Living Dangerously, Using Our Voice

“To lead is to live dangerously.”  I am intrigued by the phrase coined by Heiftiz and Linsky (Leadership on the Line:  Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading). To live dangerously conjures up images of risk, adventure, and going beyond what I think is possible.  But what about leading could be so dangerous?  Here I pause. 

I am a teacher.  When in the classroom I work tirelessly.  During the day I teach.  At night I prepare. I am forever on, ready to respond to questions and to face day in and day out challenges that life in a middle school brings.  I work with colleagues who inspire and extend a hand, offering hope and encouragement. I bang my head against the wall as I try to navigate the educational legalese that seems to be so hurtful to those in education.  I celebrate the successes of children and families.  I shout hooray when the system does help.  I smile deeply when a student offers his or her wisdom.  These children before me our the future.  How could I not advocate on their behalf?

Where does the danger lie in opening the door to leading?  It lies in expressing an opinion or belief that challenges someone elses.  It lurks in making a mistake or stepping on someone’s toes.  It sleeps in the dark pockets of gossip only to awaken under the eye of public scrutiny.  It haunts me and holds me back; a perfectionist at heart, I do not want to get it wrong.

Yet there is a thrill to danger too.  This thrill exists in the moment when creativity blossoms.  It comes alive when the change begins. It thrives when possibilities are realized.  Well, to lead is an opening up to the hard work is ahead.  It is a call to action.

Teacher voice – classroom teachers desire to be heard and listened too.  Where shall we begin?  Why is change so difficult?  Who should lead change in schools?

What does it mean to educate an educator?

When discussing initial teacher training, there seems to be a balancing act between preparation and practice. Teachers often agree that their most important learning happens while practicing, yet there are a variety of opinions as to how much groundwork is needed before entering the classroom. Arne Duncan has recently chosen to focus on the issue of teacher training on a national scale, saying that "By almost any standard, many, if not most of the nation's 1400 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom ... The bar must be raised for successful teacher preparation programs because we ask much more of teachers today." He also remarked that he is "all in favor of expanding high quality alternative certification routes." (Full text at http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html.) Do teachers agree? How strong was their preparation, and how do they feel it could be improved?

Although Duncan's speech addressed teacher training as the main lever of teacher quality, many of the teachers we spoke to continue to work to improve their practice beyond their initial training. In many cases, teachers are seeking learning experiences beyond required professional development, despite the time and money which it costs them. What motivates teachers to continually educate themselve, and how do they do so?

I was struck during class discussion by the variety of experiences present within the room: teachers who went through undergraduate training, graduate training, Teach for America, or no formal training at all. Even within that variety, there were a variety of experiences with different programs. Some were pleased with their Teach for America training, while other felt that it offered little support. Some students were glad to have had challenging education classes and multiple student teaching experiences, while another stopped taking education classes because they were simple and useless. Is there a "right way" to enter teaching? Thomas Kane, Jonah Rockoff, and Douglas Staiger, in their article "Photo Finish" found that "a teacher's certification status matters little for student learning" (p. 4). On the other hand, they found that some teachers are certainly better than others as measured by student student achievement. What do those great teachers have in common? As this issue gains national prevalence, teachers need to open their classroom doors and share what they feel is crucial to preparing the next generation of exemplary teachers.

Are we doing a good job?

Any organization, with schools certainly being one of them, manages to solve the problems it faces in order to survive. The school’s culture starts to grow and build itself then as these problems are repeatedly and reliably solved in a similar way; thus the assumptions and beliefs underneath them becoming shared and unconscious while shaping the school’s view of itself and its context (Schein in Evans, 2001). These assumptions while being deep and stable appear throughout the school in the form of values and artifacts (Evans, 2001)

Values such as cooperation and loyalty but also values like competitiveness and mistrust develop as ways to solve problems and challenges faced by a school, and the more they reliably solve these problems, the more they become to be accepted as a reality and transformed into a shared belief that is taken for granted (Evans, 2001). Evans (2001) distinguishes between two types of values: deep ones that unconsciously affect the decision-making process and persons’ behavior; and others that even though schools profess, their members do not typically practice.

It is reasonable then to expect that the deepest and shared values of a school should permeate teachers and students’ attitudes and behavior, as well as their relationship in the classroom. But, the isolation in which teachers develop their work appears as a frontier for this to happen. If, after closing their classroom door, teachers have the power to implement the curriculum according to their own values and if -on top of that- they don’t share the schools’ values and assumptions (whatever these are); then the contents and values that are actually taught may widely differ from the ones intended.

If a given school is missing a strong leader committed to the schools’ values and able to engage teachers with them or if, pushed by its leaders, the school develops a culture based -for example- on competitiveness and mistrust; then would it be possible to think that students are receiving a different set of values from each of their teachers? Going one step further, if in order to improve instruction, teachers need to improve their capacity to judge their work (Cohen, 1990), how could they know if they are doing a good job if their benchmark is drawn by their own set of values?

Teacher Voice -- Where are you?

As the semester comes to an end, I, along with fellow colleagues, have been asked to reflect on our learnings about the complexity of school reform, its many faces, and its impact on schools, teachers, and students.  It is not an easy undertaking. Educational reform has a long history fraught with issues such as declining student achievement, inconsistent teacher accountability, whose standards, and costs of high stake testing.  No one quite agrees on the purpose of education, on what curriculum should be taught, or how to best reach all learners.  More importantly, what might work for one locale is not even a reasonable solution for another locale.  What is certainly true, is that for many young people, schooling is not effective; we have to make a change, but what does this change look like?  Are the answers located in national standards, more high stakes testing, developing and sustaining quality teachers, school choice?  There are no easy answers and many voice their perspectives.

What struck us that in the many discussions on educational reform, it was the rare moment when the voice of the classroom teacher spoke or was heard.  Larry Cuban, in his book Why is it so hard to get good schools?  (2003, New York:  Teachers College Press.), is one author who acknowledges how his experiences as a classroom practitioner have shaped his theories and his work.  He shares his truths about teaching.  The truth that sits with me most is “…the teacher is at the heart of student learning and school improvement by virtue of being the classroom authority and gatekeeper for change (p. 1).”   He positions the classroom teacher as a gatekeeper.  I envision gatekeepers as individuals that control passage from one place to another.  Gatekeepers have the power to constrain information, knowledge, and decision-making, thus locking them out of progress.  On the other hand, gatekeepers are in the position to open the gate, opening access and moving the journey forward.  In this light, classroom teachers are in a powerful position to make the difference for a child, a school, and a system.

 As classroom teachers, do we see ourselves as having power?  Do we use our influential power to bring about positive change in teaching, learning, and student achievement?  If we are that powerful, and I believe we can be, then where is the classroom teacher's voice in school reform? Why have we not been invited into the dialogue?