The “Use of Self” as Pedagogy: Reflexivity across Cultures and Disciplines

Abstract

Higher education often treats teaching as a neutral, discipline-based activity guided by standardized pedagogical practices. This assumption of neutrality obscures the relational nature of teaching, which is shaped by instructors’ identities, values, cultural backgrounds, and lived experiences. Instructors’ viewpoints, expectations, and presence of “self” are not incidental but consequential to teaching and learning. Many educators remain unaware of how their self influences their teaching, leaving them inadequately prepared to navigate this dimension. Although inclusive pedagogy and student-centered learning have received growing attention, less focus has been placed on how instructors themselves function as instruments of teaching, resulting in unexamined reliance on implicit practices—where instructors either avoid engaging their identities or do so inconsistently. Drawing on social work pedagogy, this article introduces reflexivity as pedagogy: the deliberate integration of self-awareness, positionality, and power into teaching to enhance student learning and support culturally responsive practice. Within this framing, “use of self” is distinguished from unstructured self-disclosure or personal narrative; instead, it is presented as a purposeful, context-sensitive pedagogical choice aligned with clearly defined learning objectives, offering educators a structured approach to understanding their own influence on teaching and learning.