My teaching philosophy centers on coaching students, as I believe that we all are born with the intrinsic desire to learn and flourish. It is with the coaching of the mind to exercise critical thinking that enables and prepares students to solve social problems. Sociology, and social science in general, provides a broad platform with which to expose students to the complex structures in our world that shape their living reality. With this platform, we as teachers are given opportunities to expose students to deconstruct the impact and influence of social structures and the impact they have on our attitudes, behaviors, and decisions, as individuals and as groups. Through the lens of sociology, students can learn to explain the world as they know it with concepts and language that identify, interpret, and make sense of their realities. The sociological imagination enables students with creative, new approaches to think about common problems at the individual, group, and societal level. This is where social policy takes shape. 

In my classroom and mentoring, connecting sociological ideas to examples in students’ own lives and other everyday phenomenon launches this critical thinking process. When students are able to look directly at the black boxes in which they themselves participate, then solutions can begin to be imagined to liberate themselves from the grip of these structures on their decisions and life situations. With this, abstracting to others and how their attitudes, behaviors, and decisions are shaped by their social context becomes that more real and accessible. These central tenants provide the foundation of my teaching philosophy.