Self interviewing inspired by bell hooks

In the spirit of Chapter 4 in Teaching to Transgress, and the spirit of bell hooks herself, I have decided to approach this blog in the form of an interview between my student self (Suzanna) and my teaching self (Ms. Tolboom). The video we watched in class inspired this blog post due to the subject about teaching popular culture in the classroom.

Suzanna: After watching the video in class, what were some of your main takeaways that really stood out to you?

Ms. Tolboom: The main ideas I really appreciated were her thoughts on how she stressed the importance of how popular culture can be an interplay between the students and teacher, how popular culture allows students to relate to the content material, and how mass media uses more representation for impact and effect.

Suzanna: That makes sense. I mean, I have already written a blog about how popular culture helps engage students in the classroom. How have you seen popular culture act as interplay between you and your students?

Ms. Tolboom: It is funny because when I first started teaching, I thought I would not be credible due to my young age; however, I have found that my young age and the popular culture examples I give in class allow me to connect with my students more. I feel more relatable and honestly, it makes me feel like I have inside jokes with them.

Suzanna: That is great! I know I like it when my professors mention something that I know about and can relate to. What did you think when she said that white me can produce any image they want?

Ms. Tolboom: It really made me step back and look at the examples I have given in class. I realize that when I chose certain popular culture examples to present in class, I also need to make sure that the examples do not perpetuate white supremacy, or if they do, I need to make sure I present them in a way that allows for the students to critique the example itself.

Suzanna: What did you think of her statement about how media has control of our imaginations? And how do you see that taking place in the classroom?

Ms. Tolboom: Wow. Yeah I thought that was a very powerful statement. I think I would say it differently. I think media reinforces our thoughts on stereotypes and hinders the freedom that our imagination could have without the constant messages from media. As for how it would affect the classroom, while I think that messages from media can inhibit imagination, I think it also provides opportunity for growth. Recently, I had my students look up popular commercials for examples of a concept we were discussing in class. I showed their commercials in front of the whole class and gave them an opportunity to explain their choices.  For this specific example, I think it allowed the students to think about the concept in a different manner; however, if they had done a role playing scenario instead, they could have possibly imagined and created a different example of the content.

Suzanna: I think as a student, connecting it to popular culture, while slightly more limiting of imagination if compared to role-playing, is still a good way to grasp the material. In my personal experience, it helps me remember ideas better if I have examples I can go back to. Speaking of popular culture examples, what did you think of the examples she gave in her speech?

Ms. Tolboom: Well, some I have never heard of, but the one that sticks out in my mind is her mention of Dark Vader. I had never thought about before about how the symbols of Star Wars relates to the subject matter.

Suzanna: Yeah. We haven't spent as much time on Star Wars that some other students in class would probably have liked us too. Do you have any last comments?

Ms. Tolboom: Just one: I really enjoy bell hook’s approach to teaching as a whole and I am excited to try implementing her techniques and advice in the classroom.

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

hooks, b. (2006, December 10). Cultural Criticism and Transformation. Lecture.

 

Welcome to the educators spa...... Come broken and leave refreshed!

A place where all bad teachers become good

Invite students to have dialogue in the classroom, so we can heal one another (as if we all need to be healed)!

I believe Palmer has a dream that one day bad teachers and good teachers will come together to find their happy place deep down inside. In “The courage to teach" Palmer, believes he can restore all teachers who are weary of teaching. In his book he urges teachers to return back to their first love. If a teacher is secure and has good integrity they can be a good teacher. All good teachers rely on service learning. Palmer believes that all bad teachers try to distance themselves from their students. Palmer urges teachers to create an open space in their classrooms. In this space don’t allow students to take over, but simply express their feelings. He talks about inviting students to have a voice in the classroom. He believes a functioning classroom is full of dialogue. The teacher and students should have room to express their feelings in the classroom.

Creating open space is vital in any classroom. This is a concept every new instructor should utilize. I’m a firm believer in creating open space in the classrooms. In my own life I have been in classes that don’t allow students to have a voice. I know for a fact teachers and students learn more when they create a community in the classroom.

Whenever students have freedom in the class they are more engaged and interested in the subject being taught. Palmer urges teacher not to occupy all the space in the classroom. In order to create learning environments teachers have to leave room for students to learn on their own. If a teacher continues to cram information down student’s throats they will never learn!

