Teaching from Remembering: Collective Memories of Childhood as Pedagogical Resource and Risk

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 3:45 pm
  In Poster Session: Teachers’ Lives, Identities, and Journeys - Division K Section 3

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how educators’ memories of their own childhoods shape their teaching practices, relationships with students, and professional identities. Drawing on narrative inquiry, affect, talk and social theories, the research data involved a focus group with elementary school teachers. Findings reveal that childhood memories function as embodied, affectively charged resources that inform pedagogical decision-making, emotional attunement, and classroom interactions. At the same time, participants expressed the need for critical reflection to avoid over-identification or projection onto students. The study is situated within the frameworks of memory studies, teacher identity scholarship, and critical pedagogy, and it argues for the integration of memory work into teacher education as a means of fostering relational, reflective, and justice-oriented practice.

Authors

• Roni Barsoum, University of Michigan

• Natalie R. Davis, University of Michigan