Peabloggy

For the past several days, I have been listening to professors from universities in the European Union and the United States discuss issues of race, ethnicity and migration in our respective cultural settings. It has been fascinating to see the paradigms we all bring to the table, and the ways in which these ways of thinking interact. In particular, it has been interesting to consider the loaded terms we use to describe these issues, and how our definitions conflict.

Yesterday, several Dutch professors explained the term “black schools” as it is used here in the Netherlands. The term does not refer to schools who primarily serve students of a dark skin color. Rather, it is used to describe schools that are performing poorly and that frequently educate students of Moroccan or Turkish origin (the two most prominent immigrant groups in the Netherlands).

Dutch professors also explained how a person is defined as “Dutch.” For people in the Netherlands, someone is Dutch only when BOTH of their parents were born in the Netherlands. Contrast that to US policy that allows some first-generation immigrants to become citizens.

The way we name things and people has a powerful impact on the way we think about and treat them, both at the policy and personal level. Much of what I’ve heard here has me thinking about the way these labels affect students in public schools, in particular.

- Rachel Bowers

Previous: Coming Soon: Blogging from Utrecht, Netherlands

Since I’m knee deep in statistics reading at the moment, I thought I would take a break to discuss my thoughts on the second Ed.D. summer class for the higher education folks. As we begin our second year, we’re finally getting into more classes focused on our respective areas, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve enjoyed learning more about K-12 education over the past year, but since my wife and I don’t have a child to be left behind, I’m ready to learn how to manage colleges and universities (where the kids are still a bit whiny, but on the whole, much lower maintenance). That’s where Caboni comes in.

We’re still about two weeks away from our class with Dr. Caboni, but I’ve already heard marvelous things about the class and the man behind the bow-tie. We’ll apparently be reading The Chronicle quite a bit (which is rock awesome), and if my friend in the 2009 cohort is correct, the class is a bit of an epiphany for college administrators. My wife and I are excited about the class, even if it is only to get some break from stats. So if Dr. Caboni reads this, I want him to know that we’re all ready…and we also expect to see the seersucker come out at least once over the summer.

- Landon C. Clark

Teach for America has experienced an increase in the number of college students that want to teach in low-income areas for two years after graduation. This appears to result from a three-pronged cause: a poor national economy, an increase in recruitment money, and the revered status that Teach for America has achieved in the community as selective and honorable.

While teaching in low-socioeconomic areas is certainly an honorable choice for fresh college graduates in their early twenties, some criticism suggests their temporal classroom presence is not really helping in the long term. The schools at which they are teaching already have a high turnover in teachers, and their brief stints may actually exacerbate that problem. Also, while they have demonstrated effectiveness in math, reading has not shown such an improvement under their tutelage.

Still, they should receive credit for the intentions of their hearts, even if most of them do not commit to a lifetime to education. Teach for America teachers can be likened to missionaries going to another country for a short stay hoping to make a difference though their service. It is an admirable effort to give back, even if for a short while. Although after the experience is over, will the effects on those who are served be as great as the change within the servants?

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

I was celebrating a friends birthday a few days ago with a large group of people, most of whom I didn’t know, when it came up that I was a grad student at Peabody here at Vanderbilt.  The woman sitting next to me cut the conversation she was having short to turn and ask me how I liked it; how I felt about the program and how it was preparing me.  I meet a lot of new people here every week in oh-so-social Nashville, so I have a pretty standard answer for this particular question.  After giving my response, though, it was obvious she wanted a little more specificity.  Her husband, sitting on the other side of her, volunteered that she had just been accepted to the M.Ed. in Special Education program at Peabody.

Almost everyone here in the M.Ed. programs getting ready to go into teaching for the first time has any number of concerns about dealing with hundreds of students and their hundreds of needs and behavior issues.  I think most students here are confident about their domain content knowledge.  What we all worry about is getting our hands dirty.  My nervous dinner acquaintance had listened to a few too many people telling her that people don’t last, particularly in Special Education.  They last two, maybe three years and then have to get away.  The average mainstream classroom teacher only lasts five years before changing careers.  But, the truth is, the average Special Education teacher lasts for fifteen years.  I could see the tension leave her face.

Teaching is all about expectations and preparation.  My instructors have taken every pain to make sure that I’ve seen or heard about the absolute worst things that could happen in a classroom, to an absurd extent really; but, I am prepared.  I can tell or retell stories with the best.  My only concerns for my dinner mate were that she understood what kind of students she would be working with, and that she felt strongly that she could cope with the emotional and physical demands of the profession.  She made her decision after nannying for a family with an autistic child for a year.  She knew the ups and downs.  She was prepared to be involved.  She also seemed very intelligent and prepared to work.

I admire Special Education teachers tremendously.  I know I could never do that job with the same passion and skill that I hope to bring to teaching Secondary Ed.  Every part of the education system is very different, and it’s up to the student to make the best effort to decide what part they would serve best as a teacher, counselor or administrator.  This professional preparation and understanding of expectations is something that everyone should consider when deciding to become a teacher.  This job will be hard.  But, if you learn to do it right, it will be just as rewarding, and maybe you’ll never want to leave.

–Luke Webb

I am devoting this entire entry to the discussion of one problem from this past week’s problem set for Dr. Doyle’s class in Quantitative Methods. I think I speak for many in my cohort when I say that I will probably never forget problem 4 from chapter 4 of our SPSS book for the rest of my life. Dr. Doyle is a wonderful professor, and he is doing a great job of teaching a bunch of novices about statistics, but I must have missed something in class, because I couldn’t figure out how to recode all those variables.

