In this essay, four teacher educators explore their journeys towards foregrounding students' lived experiences when teaching literature. Data about our teaching of literature in different contexts were generated through our personal reflective narratives and ensuing dialogic critical friend conversations. Inductive thematic analysis of the…

We all fail. We also like to look good and avoid looking bad. So, even though we know that taking risks and trying new approaches are important for enhancing our teaching and students' learning (Strean, 2017), we rarely talk about our failures. Our claim in this paper is that our insecurities create a substantial barrier to improving and enriching…

In this paper I utilized the currere method and my experiences as a tenure track hire. Currere provided a framework that allowed me to remember and then engage my ways of knowing and immerse myself in supportive contexts. Specifically, I was able to deepen my understandings, learn, imagine up, and over time shift my tenure track stories. The…

Drawing upon my experience as a Canadian Muslim woman, scholar, educator, and mother, I share and inquire into my stories of experiences alongside youth. Thinking narratively, I weave my experiences using and teaching with/about single stories and counterstories alongside students to (re)shape the multiplicity of our selves, relationships, and…

As a poet, researcher, and teacher in the academy, I have pursued my vocation with an abiding commitment to both creative and critical discourse. I inquire into my autobiographical experiences as a poet, researcher, and teacher in the institutional contexts of a Faculty of Education by creating a performance of poetry that seeks to honour…

Reflecting on one's own emotions and seeing teaching as an emotionally complex engagement can enrich a teacher's experience, pedagogy, and students' motivation and response in class.

Today, members of the various lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities enjoy many of the same rights and privileges as their cis-gender, heterosexual peers. Yet, the lived experiences of many queer-identified teachers in schools remain problematic, uncomfortable, and tension-filled. Given the rise of 'No Promo Homo' laws…

The constraints and demands on teachers and students, related to implementing English medium instruction (EMI), mean that teachers need to be able to reflect on their practice and make appropriate adjustments. Reflective practice generally means that EMI teachers subject their philosophy of practice, principles, theories and practices to a…

Providing effective leadership and mentorship to students often requires an understanding of power systems and a focus on amplifying marginalized voices. The author, who identifies as a queer white woman, in her years as a graduate student, has found that attention to voice is essential, but also messy. As Donna M. Lanclos reminds,…

Teacher voices hold weight for their colleagues. When teachers tell a story of a positive experience with technology (or other teaching tools or strategies), they are showing that it is possible. "Stories, particularly those that are concrete and readily identified with, are particularly powerful for transferring knowledge rich in tacit…

In 1998 I had been teaching science for 13 years. I was a good teacher: I had the plaques and certificates to prove it. But often I felt like an impostor (which I have since learned is not unusual--70% of all people feel like a fake at one time or another). While my students could solve problems and ace tests, every June when I sat down to look at…

This autoethnography discusses the trials and wonders of joining the teacher force fresh from college. It is a first-hand account of the author's experiences, as well as stories from other teachers the author has met along her journey. The article demonstrates the education field's attempts and failures at helping the new staff transition into the…

This reflective essay, which is both autobiographical and historical in nature, is framed by answering the questions posed by the editors regarding my work: What values inform it, how I actually do it, and why do I do it? Quite simply, I am writing to encourage social change for all queer people, be it merely the little corner of my own social…

Carmen M. McCallum shares her story of how deeply an arbitrary boundary line affected her life in order to challenge us to recognize, change, and cross the lines that disrupt our students' success.

The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on two graduate international comparative education courses I taught at a mid-sized public university. Using a variety of readings and multimedia focusing on voices of international educators telling their own stories of struggle for a democratic education, these courses represent my effort to…