Five on Fridays: Dingani Mthethwa

Today’s “5 on Fridays” comes from Dingani Mthethwa, a middle school history teacher, mindfulness leader, and adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also a 2025 Greater Good Educators alum! We asked Dingani the following questions to learn more about his work as a compassionate educator who centers student voice and celebrates student diversity in and out of the classroom.

1. What is a piece of advice or wisdom that you carry with you? Who gave it to you, and in what context?

Unless you dream it, it will not happen to you, but anything you dream comes closer to you. My uncle gave me this advice in 1982 when I missed a penalty kick in a soccer game, but the advice has helped me in many areas as I became older.

2. What is something that made you laugh or brought you joy at work recently?

It will be helpful to remind anyone who is reading this that I am a 7th grade history teacher. At the end of the school year, which was three weeks ago, a little girl stayed behind as all the students were leaving the class. This was the last class of the last day of this school year. This girl waited for everyone to leave and she stood there. I asked if I could help her or if she needed anything, then she said “Mr Mthethwa, today you show us a picture of Nelson Mandela. Are you trying to tell me that everything that you have been teaching us is true?” I could not believe a question like that at the end of the school. I asked her what she thought about everything I was teaching for the whole year. She said “I thought you were just saying things like in the movies”. My goal next year is to make sure I check if students understand that the events I teach happened!

3. What new research in the world of prosocial education (SEL/character education/emotional intelligence/culture of care) are you excited about these days?

I am researching about being a trauma-informed teacher, learning about David Treleaven’s work. As I’m searching more for this topic—there is a lot out there—it is important to stay under the scope of being a teacher and not to think that we are becoming clinicians.

I am also thinking more about the role of storytelling in the classroom through a program called Narrative 4. From my experience of implementing story exchanges in my classes, I have been learning that they have power to authentically connect students. Because these stories are personal, everyone has something to say about their life experience and therefore help to build confidence and speaking among peers. As a teacher who works largely with adolescents, I can see how many of them are going through a period of intense identity formation and vulnerability—a feeling of “not good enough” which sometimes is influenced by social media. It can be really hard for this age group to regulate these intense feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. They are consistently comparing themselves to their peers. I try to plug story exchanges that help them to engage and overcome feelings of insufficiency. Story exchange allows them to hear other teenager’s stories which can help them understand they are not the only ones who are going through stuff. They start to realize, “I am not alone”. I think through story exchange, children are learning to be open and accepting of all aspects of who they are and maybe find ways to break the cycle of negative self-criticism.

Stories can also be an important tool to build empathy among students from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints. I still remember this young boy from my class a couple of years ago who said, “Oh, I get it. We all go through some life challenges”. From this point of view, I feel like story exchange closes the gap across the divide as children bring and learn from each other relatable experiences of the youth journey. It is for this reason that I find a connection between story exchange and social justice and mindfulness. It is no longer just dominant narratives from privileged students in the class; underprivileged students who usually lack confidence to speak or share in class are suddenly provided a platform to dictate their experiences.

4. What are you currently reading?

I am reading about how to integrate mindfulness in the history curriculum (social justice and social action). This last school year, I have been very aware of the need to bring social justice into mindfulness. I read many articles, but these two books have been challenging my teaching and integration of mindfulness in my classrooms. The first is McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality by Ronald E. Purser. The second, which I just started, is by Beth Berila called Integrating Mindfulness into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy: Social Justice in Higher Education. There is a free copy online, I think.

5. In a world where people report that they feel increasingly disconnected and even lonely, how do you foster connections and community in your classroom?

Although I am a history instructor, I am aware that my lessons have to integrate opportunities for students to build trust, foster empathy, and feel more connectedness, more confidence and respect among students. This is so important. I use the book Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea to set the climate and a tone at the beginning of the semester to lay the ground of what I would like to see in my classroom as a community. The world is becoming more diverse, but we are also still very divided about where we live and students’ experiences are very diverse. Schools should help students build skills to trust one another, respect one another, and see each other as equals. School should help students build positive connections and make classrooms to be places of joy and community building where every child feels a sense of belonging. Our country is baked in segregation and “othering” others. I believe that we cannot change these beliefs that are in our blood plasma by laws only. We need culturally transformative classrooms that build collaborative experience. It may be helpful to think about Paulo Freire or bell hooks’s argument that classrooms should be empowering spaces of liberation to share not just knowledge but also a space where everyone’s presence can be acknowledged and heard.

We want to thank Dingani Mthethwa for his thoughtful participation in our “5 on Fridays” series!