This episode features the High Leverage Practice of Story with Dr. Joan Wink. As we talk with Joan about the power of story, she shares, “No one really wants to hear our theory, hear our philosophy or see our data, no one would remember it anyway, no one cares. But if we can connect our abstract thoughts to a story, we don’t forget.” Everything starts with a story, stories powerfully connect us to others and they hold the power to trigger imagination and empathy. Joan embraces how being a story-teller has helped her become braver and more honest.
Joan Wink is a national and international consultant, writer and speaker. Her most recent book, The Power of Story, links libraries and literacies through the power of story, both oral and written. She has published widely in scholarly journals and is the author of Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World (4 editions), A Vision of Vygotsky with LeAnn Putney and Teaching Passionately: What’s Love Got to Do with It? With Dawn Wink.
Joan Wink is a professor emerita at California State University, Stanislaus. In addition, Joan has been an adjunct professor at Black Hills State University, South Dakota State University, and The College of New Jersey in Mallorca, Spain. She began a six-year term to the South Dakota Board of Regents in April 2017.
Throughout her career, she has focused on languages, literacy, and learning in pluralistic contexts. Joan taught Spanish, English, reading, language arts in junior and senior high school in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas, and California.. She directed federal grants and was the bilingual/ESL/migrant education coordinator in California.
Dr. Wink completed her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M, two masters’ degrees in Educational Foundations/Bilingual from the University of Arizona and a Spanish/English undergraduate degree from Yankton College, SD.
Joan can be found at www.joanwink.com and blogs at Wink World, http;://www.joanwink.com/wink-world/