Do all professors began their teaching careers from a happy place?

Is it bad to teach from a dark place or to not express your feeling in class as Palmer speaks about in his book "courage to teach"?

J.A

#Ethicsofteaching

References

 
Palmer, P. J. (1998/2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Wiley & Sons.

Student Engagement (Ethics Of Teaching)

Chapter 3 of “How Learning Works” is about what factors motivate students to learn. This chapter gives several instructions on how to motivate students to learn and keep them engaged in class.  In order for students to stay engaged in the classroom the author suggest, students need to have some type of motivation to stay engaged in the course material. The more students expect usually, the better they will perform. Teachers should always, supply the students with grading rubrics that undoubtedly, describe their standards in order to keep students engaged. The Venn Diagram Model of Student Engagement displays three main areas for student engagement. Motivation, Student Engagement and Active Learning. In "Student Engagement Techniques", Barkley mentions how  Motivation is a way to describe the reasons we engage in a certain behaviors. Motivation and active learning work together. In retrospect students who are actively, learning become more motivated. In order for teachers to keep their students motivated they must utilize varies channels to keep their students motivated. Barkley expresses, that students have to have confidence in their work in order to succeed in the class.
According to Barkley, if students don’t become engaged they will most likely, fail. An exceptionally, good instructor will find ways to keep students engaged. In my own life I have continuously, had to relate my course work to my own life, to better understand the course content. For example: whenever I have a test I create a game or song from the review sheet. Whenever I’m actively, engaged in the course content I always, recall the information. One of the reasons I became a Communications major, is because it’s one of the few majors that allows students to be actively engaged.
Lectures are not the only format teacher’s use, there are several creative ways to keep students engaged. Active learning leads into experiential learning.
#Ethicsofteaching
JA

 

References

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Initial Thoughts: Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction

Have you heard of the book Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction? 

Maria T. Accardi

There is more to being a college or university librarian than helping students find peer reviewed articles or check out textbooks. Maria T. Accardi personifies the feminist in all progressive academics. Accardi works at Indiana University Southeast in Library Sciences.

Accardi presents her audience with serious food for thought. Published in 2013, Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction, is a concisely detailed thought provoking look at library instruction and how that instruction intersects with feminist pedagogy. The way the author presents her work is not only innovative but intelligently crafted to make the reader think about what it means to engage oneself in library instruction. The writing makes the reader think about what feminist pedagogy means.

Whilst the principle audience for Accardi’s work is instruction librarians, both LIS faculty and students would find this book highly beneficial. The same can be said for people engaged in other fields of academia. I am fairly certain, not that I can be completely sure, there are graduate students taking Pedagogy & Communication which would find this text beneficial. 

Accardi takes a moment to contextually define what she means be the word feminism. This is important in that context, regardless of whether or not you agree with what is being presented, gives weight to any argument. 

Accardi punctuates the book with numerous personal stories about her own journey not only as a librarian but also as a feminist. This approach gives the reader a taste of what Accardi's life is like. It also providers the reader with much insight into how Accardi came to not only study library science but also authentically write about the subject she is most passionate.

Accardi goes to great lengths to accurately inform the reader. The information the author provides, especially that pertaining to feminist pedagogy, is more than a mere generalist overview. Accardi gives her readers a distinctly detailed synopsis of what it means to truly be a “feminist teacher.”

Anyone that shares the librarian’s views will undoubtedly be more accepting of progressive teaching methods. This is not to say that everyone will agree with what it is Accardi has written. There are those with differing opinions. Such is life. Conservatives, whilst skeptical of progressive teaching methodologies, could possibly gain insights into supportive interaction as opposed to maintaining passive learning techniques.

To a certain extent, library instruction has embraced many aspects of feminist pedagogy: “library instruction favours active learning, a nurturing environment, and learner-centred pedagogy” (p. 57).

Accardi, aggressively progressive in her delivery, explicitly explains classroom dynamics and the path she recommends for social change. Accardi writes, “Why make politics more explicit? Because this is how social change happens. This is how lives are transformed” (p. 57). This reminds me of something I paraphrased for a history paper: “Great people are forged in the turbulent fires of social change. It is the privilege of lesser individuals to light the flame.”

The author, from a feminist perspective, describes and assesses in great detail various learning outcomes. Based not only on theoretical modelling but also numerous years of experience, Accardi presents various lessons for applying feminist methods. Accardi presents these lessons in a meaningful practical way anyone can follow.

