Vision and Values

Urban Teaching Vision and Values:

Reflections on Personal and Professional Development

Our vision is a manifestation of our values.

Vision

I value and fully adopt the School of Urban Education’s central principles, and in so doing, I am empowered with a social justice framework for my own personal mission and goals. The program has provided me an academic platform and a solid practical foundation.

I claim the school’s vision of demonstrating respect for culturally diverse urban learners and its aim to “nurture critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and a passion for academic achievement” in urban communication arts students. My professional mandate is to create conditions that narrow the Achievement Gap. I embrace the (much abused) demand that there be No Child Left Behind, in the sense that I am specifically committed to “educational equity through continued research and reflective analysis concerning historical disparities” in schooling. I absolutely identify and embody the school’s mission to “actively recruit, advise and retain teacher candidates of color.” I truly feel like Metropolitan State’s focus on diversity, as it concerns all aspects of urban education, has been tailored just for me – personally. As an African American male English teacher, I carry my pride in obtaining my licensure with me into the classroom. I do feel that I am a role model who is charged with bringing change to the system.


Values

I value the personal power of education.	I want to make a difference in the lives of diverse urban learners.
I value creativity.	I am energized when a student writes a great poem or offers a sharp insight in a discussion. I am energized by student personalities shining through in academic activities. I am energized when a student gets excited about a book or a particular subject.
I value educational equity.	I must: work toward creating a school system that produces equitable learning experiences for all urban learners; Improve the educational performance of culturally and linguistically diverse urban youth; Enhance students' social and emotional growth; Maximize individual learning opportunities through differentiation and proficiency-based assessments.
I value learning for learning sake.	I am motivated to teach by the idea that I am continuing in the process of learning.
I value literature and literacy.	The study of language and language arts proficiency motivates me teach.
I value urban students.	I am motivated to teach by the thought that I could help usher urban youth toward their potential.  Also, I am motivated by the feeling that I have the right combination of communication skills to be an effective urban teacher.

Developmental Reflection

Entering the public school classroom having previously taught in other venues, I had a far different – almost reverse – experience than the one conceptualized in Stroot’s Developmental Stages of Teachers:

1.    Value my maturity, ability and dedication
2.    Value learners
3.    Value delivery of content and learning objectives
4.    Value strategies to work around the system
5.    Value basic survival


I certainly identify with some of the negative new teacher experiences mentioned in Burned In: Fueling the Fire to Teach. My response to the system was to protect myself and pullback – but I have no intentions of abandoning my commitment to urban teaching and education.

I value the idea of service. I have always felt my priority was to give back to my community. I want to make a real difference in the lives of diverse urban learners.

How am I sustaining my ability to serve? Emotionally, I rely on my writing and thinking. I also rely on music, both composing and listening to it. This also fulfills a spiritual need.  I watch and track news items and try to stay on top of politics. I discuss current events and topics with friends. Physically I try to work out to stay in shape and walk as much as possible. I know that dancing has been a way for me to stay physically connected but I am not currently performing or taking any dance classes.

I value cultural social connections. A civic/community organization I find valuable and sustaining is a somewhat informal Twin Cities group called the Black Educators’ Alliance that meets once a month. It is also a network for sharing news by email updates. I hold teacher unions to be absolutely critical to teacher support and professional development, and to empowering educators who promote systemic change. Unfortunately, I may need to look toward charter schools for the right kind of environment, and that would mean potentially forgoing those protections.
Efficacy Amid Paradox

The urban education paradox Sam Intrator describes in The Heart of a Teacher is fully explored in the myth of Pygmalion – a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved. Shaw’s version of Pygmalion places a finer point on the cultural conundrum presented, examining a speech professor that – in his single-minded zeal to transform a “lowly guttersnipe” into a lady of spoken refinement – crushes his student’s very humanity in the process. This speaks to the distinction between Teachers as Conduits and Teachers as Civic Agents of empowerment outlined by Mirra and Morrell in Teachers as Civic Agents.

Broadly speaking, The Pygmalion Effect in schools refers to the principle that the greater the expectation placed upon learners, the better they perform. The urban classroom tension I most struggle with is what Parker Palmer calls the “paradox of freedom and discipline.” This paradox is aptly illustrated by the Pygmalion variation, Pinocchio. Here, the story dynamic focuses on the student’s perspective.

