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 October 2024, we are featuring Yetunde S. Alabede, a doctoral student in Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education. In her writeup, Yetunde elaborates on her pedagogical approach as a nourishing educator, as well as her challenges and learning experiences in the classroom. 

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

Because the notion of education and who an educator is could mean different things to different people, I have over the years connected who an educator is to the root word for education with the Latin root word educere which means to bring up, to bring forth or to nourish. As an educator that imbibes the meaning of education to mean bringing forth the potential of my learners, I am inspired by the nurturing pedagogy, which encompasses balancing care and education to enhance the experiences of learners in an education setting.  

With a nurturing pedagogical approach and educere, I connect to the role of educators as loco parentis. As an educator, embracing nurturing pedagogy helps to provide support for the diverse learners in the classroom. Hence, the educator is a nourisher who guides, collaborates, and facilitates teaching and learning in the classroom. As an educator, I am passionate about learning with and from my students, because they bring in enough funds of knowledge to the class. The focus of my teaching at MSU has entailed taking social justice, diversity, and inclusive pedagogy in the Prk-12 schools, and I have worked with undergraduates who are prospective teachers to understand the diverse learners in the class. This has helped me to appreciate the realities of my learners. 

Before my doctoral journey to MSU, I taught language arts (Yoruba, English and Chinese Mandarin) and social studies from nursery to senior secondary school (Prek-12 in the US context) in Nigeria for over a decade, and one key principle I have embraced is allowing the children to spring forth while nurturing them to discover their potentials. This approach to teaching was inspired by how I have been treated by all my teachers (whom I am still very in touch with, including my elementary school teachers after about 30 years).  

As educators, one needs to be welcoming, caring, tolerant, and open to accommodate differences in the classroom and be willing to work with individual students. Specifically, I am enthusiastic about student parents (of course, I am one), first-generation students (I am also one), and first-year students who need support with time management, adjusting to university life and getting comfortable in explicitly communicating their needs with professors, like asking for extensions for assignments.  

Every educator’s journey will be different, but ideally, being an educator is about creating an enabling environment where all students are nurtured to thrive, where differences are valued, and where we celebrate everyone’s uniqueness in the classroom community.  

Challenges you have experienced and how have you grown from these?  

As I stated earlier, teaching facilitates and allows students to thrive while taking ownership of their learning. This implies that my classroom is more of a collaborative space, heavy on discussions. However, I faced the enormous challenge of keeping conversations going in class at times, especially when the topics were complex and connected to students' diverse identities and lived experiences.  

I grew from this challenge by seeking advice from supervisors and mentors and did some classroom observations to focus on how conversations are guided in undergraduate classes. For example, by just telling the students, “Can you tell me more?" and using some phrases like “Interesting, I wonder if this article speaks to you in relation to (add topic for the day or a theme)” to start a conversation.  

Another game-changer is keeping slides less text-heavy and using pictures, GIFs and memes more. I picked this strategy from taking two classes from my advisor, and slides have been helpful in having generative conversations that are immensely helpful to my learning. It also helps sustain attention since there is little to nothing to be read on slides other than images that connect to the topic of discussion.  

I struggle with trusting students’ stories at times, because they sometimes take advantage of my compassion and nurturing pedagogical approach. An example is how they may want to keep skipping classes, tardiness, or even late submission of assignments. I have adopted stating clear boundaries by highlighting attendance and assignment submission policies on the syllabus. Whenever students violate these, I am very proactive in emailing them and referring them to the policy statement in the syllabus. I will go as far as quoting the statement in the email. I also take initiative when using the EASE report, and that way, there are improvements. 

Regarding the use of the EASE report, I have also been very intentional in using it as a tool to report students who are doing well, and that way, students do not always need to think that the EASE report is only when they are doing something wrong. This helps me appreciate students, who I understand are not only students but also individuals who might have a lot happening in their lives aside from "studenting.” 

What value do you see in Teaching Professional Development?  