Significantly important is how Accardi affords her readers useful appendixes. Accardi has taken great care to provide her readers with thoughtfully designed classroom assignments that have been annotated for easy reading consumption.

Reference

Accardi, M. T. (2013). Feminist pedagogy for library lnstruction. United States: Library Juice Press.

The Courage to Teach: How do We Identify Ourselves?

We recently read The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life, or rather, most of the graduate students taking the course did. On the one hand, I read the wrong book. On the other hand, the book I read, The Courage to Teach: Guide for Reflection and Renewal, gave me insight into what it was Palmer wrote of without having to read the actual book. Yes. I know. That is overly verbose. There is a point to my apparent madness.

The point is that we have to present a truthfully in everything we do. The identity we present in the classroom, whilst it is different to that which we present in the outside world, has to be equally as authentic. An authentic representation of how we present ourselves is vital in maintaining honesty. As William Shakespeare put it, “This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” [The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. (Act I, Scene 3, Lines 78-80)].

My writing is an accurate representation of part of who I am. If you follow me on Twitter, you will know the Twitter profile is written thus: “Official Twitter: Shain Thomas: actor, social historian, blogger and entertainment journalist. #NLGJA. RTs ≠ endorsements.” This is an authentic representation of the person I consider myself. I include the hashtag for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association because I am a member.

Joshua Steinberg spoke of how he performs when he is in front of his students. Being at the front of the room, as Steinberg put it, is like being on stage. I might be paraphrasing. I am not entirely sure of the exact words my fellow graduate student used.

I am not sure if I was the only one that heard Steinberg quote the Shakespeare play As You Like It; however, I understood the context in which the quote was being used: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts” [As You Like It (Act II, Scene 7, Lines 136–139)]. We are performing even when we think we are not performing. We are always on stage. We are always in front of an audience. The students in Steinberg’s class is his audience at that given point in time.

References

Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life (10^th Anniversary ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., U.S.

Palmer, P. J. & Scribner, M. (2007). The courage to teach guide for reflection and renewal (10^th Anniversary ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., U.S.

Shakespeare, W. (2009). As you like it: (Act II, Scene 7, Lines 136–139). New York: Oxford University Press.

. – (2009). The tragedy of hamlet, prince of denmark (Act I, Scene 3, Lines 78-80). New York: Oxford University Press.

Intricately Integrating Immediacy

 How to Navigate Parker Palmer's Paradox and Pedagogical Design

In his book The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (2007), Parker J. Palmer offers six paradoxical tensions that he, personally, strives to build into his classroom space. 

Although Palmer simply shares his technique to illustrate how paradoxical tension may be utilized in creating one's own pedagogicial design, the principles that he uses are perfect for exemplifying the importance of teacher immediacy in the classroom. 

The following is a list of his Six Paradoxes with a brief summary of each and how an educator may build his or her immediacy by navigating each one.

1. The space should be bounded and open. (p.77)

• The learning environment should be "bounded" to a certain content/subject matter: question, data, fact. The classroom discussion should always revolve around a certain topic at hand.
• The learning environment should be "open": simply put, there is more than one way to reach the same destination and the teacher should be willing to allow students to find those ways.
• Immediacy Implementation: When using self-disclosure, always make sure that it is tied to the topic at hand and doesn't digress from the ultimate goal of discussion.   

2. The space should be hospitable and "charged." (p.77)

• Hospitable: teachers and students should feel welcome, safe,and free within the learning space. 
• Charged: the learning space should be energized enough that students are awake and engaged (not comfortably bored and falling asleep).
• Immediacy Implementation: Invite students to share their opinions, show support by giving constructive feedback, and use humor to liven the "mood" of the room, and show enthusiasm for subject matter. 

3. The space should invite the voice of the individual and the voice of the group. (p.78)

• Individual voice: students should be able to authentically express their own ideas and opinions in the learning space.
• Group voice: it is the teacher's task to hear the collective voice of the class and amplify it and play it back to the students so that they may learn to seek and speak the truth more thoughtfully.
• Immediacy Implementation: Pay close attention to what students and saying and ask clarifying questions that cause them to support their claims.

