ENTATIVE STEPS INTO THE SPACE OF ANOTHER
There are three (3) general goals for assignments including the ruminations: 1) to see how the concepts can be associated with individual academic and life experiences, 2) enhance written communication, and 3) enhance ability to critique or defend a model, theory, concept or idea.
Considering the article readings below, write a single page rumination that synthesizes the ideas of teaching and learning presented by the various authors. I am expecting the application of APA writing guidelines including the use of proper spacing and margins for APA writing; the only exception I am making is that you should not include a title page for this assignment.
Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue Volume 17, Numbers 1 & 2, 2015, pp. 11–25. Copyright © 2015 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 11
CHAPTER 1
TENTATIVE STEPS INTO THE SPACE OF ANOTHER
Teacher Challenges of Crossing Cultures to Build Bridges with Students
Elaine Chan, Andrea Flanagan, Rita Hermann, and Nicole Barnes
ABSTRACT
Engaging students in curriculum is recognized as important to their academic growth and sense of belonging in school. Using a narrative inquiry approach, we conducted participant observations and interviews, and interacted in the classroom community to learn about complexities of building relationships with students of diverse social and cultural backgrounds to engage them in school curriculum. In the process, we learned about complexities of building a culturally-sensitive curriculum from the perspective of a fi rst-year teacher.
12 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
BEGINNINGS…
He wore a green zip-up hoodie, the fabric pilled, a blue Pepsi-Cola T-shirt, and navy-blue athletic shorts with fl ip fl ops to school every day. Even on days when the wind chill was negative twenty, he wore the same outfi t. When offered a winter coat and boots from the school’s top-secret closet for students in need, he refused. I watched his brown, curly hair grow longer each day. Finally, it curled into his eyes and annoyed him, so he cut the bangs himself.
My fi rst signifi cant interaction with James occurred on a day when I presented my 10th grade English class with a short story written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American writer who is often praised for his realistic, and at times startling, perspec- tives on reservation life. Having previously learned from a colleague that James was of Native descent, I hoped that he would enjoy the selected reading. I was wrong.
“Oh my God! Sherman Alexie? I hate him!” he declared in a booming voice.
Startled by his scathing critique, I replied, “James, why don’t you like Sherman Alexie? I fi gured you would appreciate his bold sarcasm and realism.”
He stood up, and yelled, “Because! He always writes about how Indians are lazy alcoholics, and that’s just not the case.”
We read the story, and many of my other students enjoyed it, but James couldn’t get past his distaste for what he perceived to be blatant lies written on the pages. It didn’t seem to matter to him that the short passages were snapshots of writing about life in their school and community that might resonate with adolescents in general, and not limited to individuals of Native American background. I planned on using this writing as a starting point for engaging the students in writing about their own lives in school and in the community.
After class ended, I sat at my desk for what felt like hours and tried to understand James’ response. I guess it made sense that James might feel inferior to a writer whose stories provide a critical window into and about his people. I was left wonder- ing how I would engage James if he hated the author I thought he might appreciate most.
Natalie, James’ English teacher, wrote the above passage about an encounter with James that did not unfold in the way she had anticipated. She has thought of this incident often since that day early in the fall as she was beginning her fi rst year as a tenth Grade English teacher at Midwest High School. Encounters in di- verse school communities often involve a “crossing of cultures” in order to begin to understand ways in which the experiences that teachers and students bring to school might contribute to shaping their experiences of school curriculum. Dif- ferences in perception about curriculum are sometimes revealed in the process of interacting with one another while participating in curriculum; nuances and differences may be highlighted when students and teachers come from different
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 13
cultural or social backgrounds. The diffi culty of learning to walk in the shoes of another is a well known notion but what kinds of challenges might teachers en- counter as they attempt to learn about the experiences of their students of diverse backgrounds in order to engage them in the school curriculum?
