Ayers claims that education
is always “for something and against something else” (p. 10). He also talks
about how education tends to be humanizing or dehumanizing and that it’s
surprisingly hard to know which you are working toward (p. 16). Discuss some of
what you’ve seen out in schools (via practicum or through other experiences)
and what it might’ve been “for” or “against” and whether it was humanizing or
dehumanizing.
As a P.E. teacher, one of my biggest irritations is that at the private school I teach at the teacher's will make students sit out for their behavior during class. Ostensibly, the teachers are doing this to encourage better behavior, to have the students catch up on missed school work, and to show the students that actions have consequences. The problem is that the teachers are unintentionally proving the actions have consequences as their choice to sit the children out is dehumanizing and cruel. Making a child sit and watch their peers enjoy physical activity is isolating and does not promote a healthy lifestyle, which is why students need P.E. Taking away their chance to be active and social with their peers is unequivocally harmful to their personal development and from my experience the students that are sat out continue to be sat out in future, what good is it doing? I tend to agree with Ayers, I apply his philosophy in my everyday life... For every interaction I have with students, or just in general, there is going to be either positive or negative outcomes, despite intentions, and it is important to be aware of this.
ReplyDeleteJordan Lee
ReplyDeleteThrough my practicum experiences I have been able to work with some great teachers that promote an education that is humanizing and allows freedom and individuality. Although I remember these positive experiences, I am able to recall negative, dehumanizing, events too. I was placed in a Richmond fourth grade classroom for one of my practicums. The teacher would announce to the class who did well on exams and who had to retake it because the grade wasn’t “satisfactory.” I watched half of the students in the class high-five and celebrate and the other half sink down into their seats with an obvious look of embarrassment on their face. In my opinion, this is an example of dehumanization. The teacher wasn’t giving any moral consideration to how she was making some of her students feel and was basically making half her class seem as “less than” students. I have also seen children’s creativity be halted. The teacher had her image of what the drawing, project, etc., should look like, that anything that altered from that wasn’t acceptable. Educators are supposed to promote creativity, individuality, enlightenment, and freedom. Although it is discouraging to have seen some of these events take place, they serve as enlightening experiences for how to avoid making my students ever feel dehumanized or unable to express their individuality.
Brittany Milteer
ReplyDeleteI have been fortunate enough to have experienced all positive practicum experiences. I have had experiences in Richmond City and Henrico. All of the teachers have promoted autonomy within the classroom and the students, creativity, and a overall positive morale for the students. Many of the teachers have been mindful that they are teaching the whole child. It has been a rewarding experience to see all of these teachers uplift and teach their students. The students have a positive attitude about school and believe they have a bright future ahead of them. I only hope one day I can implement these same practices that the teachers I have observed and learned from in my own classroom.
Stephanie Furnish
ReplyDeleteI haven't experienced a teacher doing something in a way that was teaching against or dehumanizing students, thankfully. However, one of the classes I'm working in at Fairfield right now is a difficult situation. It's a seventh grade history classes, and it's the 'average' class. My teacher teaches two IB classes and two 'average' classes. They don't have an SOL, and it's nearly impossible to get through any activities with them. They come to class without book bags, books, paper, pencils, and with broken laptops. It creates a stressful environment for the teacher, the assistant, and the students. The students are old enough to realize they are in the 'average' class that doesn't get to do the same things as the others students, however they still act out, misbehave, fight, and refuse to do their work. In a way, the administration, whoever is making decisions, the way my teacher has to teach, the parents, the students themselves are dehumanizing their education and their being. I don't know if it's ever JUST the teacher doing the dehumanizing, rather it's a mix of multiple things.
Corinne Tilley
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the strongest “for” or “against” methods I have seen in my practicum experience has been negative. The school's methods are “for” rigidity, “against” seeing children as individuals, and “for” following rules for the sake of following rules. My experience is similar to Allie's where she says that students are often asked to sit and watch their peers during PE as punishment for a rule violation. In my case, the rule violations were always “didn't wear white sneakers” or “got distracted and did not follow instructions immediately”. It was obvious that this poor girl did not own a pair of white sneakers that fit her properly, so she had to sit out of PE most days they had it. It did not matter if the shoes they did have were fine for gym class, they just weren't the shoes they wanted. This was a first grade class, so the physical activity was extremely necessary, especially given that during my semester in the class I did not see them go out to recess one time. To add to the tragedy, there was always another boy with her who was barred from participating, and be bullied her relentlessly. He poked her until she cried from frustration and then made fun of her for crying. He did not care that there were multiple adults around to witness it, and the adults other than myself did not seem to care. The girl was then yelled at by her classroom teacher for crying. Perhaps if this young man had been allowed to release his energy during gym class, he wouldn't have acted like such a nightmare.