4. The space should honor the "little" stories of the students and the "big" stories of the disciplines and tradition. (p.79)

• Little Stories: students should be allowed to share their personal experiences/examples that relate to the subject matter.
• Big Stories: the universal and archetypal stories that relate to the subject matter must also be used to explain, elaborate, and support the subject matter. 
• Immediacy Implementation: Encourage students to share by allowing them the time and opportunity to do so and maintain a supportive classroom climate in which students feel comfortable enough to share by acknowledging all contributions to discussion with equal enthusiasm. 

5. The space should support solitude and surround it with the resources of community. (p.79)

• Solitude: students need time alone to reflect and absorb information.
• Community Resources: classroom dialogue in which students can share ideas, test ideas, and expand knowledge is also necessary for learning.
• Immediacy Implementation: Give students the freedom to share (don't force them) and use inclusive pronouns when speaking to the class so that all students feel as if they are part of the community.

6. The space should welcome both silence and speech. (p.80)

• Silence: silence in the classroom is not always a "bad thing" and should be used to allow time for processing information. During a period of silence students may be digging deeper through their minds to find the correct answers (which is almost always better than quickly speaking the superficial ones).
• Immediacy Implementation: Verbally state that you understand and appreciate the fact that your students take the time to search for and find correct or meaningful answers to share with the class.  

#ImmediacyAndLearning

Resources:

Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco: Wiley & Sons. 

The University’s Purpose: Should We Focus on Teaching or Preparing?

If you had to choose, would you say that the purpose of universities is (1) to teach students or (2) to prepare students for their future? I think universities provide something valuable: a higher education. I also think most people understand the important relationship between higher education and professional careers. Employers certainly see the connection (Donaldson et al., 1999) and so do parents (Ellis, 2012).

When I researched university mission statements, I was surprised to find several of them do not mention “profession” or “career.”

Mission Statements that Mention Profession or Career
University Name	Yes or No
Amberton University	no
Baylor University	no
Rice University	no
Texas Tech University	yes
Texas University in Austin	yes
Texas Women’s University	yes
University of North Texas	no
University of Texas in Arlington	no

Back to the original question, I believe universities must prepare students for careers. The reason they invest in higher education is to gain skills that make them marketable and help them get “good jobs.” As a bonus, students will also study topics outside of their future profession, which helps to expand their knowledge base. (Click here to participate in a pole on this topic or to see what others are saying.) Both are important; however, if universities only teach students (without actively preparing them for their future), how valuable is the end result?

Universities can prepare students for their future by guiding the way they relate to material. In higher education, we should do more than teach information; we also need to help students think on their own so that they are valuable to future employers. We can do this by helping students open their minds, think creatively, and learn to apply their “new” knowledge in real-world situations.

Here’s what experts tell us  about preparing students for their future:

• Connect with the subject and students, and then help students “learn to weave a world for themselves” (Palmer, 1998, p. 11).
• Encourage dialogue to understand their experience level and to have them reflect on situations (Freire, 1970).
• Create experiences that engage students and help them grow (Dewey, 1938).
• Disclose personal examples that show students “how you apply material to your own life” (Dannels, 2015, p. 128).
• Be willing to acknowledge differences and be humble and authentic in the dialogue (Dannels, 2015).

Bottom line: Earning a degree is an investment of time and money. Students (and parents) think their ROI will be worth it. Let’s help students prepare for their future. Raise your hand if you agree.  

/ts

Resources

Dannels, D.P. (2015). 8 essential questions teachers ask: A guidebook for communicating with students. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Collier.

Donaldson, J., Hinton, R., Nelson, L. (1999). Preparing students for life: The school-to-work reform movement. Horizon. Retrieved from http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/issues/papers/School_to_Work.html

Ellis, B. (2012). Parents to college kids: Live at home, get a job. CNN Money. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/29/pf/college/parents-college-debt/index.html

Friere, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Palmer, P.J. (1998). The courage to Teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

“What’s the purpose of universities? Is it to teach students or prepare them for good jobs?” (2013). Debate.org. Retrieved from http://www.debate.org/polls/what-is-the-purpose-of-universities-is-it-to-teach-students-or-prepare-them-for-good-jobs2/?cid=F520E9BC-284D-49A8-A30E-8EBBADF0FCC9

Freire and Femagogy

Well folks, it took me a minute, but I’m finally ready to write a few words about Freire and feminist pedagogy. I have struggled, as I initially did upon reading Dewey, to figure out exactly how I wanted to articulate the connection between Freire and feminist pedagogy. Unlike my experience with Dewey, however, feminist pedagogy and Freirian pedagogy were much more glaringly related; nevertheless, I couldn’t quite put my finger on the word for the feminist tenet espoused by Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000). Although there are arguably many tenets I could list—consciousness-raising, social transformation—I want to focus on one in particular: agency. An emphasis on agency is, I feel, integral in both feminist pedagogy and Freire’s pedagogy of liberation.

