The muscular realities of enacting a PoK in teaching practice

The act of teaching is at once a deeply intimate and highly professional relationship. Teaching, when it’s done well, is about transformation, those most magical of moments when a learner’s awareness suddenly shifts. Something wakes up. Teachers know this, and it is rewarding and wonderful when it happens. Many people tell a story of how a teacher saw them, inspired them, showed them something about themselves, gave them a pathway of possibility and knowledge that took them into another world of being and knowing and seeing. Yet transformation isn’t always easy for the learner - or for the teacher. In this chapter, five educators share stories about some of the practical realities of enacting a pedagogy of kindness in their teaching. Charlotte Overgaard and Jacqueline Mackaway note that having a ‘sentiment of kindness’ is not enough and describe ways they’ve enacted that sensibility in their daily practice. Debra Adelaide writes about maintaining kindness in the long-term supervisor relationship, while Lauren Stephens describes the gritty realities of teaching, encouraging mutual respect, and the importance of relationship building. Matthew Harrison writes about valuable lessons learned from working with an autistic pre-service teacher.