John Strachan's Philosophy of Education - July 2011

Philosophy of Education

In 2007, I retired after a 22-year career as a solar technology engineer.   Shortly thereafter I began to tutor high school students in algebra.  I enjoyed this and found it quite rewarding.  So I decided to go back to school and get a teaching certificate.  This is the process in which I am now engaged.

This paper is an attempt to work out for the first time my philosophy as a teacher.  For me it is breaking new ground altogether.  I begin the paper with my reasons for wishing to become a teacher and an examination of my own socialization, beliefs and values.  Then I address the core issues of my educational philosophy, what is the purpose of education and the roles of society, teachers and students.  Finally I examine some issues relating school to society, particularly here in New Mexico.

What Has Motivated Me to Pursue a Teaching Career?

My motivation to be a teacher stems from a) the value of “doing good” that is part of my heritage, b) the pure joy that I get from learning, and c) the enjoyment and positive meaning I’ve experienced in the role of a tutor (teacher and mentor).

First, I learned from my parents to value service to others.  They were missionaries in Costa Rica, and in their view, their lives and their work were a calling to service to God and to their fellow man.  Service, then, has been a value I’ve embraced throughout my life, both in my career as an engineer and now, as I prepare for a second career as a teacher. 

Secondly, I greatly enjoy learning for its own sake and this is a source of motivation for me.  One of the happiest times of my life was an engineering student back in the early 1980’s.  I thrived in the environment of the university and in particular I experienced a lot of joy and satisfaction from learning.  I especially enjoyed the study of algebra and calculus and excelled in those classes.  At one point in time I recall thinking to myself that teaching math could easily be an alternate career choice.  That idea resurfaced at the time of my retirement. 

Finally, I am also motivated by the fact that I enjoy teaching.  In my work as an engineer I had and enjoyed opportunities to teach solar technology to adults, and more recently (since 2007) I’ve thoroughly enjoyed tutored high school students in math.  This recent experience confirmed for me that teaching will probably give me great satisfaction and a strong sense of meaning.

How have I been socialized, and how will my beliefs, values, and experiences impact my students?

Let me start this discussion by listing my basic values and beliefs that will guide my practice.

• I am an evangelical Christian; among these I would be considered a liberal.  As a teacher I will model Christian principles.  This will impact my students by providing them with a role model in terms of conduct and integrity.
• I consider education to be a great treasure and a great joy.  I believe this will impact my students.  I intend that my enthusiasm be infectious. 
• I know that the cards are stacked against many people.  There is racism, cultural bigotry, gender discrimination, and discrimination against people with special needs.  Much of these inequities are institutionalized in this country.  As a teacher I will make myself aware of the students (and colleagues) who are at the receiving end of inequities.  I would like to believe that I will have the courage and initiative to be proactive in fighting these injustices.
• I believe and value the work ethic and am convinced that individuals can through hard labor and discipline overcome the obstacles in their life, including discrimination.  I believe in hope, hard work, self-motivation, persistence, enthusiasm, and a high standard of excellence.  In the course of my teaching, my students will be exposed to these values.  If I also walk the talk, many of them are likely to learn them.
• I value other cultures, including the two in which I was raised.  My own multicultural experiences will help me to be sensitive and open to the various cultures that my students will bring to the classroom.  I will make it my job to learn about the backgrounds of my students and find ways to use these differences in my classroom in a positive way.

What is an Education?  What is the Purpose of an Education?

An education is the means whereby individuals are prepared for life in society.  It is one of the important ways by which the individual is equipped with the “psychological tools” of the culture[1]. These tools are such things as language, writing, music, math, history, and sciences.  These and other such tools equip the individual to both enjoy the world and human culture in all of its rich dimensions and to be successful in navigating the world, in having an impact on it, and in achieving his objectives in life. 

I believe that grade school and high school should have the goal of fully equipping the individual not merely preparing them for the workforce.  Rather than place a student into a vocational track, I believe he should be given the widest possible range of knowledge and skills.  School administrators and teachers should not make decisions that shunt a student off onto a diminished path of learning. 

A key indicator of the success of an education is that the students become capable of thinking for themselves and of solving problems. These skills will enable the individual to make a contribution and experience success in a rapidly changing world. Part of the ability to think for oneself is the wisdom and ability to select one’s own values and make one’s own value judgments.  I intend to equip my students with tools and ways to frame the right questions and the methods for solving not just math and science problems but the problems they face in their lives.

