As a young child, one of my earliest memories is longing to be a teacher. I would line up my stuffed animals in a row and “teach” them as they silently absorbed my pedagogy. Decades later, I fulfilled my dream of becoming an educator, but it looked different than I had expected at the ripe age of four years old. As I grew in my profession, I discovered that being an educator does not, in fact, mean using the “banking model” of education in which students are passive learners, much like my stuffed animals. Instead, teaching requires a dynamic constructivist mindset in which students are active explorers and leaders. As I progressed through my graduate program in education, I refined my mission as an educator. Simply put, my teaching philosophy is to fight for justice – not through force or aggression – but through gentleness and a deep love for my community. I am inspired by the work of Bryan Stevenson, Sister Helen Prejean, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.- individuals who tirelessly worked against all odds to bring peace, justice, equity, and grace into our world. As a visual arts educator, I aspire to use the arts as a platform to spotlight and celebrate the marginalized voices of my students and disabled artists. I see my role as a community builder and justice seeker. Ultimately, I am simply a facilitator- I exist to lift the voices and art of the community that I love through constructivist and critical educational theories.
Shannon Thacker Cregg 