Pedagogical Acts

Abstract

This article argues that academic autobiographies should be viewed through the lens of pedagogy, and applies this new perspective to texts by Jane Tompkins and Alice Kaplan. In different ways, these two texts illustrate the relational nature of teaching, the way in which interactions with students shape a teacher's practice and demonstrate that the writing of a teaching autobiography, like teaching itself, is a many-layered, collaborative process. By highlighting the textual sites in which students enter into the autobiographies, I show that although Kaplan and Tompkins disclose very little about their students as individuals, their students are integral components of their attempts to make meaning of the act of teaching by writing the teacher's life. Furthermore, I suggest that the devaluation of teaching in academia allows these authors to take risks and admit failure in their depictions of teaching.