As part of a research team consisting of three teacher educators and a fi rst year teacher, we set out to examine challenges teachers might encounter as they work to engage students of cultural and social backgrounds different from their own in the school curriculum. We explore complexities of moments of connection and confl ict when students and teachers from different social and cultural back- grounds meet in spaces of a diverse Midwestern high school as they engage in school curriculum. We focus in particular on complexities teachers may encounter as they draw upon their “personal practical knowledge” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988) to inform their work with students.
REVIEW OF EXISTING LITERATURE
Communities across the United States are becoming increasingly diverse (US Census Bureau, 2007), and this diversity is refl ected in schools. This population calls attention to the importance of culturally relevant and culturally sensitive cur- riculum and pedagogy (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2001; Nieto & Bode, 2012). Including the home cultures of students in the curriculum offers a resource, in that it represents a means of offsetting diffi culties associated with students experienc- ing curriculum as “confl icting stories to live by” (Chan, 2009) or as “ruptures” (Hamann & Zuniga, 2011) when expectations in their home and school are so vastly different. Valenzuela’s (1999) recognition of the “subtractive” nature of schooling for Hispanic students, when they perceived a need to abandon their home cultures in order to succeed in school, further highlights the tensions stu- dents of social and culturally diverse backgrounds may experience when they move from home to school each day. This body of research offers suggestions on how we might engage students of diverse backgrounds through initiatives that involve learning about students’ cultural backgrounds as part of the curriculum (Ada, 1988; Carlson, 1995; Chan, 2007; Cummins et al, 2005; Michie, 1999; Schlein & Chan, 2013; Schultz, 2008; Sleeter & Stillman, 2005).
Ladson-Billings (2001) outlined ways in which her preservice education stu- dents drew upon knowledge gained about their students through ongoing interac- tion with them about their lives in order to engage them in academic learning de- spite tensions outside their lives that threatened their ability to engage in school. Arguing that racism is the norm in American society, the notion of critical race theory offered a different starting point for interactions in schools consisting of diverse student populations (Ladson-Billings, 1998). Michie (1999) and Schultz (2008) documented ways in which learning about the challenges that students of diverse social and cultural backgrounds bring to a school informed their ability as
14 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
teachers to meet their students’ academic needs in the curriculum. Carger (1996) highlighted challenges that an immigrant Mexican family encountered as they attempted to advocate for their son with special education needs when they them- selves also struggled with literacy, while Chan and Ross (2009, 2014) offered a glimpse of ways in which parents’ psychological and fi nancial circumstances complicated students’ school learning. As we read about the students featured in these narrative research accounts, we began to better understand the complex intersection of home and community infl uences underlying students’ academic struggles in school, and ways in which teachers might engage their students in school by learning more about their students. This research highlighted not only the potential of engaging students through recognition of the importance of their diverse social and cultural backgrounds, also reinforced the power of relationship in engaging students in academic pursuits.
Within this body of literature addressing curriculum development for diverse student populations is a growing recognition of the importance of the role of re- lationship between teachers and students in engaging students in curriculum, and the potentially negative impact of a failure to acknowledge the importance of re- lationship in supporting school engagement. Valenzuela (1999/2009) documented the underlying miscommunication when some of the Hispanic students in her study expressed a need for their teachers to care about them before they could engage in school—“if the school doesn’t care about my learning, why should I care?” (Va- lenzuela, 1999, p. 3) exclaimed one student. Meanwhile, their teachers expressed a greater likelihood to commit to students’ academic and personal growth when they saw that they were engaged in academic pursuits. This discord revealed in Valen- zuela’s work further reinforced the critical role of relationship from the perspective of the students featured in this work in supporting student engagement in school.
High school and college drop out students interviewed in Cameron’s (2011) work even attributed their eventual leaving as connected to a lack of relation- ship with teachers who expressed care for them academically and socially. Val- des (1996) wrote about the importance of respect for underlying cultural beliefs that may be misinterpreted in a diverse school; misunderstanding about expecta- tions of teachers and parents contributed to North American teachers mistakenly assuming that the parents of their Hispanic students must not care about their children’s academic achievement since they do not actively participate in their children’s school communities.
