Cycle Breakers: Reflections on the Needs of Teachers for the Sake of the Children

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers' Attention to Inquiry, Healing, and Possible Selves in English and Social Studies Classroom Contexts (Table 9)

Abstract

Exceptional situations take exceptional tolls on educators, and we simultaneously acknowledge that the origins of the culture of American history carries a cost in its very design. At the center of these historical and present complexities lies our children. It is for them that we must break the cycle. Duoethnography allows the researcher to simultaneously value individual experience and insight while equally valuing the “magic” from the dialogue, connectedness and growth. Our purpose is to provide a narrative roadmap of professional learning exploring the support, development, and healing of educators. We illustrate the significance of resisting the cyclical deficit culture woven into the hierarchical structure of American education in order to offer something more humanizing for educators and students.

Authors

• Jasmin Easterling, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Leslie Lorton Hamm, University of Missouri - St. Louis