Teaching for human dignity: Making room for children and teachers in contemporary schools

Abstract

How do we teach for human dignity in a context where life is, generally speaking, not treated as precious? How do we carve spaces for humanity amidst inhumane contexts? In this paper, five experienced teachers share how they work from the cracks to expand spaces for human dignity in their schools. They write and act as teacher-philosophers, dually considering it means to teach for human dignity and practically speaking how it can be done.

Keywords:

• Human dignity
• teacher knowledge
• teacher education
• descriptive inquiry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Gratitude to the North American Association for Philosophy and Education for the opportunity to convene this panel.

2 We have used pseudonyms and permissions. In a few cases stories have been modified as composites.

3 Recorded and then transcribed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cara Furman

Cara Furman PhD, is an associate professor of early childhood at Hunter College and former urban public elementary school teacher. She is author of Teaching from an Ethical Center: Practical Wisdom for Daily Instruction and co-author, with Cecelia Traugh, of Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools. She writes about Descriptive Inquiry, inquiry, asset-based inclusive teaching, and progressive literacy practices.

Sara Abu-Rumman

Sara Abu-Rumman holds a B.A. in Elementary Education from Indiana University and an M.A. in International Studies, with a focus on Comparative Education and Curriculum Development from DePaul University. She is a Fulbright Teacher Exchange recipient. Her current coaching work centers on creating equitable, progressive, and student-centered Science of Reading-aligned classrooms.

Joan Bradbury

Joan Bradbury is a retired elementary school teacher who most recently (1982-2007) taught at the Francis Parker School, a progressive independent school in Chicago. She has an abiding interest in classroom community and culture and in collaborative teacher inquiry.

Meghan Brindley

Meghan Brindley is a Lecturer in Early Years Education and Care at Kent State University at Tuscarawas. Her work centers around preservice teachers in social foundations classes and the potential experiences of this situatedness between teacher education and foundations, as well as, thinking about her own experiences of teaching.

Allison Greer

Allison Greer is a public school teacher in Illinois. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Kenyon College and an M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver. Her professional interests include progressive education, best practices in early childhood education, equity and inclusion, and the descriptive processes.