Context Specific Statement of Teaching Philosophy

In order to create this teaching philosophy, I relied on this handy list from SFU. I am just going to write bulleted responses under the guiding questions, and adjust the questions to the topic of this blog. 

What is your experience teaching through social media and online?

• I have been a blogger for a long time. I try to use a blog as a friendly and approachable way to share information with people, including other educators. When I did a lot of pro-d, often readers would introduce themselves to me at events, and so the blog was not just online, it was part of my in real life social world as well.  I like this modality because I can do it whenever, and people can engage with it whenever. 

Describe a successful teaching/learning experience (either a teacher or learner). What made this a positive experience?

• In terms of blogging - a successful experience is when someone discovers something that they love through my blog. Back in the day, before Twitter was toxic, often I would get feedback about what landed through Twitter. And it was often a reciprocal experience, where someone would say, "I love this book you shared, and it reminds me of this other book that I love." It was a positive experience because I was able to connect with someone else over a shared interest. This blog is a hobby. It is not work, it is one of the things that I do in my free time. So really, that is all that I am looking for from the blog - to connect with people over a shared interest. 

Under what conditions do you think blog readers learn best? Why?

• I try to set a low pressure conversational tone for readers. I assume that they have not read the books that I am referring to, and they may or may not follow up by reading. I suspect a lot of my readers are people who wish they had time to read books, but just don't have time to read books. Yet, they want to keep up with conversations happening in and around books. The conversational tone provides me with an opportunity to express myself and provides readers with an opportunity to learn about books and conversations happening around books. 
• The blog is not a credentialed learning experience. People are here because they have a little bit of time to read, and I want to really honour the fact that they are choosing to read this blog. I honour that fact by taking an appreciative stance towards readers and also by trying to make sure that they learn something new each visit. I also try to make it easy for them to connect to new resources by linking them to interesting information. 
• In the early years of my sister blog, I tried to ensure that I recommended resources that were online for free. That approach would be too limited for this blog. However, I will still try to build in links to free information in this blog as well.

What is your main message for your teaching philosophy?

• I believe in the power of stories to help us learn about the world and ourselves. 
• I believe that Indigenous science fiction has the potential to inspire/encourage Indigenous people in our individual and collective journeys. 
• I believe that learning Indigenous science fiction is a way that non-Indigenous people can increase their capacity to be anti-racist. 

Reflect on your teaching values and beliefs

• The First Peoples Principles of Learning have shaped me as a teacher. I have learned about them through my work in curriculum development, through collaboratively developed and delivered professional development workshops, and through the excellent work of Jo Chrona. I respect the individuals who contributed to them and I respect the fact that they came out of an agreement between First Nations in BC, the provincial government, and the federal government. Even though this blog is not specifically for K-12 students, the FPPL influence the way that I create posts because I have spent enough time with them that they are just embedded in how I approach texts. 
• "This we believe" and "Pedagogy of the oppressed" also shaped the way that I approach teaching. 

Describe your teaching context (e.g., students)

• I don't have students. I have readers. I think my readers fall into several categories: Indigenous literature enthusiasts, K-12 educators, and people studying Indigenous literature. I assume that my readers are either Indigenous or have pre-existing knowledge about Indigenous people. And I assume that they are here because they like learning about Indigenous perspectives. I assume my readers do not have a lot of time because they are busy doing cool things in the world.  
• I am not vetting these resources for use in K-12. Some of the things that I share might be a good fit for K-12, but I leave it to the individual educators to decide whether or not specific texts are a good fit for their teaching context. 

Articulate your goals for improving your own professional practice

• I did just completed a PhD which studied Indigenous futurisms. But that was a very specific mode of reading and writing. I feel like I have a lot of pathways that I did not pursue. And I feel like what I included in my dissertation is only a fraction of some of the things that the literature inspired me to think about. And so I envision this blog as being a place where I broaden and extend my self guided inquiry around the question, "what might Indigenous futurisms teach me?" 

Go to FNESC.CA for full poster