Critical reflection seems key to coping with the tensions of teaching, and to maintaining a positive, “growth mindset.” I found that teaching, alone, daily required so much time – there was little time left for quality reflection. It is important for me to pre-establish procedures and routines for reflection. I have determined that keeping a blog is a useful and productive way for me to reflect and track events for later review.

Thinking of myself as a researcher – in relation to concepts in the Dudley-Marling article on Practitioner Inquiry – strikes me as very useful. It could broaden my perspectives and perhaps present new possibilities for ways to interact with the school system. I find teaching to be intellectually challenging and satisfying, but I am searching for a school environment and position that fits my professional mission and personal cultural outlook.

On Resiliency

I value my own time and my own worth. This makes me intolerant of certain aspects of school politics. I value my own abilities. Often my greatest struggle is to fit into the school system outside of the classroom.

I value orderliness. I am a bit of a perfectionist. During class, I struggle emotionally with class disruptions – side-conversations, cell phone use and the like.

In one specific instance, a student – who we’ll call “Sherry” – would openly, loudly carry on conversations when I was in front of the class explaining or teaching. It was habitual, and it made me very angry. Sherry wasn’t the only talker, but she was the most consistently disruptive at the start of class. I was able to approach solving the problem through adjusting the order of the lesson. I started class with a Quick-Write (or Quick-Read, Quick-Do) which was posted on the board. Following this, was a class debate centered on a posted Question (or Issue) of the Day. Only after these activities did I do any sort of whole-class explanation, instruction or modeling. This allowed Sherry – and everybody else – an opportunity to talk and interact.  Sherry loved the debates and often led the class. I found that many activities would flow into the following day.  I learned to schedule lessons across class sessions. I also learned to minimize the time I spent in front of the class and maximize student-centered activities. I showed resilience here by incorporating the students’ need to talk into classroom activities, while staying consistent with ELA standards. Resilience was also shown in development of better relationships and a more respectful environment.

The Need for Change

Gloria Ladson-Billing's reconceptualization of the Achievement Gap properly places it in a broader context “that holds us all accountable." She describes the Education Debt – a debt that has accumulated over time and includes many different "historical, economic, sociopolitical and moral components."

The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign website supports Ladson-Billing's critical repositioning of the Achievement Gap – in one place, identifying the three areas comprising the yawning Opportunity Gap: learners’ individual needs; in-school opportunities and resources; and, communities and neighborhoods. Public education will only ever be part of the solution to so broad a problem, but certainly, schools could immediately and substantially help reduce the nation's Education Debt through focused improvements in the school system.

The broad outlines of what is needed to foster change and increase achievement are well defined in the articles – Teachers as Civic Agents by Mirra and Morrell and Got Opportunity? by Quaglia, Fox and Corso.

Mirra and Morrell present a coherent framework for fundamental structural change in their Pedagogy of the City – a pedagogy centered on connecting what is learned to why it is relevant to the learner. They focus on authentic learning experiences and assessments, and on reframing teachers, not as transmitters of information, but as Civic Agents who prepare students to become “self-actualized and critically empowered.”

In their clarifying analysis, Quaglia, Fox and Corso describe four priority elements required for positive urban school change: holding high expectations; relationship building; meaningful, relevant learning activities; and, an empowering environment that connects young urban youth.

My vision of the ideal urban school
includes the following key components:


A caring, safe, supportive environment;

An environment that reflects the priories, perspectives and passions of urban youth;

High expectations are established and learners are provided with opportunities for success;

Learning community rules and general expectations are established, evaluated and equitably observed;

A culturally diverse and culturally competent teacher workforce;

A culturally responsive, intentionally inclusive learning environment centered on respecting cultural and intellectual diversity;

Identify and eliminate prejudice, cultural stereotyping, bullying and discrimination;

Very small class sizes and individualized instruction;

Cooperative learning;

Interdisciplinary learning;

Standards-based lessons linked to specific learning targets and a formative assessment strategy;

Learners are assessed through accomplishment-based performance standards, outcomes, and measures;

Lesson plans that offer opportunities for student choice and individual expressions of learning;

Content presented in the context of students' real lives and real-world experiences;

Feedback to each learner occurs regularly.

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