Amy Lee
Department chair and associate professor

My passion and commitment are bound up in mentoring and in teacher development and writerly development (undergraduate, graduate, professional). I draw from a critical pedagogy vision, specifically from the core belief education can and indeed should empower individuals to more deeply understand and more effectively impact their world. My work addresses the challenges of putting critical pedagogy into practice, the constant negotiations and choices it entails to enact or "walk" the theory one talks, and the constant revisioning required if the theory is indeed to be supple and active, rather than a disembodied, dogmatic, orthodox, visionary frame.

I have published work exploring viable teacher development models that challenge the master-teacher idea, and the move away from writing-as-composition towards a more holistic and embodied approach to writing instruction that inspires and awakens writers while cultivating mindfulness about the conventions governing form and formal elements within specific rhetorical contexts. In John Dewey’s words, “There is a world of difference between having something to say and having to say something.”

In 1999, I joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota, specifically, the General College (GC). I chose GC for many of the same reasons I chose to specialize in composition studies; I chose disciplinary and departmental “homes” that value processes of development (teaching, learning, writing, reading) and that view studying those processes as vital, legitimate research. I chose “homes” built upon the fundamental belief that all students have something to say.

My most challenging career move (so far), teaching in GC was also inspiring and rewarding work, affirming for me the necessity for teachers to engage in processes of renewal and revision. This parallels the focus of my research which has studied models and practices for engaging teachers in rich, reflective, and ongoing processes of development. My focus on critical pedagogy has led me to pursue various issues: how to provide access and success to a wider range of learners; community action learning—designing courses that integrate community work and the intellectual work of the course; and integrating writing instruction into graduate curricula.

W.B. Yeats wrote, “”Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I suppose most of my teaching and my research have been motivated by understanding how to create and maintain a spark, in both teachers and students. Working in GC inspired me, and I am thankful and proud for that opportunity. As we build our new departmental home within the College, I look forward to building programs that will enable us to keep the fires burning.