Learning to Connect. Victoria Theisen-Homer
in schools.
Through rich portraits and cases, careful analysis, and aspirational discussion, this book illustrates how teacher education programs currently train teachers to connect with students, especially across cultural differences. It challenges readers to reflect on their own relational practice, or that enacted by programs or schools with which they are affiliated, with the idea that we all can, and should, do better.
Notes
1.
Cooper, Kristy. (2013). Eliciting engagement in the high school classroom: A mixed-methods examination of teaching practices. American Educational Research Journal, 51(2), 363–402; Fredricks, Jennifer A., Blumenfeld, Phyllis C., & Paris, Alison H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109; Martin, Andrew J., & Dowson, Martin. (2009). Interpersonal relationships, motivation, engagement, and achievement: Yields for theory, current issues, and educational practice. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 327–365; Schonert-Reichl, Kimberly. (2017). Social and emotional learning and teachers. The Future of Children 27(1). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1145076.pdf; Sosa, Teresa, & Gomez, Kimberley. (2012). Connecting teacher efficacy beliefs in promoting resilience to support of Latino students. Urban Education, 47(5), 876–909.
2.
I use the term “race” throughout this text to indicate a social construct, not a biological reality, that has a weighty meaning in the United States in particular. Race in this context is often seen as a binary, either white or nonwhite, with the latter associated with historical legacies of oppression and the former with privilege and supremacy. These ideas are so deeply embedded into the culture that skin color alone can trigger a slew of assumptions about a person, especially by white people, who happen to represent the majority of the teaching force. And because skin color is so apparent, this perceived signifier of difference will be the one I focus on most throughout this book.
3.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. (2014). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
4.
Sleeter, Christine. (2008). Preparing white teachers for diverse students. Handbook of Research on Teacher Education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts, 3, 559–582; Picower, B. (2009). The unexamined whiteness of teaching: How white teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies. Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(2), 197–215; Matias, C., & Zembylas, M. (2014). “When saying you care is not really caring”: Emotions of disgust, whiteness ideology, and teacher education. Critical Studies in Education, 55(3), 319–337; Hyland, N. (2005). Being a good teacher of black students? White teachers and unintentional racism. Curriculum Inquiry, 35(4), 429–459.
5.
Ingersoll, Richard, & Merrill, Lisa. (2014). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force. Philadelphia, PA: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.
6.
Grossman, Pam, & McDonald, Morva. (2008). Back to the future: Directions for research in teaching and teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 184–205.
7.
See, for example, Gay, Geneva. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press; Schultz, Katherine. (2003). Listening: A framework for teaching across differences. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
8.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (1994). Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Valenzuela, Angela. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.–Mexican youth and the politics of caring. New York, NY: SUNY Press.
9.
For example, Brinkworth, Maureen, McIntyre, Joseph, Juraschek, Anna D., & Gehlbach, Hunter. (2017). Teacher–student relationships: The positives and negatives of assessing both perspectives. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 55, 24–38; Cooper, Eliciting engagement; Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, School engagement; Gehlbach, Hunter, Brinkworth, Maureen E., & Harris, Anna D. (2012). Changes in teacher–student relationships. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 690–704; Martin & Dowson, Interpersonal relationships.
10.
Grossman & McDonald, Back to the future; McDonald, Morva A., Bowman, Michael, & Brayko, Kate. (2013, April). Learning to see students: Opportunities to develop relational practices of teaching through community based placements in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 115, 1–35.
11.
See, for example, Ball, Deborah Loewenberg. (2000). Bridging practices: Intertwining content and pedagogy in teaching and learning to teach. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 241–247; Clark, Christopher, & Lampert, Magdalene. (1986). The study of teacher thinking: Implications for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 37(5), 27–31; Lampert, Magdalene. (2001). Teaching problems and the problems of teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; Saphier, Jon, & Gower, Robert R. (1997). The skillful teacher: Building your teaching skills. Acton, MA: Research for Better Teaching.
12.
Lee, Carol. (2017). Opportunity and equity inside classrooms: Teacher–child relationships and educational success. Invited speaker session presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio, TX.
13.
Lortie, Dan C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Buber, Martin. (1958). I and thou. New York, NY: Scribner & Sons.
15.
Brooks, David. (2016, November 1). Read Buber, not the polls. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/opinion/read-buber-not-the-polls.html
16.
Guilherme, Alex, & Morgan, W. John. (2009). Martin Buber’s philosophy of education and its implications for adult non-formal education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 28(5), 565–581.
17.
Buber, Martin. (1965). Between man and man. London, England: Routledge, p. 95.
18.
Buber, Between man and man, p. 91
19.
Freire, Paulo. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum, p. 45.
20.
Freire, Education for critical consciousness, p. 52.
21.
See Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.
22.
Noddings, Nel. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics & moral education. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 21.
23.
Noddings, Nel. (2013). Freire, Buber, and care ethics on dialogue in teaching. In R. Lake & T. Kress (Eds.), Paulo Freire’s intellectual roots: Toward historicity in praxis. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
24.
See Freire, Pedagogy of the oppressed; Freire, Education for critical consciousness;