Michigan State University is fortunate to have passionate educators who are committed to enhancing the experience of their students and who help to provide the best education possible.

The Graduate School is featuring some of these educators – graduate and postdoc educators – every month to share their unique stories and perspectives on what it means to be a dedicated educator, how they’ve overcome educational challenges, and the ways they have grown through their experiences.

For May 2024, we are featuring Nicole Macon-McKendree, a doctoral candidate in the Social Work program. In her writeup, Nicole shares how she is still developing her educator identity.

What does it mean to be an educator at a university?

I am still developing my educator identity. It has been a joyful, and at times uncomfortable, experience to grow and merge my identity as a child therapist with my goals for becoming a contemplative educator. I can only tell you what I have found to be true for myself so far. To me being an educator at a university means finding ways to hold authenticity as you balance the aims of higher education while being mindful of students’ holistic needs. The topics that I have been invited to lecture about can be difficult to discuss. For example, antiracism, trauma, uncertainty, and social justice. Being an educator in the context of these topics has been about creating spaces where I can bring my full self and encourage students to be jointly responsible for cultivating a joyful and courageous learning community.

I am still learning. One of the things I found helpful was to ground my teaching in applied theories that reflect my values. For me that includes bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy and humanistic theories of play therapy. Both play therapy and engaged pedagogy encourage joy, compassion, mutual accountability, and authenticity. The authenticity requires the facilitator to deeply examine and understand their own history, motivation, and biases-not as a way to introduce shame, but as a way to free themselves from fears that are informed by perfectionism. With these theories as a foundation, I have learned the importance of considering four things when I enter the classroom:

1)    What am I bringing into the space? This question helps me to consider how my history and positionality influence the learning space. This has been essential to consider because knowing the answer to this helps me to be authentic and accountable. 

2)    What are the students bringing into the space? I consider their wisdom, histories, and positionalities (if I am aware of them-if not, I ask).

3)    What do we need to cultivate to move toward the learning goals? This question helps me to decide what joyful or mindful activities to engage in and how to scaffold the learning. 

4)    How does the current environment influence the learning? This includes physical space, historical context, and current socio-political dynamics. It has been helpful to integrate real challenges and experiences into the lessons.

I’ve learned that being an educator is a lot like being a play therapist because at the root of them both, they are about being open to cultivating learning that is meaningful, mindful, joyful and liberatory.

What challenges have you experienced and how have you grown from them?  

I mentioned that when I approach education now, I bring the fundamentals of play therapy and engaged pedagogy with me. But for a long time, I thought that education should be approached in the same structured way that I had learned to practice mental health therapy. I thought that if I adhered to a prepared and scripted plan while teaching, then I would be serving students in the best way possible. I was pretty invested in the banking system of education-I thought that I, with all my knowledge, would be educating students in a one-way relationship where I had all of the information, and they were passive recipients. Freire describes this concept in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

I think that the banking system of education was appealing because it was safer, no vulnerability required. Creating space to be vulnerable and joyful in the classroom was difficult at first. I worried about how students would receive messages about self-compassion and modeling of imperfection. It does not always go over well and teaching with my full self means being open to criticisms. But the authenticity has been rewarding. I have come to understand myself, and my growth edges and I can hold them with compassion. With the support of my teaching community, I try to remind myself that nothing in the literature suggests that students need perfect educators in order to learn about difficult topics-they do need educators who are willing to connect with accountability, have the courage to relinquish control, offer kindness, and invite them to be responsible for their learning experiences.

What value do you see in Teaching Professional Development?  

I mentioned earlier that understanding how my history and positionalities influenced my teaching was essential for my growth. Once I understood what I was brining into the classroom, it was helpful for me explore what I needed to learn, understand, do, and feel in order to teach in ways that honored my values. In order to do that I participated in professional development and built a teaching community. Professional development from The Graduate School and the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) where I am a current fellow, helped me to fill the gaps between my ideal education practice, and reality. I think professional development can help educators to develop the tools to practice in ways that align with our values, whatever that happens to mean for us.

What is one piece of advice you would give other graduate educators?  

For new educators who are teaching topics that are difficult to discuss, such as antiracism, I would offer this advice: We all arrive as educators from different places and with different types of wisdom; we have own growing paths so wherever you are, is a wonderful place to start. Also, cultivate a teaching community so that you can identify and work on your growth edges in spaces that are compassionate and accountable.

What do you enjoy in your free time? 

In my free time it brings me joy to connect with my Sangha members, take walks and hikes with loved ones, and spend time in the garden with my spouse and our 85-pound Boxaine puppy, Obi-Wan Kenobi.  I have a deep love for books! I read them with the children I work with and when I have spare time. My current favorite for adults is Decolonizing Therapy by Mullan and for children The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi.