The Present Professor Volume 3: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching (Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed) - Softcover

Elizabeth A. Norell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806194693 ISBN 13: 9780806194691

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2025

Synopsis

It's hard to learn when you're under stress, and a lot harder when your teacher is struggling with stress, too. In a world where stress is unavoidable–where political turmoil, pandemic fallout, and personal challenges touch everyone–this timely book offers much-needed guidance for cutting through the emotional static that can hold teachers back. A specialist in pedagogical strategies with extensive classroom experience, Elizabeth A. Norell explains how an educator's presence, or authenticity, can be critical to creating transformational spaces for students. And presence, she argues, means uncovering and understanding one's own internal struggles and buried insecurities–stresses often left unconfronted in an academic culture that values knowing over feeling. Presenting the research on how and why such inner work unlocks transformational learning, The Present Professor equips educators with the tools for crafting a more authentic presence in their teaching work.

At a time of crisis in higher education, as teachers struggle to find new ways to relate to, think about, and instruct students, this book holds a key. Implementing more inclusive pedagogies, Norell suggests, requires sorting out our own identities. In short, if we want to create spaces where students have the confidence, comfort, and psychological safety to learn and grow, we have to create spaces where we do, too. The Present Professor is dedicated to that proposition, and to helping educators build that transformational space.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth A. Norell is Associate Director of Instructional Support at the University of Mississippi.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806194693
• ISBN 13: 9780806194691
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200