In this paper, I critically examine my own teaching of an educational research course with the aim of bringing to the surface where it fits within the School of Education at SUNY Oswego's conceptual framework--and specifically with an emphasis on the desire to teach for social justice. My evaluation hinges on student participation and contributions in the classroom, general feedback during learning activities and student responses to an open-ended questionnaire administered at the end of the course. The analysis suggests a challenge and a responsibility to create situations and activities in which students are able to acquire much needed skills, resources, attitudes and dispositions to function as "socially conscious catalysts for change" by challenging unjust knowledge systems.
The School of Education (SOE) at Oswego State University has recently adopted a conceptual framework that includes a commitment to teaching for social justice in order to “prepare individuals who will continually strive for personal growth and become socially conscious catalysts for change” (SOE, 2000). The adoption of this conceptual framework is an acknowledgement that education in the present context does not provide “full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs “ (Bell, 1997, p.1). This new initiative is an indication that there are some recognised sites of social injustices that need to be challenged if we are to envision a society “in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure” (Bell, 1997, p.1).
However, the sites of social injustices are not always visible because they tend to be both complex and multiple. To make them visible requires social actors who have a sense “of their own agency as well as a sense of social responsibility toward and with others” (Bell, 1997, p1). It is to face this challenge that the SOE has made the commitment to provide an environment through which teacher candidates will be provided with the skills, resources and knowledge that enables them to develop strategies that identify social injustices especially within school settings. As such, SOE is endeavouring to better equip candidates with the ability and desire to take actions that will initiate change leading to social justice. It is within this conceptual framework that I describe the following attempt to construct a graduate education research course through which students can explore what it means to do research in an unjust world by examining the paradigms that have in the past dominated education research. In this course, students are challenged to construct knowledge that is accessible and equitable in distribution and consumption.
Often, I construct my courses from the perspective of producing educators capable of functioning at 3 fundamental levels:
My responsibility is to create situations in which the students in teacher education are able to acquire the skills, knowledge and resources needed to enable them to function in and out of each of these levels.
Knowledge produced by social science is a powerful and effective means to influence decisions regarding peoples every day lives. Whether this knowledge is used for the advantage or disadvantage of the people being researched depends on the one who controls the research process. (St. Denis, 1989, P.1)
Research and the consequent knowledge generated has worked to make the power structure relatively more powerful and knowledgeable, and thereby to make the subject population more impotent and ignorant. (Gaventa, 1993, p.27)
Where knowledge is produced about the problems of the powerless, it is more often than not produced by the powerful in the interest of maintaining the status quo rather than the powerless in the interest of change. (Gaventa, 1993, p. 26)
The above quotes summarize astutely the manner in which knowledge is constructed in an unjust society. Although there are many examples of good educational research, in many cases social science research has supported educational policies that have been harmful to marginalized sub-populations (Haig-Brown, 1988; Hamme, 1996, Sterling, 1992). I believe an important reason that this is the case is that educational research has been conducted within paradigms that claim neutrality and objectivity, enabling researchers to support the status quo without publicly acknowledging they are doing so (Banks 1998). My task is to encourage the students to construct knowledge that empowers marginalized groups and embraces democratic values by telling them to construct knowledge that is accessible to all subpopulations.
When the students first enter my classroom, they generally claim that they have chosen to take the course because “it is a required course”. Consequently, they care little about the course materials and might be just as happy if I handed them a grade. This kind of attitude is discouraging to say the least; especially in light of the fact that this course bears the added responsibility of helping the students to view themselves as knowledge constructors.
The students are products of a society that has convinced them that they are incapable of constructing their own knowledge and even when they do, that their knowledge is not valued. That is, they have been lead to think that they should content themselves by consuming what the “privileged others” have produced. It is difficult to counter such deeply rooted beliefs and assumptions. Nevertheless, I take up this challenge by asking the students to bring a piece of their autobiography to present during the following class. Part of this autobiographical project, which is usually less than two pages, asks them to connect their research interests with their biographical journey. Through this activity, it becomes possible to delve more deeply into the values that have given birth to their interests. This exercise also encourages them to become more honest critics of their own values and assumptions, and to draw out of them that “vulnerable “ position that will hopefully help them to “speak with” the population they target for research rather than “on or for” them. This project is a means of helping students to acknowledge that “who we are” significantly affects the research we do.
