Pragmatism v. Idealism in Education
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In "Humanizing Research in Dehumanizing Places," a chapter in Humaizning Research, authors Jason G. Irizarry and Tara M. Brown chart several participatory action research (PAR) projects conducted with students in public schools. This sort of research is focused on empowering the student participants by giving them central roles in all phases of the research, from initial proposals to final presentations. These particularly studies also aimed to help students better understand their school system, and how that system can perpetuate disadvantage and segregation for some populations. The authors cite some strong examples of this project being successful for the student participants, such as quoting one student as saying "I never thought anything about...being made to think I'm dumb, that kids like me are dumb....Now I realize I am smart, a researcher, a student. More important, doing that research made me feel like a full person." That is a very powerful response that helps make the case that PAR can be an effective method for engaging and empowering students who may otherwise be failed by our education system.
Of course, these projects were not received as warmly by the teachers of the schools in which the research took place. No small amount of this chapter was spent discussing the conflicts that arose in conducting this research, pedagogically and politically. Following their participation in PAR, the authors note that students "became less willing to be passive recipients of education and demanded more from their teacher...sometimes [critiquing] the practices of their teachers." The authors note that while some teachers and administrators were supportive of this research, "the responses of [many] teachers were often characterized by rancor and suspicion." As a teacher in training, I understand why this reaction from students would be uncomfortable for teachers, but should we really be asking students to be accepting of inferior practices for the sake of our own comfort?
But the issue is more complicated than that. My education as a teacher has been a constant struggle between idealism and pragmatism. There are wonderful, inspiring, and persuasive arguments and philosophies about what education could or should be. The trouble is that's often at odd with what education is. While I appreciate being prepared for more than just the bright side, the "real" world I will be entering into after I graduate often seems demoralizing or worse. I'm bound for the world of Senate Bill 191, a world where I can be fired for any reason whatsoever in my first three years, a world ruled by non-experts, a world reigned over for the moment by the Common Core reigns (funded and designed largely by people with no classroom teaching experience), and a world that is only a stone's throw from a district whose board seems to think teachers are the primary problem with our education system. In such a world, I can understand the temptation of settling for old fashioned, comfortable answers. Policies sure to fail a sizable group of students, such as "teaching to the test," not only begin to sound more reasonable, they sometimes feel like they're all but necessary.
This complacency, this inclination towards easy answers for students, administrators, and politicians, is something that must be resisted. I yearn to implement any number of the exciting, perhaps even revolutionary, ideas I have had the good fortune to learn about through my education. I am just unsure if I will find myself in a climate that wants a teacher who would appreciate approaches like PAR. These concerns are sometimes enough to make me wonder if teaching in this climate is really what I want to do and whether Colorado is the right place for me, even though there's nowhere I would rather be.
Surely I'm in for my share of challenges and shocks as I got into my first year of teaching at the secondary level. For that, I appreciate the education that is preparing me for the good and the bad. I just wish I knew how to even begin balancing the demands of the "real" world and the brilliant philosophies and approaches that remind me why I want to be a teacher. Particularly in an ever-changing political climate surrounding an innately political career, there may be no stable balance. If the school system and its accompanying politics are such a major part of this dilemma, then perhaps methods like PAR are exactly what we need. As uncomfortable as it is, students demanding better from us may help support real, long-term, student-centered change. As is the recent trend with these blog posts, I have far more questions than I have answers, but I can keep trying to be optimistic.
Works Consulted
Colorado Department of Education. "Senate Bill 10-191." Colorado Department of Education, m.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.
Gorski, Eric. "Jefferson County Public Schools Faces Crisis Over School Board Changes." Denver Post, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.
Irizarry, Jason G. and Tara M. Brown. "Humanizing Research in Dehumanizing Places: The Challenges and Opportunities of Conducting Participatory Action Research with Youth in Schools." Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities. Eds. Django Paris and Maisha T. Winn. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2014. Print.
