Tell us about your background. How did your experiences lead you to become a graduate student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville?
As an undergraduate, I double-majored in English and biblical studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. The two majors had a common thread for me: how we interpret texts to have meaning for our everyday lives and how we navigate disagreement over our conflicting interpretive values. After graduating in 2019, I entered a master’s program in English here at the University of Tennessee, with a concentration in Rhetoric, Writing and Linguistics. Originally, I intended to study religious rhetoric: how religious people in general, and Christians in particular, make arguments from their religious beliefs in unique ways. I saw this research agenda as an extension of my undergraduate work; I wanted to use my time in the program to continue investigating the connections between English studies and religious studies. Along the way, I hoped to decide whether I wanted to pursue an academic career or go into publishing/editorial work.My research on religious rhetoric became practical and applied as I began to study political rhetoric: How do people argue about politics in ways that emerge from their unique backgrounds and identities? How do our students craft arguments from their own religious, moral, and ethical commitments? And most importantly: How might I teach students how to dialogue productively with one another across their own differences?Over the course of my master’s program, I fell in love with teaching—which led me back to these important questions, because teaching is the practical application of my theoretical research on rhetoric and writing. Teaching and research have a circular relationship, because I test new ideas in my classes, and those classes in turn raise new questions for further research. I continued this research trajectory, with a renewed focus on civic discourse and composition pedagogy, in my PhD program in Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics (also here at UTK).
Please describe your experience partaking in events and workshops through TLI and CIRTL programs.
(How has this experience supported your goals as a graduate student and a future educator? If you haven’t ever participated in our TLI/CIRTL workshops and programs, please describe your experience with courses or other professional development opportunities that shaped how you teach. Which would you say had the most significant impact on you?)
I’m lucky to be a part of a teaching-focused discipline. Scholars of writing focus on how to teach writing effectively, and my own research focuses on the teaching and assessment of first-year composition (English 101 and English 102). As part of my master’s program, I shadowed two experienced teachers and took a three-credit graduate course on effective composition pedagogy before teaching my own classes as the instructor of record.The most important thing I learned in my preparation for teaching was to be reflective. As a teaching assistant, I took notes in every class period about what I appreciated and what I wanted to change for my own teaching. As an instructor, I build opportunities for formative feedback into my schedule, including a midterm assessment where students have an opportunity to tell me what’s going well and what needs to be improved. Taking a step back to evaluate my teaching and change course where necessary makes me a much better instructor.
Consider your teaching experiences: Do you have one or more experiences that show you positively impacted their learning?
As a pedagogy researcher, I’m obsessed with data collection, so I’m always finding ways to get feedback from my students. I use biweekly “reflection quizzes” to check in with students, and I usually include a catch-all question at the end to the effect of “How are you feeling about this week? What questions or concerns do you have?”I like to begin my English 101 classes—which focus on rhetoric and argumentation—with a debate. On the first day of class, we have to come up with persuasive arguments for/against a list of potential attendance policies. At the end of the class period, we vote on the options and I agree to abide by whatever policy they select. A couple of years ago, I had a particularly engaged class. The debate was so energetic that we barely had time to take a vote on our proposed policies. In that week’s reflection quiz, the responses were overwhelmingly positive. “I’ve never had a teacher ask me to take such an active role in our class before,” one student wrote. “You actually treat us like adults.”That story illustrates my overarching principle for teaching: students should be active participants in their own learning, not passive recipients of knowledge. I try to ensure that students in my class have ownership of their own learning, from selecting writing topics they care about to inviting them to collaborate with me on syllabus policies and rubrics.