From Campus to Community

Lessons from Teaching Beyond the Ivory Tower

I recently completed a year of work experience in a local non-profit’s “work readiness” program while on a leave from my Interdisciplinary Ph.D. I developed curriculum and taught diverse groups of youth and adults several times per week in a small classroom setting, as well as provided one-on-one coaching and support. Classroom topics ranged from self-esteem to resumes, to self-advocacy at work and resilience. As a new instructor with an evolving group of program participants, I was initially unsure how to best approach my teaching. I had to navigate walking alongside youth and adults in their learning as they entered the program from diverse background and experiences, learning styles, levels of education and literacy, learning and other disabilities, and various levels of investment or engagement with the topics. My teaching experience prior to these roles was mainly as a teaching assistant or guest lecturer in community college and university settings. In these settings, I sometimes struggled to get students engaged with the material, with each other, and with me as an instructor. Taking a year off to teach in a local non-profit opened my eyes to methods of encouraging participation through making the classroom a co-learning space where everyone has valuable contributions. I learned to value growth over products or outcomes, and noticing and celebrating small acts of courage by learners.

Classroom learning has many commonalities across settings; however, in a work readiness program I was also navigating a spectrum of experiences and literacy levels that is not typical to a university setting. Program participants ranged in age from their teens to their sixties. Some tested at an early-elementary level for their academic knowledge and comprehension, while others had graduate degrees. These participants were all in the same classroom, thereby requiring multiple approaches for the same topic. Many participants were also mandated to attend the program, so their participation and engagement was often more difficult to garner than those who were there voluntarily. As many participants carried memories of traumatic classroom experiences, establishing trust and rapport in a “safe enough” environment was paramount. I had to adapt patterns and approaches I had established in the university as a TA and guest lecturer, and it made me a more inclusive and engaging instructor for any setting, as a result.

The dynamic of extremely diverse learners pushed me to move from a lecturer role to a facilitator role, in which everyone was respectfully acknowledged as having wisdom and valuable lived experience to share and contribute to the learning environment. I encouraged a variety of levels and styles of participation, often taking the pressure from producing written work by asking participants to write in point form if sentences were too much; or, to simply consider the work as I read the questions out loud, for those with difficulty with reading comprehension. For those who were unable to engage in writing, discussion and prompting was helpful to get them to engage and internalize the learning. I also used games and activities that were hands on as much as possible, and technology was used as a supplement with the understanding that some participants had never turned on a computer. It was about meeting learners where they were, instead of expecting everyone to have come from the same foundation of knowledge, skill, and motivation.

Just before beginning my teaching work at the non-profit, I had completed a comprehensive exam which involved designing a detailed sociology course. During that preparation I began to read Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Reading Freire affirmed many things I was already beginning to believe about the nature of true education as political and an avenue for liberation (Giroux, 2025). I was able to integrate Paolo Friere’s philosophy that students aren’t empty vessels waiting to be filled, but co-creators of knowledge and learning. Freire espoused an approach that eschewed the instructor as the authority of knowledge, feeding passive minds information, and instead considered students to have a wealth of lived experience that could help co-create knowledge with the instructor’s theory, ultimately challenging the structures and systems that oppress them (Giroux, 2025). As I return to university teaching I will be bringing this insight with me, creating a more equitable learning environment where students are considered the authority on their lives, and their lived experiences can demonstrate the concepts we learn in the classroom. This is particularly possible within the Social Sciences but can be adapted to any discipline’s teaching environment.

Like bell hooks who studied, and was highly influenced by, Freire, I endeavoured to instill critical thinking, questioning, and challenge to the systems and structures that had often marginalized participants in my classes, from racism to class oppression (Specia & Osman, 2015). Many of the learners in my classes were from rural Nova Scotia and had been given few opportunities to truly question the world around them. We learned not only strategies about following up on job applications, but also developed an understanding of the social and political dynamics that had impacted their lives and employment up to this point. As I co-constructed this classroom culture with participants, I made sure to hear all voices, even when they may be representative of lateral oppression (ex., low-income, rural, white participants expressing anti-immigrant sentiments). I gently proposed alternative views without making anyone wrong. I saw it as my job to create space for questioning and reconsidering, rather than correcting and shaming. To do this, I had to continually keep in mind the environments and exposures with which the participants were coming to the classroom and handle it with compassion and curiousity. These are challenges that can and do come up within university classroom settings; TAs and new instructors must learn to affirm participation while gently challenging oppressive logic that can harm other students.

In community teaching, I had to adjust my standards and how I “measured” learning outcomes. My standards changed drastically as I began developing curriculum and facilitating this diverse and evolving group of learners. Standards did not become lower—the measuring stick merely evolved to measure growth, development of diverse perspectives, taking risks and making mistakes. I endeavoured to be a facilitator that meets learners where they are, encouraging growth and learning in ways that align with their goals, rather than mine. I re-framed what participation looks like and acknowledged that for some, just staying present in a classroom is a huge triumph and act of courage. This has changed my approach to university classrooms as well. I want to create an environment of co-learning, respectful engagement, and expansion (even when that expansion is “small”). I celebrate every step forward, every question, every courageous contribution as a triumph. My understanding of accessibility has deepened to include class-consciousness, awareness of past trauma—including educational trauma—and realizing some disabilities are unseen, or perhaps undiagnosed.

It is important to realize that the university setting is increasingly diverse, with more students who are first-generation, racialized, Indigenous, disabled, and/or have trauma histories that the prevailing view of post-secondary classrooms does not take into account. TAs and new instructors can learn from my experience teaching in a community setting to better respond to such a setting. It’s important to adapt a “facilitator” (versus a “lecturer”) mindset, beginning with setting community standards to build safety and rapport within the group. We can also shift our perspectives about how we measure a “good” class to include the sense of safety and the risks taken by the students. Personal experience can also be an entry point for discussion and can illuminate, challenge, and critique class materials and readings. Finally, assuming disability, trauma, and social barriers are present in the classroom every time you teach benefits all students, regardless of background.

Author bio: Laura Fisher is a 4th year Interdisciplinary Ph.D. student at Dalhousie University,with years of experience as a teaching assistant, guest lecturer, and social researcher. She recently took a year off for work experience and taught classes at a local non-profit in personal development and work readiness. She is currently working on research projects related to rural housing and homelessness, infant food insecurity, and medically tailored meals in rural Nova Scotia.

References

Giroux, H. (2025). Paulo Freire’s Legacy and Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times | Development Education Review. Policy & Practice, 40, 136–149.

Specia, A., & Osman, A. A. (2015). Education as a Practice of Freedom: Reflections on bell hooks. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(17), 195–199

cover image credit: Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash