Standard 8: Present professional practice for the review of colleagues
EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration * EDU6525 Culturally Responsive Teaching
Background
Over the last couple years, I began my journey with the goal of growing my skillset as a teacher. Little did I know, I developed a new holistic mindset as an educator. Many times, the cultural norms for teachers focuses on the academic growth in terms of skills to teach. We rarely peek into the social emotional aspect of teacher growth. It’s no wonder, we as teachers, focus solely on academic growth of students. We are also stuck in the same paradigm. So in turn, I have made a little paradigm shift to a social emotional focus as a teacher.
The shift has caused me to look at relationships as catalyst for social emotional growth. In every class I took at SPU, I found myself developing ways to engage in andragogy: The Theory of Adult Learning. EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration propelled my interests. I started to research culturally responsive teaching practices. The idea is to shift teaching practices to close achievement gaps through relational methods. Teaching kids Grit and perseverance was on the forefront of my practice. It was what Hammonds, Z. (2015) states “as supporting dependent learners to become independent thinkers.
The closest we usually come to talking about this situation is the popular “Read by Third Grade” campaigns. We say children are learning to read up until third grade then shift to reading to learn. The same is true with cognition. In the early grades, we teach children habits of mind and help them build cognitive processes and structures so that as they move through school they are able to complex thinking and independent learning”( pg 13).
I think what we lack in this department is the skill set to reach all students: culturally and linguistically. Thus, my focus was to deliver a practices that would provide equality and equity for all students. My colleagues need this information.
Learning and Applied Practice
Prior to this course, I was preparing to engage in adult learning regarding culturally responsive practices. It is what I currently know now as Andragogy. I have always wondered why we don’t engage adults the same way we engage with students. Come to find out, a pedagogy approach is a little different from an andragogy approach. An andragogy approach allows teachers to engage in learning through shared experiences and careful planning. A lot of the learning is done in small learning communities. For example, teachers engaging in critical friends groups or professional learning communities facilitates adult learning. Additionally with data, learning circles or critical friends groups can be formed to learn about student learning. I did this with my diversity and equity group with my teacher colleagues within the district. Zapeda, S.J. (2012) describes critical friends groups (CFGs) as “cross curricular achievement groups of teachers that meet once a month, focusing laser-like on student achievement through teaching practice” (pg 205). Most of the teachers attending were needing more than academic intervention skills provided by the district. Prior to this class, the facilitating I did was done through discussions without a framework to guide the discussion. This allowed for unfocused discussion and the learning was not clear. I just didn’t know what I wanted the participants to walk away with. In learning about adult learning, I was able to design learning modules which focuses discussion segments toward the learning objectives. In this case, the learning objectives was geared toward culturally responsive teaching practices.
The result of this new learning is the participants reaching the learning objectives. These participants are now able to take some teaching practices back to their teams. Having clear objectives and activities geared toward adult learning helps keep participants engaged and interested in the learning. Most of all, I believe the framework allows teachers to feel their voice matters in relation to culturally responsive teaching practices. The discussions now empower teachers to continue the work they do.
Issues encountered, problems of practice addressed
The problems that I have encountered is mainly been teacher buy-in. Mainly, some teachers are engaged with so much work that investing in their own professional growth is not a priority. Additionally, I find discussion on diversity and equity is a difficult subject. This is why I think it is important to have a more centrists approach to the adult learning that occurs within this subject. I have been to many workshops where discussion is swung in one direction. For example, teacher point of view versus an administration point-of-view. This is even more one sided when visiting equity conferences where the focus is what white people are doing and how to fight it. I learned, however, that there are a lot of white people trying to do the right thing. I use to think Courageous Conversations (Singleton, G.E. 2015) was about how to talk to white people about race. I learned that these conversations have to be learned by all. Hollins, C (2015) lays out a framework to follow for cultural competence workshops.
1) Awareness: In what ways am I contributing inequity?
2) Knowledge: What do I need to understand about others?
3) Skills: What can I do differently to honor difference?
4) Action/Advocacy: What do we need to do to institutionalize change (pg 5).
The framework allows us to engage in Singleton’s Courageous conversations. The idea is to raise “Racial Consciousness.” Singleton, G.E. (2015) states, “ Courageous Conversations fortifies the passion, practice, and persistence educators need to build racial consciousness and impact more profoundly their school’s learning environments” (pg. 67).
In the end, I found this to be my growth. My ability to be a better facilitator is my social emotional growth. It is therapeutic in many ways as it drives me to be an equity practitioner in addition to giving me an audience to present what I am most passionate about. I learned to bring people together rather than drive them further apart.
References
Hollins, C. and Govan, I. (2015) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Strategies for Facilitating Conversations on Race. Lanham, MD
Hammond, Z., and Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Knowles, M.S., Holton, E.F., and Swanson, R.A., (2015). The Adult Learner: The definitive classic adult education and human resource development.
Singleton, G. E. (2015). Courageous conversations about race: A field guide for achieving equity in schools.
Zapeda, Sally J. (2013). Professional Development (Second Edition): What Works. New York: Routledge
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