The quality of an education determines the size of a person’s world.  Consider that a formal education is one of the means whereby an individual’s mind is shaped.  Consider that it is through the senses and the mind that a person knows and interacts with the world.  With the mind, the individual both understands the world and is able to grapple with it.  For that reason, the size or scope a person’s world is limited by his knowledge, his habits of thought, his capabilities and know how.  A poorly educated person lives in a world diminished by all the things that he does not know about and all the ways of dealing with the world that are outside of his grasp.  The world of a well-educated person, in contrast, is larger with a greater scope and with a wealth of diversity, of detail and of beauty.  And the educated person has in his hands abundant resources and a multiple array of tools with which to know the world and to manipulate or impact it.  For this reason, K-12 schooling should not short change an individual for any reason.

An important class of the psychological tools that come with an education are social tools.  These are the knowledge, the understanding, the skills, the experience, and the capabilities that enable an individual to function as a social creature.  An education plays a significant role in the socialization of the child.  Together with life at home and in the community, the school is the place where a child develops her social persona, her concept of who she is and how she believes that other see her.  It helps to shape her thoughts about and her attitudes towards others and to equip her with interpersonal skills. 

As an aside, it’s worth noting that in kindergarten and in the first years of grade school, adults teach social customs and rules explicitly to the children.  After that social education becomes less explicit and more a matter of environment.  In other words, the school is the social milieu, the environment that will play a significant role in a person’s social development.  One of the inferences of this is that while the student’s peers have perhaps a greater role in the socialization process, as the teacher, I can have a very powerful influence.  The classroom is not only the place where I will teach math and science but is also a microcosm of the community in which I will have an influential role. 

The Roles and Goals of the Student and of the Teacher

The roles of teacher and student and the goals they should pursue are interdependent and for me are more easily treated together. 

The student is the central player in the learning process and he/she largely determines what learning takes place.  I, the teacher, have a vital but secondary role. 

A primary goal of a student is to become a self-regulated learner.  The student must learn to be the driving force behind his or her own education.  A self-regulated learner sets her own goals and determines the strategies and tactics she will employ to reach them.  She provides her own motivation and generates her own rewards.  She evaluates her own performance and makes adjustments to improve it.  One of the teacher’s roles then is to teach explicitly the knowledge and skill’s of learning and to encourage students to adopt them^[2]. 

If a key to education is learning to think for oneself and to determine one’s own values, then my role as a teacher is to provide my students with the opportunities to exercise and articulate their own ideas and thoughts.

I believe a student must strive for excellence.  My job is to set the standard in my classroom, both the academic and the social standard. 

The student’s role is to follow a basic code of conduct that contributes to a good learning environment.  As the teacher, that environment is ultimately my responsibility.  I.e. I shape the climate of my classroom. 

My goal is to create an environment of freedom of will and of expression. By my lead and my example I help to shape my class into a democratic community where each person is recognized, respected and honored for who they are, for their culture and the knowledge and experiences they bring to the class.  My students’ role is to be contributing and participating members of the community.  I give my students the opportunities to express their ideas and their feelings; it’s up to them to avail themselves of those opportunities.  I stand up for and articulate my values to my classroom I encourage them to think about and articulate their own.  These are then the values and goals that will guide my practice. 

Regarding Privilege & Cultural Sensitivity

The way that I conduct my classroom will determine whether or not the issue of privilege is properly addressed.  My goal is to make my classroom one where everyone is respected and given voice.

The essential elements in my classroom that will make my practice culturally relevant or sensitive are acknowledgement of each individual and the background and experiences that he/she brings to the class.  A culturally relevant practice includes the conscious acknowledgement in my classroom of the various cultures that are represented.  It involves treating with respect and inclusion all the individuals in the classroom and the cultures they bring with them.

Discipline in the Classroom

If I succeed in reaching my own goals in the classroom it should be an environment in which learning is an adventure in which everyone is engaged.  If I succeed, then discipline will take care of itself.  But what do I do when a student is disruptive?  I will enforce acceptable classroom behavior in a firm but mild manner. 

The Social Benefit of Schooling

Education’s primary purpose is not so much to benefit society but to benefit the student.  However, the knowledge, skills, and positive qualities of character that come from an education are a benefit to society.  As a general statement, I believe that the better the education of the individual the greater their potential to make a positive contribution to society.  I believe that an education serves first the student and, as a by-product, serves society.

But I do not believe that educators should make decisions about a student’s curriculum that effectively shuttles them off to a future of menial or poorly rewarded work.  Schools should strive to provide the same solid education to all of its students.  I realize that there is a competing principle at play.  Some students have mental disabilities that suggest they will not be able to succeed with the standard curriculum.  From what I’ve seen of inclusive classrooms I’m convinced that classroom can function at least at the grade school level with students of all types attending the same class, at least for part of their curriculum.

