I believe that the purpose of teaching is to create and to disseminate knowledge, power, and discourse. So, teaching, for me, is epistemic and rhetorical. Teaching as epistemic shapes individual beings, community, culture, nation, and the world. Therefore, through teaching, I aim to create critical thinking students because critical thinking is the heart of the human understanding in human civilization. Teaching is rhetorical because we make students identify who he/she is, what his/her identity is, and what his/her space is. Similarly, teaching plays a great role in creating a sense of belief that we are fellow global citizens, and that we have to think globally and act locally. This belief not only unites us for global peace, progress, and prosperity, but also prepares for global competition.
When I chose teaching as my career, I went to the Tribhuvan University in Nepal. In the program, I got opportunities to learn theoretical and methodological concepts of pedagogy from the courses such as foundation of education and curriculum development, educational psychology, and student teaching. After I graduated from the university, I taught at several schools and colleges, and at university, where I translated the theories and methodologies into praxis. Later, when I moved to study at universities in the US, my knowledge of curricula, evaluations, and teaching approaches was further enhanced. For instance, when I took pedagogy courses at New Mexico State University and at University of Texas at El Paso, I conceptualized Western teaching techniques, methodologies, and writing theories including process, social construction, and post-process. Moreover, from my own teaching experience, pedagogy courses, and other influential professors’ classes, I learned the importance of Web 2.0 tools, new media, course materials, and curricula in teaching. These experiences led me to transform my classes into ones that are student-centered, technology intensive, and paperless.
In the classrooms, I apply various teaching techniques, methodologies, and new media to develop students’ writing. For instance, in the process of teaching writing, I use teaching materials that students are familiar with in order to help them avoid writer’s block, develop their academic and professional writing skills, bring their cultural materials to their audience, and avoid plagiarism. As part of my student-centered approach, I get students to collectively collaborate, cooperate, and discuss in both virtual and real spaces. Then, I get them to individually create and present so that they learn to compare, contrast, and incorporate their peers’ ideas. Through collaborative approaches, I aim to engage students in dialogues so that they can learn to extend their local knowledge to the global level. Through this approach, students not only learn to create multiple realities, but they also understand that writing is process and epistemic. During their process of creating multiple truths, I suggest that they focus on the rhetorical situation, rhetorical appeals, and other rhetorical strategies to meet the needs and expectations of twenty-first century audience.