ABSTRACT
I share this story because it was a turning point in my teaching. I had always known that it was important to create bridges between my students’ life experiences and the conceptual abstractions that so often intimidate them. If they can feel personally connected to the concepts and theories they study, then they can begin to feel a sense of belonging to the academic world. The diversity in my classrooms provides a reservoir of experiences from which to draw, but the multi-dimensionality can overwhelm us too. For example, sitting next to Carl was Lien, an Asian-American refugee, who, well socialized, memorized every chapter in the book (including the one on socialization). I try to get my students to stay with a new concept long enough for it to have meaning in an increasingly expanding conceptual network. Where I see a broad highway between experience and ideas, my students often perceive the chasm with the flimsy footbridge in Indiana Jones. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003448136/72e9a7a2-5ec1-480f-af90-7150ef33189b/content/ufig3_4_1.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
