What Teaching Looks Like delves into higher education—the challenges faced by students, faculty, staff, and administrators alike from all variety of institution types and across campus sectors—in a way that has not been done before. By weaving together a unique collection of documentary photographs of modern teaching and learning at US colleges and universities with research-based discussion of the state of engaged learning, the book teaches readers to think through and with photographs in new ways, offering insights and perspectives with the potential to change teaching, administrative, and support practices for the better. The project not only reflects the state of how US institutions educate the next generation of thinkers and innovators, it informs what we could aspire to do as educators and reveals experiences and perspectives of today’s students in ways that are only accessible through photographs.

This book is invaluable as “a thick description” of the realities of teaching and learning; and as “a form of truth” that gives recognition to the work that teachers and learners do. Most importantly, it is a call for change, to rethink teaching and learning – not as a limited, homogeneous set of mechanical acts, but as a mutually enriching form of human interactions at the intersection of spaces, people, and practices that gives meaning to education – to nourish and cherish one another intellectually, socially, morally. Each of us can surely find our identity and our truth reflected in and so brilliantly curated in this noble project.

This is a wonderful exploration of what teaching and learning looks and feels like. The images allow the reader to see what authentic teaching is in higher education and not just read about it. Spanning all disciplines, this volume captures the beauty and reality that is teaching and learning.