In this essay, four teacher educators explore their journeys towards foregrounding students' lived experiences when teaching literature. Data about our teaching of literature in different contexts were generated through our personal reflective narratives and ensuing dialogic critical friend conversations. Inductive thematic analysis of the narratives revealed that in spite of our diverse initial teaching contexts and trajectories, we initially all taught in much the same teacher-centred way. We also came to the realisation, however, that over the years our informal conversations had played a role in our teaching, allowing us to move beyond our educations. Collaborative teaching relationships developed out of incidental corridor conversations and these have been instrumental in reshaping our teaching of literature, enabling us to make literary texts relevant to societal issues and the lived experiences of our students.