Pedagogy (pedəˌɡäjē) is always personal-- it deals with the betterment of all persons.

Role of Teachers, Restorative Practices, and Discipline

Every teacher inevitably plays a part in the lives of each student they teach, and while there is no exact formula to ensure that every encounter will be positive, a teacher’s deliberate search for methods that foster achievement in all students can bolster a reputation for being well-liked and respected. There are several behaviors that should not be utilized by teachers in relation to students. Positioning, and implementing the ideologies of dislocation in the classroom are caustic, and while the decision to enact these behaviors is typically done out of ignorance of the detrimental effects, educators and education students of recent years have been fortunate enough to study the damage they can cause. Positioning theory is defined as offering, “a way to describe the process through which people are placed into different identities (roles, categories, storylines) through culturally and historically situated interactions, and the ways in which they respond by taking up that identity or by attempting to reposition themselves (Davies & Harré, 1990). Positioning theory thus offers a lens through which to view social identity formation,” (Collins, 2011). Because students have already been positioned by the time they reach one’s class, ignoring those pre-determined positions or even re-positioning a student is an important way to keep one from considering “the single story” of the student. Having a student in one’s class that is known as the ‘class clown’ or ‘the druggie’ does not give that teacher the right to adopt those positions and tailor their interactions with that student based on that information—nor does it give them the right to bestow those kinds of labels on that student originally. Students are people, and people are always more than what you see them for. Always. Positioning students is taking the easy way out 100 percent of the time. To prevent myself from making these snap-judgments, I will incorporate a technique from Chapter 3 of Comprehensive Classroom Management, “Establishing Positive Parent-Student Relationships” to reach out to parents before the schoolyear even begins (Jones & Jones 2013, Chapter 3). Not only will this prevent me from making assumptions about the students’ families, but it opens a line of positive communication between me and the families, to create and maintain those relationships. Incorporating assignments that help me learn things about the student I otherwise wouldn’t learn is another technique I will use. Lastly, I will strive to implement Restorative Practices as often and consistently as possible. My role as a teacher will be guided by my desire to build healthy relationships between students and their peers, students and their teachers, and teachers and other teachers. I will be dedicated to working toward the goals established by the school and individuals in my class, and use Restorative Justice, which, “focuses on righting a wrong committed and repairing harm done,” rather than simply punishing the wrong-doer as a response to undesired behavior (Advancement Project 2014). Using Restorative Practices will be a huge tool for me to avoid ideologies of dis-location in my classroom and Restorative Justice will be my primary tool for creating Learning-based discipline.

Learning-based discipline is more beneficial to students because rather than being punished for every infraction by being dislocated from the learning environment, students are allowed the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and learn how to replace that behavior. One of the most important matters to consider with discipline is the discipline disparity, or, “the punishment of students belonging to minority groups because of either their race or sexual orientation. This punishment is usually more severe than the punishment received by their white counterparts,” (Burdge, H., Licona A. C., Hyemingway, Z. T. (2014). To avoid this disparity, I will keep a log of classroom offenses, and make sure to define each offense as implicit or explicit. If a behavior is implicit, it’s up to interpretation—but if it is explicit, it will usually have witnesses and no confusion as to what the behavior was. Keeping records of this will keep everyone on the same page and diminish any implicit biases I may have.

Roles of Students

An education professor I had my second semester of college told our Survey of The Exceptional Child class, ‘Let’s face it. The majority of you here are seeking a career in education to teach the students that are just like you were. Look around the room…. it seems we have one demographic completely covered. What about the other kids?’ At first, I didn’t completely understand what she meant by that. Sure, teachers tend to be white, middle-class women who did well in school themselves, but we can help all kinds of students, right? While that may true in a sense, we are helpless without the tools and foundations that help us relate to other students better. A major asset in creating relationships with all kinds of students, is establishing a familial-like environment. This is done strategically over-time, by allowing students to ease into friendships and conversations in your classroom with name-games and varying levels of teacher-led discussions. Chapter Four of “Comprehensive Classroom Management” focuses on the necessity, as well as activities, pertaining to building peer relationships. As the chapter points out, not only do parents and future employers desire schools to teach teamwork and collaboration skills, but, “students tend to show improved academic performance when working in this type of learning setting,” and, “because the creation of a safe, caring community that feels like a healthy family can help students decrease racism, harassment, and stereotyping, thereby creating a more just environment in which students learn patience and compassion,” (Jones & Jones 2013, Chapter 4). Therefore, creating a community of learners positively impacts the ‘now’ by creating a healthy, sustainable learner-friendly environment, but it also impacts the ‘later’ by churning out well-rounded, open-minded citizens of the larger community. At an age where ideology of bullying and harassment can be lurking around every corner, a tight-knit community of leaners will lead to bullying-like behavior being seen by the students as a violation of the community.

