Instructor Spotlight: Mapping Out Information Innovation with Sarah Davis

Sarah Davis is a Teaching Professor in the English Department at Iowa State University, and is currently teaching an ENGL 2500 Learning Community. Professor Davis began her academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a BA in English and pursued a two-year post-baccalaureate K-12 teaching credential program at California State University, East Bay. In California, ESL was more inherently integrated in mainstream classrooms: “You had to be an ESL instructor just to be a teacher,” Davis stated. After teaching middle school Math and Science in California, Davis moved to Ames, Iowa and planned on continuing middle school education until she met instructors in Iowa State University’s TESL program (namely Roberta Vann and her work in ESL literacy), which encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics/TESL. During her master’s program, Davis began teaching ISUComm Foundation courses in 2007 and was then hired on as term faculty in 2009, traveling to China to teach ENGL 1500 and 2500 in a dual degree program, catering to students who planned to transfer to Iowa State University after their first two years in Lanzhou, Gansu China. Beyond her instruction of ISUComm Foundation Courses, Davis also teaches  Advanced Communication and Linguistics courses, and has served as a Course Coordinator for ENGL 1010C for international students.

Davis noted how teaching across a wide span of age groups revealed different experiences for her students. While teaching middle school, Davis mentioned that students were more easily impressionable, inherently curious about language, and connected to the elasticity of language facilitation and development. Reflecting on instructing college-age populations, Davis gestured toward different motivations for learning present in that time of life: academic, professional, and social goals for language acquisition were major motivators for students, which affected how they engaged with instruction. Davis also highlighted differences between pedagogy and andragogy, particularly how the former emphasized memorization and understanding of rules, while the latter is more advanced and complex due to applications of the learner’s life experiences. When asked about the continued importance of teaching rhetoric and communication in the ISUComm Foundation Courses, Davis shared that she frequently discusses communication needs with other professionals in multiple fields and found an interesting commonality between them: “They long for the days when people could articulate with focus, and express strong understanding. They believe it’s a lost art.” Language itself is only the first step of understanding; communication and composition are the tools by which language is made actionable and powerful. 

Davis’ interests in the applicability and importance of language, communication, and composition can also be seen in her approach to her ENGL 2500 Learning Communities, where she is currently instructing a Mechanical Engineering freshman learning community. When asked about her interest in teaching Learning Communities, Davis remarked on how students in these sections can “take advantage of their pre-associations with a certain major and break wide open those interests by exploring something new,” often leading to new discoveries about their own research or  professional interests. Davis also generally teaches in a workshop structure, encouraging students to be “elbow to elbow” in their composition and educational experiences. 

This semester, Davis is piloting a new approach to the Multimodal Argument unit of ENGL 2500 by requiring students to build their project through ArcGIS (Geographical Information Systems), a free program available to Iowa State University students. ArcGIS as a program provides tools to collect data across a multitude of categories (for example: population, crops, rainfall, and more for an agricultural project) and overlay it onto a geographical map; these maps are interactive and can be articulated by selecting filters that display only selected information. Beyond the practical uses of ArcGIS systems, however, the program also allows for the creation of “StoryMaps,” interactive representations of information that tell a narrative through gestural, visual, and spatial movement (for example, this ArcGIS story map allows viewers to locate art on Iowa State University’s campus). By requiring students to use ArcGIS StoryMaps as a program for their Multimodal Arguments, Davis challenges students to not just interpret and collect information, but discover how they can present it in engaging and illuminating ways that are applicable to work outside the academic space, utilizing an exciting new tool for information innovation. If instructors are interested in learning more about ArcGIS and StoryMaps, you may contact Sarah Davis (ssavage@iastate.edu) or the Digital Scholarship Librarians, Erin Ridnour (emanders@iastate.edu) and Michael Cummings (Digital Scholarship and Initiatives).

Outside of her work in the classroom, Davis is also an Iowa State University Faculty Senate representative for the English Department. For instructors curious about the Faculty Senate, Davis encourages them to read the ISU Faculty Handbook, which details types of decisions made by the Faculty Senate, how it operates, and how to communicate with representatives. Davis clearly stated the importance of the faculty governance and its value to the broader university: “We have way more power than we realize. We work at a public institution that has its roots in democracy. The institution is us.” By getting involved with institutional governing bodies (LAS has its own governing body), and those who represent the department, individuals can use their voices to help enact change and advocacy. To get involved with faculty governance, you can find more information at the link available here.

“Teaching is too hard of a job not to love,” Davis said, when asked for the best advice she could offer new and returning instructors. “Whatever that spark is that made you want to teach,  remind yourself of it every day.”