Amy Maupin

Students who study education at Transylvania do not merely study techniques and methods. Rather, as associate professor Amy Maupin puts it, the study of education at Transylvania is a “truly unique experience” in which students develop a “deep theoretical understanding of education and its many issues.”

Those students will also be able to articulate a philosophy of teaching and learning that is “grounded in many of the other disciplines that intersect with ours,” she says — disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, history, anthropology, English and the arts. All of these, Maupin adds, have an important place in the study of education.

Maupin has adopted a teaching philosophy centered on the notion that she must create a “special space that is safe and brimming with curious energy” and anchored in the belief that teaching is an “act of love.”

“To teach from a perspective of love is to teach from the heart, that central location from which those things that matter the most typically comes,” she says, adding that she believes a pedagogy based in love enables her students to learn more about who they are as individuals. 

“I aim to help students understand themselves as much as I want them to understand texts, ideas, theories and experiences in my courses,” Maupin adds. “I want them to make meaningful connections between what they study and learn in class and what they dream of and aspire to in life outside of and beyond Transy.”

To that end, Maupin embraces an ethic of care, rooted in the philosophy of educator Nel Noddings. Through empathy, compassion and caring relationships, Maupin engages with her students in a cycle of learning — helping her students learn and construct meaning while also learning how to be a better teacher and person herself through interactions with her students.