Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
An ethos of caring and integration
At the heart of my teaching, I establish that I am a caring person as well as a resource and that librarians and the library are welcoming and vital to student and faculty success, particularly because information literacy skills are critical. As a lifelong learner, I also believe that in addition to my teaching, my scholarship and service are also learning opportunities and deliberately seek to integrate all three.
An ethos of openness
Openness is at the center of my practice as a teacher and as a librarian. Listening to students in the classroom requires openness and a willingness to suspend my own “right answers” and, instead, respectfully consider students’ varied and surprising responses to my teaching prompts or approaches to information literacy. I also embrace openness in scholarship and promote it through my management of Academic Works and teaching colleagues the value of open access.
Imagine an impenetrable, high-walled castle. This castle is the publisher paywall. Even the most gallant individual can not rescue the princess (scholarly articles). Academic Works (with my assist) is the knight that liberates the princess and makes our scholarship free for all to read. I also share and openly license my teaching materials because I believe that others should be able to use my materials for their work. Lastly, teaching with Wikipedia, which makes knowledge creation visible, is another expression of my open ethos.
Additional teaching philosophies will be considered in context under Description of Teaching Methodologies
