I believe that education can be transformative, but only if we put in the effort to make sure that all students have access and support. Without equality of access and support, higher education can instead reinforce existing social inequity as we reward and uplift students who have benefitted from more resources and better educational experiences and punish or otherwise push out students who do not have this privilege. My teaching experience has been one of continued discovery and growth, as I began by mimicking more traditional teaching practices before becoming more confident in my own teaching philosophy and techniques. Since 2017, I have taught eight different courses in Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Women and Gender Studies, and frequently teach some of the more intimidating courses in our core curriculum: Research Methods (both undergraduate and Masters) and Quantitative Analysis (Masters). I consistently receive excellent student evaluations, with emphasis on my course organization, passion for the topic, and student support. I have also directed an independent study course on public health approaches to criminal justice topics (Spring 2018), a McNair Scholars summer research project (Summer 2021), and an honors project that produced a public social media campaign (Spring 2022).
I have developed my teaching through both formal training and workshops and through self-directed study, as well as being in community with other teacher-scholars. I have received multiple certificates from the Suffolk University Center for Teaching and Scholarly Excellence (CTSE), including completion of the Course Design Institute, Online Course Design Institute, and Project-Based Learning Workshop. My teaching journey has been shaped by two questions: 1) What if I defined my approach to teaching by what I do want instead of what I don’t want? and 2) What would it look like if I put learning at the center of my teaching practice? I have since made the following changes:
Less lecture, more active learning. Following advice by Alfie Kohn and others, including No More Telling as Teaching (Tovani and Moje, 2017) and Learner-Centered Teaching (Weimar, 2013), I have significantly reduced the amount of class time I use for lecture. When I do need to deliver information, I try to keep my lecture to 15-20 minutes before moving to an application activity. I participated in a 6-week presentation design course with a community psychologist, Dr. Echo Rivera, to improve my presentation skills and have replaced my text-heavy “speaker notes” slides with more visually engaging, decluttered slides that serve as memory aids instead of speaker notes. By reducing the amount of text on the slide and using relevant high-resolution images, I help students keep their focus and encode the information to memory. I make all of my slides and any other class materials available online for all students, regardless of accommodations or requests, as this facilitates equal access even if students lack formal disability accommodations or if they are too embarrassed to ask.
Student-driven projects with real world relevance. I believe that students do their best work and experience the greatest growth when they are able to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world scenarios that matter to them. I have created assignments that reflect the challenges students will likely face in their careers, but provide high structure and ample opportunities for feedback and revision. In Research Methods, I survey students about their interests and use their responses to develop mock “requests for proposals” (RFPs). This allows students to choose their own angle for their research proposal but narrows the field so that (a) they are set up for success with an undergraduate-appropriate research design and (b) they can support each other in small group work (arranging students by RFP). It also provides them with an important opportunity to practice critical thinking skills as they learn how to read an RFP and strategize the best proposal – a highly in-demand skill in many careers. In my Masters-level course on intimate partner violence, students wrote comprehensive literature reviews on a subtopic of their choice and then partnered with Circle, Inc., a community advocacy organization, to produce informational materials based on their research. These materials benefit Circle and also become part of students’ portfolios of work as they enter the job market.
Course design for equity. I am motivated to make sure that higher education achieves its transformative potential instead of reifying existing social inequity. I begin each semester with an asset mapping activity to help bring students’ attention to the strengths that prepare them to tackle social problems. According to Wobbe and Stoddard’s Project-Based Learning in the First Year, this strategy is particularly impactful for students of color. I am also working to make sure that students feel a sense of community in their major and that they have the same access to opportunities. For example, I have created a Discord server for my courses to facilitate accessible out-of-class communication, collaboration, and community-building (currie, Compassionate Pedagogy on Discord). I use this platform to connect undergraduate and graduate students with their peers, program alum, and internship and employment opportunities.
Understanding that not all students have the same access to disability diagnosis and therefore may not have documentation for accommodations, I do not attach a grade to attendance or specific types of participation. Instead, I encourage attendance and participation through engaging in-class activities, and I have not experienced any difficulty with class-wide absences. I have moved towards open-access or library-access materials in place of expensive textbooks and software. In Quantitative Analysis, I moved all lecture content to pre-recorded videos so that students can watch them at their own pace and benefit from captions. This frees up class time for active learning activities. After observing how our students struggle with financial insecurity, housing instability, mental health, and other challenges, I was inspired by Laura Gibbs’ observation in Ungrading: “The grade on a report card or transcript does not allow anyone… to tell the difference between a student who is short on skills and a student who is short on sleep.” I am currently shifting more of my courses toward alternative assessment practices based on substantial evidence that traditional college grading de-centers learning, increases student anxiety, and exacerbates inequality (Blum, Ungrading; Feldman, Grading for Equity). I don’t believe there is a single correct approach to assessment but have been pleased with the outcomes of my experimentation with self-assessment and collaborative grading systems. I also provide a high amount of structure in my courses so that students have many low-stakes opportunities to practice and receive feedback before higher-stakes summative assessments (Sathy & Hogan, Inclusive Teaching).