These studies contribute to a growing body of research emphasizing the impor- tance of relationship in supporting students’ continued participation and engage- ment in school. Kim and Macintyre Latta (2009) go so far as to suggest the critical importance of seeking relations in school communities as a mode of interaction among teachers and students. If what we know about the importance of building relationships with students is as powerful a factor in contributing to their academic and social success in school as we believe it to be, then addressing the tensions asso- ciated with building relationships is essential. We are interested, in particular, in ex-
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 15
amining challenges of coming to terms with differences in perspective that teachers may encounter when building relationships with their students of cultural and social backgrounds different from their own in order to engage them in school curriculum.
OBJECTIVES
We consider in this paper complexities revealed as a beginning teacher learns to draw upon her students as curricular resources. We examine nuances and com- plexities of building connections with students of diverse social and cultural backgrounds, and challenges of overcoming differences in perspective to engage students as resources in learning how to better support their school success. We focus on moments of connection to examine tensions, harmonies, and puzzles when teachers must confront differences, overcome preconceptions, and accept the need to shift their thinking about their students.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
We ground this work in Dewey’s (1938) theory of the interconnectedness between education and experience, and explore the intersection of teacher and student ex- periences when a teacher works to implement the tenth grade English curricu- lum for her students of diverse social and cultural backgrounds. We acknowledge Schwab’s (1973) notion of curriculum commonplaces that recognizes the inter- connected infl uence of students, teachers, subject matter, and milieu in contribut- ing to curriculum development and implementation. We focus in particular on a teacher’s “personal practical knowledge” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, 1990) that develops through interaction with her students in the implementation of cur- riculum. Recognizing the value of ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1995), we examine details, nuances and complexities underlying curricular decisions that may, on the surface, seem cursory, but that contribute to the body of teacher knowledge in important ways.
LEARNING ABOUT TEACHER AND STUDENT EXPERIENCES USING A NARRATIVE INQUIRY APPROACH
Using a narrative inquiry approach (Clandinin & Connelly, 1994, 2000), we (Elaine, Andrea, Rita, and Nicole), a team of four researchers consisting of three teacher educators and a classroom teacher, learned about the experiences of 10th grade English students and their teacher who was in her fi rst year of teaching fol- lowing graduation from the same university Education program. We conducted participant observations in their classroom, interviews with the teacher, writing
16 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
conferences with the students, and gathered artifacts and samples of student work. “Stories of experience” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) presented here were docu- mented during a year-long research study based at Midwest High School, dur- ing which each of the four English classes were observed three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from the beginning of the school year in August until the end of the school year in May. We recorded data in the form of detailed fi eld notes written following each school visit, interview transcripts, and researcher journal entries. Fieldnotes were shared and discussed in weekly research meetings, analyzed for themes, and fi led into a research archive.
STORIES OF BUILDING BRIDGES, CROSSING CULTURES
Midwest High School is known locally to be highly diverse. While opportunities to interact with peers from various ethnic, racial, social, religious, and linguistic backgrounds does not automatically result in enhanced acceptance of individu- als different from oneself, we found that the student diversity provided a forum through which issues of identity, culture, and ethnicity could develop, be identi- fi ed, and then discussed. We often heard interesting, and sometimes surprising, comments from the students about diversity within the school. We present here excerpts from conversations and encounters with the students and their teacher during class and during student writing conferences to highlight issues raised as they participated in the standardized curriculum and testing. We examine these points of interest and tension when we as teachers, teacher educators, and re- searchers, were urged to reconsider what we believed we knew about the students. We return to the writing shared at the beginning of this paper by the classroom teacher, Natalie, about her encounters with one of her students, James.
