Teaching ourselves: A retiring teacher's legacy

An award-winning teacher, passionate about social justice, was observed during the last of her 28 years of elementary teaching in order that her classroom practices and educational understandings would not be lost. The researcher surmised that the origins of many of these practices and the values underpinning them emerged during the teacher's formative years and that her educational ideas continued evolving. The teacher's biography therefore became central to the study. The researcher modeled autobiographical responses.; Activities such as drama, which impassioned the teacher as a student, continued to inform her educational practice both by including drama directly in her curriculum and also by using theatrical methodology. The many plays she attended continued to enhance her worldview.; As a high school student she had joined a multiracial club. As a mature teacher she took a workshop from Facing History and Ourselves. Her evolving sense of social justice culminated in her charged interactions with students as she taught the Holocaust and Civil Rights movements. These exchanges are highlighted throughout the study.; The historical times in which she lived helped mold her educational philosophy. An extended cross-country tour in a motor home with seven children led to her views of the teacher as facilitator and co developer of curriculum. Activities were assigned in the classroom that allowed for student choice. She expected students to be in charge of their own learning and wanted to be in charge of her own teaching.; As a result of having taught the roles of rescuer, perpetrator, victim, and bystander and encouraging student application to daily life, the teacher expected positive role models to emerge among students and was often disappointed. Other disappointing times in her life were highlighted as well as the family support and outside activities that helped her get through them.; She viewed each year as a renewed opportunity to try out new curricular topics and methods or resurrect some old ones. She pondered whether educational practice was evolving or revolving. As she neared retirement, she hoped that her efforts had left the world a better place.