Teaching is listening

Schools are educational institutions where children and young people are expected to learn how to transform the world into a place of shelter and mutual respect. From this perspective, it is essential to reflect on and refine our approaches to teaching. This paper explores one such approach, centred on the idea that teaching is, fundamentally, an act of listening. In this context, the work aims to highlight the role of teachers’ listening as a crucial practice for fostering meaningful learning. The research adopts an autoethnographic approach. This choice is deliberate, as one of the key aims of autoethnography is to foster reader empathy, encouraging transformation. The findings, presented in narrative form, highlight the role of the teacher’s listening as an essential action that enables students to understand and critically engage with the content being taught. Additionally, the study explores the various ways in which listening can be integrated into teaching practice.