Natalie’s teacher had in mind that given his background, he might appreciate literature written about reservation life by a Native American author. She selected this literature thinking that it might be a way of engaging him in the curriculum, while at the same time offering his peers a glimpse of lives different from their own. In many ways, this curricular choice could be interpreted as recognition of the importance of culturally sensitive and culturally relevant curriculum (Gay, 2010, Nieto & Bode, 2012). James’ response to this curricular material, however, surprised Natalie and left her wondering what next to introduce if materials that seemed most obviously of interest to him yielded such a negative response. Un- derlying James’ response were further questions about his strongly negative reac- tion and possible tensions in his home and community life. James’ response to his teacher’s curricular decision heightened our awareness of further complexities.
Another day after class, James revealed to Natalie that he no longer felt safe at his uncle’s home. After probing further and learning that he and his uncle had had an explosive argument the night before, Natalie sent him to the school counselor. When she followed up with the counselor, she was told that a student like James
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 17
had very limited options. She was left thinking about how James needed more than what she was able to give him during her fi fty-minute English classes, fi ve days a week, when she had him in class.
We present these encounters as examples of an exploration addressing the potential for differences in perspective depending on where on the professional knowledge landscape (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999) of the school an individual stands. Not only are students’ “stories to live by” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999) sometimes different than that expected by their teachers but they sometimes seemed in confl ict with goals identifi ed in the curriculum as important. We ar- gue that recognizing the nuances and complexities of these differences offers us insight into challenges that teachers may encounter as they work to draw upon the experiences of their diverse students to inform the implementation of their curriculum.
We begin with recognition of the teacher in commitment to providing as rich a curriculum as possible to engage students in materials that would support their academic growth. James’ teacher acknowledged the importance of relationship and has stated specifi cally that she considers the instruction of her subject mat- ter–English-as a bridge to learning about her students in order to help them to fi nd their passion in life. The idea of hovering in the space between curriculum and relationship, we think, captures the pull of both recognition of the need for academic rigor and recognition of the importance of strong relationships with the students as she learned about her students’ lives outside of school. We consider in the following example nuances of drawing upon student experiences to engage them in school curriculum. Rita captures some of the complexities of “telling and retelling” (Clandinin & Connelly, 1998) stories to better understand experiences that James brought to school.
There Are Worse Things Than Not Having a Winter Coat
He wore the same clothes every day and never much more of a jacket than a hoodie, even in the middle of winter. He had a sharp sense of humor, and his enthusiasm for cynical references to pop culture could derail any serious classroom conversa- tion. His teacher gave him room, and rules to live by. I watched their interactions as teacher and student grow throughout the semester. I could see how his social clumsi- ness made his teacher uncomfortable. It seemed though, that he could not push her away from being a teacher who cared. In some ways, I identifi ed with James’ situ- ation; there were times when I imagined I could understand where he was coming from, as different as we were in terms of race, gender and age.
One day, someone commented on his troubles, “Can you imagine coming to school from a situation like his?” James presented somewhat of a riddle to the teachers, but my fi rst thought was, Yes, I think I could imagine something like James imagined it.
Earlier I had met James working in the computer lab. His teacher had scheduled her class there, for her students to type their stories into black desktop Dells arranged on
18 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
narrow tables in rows. I slid into the chair next to James in front of a computer, both of us facing the whiteboard with today’s date written in blue marker. James had his computer open to his document on the screen. I asked him, “Can I read what you’ve written?” To my surprise, he agreed, and I set my chin in my palm and leaned over into the space between us. As I read, I was drawn into the story and was shaken by what it said. Next to me James seemed studied in his stillness, waiting. His writing told a raw and jagged edged story about his life with his mother. Inside their house, a big secret was kept hidden, and now James was letting it out. James’ secret skipped across the surface of his document like a stone slicing across a still lake in a linked pattern of circles spreading on the surface, and then sank out in the deep, down to the muddy bottom under water. James watched me without turning his head to look. Reading, I was remembering another house with a secret inside, locked up, and kept locked up. I turned to James. He stared straight ahead at his document on the com- puter screen, the secret slipping out. “I’m impressed with your telling, James. This is very powerful. I’m proud of your strength to share diffi cult family experiences.” What do I say, that I understand? I long to reach into James’s story and crack open the secret and pull its shame out, make it into something shared, divulged, released, make it safe to make the secret into a story, safe to tell. I want to snatch the secret back from him like a stone and toss it out—shattering the house’s windows—onto the lake, while we watched it sink down to settle in the deep and the dark and the cold.
