Incorporating Commitments to Accessible Education into your Teaching Philosophy Statement
A teaching philosophy is a self-reflective statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning and illustrates how you put these beliefs into action through your teaching practices. One is often required for instructional job applications in the university, and during tenure and promotion.
Given the time you’ve spent reading this FLEX Forward resource and reflecting on Accessible Education principles, we encourage you to revisit your philosophy statement to incorporate language and ideas related to your personalized approach to accessibility in teaching and learning. We have included some examples below!
If you are preparing a teaching philosophy for the first time, consider:
- Reviewing McMaster’s resource on Preparing a Teaching Portfolio;
- Registering for the in-person Education 750 course offered by the MacPherson Institute, which includes instruction on and support with preparing a teaching dossier, including a teaching philosophy statement (for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows); and/or
- Consulting with an Educational Developer for a review of your draft teaching philosophy and/or dossier.
Follow the links below to see how others incorporate accessibility into their teaching philosophy statements.
- Elman, J. P. (n.d.). Teaching philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.jpelman.com/teaching-philosophy/ [Gender Studies]
- Gupta, K. (n.d.). Teaching philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.kristinagupta.com/teaching/teaching-philosophy-2/ [Gender Studies]
- Hitt, A. H. (n.d.). Philosophy. Retrieved from http://allisonhitt.com/teaching.html [Communication and Composition]
- MacMillan, J. (n.d.). Statement of teaching philosophy. Retrieved from http://faculty.uoit.ca/macmillan/teaching.html#strat [Physics and Astronomy]
- Power, R. (n.d.). Statement of teaching philosophy. Retrieved from http://robpower.weebly.com/uploads/4/9/1/0/49108827/statement_of_teaching_philosophy__robert_power_edd_.pdf [Education]
- Siu, Y. (n.d.). Teaching philosophy. Tplus Educational Vision Services. Retrieved from http://www.tplus.education/teaching-philosophy/ [Education]
- Truszkowski, R. (2016). Statement of teaching philosophy – or reflections on my former self as teacher. Retrieved from http://www.professortruszkowski.org/statement-and-context-of-my-teaching-practice.html [Fine Arts]
