For me, teaching means fanning the flames of a student’s love of learning.
I have enjoyed teaching academic classes in topical sociology, methods, and writing – to both undergraduate students and graduate students
and I have taught families and healthcare workers, in my capacity as a doula, educator, and trainer in birth and bereavement.
It is an honor to share my love of learning with my students, across all these different topics and audiences.
My teaching philosophy
is summed up in four principles.
Curious exploration
I work to make my classroom a lab of wonder, awe, and motivation to work for justice.
Warm hospitality
In my classes, I center the dignity of each and every human – from syllabus writing, to assignment design, to fostering class discussion, to grading, and more.
Collaborative learning
We learn best when we learn together. And that includes both me and my students. So you’ll often see folks in my classrooms working in teams, having popcorn discussions, or doing research speed-dating (where we each present our research questions to another classmate in two minutes or less for feedback).
Teaching as a skill
I’ve worked hard to become the teacher I am, and my hard work has paid off in student appreciation, positive evaluations, and even teaching awards. But I’m not done. I seek out feedback from students and teaching experts to continuously improve my ability and offer better, more engaging, more inclusive classes for my students.
My proudest moment teaching academic classes was the first time a student told me that, because of my class, they decided to switch their major to sociology.
My favorite assignment is in my Introduction to Cultural Sociology class, when, as a final project, students write a script for a two-minute introduction to a Star Trek episode informed by the theorists we’ve read over the course of the semester.
Want to learn more?
Let’s chat! Email me at abartel2@nd.edu.