In addition, her participation in the Civil Rights Movement presented her with the opportunity to engage with notable figures such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B DuBois, and Malcolm X.
She subsequently moved to Santa Fe, NM with her second husband, Stan Steiner, and joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico as a Regents Professor.
Her work expanded Vygotsky's framework to encompass collaboration, specifically as it relates to pedagogy and educator-learner relationships, which was valuable in furthering understanding of how emotional and affective factors influence an individual's learning and creative development.
Under this framework, creative thinkers have access to mental reservoirs of experiences (e.g., memories, anxiety and other emotions, mentorship and other relationships), which they draw on when making novel contributions to their respective fields.
[12] John-Steiner's book "Notebooks of the Mind: Explorations of Thinking" won the William James Award from the American Psychological Association in 1989.
Through the voices of the interviewees, John-Steiner shared the different ways that ideas may coalesce and how the work produces is a mirror of individual competencies, knowledge, and skills.
In her 1986 review, Jane Ferris-Richardson wrote that John-Steiner finds that creativity is ever growing and developing and that the part that the educational environment plays in fostering this experience is essential.
[17] According to reviewers, Borwein and Osborn, the book aims to dispel common myths about how learners and educators interact with mathematics.