In response, James reached over the keyboard and punched, again and again, his index fi nger pointed crookedly, at the delete key. Now the cursor is backing up, blinking and headed backwards to make the words gone. The whole paragraph, the secret, plain, honest and bold at the top of the page, is erased.
Months later, when it got really cold, we heard about how James refused to accept the offer of a winter coat from the school closet. By now, James was a player among his peers, certainly an accepted presence in the classroom, and he and his teacher were continuing to develop their interaction. I could tell she was intrigued by the way his mind worked, and that he cared for her but couldn’t yet let down his guard. No matter how icy cold the winter weather, James refused to accept even a really nice coat from the donations in a room for just such a purpose. Why not, why be so stubborn about someone wanting to give him something, something to help? Because, I felt, before I thought, being in a house then with its secrets hidden, being this researcher now, there are worse things than not having a winter coat.
Natalie, James’ English teacher, began with the decision to include litera- ture among her students’ readings written by Native American author, Sherman Alexie. She spoke to us about how she believed in the importance of students being able to see themselves in the curriculum materials. Knowing a little about James—that he seemed boisterous in expressing his ideas, after observing him in class each day as he interacted with classmates and responded to class readings, Natalie thought that he would appreciate Alexie’s “bold ideas and sarcasm” since she saw a little of that in James as well. This curricular decision, in some ways, represented a starting point for Natalie with James.
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 19
With ongoing refl ection and deliberation as we shared with one another con- versations and encounters with James in order to learn more about him, we began to recognize the potential of these conversations, deliberations, as opportunities for informing our professional knowledge of James’ experiences and how they might intersect with curricular materials. An exchange that was initially inter- preted as a point of disconnection between James and his teacher was perceived instead as a possible point of connection when Rita reached back into her own experiences as a teacher, a teacher educator, and a former student to inform her, and our, understanding of ways in which James’ experiences might shape his ex- perience of his school curriculum.
Conle (1996) refers to the notion of points of connection across seeming differ- ence as “resonance.” This idea of resonance emerged in our encounters with the students in James’ class, and helped us to better understand the experiences they brought to school. Sometimes the resonances became apparent when we caught a glimpse of something familiar in a context that seemed initially to be unfamiliar, and sometimes, we sought resonances in situations that we initially interpreted to be familiar but then developed in unexpected ways. We marveled at how reso- nances were highlighted as a starting point when our assumptions about aspects of the students’ lives did not seem to evolve in the way we might have anticipated. Andrea wrote about another such encounter with one of James’ classmates, Sang.
He Didn’t Know There are Other Vietnamese Students
After reading his essay, Sang and I talked about the strengths of his essay and how it could be improved upon. He surprised me by asking, “How has it been for you to be an immigrant in this country? What kind of issues have you faced because English is not your native language?” Like me, Sang is an immigrant in the U.S. He arrived two years ago. He speaks Vietnamese with his parents at home and has an accent when he speaks English. He told me, ‘I need to improve my English because I have an accent.’ He seems reluctant to participate actively in class; he does not usually ask questions or volunteer in class. His classmates, who represent many nationalities and ethnicities, often talked with one another, made jokes, and shared snacks during class. In contrast, Sang usually sat at the back of the classroom in silence or talking just for a few minutes with nearby classmates. He remained in his seat most of the time, listening to the teacher and watching what happened around him.
