Do
you think that it is the teacher’s role to overtly work to make the world a
better place? What are some things that
you could/will try to do as an educator to work toward social
improvement/justice? Be as specific as
possible. (Yes, I know we have a lot to do at the course's end, but I think
it’s worth taking a few minutes to think about it!)
Not only is it a teacher’s role to work to better the world, but it is the role of every human being. Teachers just happen to be ideally placed to do this work, because teachers intersect with the lives of countless students over the course of one career. Further, many scholars point to education as the best means to overcome social and economic equality, to “get out of” poverty, and to raise awareness for the world’s social problems so that we are better equipped to combat them.
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, I want to challenge myself every day to be aware of the power of my role as a teacher to effect change. Specifically, I want to seek to know my students as whole human beings, because I believe that knowing them as three-dimensional humans will enable me to help them better. To do this, I’d like to continue some of the goals of the community studies project that we will be completing as a part of this year. I think it’s a great idea to engage with students outside of the classroom by knowing their families, their neighborhoods, their lives. I could do this by attending their sports games if they play sports, or by visiting their churches, or taking walks through parks near the school. From what I’ve heard from other teachers, making phone calls home to establish relationships with students’ parents early on can be very helpful. But from a social change perspective, these phone calls are for more than just handling disciplinary matters with difficult students. Rather, teachers can also call home in order to get to know the students’ families better.
As I write this, I realize that I have no experience in Richmond Public Schools, or even in the city of Richmond, really. I worry that my aspirations for how I want to interact with my students are naïve. Annette Lareau found in her research that poor and working-class families tend to draw distinct lines between home and school; they are two different worlds. If this paradigm holds true for my students and their families, then I wonder if my students will even want me to try to know them as whole people. Is that my role as a teacher? I am a teacher, not a social worker- and I wonder if some of the strategies I described above might be better suited for social work.
Despite these uncertainties, however, I still feel strongly that as a teacher, I will be working with human beings. My students will be multi-dimensional. They will have outside circumstances acting upon them that are separate from school, they will have personalities, they will have responsibilities. As a teacher and a fellow human being, I believe it is my responsibility to affirm the humanity of my students by seeking to know them.
To make our discussion a circuitous one, I think the teacher’s roles ties back to our earliest discussion on what the purpose of public education. For me, public education is probably our society’s best public good. Public education provides children, form all backgrounds, a chance to be educated (ideally equally). When the equilibrium is imbalanced, I believe it is the teacher’s duty to fix it. (The best way she/he can) Therefore, while it sounds fanciful, yes, in many ways I believe it is the teacher’s role to make the world a better place, when he or she can. I will admit that the phrase “making the world a better place,” sounds like a big idea, but I believe that in my classroom exposing my kids to ideas beyond the textbook, and knowledge beyond memory entrenched facts- really tapping into their thinking skills- will make them better people and overtime the world a better place. Too “at-risk” students are not exposed beyond the community in which they live. More trips to museums, more opportunities to get out the country, more experiences outside the box are what these kids need.
ReplyDeleteI believe social justice COULD BE so deeply transcended throughout the education system, and as an advocate for it, I believe it is the teacher’s duty to improve society through education. In my experiences, I worked in an educational environment where there existed a notion that students could only get by. It seemed like people only thought that their students could only mediocrity, and that the new standard was complacency. This idea has to change. Teachers should instill confidence in their students, making sure students believed in what they were doing. Confidence is so important for a student to achieve; just them knowing that at least someone believes in them could change their whole outlook in classroom, and perhaps life. In addition, I believe teachers should have a deeper investment into the community, in which, they serve (and I use the word serve purposefully, because we are a servant of the community). In my ideal fanciful world, teachers would work with other organizations and clubs located in the neighborhood to educate not only the child, but perhaps parents, siblings, or whoever resided there. How amazing would a project or “hood” look if generations of their residents were educated by community schools? Social improvements like this one are what I WILL strive for as a teacher.
While it is not our sole purpose to make the world a better place, I feel this idea does line up with many teachers’ reasoning for pursuing the profession. In my opinion, making the world a better place will be the byproduct of good teaching. Good teaching will inspire students to want to learn more and in effect, do more. We are given a great sense of responsibility as teachers, but there is also a great amount of faith in us. I don’t know if parents, administrators, and others who look to us to lead the children would trust us to do so if they didn’t think we wanted to better them. The goal of making the world a better place marries happily with what many would define as teaching. Although I feel my strategies may change over time, I hope I never lose sight of the greater purpose I am serving. I hope to always make the world a little better by inspiring change.
ReplyDeleteSocial improvement is an idea that I have been committed to for some now, and is honestly one of the things that attracted me to the program. I think the first step in bringing about social change is being educated. I feel the session we had with Tami opened my eyes to many things I was unaware of, things that are important to know before change can occur. Attending school board meetings and community events will help me be better educated. I think it will also be important to surround myself with likeminded individuals. RTR will begin my network, but in order to inspire real change other teachers have to feel likewise. I think it is important to celebrate small changes as well. If a student who is struggling in math finally understands an important concept that is a victory no matter how small it may seem. Teaching my students about what is going on the world around them is also vital. Students must be aware of the strengths and the weaknesses in order to better them. Most importantly, I think it is important to be realistic with the amount of change that will occur over a certain time period. This might help combat the fatigue that comes with advocating social justice.
