Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez aspires to be a teacher that employs various strategies of learning that invites students to recognize their educational potential and increase their critical thinking skills. To this end, I take advantage of problem-posing pedagogy and encourage student leadership through in-class activities wherein students can exchange ideas as both learners and teachers. By providing opportunities for in-class interaction, students exercise critical thinking and practice articulating their thoughts succinctly while listening to others and responding accordingly. I invest in active learning strategies to provide various touchpoints with material through small group discussion, creative assignments or free writes on sections of the reading. I apply equity-minded pedagogy through different iterations of concepts from discussion to lecture to daily writing so as to give students opportunities to digest the course’s key lessons. Further, I demonstrate that I value students as both learners and teachers in class by providing various avenues of engagement and assessment in the classroom and beyond.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate:

• Global Sociology (SFSU, SOC 483)
• Families and Society (SFSU, SOC 464)
• Sociology by The Bay (SFSU, SOC 275)
• Asian Americans in the U.S. Historical and Political Process, Reconstruction to the Present (SJSU)
• Asian Americans in the U.S. Historical and Political Process, Precolonial to Reconstruction (SJSU)
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Inequality
• Looking at the World Sociologically: An Introduction to Sociology
• Gender and Society

Graduate:

• Transnational Approaches to Gender and Sexuality (SFSU, SXS 799)