Financing Grade School and High Schools in the USA

The disparity between this country’s best and worst schools is a result of the inequality of the resources made available to the different schools.  In the current national political climate it may be difficult to achieve, but I think that the funding of schools needs to be equitable on a per capita basis.  It’s easy to reach that conclusion.  But how this can be achieved is the more difficult question.  It seems intractable, but for me this is one issue that should be under the purview of the federal not the state government.  It is a national security issue, not a state issue.  Unless more resources are provided to schools in “poorer” neighborhoods, our country will stagnate and continue to drop as a competitor in the world economy.

Who Should Determine the Curriculum Taught in School?

I think that experienced educators should be responsible for decisions about curriculum.  I think that this will come about most optimally by both federal and state involvement in the process.  I think that it should be professional educators at both the federal and state level who have this responsibility.

How Is Student Learning in my Classroom Impacted by the Social, Economic, Political, and Cultural Paradigms in the United States and New Mexico?

My classroom will be one of the arenas in which the US and New Mexico’s social, economic, political, and cultural paradigms are played out.  I am likely to have students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.  I will have students whose first language is not English.  I’ll have students whose parents are themselves poorly educated – students who have grown up in homes where the fundamental attitudes and skills towards higher education are missing.  I am going to encounter in my classroom many of the challenges and difficulties that we have read about during this course. 

The problems in our society here in New Mexico will come into class with my students and with me.  The classroom will be a microcosm of the society at large.  I’ll be faced with the challenge of closing the gap with students who are slated to become casualties of the school system.  I will face the challenge of having a positive impact, of making a difference.  How these issues play out in my classroom will be determined by the wisdom and effort that I bring to the practice.

Closing Comments

            What I have expressed here are the first thoughts of a beginning teacher.  I’m convinced that when I have had some time as a teacher my philosophy will be greatly influenced by my experience teaching.  Nonetheless, at this point in time I have a strong sense of the critical value of education and have an initial set of goals and values to guide me.  Time and effort will bring maturity and perspective.

References

Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston.

Tozer, S.E., Senese, G., & Violas, P.C. (2009). School and Society, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. McGraw Hill. Boston.

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[1] This view of education is ascribed to Lev Vygotsky in Psychology Applied to Teahing (Snowman, 2009).

[2] Chapter 9 of Psychology Applied to Teaching (Snowman, 2009) provides a lengthy discourse on what self-regulation is and how to teach it to students.

Blogging about bloggers - 9th posting

I found a bunch of math teachers blogging on-line.  But I didn’t like what they were talking about (truancy, sexual descrimination, and other social/political issues that are once removed from a teacher’s daily work.

Then I found a blogger named “Miss Calcul8” who teaches high school algebra.  She (at least I assume it is a she) talks about a range of different interesting topics for a math teacher like I plan to be. 

She talks about the question whether to use or not to use the textbook for teaching, but she comes down on the “wrong” side of the issue because she hasn’t found much use for math textbooks.  Actually she makes limited use of the textbook but comes up with ideas on how to teach the text content by searching the internet, tweets, and blogs.  That’s pretty creative, actually, and catches my attention.  (I like textbooks because they lay out the course material in a step-by-step logical fashion, where each lesson builds on the last.)   But I guess one could look elsewhere for creative and innovative ways to present the same material.  I.e. use the textbook as a guide and pacesetter, but come up with exciting ways to actually teach the material.

I like Miss Calcul8; she shares teaching methods (how to teach the multiplication of two binomials) and is will to talk about going through times when she loses motivation for doing lesson plans, which I can relate to.  

I might make blogging a part of my program of mental hygiene as a teacher!

About Catron’s questions:

• MissCalcul8’s philosophy of education seems to revolve around a core value: she loves her students and she is dedicated to their success.  She also seems to be a pragmatist.  She’ll do whatever works and whatever it takes.
• She is critically reflective.  Her blog is a lot like a Journal of reflection on how things are going, how she’s feeling, what’s working, what’s not, and what to do about it.
• The idea of blogging with fellow teachers is great!  Following the blogs of other teachers will give me ideas to try out in my own classroom.  Plus I’ll be able to learn and empathize and be encouraged by reading what other teachers are going through and thinking about.  It’ll help with my mental hygiene as a teacher!

