Teaching Philosophy

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

My teaching begins from the conviction that every student has a voice. This is a conviction that has been shaped by my experiences as a student, and eventually a lecturer, at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and again as a Teaching Assistant and an Instructor of Record at The Pennsylvania State University. Overtime, I have come to see my role not as the gatekeeper of knowledge and the learning process but as a facilitator and a mediator who helps students recognize the value of their insights and refine them through evidence, and process-based argumentation through the learning process. These formative experiences have taught me to create classroom spaces that encourage participation from students who speak readily and those who hesitate and guiding them all to anchor their interpretations and responses in careful textual, historical, and visual analysis. When students begin to see that their observations and responses can withstand scrutiny and generate new understandings, they develop both analytical skill and a sense of intellectual agency. Teaching, for me, has overtime become the work of cultivating a classroom where rigorous inquiry emerges from the recognition that each student contributes something meaningful to our collective understanding.

The belief that every student has a voice continues to inform my teaching practice in the current pedagogical landscape which is increasingly being shaped by the normalization of generative AI. Through the learning process, I approach teaching not through prohibition but through critical engagement. I ask students to own their learning process, and take pride in their voice, by interrogating, rather than deferring to, AI generated responses. In my courses, students are encouraged to analyze where such tools succeed, where they fail, and what assumptions structure their responses, using these moments as opportunities to sharpen their own interpretive judgement and argumentative voice. This approach aligns with my broader conviction to cultivating intellectual agency on the part of the students. They learn that insight does not emerge from automated “prompts-and-responses” but from sustained attention to evidence, context, method, and process. Indeed, by integrating AI into the classroom as an object of critique rather than a substitute for thinking, I aim to equip the students with the analytical skills necessary to navigate contemporary knowledge cultures with discernment and confidence in their own place and voice.