The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

by Parker J. Palmer

Overview

Wisdom that's been inspiring, motivating, and guiding teachers for two decades

The Courage to Teach speaks to the joys and pains that teachers of every sort know well. Over the last 20 years, the book has helped countless educators reignite their passion, redirect their practice, and deal with the many pressures that accompany their vital work.

Enriched by a new Foreword from Diana Chapman Walsh, the book builds on a simple premise: good teaching can never be reduced to technique. Good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher, that core of self where intellect, emotion, and spirit converge—enabling 'live encounters' between teachers, students, and subjects that are the key to deep and lasting learning. Good teachers love learners, learning, and the teaching life in a way that builds trust with students and colleagues, animates their daily practice, and keeps them coming back tomorrow.

• Reclaim your own vision and purpose against the threat of burn-out
• Understand why good teaching cannot be reduced to technique alone
• Explore and practice the relational traits that good teachers have in common
• Learn how to forge learning connections with your students and "teach across the gap"

Whether used for personal study, book club exploration, or professional development, The Courage to Teach is rich with time-honored wisdom, and contemporary clarity about the ancient arts of teaching and learning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119413042
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Edition description:	20th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	69,947
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

PARKER J. PALMER is a highlyrespected writer, lecturer, teacher, and activist. He is founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal, which offers long-term retreat programs for people in the serving professions, including teachers, administrators, physicians, philanthropists, nonprofit leaders, and clergy. Author of nine books, including Let Your Life Speak, A Hidden Wholeness, Healing the Heart of Democracy, and The Heart of Higher Education, Palmer has been recognized with thirteen honorary doctorates and a number of national awards. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Table of Contents

Foreword to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition ix
Diana Chapman Walsh

Foreword to the Tenth Anniversary Edition xvii
Parker J. Palmer

Gratitudes xxvii

Introduction: Teaching from Within 1

I The Heart of a Teacher: Identity and Integrity in Teaching 9

II A Culture of Fear: Education and the Disconnected Life 35

III The Hidden Wholeness: Paradox in Teaching and Learning 63

IV Knowing in Community: Joined by the Grace of Great Things 91

V Teaching in Community: A Subject-Centered Education 117

VI Learning in Community: The Conversation of Colleagues 145

VII Divided No More: Teaching from a Heart of Hope 169

Afterword: The New Professional: Education for Transformation 191

Notes 215

The Author 225

The Center for Courage & Renewal 227

About the Companion Media 229

Index 231

 

What People are Saying About This

Robert Coles

Evokes the heart of what teachers really do, and does so in a vivid, compelling, and soulful way. (Robert Coles,University Health Services, Harvard University)

Editorial Reviews

Spiritual nurturing has been at the heart of both of Palmer's previous books, The Active Life and To Know as We Are Known. A teacher, speaker and writer who contends that teaching is an integral part of all his work, Palmer now explores the spirituality of teaching. He contends that the task of teaching is filled with joy and fear, success and failure, but, he says, "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher." For Palmer, such integrity comes from the inner self of the teacher, and he argues that the courage to teach involves probing the heart to find the "heart's longing to be connected with the largeness of lifea longing that animates love and work." Palmer begins by arguing that many current teaching strategies, like the traditional lecture-hall setting where the teacher dispassionately dispenses knowledge, promote disconnectedness among students and teachers. He goes on to contend that teaching from a spiritually introspective position promotes a community of learning in which the teachers and students are connected in the learning process. Palmer lays bare his own struggles in engaging prose, and his book is sure to inspire the educational community to think in new ways about its tasks. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Palmer (To Know as We Are Known, HarperCollins, 1993) is a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute and has taught at Beloit College and Georgetown University. He discusses the inner life of the dedicated teacher and how that life shapes teaching and learning. According to Palmer, "Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse." In this book, he explores the inner landscape of the teaching self, and to understand that landscape more fully, he discusses three important paths that must be takenintellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Recommended for all teachers, this book would be a valuable addition to professional and teacher education collections.Barbara S. Meagher, Central Connecticut State Univ., New Britain

Library Journal