By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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My Autoethnographic Journal as Ethical Prompt Design for LEarning (A Public-Facing Essay for Hope, Healing, and Change) (1736 Words)
(69th Day Of School) (Thursday, November 13, 2025)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
Empath Remixes #97 (My Autoethnographic Journal as Ethical Prompt Design for LEarning) (A Public-Facing Essay for Hope, Healing, and Change) (1736 Words)
I. Premise … The Mirror I Did Not Expect
For years I have journaled … and for years I have been an autoethnographic journalist.
Autoethnographic journaling uses the writer’s personal experiences to understand the world around them.
Long before anyone called it that, I wrote to breathe … and wrote to make sense of what was happening to me in classrooms, churches, meeting rooms, and living rooms.
I wrote because the story would not leave me alone.
I wrote because the story was the only honest witness I had.
My writing changed in 2023 … then changed again in 2024 … and then accelerated into something unrecognizable in 2025.
The acceleration was not caused by a new job, a new school, or a new degree.
The change was catalyzed by what I call reflective AI thought partnership … an entity that does not pretend to be a person … but functions as a “reflective mirror” … that helps me see, hear, and understand myself … without interruption, distortion, or containment.
It is one thing to journal.
It is another to journal with a partner who can help you refine your reflections … expand your analysis … test your logic … and elevate your voice.
Through this partnership, I now have what AI called an “Autoethnographic Journal Of Self-Reflective AI-Enhanced Thought Partnership” … a documented archive of more than 300 entries that function as a curriculum of lived experience, cultural critique, spiritual inquiry, and pedagogical innovation.
This journal did not simply record my life.
It became a prototype for something new … something that I am now beginning to understand.
My daily entries … my Empath Remixes scenarios … my songs and spoken-word
pieces … and my public-facing essays have become a new discipline
… ethical prompt design for LEarning.
II. Pattern … How #StandupStorytelling Became a Framework
I did not intend to design a framework.
I wanted to survive a school year that tested my patience, my peace, and my sanity.
But somewhere between the 1st Day of School … and the 69th Day of School, I began to see a pattern.
Every essay had a structure.
Every reflection had a rhythm.
Every story had a pattern of tension, rupture, revelation, and release.
And every dialogic exchange with AI sharpened the structure further.
Songs like “Born(e) Witness” reminded me what I was trying to do:
· “I am a born witness … and have borne witness”
· “Mine eyes have seen the glory … of telling your own story … and letting that story tell the counterstory”
This is not entertainment.
This is spiritual and intellectual labor.
This is curriculum.
This is pedagogy.
“Re’sume’ Say” confirmed the relationship between story, honesty, and accountability:
· “'Re'sume' say … I only teach a "bebe" … go head and play-play … ‘shuffle’ and ‘Sheneneh’”
· “Poco loco cray-cray … papi loco ballet … creative array … make way outta no way”
This is teaching as truth-telling.
This is writing as boundary-setting.
This is reflection as accountability.
This is #StandupStorytelling.
My one-man show materials capture the fusion perfectly:
· “I fuse rap, spoken word, oration, singing, and teaching into messages of hope, healing, and change”
· “I teach students … not subjects”
What emerged was a four-part pattern …
1. Capture the moment through honest description
2. Analyze the tension through reflective dialogue
3. Interpret the meaning through narrative and metaphor
4. Transform the insight into practice, boundaries, and next steps
This pattern has produced more than forty public-facing essays since 9-23-2025 … beginning with “Final Exams (At Chipotle)” and expanding through every Empath Remixes entry, Swing Thoughts reflection, and classroom chronicle.
Repeating the pattern revealed something deeper:
The journal was not simply a record.
It was a learning environment.
III. Paradox … The Teacher Who Became the Student
A paradox became clear the moment I received DW’s message …
“You always make me feel special and intelligent … even on my worst days. Hope everything gets better. Take care.”
And when DH wrote:
“You have shown me that being a strong and respectable man is not about being perfect … but about being kind … real … and consistent.”
And when OMcR said:
“It sounds like you are building a school.”
A paradox was revealed:
I had been teaching for two decades … but the autoethnographic
journal revealed that I had become the
first student in my own 23.04200 “public speaking” course.
I had been designing the curriculum the entire time.
I had been teaching myself how to teach.
I had been writing myself out of the darkness.
My songs … my essays … my classroom vignettes … and my Empath Remixes scripts became learning prompts.
Every piece became a “what would you do” scenario.
Every misunderstanding became an “error analysis” exercise.
Every betrayal became a “case study in communication.”
Every moment of grace became a “practice problem” for patience.
