MACMILLAN Suffering and the Intelligence of Love in the Teaching Life: In Light and In Darkness

This book shares insights drawn from the diverse voices of public school teachers, community outreach education workers, professors, writers, poets, artists, and musicians on suffering in school and the classroom. Teachers speak about their own encounters with and perceptions from suffering using critical-analytic textual works, as well as first-hand personally reflective accounts. By sharing their stories and reflections, the editors and contributors shed light upon the dark areas that often are not addressed in Teacher Training Programs, and that generally remain unaddressed and unacknowledged even as teachers become well-established as professionals in the field of education. From the Back Cover “Insofar as the Greek dramaturge Aeschylus taught that ‘Suffering is our only teacher,’ it is highly relevant for teachers, and teachers-in-formation, to learn to better understand the nature of suffering in teaching itself. This book contains witness and testimony from teachers in many different walks and situations, providing a rich, revealing invitation to all of us teachers, young and old, to engage our difficulties creatively, both for ourselves and for those we are called to stand together with, colleagues and students alike. Highly recommended!” ―David Geoffrey Smith, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Canada  “The teachers’ interiority―the anxieties and joys that nourish (or deplete) their craft―is here, for the first time made the subject of sustained reflection. A groundbreaking collection!”―Heinz-Dieter Meyer, Professor of Education, State University of New York, USA This book shares insights drawn from the diverse voices of public school teachers, community outreach education workers, professors, writers, poets, artists, and musicians on suffering in school and the classroom. Teachers speak about their own encounters with and perceptions from suffering using critical-analytic textual works, as well as first-hand personally reflective accounts. By sharing their stories and reflections, the editors and contributors shed light upon the dark areas that often are not addressed in Teacher Training Programs, and that generally remain unaddressed and unacknowledged when well-established as professionals in the field of education.. About the Author Sean Steel is former Lecturer and Sessional Instructor at the University of Calgary, Canada, Ambrose University College, Canada, and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Canada. He currently teaches public school. Amber Homeniuk is an expressive arts therapist. Her writing appears in The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Numéro Cinq, and Windsor Review’s tribute to Alice Munro.