BA in Individualized Studies Program
People ask me what I do, and my reply, “I teach at Goddard College and The University of Vermont” always leads to a complicated, wide-eyed conversation. It is easy to say that I teach the Sociology, History and Philosophy of Education, Race and Contemporary Issues or The Challenges of Multiculturalism for Educational and Social Institutions at UVM. It is much harder to answer people when they ask what I teach at Goddard. “Ummmm, well, I don’t really teach you see, because Goddard students design their own study plan, so I more facilitate their learning.” This is where the wide-eyed part of the scene happens.
Writing for Our Lives: Constructing a Pedagogy of Liberation and Passion is not a concept easily grasped by people who have only experienced education as traditionally performed as the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student, but it is the heart and soul of my teaching philosophy, as well as the title of my Ed.D. dissertation.
I’ve been working with students at Goddard for eighteen years and I’ve learned a lot along the way. In fact, my dissertation for the Education Leadership and Policy program at UVM evolved out of my work with Goddard students. Students wrote their stories and life experiences. In response I asked them how they might consider their experiences in relation to their studies in history, psychology, literature, etc. The combination of personal narrative and a way to place the experience in a larger frame, to contextualize the experience, lead to astonishing projects. My dissertation is an attempt to explain what I, and other Goddard faculty, have been doing all these years:
Self-Knowledge is essential to being culturally competent and participating in a democratically just society. As faculty, administrators, and community cultural workers, understanding the nature of privilege and power, in ourselves and in the culture in general, is crucial to building the relationships within which we do our work. Consciously applied and assessed in teaching/learning situations, the writing genre referred to variously as autobiography, autoethnography, memoir, or scholarly personal narrative offers a bridge from personal self-knowledge to new, generalizable, contextual knowledge. It becomes in this case a method of research, and helps develops a conscious community leadership necessary for work toward a pluralistic society and social justice.
I’ve also worked with students on oppression and social identity awareness; feminist history, psychology, aesthetics, literature & theory; gay, lesbian and transgender history, literature and politics; creative and critical writing in all genres.
I live in Vermont, and am an amazed mother to two children, 9 and 10 years old. I have also landscaped, cooked and painted houses for a living.
Educational Background: Ed.D UVM, 2006. M.A. & B.A. Women’s Studies, Goddard College.
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Shelley Vermilya, MA, Ed.D.