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This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University] On: 26 October 2014, At: 17:25 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujec20 Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner lives of student teachers Andrew J. Stremmel a a Human Development, Consumer and Family Services , South Dakota State University , NFA 369, Box 227SA, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA Phone: +1 605 688 6418 E-mail: Published online: 25 Apr 2008. To cite this article: Andrew J. Stremmel (2005) Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner lives of student teachers, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 25:4, 375-381, DOI: 10.1080/1090102050250412 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1090102050250412 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner lives of student teachers

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This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University]On: 26 October 2014, At: 17:25Publisher: Taylor & FrancisInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Early Childhood Teacher EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujec20

Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner lives of studentteachersAndrew J. Stremmel aa Human Development, Consumer and Family Services , South Dakota State University , NFA369, Box 227SA, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA Phone: +1 605 688 6418 E-mail:Published online: 25 Apr 2008.

To cite this article: Andrew J. Stremmel (2005) Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner lives of student teachers, Journal ofEarly Childhood Teacher Education, 25:4, 375-381, DOI: 10.1080/1090102050250412

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1090102050250412

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) containedin the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of theContent. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon andshould be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable forany losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use ofthe Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

ELSEVIER Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 25 (2005) 375-381

Journal°f EarlyChildhoodTeacher

Education

Turning the soul: Nurturing the inner livesof student teachers

Andrew J. Stremmel*,1

South Dakota State University, Human Development, Consumer and Family Services,NFA 369, Box 227SA, Brookings, SD 57007, USA

Accepted 13 July 2005

Abstract

This article describes activities and experiences that encourage students to construct and reconstruct knowledgeof self and teaching through community building and reflective practices. Following the assumption that teachereducation should focus on the human and ethical dimensions of teaching, and the conscious development of asense of self, specifically the inner self, the author makes the claim that teaching is an act of "soul turning," orself-transformation. When students of teaching are given opportunities to reflect on who they are in the context oftheir teaching and in relationships with others, possibilities exist for the development of greater self-understandingand awareness.© 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Self-transformation; Teaching; Awareness

"Self-transformation is precisely what life is . . . "Rainer Maria Rilke

What is teaching? Anyone who has ever taughtknows that teaching is more than what it appears tobe on the surface: a series of actions and reactionsleading to some indisputable truth. Teaching is morelike a path than a password. There is no certain, secretformula which one has to know and utilize in orderto be a teacher. Yet this is often how our students seeteaching—as though there were a checkpoint, if youwill, where one must provide the secret code or wordto a sentry who demands it as the condition to pass.Most troubling about this analogy is the possibilitythat you might get the password just a little wrong.

* Tel.: +1 605 688 6418.E-mail address: [email protected].

1 The author was on the faculty of Virginia PolytechnicInstitute & State University at the time this article was sub-mitted for review.

Those who think of teaching in this formulaic mannerare often sure their methods are the correct ones. Anexamination of teaching, however, suggests that it isless about technical problem solving than it is aboutchanging lives.

In contrast to a formula, which implies stasis,teaching is a dynamic path. Teaching often has beenreferred to as a journey (Ayers, 1993), one withtwists and turns, peaks and valleys, mileposts androadblocks, and at sometimes uncertain destination.If there is a truth, it is that teaching is incredi-bly complex, idiosyncratic, ambiguous, mystifying,and gut wrenching. At the same time, teaching atits best can be an act of hope and love, compas-sion and caring, joy and transformation. In this arti-cle, I suggest that teaching is an act of "soul turn-ing", or self-transformation—a continual process ofbecoming, through which one develops greater self-understanding and self-awareness through reflectionand the reconstruction of experience.

1090-1027/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jecte.2005.07.001

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376 AJ. Stremmel/Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 25 (2005) 375-381

Long before John Dewey, Socrates defined educa-tion as the creation of meaning and a transformed wayof being. To speak of education, according to Socrates,is to speak of "turning the soul." In ancient Greece,the word soul referred to the psyche or inner self;thus, education was defined as the drawing out [fromoneself] of vision and understanding (Haroutunian-Gordon, 1995). Turning the soul, then, is about creat-ing self-awareness and understanding, both of whichare vital to reinvention. But how do we create self-understanding and awareness in ourselves and in ourstudents? How do we help our student teachers movefrom simply identifying what they do and the out-comes of those actions to an awareness of the meaningand significance of thought, feeling, and action? Howdo we help them become alert to their inner voices,as well as to the world around them, so that aware-ness becomes part of their daily living with children?Unless we are able to live attentively, being alert andaware of our joys, struggles, questions, and relation-ships with others, we will miss opportunities to be"present to ourselves" and open to change.

