A Teaching Philosophy: Wendy Wilson
My commitment to teaching is situated within two related passions, a passion for social
justice and a desire to encourage individuals to believe in the possibility that everyone can
be empowered to change both themselves as individuals as well as the world in which they
live. I strongly believe that teaching is a political activity, in terms of both content and style.
In regard to content, I am exceedingly fortunate to teach in the discipline of Sociology and
the interdisciplinary area of Women’s and Gender Studies. Teaching the content of Women’s
and Gender Studies and Sociology allows me to teach about issues of equality, the material
reality experienced by various groups of people, and the cultural understandings, negative
and positive, invested in socioeconomic status, gendered experiences, sexual preferences,
race and ethnicities, abilities and disabilities and other social locations. I feel that both of
these disciplines have provided me with an opportunity to give students occasion to learn
beyond their own ‘backyards’ and to question social phenomena that they might otherwise
take for granted. We live in a global environment in which there are numerous social
problems and students, past, present and future, will be responsible for developing
innovative and, hopefully, equitable solutions to those problems. I want students to leave
my courses feeling saddened by the injustice within the world, frustrated by a continuation
of inequality and want in a global milieu of more than adequate resources for all, and, most
importantly, I want them to feel empowered to do something about it, whether that is
simply within their own peer groups and families, or at a local, national or global level.
Teaching should truly be transformative and that transformation should not stop at the
classroom door. What students learn in the classroom should go far beyond the academic
content of any particular course.
Whatever style of teaching is adopted, whether it is authoritarian and arbitrary with a belief
in the possibility of absolute objectivity or empowering, nurturing and accompanied by the
acceptance of the subjective nature of knowledge, within any classroom students are
immersed in an environment in which they are learning about the expression and operation
of power. Because I truly believe that teaching should engage students in questioning their
social environments, then it follows that there is a responsibility to teach in a way that is
inclusive, empowering and emancipatory. I believe that a teacher should work towards
creating learning environments in which it is understood that knowledge, academic or
experiential, comes out of the social positions that we occupy, that we ‘know’ from the
identities we are situated within. This must include my recognition that students bring the
knowledge they gain from other courses they have taken and from the life experiences they
have had to the learning environment. Conversely, my various social locations inform my
view of the world and my teaching. Teaching is a collaborative enterprise, one in which I
hope to encourage students to look beyond the surface to critically analyze their lives, their
experiences and the spheres in which they live and in which I am also responsible to
question my own understandings and analysis as well. Teachers and students have a joint
responsibility to learn from one another. I may bring more years of experience, disciplinary
knowledge and expertise to the classroom but students bring fresh eyes, different identities
and social locations, and often the new experiences of a different generation to the
classroom.
As such, I encourage questioning and discussions within the classroom as a whole and also
ask students to participate in group discussions so that they can learn from each other as
well as from me; I encourage creative group work which can take the form of typical
presentations but which are just as likely to come in the form of debates, skits, or role plays.
Through these opportunities, students learn to work with and appreciate the knowledge,
perspectives, and skills of others. I encourage students to choose topics for their written
assignments which allow them to explore their personal interests and future goals; I ask
them to write reflective papers which require them to engage thoughtfully with issues and
experiences they encounter in their daily lives. Although I certainly lecture in order to
provide interdisciplinary knowledge, I also show documentaries and require students to
bring in materials from magazines, newspapers and from the internet that they have found
themselves in regard to various topics.
Learning should be life-long, taking place outside of the classroom and far beyond a
postsecondary education. As a teacher and a scholar, I want students to see their daily lives
as an ongoing opportunity to learn, analyze and critique. I want students to develop an
analytical and critical attitude and a desire to look beyond the seemingly obvious
assumptions we internalize and which often serve as the foundation for understanding our
lives and the lives of others. I would hope students come away from the classroom feeling
capable of being full participants in their own lives rather than merely bystanders that life
happens to; I hope that students learn how to make informed decisions and choices,
personally and politically, and are able to have some autonomy and control over the
circumstances of the lives.
I cannot end this philosophical statement without acknowledging the importance of support
from one’s colleagues in having a positive teaching experience. It is always a challenge to be
the teacher one wants to be and there are many things in life, both professional and
personal, which make it difficult to consistently live up to one’s own pedagogical ideals.
Since I began teaching as a sessional lecturer, I have consistently been offered support,
mentorship, and respect from members of the Women’s and Gender Studies
department/program, whether they were Heads of the department/program, tenured
faculty, administrative assistants, or other sessional lecturers. Teaching within an
interdiscipline which takes pedagogical concerns so seriously has positively informed my
own teaching in ways that cannot be measured. Teaching within the supportive
environment of Women’s and Gender Studies has made me a far better teacher than I would
otherwise be.