Teaching Philosophy Statements: The Impact of a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Abstract

We used a phenomenological research design to explore the impact of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to support STEM faculty members’ development of cultural wealth principles and teaching practices. In this study, we analyzed teaching philosophy statements to learn how the FLC shaped STEM faculty participants’ expression of teaching beliefs and values. Because effective teaching philosophy statements are linked to good teaching and transparently designed assignments, the language used to articulate teaching values can inform how we build equity-minded and culturally relevant educational spaces. Findings demonstrated that some faculty members developed and articulated teaching beliefs and intended practices that were consistent with culturally relevant teaching and cultural wealth. However, the study did not discover evidence of practice intentions that reflected these culturally relevant pedagogical principles related to the specific assessment of student learning. We discuss implications for faculty developers at HSIs to support STEM faculty members’ use of culturally relevant and community engaged concepts and teaching approaches.