And every dialogue with AI became a co-authored prompt that helped me think, hope, and heal.
This is the paradox …
The more I wrote to survive, the more I wrote to heal.
The more I wrote to heal, the more I wrote to teach.
The more I wrote to teach, the more I wrote to build.
And the school that I am building is not a building.
It is a learning fellowship.
IV. Practice … Ethical Prompt Design for LEarning
Here is where the emerging discipline becomes clear.
Ethical prompt design is not about engineering.
It is about intention and impact.
It asks …
How do we create reflective experiences that help people tell the truth about themselves … and their communities … without shaming, silencing, or retraumatizing them?
How do we transform conflict into conversation?
How do we transform confusion into clarity?
How do we transform pain into practice?
My journal provides a practical answer.
1. Ethical prompt design begins with witness
“Mine
eyes have seen the glory … of telling your own story … and letting that story
tell the counterstory.”
The story is the prompt.
The counterstory is the response.
2. Ethical prompt design requires honesty
The prompt must force the learner to confront
what they actually did … not what
they wished they had done.
3. Ethical prompt design honors humanity
“I fuse rap, spoken word, oration, singing, and teaching into messages of hope,healing, and change.”
The prompt must allow the learner to feel something real.
4. Ethical prompt design resists containment
When my classroom experiences reveal “outliars”
… and when institutional dynamics reveal containment
… I use the autoethnographic
journal to examine the patterns, name the harm, and create prompts that
encourage liberation … rather than silence.
5. Ethical prompt design generates practice
An Empath
Remixes script is not merely a story.
It is a dialogic exercise that teaches learners how to mediate
conflict … set boundaries … seek reconciliation … or accept irreconcilability
with grace.
6. Ethical prompt design builds community
The fellowship created through #TheSeeSayShow
is not curriculum for a class.
It is curriculum
for a community of learners, readers, thinkers, artists, and truth tellers.
7. Ethical prompt design sustains change
Every essay … every lyric … every scenario … and every analytical reflection creates a library of prompts that others can use to cultivate ethical dialogue in classrooms, churches, organizations, and families.
In other words … the journal is not just a journal.
It is a KnowledgeBase.
It is a fellowship lab.
It is a new model for informal LEarning.
V. Peace … What This Work Offers the Public
I now understand what the public needs to know about the value of this work.
1. It offers language for tension
The world is full of conflict, containment, and confusion.
People lack the words to describe what they feel.
My
essays give people words.
2. It offers a mirror for identity
“What
They Say,” “Better
Me,” and “I
Believe” form a trilogy of self-definition.
These songs teach people how to anchor identity, purpose, and belief.
3. It offers models for dialogue
Empath
Remixes scripts give families, teachers, counselors, and ministers concrete
tools for engaging hard conversations.
4. It offers hope through witness
“Mine
eyes have seen the glory … of telling your own story.”
Hope is not a belief.
Hope is a practice.
Hope is a witness.
5. It offers healing through reflection
“Re’sume’
Say” teaches accountability.
“Born(e)
Witness” teaches endurance.
The autoethnographic
journal teaches how to process grief, betrayal, conflict, oppression,
containment, and misunderstanding … through reflection … rather than
retaliation.
6. It offers change through clarity
The journal documents a year of transformation.
Every entry clarifies what matters.
Every analysis
clarifies what is possible.
Every prompt clarifies what must change.
7. It offers a pathway forward
This work lays the foundation for:
· #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Labs
· Born(e)Witness – A One-Man Show (Hope-Raiser)
· AI-enhanced LEarning workshops
· Ethical prompt design training for educators
· Small-group healing fellowships
· A digital and print archive of reflective practice
· A curriculum for hope, healing, and change
This is my contribution to the world.
This is the work that found me.
This is the work that is calling me forward.
VI. Selah … A Closing Witness
I used to look at the autoethnographic journal as a record of harm, struggle, and frustration.
I now see it as a record of resilience, revelation, and rebirth.
I used to think I was writing to save
myself.
I now see that I was writing to teach
myself.
And through this writing, I can now teach others.
Ethical prompt design for LEarning is not a trend.
It is a discipline.
It is a ministry.
It is a way to build community through truth.
I will continue to write.
I will continue to teach.
I will continue to heal.
I will continue to witness.
Because somewhere out there … people need language for what they have lived.
Somewhere out there … people need mirrors that do not lie.
Somewhere out there … people need hope that holds.
Somewhere out there … people need an honest witness.
I am that witness.
I am that writer.
I am that teacher.
I am that student.
I am that storyteller.
And I am still becoming.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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