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Faculty Spotlight Nomination
Twice each semester the Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy features a Faculty Spotlight. The Faculty Spotight showcases a Loyola faculty member who has a project or methodology that exemplifies outstanding teaching practice. Nominate a faculty colleague or yourself to be recognized.
PARTICIPATETitle:
Senior Lecturer, Biology and Director of the Undergraduate Program, LUC Department of Biology
Dr. Patrick Duffie has been a member of Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Biology for twenty-six years. Over the course of this period, he has always recognized the immense value of student diversity to the teaching process and experience.
“My elementary school, junior high, high school, and college were all very homogenous, I think, in terms of the student population. So it wasn’t until I came to Chicago, and Loyola in particular, that I really got exposed to a lot of different people. That, I’ve found, is the most interesting aspect of Loyola. Just hearing where kids are from, what they do, what their backgrounds are, what they’re bringing to Loyola...it makes every semester interesting.”
Because many of his students are freshmen, Dr. Duffie strives to create an academic environment that is “relaxed and comfortable” but also pervaded by enthusiasm for the discipline. Hence, Duffie models his pedagogical practices upon those of the teachers whose courses he most enjoyed and found beneficial:
“In terms of teaching practices, I try to teach the way it has worked for me. I try to show the students that this can be fun, lecture class can be fun. I want participation, which is sometimes hard in biology when our classes get a little bit larger, but I want students to feel like they can approach me. Because I predominantly teach freshmen, I try to instill in them an enjoyment for the course so they can build a good foundation and like what they’re doing. I’ve always tried to make it relaxed, interesting, and not the end of the world because Biology One and Biology Two are just the beginning.”
Hence, Dr. Duffie has effectively combined a vehement enthusiasm for his discipline and students with a fervent commitment to Loyola University Chicago's Ignatian principles and mission of global progress. Such a combination is to be celebrated particularly as Dr. Duffie reaches his twenty-sixth anniversary of service to Loyola in 2016.
Patrick Duffie
Title: Senior Lecturer, Biology and Director of the Undergraduate Program, LUC Department of Biology
Dr. Patrick Duffie has been a member of Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Biology for twenty-six years. Over the course of this period, he has always recognized the immense value of student diversity to the teaching process and experience.
“My elementary school, junior high, high school, and college were all very homogenous, I think, in terms of the student population. So it wasn’t until I came to Chicago, and Loyola in particular, that I really got exposed to a lot of different people. That, I’ve found, is the most interesting aspect of Loyola. Just hearing where kids are from, what they do, what their backgrounds are, what they’re bringing to Loyola...it makes every semester interesting.”
Because many of his students are freshmen, Dr. Duffie strives to create an academic environment that is “relaxed and comfortable” but also pervaded by enthusiasm for the discipline. Hence, Duffie models his pedagogical practices upon those of the teachers whose courses he most enjoyed and found beneficial:
“In terms of teaching practices, I try to teach the way it has worked for me. I try to show the students that this can be fun, lecture class can be fun. I want participation, which is sometimes hard in biology when our classes get a little bit larger, but I want students to feel like they can approach me. Because I predominantly teach freshmen, I try to instill in them an enjoyment for the course so they can build a good foundation and like what they’re doing. I’ve always tried to make it relaxed, interesting, and not the end of the world because Biology One and Biology Two are just the beginning.”
Hence, Dr. Duffie has effectively combined a vehement enthusiasm for his discipline and students with a fervent commitment to Loyola University Chicago's Ignatian principles and mission of global progress. Such a combination is to be celebrated particularly as Dr. Duffie reaches his twenty-sixth anniversary of service to Loyola in 2016.
Interview by Andrew Kelly
Student Worker, Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy
Title:
Instructor, Department of English
Loyola website:
http://luc.edu/english/writinginstructors/alysonpaigewarren.shtml
Alyson Paige Warren obtained her MFAW from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and applies her expertise in creative writing both in her capacity as an Adjunct Instructor in Loyola’s Department of English and as a writer and illustrator of children’s books.
“I’ve definitely been a reader and a writer for as long as I can remember.”
As a member of the English Department, Alyson emphasizes the central role of student involvement in her teaching and assessment practices.
“I consider myself a constructivist. I want to teach the students what they are here to learn and make them a part of that process. I know that listening and being available to students is part of Ignatian pedagogy. I try to be available to them in as many ways as possible and also to support them in as many ways as possible.”
Essential to this effort, Alyson contends, is her employment of a wide variety of “alternative teaching practices” designed to allow students to “engage with the writing process in a new way”.
“I have a heavy online presence with regard to my use of Sakai. I tend to use multiple sign systems in the classroom, anything from listening to podcasts, to watching TED talks, to engaging in performance and debate.”
