Reading McEntee et. al (second half) and Campano

Like a few other people, I was excited when I saw we were reading Campano because I had really enjoyed reading his work previously in a previous class.  When I read the article though, I was mixed with feelings of admiration and anxiety; how does he know so much? How is he such a great teacher? Was he always like this?  When I read his reaction to meeting Virgil, "My God, why is this child already so marginalized by the educational system?" I felt guilty because I know that would not have been my first question, I would have been wondering about what happened at his previous schools and concerned about how a new student might impact my class. When he mentioned school partnerships, I did think of some work I had done with other BiCo students at a school in West Philly where we began to talk about the implications of race, which was a really cool experience, but also really problematic at times.  I felt like it wasn’t quite at the level of what he was describing as “education’s best hope”.  Chapter 9, New Territories, in At the Heart of Teaching reminded me that all teachers, especially new teachers, do not start off with as much skill and experience as Campano is writing from currently.  Peter, the teacher, was open to advice, and while he seemed to be a good teacher, he was a little resistant to change or advice sometimes that in the end seemed to make his classroom a better place.  Teachers, even naturally gifted teachers, don’t necessarily start off as amazing, it’s a process of learning over time.  Again though, my issue with this book keeps being what schools have time for these types of teacher feedback? It definitely helps and seems necessary, but other things, like preparing for standardized tests are also deemed necessary, and can get in the way of improving teaching overall.

Campano says, "teacher inquiry...is about a process of imagining alternatives for students who have been most vulnerable in our schools" (pg. 333).  I felt that this quote summarized his actions in how he responded to Virgil, and the "baggage" that the school brought with him.  Campano explains how he "valu[ed] students' experiences as intellectual resources...also acknowledg[ing] students' fundamental capacities to make rational sense of and theorize their own lives" (333).  His actions as a teacher who respected his student's imput is an example of him "resist[ing] and undo[ing] the damage of certain educational research and policies that dehumanize youth" (337).  Campano gives Virgil a voice in his own education, and subsequent success in taking the time to discuss Virgil's interests, issues with school, etc.  He allows Virgil to play an active role in his future.  I really liked chap. 4 of the Campano reading because he provided practical theory that he himself used in a specific situation, and provided a real life anecdote as an example.

On page 333, he states, "I believe writing became for Virgil one cultural outlet for oppositional impulses and a vehicle to explore profound social and ethical issues."  This statement reminded me of my first praxis experience in my Critical Issues course. I was in 2nd grade classroom in West Philadelphia.  The class had many students with IEPs, various grade levels on various subjects, and an amazing, attentive teacher.  She was very good at recognizing student's strengths and challenges.  One boy in the class always completed his work, but acted out a lot.  After observing, working with, and talking with the student the teacher decided tried giving him a journal.  The purpose of the journal was for when the boy finished his work (always ahead of the rest of his classmates, he was a very smart student) he was supposed to open up his journal and write about whatever he wanted (thoughts that were running through his head, how he felt, what he wanted to do after school, anything he wanted).  The teacher had come to the conclusion that because he was so advanced, and always finishing his work early, he acted out because he had nothing to do, and he was bored.  Providing him with a forum dispense his energy, and giving him a place to focus once he finished his official work gave him a positive outlet where he was free to explore and express himself. This was a first hand experience of mine that helped me to understand the importance of getting to know students on an individual level, while also giving them the opportunity to have an imput on their academic identity. 

Similar to the story of Said, I readily admit that I am extremely skeptical and suspicious of "academics, researchers, and educators". Even beginning to read this article and story of Said, I was hit with a wave of distrust as the daughter of the head judge of the WTO who lived on the French-Swiss border in 1999. I think my wave of suspicion arose out of a protective barrier that had formed out of previous concerns from classes at Bryn Mawr. For me, Said seemed to not be engaging in criticisms, but rather protectiveness for what he felt was his community and culture. He felt that an academic outsider, who had never perhaps experienced the "real world", was stepping in and tell him how to act. I think that is why it is important for teachers to engage in qualitative research, written about in Campano's section "Knowing About the World Involves Knowing How to Change It". All five of Campano's points stem out of a necessary awareness that teachers must have in their classrooms. Previous posts for Campano speak about understanding of assumptions and being aware of assumptions that a teacher brings and that students already have. For me, the core of teacher research is awareness. As the teacher accepts this awareness, he is more fit to present concerns about the community and to attempt to enact changes that, not as he blindly sees fit, but are instead best for the community.

In 2008 I watched the movie "The Class", a French film where teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau acts as a new teacher in an urban Parisian neighborhood. An important fact is that the original French title of the film meant "Between the Walls". Frequently the teachers gather to discuss how to best control the students and inspire the students, but until the teacher assigns a project of written self-portraits, the teacher is unable to lead the students. Once he not only exposes himself to the self-portraits, but asserts to the students that he sees them and he appreciates them, he is able to lead the the majority of the classroom into success...but the end of the movie is of a violent incidient amongst the teacher and students, resulting in the expulsion of the student. 

Dialogue was important to Friere and I wish I could have conjured him up in plenary last week when students were troubled by a resolution in part replacing a phrase something like "working through conflicts over our differences" with "engaging in dialogue." (The latter encompases the former.) But in any case, each of the chapters made me think further about dialogue.

I thought it was interesting in chapter 8 that Rhode Island requires schools to have "school improvement teams." I wonder how that works in Providence where the mayor recently fired the school district's entire workforce. I also wonder (and can guess the answer to) the backgrounds of parents who choose to be on a school improvement tream. These dynamics must add complexity to dialogue within a "school improvement team," although I agree that point of not making parents feel inadequate is an important one.

In chapter 9, I was intrigued by the collaborative assessment protocol. I wonder how I could incorporate it in my music course. I think this author is not as good at presenting dialogue in writing; although in chapter 11 she admits that writing may not be her strongest point. In chapter10 we say some unsuccessful dialogue. Friere would agree that gaining trust is essential before trying to start a dialogue-like process. However setting clear goals and expectations as a way to gain trust is not central to Friere. Finally in chapter 11, I really liked the more dialogue-like (maybe?) way of peer-reviewing writing. Through the very specific protocol it seems a writer would be able to avoid feeling "under-attack" for their writing.

In the Campano, I also connected back to Friere. The balancing of theory and practice makes me think of the balancing of reflection and action in Friere's pedagogy.

This Campano reading reminds me a lot of Eve Tuck’s desire-based research. It seems that in this article he highlights the way in which desire-based research can/should be conducted in schools. Desire-based research stems from the idea that outside researchers often go into communities in search for “damage” with the belief that telling a story of damage is more likely to cause political and cultural change. In this article, I really liked the way in which Campano described what to me could be desire-based research in the classroom.  He flipped traditional research, which goes from theory to practice, to research that goes from practice to theory by noting that teacher have a place to craft their own research. How is it different for a teacher to conduct research? Does it produce different results? He makes a case for teacher research by describing a variety of paradigms that makes it good research. Out of these the one that stood out the most for me was "teaching research as an ongoing process" because I could relate it to Freire's notion of unfinishdness. Because teachers are always immersed in the classroom and are in a state of constant (re)imagining, it makes sense to say that teacher research seems like an essential part of our education system. Teachers, have the possibility to see, over the long-term, how certain polices or practical changes impact their students.  In many ways, teacher research is valuable because it lacks a timeline that must end on a particular deadline, after which an answer is provided and the research is done. Instead, it relies on constant revision of lived experiences by going beyond reflection to understand what happens in the classroom and why. Could it be improved and if so, how?