Community, Place, and Culture

In this chapter, the author chronicles experiences living and teaching in three rural communities in the Midwest and, consequently, these experiences' impacts on practice. The chapter begins with a discussion on rural sustainability and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Next, themes of community, place, and culture are explored. Pedagogical practices such as place-based education are discussed. Then, authentic experiences from three uniquely diverse settings are shared. Finally, a statement about how these stories and lived experiences shape teacher educator identity and practice is provided.

Making Connections

This chapter describes an early childhood teacher educator's path to embracing the importance of building relationships and making connections with children and families. An early field experience as an undergraduate inspired the author to pursue a career as a Montessori preschool teacher where important lessons about listening to children and parents were learned. Throughout the author's career, important events confirmed values and beliefs that are now applied in the author's role as a parent and an early childhood teacher educator.

Creating Relationships Responsive to Students' Needs

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the author's experiences in teaching and mentoring high school and college students. One experience shared identifies the challenges students from minoritized populations may have with teachers from the dominant majority and the effects this has on students. Another experience shared details the importance of strong teacher-student relationships and how many times they are forged during participation in extra- or co-curricular activities. The third experience shared focuses on working with students who have had trauma in their backgrounds or who have had adverse childhood experiences. The chapter concludes with some helpful tips for teachers.

The Art of Acknowledgement

This chapter focuses on the power of acknowledging students and the author's experience with this in two separate school districts. The author focuses on how she forged relationships with three students by establishing a connection to their parents and working through the students' insecurities. Students need to feel valued and heard, and the author realizes the importance of this. By taking ownership for her own mistakes and taking the time to recognize her students, the author is able to see the value she adds to both their personal and home lives.

Pearls, Groves, and Texts

This chapter situates secondary English language arts teachers as those who engage in a complex web of teaching people, teaching content, and examining the world. As such, ELA teachers must “place” their discipline in order to reach their students and be relevant to their teaching context. Reflecting on her experiences from nine years of teaching ELA in rural Minnesota, the author illustrates key moments that helped her understand the significance of teaching ELA “in place” as well as how it requires a blend of professional and personal skills beyond teacher preparations.

On Being and Becoming a Place-Conscious Teacher

Place-conscious education advocates for pedagogy that is shaped by the context in which education occurs. By carefully attending to students' backgrounds, cultural histories, and lived experiences within a particular place, teachers are better able to design curricula that support students in developing understanding of their cultural identities and the connections between their lives and the world beyond their classrooms. In this chapter, the author reflects on her journey toward becoming and being a place-conscious teacher in rural education settings.

Where Learner and Educator Intersect

This chapter examines the impact that one's experiences as a learner can have on one's role as an educator. The author reflects on her own education as a gifted student and the ways in which her past influenced her work as a teacher of the gifted. While there were ways that past and present were intertwined, there were also many situations in which the author's experiences could not fully prepare her for the challenges she faced as a teacher. The author explores the interplay between learner as teacher and teacher as learner in an ongoing process for growth.

A Journey From Tragedy to Healing

“A Journey From Tragedy to Healing” transcends one administrator's narrative about how her students and teachers were thrust into a culture of fear during the most tragic event the school had ever experienced. The author's story is about how negative experiences can lead schools through journeys of growth and healing to develop a culture of safety. Lessons for teachers and administrators are threaded through rich personal experiences and include reflections on daily school operations designed to promote emotional and physical safety, growing situational awareness of students' wellbeing, learning new approaches to student interactions through the integration of their funds of knowledge, a critical re-examination of instructional and curriculum pedagogy, and the importance of taking care of one's self. The author concludes by reminding teachers not to forget that their mission should be to educate the whole child by meeting their safety, emotional, and academic needs.

Sharing Hidden Scars

As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority within her classroom. In this narrative, she describes how sharing her own invisible scars with her students provided an opportunity for one particular student to come to her after this student experienced a sexual assault. By allowing her students a glimpse at her own humanity, this teacher was able to serve as an advocate for a student who was struggling to move forward in dealing with her own trauma.

Walking the Talk

This chapter shares the experiences of a young teacher working in a large urban school district. In college classes she learned how to plan for instruction, write lesson plans, and design assessments that tied to lesson objectives. However, despite practicum experiences, including student teaching, what she was not prepared for were the realities of family struggles and their impact on students and their learning. Expectations of what “should” happen did not match with what occurred. By seeking to understand family circumstances, the author learned that building trust between students and teacher is necessary to further students' emotional and academic growth. Lessons learned from her full-on engagement with elementary students as a classroom teacher now inform her work preparing a new generation of teachers. For those in teacher preparation, the credibility factor matters. Having walked the talk, they can share actual classroom experiences—including their stumbles and successes—with teacher candidates.