Such practices, Alyson elucidates, allow her courses to remain dynamic and engaging to her students, whose active involvement in the pedagogical process “keeps the courses fresh… and developing”.
“I think it’s a kind of trap to think that education is a passive process and the professor is just there to dump all this information in your head and you either take it in or you don’t. For me, it’s really about teaching people how to think and exposing them to things.”
This pedagogical philosophy, and its emphasis of active student engagement, has been favorably received, both in the classroom and in evaluations, by those Alyson teaches.
“My evaluations are wonderful; I get really positive feedback from students. I really let them know how important their constructive criticism and feedback are to me, and that, again, is part of Ignatian pedagogy”.
Indeed, Alyson’s commitment to Ignatian pedagogy, and its elemental mission of social justice, further informs her educational practices.
“I encourage my students to be active civil students, civil servants, and members of the community, and I really seek to model in how aware I am of what’s going on with them, in their world, and in the world in general. I believe that education can be transformative. I believe that literature can be transformative. I believe that writing can be transformative. I think that by illustrating to my students that I love what we’re doing, that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, I’m able to share with them my passion for things that have transformed me and I hope will transform them.”
Interview by Andrew Kelly,
Student Worker, Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy
Suzanne Bost
Title: Professor, Loyola University Department of English
Affiliated Faculty Member and Director of Graduate Program, Loyola University Chicago Department of Women's Studies and Gender Studies (WSGS).
Since 2008, Suzanne Bost has been an active member of both the Women's Studies and Gender Studies (WSGS) and English Departments at Loyola University Chicago. From 2012 onward, she has also served as the director of the university’s graduate program in Gender Studies, a position that further extends her diverse and wide-ranging purview
“I teach a wide range of courses, from UCLR to a core course in Women in Literature. I teach advanced English courses in Latina/o literature and feminist theory as well as graduate courses in Latina/o literature, feminist theory, and feminist methodologies.”
Positively integral to Dr. Bost’s decision to join the Loyola faculty was the university’s “social justice mission”, which she also cites as the reason for the apparent proclivity of Loyola students towards engagement within and outside the classroom.
“Loyola is the first place I’ve worked where I feel like the majority of students are committed to learning, here to learn, intellectually curious, and brave about speaking up in class. The majority of them came here knowing that this was a university with a social justice mission and came here for that reason. That has been very helpful, to have students who are already engaged before I meet them.”
Professor Bost’s teaching and assessment practices are employed with a recognition of the integrity of the student as an active intellectual agent. Indeed, Dr. Bost argues that “learning is a decentered process” and hence “requires students to be thinking for themselves, listening, experiencing, and just being exposed.”
“Sometimes I use the metaphor of ‘opening lots of doors’ without telling people which ‘door’ is the ‘right door’ and just having them see a lot of different things and learn to make decisions for themselves. In terms of evaluating student performance, it’s not a matter of getting things right or wrong, rather of the comfort with which they are articulating, orally or in written form, different kinds of opinions. It would probably be easier if I was just teaching content and having them spit it back to me, but it would be a lot less interesting.”
These practices have been positively received by Professor Bost’s students, who appreciate the opportunity to engage with class texts (and with one another) in an environment designed to be conducive to both analysis and debate.
“I’ve had a lot of people say ‘I’ve never been so excited and uncomfortable at the same time', about knowing that something was going to happen each time they showed up to class, and not knowing exactly what it was going to be but eventually having to trust that whatever it was, it was going to be ok, and nobody was going to yell at anybody, or hurt anybody, or judge anybody negatively.”
Dr. Bost’s academic background grants her unique insight into the Ignatian pedagogical mission. Having been trained in feminist pedagogical methodologies, she remains cognizant of the importance of “valuing student input, hearing everyone’s distinct ideas, and respecting different opinions but also of tying these to the world we live in and thinking about how we can implement these ideas in our daily lives.”
“I just taught an honors seminar on Latino literature and social justice, and I would say that just teaching Latino literature itself is a social justice issue for Latino students who haven’t seen their culture represented in the curriculum. So there’s a justice issue in just presenting the material, there’s a justice issue in thinking about the ways in which we can relate to the material. I myself am not Latino and I talk about how it’s important to acknowledge the limits of what we know and the limits of our experience as well as being aware of the wealth of our knowledge, seeing both and valuing both equally, and witnessing, and listening, and trying to achieve cross- cultural empathy without imposing your views on another. The final projects my students produced reveal how these are truly translatable skills into the real world. These projects illustrated how Latino literature can be employed as a tool for social justice. People have designed websites and blogs, discussed the practical actions they can take, and talked about disseminating this education at the elementary and secondary levels so that people from the start in our country are exposed to the wealth and richness of what emanates from different perspectives and different kinds of stories.”
Interview and write up by Andrew Kelly
Student Worker, Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy