In this edition of our story series, we meet and talk with English professor and Pathway coordinator Kathleen Dunley. 

Kathleen is a PhD in English but recently was a raw beginner in her study of German. This conversation has a very close connection between learning and teaching. Kathleen describes how she pulls out all the learning skills she's gathered over the years to succeed in her German studies and that includes facing the hardest and most discouraging moments in learning.

We talk about all that learning German has brought to her teaching, especially her online classes. We talk about making teaching humane and the German concept of hospitality that she's applying in her classrooms. 

We talk about the moment of being so frustrated with learning that she wanted to quit entirely and what got her back on track. Our conversation turns a lot on persistence. Unlike the emotional and moral persistence of parenting as in Episode 3, Kathleen is engaged in a learning project that she could abandon at any time. So our conversation is relevant to helping students at our college persist in their studies, when they become tempted to give up in the face of struggle. 

Stream the episode here or listen through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.