Creating Cultures of Daring Greatly for Early-Career Teachers and Early-Career Faculty

Abstract

Being an early-career teacher and an early-career faculty member are experiences that are fraught with vulnerability. Yet, the vulnerability that underlies these processes of becoming are not always addressed within academic cultures. Unless early-career teachers and early-career faculty are taught how to engage with vulnerability productively, early-career teachers and early-career faculty may blame themselves for the challenges that they encounter, when, in fact, these challenges may be more indicative of the complexity of their professional role rather than a reflection of their personal shortcomings. This chapter will draw on the writing of Brene Brown to describe how early-career teachers and early-career faculty members can choose to engage with vulnerability by daring greatly. This chapter will also make recommendations for how programs of teacher education and institutions of higher education can promote cultures in which the disposition of daring greatly is encouraged and supported.