University of Southern Maine USM Digital Commons Faculty and Staff Books Faculty and Staff Publications 2001 The Spirit of Teaching Michael Brady University of Southern Maine Desi Larson University of Southern Maine Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Brady, E. M., and Desi Larson. The Spirit of Teaching. University of Southern Maine, 2001. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty and Staff Publications at USM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty and Staff Books by an authorized administrator of USM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • ltof • eac ng 1999--2001 Walter E. Russell Endowed Chair in Philosophy and Education at the University of Southern Maine edited by E. Michael Brady and Desi Larson - , a F lo Y--?(.u ,.J;, Donated by The E. Michael Brady Spirit of Teaching The Spirit of Teaching edited by E. Michael Brady and Desi Larson • Dedication To all those whose spirit of teaching has as its source-and destination­ the human heart. - v- Table of Contents Preface ................. ........... ......... ....... ........ ........................... ix Acknowledgments ..................... ......................... ...... ........... .. xi . Relationships and the Spirit of Teaching A Grateful Student Writes to His Spirited Te acher .............. ..... .............. 3 Michael Brady E. Cultivating Care, Full Learning ................. ....... .................. ...... " . 12 Kristina Pelletier Spiritual Renewal through Transformation .............. ..... ·. 1 7 Allen Lamp�rt and Noelle Lord Te aching, Learning, Connection: The Relational Drama of Education . ....... 24 Kaitlin Briggs and Dale Barrett Kindred Spirits ...... ................ ............................. ................... 33 J erelyn Grusy Education Inside Out: Teaching and Learningas a Spiritual Journey ........... 38 Robert Atkinson Reflections on the Spirit(s) of Teaching Past ....... ..... ......................... 45 Paul G. Caron, Jan L. Hitchcock, Ann Moisan, and W. Bumper White Theory and the Spirit of Teaching Students at the Tu be: Popular Culture as Inspiration . ..... ... ..... ..... ... 57 . Christine G. Berg Affective Literacy: The Education of Interpersonal Mindfulness ..... ......... .. 62 . Bette Katsekas The Spirit of Teaching: Theory, Practice , and Healing . .... ................. .. 69 . Kathleen I. MacPherson Te aching as Generativity vs. Stagnation . .......... ...... ... ....... .... .... .. 73 Valerie Hart The Spirit of Te aching as a Dialogue ofLearn ing, Living, and Loving ........... 78 Wesley Joseph Mills The Spirit of Teaching in Practice Spirited Te aching: ReturningEnchantment to the Haunted Classroom ......... 91 Willard D. Callender, Jr. Humor in Te aching . 100 Robert M. Sanford Te aching Notes in the Margins . 109 Mary Collins Hunger for Learning Drives Passion for Te aching . 114 Ta ra Grey Coste - vii - Te acher as Trickster, Te acher as Mirror: Student,Centered Classroom · . · .. · · · · Dynamics and the Spirit of Te aching ..................................... 119 Eve Allegra Raimon and Rose Cleary Performance Analysis Where PassionResides: An Occupational Preface of Te aching . .12 . 7 . Roxie Black and Nancy MacRae . · . · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Te aching to Spirit . ...... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... 135 The Irish poet and Nobel Laureate, William Butler Yeats, once wrote that he . .... Jeremiah Conway wore a ring with a hawk and a butterfly on it to symbolize the straight line of logic and the crooked one of intuition. For decades writers and scholars explored teaching primarily through words The Spirit of Teaching in Story .. .. ... .. · . · · · · Storytelling with Dogs . .... ..... ... ........ .. .. .. .. ... 141 and ideas aligned with the straight line of logic. Planning a coherent curriculum. Margaret Jones Establishing learning goals and objectives. The science of syllabus construction. .. · · · · Portraits of Family Literacies . ...... ... ... ... ... .... .... ... ... .... 146 The architecture of clear and substantive lectures. The especially challenging dia, . Henry C. Amoroso lectics of managing group discussions. Creating fair assessments. Yes, in the litera, School: Te aching Peace on the West Bank .... ... ...... .. 158 ture of pedagogy the hawk of the "how to" flies straight and true. Hope Flowers . Rita M. Kissen But there is also another tradition in the conversation about teaching, another Green Professor Blues: Reflections on Rebirth and Teaching . 16. 4 line of flight, albeit one perhaps not as pronounced as the hawk's. Contemporary Desi Larson writers such as Parker Palmer, Eliot Eisner, Roland Christensen, and Stephen Brookfield have examined ideas about the role of intuition, the confluence of . ... ......... ...... ..... 