Let’s start with a definition. My handy Merriam-Webster Dictionary app on my phone defines agency as, “a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.” Questions surrounding women’s agency and the presence of women’s voices in established institutions as well as in society at large have long been important questions for feminist philosophers, according to Meyers (2014). Practitioners of a feminist pedagogy, more specifically, concern themselves with the creating of a space where heretofore-marginalized perspectives and voices can be appreciated and heard; or, in other words, a space where others recognize and respect the agency of people who perform marginalized identities (Weiler, 2001). I use particular language here to foreground the notion that others cannot confer the agency that belongs to members of marginalized groups upon them. All people are necessarily agential; however, society and institutions haven’t always (and in many cases still have not) granted equal credit to the agency of all people, particularly women.

Freire is likewise concerned with the uplifting of previously silenced voices. We find connections between his work and feminist notions mentioned above in Freire’s assertion that the oppressed must liberate themselves; they cannot be liberated by their oppressors. Freire wrote, “Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both [oppressed and oppressor]” (42). To suggest that oppressed people are incapable of liberating themselves is to negate their agency. In this way, the example of the electrical engineering professor who gave unfair advantage to women in his class by offering them extra help and not calling on them in class so as not to put them on the spot is decidedly NOT feminist (this example can be found on pg. 54 of How Learning Works). This is a prime example of a teacher seeing himself as liberator as opposed to seeing his female students as capable of liberating themselves, as possessing agency.

In addition to ways in which Freire’s ideas align with and have helped further feminist pedagogy, I want to also comment on some ways Freire’s pedagogy can be “enriched and expanded” (Weiler, 2002, p. 459) Weiler (2002) lists three areas of Freire’s pedagogy and feminist pedagogy in need of some reconceptualization. They are: the role and authority of the teacher, the reliance on personal experience as a source of knowledge and truth, and the question of difference.

First, regarding the role of the teacher, Freire casts the teacher as a joint learner, but fails to address “various forms of power held by teachers” (p. 460). Feminist pedagogy asks for recognition of the varying positionalities, subjectivities, and identities each party brings to the classroom.

Secondly, when using experience as a source of knowledge, a method supported by feminist pedagogues and Freire, some students and teachers have translated this to mean uncontested, unanalyzed experience. Modern feminist pedagogues urge us to also be critical of those experiences and how they are shaped socially and historically.

Lastly, Weiler (2001) calls for acknowledgement of difference amongst the experience of women. In feminism’s earlier days, particularly in what we have come to call second-wave feminism, women rallied together around their shared experience of oppression, which was arguably a necessity. However, this left women whose experiences differed from the majority—women of color, lesbians, and others—out of the picture. Freire’s pedagogy has indeed contributed to a lack of intersectionality in feminist pedagogy and perhaps feminism in general, a lack that is one of the banes of my existence. Freire’s work has done so in its failure to recognize the multiple positions and therefore multiple experiences of oppressed people. For example, a man that is oppressed in the workplace may then go home and oppress his wife. Or a White lesbian may not be oppressed in a cultural system that values Whiteness, but she is oppressed in a society that values heterosexuality. In this way, a person can be simultaneously an oppressor and oppressed, an idea not acknowledged by Freire. Postmodern feminists have challenged the notion of a woman’s experience as universal and of a person’s ability to exist only as the oppressor or the oppressed. The job of feminist pedagogy, then, is to make a space for these multiple experiences.

And thus, we’re back where we started. A feminist pedagogy must recognize the agency of ALL, despite differences in someone’s experiences of womanhood, and more generally, of personhood.

References

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

Meyers, D. T. (2014, September 8). Philosophical feminism. Retrieved October 15, 2015,            fromvBritannica website: http://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophical-                   feminism

Weiler, K. (1991). Freire and a feminist pedagogy of difference. Harvard Educational        Review, 61(4), 449-475.