Draft of Strachan's Philosophy of Education

NOTE TO MY REVIEWERS:
I am only interested in feedback that will help improve my paper. I have several questions for you:

1) Were there any parts (& what were they) that you did not understand or felt were poorly written?
2) Did the paper have a comfortable flow to it?
3) To shorten the paper, what parts would you eliminate or cut down in length?
4) Are there statements made in the paper with which you disagree?

Draft of the Paper:

About the author

a brief biography

I was born to evangelical missionaries in Costa Rica; the first school I attended was a Spanish speaking grade school.  I was a popular kid and was quite sociable and did well academically (straight A’s).  I did my best to win the affection and regard of my teachers and usually succeeded.  I became totally fluent in both Spanish and English and intimately familiar with the culture of Costa Rica.  Most friendships were with a mixture of Costa Rican kids and sons of other missionaries.  My parents’ faith played a center role in our family life; I remember becoming a born-again Christian at the age of five!  So I was heavily influenced by the Christian values and attitudes of my parents and their missionary colleagues.

During my years in Costa Rica I experienced discrimination for racial and socioeconomic reasons.  As a white boy in a brown culture I always stood out.  Most of the discrimination was positive because back then Costa Ricans held the United States in high esteem and people from the United States were treated with special regard and deference.  I was often singled out for special treatment, but this generally made me feel different and separate rather than special.  Less frequently the discrimination came in the form of hateful racist remarks.  In either case, I always felt to a degree like an outsider.

At the age of 15 my parents sent me to a Christian boarding school in North Carolina.  This sudden immersion into North American culture was a shock.  I had been raised in an English speaking home with US customs, but I was not well prepared to be on my own and in what was to me a foreign culture of peers.  That same year my father was diagnosed with cancer, and so my parents moved to southern California where he began medical treatment.  I joined my parents and enrolled in a public high school in Pasadena (CA).  My father died within the following year. 

The combination of the loss of my father and my separation from my Costa Rica cohorts was a major disruption to my life and a period of forced adaptation.  On the outside I appeared to do quite well, but on the inside felt once again like an outsider as I attempted to understand this culture that was largely new to me.  It was also in this time period during high school that my nuclear family broke up.  My mother returned to Costa Rica and my five siblings and I stayed in the “States” to continue our education, mostly separated from one another in different schools.  The following ten years (from my 16^th to my 25^th year) were a rough period of role confusion and consternation (although at the time I did not recognize what I was going through). 

They came to an end when I met and married a Costa Rican woman (named Damaris).  At the age of about 29 years I enrolled in engineering school (again in California) and after getting a bachelor’s and a master’s degree I was hired by Sandia National Laboratories and moved to Albuquerque.

For 22 years I pursued my career in solar energy engineering and together with my wifre raised three children.  These were good years for me, both personally and professionally.  For all these years I was given the opportunity to do meaningful and satisfying work.  In 2006, I retired from Sandia.  During the following 5 years I tutored grade and high school students one-on-one in math.  That brings us to the present and my recent enrollment in CNM’s Alternative Licensure Program.

What has motivated me to pursue a teaching career?

My motivation to be a teacher stems from a) the value of “doing good” that is part of my heritage, b) the pure joy that I get from learning, and c) the enjoyment and positive meaning I’ve experienced in the role of a tutor (teacher and mentor).

First, I learned from my parents to value service to others.  In their view, their work was a calling to service to God and to their fellow man.  Service, then, has been a value I’ve embraced throughout my life, both in my career as an engineer and now, as I prepare for a second career as a teacher.  

Secondly, I greatly enjoy learning for its own sake and this is a source of motivation for me.  One of the happiest times of my life was an engineering student back in the early 1980’s.  I thrived in the environment of the university and in particular I experienced a lot of joy and satisfaction from learning.  I especially enjoyed the study of algebra and calculus and excelled in those classes.  At one point in time I recall thinking to myself that teaching math could easily be an alternate career choice.  That idea resurfaced at the time of my retirement. 

Finally, I am also motivated by the fact that I enjoy teaching.  In my work as an engineer I have had and enjoyed opportunities to teach solar technology to adults, and more recently (since 2007) I’ve tutored grade and high school students in math.  This recent experience confirmed for me that teaching gives me great satisfaction and a strong sense of meaning.

How have I been socialized, and how will my beliefs, values, and experiences impact my students?