Palmer (1998,2000) and others (e.g., Ayers, 1993;Greene, 1988; Noddings, 1984) have asserted thatteacher education should focus on the human andethical dimensions of teaching, as well as on the con-scious development of a sense of self—specifically theinner self. One must be a thoughtful, caring, and com-passionate person to teach well. One must also havea developed sense of who he or she is as a humanbeing, an understanding of the inner self from whicharise life's most important questions (Palmer, 2004).However, soul turning is not a welcome pedagogyin the age of content proficiency and accountabilityassessment. For the most part, teachers are preparedin academic environments that focus primarily on themastery of method, theory, and technique with onlyminimal emphasis on developing certain fundamentalintellectual, spiritual, and moral qualities of teaching(Schwehn, 2002).

Most of us who teach no doubt have been educated .in subject matter and methods with at least a sprinklingof developmental theory along the way. Because weare the product of our experiences we tend to teach theway we have been taught. But, unless we, ourselves,have been assisted in the process of critical reflectionon our experiences, our beliefs and questions, and thedeepest needs of the human soul, we will likely denyour students the opportunity to develop a deeper under-standing of self and others and their evolving theoryof practice. It is through reflective activities that were-think and re-consider our experiences and under-standings and construct a three-dimensional whole ofwho we are as teachers. It is also through reflectionthat we may come to a deeper understanding of theneeds, passions, and yearnings of our students.

As teachers and teacher educators, we are calledto see our students as whole persons and multidimen-sional human beings. Ayers (1993) suggests that weneed to see our students as persons much like our-selves: as human beings possessing hopes, dreams,aspirations, and capacities; having a body, mind, andspirit; and carrying with them a past, present, andfuture when they enter our classrooms. Seeing ourstudents fully, however, requires us to awaken to our-selves, because every judgment, every act, is a reflec-tion of who we are (Ayers, 1993; Palmer, 1998).

With the understanding that we teach who we are,and that we continually must reinvent ourselves sothat what we do in the classroom will reflect our trueidentity, shaped by the formative lessons of our dailylives, I propose that we must assist our students, futureteachers, to become alternative, transformed personsas well. By following the lead of the soul and gettingin touch with their inner selves, future teachers canbe three-dimensional human beings and awaken to thepossibilities that teaching creates.

1. The self

The "self has not been traditionally a part ofthe discourse in teacher education, perhaps because itcannot be completely encompassed. Self is an evolv-ing construction, or perhaps more adequately, a co-construction, because the human self emerges out ofcontinual social interactions over the course of life(Scheibe, 1986). The self is never entirely defined butalways in the process of creation through dialogue(Hermans, Kempen, & van Loon, 1992). The dia-logical self is composed of multiple positions, whichinclude the positions and experiences of others and ourimagined selves in times and places that are not hereand now. For that reason, the self is social and cannotbe defined without respect to its historical and culturalcontext.

Within each of us is an original, inner self, full ofpossibility and hope (Buechner, 1991; Moore, 2000;Palmer, 2000). Our original self, buried deep in us all,is the most essential part of who we are; it is the sourceof wisdom and strength and healing which we candraw on to nourish the spirit and enhance understand-ing (Buechner, 1991). Nevertheless, we may spend alifetime trying to be someone other than this originalor authentic self, persuaded by others that our worthderives from having and accomplishing, or that weshould fit some norm of correctness (Moore, 2000).From our earliest days, we are surrounded by thevoices and expectations of those who encourage usto choose a certain direction for our lives, as opposedto helping us to listen to our own inner voice (Palmer,2000). Modern society encourages us to follow recipes

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•A.J. StremmeUJournal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 25 (2005) 375-381 377

for practice or consult experts rather than find thestrength to look inward. Unless we develop the courageto seek our own course, we may discover that we forgetnot only who we were and who we are, but also whowe might become. Palmer (2000) argues that teachersmust reclaim their inner selves in order to live authen-tic lives and teach with integrity.