There were other incidents that upset me, from minor incidents to things I wonder if I should have reported. On the lesser end, I once saw a girl in this first grade class drop something. Her teacher immediately started screaming at the boys around her for not picking it up for her. She did not say that the girl should have picked it up herself and she did not yell at the girls near her for not picking it up. She would rather enforce strict and, quite frankly, strange, gender roles and teach learned helplessness in girls. On the more extreme end, another young girl had told her grandmother that a boy in the class had touched her inappropriately. “Meet me in the bed” was something that the class had heard somewhere and wouldn't stop saying to each other, but apparently one boy took it way too far. Rather than support and believe the girl to help find out what happened, the teacher just said “why did you say that”, immediately doubting her. She was six years old and being called a liar after being brave enough to tell her grandmother that a boy in her class had acted inappropriately. It was sick, and it was clear that the teacher simply did not want to deal with it. She was teacher of the year.
Andrew Cramer
ReplyDeleteI have learned so much from my practicum teachers, but the one thing that drives the learning is classroom management. I have asked for back-to-back assignments in Richmond City, I want to teach in Hampton and the schools are very similar. The experience has offered plenty of how to and how not to examples of humanizing and dehumanizing. I have had the opportunity to see patience and tolerance tested daily.
Classroom management styles are all over the spectrum and it is interesting what one teacher can take as a non-issue and another will make it a major focal point. I have noticed that the two first grade classes I observed share pencils like the air in the room. There are plenty on each table; they trade a dull one in for a sharp pencil without any problem. There is never a break in the lesson for a pencil. The room is not always perfect but it is a humanizing and nurturing environment.
The third grade class is very different. Every time a work sheet is passed out, the teacher has at least one person that needs a pencil and another that needs to sharpen their pencil. She has to give the “where is your pencil speech” or the “why can’t you keep track of your pencil” dissertation. The student has to stand there and listen to the teacher until she has run out of things to say or until a “good student” offers them a pencil to use. I asked about having a pencil cup and she said that they take them home and never bring them back. I am sure she realizes that they get shorter each time they get sharpened, and eventually need to be replaced, right? I will have plenty of worries in my classroom but a pencil will not be one.
Brittany Gifford
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I have had one of the best practicum experiences. I was placed at a middle school with one of the best teachers. For those of you who were at EdTalk, she was the teacher. I would say that all of the experiences that I have had in practicum were humanizing. She listened to the kids, made a conscious effort to relate to them through what they like and don't like, and on the first day of school she had asked them about their names and what they like about them. To me, that helps the kids understand that the way they see themselves is important and matters because their teacher takes an interest in it.
Ayers says that humanization and dehumanization are the “landscapes of learning.” In my practicum experiences, I’ve only seen teachers that are “for” humanization. In each of these experiences, the teachers focus on every child as an individual. They have taken time get to know each of them, carry on dialogue with them, and focus on their positive qualities. One specific example I have seen of this was in Italy at the International School of Florence. The teacher had the students read their work in front of the class and the other students had to say what they liked about the presentation. I have also experienced this exact strategy in one of my current college courses. This teaches students to be kind and respectful. I have been lucky enough to not observe any dehumanizing situations in the classroom. I know I will be exposed to both types of landscapes of learning, but I hope to be the teacher that makes choices to pave a positive pathway for my students’ futures.
