Michigan State University is fortunate to have passionate educators who are committed to enhancing the experience of their students and who help to provide the best education possible.

The Graduate School is featuring some of these educators – graduate and postdoc educators – every month to share their unique stories and perspectives on what it means to be a dedicated educator, how they’ve overcome educational challenges, and the ways they have grown through their experiences.

For April 2025, we are featuring Imari Cheyne Tetu, a doctoral student in Rhetoric and Writing. In her writeup, Imari shares how she embraces flexibility in course design to allow students to bring their own interests, identities, and experiences.

What does it mean to be an educator at a university?

As both a non-traditional student and the first in my family to earn a bachelor’s degree, I am deeply aware of the privilege and the responsibility attached to being a university educator.

To be an educator in a university setting is to cultivate spaces where inquiry, reflection, and transformation are not only encouraged but expected. I understand my role as a facilitator of knowledge-making rather than as a transmitter of content. My pedagogical approach centers on helping students identify their own learning trajectories within the structural frameworks of a course.

In addition to helping students identify and work toward their own set of learning goals, I aim to create classrooms that are responsive to the material conditions of students’ lives. In each of the classes I teach, I focus on fostering intellectual agency and helping students navigate the complexities of education.

I am privileged to teach in the interdisciplinary Experience Architecture (XA) program at Michigan State University, where the curriculum is grounded in people-centered design, rhetorical theory, and technological fluency. XA represents a growing field that embraces the critical intersection of user experience, access, and ethics. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with the XA students as they are forward-thinking and driven by a desire to build a better world through accessible and inclusive design.

My most fulfilling moments in the classroom emerge when students begin to recognize their own positionalities within broader sociotechnical systems – and when they begin to see themselves as agents of rhetorical and material change. When students move beyond understanding concepts to actively questioning systems, identifying opportunities for intervention, and working to implement change, I see them stepping fully into the role of critical designers and rhetoricians.

Within the university context, I am able to refine my teaching through both theory and practice. In addition to learning with and from my students, I have appreciated the opportunities to engage with offerings from the Graduate School on teaching professional development. These offerings provide valuable space for me to learn new approaches, refine my pedagogy, and connect with other graduate educators across the university.

Challenges you have experienced and how you’ve grown from them

My first semester of teaching coincided with higher education’s tentative transition back to in-person instruction amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That semester was marked by volatility: students missing class due to illness, balancing caregiving responsibilities, navigating sports injuries, and managing heightened levels of stress and anxiety.

Within the first three weeks, I realized traditional attendance models and content delivery structures were inadequate to support students in this context. My experiences in my own classroom and in the information architecture class I was interning in at the time pushed me to try a hyflex teaching model, which pairs synchronous in-person and online learning.

Initially little more than a standing Zoom option for attendance, my hyflex pedagogy has expanded to offer synchronous participation across modalities and offer students the flexibility to engage with course material in ways that align with their access needs. Rather than viewing access as retroactive accommodation, I’ve come to frame it as an integral aspect of inclusive design.

My approach to hyflex teaching was developed through experimentation and reflection, and I rely on shared digital workspaces, multimodal engagement, and collaboration to promote participation across modalities.

Because my research focuses on access in higher education, my experiences teaching hyflex have been developmental for both my pedagogy and my scholarship. I view students as collaborators who help me reconsider assumptions about engagement and push me to innovate in ways that prioritize equity.

Teaching through uncertainty has deepened my understanding of what it means to create responsive, human-centered learning environments.

What value do you see in teaching professional development?

I view teaching professional development as critical to fostering innovation, reflection, and community among educators. I have been privileged to participate in professional development offerings from the Graduate School, including various GTA Lunch and Learn events and the Certification in College Teaching Institute.

This January, I was also able to contribute to a GTA Lunch and Learn by delivering a workshop on hybrid/flexible teaching for improving student experiences. I participated in further professional development through the Colleges Online Learning Academy (COLA) in 2021 and have continued to support the program through mentorship and workshop leadership as part of the Evidence-Driven Learning Innovation (EDLI) team. This work has been integral to the development of my teaching identity.

My focus on accessibility and multimodality in digital learning is enriched through ongoing dialogue with other educators. Each workshop I lead invites me to conduct deep dives into emerging pedagogical challenges and opportunities.

In facilitating conversations around accessibility, I have learned as much from other graduate students and instructors as I have contributed.  Teaching professional development has helped me form a reciprocal, community-built practice through shared curiosity and care. 

What is one piece of advice you would give other graduate educators?

Don’t be afraid of uncertainty. When I began teaching, I believed I needed to have every component of the course mapped out in advance. Over the past four years, I’ve learned the value of leaving space for co-creation and emergence. Flexibility in course design allows students to bring their own interests, identities, and experiences into the learning process in meaningful ways.

My typical class size is between 20 and 22 students, which allows me to engage in participatory conversations about assignment design and course direction. This collaborative model fosters engagement and strengthens students’ investment in their learning.

I have also learned to prioritize relationship-building through small, low-stakes moments – like check-in questions at the start of class. These questions range from light-hearted (“What’s your favorite bug?”) to speculative (“If you could excel in any sport, what would it be?”).

One of my most memorable was asking students who they thought my favorite Marvel character should be. This question sparked a longer conversation about character traits and community values that we were able to tie back to our main topic and build on our original ideas.

What do you enjoy in your free time?

The continuous learning mindset is one that carries over between my hobbies and my academic identity. In my free time, I like to be outside, learning a new skill, or both. I enjoy walking, and I’ve recently taken up jogging and participating in 5Ks.

I train in martial arts, combining kickboxing and Krav Maga. I also ride dressage, and I’ve started learning the violin – a pursuit I began after a class I was teaching about time boxing encouraged me to find a creative hobby outside of academia.

What non-academic book are you currently reading or is a favorite?

While my reading interests vary widely, I’m consistently drawn to historical fiction. Lately, I’ve been reading novels by Kristina McMorris, whose storytelling offers both emotional depth and historical insight.

I always hesitate to recommend books because taste varies so much. I enjoy a lot of books. I like to read new material and revisit old friends. I tend to enjoy historic fiction, so I've read several Kristina McMorris books lately. My go-to comfort book is “The Count of Monte Cristo”. I think I've read six or seven times now, and I own three different editions.