1.1. Why is self important to teaching?

Thus, the question, "Who am I?" cannot be fullyanswered by naming any one of the categories we useto define ourselves (e.g., father/mother, husband/wife,teacher, teacher educator, writer, researcher, etc.).These are simply descriptors of external features orbehaviors. If we were to describe ourselves in devel-opmental or continuous-process terms, we would needto include all of the inner debates and discussions wehave with ourselves, as well as the external dialogueswe have with numerous others. We are not a singleand permanent entity, but rather a set of choices andpossibilities.

Furthermore, to think of self as developing withlinear, forward movement on a path toward complete-ness, maturity, or sophistication seems to fall short ofthe mark. Some have maintained that we are seasonalbeings, with patterns and rhythms that constantly rede-fine us (Moore, 2000; Palmer, 2000; Wright, 2002).The soul does not emerge or grow in the traditionalsense; it twists and cycles, repeats and regresses,always circling in accordance with the rhythms andcycles of nature (Moore, 2000). By honoring our ownrhythms and cycles, the seasons of withering andblooming we encounter on our sojourns may serve asuseful metaphors for our growth as teachers. Honoringchange does not deny our struggles and our joys, ourchallenges and our satisfaction, our frustration and ourthrills, but encourages us to grasp it all, and as a resultto be transformed (Palmer, 2000).

Every human life is a journey into the unknown,an odyssey or pilgrimage, often with guides but rarelywithout risks and mistakes, opportunities and possibil-ities (Moore, 2000). This is no less true of the journeyswe undertake as teachers. Along the way, we expe-rience myriad opportunities and possibilities as weencounter the relentless ups and downs of teaching.Nonetheless, it is through the reconstruction of theseexperiences, good and bad, that students of teachingleam to define it as a complex struggle with self-identity. They discover that the act of teaching is asearch for meaning and understanding, and requiresthe negotiation of creative and meaningful relation-ships with their students and co-workers. As teachereducators, we have the awe-inspiring responsibility ofbeing more alert to our students' questions, invitingthem to know themselves better, to be more thought-

ful in their decisions, and to cultivate a richer innerand outer life.

2. Making the connection between inner selfand teaching

Beginning teachers are students not only of theteaching process and the children they teach, but alsoof their own development (Ayers, 1993; Bullough &Gitlin, 1995; Paley, 1990). Rightly so, the self is thefirst source of search and research, because, "Of all theknowledge teachers need to draw on, self-knowledgeis most important" (Ayers, 1993, p. 129). Focusing onwho we are and what we bring to teaching, the questionof "What skills are required to be a teacher?" becomessecondary to "What does it mean to be a teacher?" and"Who am I in the lives of my students?" No matter howsimple or sophisticated our teaching methods may be,writes Palmer ( 1998), we tend to discover methods thatwork for us only as we become clearer about our ownpersonal identities.

The idea that competence in teaching is not definedmerely by action and technique, but also by the abil-ity to generate an understanding of self and othersthrough theorizing, questioning, reflecting, wonder-ing, and discovering is one of the basic principles ofthe early childhood teacher education program at Vir-ginia Tech (see Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2005). Basedon the notion of teacher as researcher, and adheringto a social constructivist, reflective-inquiry approachto teacher education, students of teaching are seenas active initiators of research in their own class-rooms; as experts on their children; and as creatorsof curriculum and knowledge. This approach is con-sistent with Dewey's notion of constructing knowl-edge through inquiry, based upon the "drawing out"of ideas. According to Dewey (1925/1981), inquiryarises from doubt, curiosity, or cognitive dissonance,and coupled with reflection leads to meaning makingand increased self-understanding. Moreover, it is in thecreation of a community of learners that inquiry andreflection are given purpose through the communica-tion, sharing, and testing of ideas. Below I describeactivities and experiences that encourage students toconstruct and reconstruct knowledge of self and teach-ing through community building and reflective prac-tices.

2.1. Creating community

If selfhood is constructed through social interac-tions, then we are called to live responsively, account-ably, and joyfully in community. How do we createcommunity with our students and our colleagues?There are a number of ways we have attempted to do

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this in the early childhood teacher education programat Virginia Tech—each experience intended to supportthe development of self in the context of relationships.

