Authentic Learning Within the Brave Space Created Through Student-Faculty Partnerships

Abstract

Engaging students as pedagogical partners creates a brave space for students to become critical thinkers and beings that shapes not just what they know, but also who they are (Arao & Clemens, 2013; Bovill, Cook-Sather, & Felten, 2011). The language of brave space conveys a tone for engagement while also proposing a manner of engagement (Cook-Sather, 2016). The transformative experience of engaging in student-faculty partnership in and of itself constitutes a brave space where learners transition from dependence on authority to self-authorship (Baxter-Magolda, 2009, 2014). Within this paper we share Nicole’s lived experience engaging in authentic learning within the brave space created through pedagogical partnership. Nicole’s expression of her teaching philosophy privileges the importance of the shared accountability that students and educators have for teaching and learning and represents how she embraced the notion of self-authorship to create an understanding of how her teaching philosophy informs her growing practice as a registered nurse.