The question “How can we positively impact the ways student see themselves?” is one that I as a teacher is required to ask myself on a daily basis. Students will only be able to succeed if they feel they are able to – without self-confidence and emotional and academic support, built on trusting student-student, student-community and student-teacher relationships, any child, regardless of their personal experience, will suffer. The readings and video from this week address some of the ways that the education system can work to both impede and encourage positive self-reflection in students.
In the video, Xs Stress: Teens Take Control, three teenagers are interviewed and talk specifically about their personal struggles and how they were able to overcome these struggles and become successful in school and in their lives as a whole. In all three cases, there was a repeated theme that was present; all the students felt under-supported and alone during their time of trouble, and were able to succeed once they were able to find a good support system and felt they deserved to succeed. All of the students were also negatively affected by societal norms and expectations, in their own way. Once they were able to become accepting of themselves, they were then able to succeed socially, emotionally and academically. This film worked to demonstrate how much of an impact personal lives and relationships have on student success in the classroom. Although I find that not many specific solutions were presented in this video on how teachers can work directly with students to help them succeed, it did demonstrate forming trust worthy relationships with students can contribute to their success. The second piece of text examined this week was the Pupil Voice is Here to Stay by Jean Rudduck. Here, the author demonstrates the importance and benefits of including the student voice in decision making in all aspects of school. In most classrooms I have experienced, students have no say in what they are taught, how they are taught or how their school community and classrooms function. One thing I found particularly interesting was when the author explained how the immense insight, capabilities and potential of students often goes unheard of due to a lack of responsibility they have in a school. I find this point interesting since I would like to think of school as a place where students would have the most liberty to express their learning and learnt capabilities. School is like home to a lot of kids – it is where they grow up, make friends and spend their days. So why aren’t they a part of the planning around what they learn during those 12+ years? By incorporating student thought into educational practices, all parties would contribute and benefit. As a student teacher, I would have found it helpful if the author would have included ways a teacher can work within the standard guidelines of school boards and curricula to include student voice more deeply in the educational experience. It seems easy to simply go into a class and ask “what do you find important?”, but how do these thoughts get translated into serious changes and contributions to school policy or curricula? How are we able to practically and effectively include the voices of all pupils in a school community in a way where they feel they are properly represented? The final paper read this week, and the one I struggled with the most, was What School Movies and TFA Teach Us About Who Should Teach Urban Youth: Dominant Narratives as Public Pedagogy by C. Cann. Firstly, I found the core argument of this article to be extremely accurate, relevant and important in understanding the relationship between public narratives and student success in urban schooling. In this article, Cann focuses one two narratives, WTSF and TFA, that paint the same picture; in urban schools, students of colour must be rescued from their “bad” lives by an unexperienced white teacher. I have personally seen this narrative played out in numerous movies, including those mentioned in this article. I was unaware, however, of this real-life narrative played out through programs such as TFA. One thing I noticed was how the basic reasoning behind this narrative did not focus on student success; rather, it is presented as an opportunity for new teachers to gain experience working with “rowdy” kids – something that could seem impressive on a resume. This could be supported by the interest convergence concept (under critical race theory), as this is an example of an institutional program designed to benefit a group of people who are dominant in the hierarchical landscape of race. In these narratives, student success is seen as a by-product. This is even more apparent when the author presents evidence of students actually performing worse when in classrooms run by less-experienced teachers of a different race than the student. Fundamentally, I agree that these narratives are true and impact real urban schools, and negatively impact student success and ultimately how students see themselves. Nonetheless, many questions and concerns regarding my own experience in an urban school were raised when reading this article. I found the author spoke strictly on the work experience and race of the teacher but failed to expand on how differences in class, regardless of and in intersection with issues of race, between students and teachers play into student-teacher dynamics. Even if race was not a main concern (ie. if a teacher of colour entered a student classroom), there is often still a divide in terms of class and possible educational opportunity between teachers and urban students. As a teacher, there is an automatic assumption that you have received a university education; that in and of itself can be seen as a barrier between student and teacher experience. As a teacher, we must learn to work around these differences in experience and opportunity and put the success of the student first. As a white female teacher candidate working in an urban school, I find I have the responsibility to continuously prove that I am not fulfilling the role of the teacher in the narratives presented in this paper. All students, regardless of personal experience, require a teacher-student relationship that supports them on their journey through education. Although I have been able to reflect upon my own experience as a teacher candidate in relation to these narratives, I found one of the most difficult struggles I had with this paper was a lack of solutions to dismantling the negative narratives currently present in urban education. How do I hope to fight against these stereotypical narratives as a white teacher new to the profession hoping to work in an urban school? I worry that my physical description and current resume somehow puts me in the role of “savior teacher” without feeling like such. How do I convince students that I am here to support them without needing to save them from themselves? Again, building a relationship is most important as a teacher. By connecting with students, parents and the community, it becomes easier to understand how students think, what students are struggling with, what types of support they need and how to help them push themselves to succeed. I hope as I become more established in urban school communities, I am able to fight against these stereotypes and help students find success within themselves. References Cann, C.N. (2015). What School Movies and TFA Teach Us About Who Should Teach Urban Youth: Dominant Narratives as Public Pedagogy. Urban Education, 50 (3), 288-315. Rudduck, J. Pupil Voice is Here to Stay. Qualifications and Curriculum Society. XS Stress: Teens Take Control Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_veiprAHoDc
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