First, students enter our program as a cohort—acommunity of learners who experience their teacherpreparation together for 5 years. As freshmen, studentsenroll in a year-long professional seminar that meetsweekly in the fall and biweekly in the spring whenthey begin their first field-study experience togetherin the public schools. Each semester thereafter thesestudents take courses together, including field stud-ies in both preschool and elementary settings, throughtheir senior year, after which they may enter the gradu-ate program, which enables them to become licensed.From day one until the end of their journey, studentsare encouraged to reflect on who they are in terms ofwhere they have been, where they are now, and wherethey hope to be. Some of these reflective exercisesare described below. Students form close relationshipswith others in their cohort group, the teacher educa-tion faculty, and peers from other cohorts. Over thisperiod of time, students are given many opportuni-ties to develop professional attitudes and skills andenhance their self-understanding.

Classrooms also are communities—in particular,communities of learners in which dialogue and col-laborative conversations enable students to reflect ontheir classroom experiences. In the courses I teach, forexample, when a problem (a situation, predicament,or dilemma) is raised, we examine it and explore howwe might resolve it. Students are encouraged to testtheir ideas and discover what works. Throughout thesemester various ideas will be tested, and, over time,together we may actually be able to settle on solutionsand develop new understanding.

For instance, a common concern that students raisein their first field experience with preschoolers relatesto their role in the classroom. Many students feel likethey are babysitters and that the classroom is chaoticand unstructured, not at all like they imagine a class-room to be. They often feel bored and lack an adequateunderstanding of what they should be doing.

However, this presents a perfect opportunity toreflect, both individually and collectively as a commu-nity, on why this is a problem and what students mightdo differently. For example, one student shared, "Iknow I need to be thinking 'What can I leam from thissituation?* no matter how bad it may seem?" Othersdiscussed the importance of taking some initiative andasking what they can do. how they can help, and beinginsistent in the desire to contribute to the classroom.Together we talked about how it was their right to askand take advantage of learning opportunities—theywere there to observe, interact, and leam. We alsodiscussed how to talk with the supervising teacherabout their roles and responsibilities and what they

would like to be doing in the classroom. Finally, weconcluded that while they probably could not changethe climate, they could make positive connections tothe children and have good interactions with them,learning from them by watching and listening. As acommunity of learners, then, we engaged collectivelyin the process of self-reflective transformation.

The university lab school also is a community oflearners. Students spend their junior year in this set-ting, while they take a two-semester course sequenceon curriculum and assessment. For an entire year, stu-dents engage in action research—reflective inquiryinto the problems and situations they and the chil-dren experience together daily in the classroom. Here,they contemplate'the notion that teachers are the-orists, investigators, and creative problem solvers.The children's questions and hypotheses form theprimary basis for curriculum construction that facil-itates inquiry and investigation. Together, children,students, and teachers test ideas, observe and recordevents, revisit assumptions, and develop new ques-tions and explanations that lead to new understandingsand insights into the nature of children's thinking andlearning. As partners in inquiry, adults and children inthe classroom leam from each other in a democratic,reciprocal, and humanizing manner that is transfor-mative, and which leads to a sense of community inlearning and living.

2.2. Reflective practices

Thomas Moore (2000) in his book, Original Self,has noted that we have left behind methods of reflec-tion in favor of "technologies for action". And yet,action without reflection prevents us from both claim-ing our authentic selfhood and acting it out in ways thattransform both who we are and the society in whichwe live. If we can leam to read and make sense ofour responses to our experiences, we will leam to livemore authentic lives (Palmer, 2000).

Good teaching, like good living, requires actualpractice followed by reflection upon that practice inwhat is a kind of ameliorative cycle (Ayers, 1993;Stremmel, Fu, & Hill, 2002). Reflection helps usbecome aware of what is appropriate and possible inthe classroom. It prevents us from becoming mechan-ical about our thoughts, emotions, actions, and reac-tions. When we are mechanical we become compla-cent and subject to the ups and downs of teaching.We start to feel good about ourselves when things aregoing well, and we feel successful as teachers, butwhen things are going badly, we feel as if we are fail-ing. To be aware of this is liberating and leads to whatvan Manen (1991) refers to as "mindfulness" and tact.

van Manen (1991) suggests that the starting pointof pedagogical understanding and good teaching is the

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need to understand the child from the subjectivity ofhis or her own experience. A teacher who is gener-ally thoughtful about his or her own experiences ismore likely to demonstrate real understanding of thechild. This mindfulness, or thoughtful attentiveness, isa reflective capacity that leads to understanding, and ischaracterized by the ability to listen, to be present, andto see what is significant in the present situation (vanManen, 1991). Mindfulness leads to tactful teaching,or what Schon (1983) has called "knowing-in-action".Being tactful, according to van Manen, is possible withpedagogical understanding; it is an action or embod-ied knowing of what to do. It is a demonstration ofpractical understanding in a given situation. It is open,receptive and non-judgmental.

