In this activity, students will create a flag that symbolizes their perceived identity. Each student will create and use a legend to define their perceived meaning behind the selected elements and how they came to associate that meaning with their identity. Finally, they will share their flag, its associated legend, and what they learned by…

In this teaching tip, we--a literacy professor and two K-12 teachers--encourage a rethinking of the baseline writing assessment by sharing our experiences with "The Paper Selfie," an activity that juxtaposes the arts and young people's personal writing. By centering students' identities, their hopes, beliefs, dreams, and realities,…

Working effectively in diverse teams is an important competency for students entering the workforce. Yet as instructors we often witness dysfunctional teams in our courses. Therefore, the goal of this experiential exercise is to encourage students to build high-quality relationships with team members by fostering the development of a…

This article discusses how professional identity, conceptualised as "stories professionals tell about themselves at a specific moment in a specific context", can be portrayed to address its complexity as a dynamic, constructed, cognitive-emotional, multi-voiced, and dialogical concept. In order to construct a narrative-biographical method, eight…

This paper explores the process of learning to become a social justice teacher, drawing in particular on Bakhtin's notions of dialogue in order to theorize pre-service teachers' identity negotiations. Interpretations of learning and identity are based on the content of pre-service teachers' narratives about community-based learning. Supported by…

Strengths-based social work practice has become a major approach to working with clients. The social constructivist perspective is a foundation of this approach. Narrative treatment is one form of strengths-based practice arising from a social constructive perspective. The demands of time and material needing to be covered in the social work…

Explores the use of introspective writing by others as a means of understanding two characteristics of intrapersonal communication: the process of selective memory which defines and redefines personal history and the pattern of habitual thinking which confirms self-identity. Recommends the classroom use of memoirs and journals. (PD)

This thematic unit involves 1st and 2nd grade students in exploration of their own unique and special qualities. The interdisciplinary unit connects knowledge related to art, language arts, applied mathematics, social studies, and science. Lesson activities focus on topics of family, friends, health, and emotions. The unit encourages students to…

Discusses student criticism of higher education. Responds in the context of moral questions. Argues that education is about the development of a moral imagination. Suggests that students be encouraged to locate their own questions in material to be studied. Concludes that through storytelling teachers and students can find common ground as well as…

A research project examined the issues of how teachers' cultural identities and school experiences affect their definitions of themselves as teachers, and how their identities affect their teaching. The project was a qualitative inquiry, based on reciprocal and interactive relationships. Researchers began by identifying education students who…

This book argues for the importance of addressing the role of culture in the lives of student teachers. It explains how passionate dialogue in small groups about multicultural literature and autobiography can transform teachers' lives and practice, arguing for a broad and intellectual, yet practical and concrete, vision of teacher development in…

The ability to infuse language with qualities of the human voice in the act of speaking is what distinguishes autobiography as a genre and makes it most suited to teaching students subtle features inherent in the complex act of writing. When students write from personal experience, they consciously begin to shape their identities in one direction…

Suggests that attempts to segregate social-conventional reasoning from the moral domain may represent an artificial division ignoring major philosophic and psychological traditions. Discusses the individual, social, and relational dimensions of morality and the cultural context of moral development. Calls for continuing narrative and…

This report presents stories, written by teachers in the northwestern United States, about their experiences with curriculum over the years. The stories come from several groups, including four teachers who wrote as individuals, one pair of close colleagues, and one interview with a team of educators. The teachers responded to questions about how…

Beginning teachers' learning is complex and personal: they learn about themselves as teachers; they fight with newly revealed selves endeavoring to change; and they engage in a struggle that is both emotional and intellectual. This report presents narratives, based on both journals and taped conversations, of the learning experiences of six novice…