High Needs, High Stakes

Teachers’ Tensions Within Learning

Susanna M. Steeg, Ph.D.George Fox University

An invitation…

“Thought flows in terms of stories – stories about events, stories about people, and stories about

intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best story tellers. We learn in the form of

stories.” ~ Frank Smith

Why narrative?“Researchers in education who gravitate towards

narrative inquiry are inherently interested in details, complexities, contexts, and stories of human experiences

of learning and teaching. [Narrative] resists easy answers…often reveals what has remained unsaid, what

has been unspeakable. It [shows] the importance of context, reflexivity, difference, and multiple identities….

It compels us to care about people’s lives in all their complexity and often moves us to action

(Schaafsma & Vinz, 2001, p. 1)”

Some background

Me District This course experience

District snapshot

District State

Grade 3

2010 70.7% 82.8%

2009 63% 82.8%

Grade 6

2010 46.6% 76.6%

2009 52.7% 76.5%

Grade 10

2010 52.9% 71.3%

2009 38.9% 66.1%*percentage of students at or above proficiency in reading, based on state assessment

District Context

04-05 05-06 06-07

White 36.2% 34.1% 33.1% Hispanic 29.7% 31.9% 33.3% American Indian 32.1% 32.4% 32.0%

District’s reaction to low scores:Programs!Expert vs. teachersDirect instruction

The course Theoretical Foundations to Literacy Textbook: Lenses on Reading, Mandel &

Morrow Major assignments

Initial Theory Paper Final Theory Paper

My questions What factors deserve consideration for teachers in

high-needs, high-stakes, heavily-programmed districts regarding the structure, content, and emphases of their learning?

What did it mean to teach the learner in this particular course? What tensions emerged?

What happens when teachers experience tension/cognitive dissonance between their thinking and the “doing” mandated by their district?

“Knowledge about teaching develops in the interaction between the individual’s hopes, ideals, and desires on the one hand, and the feedback, or ‘backtalk’ from the other participants in…concrete educational settings…” (Korthagen, 1996, p. 102).

Findings

“There’s no room to breathe, here”

Where students were

“We have been given a program to follow “with fidelity,” and even given “lesson maps” so we know which instructional strategies to use when and what examples to use. This way no teachers will leave out any skills or strategies, or focus on unnecessary ones. By taking away teacher choice, our district hopes that all students will be learning what the publisher (and a consultant who created the lesson maps) has deemed important for that particular grade level.”

“I am feeling a lot of tensions in teaching reading especially from the district mandates, the reading guidelines and non-negotiables that they (the district) has strenuously mandated us to follow. Having XXXX as “the chosen one” who knows everything we should and better be doing to teach kids to read feels stifling and takes the joy out of feeling ownership over my own teaching. I really dislike the way our district is mandating our way of teaching reading, and the restrictions placed upon us with a heavy hand. Who makes these rules and regulations and based up what? It is frustrating to be treated like reading robots based upon other’s beliefs. Have I or am I being brainwashed to believe certain things about reading by administration and their beliefs? It is something I am thinking about.” 

“What I have discovered is that I have a large quantity of defiance theory  for the idea that a person is only smart if they can prove themselves through a specialized evaluation. (Maybe this should go to the state; better yet they could take their own endorsement assessments and prove their worth as an instructor.) I am an effective teacher because I can teach not because I can spurt theories.”

“Right now I am glad we have direct instruction for our reading program because I do not see all the steps needed to be successful as a reader.”

“Most of the time, I feel wishy-washy when it comes to what is best for our students. After spending a day or two with our consultants, I feel myself having been “swayed” to their position; then I have to present it to the staff, and I hear the comments that three years ago I would have been making: “Our students need be to exposed to grade-level materials, a variety of genres, and building capacity to read a whole book, not just an excerpt in a basal.” Sometimes I feel like I finally get it…and then I realize I don’t.”

“I am ready for the magic pill that cures all problems. I know it won’t happen, but I still wish for it. This course did not give me a clear cut answer to my problem; instead it muddied the waters more.”

Teachers’ attitudes/dispositions as shaped by these forces

Within this course, teachers indicated a clear sense of the “high-stakes” nature of literacy assessment and its influence on district policy and practice. Passive resistance Lots of questions

Why is it important to know this? This can’t change the way I teach…why should I learn

it? This won’t work for “our kids”

Desire for easy answers or ONE right answer

My response

“OK, how can I take the next step?”

Things I did Created pre/post opportunities Renegotiated rubrics/assignments Asked lots of questions Created time for them to talk, discern shared

ideas, identify tensions Response strategies

Something that surprised me

Something I wonder

Something I’ll share

Something I disagreed with

Factors deserving consideration in high stakes districts History and culture

District Schools Cohort

Personal priorities—conversations that lead to shared interests Students Teacher

Coming to peace with not having it “right” Making space for teachers not to know Acknowledging the impossibility of big changes Pushing boundaries

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.” I John 1:3

Thank you!

Susanna M. Steegssteeg@georgefox.edu

“I will no longer just adopt someone else’s way of thinking as my own without much reflection and inner thinking of my own beliefs.  I know I need to always continue to step outside my world to learn more in order to grow and justify my beliefs.  This is one of the highest and best goals for those we teach.”