EDUC 536 Courage to Teach: Integrity, Authenticity, and Vulnerability

3 Credits

We teach who we are. This course is for teachers who have both good and bad days. We will explore the research that cites vulnerability as one of our greatest strengths. This course is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because we love our work so much. Our primary intervention tool will be to dig deeper into self-awareness. Teaching, like all human activity, comes from our inwardness. As we teach, we project our inward condition onto our students, our subject and our relationships together. Good teaching cannot be reduced to techniques and test scores. Good teaching comes from integrity, authenticity, and vulnerability. In every interaction, our ability to connect with our students depends less on methods and curriculum and more on our depth of self-awareness. Are we willing to be available and open in the service of learning? Important note: Course participants must be willing to enter into deep levels of dialogue and self-reflection.