‘Walk It Like I Talk It’: Storying Student-Facing Practices of a Teacher Educator

This narrative self-study utilizes storying as inquiry into narrative and as narrative inquiry, where story is both noun and verb, data and method, to describe what I learned from immersing myself in K-12 school communities to engage in student-facing practices. Through a series of storied cases describing my student-facing practices and reflexive analyses, I highlight key interactions and experiences that reveal how my active involvement in schools enriched my understanding of current classroom dynamics and allowed growth in my being and becoming a teacher educator. This engagement seeks to help me to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application when working with preservice teachers while fostering a more relevant and effective teacher education. As a teacher educator practicing teaching and being within school communities, I have learned ways to better support and prepare future teachers for the challenges of diverse and dynamic classroom environments. I have also used student-facing practices to solidify my commitment to social justice and educational freedom.