Bronwyn Clare LaMay

Blurring the presumed boundaries between personal narrative and academic discourse, LaMay—through her own prose—demonstrates precisely just how ambiguous the alleged division between private and public writing is. As she tells the story of her work over the course of two years with a group of high school students, LaMay practices what she preaches; she composes a relevant and practical tale, guided by strong pedagogy and a genuine appreciation of the enormous impact of affect, that foregrounds the voices of her students as they develop into skilled critical thinkers who are able to reflect on their relationship with schools and better understand how their personal narratives inextricably blend with their academic lives.

LaMay cautiously breaches the conventional border between her private identity and her public persona as an educator. She asks students to write about their individual narratives of love to “merge the work of self with the work of an academic discipline to form a relationship with school that becomes an integral part of how they see themselves” (p. 7). True to her principles, she herself does this by sharing with her students her poignant autobiographical writing about her mother’s mental illness and its profound consequences for her family. LaMay treads this potentially volatile terrain adeptly, and she frankly discusses the sometimes contentious relationships she developed with her students throughout the process. One student in particular, Diego, challenges her in ways that catalyze both her thinking and her practice.

Ultimately, this book examines the complex connection between teacher and students, between pedagogy and love, between intellect and intimacy. It intentionally obscures conventional binary conceptions of these presumably polar opposites to successfully display the rewards that can result from the challenging work of helping students perceive—and make use of—the bonds that connect school to their worlds.… (mehr)