Essential to approach teaching with humility and courage
Collaboration, Narrative, and Inquiry That Honor the Complexity of Teacher Education is a new book by Karen Rut Gísladóttir, associate professor at the University of Iceland's School of Education, and the American scholars Amy Johnson Lachuk, and Tricia DeGraff.
"The aim of the book is draw on the framework we have been using in our work through out the years. The results shed light on the issues we have been tackling in our work to become the university lecturers or teacher educators we wish to be. Based on that we underline what we find important to nurture in all work with teachers and student teachers," says Karen Rut Gísladóttir, one of the authors.
Karen has worked closely with the scholars Amy Johnson Lachuk and Tricia DeGraff; whom she met whilst studying at Wisconsin-Madison University in the United States almost twenty years ago. The fruit of the collaboration was recently published in the book Collaboration, Narrative, and Inquiry That Honor the Complexity of Teacher Education. "Since we crossed paths we have made an effort to create a platform where we could discuss education and teaching and thus support each other in our careers. From the beginning we have kept our narratives and studied them jointly. We did this to better grasp what we were dealing with at each given moment, what we are trying to accomplish in our work, and how we could enact these practice-based approach in our teacher education courses," describes Karen Rut.
Teaching and working with teachers and student teachers is, according to Karen, one her most rewarding tasks. "Teaching is a complex undertaking and there is so much that influences the projects that us teachers have to face every day. One of my biggest lessons I have learned in my work as a teacher in Icelandic at a primary level, university level and as an education researcher, is to approach my job with humility and courage. To have the guts to take the necessary steps to create a good environment for students, enabling them to grow based in their own experience and knowledge."
The book is useful to all who work in teaching, are interested in teacher education, or are currently studying in the field of educational sciences. The book is published in English by Information Age Publishing in the United States. Those interested can check out selected book chapters in open access on Amazon.
