Alejandro Ramirez

Educator Identity

Northern Illinois University

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Academics, student development, equity, and diversity are among the four most

important core values in higher education that directly impact the student’s college experience.

Higher education has gradually evolved since its inception of the colonial colleges and has

become a space to exchange ideas and serves as an opportunity to develop the minds of

individuals. Academics provides students with the opportunity to seek a career or profession

through the study of curriculums in the classroom of their desired career path. However, outside

the classroom, on university campus’ students are receiving experiential learning opportunities

through student development. Student organizations and student involvement on campus that

provides a space for learning and growth outside of the classroom. Student development is

fostered by commitment to the student community providing students opportunities to network

on campus and become student leaders. Ultimately, a university that reflects equity and diversity

will better serve the students, faculty, and community directly involved with the university. An

equitable university provides fair and impartial learning opportunities for students of diverse

backgrounds that reflects the evolving demographics within our society.

Working with students outside of the formal classroom, I believe that educating others

has taken form through other methods. As an educator I identify with Watkins and Mortimore

reiteration of pedagogy being defined as any conscious activity by one person designed to

enhance the learning in another. In addition to Beetham and Sharpe (2007) who consider

pedagogy in the original sense of guidance to learn: learning in the context of teaching and

teaching that has learning as its goal. I believe I identify most with these reiterations because I

have the opportunity to work with students and all of the learning that occurs within my

student groups occurs within discussion and practice learning opportunities and dialogue.
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In an educational setting I believe that collaboration is instrumental to the success of the

greater community. Higher education is similar to a well oil machine whereas the machine

requires all of its gears to be well-oiled to properly function, and a university utilizes all of its

resources, departments, faculty, and staff to serve the students based on their needs. When a gear,

or department are not functioning or willing to collaborate with each other the product comes

short of its expectations. My experience in higher education has allowed me to understand that

students, staff, and faculty all provide unique experiences and can positively affect the

development of programs and organizations. In addition, collaboration serves students with the

ability to reach out to a larger audience and understand a different perspective in the community.

Although I believe collaboration is an essential tool in higher education I understand that

there are other methods to achieve similar learning goals. As a professional in education I hope

to incorporate a philosophy that is student-centered, while upholding individual professionals’

standards in addition to implementing theory while also seeking new knowledge and methods of

practice. As an educator while your main objective is to provide students with knowledge, I also

believe that the quest for new knowledge is never ending and should also be the goal for any

educator to consistently improve.

As an educator my intrinsic motivation to teach within postsecondary education stems

from my socioeconomic background and education as a minority. Growing up in an urban

education system, Chicago Public Schools, I was able to learn in classrooms with diverse student

demographics and instructors from a variety of cultures and ethnicities. This provided me with

the foundation for diversity in education regardless of our limited resources. As a result of lack

of funding, first-generation students, resources, and overcrowded classrooms, data suggests that
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minorities are not being retained or persisting at universities and I hope to serve these

underserved communities.

Serving minority students in higher education takes on several methods. Through my

involvement with student organizations I have seen several students benefiting from professional

and academic development. This includes attending job fairs, resume workshops, educational

conferences, library hours, and tutoring. Attending workshops allows the students to receive

information that directly correlates to their student experience while also meeting a professional

that holds a position of high importance in the professional world.

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Resources

Waring, M., Evans, C. Understanding Pedagogy: Developing a critical approach to teaching and

learning. Retrieved from https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/learn-us-east-1-prod-

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