Unforgetting Teaching Herstories: Bringing Relationship Literacies Forward While Shifting Narratives About Teaching Through Life Stories

• In Event: Unforgetting Stories in Education and Reimagining the Future: Intersections of (Auto)biography, Learning, Teaching, and Empowerment

Abstract

The goal of this presentation is for panelists to illustrate how teaching and learning are inherently relational through life stories and autoethnographic vignettes. In this panel, educators representing various disciplines, address an autoethnographic project that focused on relationship literacies as central to teaching and learning—not as an add-on, but as the heart of what makes meaningful instruction possible. Research across the cognitive sciences supports that students who learn within nurturing environments realize greater potential for academic, social, and emotional success. When students are engaged with an educator who makes them feel seen, heard, and valued, their level of safety and trust is elevated. This heightened sense of security enables better cognitive processing and greater transfer of new knowledge.

Authors

• Marissa Schweinfurth, University of Northern Iowa

• Bianca J. Nightengale-Lee, Western Michigan University

• Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, Louisiana State University

• Corey Drake, The Math Learning Center

• Margaret Vaughn, Washington State University

• Lori Ann Norton-Meier, University of Northern Iowa

• Erin Summerhays, University of Northern Iowa