Teaching in prisons over the past twelve years radically transformed my pedagogy. Since 2011, I have taught and tutored at Phillips State Prison in Buford, Georgia Since 2011, I have worked as both a tutor, teacher, and administrator at Phillips State Prison—as well as taught courses at Metro Reentry Facility and Walker State Prison. In working with incarcerated students, I have been constantly struck by the contrast between “the free minds of the imprisoned bodies” of my students at Phillips and “imprisoned minds of the free bodies” of my traditional college students (Jefferson Cowie, “On Lecturing in a Prison”). Incarcerated students are often stripped of social illusions because of their marginal position, leading them to have a greater depth of insight and willingness to discuss topics that were socially taboo for traditional college students. While incarcerated students often need assistance in formulating their thoughts, their minds are significantly freer than my traditional college students. Since the incarcerated students are ostracized from vocational society, they develop intellectual agency apart from an occupational framework. My experience teaching in prisons has reminded me not only of the liberatory power of education, but also the way contemporary education can lead to integration within the existing social world—rather than critique.
Throughout my teaching career, facilitating critical thinking and communication has been central to pedagogy in my composition, popular culture, literature, and special topics courses. In the composition classroom, my goal is to introduce students to the practices of critical reading and writing as modes of critical thinking. My composition students develop these skills through investigating specific course themes in deep rather than wide learning. I encourage students to focus on a specific issue or range of experiences alongside the historical context(s) surrounding these thematic focuses. In my popular culture courses, we work to historicize contemporary developments in popular culture in order to restore the erasure of history pervasive in contemporary popular culture. Literature courses, including world literature and American literature, act to expand the canon of these literatures both in terms of text(s) and author(s)—but also the genre and medium of literary creation. Special topics courses, including courses on conspiracy theories, nostalgia, and mass incarceration, pursue a historical perspective on the cultural politics of emotion.
I believe that the value of education is its ability to resist dominant modes of thought and assist students in developing critical thinking and communication skills. I also believe that the ability to analyze texts and arguments is intimately tied to student’s ability to communicate their own. I balance engagement with students’ ideological presumptions with the practice of critical thinking and communication that questions their assumed knowledge. It is essential for students to understand that texts and arguments are constructed, can be taken apart, and do not hold any inherent, naturalized quality. Furthermore, they can also construct texts in like manner. By giving them the space to develop the intellectual and educational skills essential for critical thinking, students learn that communication and reading can push against preexisting societal boundaries; thus, they are better able to engage their thoughts, ideas, and actions to create a better future.
Throughout my teaching career, facilitating critical thinking and communication has been central to pedagogy in my composition, popular culture, literature, and special topics courses. In the composition classroom, my goal is to introduce students to the practices of critical reading and writing as modes of critical thinking. My composition students develop these skills through investigating specific course themes in deep rather than wide learning. I encourage students to focus on a specific issue or range of experiences alongside the historical context(s) surrounding these thematic focuses. In my popular culture courses, we work to historicize contemporary developments in popular culture in order to restore the erasure of history pervasive in contemporary popular culture. Literature courses, including world literature and American literature, act to expand the canon of these literatures both in terms of text(s) and author(s)—but also the genre and medium of literary creation. Special topics courses, including courses on conspiracy theories, nostalgia, and mass incarceration, pursue a historical perspective on the cultural politics of emotion.
I believe that the value of education is its ability to resist dominant modes of thought and assist students in developing critical thinking and communication skills. I also believe that the ability to analyze texts and arguments is intimately tied to student’s ability to communicate their own. I balance engagement with students’ ideological presumptions with the practice of critical thinking and communication that questions their assumed knowledge. It is essential for students to understand that texts and arguments are constructed, can be taken apart, and do not hold any inherent, naturalized quality. Furthermore, they can also construct texts in like manner. By giving them the space to develop the intellectual and educational skills essential for critical thinking, students learn that communication and reading can push against preexisting societal boundaries; thus, they are better able to engage their thoughts, ideas, and actions to create a better future.
