my teaching Philosophy

I see teaching, mentoring and research as integrally intertwined and I am committed to sharing my passion for the study of Mexican and Central American families in my classroom. In my teaching, I use my own research with Latino immigrant youth to better understand the challenges Latino immigrant youth face at school, the home and at work. I pride myself as a fine, compassionate, and enthusiastic instructor. My courses are taught with a strong comparative orientation that focuses on major themes and topics such as working-class experiences, politics and race and gender relations. My teaching philosophy is based upon my belief that learning is a group process.  As a teacher I engage students individually, but I encourage them to confront and debate course topics in groups after which they develop their ideas in larger class discussions. This allows the students to learn from each other and the classroom then becomes a source of social capital and support to all students.  I also believe that my students have the potential to change lives beyond the confines of the university.  For this reason, I bridge the university with local community organizations that help provide a space for my students where they can become agents of change!