The Inner Landscape of Teacher Identity

2022 Teaching and Learning Conference

Dr. Matt Ridenour

Land Acknowledgement

The College of St. Scholastica is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people. In particular, the college sits on land that was cared for and called home by the Ojibwe, before them the Dakota and Northern Cheyenne, and other Native peoples from time immemorial. Ceded by the Ojibwe in an 1854 treaty, this land holds great historical, spiritual, and personal significance for these original stewards. We recognize and support the sovereignty of the Native nations in this territory, and beyond.

What do you consider as important facets of your identity?

Frederick Buecnher

American writer, novelist, poet, autobiographer, essayist, preacher and theologian.

Vocation is:

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“the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Parker Palmer

“The Courage to Teach”

“After three decades of trying to learn my craft, every class comes down to this - my students and I, face to face, engaged in an ancient and exacting exchange called education. The techniques I have mastered do not disappear, but neither do they suffice. Face to face with my students, only one resource is at my immediate command: my identity.”

Parker Palmer

“The Courage to Teach”

“Unlike many professions, teaching is always done at the dangerous intersection of personal and public life. A good teacher must stand where personal and public meet, dealing with the thundering flow of traffic at an intersection that feels more like crossway a freeway on foot. As we try to connect ourselves and our subjects with our students, we make ourselves…vulnerable.”

Washington Post Style Invitational (Winning metaphors and analogies)

“He was as tall as a 6 foot 3 inch tree.” (METAPHOR)

“She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like the sound like a dog makes before it throws up.” (ANALOGY”

“Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.” (Ummmmm?)

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What are your teaching/teacher metaphors, and what do they indicate?

Finish this sentence in as many different ways as you can/desire to (in analogical or metaphorical fashion):

“Teachers are…”

OR

“Teaching is like…”

Examples:

Teachers are gardeners.

Teaching is like caring for a garden.

Teachers are…mother ducks.

PROPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS:

Mother ducks: Nurture� Model� Lead� Protect� Shelter� Cultivate conformity?� Discourage individualism? �