The Personal And Collective Transformation Of Teachers

by: Sonia Nieto

Presented by:

Nancy Hian and Brian KehoeBLMC 672

May 18, 2009Claudia Peralta-Nash

CTEL/CLAD

Education is a Political Act

• It focuses on questions of power, privilege and access• Concerns decisions and actions that effect who, what and how we teach• Education is about political commitment and social responsibility• Transformations begin as political commitments on the part of teachers

rather than a “technical activity”

Q: Why are you a teacher?

The majority of teachers choose the profession due to a profound commitment to the success of young people.

Q: How do we commit ourselves to these young people?

Through relationships.

• Fair View High School (FVHS) is a continuation high school that focuses on 3 main ideas that support social relationships

Respect ( for yourself and others)

Responsibility (for your choices and actions)

Resiliency (the ability to bounce back from adversity)

• Small school setting (270)

• Students have greater accessibility to teachers and administrators

• After school programs to support academic success

• Life Skills and Orientation courses

Q: How do you build and support relationships with your students?

The Personal and Collective Transformation of Teachers is a collection of graduate students’ journal reflections

6 components of “transformation” are outlined in Nieto’s essay

Confronting One’s Identity

Becoming a Learner of Students

Identifying with Students

Becoming Multicultural

Challenging Racism and Other Biases

Developing a Community of Critical Friends

Confronting One’s Identity

• Teachers in the United States, who are primarily

White, middle-class and monolingual, have had

limited experiences with diverse populations,

and they frequently perceive of diversity in a

negative way. (Zeichner and Hoeft, 1996).

• Being a member of a cultural or racial minority

does not necessarily guarantee that you will be

able to identify or understand with students.

Q: What is the ethnic makeup of teachers at your school site?

In the U.S. 75% of teachers are female, white and only fluent in English

Recognizing and confronting one’s privileges can be painful and discouraging.

Native English speaking teachers need to examine the “privileges” that they have inherited and understand how these privileges effect their perception. (Ann Scott)

They will:• Not suffer discrimination because of their native language• Know they can survive/thrive without learning a second language• Be rewarded for learning a second language (Bilingual)

Teachers who can identify with students culturally may not need to work as hard because they can draw on their past experiences and therefore better understand the feelings and perspectives of their students.

Teachers need to develop their identity in order to relate more closely to their students.

Becoming a Learner of Students

Teaching and Learning needs to be a reciprocal process.

Teacher’s become actively engaged in learning through their interactions with students. This, in turn, focuses on building relationships.

To become learners, teachers need to: 1. Learn about their students2. Learn with their students

Q: How have you become a learner in your classroom?

Teachers need to be authoritative not authoritarian.

Authoritative = knowledgeable, clear and direct in their interactionsAuthoritarian = controlling and demanding

It is impossible for a teacher to be “trained” to be culturally responsive. Teachers need to learn what can help their students learn and then change their teaching accordingly. Students can spot negative attitudes and false intentions. Cultural “learning” needs to happen intrinsically.

Example: Francis Kendall (1996) told a story of a white teacher who washed her hands every time she touched a black student. Her negative beliefs were communicated to her students through this subtle behavior.

Teachers should know about their students’

• Lives outside of school

• Families and cultures

• View of the world

• Values and dreams for the future

This learning can be done WITH and not only FOR or ABOUT students.

Identifying with Students

Students are empowered as learners when they can identify withschool and with their teachers.

“ When a teacher becomes a teacher, she acts like a teacher instead ofa person. She takes her title as now she’s mechanical, somebody justrunning it. Teachers shouldn’t deal with students like we are machines.You’re a person, I’m a person. We come to school and we all [should] actlike people.” (Nieto, pg. 498)

Q: How is culture shared between you and your students?

Teachers can explore their family history and immigration as a way ofconnecting with culturally diverse students.

Educators should build on their personal experiences, not as teachersbut as people, with particular history and strengths.

Examples of personal experiences that can be easily transferred to the classroom:

1. Travel

2. Involvement in culturally diverse relationships

3. Participation in cultural events and celebrations

4. Understanding of cultural leaders and figures

5. Life experiences

Becoming Multicultural

If teachers do not demonstrate through their actions and behaviorsthat they truly value diversity, students can often times tell.

To becoming a multicultural person, teachers need to broaden theirunderstanding about the world in general. They need to value the experiences and realities of others.

Educators need to focus on the lives and priorities of those that are different.

Q: What have you done to explore your diversity?

Challenging Racism and Other Biases

Teachers need to discover the biased and racist ideologies that exist.

To challenge racism and bias can mean upsetting “business as usual”

Educators need to carefully analyze school policies and practices as well as the ideologies behind them, then attempt to change those that are unfair.

The following graph demonstrates how educators can work towardequity pedagogy.

Q: Does racism, sexism or homophobia exist in your classroom?

Developing a Community of Critical Friends

Teachers who can develop respectful, but critical, relationships with peers will be better able to provide support to their school.

Nieto discusses her philosophical change in interaction with colleagues. Her initial belief was that teachers should avoid negative lunchroom banter regarding students but now feels it best to engage in conversations to change the discourse toward the students they teach.

Q: What do you talk about during lunch?

Collective relationships among teachers are needed in order to make meaningful change.

“Conflict is the midwife of consciousness”

Q: Is conflict necessary for change to take place?

Teachers need to experience transformations in order to become effectiveand meaningful multicultural educators.

To make this transformation teachers need to:

• Learn about students

• Identify with students

• Build on student strengths

• Challenge any displays of bias