Description
Teaching Life Writing: Theory, Methodology, and Practice combines research in life writing and pedagogy to examine the role of life stories in diverse learning contexts, disciplines, and global settings. While life stories are increasingly integrated into curricula, their incorporation raises the risk of reducing them to mere historical evidence. Recognizing the importance of teaching life stories in a manner that goes beyond a surface understanding, life-writing scholars have been consistently exploring innovative pedagogical practices to engage with these stories in ways that encourage dynamic and nuanced conversations about identity, agency, authenticity, memory, and truth, as well as the potential of these narratives to instigate social change.
This book assembles contributions from a diverse group of international educators, weaving together life writing research, critical reflection, and concrete pedagogical strategies. The chapters are organized around three overarching conversations: the materials, practices, and mediations involved in teaching life writing within the context of contemporary social change. The unique perspectives presented in this collection provide educators with valuable insights into effectively incorporating life stories into their teaching practices. Featuring works by over a dozen educators, the volume interlaces life writing research, critical reflection, and tangible pedagogical practices.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of a/b: Auto/Biography Studies.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Life-Writing Research beyond “The Black Hole” Effect Introduction: On Teaching Life Writing in an Age of Social Change Part 1—Teaching Life Writing Forum: The Process 1. Teaching Black Life Writing in the 2020 US Election Season and Beyond Part 2—Teaching Life Writing Forum: Materials 2. Scraps and Maps: Handwriting and Drawing as Early-Stage Process Methods for Autobiography 3. “Show and Tell”: The Risks and Rewards of Personal-Object-Based Learning 4. Grasping the Scope of Individual Human Devastation in War: Life Writing’s Place in Mapping in the Classroom 5. Teaching, Trauma, Writing: The Truth’s Superb Surprise 6. Care-Filled Classrooms: Heart(Art)Full Life Writing Pedagogy Part 3—Teaching Life Writing Forum: Mediations 7. Interview Mediations in the Classroom 8. Translation as/and Mediation: Teaching Life Writing in the Foreign Literature Classroom 9. Getting Emotional, Getting Personal. Writing Autobiographically about Teaching Life Writing in Times of Crisis 10. On Teaching Life Writing for (Not) Knowing Part 4—Teaching Life Writing Forum: Practices 11. Living Archives, Living Story: Questions of Ethics, Responsibility, and Sharing 12. (Life) Writing to Belong: Teaching and Learning on Camera during a Pandemic 13. Designing an Accessible Virtual Classroom: Cripping the Syllabus 14. The Art of Life Storytelling: Sharing and Exchanging Moments of Ambition in Summer Bridge Programs Afterword: History and Hopes—Life writing Pedagogy in the twenty-first Century