My students mirror their own society. A society in which some forms of knowledge are privileged and others are thought to be inferior. This part of my course encourages the students to challenge existing knowledge systems by carefully looking at the questions that were asked when that particular knowledge was constructed, who benefited from that knowledge and whose values and beliefs are reflected in those questions. This way of consuming knowledge reminds me of Bank’s (1998) questions about why the slaves were portrayed as happy, smiling and contented in the history textbooks, alluding to the slaves’ grateful acceptance of their inferior state of being. When such knowledge was constructed, whose questions were being answered and who was to benefit? To this end, students select five primary sources and critique the way knowledge is constructed. They are thus challenged to uncover the underlying assumptions, preconceptions and values of the researcher. They are encouraged to see how knowledge solidifies over time---becoming static, thus, providing psychological defenses that blind most people in their communities. And, finally, they are made to understand that they are capable of opposing some knowledge that is upheld by even very powerful members of their community.
Teachers occupy that enviable position of being interpreters of knowledge for the next generation. Making this knowledge meaningful requires pedagogical skills that will serve all sub-populations equitably. Many students are left out/ behind because their way of knowing is not accommodated in the classroom. To this end, I encourage my students to be honest critics of their practice and to collect data that will help transform their setting. All students can and are capable of learning when provided with conducive learning environments.
This course is meant to equip the students with the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to undertake educational research. As professionals, teachers often fail to recognize and acknowledge the amount of knowledge they generate on a daily basis and the potential they have to contribute to the educational conversations taking place around them. A fundamental objective of the course is to help teaching professionals to recognize that they are knowledgeable educators, capable of sharing valuable information with other educators, parents, students’ and the general public. The course is designed to enable the students to find strategies for thinking systematically about teaching.
To enable the students to meet these fundamental objectives, I require them to undertake a number of learning activities. I provide them with a number of articles, which they are expected to read and critically analyze before class, and then use to help them participate actively in the class discussion.
Beside the discussions, the students write a small autobiography reflecting on their research interests and relating it to self as an acknowledgement that “who we are” and the “positions from which we speak” affect significantly the research we do. This assignment helps the students to develop a passion for their work and see possibilities. The students are also required to do a critical review of literature within their respective topics and develop a research design.
Mike (not his real name) is a 5”9 White male in his early to mid-40’s. He has taught as a special education teacher for seven years and is in the process of becoming a school administrator. Mike enrolled in my course because it is required (letter to a friend) and he did not see its relevance to his work and career aspirations. On the first day of class, he made it obvious to me in subtle ways that he would be here to pass time. He talked ceaselessly with other students whenever I asked them to do an activity in class and he sometimes read other materials he often brought to class. On one occasion, he was grading an exam!
This kind of behavior raised a number of questions in my mind. Could Mike be racist? He has never had a Black teacher before. Was he sexist? Was it a question of age? Or was I just a plain boring teacher to him?
Often, I bring articles to class for individual students from periodicals that find their way into my mailbox. In one of the classes, I found one that was relevant to Mike’s research topic. I debated for a while whether I should share it with him. Not knowing whether he would be grateful. Or would just toss it to the nearest bin. My desire to share prevailed and I did bring the article to Mike. I’m so glad I did! I think Mike began to notice I was saying something of value to the class for the first time. He began to articulate the frustrations often felt by teachers when they are asked to make changes when they don’t really know the philosophical basis underlying those changes. He particularly pointed out a recently introduced program in his school where teachers are asked to remain with one grade for more than two years. There was a lot of resistance from the teachers. We talked about ways in which such resistance can be lessened if teachers were given an opportunity to identify their own problems and making decisions on how they would solve those problems. This ended up being Mike’s research project. I’m not sure how the research will proceed because I’m not his thesis advisor but I did see a commitment to have teachers voice as the source of knowledge for his inquiry.