My beliefs and values:

• I am an evangelical Christian; among these I would be considered a liberal.  As a teacher I will model Christian principles.  When I have a bad day, I’ll hope to be forgiven by my students and colleagues.  When asked about my own values and beliefs I will share them. 
• I know that the cards are stacked against many people.  There is racism, cultural bigotry, gender discrimination, and discrimination against people with special needs.  Much of these inequities are institutionalized in this country.  As a teacher I will make myself aware of the students (and colleagues) who are at the receiving end of inequities.  I would like to believe that I will have the courage and initiative to be proactive in fighting these injustices.
• I believe and value the work ethic and am convinced that individuals can through hard labor and discipline overcome the obstacles in their life, including discrimination.  I believe in hope, hard work, self-motivation, persistence, enthusiasm, and a high standard of excellence.  In the course of my teaching, my students will be exposed to these values.  If I also walk the talk, many of them are likely to learn them.
• I value other cultures, including the two in which I was raised.  My contribution to the class’ culture will include celebrating our collective heritages.  In my classroom here in Albuquerque I’m likely to be teaching African American, Native Americans, Asians, and “white” students.  I believe these cultures should be on an equal footing in my classroom.  I will make it my job to learn about the backgrounds of my students and find ways to use these differences in my classroom in a positive way.

About the profession

What is an education?  What is the purpose of an education?

An education is the means whereby individuals are prepared for life in society.  It is one of the important ways by which the individual is equipped with the “psychological tools” of the culture[1]. These tools are such things as language, writing, music, math, history, and sciences.  These and other such tools equip the individual to both enjoy the world and human culture in all of its rich dimensions and to be successful in navigating the world, in having an impact on it, and in achieving his objectives in life. 

I believe that grade school and high school should have the goal of fully equipping the individual not merely preparing them for the workforce.  Rather than place a student into a vocational track, I believe he should be given the widest possible range of knowledge and skills.  School administrators and teachers should not make decisions that shunt a student off onto a diminished path of learning. 

A key indicator of the success of an education is that the students become capable of thinking for themselves and of solving problems. These skills will enable the individual to make a contribution and experience success in a rapidly changing world. Part of the ability to think for oneself is the wisdom and ability to select one’s own values and make one’s own value judgments.  I intend to equip my students with tools and ways to frame the right questions and the methods for solving not just math and science problems but the problems they face in their lives.

The quality of an education determines the size of a person’s world.  Consider that a formal education is one of the means whereby an individual’s mind is shaped.  Consider that it is through the senses and the mind that a person knows and interacts with the world.  With the mind, the individual both understands the world and is able to grapple with it.  For that reason, the size or scope a person’s world is limited by his knowledge, his habits of thought, his capabilities and know how.  A poorly educated person lives in a world diminished by all the things the he does not know about and all the ways of dealing with the world that are outside of his grasp.  The world of a well-educated person, in contrast, is larger with a greater scope and with a wealth of diversity, of detail and of beauty.  And the educated person has in his hands abundant resources and a multiple array of tools with which to know the world and to manipulate or impact it.  For this reason, K-12 schooling should not short change an individual for any reason.

An important class of the psychological tools that come with an education are social tools.  These are the knowledge, the understanding, the skills, the experience, and the capabilities that enable an individual to function as a social creature.  An education plays a significant role in the socialization of the child.  Together with life at home and in the community, the school is the place where a child develops her social persona, her concept of who she is and how she believes that other see her.  It helps to shape her thoughts about and her attitudes towards others and to equip her with interpersonal skills. 

As an aside, it’s worth noting that in kindergarten and in the first years of grade school, adults teach social customs and rules explicitly to the children.  After that social education becomes less explicit and more a matter of environment.  In other words, the school is the social milieu, the environment that will play a significant role in a person’s social development.  One of the inferences of this is that while the student’s peers have perhaps a greater role in the socialization process, as the teacher, I can have a very powerful influence.  The classroom is not only the place where I will teach math and science but is also a microcosm of the community in which I will have an influential role. 

Social issues surrounding education

The social benefit of schooling

Education’s fundamental purpose is not to benefit society but to benefit the student.  However, the knowledge, skills, and positive qualities of character that come from an education are a benefit to society.  As a general statement, I believe that the better the education of the individual the greater their potential to make a positive contribution to society.  I believe that an education serves first the student and, as a by-product, serves society.

But I do not believe that educators should make decisions about a student’s curriculum that effectively shuttles them off to a future of menial or poorly rewarded work.  Schools should strive to provide the same solid education to all of its students.  I realize that there is a competing principle at play.  Some students have mental disabilities that suggest they will not be able to succeed with the standard curriculum.  From what I’ve seen of inclusive classrooms I’m convinced that classroom can function at least at the grade school level with students of all types attending the same class, at least for part of their curriculum[2].