In order to work towards change and social justice, we as teachers must do our job with a sense of heart and urgency. It is unrealistic to think that any one person can save the world or turn around the life of every child. Although we will likely become personally invested in many students we come across, it is important to not build up unrealistic expectations of what we can do just to see these expectations be broken - thus leading to a deep sense of failure on our part. I'm not a teacher yet, so I wouldn't know this for sure, but I've gotten the sense of this after being in this program for roughly five weeks.
ReplyDeleteI will strive to be like the teacher I interviewed at Thomas Jefferson high school, who seemed to employ an attitude that would serve me well to emulate in many ways. Dealing with the students' needs and classroom conduct seem to almost trump the actual content, because without the students paying attention, the content means nothing. When you have students listening to you, you can then transfer knowledge more effectively, as well as properly "model" good behavior for them to emulate if they have come to respect you.
Our strategies will differ from person to person on how to make the most impact we possibly can, as well as whether we are teaching in middle school or high school. Regardless of these variables, I see this cohort becoming viable teachers in the future whose helping hand will be appreciated by many students and parents in this community.
When I graduated college and was a young, idealistic, and naive version of myself, I would have used those exact words, “I want to make the world a better place”. Today, the more mature version of me is aware that I can’t change the world, but I know I can work towards changing my community. Educating the youth of our community as best as possible, teaching them self-worth and confidence, showing compassion and respect, creating in them a love for education and a desire to continue that education are all ways to better our community. Taking a stand and being an ally for the under-represented kids of RPS are the responsibilities of an educator.
ReplyDeleteLike Ashley said, taking notice of the small accomplishments is paramount to the betterment of RPS and steps towards social improvement. Creating confidence in our students by encouraging them when they do well, when they are excited by their education. Getting involved with the politics of RPS and trying to reverse a few of the wrongs that have been done to the school children of Richmond City throughout history would be some of my steps towards social improvement. Also, denying people, every chance I get, the freedom to perpetuate racism.
I share Ayers’ desires for teaching, which I also believe represent social improvement: “I want to teach toward freedom, for enlightenment and awareness, wide awakeness, protection of the weak, cooperation, generosity, compassion, and love. I want my teaching to mean something worthwhile in the lives of my students and in the larger worlds that they will inhabit and create. I want it to mean something in mine”(Ayers,18).
I cannot imagine the world that we will be in if all teachers in America as well as all around the world are working with same agenda - to make the world a better place through teaching students. I strongly believe that teachers can impact students powerfully. If I have 90 students in high school biology classes, I hope that I can impact at least 10 percent of students. I wish I could be an inspiring educator for all my students, but I understand that I am imperfect and incomplete.
ReplyDeleteIf a teacher has a strong relationship with students, one can help them grow academically, mentally, and emotionally. I heard that a couple who has been married for a long time becomes very similar to each other because they share so much. In the same way, a teacher could really influence a student during their time together when there is a strong connection and relationship. This teacher’s influence on a student will bring positive effect on the society.
As a future RPS teacher, I believe that there are many opportunities for teachers to get involved with to work toward social improvement and justice. In a small scale, I would like to work closely with counselors and other teachers. I have met some teachers who had very pessimistic views on students and school systems. Talking to teachers to help changing their views can be something that I would like to do.
I could also participate in clubs or programs such as anti-bullying program. Also, hosting a seminar or class on certain issues for students and parents would be a great way to make social improvement. I think RPS struggles with parent involvement. The best way to encourage parents to be involved with their children’s education is to host a community day event where they could come out on weekend to meet teachers outside of school setting. I believe working closely with parents are important steps to bring changes upon children.
I believe that small steps are very important as well as bigger steps. As I take small steps, I am sure that opportunities will come where I can work towards social improvement and justice in a bigger scale.
Daisy
It is everyone’s role to make the world a better place, not just teachers. However, as teachers I think we may be in a better position to do that. We have the opportunity to reach the children and educate them on making the world better and they will in turn spread their knowledge to others. As teachers, we are already making a change in the world for the better good but I do agree that just teaching is not enough.
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, I really don’t know what I want to do to work toward social improvement. I know that social progress is possible and that I want to have a role. I do want to be active in the communities that my students live in. I see myself starting small and trying to promote change within the school’s community first. I think that by just improving people’s perception of the school will start to lead to improving support for the school and improving student morale. I would like to build connections with community members and then eventually expand to those outside of the community. I want to learn all that I can and fulfill my desire to make a difference in the world while making the world a better place.
-Stevara
As pretty much everyone else has said so far, the act of teaching is in itself working towards social change. And why not? We as teachers in RPS are perfectly positioned to have a direct impact on so many lives… perhaps more so than any other profession. And in this case in particular, we are positioned to have an impact on underprivileged kids. Students in RPS have historically been at a disadvantage since ‘desegregation’. The quality of education in RPS spiraled downward, and standards have remained low since that time. We are entering this prolonged period of reconstruction, and offering our hands to help build the city’s schools back up to something that our communities can rely on for all students, not just the ones who don’t have a choice.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher in RPS I hope to expose my kids to the world around them. I want to show them the science that permeates our everyday lives. I want to teach them how they fit into the puzzle as well. Furthermore, I would like to show them some of the things nearby that more privileged students might take for granted (e.g., field trips, interaction with the scientific community). Our task as RPS teachers will be hard, but the rewards will also be great. Because every hour of effort we put into these kids is an hour spent improving our own community. And eventually we should all reap the returns of universal quality education.
-Brendan