to be a more responsive teacher.
Her second is when she runs into former students as she engages in her life outside the classroom. “There is no better feeling than being out in Knoxville, seeing a former student, and hearing how much they enjoyed our class and how it has shaped them.”
Asked about the future of higher education, Dr. Collins-Elliott makes three important points. First, she asserts,
“I am a firm believer in the centrality of the Liberal Arts and Humanities in higher education. Teaching about and learning about what it means to be human should remain central to higher education. I hope that appreciation for the Humanities can grow, as can investment in Humanities departments.
Second, she comments on the importance of online teaching and pedagogy stating, “If we want to serve a diverse student body, the flexibility of online learning will remain key. This will also necessitate increased creativity and training in online pedagogy.” Finally, she offers her thoughts on what she calls the “permanent lecture-class in higher education.” She states:
Recognition of and investment in teaching faculty must continue to happen if universities want to meet the needs of growing and changing undergraduate populations, as well as to retain excellent scholars and educators.