Listening to oneself is a non-judgmental act and isintended to foster self-understanding, awareness and apersonal sense of direction and intentionality in one'slife (Rud, 1995). Learning to listen to ourselves allowsus to listen more attentively to others. ••

In one exercise that students have come to findextremely valuable, I ask them to observe themselvesas though they were someone else doing the observingfor an entire day. Afterward, they write down what theydiscovered and include this in one of their upcomingreflections. Students often mention embarrassment inthe discovery of how they use their time or the mannerin which they interact with others. More importantly,students mention how they need to act more deliber-ately, with eyes wide open. They have begun to learnthat the practices we take for granted need to be thesubject of thoughtful analysis. When analyzing edu-cation and envisioning alternatives, it is important toname (and write about) what we have actually lived.

Thus, one can reason that self-observation (listen-ing to oneself and carefully watching one's actions)leads to reflection, self-understanding and awareness,which is the ability to pay attention to our inner life,and in turn, become mindful and tactful in our teach-ing. This is true of all teaching, whether one is a collegeprofessor or a student teacher. Teachers must continu-ally observe and reflect on their experiences, in whatcan be piercing and sometimes painful self-analysis.This involves asking such questions as:

• "Did I do all I could to help a student pursue hisor her particular interest?"

• "Did I intervene too quickly in a situation?"• "What am I doing to awaken my students to the

longing to know?"• "Did I do what really matters in my classroom

today?"

Because of this self-appraisal, teachers must alwaysbe in the process of revising, rethinking, reconsidering,and improving their teaching. In fact, what keeps goodteachers from burning out may be the simple notion

of reinventing themselves again and again (Ayers,1993).

I share here two general methods—autobiographyand metaphor—that I have used to foster the explo-ration and reinvention of self. Although joumaling andother reflective practices are useful tools for develop-ing technical expertise and the development of self, Ibelieve that the use of autobiography (personal narra-tive) and metaphor hold particular promise for self-study, leading to the realization that our value andpotential as teachers and human beings lies within,and that becoming a teacher requires an understand-ing and nurturing of that inner self.

2.3. Autobiography

Autobiographies are personal narratives that serveto organize our thinking and belief systems about whatit means to teach, as well as who we are and who weaspire to be as teachers (Bullough & Gitlin, 1995).Autobiography lets us reflect on what our life hasbeen like thus far, the people who have brought us toa certain point, and the events which seemed arbitraryor insignificant at the time, but have proved pivotalin retrospect. It may also allow us to anticipate thefuture by constructing probabilities based on the past.Because we author our own stories, autobiographiesare crucial to helping us shape our identities. Whowe are (our experiences, beliefs, values, and aspira-tions) has a profound influence on what we will leam,and more importantly, who we will become. Writingand exploring our life histories, then, is an importantmeans toward illuminating and confronting or chal-lenging our basic beliefs and assumptions, and towardconstructing our future (Bullough and Gitlin, 1995).

Writing autobiography can take many forms. Earlyin the students' program, I ask them to engage invarious autobiographical activities. As freshmen andsophomores, students become increasingly aware ofwho they are, reflecting on their thoughts, beliefs,and values, and critically examining why they wantto become teachers. For example, students engage inthe following activities:

• The story of your name—a brief narrative onhow students acquired their name.

• Autobiographical sketches—a poem or collec-tion of statements concerning what students careabout, fear, and wish for—and how they mightdescribe themselves.

• Autobiography as Haiku—a statement that pro-vides insight into a student's life in less than 100words.

Each of these activities, adapted from other sources(e.g., Ayers, 1993) helps students examine their ownstories and connect to the stories of others. Moreover,

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they provoke such questions as: "What about my lifeis worth writing about?" "Of what value would it be toothers or me?" and "How can this help me be a betterteacher?" which serve as a starting point for furtherself-inquiry.