I asked Sang, “Do you know there are many other Vietnamese students here in the school? Maybe you could ask them for help when you do not understand a lesson or something that teachers say. You could speak Vietnamese with them and share thoughts about classes and school.” Sang responded, “I did not know that. I did not know that there are other Vietnamese students in the school.”
Andrea was surprised. She had been in class as a participant observer for sever- al months, and had seen that many of the students seemed to have strong relation- ships with other students based on their nationalities or ethnicities. She remem- bered instances when African American, African or Latino students had helped
20 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
other students of the same ethnicity in class and with assignments. Sometimes they spoke among themselves in English, sometimes in their native languages if somebody was unable to understand the teachers’ instructions but regardless, their interactions suggested strong levels of support and a sense of community. She had seen many Vietnamese students in the school and knew that Vietnam- ese were among the largest communities in the city; she assumed this sense of community extended to the student community within the school as well. Sang’s questions and response, however, suggested underlying complexities that raised further questions. Andrea wondered what it meant for Sang to be a Vietnamese student at Midwest High School. What kinds of challenges does he face as a trans- national student who has attended different school systems, and what dynamics exist among students of the same ethnic or racial group in the school? Do their ideas about community differ from what we imagined? How might teachers fa- cilitate encounters among students, whether of the same race, culture, or language group or not, through school practices and programs?
This idea of resonance across difference arose again on another day during class. Although Tom, an artistic, sometimes moody, male Vietnamese member of the dance troupe was about as different from Elaine as he could possibly be, she found herself nodding her head in agreement when he blurted out in sixth period class, “why do people think that all Asians are the same?!” Why, indeed? Elaine thought. As a Chinese Canadian faculty member at the local university, she was interested in issues of ethnic identity and school curriculum. She was excited to hear more about Tom’s experiences of interacting with peers of different cul- tural background in school. Over time, however, she realized that most days, Tom missed a good part of what took place in class because he kept his eyes closed and his head on the desk, not paying attention to what was taking place around him. Initial thoughts of connection were tempered with the reality of limited time during class when conversations might have been possible and an adolescent that did not seem to be interested in refl ecting further on a past moment. What Elaine thought was a point of connection turned out to be less pressing and easily ob- structed by the many other factors weaving through his life.
Learning to meet the students’ curricular needs included a willingness to learn about aspects of their racial group membership as they were revealed through ongoing encounters with them as well as recognition of academic skills in need of further development; in the process, the teachers learned about circumstances in the students’ lives that were distinctive and complex in their unfolding.
DISCUSSION
As we refl ected upon the encounter featured here, we recognized that woven into our search for ways to connect with students of diverse social and cultural back- grounds in order to engage them in school curriculum, were hints that sometimes,
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 21
it was the points of disconnection that were the most revealing. Andrea, for exam- ple, assumed that Sang was among the Vietnamese community in the school that drew from the large, tight-knit community in the city beyond the school; mean- while, the student was not even aware that the community existed. Elaine came to realize that the potential of a point of cultural connection recognized in a passing comment was overpowered by other, more pressing, factors in the school life of a male, high school student. Natalie questioned how a curricular decision that was intended to enhance the relevance of school curriculum for a Native American student was met with unexpected anger, while Rita’s recognition of a connection with the same student helped to shed light on possible underlying tensions in his life beyond the school context.
Each of us wrote about encounters that pushed us to refl ect upon our assump- tions about and interpretations of the students, and to question our sense of iden- tity in relation to that of the students. We became more aware of ways in interpre- tation of points of connection and disconnection with the students were shaped by our own personal and professional experiences.
