To Toni A. H. McNaron

As a founding director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Teaching and Learning Services, and creator of the “Early Career Teaching Program: Pursuing Excellence in Multicultural Education,” Toni exemplified her belief that institutional excellence derives from “curriculum, instruction, and scholarship that are culturally informed and inclusive of the students and larger society the University serves.”

As a University teacher, Toni expected that her students would do brilliant things. She challenged and supported them in their individual as well as collective learning journeys. As teachers, these beliefs and expectations as integral to our teaching and learning work; as editors, we find them within the chapters of this book.

In her mentor role, Toni’s words and deeds, equally, call attention to the possibilities that emerge when teachers talk with one another – through reflection, story, testimony, and scholarship – especially when in these dialogues teachers seek to understand learning, to see learners, and to expand teaching practices..

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

(from Emily Dickinson, poem 657)

And…

To my students across the decades and the disciplines, especially Cherry Muhanji, Mary Bucklin, Jamie Peterson, Alex Fink, and Tyler Cessor. (Ilene)

To LeRoy Gardner, Herman G. Green, Fred R. Sheheen, and Julia E. Wells who lit the path toward more inclusive, just, and joyful learning spaces. (Bob)