Pedagogic Creed
Throughout this class, we’ve covered about every aspect of the education system that could, and most likely will, affect us as future educators, from governmental issues to societal ones. While we read from various authors about these topics, and discussed them as a whole, the purpose was not just to educate us. It was to make us really think about who we wanted to be as future educators, and the changes we want to make. The difference we want to be. They were meant to help us establish our conceptions: of education and schooling, of the teacher, of learning, of students and of the curriculum.
Alfie Kohn helped me develop my conception of education and schooling through his article “What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?” when he discussed the difference between education and schooling. Schooling is described as a system that seeks to educated people, while an education is simply learning, no matter what way. Ultimately, a person can be educated without schooling. Some methods of schooling that Kohn pointed out as inefficient are seat time, memorizing a bunch of facts, and test scores, which I believe were all valid points. Reading Kohn’s article made me realize all the processes of schooling that don’t educate us at all, and made me realize that when measuring how “educated” someone is, people often measure it on an unfair scale. As Kohn said, “I’ve come to realize just how many brilliant people cannot spell or punctuate.” This made me think of all the things I accomplished academically in my life so far, all the things I’ve learned, and how poorly my standardized testing scores reflected that. This drew me to the conclusion that schooling should be about receiving an education, but measured by how well a person critically thinks and grows as a person, not by a standardized test that often does not reflect a student’s true education.
My conception of “the teacher” grew throughout the semester by reading a multitude of authors, but one that was especially impactful for me was Edward Hill and Gloria Boutte’s “African American Communities: Implications for Culturally Relevant Teaching”, because it gave me new perspectives I had never previously been challenged to see. Hill and Boutte suggest that “In order to ensure that African American students achieve educationally and socially to their fullest potential, educators need sufficient, in-depth understanding of students’ cultural backgrounds.” One example the text provided was educating the class on the importance of the barber shop within the community. This prompted us to discuss the importance of being educated on your own cultural background, and of everyone else’s. We then were asked to think of a way in which we could incorporate everyone’s culture in the classroom. I suggest a culture day, in which each student would discover their culture, do research on it, and present a small project informing everyone of the different aspects about it. This was a beautiful discussion, as I had never realized how little we talk about different cultures in school until it was brought up. I thought about the unification that could happen from a teacher doing a simple project like this one. Which drew me to the conclusion that a teacher should be many things, but one of the most important is open. A teacher should be open to everyone, and everything, no matter where they come from or who they are, because we are going to meet every kind of child there is. It is our job to educate them all the same, and provided the opportunity to bring them together and educate them on a very important aspect of their life that they otherwise might never bother to learn. I think this is a beautiful, powerful opportunity that the teacher has, and one that I am committed to take as a future educator.
Drawing from Brian D. Schultz’s’ “Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way”, my conception of learning expanded beyond my personal opinions, and became a more solid understanding that I feel I can bring with me to the classroom. I have always been frustrated by teachers’ learning method by memorization. Mainly because while it would work for the quiz or exam at the time, by the end of the semester, it would all be forgotten and I would have to restudy everything at one time. That’s because memorizing isn’t learning. Talking at students, is not learning. Expecting students to learn in a boring, quiet, and unstimulating environment is not realistic. Schultz talks about agency, meaning the teacher and the students “capacity to act independently and to make their own choices in light of structural bonds.” Meaning as a teacher, if I discover better learning methods than what I am told to do, I can present it in the way I see fit. I have power, agency, to use at my disposal. He also discusses student agency, meaning you encourage student dialogue and work on lesson plans together. We discussed in class, Project Based Learning, in which students pick a problem that they face in their society, and work to solve it, making it exciting and relevant to them. This drew me to the conclusion that as a teacher, I can use my agency, and my students’ to help them learn and not just regurgitate information back to me.
My conception of students was created by drawing from multiple authors, talking about students in multiple situations, but helped to arrive at one simple conclusion: that every student in my classroom should be treated as equals, and I should do everything in my power to ensure that each student receives the best education that I can give them. Drawing from Gerard Macdonald, Sue Books, Daniel Miller, and Louise Derman-Sparks, I realized that there are many ways in which students in a classroom can differ from each other, and that often times those differences can greatly disadvantage if they are treated in the wrong way. Students that are tracked into lower-level classes or vocational ones, are treated as less intelligent than the other students, when they deserve the same kind of respect and attention as anyone in a different class. Student’s in poverty face a struggle that we as teachers cannot change, but one that we can be understanding of, and aid in any way possible to ensure that that students home life does not affect their opportunity to succeed. As a teacher, I will be committed to do everything in my power to ensure that students in poverty are given the same opportunities for success as those more fortunate as them. Derman-Sparks said it best when she said, “Struggling against bias that declares a person inferior because of gender, race, ethnicity, or disability sucks energy from and undercuts a child’s full development.” This proves that by treating certain students differently than others, you are first-handedly disadvantaging them, when it is an educators job to prepare them for the future. This led me to make a commitment to myself and my future students, to treat them all as equals and do everything in my power to ensure they are all given the same opportunity for success, and that no matter what sacrifices I might have to make, I ensure that I do everything in my power to help them get the education they need.
The curriculum has been a widely controversial topic, especially since Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” was passed in 2001. Teachers, parents and politicians have debated the NCLBA, standardized testing demanded by the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and Common Core endlessly. These acts have made little to no change in student improvement. As Gerard Macdonald puts it in “Schools for a Knowledge Economy”, “Schools are not open systems and so, perhaps unfortunately for its authors, our national curriculum is not tested on the sharp realities of the outside world.” The article questions things like “Did you learn how to learn?” and “Did it encourage creativity, imagination or originality?” These are all important questions, mainly because the answer to them is often “no”. I agree with Macdonald in his argument that we need to “move toward an education which encourages curiosity, creativity and engagement with real social, scientific and technological issues.” I am a enormous advocate for encouraging students to learn to think critically, and learning methods such as the “Socratic dialogue” in which you question students to encourage them to think deeply and form their own opinions on important matters. This, to me, is far more useful for the student than memorizing things, and following a curriculum that prepares you to take tests that are corrupt and hold far too much influence for your academic career. I recently did a speech on standardized testing, and upon doing research, discovered that often times, standardized tests are full of errors and do not accurately affect students’ academic capabilities. An 8th grader in Florida was asked to leave her advanced English class because she scored poorly on the FCAT, even though she had almost a perfect score in the class. This can greatly negatively affect students’ futures, and I believe this is an immense problem within the education system. This is why I think curriculum and standardized testing needs to be reevaluated and reformed, and why teachers should encourage critical-based and relevant curriculum, instead of one that focuses on preparing for tests with content teachers don’t even know are in them. I’m committed to helping to make this change.
I’ve learned many things in this class that I believe have changed me as a future educator for the better. I will carry on many things I learned from this class, like my conception of education and schooling, students, teachers, curriculum and learning, that will make me a better teacher. There are not always easy solutions to the problems, as we have discussed so often in this class, but there are so many small things a teacher can do that make an immense difference.
WRITTEN BY: GRACE RILEY, FOR EDFI 300 (SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES) SOPHOMORE YEAR, SPRING SEMESTER 2017
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