It is not as exciting talking about the converted as I found with Katie (not her real name). A White middle class woman in her mid-20 teaches in an urban school in Syracuse. Having been born and raised in a sub-urban environment in a middle class background, Katie found the experiences of teaching in an urban school unnerving if not outright insane. Katie readily shared her horror stories during class discussions and in her assignments. At first, she only shared stories about the students. She talked about students ransacking her handbag in search of candies, threatening to blow her head off at the parking lot. She told grim stories of drugs, violence and gangs. She spoke about the helplessness and hopelessness of the students. They do not expect to live past 30 years; they aspire to work at McDonald’s. Or clean other people’s houses as their parents and grandparents have always done. They would join the NBA and become millionaires or become rappers. A girl student told her that she would get 6 children and get on welfare.
Katie told these stories to a captive audience. An audience that was more entertained and saw themselves as having no part to play in making any changes to an otherwise grim world. I’m not sure whether it is anything I said or did but at one point, Katie’s stories shifted from students to herself as a teacher. She began to share stories of the little difference she was making day by day to those students’ lives. She had abandoned her Standard English and began to pick up their Lingo (this had earned her a nickname). She had begun giving assignments that mimics their world, like asking them to rap instead of reading a poem. I knew Katie had become aware of her environment when she began to talk of uncaring teachers, most often those who are about to retire who treated the kids in dehumanizing ways. What really excited me is when she brought to class the breakdown of students by race in which she showed that over 90% were African American and compared that to the teachers by race and found that over 90% were White. There was only one African American teacher.
Katie has proposed to do her study on school violence. She contributed a lot in helping other students understand the social injustices prevailing in our urban schools and how they hinder learning. I hope she will get someone to help her articulate clearly how those problems “ought” to be resolved.
Bell (1997) reminds us that social justice education is both a process and a goal. A good reminder that gives me some hope that all may not be lost. For instance, Katie and Mike are out of my class now. They have moved on to other courses or they have completed the program and gone back to teaching. Have I given them the skills, resources and knowledge to function as “social catalysts for change”? I don’t know. What I do know is that I have used the experiences I had with Katie and Mike to refine my course syllabus for the incoming group.
It is one thing to develop a course outline with well-articulated goals and to observe the changes that are taking place within the classroom and the individuals as a result. However, classroom dynamics are too complex to be well captured in a linear analysis. Mike and Katie would have changed their perspectives from a variety of places, some of which may have little to do with what was going on in the course. It was therefore necessary to develop a systematic way of gathering information that would enable me to evaluate how my teaching goals were being translated and interpreted in the classroom. How did students view social justice issues in relation to the content and teaching strategies employed in the course? What specific activities did they find meaningful in terms of developing their perceptions and beliefs in regard to social justice and which ones did they find redundant? What changes if any, would they make to the design and implementation of the course?
The target population for this course is those people in service teacher with up to five years of teaching experience, and who are returning to college to pursue a master’s degree as a requirement for permanent teacher certification in New York State. As a graduate course, I’m able to access at least fifteen (15) students per semester. All together, I was able to gather information from 55 students within two semesters.
Each student receives a brochure of the School of Education conceptual framework in his or her admission package. This is meant to be a reminder that the School of Education is committed to producing educators that are “socially catalysts for change who create and sustain school environments where excellence is cherished and social justice flourishes” (SOE, 2000), among other things. I developed an open ended questionnaire that lifted those words directly from the brochure and asked the students to tell me to what extent they would say the course had helped them meet that desired goal; what activities would they say supported the pursuit of that goal and which did not. This questionnaire was administered to three groups as part of their exit evaluation. Because it was a group-administered questionnaire, all students that were present participated as volunteers.
To place the issue of social justice at the center of teaching is a challenging task, more so when students are homogenous and White. Facing this challenge calls for strategies which avoid confrontation and move towards shared understanding. I start from the student’s experiential knowledge, helping them to accommodate the views espoused by others as a way of producing and consuming some new knowledge. In looking at the data drawn from the open-ended questionnaire, four themes clearly emerged supporting the idea that consciousness regarding social justice has been raised during the course. The themes included an increased awareness of social justice issues, self-reflection as a form of unpacking the long held beliefs and assumptions in teaching, self-efficacy as a way of identifying problems and seeking solutions to those problems and the desire to promote positive social change. The following section provides a further analysis of those themes as reported by the students.
