Some Teaching Statements on Rejecting, Rethinking, Repurposing and Re-claiming (an) Education
To start this portfolio, I’m re-imaging the teaching statement, usually a concise and straightforward document crafted to present and promote teaching promise and skills, as a series of statements about my philosophy on teaching and my complicated and conflicted feelings about that philosophy and being a teacher.
These statements are intended to be placed beside each other, to be considered individually and as a whole. Some of them offer different versions of the primary story of this book, that is: Once upon a time I had an intense enthusiasm and joy for teaching (I am a Teacher!). Then I lost it and stopped teaching (I was a Teacher.). Now, I’m trying to figure out what a teacher is and if I could be one again (Am I still a teacher?). Others convey my pedagogical visions and goals for teaching inside or outside of traditional classrooms. And a third set of statements assert my values and beliefs about education and being an educator.