Since I started graduate school at MSU, I have attended a series of Graduate Teaching Assistant workshops organized by the Office for Graduate Educator Advancement and Teaching (GREAT). These workshops have offered me ways to understand students' motivations and develop techniques for supporting them in their learning sojourn, as well as in their college and personal lives. The TPDs also helped me reflect on my teaching practices and implement more effective ones, incorporating novel teaching methodologies, instructional planning, and classroom management. 

TPDs also help improve students' learning outcomes because adopting innovative teaching strategies and assessment techniques are crucial in students' learning, which can inadvertently have implications for students' achievement and promote deeper learning. The TPDs help me feel equipped, boosting my confidence to manage the diverse students in my classes and oversee various teaching challenges that may arise. It has also helped me reflect deeply after each teaching, and I always aim to keep improving on what went wrong in previous classes/semesters while keeping at what went well. 

However, I have found the most amazing educators and learning communities from attending the different TPDs organized by the GREAT office, and they have contributed and still contribute to my learning journey. They helped me see the importance of how, as a graduate student, I can explore my passion, develop new skills, gain new perspectives, and tailor my Ph.D. journey to fit personal goals.  

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

One crucial piece of advice to graduate educators is to foster a lifelong learning mindset for yourself and your students. As an educator, openness to innovative ideas, research and methodologies is essential for growth and relevance in your field. I have learned that embracing intellectual humility and transparency with my students about certain things I am unsure of has created a collaborative learning space for myself, especially as an international Teaching Assistant, and my domestic students.  

By modeling curiosity and a commitment to learning, one is enhancing one’s teaching and inspiring one’s students to pursue knowledge with passion and critical thinking. This also means embracing reflective practice by regularly assessing what works in your teaching and what can be improved upon. Continuous learning and being patient with oneself help adapt to evolving educational needs and create a dynamic and engaging learning environment. 

What do you enjoy in your free time? 

In my free time, there are three major things you will find me doing which are: 

1) I go for extracurricular activities with my child in the community. As a student-parent, I ensure all my professional activities end at 5 p.m., after which we engage in different activities. This helps me de-stress a lot while having fun and quality family time. Doing many dance parties at home makes me feel childlike, which I love. 

2) I love traveling. Doing this helps me learn more and has also helped me feel more connected to my students in the classroom, especially when I tell them the places I have been to are in their states (mostly for out-of-state students). We also love visiting places around, like the 4H Children’s Garden, Broad Art Museum especially the family weekend and the children section, Wharton Center, Impression 5, Potter Park Zoo and Hawk Island.  

3) To connect and meet people outside the bubbles of MSU, attending several family events at the Hannah Community Center and the East Lansing Public Library feels good and makes life as a graduate student less daunting, boring, and lonely. 

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

Since the beginning of 2024, I found myself reading and re-reading Tricia Hersey’s “Rest is Resistance.” This book serves as a reminder for me to take things slow, and in summer, I was invited to the weekly reading of the book again, where we unpack different quotes from the book. My favorite quote from the book is, "Make space for rest and space to connect with our highest selves while fearing how we will eat and live."  

This book, in relation to Dr. Bettina Love’s “We Want to Do More Than Survive” (a recommended book in the undergraduate class I teach), had been instrumental to the leadership fellow’s project I am doing called “Rest 2 Thrive Collective”. This is because thriving is more crucial to me than surviving, and in Love's book, she talked about how education/school and society are geared towards surviving. Hence, rest is essential to me as a coping mechanism and a means to thrive. I have also realized that I have become more creative and enjoy what I do with little rest. It also makes it easier for me to (un)apologetically say no when needed, because I need to prioritize myself. To me, Hersey's “Rest is Resistance” is an evergreen book I keep reviewing and referencing. 

The second book I am reading is “Moremi”, one for the collection of children's books by Kunda Kids. I started reading this book with my child in the summer, because it helps talk through Nigeria's landscape with our daughter while focusing on courage, selflessness, kindness and bravery as human attributes.  

We enjoyed reading this book every night, which we are also putting in conversation with “When Black Girls Dream Big”, which talks about black females making waves in their different endeavors, like Katherine Johnson, Mae Jemison and Serena Williams. We got the book a few weeks ago during her school’s book fair, and it is interesting to connect these women's achievements to the courageous Queen Moremi in Nigeria.