Students reported that engagement with course materials had brought increased awareness of social injustices. They felt that the articles they had read and discussed in class raised some awareness of the issues of social injustices that they had previously not been aware of. They talked about how they the discussions they had had in class and the multicultural topics they had read in the articles had made an impact to the way they view the world. They shared that the professor had stressed our “mission to treat and teach all with fairness and equity” (Student, EDU 596). How the course had raised awareness of social justice issues was well articulated by one student who said:
Â…. we read articles on various subjects, such as multicultural education, empowerment through information/knowledge, violence in schools and also learned how to research subjects of interest and write about them so the information is accepted as valid and worth knowing. (Student, EDU 596).
They also talked about how the course had helped them focus on educational issues much more critically. Some students became more aware of social injustices within the topics they were pursuing after engaging with an assignment. Listen to this student:
I have just reviewed literature with regards to retention. Who is most likely to be retained? African Americans and Hispanics are retained at more than twice the rate of Whites. The majority of the retained students are also from low-income families. Because of the principles I have learned in this course it is easier to see “social injustice” They say knowledge is power and research is knowledge. My research brought me to a better understanding of the social ramifications of retention. (Student, EDU 596)
All in all, the students agreed that the course had definitely helped them to become more conscious of the social injustices that happen in their school settings. Consciousness -raising is a first step towards effecting positive social change.
Another theme that emerged consistently from the data was self-reflection. The students reported that the course encouraged them to be more reflective of the things they would do in the classroom and also to examine some of their own beliefs. One student said:
The class gave me the knowledge to examine many of my own beliefs. It also was very informative on the research methods and who uses them and why. (Student, EDU 596)
Another student had the following to say about self-reflection:
This course has helped me to re-evaluate my teaching practices. And I know now to research for change (Thank you). (Student, EDU 596).
Yet, another student had the following to say:
It has helped to reinforce the concept that in education we must always be evaluating what we do, and attempting to improve the systems and ourselves where we work. (Student, EDU 596)
Another student had the following to say about reflection:
I will be more apt to do more action research while I am teaching to improve on my teaching. (Student, EDU 596).
Self-reflection is a practice that enables the teachers to ask awkward questions about teaching and learning. Rather than place the blame on students when learning fails to take place, teachers should also look at their own practices to find out whether indeed they are communicating with the students. The students in this class shared their newfound knowledge of reflecting on what they do. This practice enables them to make positive changes in their own classroom based on inquiry. They are almost always gathering information/data to share with others such as students, parents or administrators, yet they did not realize they could share the same as research with their peers. This new understanding helped them develop some kind of self-efficacy.
Students reported that they felt they have developed skills to enable them to make meaningful change in their environment. They felt more confident with ways to collect information and keep track of a research projects. One student reported, “it [the course] has shown me that I can go about and change things, or at least shake things up a little” (Student, EDU 596). Another student reported summarized the development of self-efficacy well by saying:
I think it has helped a lot, because it got me thinking about studies I might propose and research I might do to prove that there may be better ways to teach my class. (Student, EDU 596).