Another autobiographical activity that studentsenjoy is writing about "hinge points". All of us havehinge points, that is, significant moments in our liveswhere we turn toward a future distinctly different fromthe one we had expected. Although these usually arenot recognized when they occur, with hindsight wemay recognize their importance. What characterizes atrue hinge point is its significance and decisiveness inour lives. So students are asked, often as part of a moreformal, written autobiography, to recall and reflect on ahinge point in their own lives—a point in time in whichthey embraced a new direction that changed their lifecourse in a significant way.

Here I will share one student's reflection about ateacher whose sensitivity and understanding signifi-cantly contributed to her sense of self and what it meantto be a teacher.

When I went through being sick in high school, therewas one teacher who noticed it and really helped me.Mr. McWilliams would do anything he could to helpme out in school. He talked to teachers of mine, tellingthem I was going to have good and bad days. He wasthere to help me with my homework when I felt that Icould not do it. Mr. McWilliams kept his door open forme whenever I needed to talk. He taught me that beinga good teacher does not just mean teaching material,it means teaching about life and helping students outwith life. He understood that growing up is hard andthat kids are going to have outside problems to dealwith besides school. That is one element I am defi-nitely taking into my own classroom.

Hinge points are thus milestones that mark ourpaths, and can be a useful means of periodically assess-ing where we are and who we are becoming on ourpersonal journeys. If done without thought and care,our days of teaching can blur into one another until weare sleepwalking through life—not so much choos-ing a path as being carried along by the surge of ouryesterdays. Milestones come in many forms—someeasy to remember (and foresee), some painful to recall.Sometimes they are in the form of teachers who madeus feel as if we were the most important persons inthe world and who helped us find the answers to ourown questions. Other times we may remember a once-hidden, stomach-churning event from our lives, andconfronting this enables us to move forward in a newlight. However, the milestones appear, it is importantto identify them;.they are opportunities to assess whoand where we are. If they remain unnoticed, we mayfind ourselves lost, wondering how we could possiblyhave come to a place ostensibly beyond our choosing.

I have come to realize, as I have begun to sharemy own autobiography with my students, that our sto-ries are important not so much because they are ours,but because they are everyone's. Buechner ( 1991 ) sug-gests that keeping track of the stories of who we are,where we came from and the people who have influ-enced us along the way allows us to become fullyhuman, as we become fully known to ourselves andothers.

2.4. Metaphor

Before we think about teaching children or what toteach them, we need to turn the mind to the generichuman characteristics that make teaching of any kindpossible. Exploring images of teaching, or how weenvision teaching, can be useful in this process. A self-study technique that I have found to be effective inhelping students uncover their images of teaching isthe use of metaphor. According to Bullough and Gitlin(1995), metaphors are useful ways to describe teach-ing because we tend to think in metaphors (e.g., theheart as a pump; the brain as a computer). They area means of making sense of experience and exploringthe assumptions that characterize what teachers do.Metaphors can assist beginning teachers, especially,to articulate and consider who they think they are asteachers and who they want to be.

Beginning in the professional seminar courses andcontinuing throughout their teacher education pro-gram, students are asked at various times and in variousways the question: "Who do you imagine yourselfto be as a teacher?" In particular, I often ask stu-dents to represent in some way other than writingtheir image of self-as-teacher. They might use a varietyof media, such as performance, sculpture, drawing orpainting—even self-portraiture. Then they are askedto describe their representations in writing or orally,choosing a metaphor or image that might best portraytheir definition of teacher. In class, we explore wherethe image comes from and ways that it might be lim-iting.

According to Bullough and Gitlin (1995),metaphors are central to our negotiation of roles, asthey may help mediate our "situational selves" (con-structed in practice and contingent upon the context)and our inner (authentic) self. This is often evident instudents' drawings or self-portraits, which may depictthem interacting with children in a classroom in a waythat is inconsistent with what is actually observed. Asa case in point, students may depict themselves stand-ing in front of a group of children who are seated inrows of desks; but, in describing their teaching, theymay talk about the importance of encouraging peerinteraction and allowing children to direct their ownactivities.

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A.J. Stremmel/Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 25 (2005) 375-381 381

Drawing self-portraits has been an intriguingmethod for encouraging students to uncover andbecome sensitive to what they consider significantabout themselves, forcing them to look carefully atwho they are, and helping them to consider theirstrengths and shortcomings. As a specific example,I frequently ask students to draw how they see them-selves in the classroom. Students are encouraged tothink about what the classroom would look like andwhat they and the children in their classroom would bedoing. The use of self- portraits, metaphors, and otherrepresentational forms of reflection can make studentslook deep inside themselves and ask their most urgentand meaningful questions.

