Critical Writing Pedagogy and Mental Health: Novice Teachers in Collective Memory Work

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Memory, Community, and Healing Through Writing With Preservice and In-Service Teachers (Table 3)

Abstract

This paper explores how the method of Collective Memory Work (Haug, 1999) impacts the healing and resistance of novice teachers. The participatory study engages three novice English teachers in a critical writing pedagogy to write and collectively analyze memories from the 2020-21 academic year. The study asks: How have novice teachers witnessed, listened, and responded to trauma? Written memories and collective analysis provide an opportunity to engage with contradictions and reconsider the construction of teacher identity. Collective spaces and shifted approaches to critical writing pedagogy are necessary to continue to reimagine the experience of teaching and approach the future with acknowledgement and engagement of our past.

Author

• Anna Schick, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author