Some students reported that they would incorporate more of the research techniques that were discussed in class into their own teaching. They would keep better records about students and methods used because some day they may become something to be used in research. Others reported that they would record more data that they collect in class, would use suggestions and strategies that were learned from the presentations by other students, and their teaching would be more research-based. The theme of self-efficacy was well summed up by one student who said the following:
[This course] made me realize that I could be a researcher within my own classroom and that I could have an effect on my own school district and the policies they hold. (Student, EDU 596)
A number of students reported that the course had equipped them with skills necessary for promoting social change and that it helped them value research to support any changes that they would like to promote. One student reported that this course had given her the confidence to initiate change in the school. It had taught the student the importance of closely examining and assessing the need for change and monitoring its implementation. Through the research in this course, “I have learnt to justify making those changes and more about assessing their effects” (Student, EDU 596). This desire to bring social change through research was again summed up by one student who reported that:
This course helped me meet this goal by providing me the tools and knowledge to research a topic that will effect [ively] promote positive change within schools. (Student, EDU 596)
Other students felt that the goals and expectations of the course encouraged them to consider what “my educational concerns are and to pursue knowledge” (Student, EDU 596). This clearly shows a new understanding has been formed as a result of the activities that were done in the course. The students agreed that some change had taken place as result of the course. They were now willing and able to make changes in their own classroom and schools, some ambitious ones viewed knowledge production as the means to effect change in their districts:
This course helped me meet this goal by providing me the tools and knowledge to research a topic that will effect promote positive change within schools. (Student, EDU 596)
Another student saw this course as a way of promoting professional development:
This course has taught me a lot about research. I now know how I can bring about change in my school using the steps I learned in this class. I feel it has been informative, organized and has helped me find ways to build upon my professional development. (Student, EDU 596)
Some students described some changes they would make in their own classroom as a result of this course: “I will try to write journal entries to describe activities I do that are useful” (Student, EDU 596). Others reported that they would be more apt to reading research and journal articles because they are now aware of their applicability.
In describing the positive responses of the students to the course, it should be noted that this is a required course and students value a good grade. Further, drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of a course based on self-reports has the potential limitation of having the students’ report what the professor want to hear. With that caution in mind, it appears that the course had some success in deepening students’ understanding of social injustices in the schools and the effect of those injustices to students overall achievement. Many of the students expressed greater self-awareness, recognized the need to reflect on their own practices and challenging some of their beliefs and assumptions. They also had developed some skills to challenge unjust practices in their work place and replace those practices with some positive change.
However, it is not always easy to develop a course that meets all the objectives for everyone no matter how well executed. There is always room for improvement—as suggested by the participants of my study. Some students felt that some of the activities were redundant in terms of helping them articulate the goal of social justice. One such activity that received criticism was one in which they were expected to read a chapter from the required text and teach it as group. The group dynamics and isolation made it difficult to accomplish the task as efficiently as they wished. Others suggested that time should be spent in the field practicing the skills they had learnt. As well, enough time would be allowed for collaboration with peers and more interactions in-group activities. Others suggested an increase in controversial topics in education to allow for debate and passion. There are those who reported frustrations with the inability to complete some assignments well and in a timely fashion and asked for more reflection time. The dissatisfaction with this course and the entire program was well summed up by a student who said:
Throughout most of our master’s classes we talk about change and do pretend activities to show we understand where the classes are going. It is great to talk about these ideas, but the reality that we will attempt these changes are not prompted by the classes but our individual desires. We are up against a tough audience older more experienced teachers and administrators. If we try to rock the boat at all, we are crushed or shamed or sarcastically but politely put back in our place. This may sound like a cop-out but new fresh motivated teacher have a lot to do and issues of change are way down the list of priorities. If the college wants to really have us be social change catalysts then create teacher education that will encourage this in undergraduate classes. Perhaps if we all began at the same point (understanding what is best for all students) not just theories then we would unite as teachers instead of staying to ourselves. We need collaboration classes more culturally diverse realistic info on what a real classroom is like and less time on how lesson plans and specific styles of teaching ex. Masterly inquiry and so on. More meat, less fluff! (Student, EDU 596).
Just as some students found it difficult to articulate or recognize sites of injustices, similarly I realized I have to make significant changes in the way I teach and learn. Not everyone has the ability to recognize inequalities particularly for those who have developed psychological defenses over the years.
In this paper, I have described some of the challenges of placing social justice at the center of teaching a graduate research course. While most students are able to recognize sites of injustice in school settings, and demonstrate that they have the skills and desire to make changes, there are some who are less willing to accept that they have a responsibility to make any changes. They remain happy with the status quo.
However, as educators, we cannot afford to let such students remain at that place because the fate of thousands of school children lies in their hands. As I described earlier my experience with Mike (profile student), patient understanding and encouragement of the student often bears positive results.
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