Contributing to a learning community of educators. To help others make a similar shift in their teaching practices, I make my teaching materials publicly available. This helps me reach a wide audience beyond other college professors, including high school teachers and people who provide training and technical assistance to other organizations. My materials were shared by Justice Research and Statistics Association’s Center for Victim Research as the “Research Tool of the Month.” I also made the most of the additional work required to shift our teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic: I created 23 videos for Quantitative Analysis and another 22 for Crime Mapping, and these videos are available in a shareable playlist on YouTube for public use. I created the Discord server “CJ Teaching and Learning Community” (CJ-TLC) to bring together other criminal justice educators interested in inclusive pedagogy. This community has more than 50 members and provides a space to ask for support, compare experiences and offer advice, and share teaching resources with other instructors.
I have been delighted by the results of this shift in my mindset and the subsequent change in my teaching practice. Comments in my teaching evaluations show that students appreciate the activities and projects and that although my classes are “not easy” and “a lot of work,” they learn a lot and have fun. I have been recognized for my teaching practices through invitations to write for professional newsletters and other platforms. I have published teaching essays in the newsletter for the Division on Women & Crime and in ACJS Today (the publication for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences). My work has also been promoted by the Center for Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in their publication, Advance PBL.
COURSES
Undergraduate
WGS-113 Women, Science & Society: Explores women’s lives from the perspective of the social and natural sciences, including examination of recent biological, psychological, and sociological theories about gender and gender roles, as well as the influence of feminist scholarship in these areas. Topics include: the social construction of gender, the psychology and biology of sex and gender, women and work, media representations of women, women’s health and life cycle, women and sexuality, reproduction, abortion, and motherhood, and violence against women.
SOC-214 Research Methods in Sociology: How sociologists decide what to study, how they select a research design, sample and collect data, analyze results, interpret findings, and write up reports. Students are introduced to the techniques most frequently used by sociologists and undertake their own small research project. Required for all Sociology majors.
CJU-275 Women and Crime: This course examines the complex relationships between women and crime today. This focus will include women as criminal offenders; women as victims of crime; and women as both offenders and victims. Course materials draw from recent feminist scholarship on these issues in the social sciences. Topics include the causes of women’s crime women, drugs, and crime; child abuse and trauma; prostitution and sex trafficking; race, gender and victimization; and feminist social movements against violence. Crimes of violence against women are a central focus in the course.
CJU-335 Crime Mapping: This course examines crime and place. Students will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to look at crime patterns and develop crime prevention and reduction strategies. Although this will be a hands-on course design, no prior knowledge of GIS or mapping techniques is required.
CJU 340 Licit/Illicit: Drugs and Society: This course offers an intersectional analysis of the historical and contemporary relationships between substance use, criminal justice, and social forces, as well as legislative efforts to control alcohol and drug use. This course will challenge common assumptions about licit and illicit drugs and people who use them. We will examine the current scope and nature of substance use in the U.S. and critically assess drug policies from their theoretical foundations, evidence of effectiveness, and respect for civil and human rights. Particular attention will be paid to the criminal justice response to substance use and its disproportionate impact on marginalized races, ethnicities, and genders.
Graduate
CJ-691 Intimate Violence & Sexual Assault: This seminar focuses on two interrelated types of violence: intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Both of these crimes have been the subject of intense political organizing, cultural controversy, and criminal justice reform. In this course, we will read theoretical and empirical literature on the definition and measurement of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, competing theoretical explanations, and the evolution of criminal justice and community responses. The course will examine the specific challenges faced by survivors from marginalized groups, with a specific focus on race, ethnicity, and immigration, gender identity and sexual orientation, and disability. We will also consider contemporary issues in intimate and sexual violence prevention, including: firearm ownership and gun control policies, technology-facilitated abuse, and new research on coercive control.
CJ-695 Special Topics in Victim Advocacy: Women and Crime: Thematic investigations of problems and topics in criminal justice. Special topics include but are not limited to the areas of domestic violence and sexual assault; children and crime; crime; justice and popular culture; restorative justice; community policing; drugs and the law, drug policy, crime mapping, counterterrorism policy, female offenders and criminalistics.
CJ-702 Research Methods: Core required course for Master of Science in Crime and Justice Studies. This course provides students with the fundamental tools for evaluating, designing and implementing basic and applied empirical research in criminal justice. The association between theories and research methods used in the study of criminal justice is explored through a variety of related data sources. Topics covered include: the principles of research design; issues in measurement; modes of observation; basic methods of data analysis; and ethical concerns. Students will obtain hands-on experience in project design through the development of their own research proposal.
CJ-709 Quantitative Analysis: Core required course for Master of Science in Crime and Justice Studies. This course introduces students to the foundations of statistical analysis. Topics include: measures of central tendency; dispersion; probability; sampling distributions; hypothesis testing; correlations; and regression. Using SPSS software, students will be required to apply statistical concepts to existing data resulting in a completed research project.