3. Concluding comments

Current discussion about teaching and teacher edu-cation has moved toward debate about the inner life ofthe teacher, the virtues that make for excellent teach-ing, and the mystery at the heart of all pedagogy (cf.Ayers, 1993; Palmer, 1998; Schwehn, 2002).

Teacher education can help students transform theirattitudes toward teaching—to see themselves not asconsumers but producers of knowledge, includingknowledge of self, and to experience personal renewal,which is at the heart of true transformation. I havespoken briefly of two primary sources to which wecan turn for teacher renewal: (1) community building,particularly building a community of learners (fellowteachers and students) that invites and encourages stu-dents to discover who they are, and that supports themwhile they explore, and (2) reflection, which can culti-vate the inner self and the sense of wonder and inquirythat resides in all of us. Both can liberate, support, andhumanize what we do as teachers.

The act of teaching creates possibility. It enablesthe teacher to guide the student toward what couldbe, but is not yet (Ayers, 1993). With teaching thereis no magic password, but a path that leads in newdirections, and allows us to consider alternatives anddraw different conclusions. The fundamental role ofteacher educators is this—to challenge students tomove toward a deeper engagement with the burningand authentic issues of teaching that allow for self-transformation and increased understanding: Socrates'"turning of the soul".

References

Ayers, W. (1993). To teach: The journey of a teacher. NewYork, NY: Teachers College Press.

Buechner, F. (1991). Telling secrets. San Francisco, CA:HarperCollins.

Bullough, R. V., & Gitlin, A. (1995). Becoming a studentof teaching: Methodologies for exploring self and schoolcontext. New York, NY: Garland Publishing.

Dewey, J. (1981). Experience and nature. In J. A. Boyd-ston (Ed.), The collected works of John Dewey: The laterworks: Vol. 1. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univer-sity Press (Original work published 1925).

Greene, M. (1988). The dialectic of freedom. New York:Teachers College Press.

Haroutunian-Gordon, S. (1995). Soul. In J. W. Garrison& A. G. Rud (Eds.), The educational conversation:Closing the gap (pp. 97-107). Albany, NY: SUNYPress.

Hermans, H. J., Kempen, H. J. G., & van Loon, R. J. P. (1992).The dialogical self: Beyond individualism and rational-ism. American Psychologist, 47, 23-33.

Hill, L., Stremmel, A., & Fu, V. (2005). Teaching as inquiry:Rethinking curriculum in early childhood education. NewYork: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Moore, T. (2000). Original self: Living with paradox andoriginality. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethicsand moral education. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress.

Paley, V. G. (1990). The boy who would be a helicopter: Theuses of storytelling in the classroom. Cambridge, MA:Harvard.

Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring theinner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (2000). Let your life speak: Listening for thevoice of vocation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey towardan undivided life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Rud, A. G. (1995). Learning in comfort: Developing an ethosof hospitality in education. In J. W. Garrison & A. G.Rud (Eds.), The educational conversation: Closing thegap (pp. 119-128). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Scheibe, K. E. (1986). Self-narratives and adventure. In T. R.Sarbin (Ed.), Narrative psychology: The storied nature ofhuman conduct (pp. 129-151). New York, NY: Praeger.

Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: Howprofessionals think in action. New York, NY: BasicBooks.

Schwehn, M. R. (2002). Teaching as profession and vocation.Theology Today, 59(3), 396-407.

Stremmel, A. J., Fu, V. R., & Hill, L. T. (2002). The trans-formation of self in early childhood teacher education:Connections to the Reggio Emilia Approach. In V. R.Fu, A. J. Stremmel, & L. T. Hill (Eds.), Teaching andlearning: Collaborative exploration of the Reggio Emiliaapproach (pp. 135-145). Upper Saddle River. NJ: MerrillPrentice Hall.

van Manen, M. (1991). The tact of teaching: The meaning ofpedagogical thoughtfulness. Albany. NY: SUNY Press.

Wright, W. M. (2002). Potter and clay: Thoughts on formingand being formed. Weavings: A Journal of the ChristianSpiritual Life, 17(2), 6-11.

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