Abstract
This closing chapter, rather than concluding in a traditional sense, seeks to re-engage the value of the process of a conversation about education policy. In order to provide some manner of reflexive practice, student authors are revisited. Some of the authors of previous chapters have stepped, since the inception of the project, into classrooms of their own and now face realities that felt far away and theoretical as they worked to become expert in the writing process. Other authors, those still in college, work through what it meant to work through (endure?) a conceptual shift from student to student-becoming-expert. In the end, we find that the value, not surprisingly, of this manner of work lies in the thoughtful and difficult moments of exploration into and through difficult and ongoing problems. We find, with our co-authors, that the work of making sense of the various and sundry strands of the educational policy debate, ought best engender questions and discussion over proclamations and posturing.
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Notes
For our final chapter, we invited discussion amongst our co-authors who are recent graduates and now teachers about various facets of education policy. In addition, we asked one former student to provide extended commentary for the chapter. A senior Sociology major, Millen will join the ranks of the 2013–2014 Teach For America teaching corps.
Our most substantial course discussions were transcribed to further understand student thinking and provided useful context for students’ writing at a later time. All quotes herein not connected to a specific citation have come from these conversations.
See http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013309.pdf for a full report of US graduation rates in 2009–2010 and http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=38 for long term NAEP trends.
When the authors brought the idea of writing a book on educational reform to the students midway through the fall semester, there was tepid enthusiasm and legitimate skepticism. The students could neither recall nor imagine a circumstance in which this could actually happen and did not have a frame of reference for such “out of the box pedagogy.”
See D. Britzman’s 2012 interview for the Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy. This can be found at www.vimeo.com/31747556.
Wilson and Lipman’s lectures were, again, part of the Henkles Lecture series. This series supported by the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts was not formally associated nor approved prior to invitation to act as part of the Forum.
Adichie, a Nigerian novelist and noted speaker has a “TED talk” on this precise idea that can be found at: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Recall that the University of Notre Dame does not house an undergraduate education course of study. Instead, undergraduates passionate about education can partake in an interdisciplinary minor, Education, Schooling, and Society. This arrangement along with a heavily inculcated university-wide “culture of service” begets a large number of students interested in education but little opportunity to teach in the K-12 system without further training or certification. Alternative certification programs like Teach for America, the Alliance for Catholic Education’s Service through Teaching Program, LU Choice, and Urban Teacher Corps become quite popular as a result. From our specific course, more than three quarters of those students who were seniors at the time have graduated and are in teaching related service programs. We expect this number will grow further as our younger students matriculate.
For an excellent narrative on the impact that alternative teacher certification programs have played on the deprofessionalization of teaching and marginalization of minority teachers in public schools see Lisa Delpit’s (2013) recent discussion in Multiplication is for White Kids: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children.
This quote is attributed to Revered Ed ward Sorin, C.S.C. founder, University of Notre Dame du Lac is embedded in the culture of Notre Dame and displayed literally and prominently across a variety of promotional materials for the University.
Fuller engagement with this move from love toward liking can be found in: Burke, K. and Greteman, A. (2013). “Toward a theory of liking”. Educational Theory, 63(2).
References
Adichie, C. (2009). TED Global: the danger of a single story. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
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Britzman, D. (2012). Interview with the Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy. Retrieved from: www.vimeo.com/31747556
Burke, K. and Greteman, A. (Forthcoming). Toward a theory of liking. Educational Theory, 63(2).
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Delpit, L. (2012). Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children. New York: The New Press.
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© 2013 Kevin J. Burke, Brian S Collier, Maria K. McKenna
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McKenna, M.K., Collier, B.S., Burke, K., Millen, J. (2013). Pulling Ideas Apart: Complicating the Questions. In: Burke, K.J., Collier, B.S., McKenna, M.K. (eds) College Student Voices on Educational Reform: Challenging and Changing Conversations. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137351845_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137351845_6
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