FI Podcast Ep 1:5 – Teaching to Transform

What does it mean to center students in higher education—and why does democracy depend on it? In this conversation, Christina Katopodis and Jason Hendrickson make a compelling case for transformative teaching as essential democratic practice. Public higher education is infrastructure for democracy, but only when it centers students. Together, we explore what transformative teaching demands: rigorous pedagogical practice, commitment to ongoing learning, and recognition that how we teach is inseparable from the democratic futures we’re building. From syllabus design to classroom exercises, they offer both practical strategies and a fundamental reimagining of higher education’s purpose.

Subscribe to the Futures Initiative’s YouTube channel or listen wherever you get your podcasts to catch this essential conversation about the future of higher education and why the classroom is where democracy learns to think.

HIGHLIGHTS

“We are alienated in our own education. How do we go from alienation to authenticity?” – Christina Katopodis

“My dream is a restored faith in education that begins at the beginning and ends with higher education, having education that matters to our students, and where we see difference as an asset” – Christina Katopodis

“We have to remind each other of each other in human ways” – Jason Hendrickson

“Humanities is at the center of rehumanizing where we are at this moment…My dream is the humanistic spirit prevailing again” – Jason Hendrickson