What Teaching Looks Like: Higher Education through Photographs

What Teaching Looks Like delves into higher education—the challenges faced by students, faculty, staff, and administrators alike from all variety of institution types and across campus sectors—in a way that has not been done before. By weaving together a unique collection of documentary photographs of modern teaching and learning at US colleges and universities with research-based discussion of the state of engaged learning, the book teaches readers to think through and with photographs in new ways, offering insights and perspectives with the potential to change teaching, administrative, and support practices for the better. The project not only reflects the state of how US institutions educate the next generation of thinkers and innovators, it informs what we could aspire to do as educators and reveals experiences and perspectives of today’s students in ways that are only accessible through photographs.
The ultimate intent of this book is to make both faculty and administrative work visible, both to audiences internal to our colleges and universities as well as to external stakeholders and decision makers of today and tomorrow, and in doing so, understand and value this work more effectively. It is vital for those whose work is concentrated within one area to see, understand, and empathize with their colleagues from other campus sectors. It also remains necessary for those outside of higher education to visualize and understand the work that faculty, administrators, and students are engaged in day-to-day. Some decision makers continue to hold on to antiquated images and stereotypes of those who work in the education system. The images and discussion in the book challenge these outdated stereotypes.