Teacher Reflections on Transitioning From K-12 to Higher Education Classrooms (A Forever Student Navigating Higher Education: Reflections of a First Generation Scholar)

This chapter reflects upon the author's first-generation student status and her transition to higher education after 22 years in a secondary ELA classroom. It recognizes the obstacles faced by first-generation students and how the twists and turns in navigating higher education impacts a career and scholarly life. It also reflects upon her graduate work in English (Composition and Rhetoric) emphasizing how doctoral work while teaching secondary full-time informed her secondary classroom, and then, conversely, how her secondary ELA career informed her instruction of pre-service teachers and in-service teachers in her ELA methods courses. It also emphasizes how her non-traditional status also shaped who she became as a professor of English who understands first-generation students' needs and advocates for more first-generation faculty in higher education because they bring a wealth of lived experience that truly benefits all learners in higher education, but specifically other first-generation students.

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