Learning to Connect. Victoria Theisen-Homer

      ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

      Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

      Published by Rowman & Littlefield

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      Copyright © 2020 by Victoria Theisen-Homer

      All figures created by author unless otherwise specified.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Theisen-Homer, Victoria, 1983– author. | Rowman and Littlefield, Inc.

      Title: Learning to Connect : Relationships, Race, and Teacher Education / Victoria Theisen-Homer.

      Other titles: Relationships, Race, and Teacher Education

      Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Learning to Connect explores how two different teacher education programs—No Excuses Teacher Residency and Progressive Teacher Residency—attempt to prepare preservice teachers for meaningful relationships with students, especially across racial and cultural differences.”—Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019059374 (print) | LCCN 2019059375 (ebook) | ISBN 9781475855425 (Cloth : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781475855449 (Paperback : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781475855456 (ePub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Teachers—In-service training—United States. | Teacher-student relationships—Social aspects—United States. | United States—Race relations.

      Classification: LCC LB1731 .T474 2020 (print) | LCC LB1731 (ebook) | DDC 370.71/1—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059374

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059375

      To my dearly-missed mom, who taught me to see the person behind the façade.

      To my two daughters, whom I hope to teach the same.

      Preface

      Through the Thou, man becomes I.—Martin Buber, I and Thou, 1965^[1]

      Over the course of conducting and analyzing the research that informs this book, I became a mother—twice over. And while cliché, this experience changed me. For in addition to looking at life through the lens of an educator, I began to see it through the eyes of a parent. Like most parents, I love my two girls more than I could have ever fathomed. And more than anything, I want to raise them in a way that nurtures their unique spirits and enables them to thrive and grow into the human beings they were born to be. But I also realize that my husband and I will not be the only two adults raising these girls or shaping their experiences of the world. In fact, for a significant chunk of their lives, they will spend more waking hours in schools than they will with us. In these settings, teachers will be the adults who raise them, influencing their development at pivotal moments.

      I can only hope their teachers will have been well trained, not just in matters of curriculum and pedagogy, but in connecting with students. Because I know that relationships with teachers can impact students’ engagement in school, academic achievement, and resilience.^[2] Even more than that, though, relationships with influential adults—which teachers absolutely are—can shape a child’s sense of self and the world. As the philosopher Martin Buber puts it, “Through the thou, man becomes I.” It is through relationships with others that we learn to define who we are.

      I also know that my girls are extremely fortunate. Because not only do they have parents with the time and wherewithal to navigate the education system before them, but as white girls, my daughters also look like the vast majority of the teaching force.^[3] This gives them a distinct advantage, for it is much easier for people to form relationships with those who visibly resemble themselves. But most school children are not so privileged. They represent diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, and gender identities that differ from those of their teachers. And these differences—specifically in race, which Christine Sleeter refers to as a “cultural mismatch”^[4]—can negatively influence the teacher’s efforts to establish relationships with them, further disadvantaging students who come from historically marginalized groups. Teacher education programs should certainly recruit and prepare a more diverse cohort of teachers. However, all programs should also be thoughtfully preparing their current teacher candidates with the tools they need to form meaningful relationships with all students, especially those who don’t look or think or behave like them.

      While preparing teachers to form relationships across racial and cultural differences seems like a daunting task, I know that it is possible because I was the recipient of such an education. While attending UCLA’s graduate school Teacher Education Program, I learned to “see” students and examine myself. I learned about the need to understand local histories, as well as the historical legacies that continue to impact the students I would serve. I learned to design curricula and instruction that responded to students, with authors that reflected their cultures, subject matters that piqued their interest, and active and varied lessons that elicited their own expertise. I learned to treat students as human beings first, students second.

      Had I walked into the large Title-1 high school in central Los Angeles where I taught without this preparation, I am convinced that I would have become a statistic—yet another white, idealistic teacher who left the profession after a year or two when daily classroom challenges seemed insurmountable. Instead, I was named one of Los Angeles Unified School District’s Teachers of the Year after my first two years of teaching. I do not presume to have become an expert teacher in this short time; instead, I have come to realize that the tools I acquired at UCLA enabled me to form authentic relationships with students of color from low-income backgrounds that advanced their engagement and achievement, as well as my own.

      I took all of this for granted, but when I left the classroom to pursue doctoral studies, I was surprised to learn that the broad field of teacher education rarely addresses the critical relational aspects of practice.^[5] This book is my attempt to bring more attention to teacher–student relationships and the ways programs from different pedagogical standpoints are already approaching this work, with lasting consequences. I argue that the field of education more broadly needs to better conceptualize, support, and practice the formation of meaningful relationships with all students.

      My daughters, and the children of most people in this country, will be influenced by the connections they have with various teachers in their lives. And the ability to foster meaningful connections with students will likely impact the teachers, too, in their professional efficacy and job retention, but also in their own sense of self. I certainly know it did for me. I still keep in touch with many of my former students, across hundreds of miles and several years.