Financing grade school and high schools in the USA

The disparity between this country’s best and worst schools is a result of the inequality of the resources made available to the different schools.  In the current national political climate it may be difficult to achieve, but I think that the funding of schools needs to be equitable on a per capita basis.  It’s easy to reach that conclusion.  But how this can be achieved is the more difficult question.  It seems intractable, but for me this is one issue that should be under the purview of the federal not the state government.  It is a national security issue, not a state issue.  Unless more resources are provided to schools in “poorer” neighborhoods, our country will stagnate and continue to drop as a competitor in the world economy.

Who should determine the curriculum taught in school?

I think that experienced educators will make the best decisions about curriculum.  If indeed the federal government is to determine what is taught at the grade and high school level, there should be an independent agency that has this as their mandate, and that agency should be insulated against politics and staffed by the best of this countries educators.

The roles and goals of the student & of the teacher

The roles of teacher and student and the goals they should pursue are interdependent and for me are more easily treated together. 

The student is the central player in the learning process and he/she largely determines what learning takes place[3].  I, the teacher, have a vital but secondary role.  The personal characteristics and behavior of a student are the most important factors that determine his success as a learner.  I play a supporting role.

To succeed, the student must own his own education.  His/her success requires him to grab hold of it.  My role as teacher is two-fold: to enable the students to gain mastery of the subject matter of the class and to facilitate their growth both cognitively and socially.  The second role is broader and is just as important as the first.  And if a key to education is learning to think for oneself and to determine one’s own values, then my role as a teacher is to provide the inputs and support to my students that will encourage their growth in that regard. 

A primary goal of a student is to become a self-regulated learner.  The student must learn to be the driving force behind his or her own education.  A self-regulated learner sets her own goals and determines the strategies and tactics she will employ to reach them.  She provides her own motivation and generates her own rewards.  She evaluates her own performance and makes adjustments to improve it.  One of the teacher’s roles then is to teach explicitly the knowledge and skill that and encourage students to adopt them[4]. 

The student should consider that their Job #1 is their schooling.  A teacher’s role is to enable the student to have success.  As the teacher I fulfill numerous roles.  I provide instruction.  I set the stage for learning, by providing the needed props (scaffolding) that helps students to grasp a new concept.  I provide inspiration and motivation.  I am a salesman or statesman, convincing students of the intrinsic value of learning.  I am a performer, bringing the class to life.  It is my job also to empower my students so that they will the students to take the proactive role in their own learning.

I believe a student must strive for excellence.  My job is to set the standard in my classroom, both the academic and the social standard. 

The student’s role is to follow a basic code of conduct that contributes to a good learning environment.  As the teacher, that environment is ultimately my responsibility.  I.e. I shape the climate of my classroom. 

My goal is to create an environment of freedom of will and of expression. By my lead and my example I help to shape my class into a democratic community where each person is recognized, respected and honored for who they are, for their culture and the knowledge and experiences they bring to the class.  My students’ role is to be contributing and participating members of the community.  I give my students the opportunities to express their ideas and their feelings; it’s up to them to avail themselves of those opportunities.  I stand up for and articulate my values to my classroom I encourage them to think about and articulate their own.  These are then the values and goals that will guide my practice.  If I follow these guidelines, the issue of equality and equity in my classroom will take care of itself.

The issue of privilege will largely be dealt with by the way the class is conducted, by the culture I help to create.  When appropriate it can be a topic of discussion.

What will be the essential elements that will make my practice culturally relevant or sensitive?

Discipline in the classroom?

If I succeed in reaching my own goals in the classroom it should be an environment in which learning is an adventure.  But what do I do when a student is disruptive or disengaged?  The former problem is the easier to solve: I will enforce acceptable classroom behavior in a firm but mild manner.  As to an unmotivated student, my approach will be to get to know the student and then to identify and try to deal with the reasons for his/her lack of interest.

How is student learning in my classroom impacted by the social, economic, political and cultural paradigms in the United States and New Mexico?

(YET TO BE WRITTEN)

Summary / Conclusion

(YET TO BE WRITTEN) 

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[1] This view of education is ascribed to ___ (first name) Vygotsky in Psychology of Learning (authors, year).

[2] I have to admit that I don’t know enough about the education of students of special needs to suggest that I am competent to address this question with any finality.

[3] Author (year) attribute most of the ideas here to ___ Bandura.

[4] Chapter __ in Psychology Applied to Teaching (author, year) provides a lengthy discourse on what self-regulation is and how to teach it to students.

