Philosophy

The above quotes and summaries are from my philosophy of education I prepared for a previous course in Spring 2022. I bring them here to frame my current instructional design philosophy because both are intertwined. The ideas articulated above, along with the influence of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, encompass my overarching conception of education. I believe that the purpose of education is to develop the humanness of each student, to light up their critical thinking about their interests and the world around them. Learning is about growing, becoming closer to oneself and each other. To be a teacher is to facilitate and to engage; students must know that their learning is happening simultaneously to the learning of their teacher alongside them.  

Educators today face the immense challenge of fighting for truth and dignity. As the K-12 field is faced with racist revisions to history lessons, books banned from school libraries, and threats for supporting LGBTQ+ students, higher education in the United States is up against a movement to dismantle critical DEI efforts and restricting discourse about topics like race, gender, and sexuality. Meanwhile, disabled students continue to endure invisible labor as they navigate an institution that was designed to exclude them. And faculty across the country experience subpar workplace environments as a result of neoliberal policies.

This reality requires us to lean into how small changes can make big impacts. To realize how a few changes to a course each term can make a big impact. That listening to colleagues and finding community with students builds solidarity. Although instructional design may be the "behind-the-scenes" work of education, its impacts are experienced by students everywhere and this must be harnessed in service of developing that critical awareness in every student. 

Central to an instructional designer's place within education is how they bridge the needs of the faculty and student. By working in partnership with faculty, instructional designers provide a collaborative design space for course development. Through customized approaches informed by educational theories, instructional designers are the crucial supports that allow for teachers to be the engaging facilitators to their students. Then, with an understanding of how effective and active learning is fostered, instructional designers are advocates for student learning. 

With my academic backgrounds, applying a critical lens towards my projects is at the forefront of my mind. Whether it's critical disability theory, feminist theory, queer theory, or critical race theory, I want to be sure that I'm applying theory to practice and connecting the work I've done as a student with the work that I do as an instructional designer. Further, with necessary discourses of trauma, mental health, and neurodiversity in education, I seek to be more trauma-informed, compassionate, and inviting of new ways of thinking and processing. My analysis of the Common Hour learning outcomes and activities in Design Task 2 incorporates this awareness of students' past experiences and ways to navigate topics that may be activating. 

I also seek to build rapport with each instructor I collaborate with, investing time to get to know them, their intentions, and their needs. I value the relationship building aspect because it allows me to offer an approach that is uniquely aligned to the project at hand. Without knowing who I'm working with, I won't know whether an instructor might respond better to the sequential process of Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction or a re-framing of the dichotomy between formative and summative assessments, as presented by Michael Quinn Patton. 

The metacognitive approach that Patton recommends emphasizes that practice, feedback, and evaluation are a collaborative effort towards greater understanding of all participants, which aligns with the purposes of education to inspire critical awareness and promote continued learning, even as teachers. This also speaks to Au's dialectical approach to education: "Nothing is just is, it is something in motion." Even in my very first design task, I found elements that could be edited, identifying a problem and designing a solution. Although I seek to create thorough project outcomes, I understand that nothing will ever truly be complete. Meanwhile, Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction break down instructional lessons into scaffolded steps, inviting attention to each as important pieces of the whole. To Gagne, gaining students' attention and informing them of the learning objectives are intentional processes. This articulates a care towards compassionate, inclusive, and active learning strategies.

Being at the beginning of my professional and postgraduate career, I seek to live this philosophy throughout all that I do. I hope to never lose sight of the purpose of education as building critical awareness and becoming inspired for a better world. I want to continue to learn more about educational and instructional design theories and grow as a scholar. I will continue to reflect on my trajectory of being a student, teacher, and instructional designer, to revisit this philosophy, and to revise my philosophy when needed. In this pursuit, I look forward to the future colleagues, peers, mentors, and communities I'll learn with.