Because curriculum based relationship-building keeps students engaged in both things, I will utilize an idea I had about three years ago that came up in this chapter. The concept of using “base groups”, or as I dubbed them 3 years ago “pods” is to divide the class into groups that they stay in for an entire year—not necessarily to do activities in, but to have little meetings with during class to discuss concepts, homework and just chat. This essentially creates 4-5 ‘friends’ in the class or at the very least ‘acquaintances’ who throughout the year act like an implied ambassador to other people in class or the material.

Relationship with Family

One of my assignments in a previous education class was to interview a current teacher. He was an old chemistry teacher of mine who became friends with my dad after I graduated. I asked him, “What about parents? What’s that like, dealing with parents?” to which he replied, “Oh, for some teachers, parents are scary. They [teachers] can think that the parents are out to get them all the time, and that permeates the classroom-setting. No—the trick is to make allies out of the parents,”. Mr. Goddard’s no-nonsense style is one aspect of his pedagogical philosophy that helped him get on the parents’ good sides. First, a teacher must assume that parents want their children to succeed in life. Second, a teacher must acknowledge that these parents know their own children better than the teacher does. Third, the teacher must remember—and remind the parents—that both want the very same thing for their students. The final component to a healthy and sustained relationship with families is building trust. In addition to self-introductions prior to the school-year, Sending out weekly newsletters on the class events, calling when a student “wow’s” the teacher, and sending home personalized holiday (inclusive, not restricted to Christmas) cards in between semesters to the family are all ways to help parents get more excited about their student’s journey through school. The most important aspect of creating trust in any relationship—is being genuine. For me, one of the things I am most excited about is not only changing students’ opinion of school, but changing the opinions of parents who have been positioned in the past by their own teachers and have seen teachers do the same to their kids. I want to demonstrate to parent’s who have been historically dismissed by school districts that I understand that they have many other things to worry about on top of their student’s education, and put accessibility for these families at the forefront.

Function of Curriculum and Impact of Context

There is no denying that the context in which education of whatever variety is applied makes a difference. Context is not only the environment, but also the surrounding attitudes. A teacher’s attitude toward students or the curriculum is often quickly mirrored by the students, but it’s the students attitude toward curriculum that factors in to levels of engagement and therefore, the amount of knowledge being absorbed. While one cannot guarantee that every student will be fully engaged, creating the aspect of “bigger-picture significance” can allow students to engage their natural problem-solving skills in a new venue. “In out-of-school settings, the problems that arise are often practical or applied (Bell, Bricker, Lee, Reeve, & Zimmerman, 2006; Goldman, Martin, Pea, Booker, & Pilner, 2006; Stevens, Mertl, Levias, & McCarthy, 2006), and they arise as participants are seeking to solve bigger problems or reach broader goals (Nasir, 2000, 2002),” therefore, teachers that can create lesson plans that are practical and relevant to students’ lives and interests while still meeting the criteria for their subject will lower the frequency of adverse attitudes or apathetic students (Nasir, N. & Hand, V. (2008).

One of the most helpful one-liners I’ve picked up while attending The University of Kansas School of Education is Dr. Annamma’s statement, “Your Curriculum should be your first line of defense,”. Of course, there are millions of Language Arts lesson plans that exist today, and millions more yet to be created, but knowing that if I fail to design lesson plans that fit the personality of my classroom I am failing to educate my students to a desired extent and I spend more of my time trying to manage behaviors in my classroom, is an important tool. If I can successfully tailor my curriculum to things that interest students such as pop-culture, social media, sports and the local community, I will be conducting a meaningful lesson—which allows for better retention of information—and keep students focused on what I want them to focus on.

Social Construction of ability, disability, and behavior

Social Construction of ability and disability is the idea that people with privilege gain in our society exponentially because of that privilege—or ability—while people thought to be disabled or unprivileged lose exponentially in our society because there exists a socially placed cap on what abilities they can afford either fiscally or physically. This is demonstrated by the term dis/ablement being explained as, “meant to draw explicit attention to the fact that students are not only actively disabled through these mechanisms, but others are actively and simultaneously enabled, or granted cultural privilege" (Broderick & Leonardo, (2016). This article goes on to say that there is an act of profiling such people—or students—that negatively affects the way the world views them, because, “the process of responding to a student as though he is ‘disabled,’ that is, regarding all of his actions and interactions through the lens of deficiency,” (Broderick & Leonardo, (2016).