Philog #5: Privilege and Power Sharing

The article on white privilege by Peggy McIntosh brought up conflicting feelings in me.  It opened my eyes to many privileges I never thought about.  Part of me reacted with denial.  Part of me said “yes, I have many privileges that I was previously unaware of.”  After further thought I realized that I myself have racist attitudes, some of which I got from my mother who was born and raised in the gentile southern ways of the US South.  At this point in my life I have some barely conscious biases toward African Americans and other people of color.  Not always, but sometimes I find myself thinking that they are inferior to me in some fashion that I do not overtly identify.  I also sometimes do that with disadvantaged people.  In general I keep these biased attitudes from showing.  Rather instead they play at the edge of my awareness.  It has been disturbing for me during this past couple of weeks to face that reality about myself.  It is also true that I have been aware (usually at the very back of my mind, so to speak) of the many privileges that I have as a white male; I’ve become complacent about them and enjoyed having them.  

Now that I’ve come to these realizations, I’m left with questions about how to deal with my own prejudices and my casual acceptance of privilege.  I think that one of the pathways out of this is to make myself aware when I have thoughts like those and make a conscious choice to reject that thinking.   I should point out that I already am sometimes aware of my biased thinking and reject it (at least intellectually).  But I think I need to make that process more consciously than before.

Another response I can make is to take opportunities (and this is something I can do in my classroom) to find out more about the lives of the persons I would normally discriminate against and people who do not have the privileges that I have.  One thing I already know about myself is that my natural instinct is to make room for others and to share social power.  It’s just that now I’ve been made aware of the scope and dimension of these issues.  They can have a powerful effect in all groups where there is diversity among individuals.

What the topic of privilege now means for me in multicultural terms is that I have my own internal work cut out for me to understand and change my thoughts and feelings about people of other cultures or other groups.  I hope that this will be a lesson that I remember throughout the rest of my life.  I’d like to think that I can and will be an anti-racist and someone who in general is proactive in working for pluralism and power sharing for everyone.

Although I don’t know where I will be teaching or what manner of children I will be teaching, but I hope to be a teacher who will be aware of which students in the class are being oppressed or dominated by some overt or subtle form of discrimination.  This includes spotting and taking action when I see a student who is evidently at a disadvantage in some way.  I would hope to have the presence of mind and heart to work proactively to help eliminate obstacles and barriers for students.  Moreover, I want to learn more about things I can do to draw attention positively to the culture and experiences of all of my students.

Exclusion/Inclusion

The video we say in class opened up my eyes; it was my first glimpse into “inclusive” classrooms.  It educated me on a topic I was unaware of completely.  I was delighted by what I saw.  The presence in a classroom of individuals with some physical difficulty seemed to bring out genuine affection and care from the other students.  Perhaps in good part because of the presence of a special needs child, these classrooms have become caring and joyful communities.  I wonder if that is generally true for inclusive classrooms. 

There’s no doubt that the tasks of a teacher in an inclusive classroom are greatly multiplied, which could be one argument against inclusion.  However, this drawback can be overcome by providing these teachers with teaching aides.

One could also argue that the needs of the “special needs” student may very well not get met in a regular classroom.  Clearly a careful evaluation on a case-by-case basis is needed before a decision is made about the best environment for the special education student.  A child such as this could spend part of the school day in a special education class and part of the day in a regular class.  In any case, I see a tremendous social benefit of an inclusive classroom for all concerned as long as it is in the best interest of the special needs child.  There was no doubt in the video that the classroom experience was richer because of the presence of the special needs child. 

There are several issues I’m likely to face as a teacher as it is quite probable that I will be in a classroom of this type.  How will I handle the additional demands on my time to both teach my class and to make a good learning environment for the special education student in my class?  I noticed in the video that the students themselves looked after and assisted the handicapped child in their class.  It seemed that the teachers in these classroom had succeeded in fostering this attitude of inclusion.  That, of course, would be my goal.  But I imagine that much thought and planning and dedication is needed to successfully manage an inclusive classroom.

Some of my life experiences have predisposed me to be inclusive in my attitudes.  As a white child growing up in a Latin culture (Costa Rica) I experienced a culture that is by its nature quite inclusive, at least on some levels.  I also experienced exclusion based on my color at times, and so I’ve experienced the hurt associated with exclusion.  Another valuable experience for me was to have the opportunity to work for a school year as a teacher’s aide in a special education school.  I worked with children with a variety of different issues.  I came to admire the cheerful spirit and loving nature of so many children that were so-called handicapped.

Phlog #3

What does the phrase “an equal educational opportunity” mean to me?  To me, it means that every student will have the same opportunities to learn and access to the same curriculum.

