Retelling Nelson Mandela's Story for/With Preservice Teachers in These Increasingly Challenging Times

• In Event: Profiles in Courage, Leadership, and Inspiration

Abstract

As the crosswinds of social, political and ideological division strive to prevail across
deeply divided American landscapes, wreaking bitterness, cruely and despair, it is vitally
important to recall stories that have “room for the best and the worst, for atrocities and
liberation, for grief and jubilation” (Solnit, 2016, p.xix). The purpose of this inquiry is
draw inspiration and resilience from the lived experience of Nelson Mandela as an
exemplar of critical hope and reconciliation in spite of his “many dark moments when his
faith in humanity was sorely tested” (1995, p. 138). During the time of his 27 year prison
term in apartheid South Africa he refused to give into despair or to be consumed with
hatred.

Author

• Robert Lewis Lake, Georgia Southern University