Significant conversations, significant others: intimate dialogues about teaching statistics

ABSTRACT

This article features a collaborative autoethnography of its two authors: we are instructors, also life partners, whose teaching of statistics has been transformed through significant, intimate conversations. We implemented the collaborative autoethnography within an integrated theoretical framework, designed to underpin the function of significant conversations within the academy through insights into the psychosocial conditions within which they occur, especially as they relate to intimacy and vulnerability. Themes of trust, respect, mutuality, and investment anchored these conversations, tethered to both positive and negative motivators. Recommendations for academic developers include creating space for learning communities; upholding the role of significant conversations in the work of equity and inclusion; and bolstering collaborative autoethnography as an actionable, reflective methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic development
• collaborative autoethnography
• intimate dialogue
• significant conversations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dan J. Spitzner

Dan J. Spitzner is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, in the Department of Statistics. He teaches statistics at all levels, while maintaining an active research interest in developing statistical methodology for social-science disciplines.

Cara Meixner

Cara Meixner is a Professor at James Madison University, in the Department of Graduate Psychology. She is a scholar-practitioner with an expansive background in advocacy-based research for survivors of brain injury. She furthermore writes on topics related to pedagogy, service-learning, and organizational change. During the development of this article she served as Executive Director of the Center for Faculty Innovation at James Madison University.