What am I educating students to achieve?   At this point, I think that I will be educating students to achieve the full dimensions of the potential, equipped intellectually and socially for success both as individuals and as members of society.  They will be equipped with the knowledge and skills as well as the positive attitudes and social habits to successfully make their way forward in life.

What are your educational goals?   I have a number of goals as a teacher. When their high school education is complete my students should be able to think for themselves and be experienced problem-solvers.  They should be proficient and equipped with a broad range of academic and social knowledge and skill sets.  I want my students to learn (through their experiences in my class) to enjoy and relish the learning process itself and be equipped to be life-long learners.

What methods will I use to attain those goals?  Why will you use these goals and methods in your classroom (the justification)?  In my coursework and field experiences I hope to develop a broad range of methods of teaching.  The best inputs I’ve received so far come from watching my instructors this summer and from the book Teach Like a Champion.  I can say a number of things about methodology.  First, a cardinal rule in my classroom is that I will always be positive and enthusiastic.  A positive attitude is contagious.  I will communicate to my students and convince them of the value and satisfaction derived from working hard.  Mastery of a subject takes a concentrated effort.  I will demonstrate high expectations for my because I think they will consequently have high expectations for themselves.  I think my classroom should have a mix of large group, small group, and individualized learning.  I see myself presenting material to the entire class and eliciting the active participation of all.  I’ve been seeing (in the two courses I’m taking right now) the great benefit of collaborative small groups.  I think all of these approaches will prove effective and will provide changes to the pace of the teaching.  And I hope to find ways to provide individual attention to students both in the classroom and in before and after school conferences.

How will you take children from very different economic and cultural backgrounds, very different academic skill levels, and engage them all successfully in learning challenging academic material? As a math teacher, I will provide easy to understand explanations and examples of the course material, and will build from the simple to the more complex.  I will make myself available after classes to work individually or in small groups with students having difficulty mastering the material.  I will insure that the classroom is free of prejudicial behaviors and speech.  I will model pluralism by showing respect and appreciation of each student. I don’t expect to be teaching the students about their various cultures, but I will look for and take learning opportunities to have short discussions on the topic of diversity.

What methods and strategies will I use to ensure that my students are all performing at an advanced level?  I will use tests and quizes as one means of identifying the students who are not at the level with the rest of the class and will assign work to them to bring them up to speed.  I will recapitulate material when I see that not everyone is understanding it.  I’ll assign extra work to faltering students and will communicate with their parents.  I will request that they obtain one-on-one tutoring.  

The role of education, of the teacher, and of the student

Although I agree that education should prepared an individual for full participation in a democratic society, my own concept of education at the present is that it has many interrelated roles.  The role of education is to complement the role of parents and home life in enabling individuals to attain their full potential in life – their potential as autonomous individuals and also as a productive and well adjusted members of society. 

Education should provide an environment that fosters personal, individual growth; at the same time it should offer the student social experience that enable him/her to interact successfully with others, both in the enjoyment of social life and the communication and collaboration that are called for in the workplace.  Students should be equipped with knowledge so they can understand the world around them in its rich dimensions – enabling them to enjoy human culture and play an active role in creating culture.  Education should equip them with them with the range of basic knowledge and skills to communicate successfully and to manipulate their external environment.  Skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics.  Through education, a person should be able to think for himself, solve problems, and determine his own beliefs, values, and goals. And a final result of education is the formation of individuals who are life-long learners.

My views about the role of education follow in large part my personal beliefs and values.  In that sense they are well aligned.  The kind of education I describe above is to a large degree the education that I myself received.

As to my role as a teacher, I believe it should be that of a facilitator of learning and a guardian of it.  I would hope to create a classroom environment in which the students themselves are active participants while I as the teacher remove obstacles in their way.  That would include being a guardian of the classroom environment.  That means being vigilant in maintaining the classroom as a place where students are safe and free to learn.  It would include maintaining the classroom as a positive and enjoyable environment, one that is stimulating and even enjoyable though quite serious.  I believe also that my role is that of a leader, a mentor and a role model. 

As already mentioned, I see the role of students as being an active role.  I see learning as a self-directed activity.  So a student’s role is proactive; the student takes hold of knowledge.  I see the students as the actors in the play and the teacher as one who simply sets the stage. 

            My philosophy addresses the incorporation in the classroom of students from other cultures in several ways.  First of all, education’s role includes that of personal and individual development.  That means that it allows for differences, for diversity.  My own role as guardian of the environment is to make the classroom a place that’s safe and stimulating for all of the students.  The challenge... the question is how specifically will I as a teacher create this atmosphere of acceptance and celebration of diversity within the classroom?