Educating With Empathy

<p><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Research has proven that when there is a disconnect between students' lived experiences and what they are presented with inside the classroom student retention drops significantly. Our students want and need to feel seen heard and treated as fully whole human beings. So many young people feel as if they don't belong inside the classroom on a college campus or walking across the graduation stage. We are taught through out-dated Western lenses that in order to be an effective educator we must leave who we are at the classroom door. We are sold a lie that students are not experts and that their voices and opinions don't really matter when it comes to course curriculum design and instruction. We are convinced that classrooms have no real place for creativity spiritually and holistic embodiment. This harmful and destructive fallacy is destroying the souls of our students. It doesn't have to be this way.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>This book is about a way of teaching the research process that incorporates storytelling spirituality critical creativity healing work witnessing and social justice. It's about shifting proximities of power to make space for the students in the room. Inside this book you will find woven throughout my story instruction ideas community-building techniques and critical creativity activities to use in the classroom wherever your classroom may be. By sharing how the research and creative process actually look it gives students the permission to stumble make mistakes make numerous attempts and ultimately create something meaningful.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Dawn Stahura is an artist educator and poet. She is a Research and Instruction Librarian for the Sciences and Health Sciences and the Zine Librarian at Salem State University in Salem Massachusetts. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.L.S. She is the creator of the ACT UP evaluation method which considers the role privilege plays in publishing and access to information. She is heavily involved in using zines in the classroom to strengthen student scholarship and research skills while making space for students to engage with critical creativity and open pedagogy. Outside of academia Dawn publishes her own zines and leads creative arts workshops such as zine making oracle card making and smashbooking. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appears in such journals as </span><em style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>The Comstock Review Rhino Rogue Agent Book of Matches</em><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> and </span><em style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag</em><span style=color: rgba(64 64 64 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>. You can find her at </span>www.dawnstahura.com</p>