After twelve years of teaching interdisciplinary, place- and community-based, experiential courses in social movements; social & cultural theory; social research methodologies & capstone theses; media studies; political ecology; rhetoric, representation & writing; comparative literature, and general education in traditions & cultures, I have come to consider teaching as a process not unlike that of my creative work in leading free-form jazz and other more structured performances.  Alongside my collaborators — my students — I constantly listen, learn, improvise and revise my teaching styles and strategies to enable each of us to find, express, develop and blend our voices — our melodies — in an ongoing process of discovery.  My work as the faculty leader in these student-centered exploratory performances is threefold:  1.  design effective learning environments, 2.  support student learning processes, and 3.  assess student learning outcomes.  My graduate coursework and research, coupled with my education and experience in pedagogical theory and practice, have fostered a keen ear for the complex dynamics and transformative possibilities of social performances within and between different discourse communities; participating with others in a new performance can change your approach to music, to yourself and to the world.  So I am a student-centered teacher;  my performances in the traditional or community-based classroom aim to evoke student participation in conversations and practices that inform and improve not only their abilities to understand and represent themselves and their worlds creatively and critically, but also my own skills as a professional educator and researcher of contemporary cultural practices.   I believe strongly in the importance of affect, of emotion in student learning outcomes.  But at the same time that I endeavor to wholly engage students with materials and methodologies relevant to their own cultural experiences and learning styles (e.g., experiential, service-learning and community-based research courses; analysis of various disciplinary, literary, folk and popular texts; an array of teaching and assignment styles), as band leader I do have to set the rhythm and structure of the improvisation.  In other words, I accept my responsibility to help students acquire the disciplinary knowledge and abilities to achieve full and critical participation in academic, professional and other communities at later stages in their lives.  Critical thinking, communication, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, ethics and civic engagement are clearly prerequisite to such success.  Consequently, my attention to learning as process is tempered by a rigorous demand for the constant improvement of student product.  I try to move experimentation in the classroom towards eventual applause from other audiences.

         I structure my courses accordingly.  In order to balance my valuation of process and product, I tend towards a combination of summative and formative narrative evaluation that recognizes the importance of in-class participation, structured & free journal entries, group work, role-playing, and peer- & self-evaluation at the same time that it expects and evaluates rigor in essays and exams.  Although course design varies with the subject matter and programmatic curricular goals, my syllabi work to gradually offer, elaborate and develop the references and abilities necessary for successful performance on later, larger projects.  Assignments towards the end of the semester — along with the student’s portfolio itself — count for a larger percentage of the overall grade (when grades are required by the institution or student) to encourage and reward student improvement throughout the course.  A certain amount of revision is not only allowed, it is required.  I also teach the use of word-processors, networked interactive media, and other new writing, teaching and research technologies (when available) to help equip students to participate and prosper in an increasingly electronic- and information-based society.  Today, full literacy entails facility not just with the written word, but also the abilities to read, write and critique electronic and mass-mediated communications.  Further, I have found that my interdisciplinary training in cultural studies has prepared me to understand and perform effectively in different, complex institutional, educational and cultural spaces; consequently, I strategically mix concepts, research methodologies and texts from a variety of academic disciplines to increase and diversify students' repertoires.  The uneven development of diverse learners entering the academy makes designing inclusive learning environments a moral necessary.

        As a scholar and teacher committed to social justice, I also view the classroom as a space for social change.  The history of U.S. educational practices clearly shows how teaching can discipline or even erase diverse identities and reproduce damaging race, class and gender relations.  But by instilling a critical self-awareness of the unequal power relations structuring cultural representations, performances and contexts, education enables people to transform the identities and social relations they inhabit, perform and constantly recreate.  In these classroom performances, then, I recognize the role of respectful, yet open conflict, disagreement and debate;  guided dissonance — aesthetic, cognitive and cultural — can often produce a deeper, more meaningful and progressive resolution.  Thus, I respectfully incorporate texts and performances from a variety of cultural contexts — e.g., canonical, dissident & multicultural texts; the natural sciences, local & urban legends; topical jokes; contemporary movies; students' dreams; rock songs; advertisements; corporate, government & activist publications; field-based student research; direct dialogue & work with diverse community members  — to evoke student involvement through shared references relevant to their own experience, to expose students to material from unfamiliar cultural contexts, but particularly to direct and nourish a skilled, critical and ethical engagement with the forms, practices and relationships constituting their everyday lives.

       My intra-class philosophy and practice is connected to what I’ve learned about innovative inter-class curricular design.  During the last five years, I have enjoyed the opportunity to participate extensively in the planning, development and revision of interdisciplinary liberal arts programs.  At the College of The Bahamas, I wrote the individual courses, general program structure and implentation proposal for the interdisciplinary B.A. in Bahamian and Caribbean Cultural Studies that has become the backbone model for their nascent Liberal Arts major.  I also participated in the development of COB's proposed B.A in Literatures in English.  And here at Arizona International College, I have been working to strengthen the cross-sectional and longitudinal integration -- learning communities -- of the freshman and sophomore core curriculum through semesterly and multi-year themed multi-course content and learning communities, linked writing assignments across courses, single & multi-course portfolios, and clarification of how specific core courses build AIC skills and competencies throughout the curriculum.  And as Interim Director of Arizona International College during our final seasons, I have come to recognize the importance of continued theorizing and practical engagement of our roles as public intellectuals within the larger political economic, institutional and popular contexts that enable, structure, and can end our work.