169 thought and feeling, the nature of the personal relationship between teacher and A Brief Note about the Walter Russell Chair . E. student, and other dimensions in the "art" of teaching. This book explores and celebrates this latter tradition, a line of inquiry which represents more the mean, dering and crooked flightof the butterfly. In the fall of 1999, as part of Professor Michael Brady's work "in the University of Southern Maine'sRussell Chair in Philosophy and Education, a conference was organized on the theme, "The Spirit of Te aching." A request for workshop and symposium proposals was sent to faculty colleagues and members of the Maine education community. Questions to which potential conference presenters were invited to respond included: • What motivates and inspires teaching? • What values lie "at the heart" of teaching? • Is it possible to talk about a "spirituality" in teaching? If so, how? • What spirits haunt teachers and teaching? • What stories, if any, does our teaching tell? • What conditions diminish spirited teaching and how might we work to reform those conditions? • In what ways does a spirit of learning inform a spirit of teaching? • How may teachers keep spirited teaching alive over a long career? Te achers working in a wide range of sectors-universities, technical colleges, K, 12 education, social service agencies, public school adult education, and cor, porate training departments-responded to this request with conference propos, als (some wished to work in teams and others individually). On April 8, 2000, more than 200 conference participants convened on the Gorham campus of the University to explore, discuss, and celebrate myriad aspects of the spirit of teach, ing. This book consists of 23 chapters based on workshops and symposia that were facilitated at this conference. These are organized into four sections: the spirit of - viii - - ix - • teaching expressed in relationships, theory, practice, and story. Also represented in this volume are a wide range of writing voices-scholarly treatises, essays, mem, airs, and even personal correspondence-indeed, the path of a meandering and crooked,flying butterfly. But perhaps a path of flight that will bring the reader Acknowledgments closer to understanding the meaning of the spirit of teaching than which could be enter this spirit and join this achieved through logic or science. We invite you to We wish to express our gratitude to friends and colleagues who helped to bring flight. this entire project-the conference and book-to life. These include all the work, shop presenters and participants at the April Spirit of Te aching confer, 8, 2000, ence. That conference was planned by a committee consisting ofJohn Bay, Center for Te aching; Mary Collins, Department of Human Resource Development; Veronica Delcourt, Branch, Adult Education Program; and Carol LaMontagne and George Lyons, College of Education and Human Development Professional De, velopment Center. In addition, the Professional Development Center's Dan Schorr prepared the conference program. Financial support to underwrite the costs of both the conference and book came from a variety of sources. The Walter E. Russell endowment provided funds for this and nine other educational events at the University of Southern Maine during the past twenty years (see "A BriefNote About the Walter E. Russell Chair" at the end of this book). The academic deans from each of the schools and colleges at USM supported faculty and student participation in the conference. And the University's Center for Te aching provided a generous grant to underwrite the cost of both running the conference and publishing these proceedings. Finally, we received invaluable support from important leaders at the Univer, sity. USM President Richard Pattenaude helped this project in numerous ways including financial support and welcoming participants at "The Spirit of Te ach, ing" conference. Chrisrine Pratt, assistant to the Provost, administers the Walter E. Russell endowment and offered valuable guidance. And Julie Cameron and Libby Barrett in the Publications Office workedclosely with us to transform typed manu, scripts into the finished product you are holding in your hand. We enjoyed the processes of reading, advising, cajoling, and otherwise work, ing with our author,colleagues to bring this book to life. Among the greatest and most important things we learnedfr om them through this experience is the breadth of their love for teaching and the depth of their compassion for their students. For the sharing of that spirit we are