Student responses also suggested the possibility that their stories of experi- ence might be sacred to them, and that they might prefer to keep them to them- selves rather than revealing them in the process of participating in the curriculum. Contrary to much of the existing literature where educators, ourselves included, suggest engaging students in discussion about their experiences as a means of ‘di- versifying the curriculum’ and integrating them in their school communities, per- haps we need to consider the possibility that students may want and need to feel empowered to reveal and conceal their stories. Encounters with James reminded us that stories may be so tightly connected to issues of identity at the core of who they are that attempts to have them share these experiences might be resisted when the stories highlight painful or less-than-positive experiences. Focusing on academic or social endeavours while in school may be an escape away from pain- ful or diffi cult circumstances. It is important to recognize that the integration of students may involve learning to recognize that their needs may differ from what we had originally anticipated as being helpful or appropriate.
The stories featured here reinforce the idea that the interactions of students into a school space is highly complex, and that learning to engage them in academic learning may involve learning to recognize that their needs may differ from those presumed in the assigned curriculum. Biesta (2004) acknowledges the potential of this space when he calls upon us to “mind the gap” by embracing the “inter- relationality” of teachers and students developing relationships of teaching and learning. The idea of their stories of life overtaking the stories of immigration and settlement that we initially intended to collect as we began the research project became more obvious the more time we spent in school with the students. Notions of curriculum in a “third space” (Wang, 2004) that recognizes intersections made in education of philosophy, autobiography, and psychology further suggest com- plexities involved. Although there is no doubt in our mind that knowledge about
22 E. CHAN, A. FLANAGAN, R. HERMANN, AND N. BARNES
their immigration and settlement experiences would be a valuable curricular re- source for working with diverse students, we realized that when we stopped trying so hard to learn about their stories, the students started to teach us about their ex- periences. Their stories were fascinating, profound, tragic, inspirational, and most of all, real and important to them; sometimes they were about issues of diversity, and sometimes they were not, but regardless, these details were interwoven into the fabric of their lives and who they are as students and people within the con- text of their class as well as beyond the walls of their school. Learning about the students was centered on learning from them, and their knowledge could not be captured in neat packets that could be passed on to others. The work of engaging students needed to involve learning about what was important to them, and listen- ing as they offered tidbits of information and thoughts that we might build on. We were humbled by the realization of the extent to which learning to engage students of diverse social and cultural backgrounds was not so much about learning about difference and culture as much as being open to learning about their ideas and ex- periences, and being willing to reconsider and question what we thought we knew about them. They surprised us again and again. We are still struck by the power of their stories, and the experience of being with them over the course of the year.
Kissling (2014) acknowledges Clandinin and Connelly’s contribution (2000) three dimensional narrative inquiry space as a framework for understanding ex- perience, and focuses on the role of place in shaping the knowledge and practices of teachers. The power of context and landscape in shaping the knowledge and work of teachers is well accepted in narrative inquiry communities and beyond. Kissling’s work, however, goes further, by examining ways in which teachers’ knowledge and experience on landscapes outside of school, such as those in the home and community, may intersect to inform their knowledge and practices in school. This work offers exciting possibilities for learning about the development of teacher knowledge beyond what has been done to this point. His work offers a ‘fl y-on-the wall’ kind of look into the interconnected, and in some ways, inti- mate ways in which experiences and details in one context of a teacher’s life may extend and reach into other areas of their life. Extending this perspective to the current study to include the knowledge and experiences that students bring to a school landscape highlights the interconnections of student lives inside and out- side of school. This stance, in turn, has the potential to further inform the work of teachers in engaging their students in school curriculum.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge to potential of a curricular team, con- sisting of teachers, teacher educators, students, and teacher educators, in helping to develop and implement curriculum. Schwab (1959/1978) refers to the idea of a “pragmatic intellectual space” (p. 174), whereby, teachers and teacher educators might deliberate stories of experience about students, such as those described here, as a resource for building a body of teacher knowledge to inform our work with students of diverse backgrounds.
Tentative Steps into the Space of Another 23
EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE
Participation in this study provided us insight into complexities underlying teach- ers’ work of engaging students of diverse backgrounds in the school curriculum. Knowledge gained contributes to professional knowledge about challenges of en- gaging students when they come to the school curriculum with experiences that seem on the surface to be so vastly different than those of their teachers.
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