Teaching & Learning Champions are faculty & staff who contribute to student learning (Guided Pathways Essential Practice #4). We share their stories to celebrate their dedication to instructional excellence & innovation in a series of spotlight articles. #ACCExcellence

Meet Terry Barksdale, Associate Professor & Head Librarian on temporary assignment with TLED’s Teaching and Learning Academy

Three words that best describe you?

Rising-consciousness, learner, compassionate

How do you support faculty at ACC? Why is this work important?

As a faculty librarian, I seek partnerships with other ACC faculty to deepen students‘ learning around issues of digital literacy and information literacy. I serve as a resource connector for faculty and for the students they teach. I also seek to serve our faculty by sharing my lived experience as a white woman learning and growing as a faculty member at a community college. By sharing my experiences, I intend and hope to create space for other faculty who are on a journey of growth toward greater consciousness of privilege, power, and tightly-held perspectives, and thus create space for a shift in consciousness.

What book would you recommend that everyone read? Why?

Les Miserable by Victor Hugo. This story of struggle and injustice set in France around the Revolution was a powerful read for me. I didn’t finish it in one sitting – far from it! In fact, I started reading it in my twenties, then came back to it, rereading from cover to cover in my fifties. This book gives great insight into how labels can rob a person of opportunities, of unjust ways our society marginalizes people who have experienced certain kinds of trauma, thus further traumatizing them. While this historical novel takes place in the late 1700s, the message echoes in our society today.

Talk about a teacher who had a big impact on your life.

Recently, as a participant in the kickoff event of the Teaching and Learning Academy’s inaugural year, I was invited to reflect on a teacher who had a big impact on my life. I struggled at first until I hit upon that name that caused me to slap my forehead that it had taken more than a breath! Dr. Dan Barron, University of South Carolina, was the first instructor I had in my Master’s program in Library Science. He was an early adopter of Distance Education. He was a fierce advocate for public libraries and for public education, which in the right environment can serve as our great societal equalizers. He had high expectations of his students who were strewn across the state (and beyond), connected by closed-circuit tv and telephones from eight viewing sites around South Carolina in the early ’90s!

What is the best advice you ever received?

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Connect with Terry via email: tbarksda@austincc.edu

Recommend a Colleague:

Do you know someone who is a champion of teaching & learning? Send their name & why you’re nominating them to TLEDcomms@austincc.edu.