The Social Construction of behavior follows a similar path; however, it deals with the pathologizing of certain students due to the behavior they exhibit. Pathologizing student behavior is tragically a fairly common occurrence even today. It is the act of treating a student's behavior as psychologically unhealthy or unstable, and "attributing their failures to meet the codes of dis/respectability in [one's] classroom as an inherent deficit within the student," (Adams & Erevelles 2016). The idea behind this is most commonly seen in classrooms where teachers keep a list of the "good kids" and the "bad kids". This ideology creates a separation in teacher responsibility; justifying to that teacher that they do not have to help a misbehaving student because “that’s the student’s problem,”.

I can’t see myself summarizing a student who has an IEP as being just what is written about him or her. I have many people in my family that have physical disabilities and some who have cognitive and emotional disabilities. Because of this exposure, I feel more prepared to recognize students as their individual selves rather than what they can or cannot do—or what others assume they cannot do. For any teacher that struggles with this—exposure to more students and people who have disabilities is what I would recommend.

As for the social construction of behavior, acknowledging that there are students in the public-school system today that have been given up on by teachers because of their behavior, and likely have been given an IEP for this reason is astonishing. If a student were to exhibit disrespectful behavior in my classroom, the first thing I would do is look at what I could be doing differently. Persisting behavior would warrant me asking a colleague to observe my class and offer advice. I would talk with the student, consult their IEP (if they have one) and talk to former teachers they have excelled with, and teachers they have struggled with to find the sweet spot to keep the student engaged and learning in my class.

Beliefs on Failure, Success, and Neutrality

Prior to this class, I genuinely believed that being neutral on a topic was the most pacifistic and reserved stance to take. I tend to get incredibly anxious in situations of heated disagreement, so I have a habit of not taking a side or a public stance on anything. I’m working on that this semester—trying to find out what my values are because self-awareness is really important for teachers. Because of the first part of the Howard Zinn documentary, “You can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train,” I now know that Neutrality doesn’t do anything to stop an immoral thing; so, it’s complicit toward the behavior that is wrong.

Duncan Andrade’s TEDtalk “Roses in the Concrete” demonstrates the kind of success story that teachers want to see and be apart of. Unfortunately for many students, success is something that is usually measured by social and cultural capital. Social/Cultural Capital is something that is often generational, so for students whose parents, "ha[ve] neither the social capital, in the form of social connections, nor the cultural capital, in the form of knowledge of rights, logistical supports, or faith in their own voice to challenge such decisions" have little access to what traditionally makes students successful in school (Harry, B., & Kilingner, S, 2006). That is why programs, such as the one Andrade and his comrades implement in their Oakland school are so important, because not only do they create social and cultural capital for the students by allowing them community based opportunities—but they allow for more accessibility for the families that need it the most.

Failure, like success is often generational. We know from studies that teenagers who don’t graduate are more likely to come from parents who didn’t graduate or seek their GED and this failure has been linked to multiple things such as social economic status and minority status. Low socio-economic status and being a minority is associated with low academic achievement due to systemic dismissing of black and brown students’ needs. This concept mimics the idea of normalizing failure, which is, "the consistency of racialized discipline patterns, coupled with the lack of systemic and sustained efforts to devise effective practices to intervene early when trouble first appears, which suggests that these outcomes are accept to some degree as normal and therefore tolerable," (Noguera A., Pedro & Wing Yonemura, Jean. 2006). In the NPR podcast “The Problem we All Live With Part One,” Nikole Hannah-Jones says that, “In America, you must believe one of two things when it comes to the poor achievement of African-American students in the public school system. Either there are very few black and brown people capable of deep, meaningful thought, or there is something wrong with the system,”. This dichotomy turns the normalization of failure on its side by demonstrating that because it is clearly false that minorities are inherently “dim”, it must be the system—and if it must be the system, then how can we continue ignoring these failing students?