Problem 4 is the only one I’ve ever seen that had a disclaimer at the bottom. It read something to the effect of “this problem will probably cause some head scratching…tips are included on the following pages if you get stuck.” (I’m having to do this from memory, because I am not sure where the book is right now, as I may have inadvertently thrown it out the window.) I think the disclaimer should have read like the following: “This problem will likely cause uncontrollable crying and bouts of rage. The examples on the following pages will show you what your screen should look like, but since you have no experience with SPSS, your screen will probably not look the same. Good luck, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Only after my wife called a classmate in Boston (at 9:45 ET on Mother’s Day, no less) were we able to figure out where we have gone wrong: it all came down to a pop-up message. Yes, a pop-up message. I had seen said pop-up message about 20 times before when trying to recode the variables for problem 4, and since I’ve been conditioned to think that a pop-up message while running a program means that you can’t do whatever you were trying to do, I started over each time. All I had to do was hit “OK” and the process moved along smoothly. So after about 4 hours combined work time by my wife and I on one problem, we had finally figured it out. It was the longest Mother’s Day on record in human history.

-Landon C. Clark

The thought of taking statistics, or quantitative methods, had frightened me for as long as I knew how write my numbers on those paper rolls, where you keep taping new sheets for every 100 or so, in elementary school. I had already discovered that the liberal arts were more my area, and I was content to work within my strengths. I managed to get my master’s degree without statistics, so I thought perhaps I was in the clear. Then, there it was, on my Ed. D. academic plan (dun, dun, dun): quantitative methods! Oh…no.

Oh, yes, and in fact, this weekend is my cohort’s second session of statistics. Despite moments of pure frustration working on a problem set this past weekend, I have to admit I feel as though I am learning. Now, that learning curve is steep, and sometimes I feel like I may be rounding wide corners that could toss me off the track altogether, yes. However, I will survive, and with greater skills and more knowledge than just a few weeks ago. So, perhaps, it isn’t as bad as I thought…right? (Refer to my blog earlier this year on math in a dreamworld.)

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

I had the opportunity to go see Jon Stewart, of daily show fame, speak over the weekend.  I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Stewart began his career as a stand-up comic, but has obviously spent the last ten years working as a fake news anchor, dealing largely with politics.  What I got was somewhere hilariously in between.  I left with my side hurting from laughter, and the feeling that, crazy as the world may be right now, it’s still possible to find consolation in the form of humor and perspective.

This is, again, why I love living in big cities that can be hubs for all sorts of interesting cultural and professional opportunities.

–Luke Webb

I called my younger brother the other day to wish him a happy birthday and found him in a rather disgruntled mood.  Rather than tell me what he wanted for a present, he opted to rail against his AP government teacher and the terrible job she had done preparing him to take the all-important AP test he had taken that day.  I commiserated with him about the poor quality of some teachers given the task of teaching AP level courses simply because the boom in demand for the courses at high schools has surpassed the number of highly qualified teachers those classrooms require.

That AP tests allow students to qualify out of college courses or receive college credit has always been a questionable practice in my mind, at least since I began college.  I have absolutely no doubt that I learned far more in my college courses than was ever covered on an AP test in the corresponding subject.  I got a 3 on my AP Calculus test, but arrived in my second year Calculus class at college woefully unprepared.  I also know that the knowledge that I left those college courses with was far more ingrained and reflective of genuine understanding than what I got from my high school AP courses.  The ability to engage in meaningful discourse on the history and present state of our current governmental nightmare, I feel, outweighs the convenience of not having to take three hours of U.S. History in college.

I understand the benefit of not having to pay $300-1000 per hour for college credits, but as a future educator, I want my students to leave my classroom and school with far more than a piece of paper, and a smaller bill.  My little brother, who probably hates me referring to him as such, who is extremely smart, and largely intrinsically motivated, will probably get at least a three in spite of his teacher.  But I feel very sorry that he was let down by his, and my former, high school.  At the same time, though, I want a student with his gifts to be challenged and educated to the extent of his abilities, and that will probably not happen until college.

This thought speaks to the larger argument I began earlier.  Who is qualified to teach a high school course with an equivalence to that of one at a university?  Is this even possible in principle?  The AP tests were established with the idea that they would be used to help place students in the proper courses once they reached college.  When colleges started offering students credits or exemptions from courses that are perhaps best taught at the college level, that intention was muddled.  I believe that colleges are solely responsible for the curriculum that they require of their students, but the state of the AP testing system, I feel, has lowered the standards of that system.

I want the most for my brother, who is not so little anymore, and for my students, and for the students in all parts of this country.  That’s it.

–Luke Webb

Rochelle Gutierrez, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign visited our Learning Sciences Institute recently to present her work on pedagogy and student math teachers. Her presentation draws on Latina/Latino studies to offer a potential framework for reconceptualizing knowledge and for engaging teacher candidates in a process that acknowledges the complex identities of students.

It’s an interesting perspective in identity, power, and shape-shifting which addresses the unique student-teacher relationship of knowing/not-knowing and learning about each other while engaging in learning math.

Watch the video.

This Saturday, I leave Nashville to spend six weeks at Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands as an exchange student through the Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies (REMS) program, a joint initiative between universities in the United States and the European Union to promote understanding of our ever-more-transient world. I will be paying particular attention to the way these issues impact students in the classroom and the teachers who teach them.

For the first two weeks, we will hear professors from around Europe and the US speak about their research in these areas. Stay tuned for my responses to and critical questions about what I hear.

- Rachel Bowers