On Episode 582, I welcome Adriana Aldana, Associate Professor of Social Work at California State University, Dominguez Hills, to Teaching in Higher Ed. We explore the transformative practice of counterstory pedagogy, exploring how storytelling, particularly through letter writing, can serve as a tool for reflection, empowerment, and building community among students. Adriana shares her experience developing assignments that create space for students to engage in meaningful self-care as a form of resistance, and to express their lived experiences in authentic, deeply personal ways.

Throughout the conversation, Adriana discusses the origins of her letter writing assignment, initially conceived during the upheaval of 2020, and how it evolved into an open-access book of student letters. We talk about the powerful classroom moments that emerge when students read their letters aloud, the intentional design required to foster vulnerability and belonging, and practical considerations for sharing written work beyond the classroom. Adriana also addresses the impact of AI on reflective writing and the enduring value of lived experience, offering recommendations for integrating joy and curiosity into daily life.

Resources from the episode:

• Counterstory Pedagogy: Student Letters of Resilience, Healing, and Resistance, by Adriana Aldana
• Rest as Resistance, by Trisha Hersey
• Rest as Resistance card deck
• Episode 195: Considering Open Education with an Interdisciplinary Lens with Robin DeRosa
• Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times, by Caro de Robertis
• Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory, by Aja Y. Martinez
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, by William Bridges
• Elon University Center for Engaged Leanring Open Access Book Series

Episode topics:

• Counterstory Pedagogy: Origins and Intentions
• Rest as Resistance: Integrating Self-Care into Curriculum
• Structuring Classroom Time for Empathy and Inclusion
• Reflective Teaching: Adapting Assignments for Student Needs
• Letter Writing as a Transformative Learning Tool
• Fostering Authentic Voice Through Alternative Assignments
• Building Learning Communities in Graduate Cohorts
• Navigating the Impact of AI on Reflective Writing
• Considering Audience and Consent in Sharing Student Work
• Cultivating Vulnerability and Collective Witnessing
• Empowering Students to Theorize From Lived Experience

Discussion questions:

1. How does letter writing, as used in Adriana’s courses, differ from traditional reflection essays in terms of student engagement, authenticity, and voice?
2. What are the potential challenges and benefits of sharing student work with real or broader audiences, as seen in Aldana’s edited book of student letters? How would you address issues of consent, vulnerability, and community?
3. How does the introduction of AI tools (like chat-based large language models) complicate or enhance personal, reflection-based assignments such as letter writing? What strategies were discussed for preserving student voice and authenticity?
4. Aldana described the powerful, emotional experience of students reading their letters aloud to one another. What role does vulnerability and peer witnessing play in counterstory pedagogy, and how can you foster a supportive environment for this?
5. The episode touches on open access publishing and sharing pedagogical resources. How does open sharing of both student work and teaching materials benefit teaching communities beyond the classroom? What might be some limitations or risks?

Recommended

Looking for more audio content to support your ongoing learning about AI’s impact on higher education? Check out Learning Curve, a new podcast produced and hosted by Jeff Young.

What does it mean to teach and learn in the age of generative AI? Join host Jeff Young as he talks with educators, tech leaders and students, aiming to cut through the hype and inform a conversation about how education can adapt to AI — and about what kinds of learning need protecting amid the AI gold rush.

Quotable Words

Adriana Aldana shared on Episode 582 the ways that these opportunities helped students to focus on what they could uniquely create as humans. She shares:

Prior to the students drafting their letters, they knew that they were going to come to the last class session and that they would be reading their letters to their peers. I think that in itself is a very powerful pedagogical approach that can't be reproduced by AI algorithms.

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Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

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