Pipeline Routes for Black LGBT Women

Because I have a special place in my heart for Nia’s story from “We Try to Find out Way Home,” I want to focus on the intersectionality she experienced (Winn, 2011). Not only is Nia an African-American teenager, she also identifies as a Lesbian. Because of this, the first time she was incarcerated, which was due to a physical fight started by her attacker, she wound up arrested because she was judged not only as a black woman, but as a black man because Nia exhibited “hip-hop swag,”. Hip-hop swag is defined as an, "epistemological aim to engage others with confidence, likability, charm, cleverness, and resolve," and while it comes from good qualities, it worked against Nia in regard to being intersectionally discriminated against (Love, Bettina L 2013). After she got out and was back in school, Nia became a victim of “hyper-surveillance” which is unfortunately a common occurrence for people discriminated against at an intersection of two identities like Nia. Because Nia was seen as a PINS, or person in need of supervision because she is, “viewed as dangerous, a threat to those around them, out of control, disobedient, and resistant to authority,” she was arrested again for having a lighter on her that she had found on the side of the road, (Adams, D. L., & Erevelles, N. (2016)., Because of a, “set of school policies and practices that push students away from education and onto a pathway toward juvenile detention and the prison industrial complex," Nia was in jail for two reasons that a white counterpart would not have been incarcerated—or even tried for. This is referred to as a Pipeline toward imprisonment, or the “School to Prison Pipeline,” (Burdge, H., Licona A. C., Hyemingway, Z. T. (2014).

Pedagogical Models & Relationships with Students

Social-Emotional learning will be the foundation to which I create relationships with my students. Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL is defined as, “an approach that teaches individuals to recognize, regulate, and express the social and emotional aspects of their lives so they can successfully manage life tasks,” (Norris, Jacqueline A. (2003). By incorporating practices of open communication about how students feel either about particular material in my language arts class, or their own lives, or even current events going on around the world, I am demonstrating that I am a member of their support system. In addition, I can lead by example through social-emotional practices and show my students who I am as a whole person (without making my students become my therapists!). Lesson plans I’ve created thus far have a high-amount of emphasis placed on discussion and personal opinions, so teaching responsibility with handing emotional reactions and expression while addressing social responsibility can be easily incorporated in my class. Students and I will be given the opportunity to bond with each other, and that-coupled with trust builds a healthy relationship.

Using aspects of hope like Socratic Hope and Material Hope are critical because they play along with social-emotional learning in that all three address the foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Socratic Hope, “requires both teachers and students to painfully examine our lives and actions within an unjust society and to share the sensibility that pain may pave the path to justice,” while Material Hope is literally supplying students with the materials they need to make the pathway toward success smoother (Duncan., 2009). Since the moment I knew that I wanted to become a teacher, I have been a huge supporter of Maslow’s Hierarchy. In my own experience as a student, I felt that if I didn’t have my basic needs met—school was the last thing on my mind. For the past 4 years, my mother and I have been stock-piling office supplies to keep in my classroom to offer to students, and I plan on keeping non-perishable snacks for students. Both of these are examples of the Material hope I will include in my pedagogy.

References

Collins, K. M. (2011). Discursive Positioning in a Fifth-Grade Writing Lesson The Making of a “Bad, Bad Boy”. Urban Education, 46(4), 741-785.

Duncan-Andrade, J. (2009). Note to educators: Hope required when growing roses in

concrete. Harvard Educational Review, 79(2), 181-194.

Ellis, D. (Director). (2004). You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train! [Motion picture on DVD]. The United States of America: First Run Features.

Harry, B. & Klingner, J. (2006). Why are so many Minority Students in Special

Education? New York: Teachers College.

Jones, V. F., & Jones, L. (2013). Comprehensive classroom management (10th edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Chapter 3

Jones, V. F., & Jones, L. (2013). Comprehensive classroom management (10th edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Chapter 4

Love, B. L. (2013). “I see Trayvon Martin”: What teachers can learn from the tragic

death of a young black male. The Urban Review, 45(3), 1-15.

Nasir, N. & Hand, V. (2008). From the court to the classroom: Opportunities for engagement, learning, and identity in basketball and classroom mathematics. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(2), 143-179.

Noguera, P., & Wing, J. Y. (2006). Unfinished business: Closing the racial achievement gap in our schools. Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.

Norris, Jacqueline A. (2003). Looking at classroom management through a social and

emotional learning lens. Theory into practice, 42(4), 313-318.

T. (Director). (2008, June). The Danger of a Single Story [Video file]. Retrieved August, 2017.

The Problem We All Live With [Radio series episode]. (n.d.). In The American Life. NPR.

Winn, M. (2011) Girl time: Literacy, justice, and the school-to-prison pipeline. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

#education #race #America #hope #currentevents