ReplyDeleteFor our Ed Psych class I had the pleasure of being able to observe the Sabot School at Stony Point, which is a private school based in Reggio Emilia principles. And I would say that is one of the best schools to see teaching as humanizing because of the way the teachers really respect and see their students. At Sabot the teachers emphasize that students take ownership of their own learning and see them as capable of doing so, which is not a common view shared in the public specter. One teacher said that ““...children are competent, capable, and incredible human beings…” and to me that is the core of teaching in a humanizing way because you are not just looking at students as something to be controlled or teaching as just filling them with information. Although I personally witnessed this in a private school I know it can be present in the public schools too and have seen snippets of this in my practicum experience. For instance a Kindergarten teacher I observed didn’t use a behavior chart system but really taught children to talk through and solve their own problems in conversations, which is what you do in the real world. She clearly saw them as responsible for their own behavior and capable of learning respect even at a young age. However, other times I have seen teachers dismiss difficult students, one incident where the student hadn’t taken is medication that day so they dismissed trying to teach him, claiming he won’t be able to be productive or learn anything so they ignore the student. This type of behavior is clearly dehumanizing because the teachers don’t treat the student the same when they are on good behavior—the only time they seem to recognize and try to teach him.
ReplyDeletePaige Michanco
ReplyDeleteI have had both humanizing and dehumanizing experiences in my practicum experiences. Most recently, I experienced a dehumanizing experience where my third grade teacher would have her students shout out their test scores for the whole class to hear while the teacher recorded them. When students performed well on the test, she would clap, and yell something along the lines of 'woo hoo!'. However, one time I was there and a student who normally did well on tests happened to have an off day. She told the student she was disappointed in him, that he must have not studied, and that she expects more of him--in front of the whole class. The student immediately burst into tears and sunk down in his seat. Her response to that was 'mmhm, I'd be doing that to if I were you.' The teacher did not take into consideration the embarrassment she had caused this student. That is dehumanizing, in my opinion. Luckily, I have been with teachers who create a humanizing environment where students can be creative, share their thoughts, have their thoughts heard, and embrace their individuality.
ReplyDeleteFor a long time, as the student and observer, I would find it dehumanizing to see teachers yelling at their students. But then I became a head teacher and, at times, found myself following the same steps as those teachers that I saw as being illogical. I am still against yelling at students, especially since it really does not do anything except prove to the students that they have control. I found alternatives to yell at them like being sarcastic and asking rhetorical questions and hoped that the teachers I once saw found alternatives as well. Another dehumanizing aspect that I see in classes all the time is when students bring in toys to school or comic books and teachers get upset with them and take their fun things away. I just don’t find that method to be appropriate. Kids should be enjoying things such as Pokemon, Minecraft, or My Little Pony. Of course it is taken away because it is a distraction, but I feel like you can turn anything into a teaching moment. Use these things in a lesson!!! Improvise for God’s sakes.
James Biedenharn 11:35 am 4/19/16
ReplyDeleteWhen a person teaches students with autism or any disability for that matter, it is imperative that teachers make a concerted effort to have their classes as humane and welcoming as possible. For too many years, kids with disabilities were treated as second class students. Some are still dehumanized when they are adults. The unemployment rate amongst adults with disabilities are close to 60%, which is an astronomically high number in terms of unemployment percentages. Since the age of inclusion, both general education teachers (some) and many special education teachers have made the commitment to allowing capable students with disabilities attend general education classes in the least restrictive environment as possible. Instead of students with disabilities being confined to “self-contained classrooms,” they are seated right next to their general education peers in a general education setting. My students have thrived in this setting. Many of my students get advanced or perfect scores on their SOL’s, they are more confident when speaking to adults, and they have made friends with their general education peers. Schools most certainly hold the power to dehumanize and humanize students. I think some schools do not even realize the power they hold in that regard.
Emily Meade
ReplyDeleteDuring practicum, I've had mostly positive experiences and would say the education taking place in the classrooms was humanizing. I did experience one classroom with some dehumanizing educational situations taking place. In this classroom there was a number of ESL students. The teacher had trouble communicating with them, and therefore these students were often left to fend for themselves during lessons. I would see these students doodling, while the other (english speaking) students were learning and getting any additional help needed from the teacher. I felt as though the teacher and administration, who struggled to provide translatiors, saw these students as a lost cause. I find this particular situation against education and very dehumanizing to these students who probably felt inefficient and helpless in the classroom.
During my observations in my practicum classrooms, there have been more positive and humanizing observations than negative or dehumanizing. Although I remember these positive experiences, I am able to recall one dehumanizing event that stands out in my mind. One of the teachers I observed in a first grade classroom would punish students by taking away recess time or make them run laps. I do not agree with taking away physical activity because for many students physical activity is an outlet for them. I remember these students sitting on a bench during recess time while other students ran around playing. I can imagine that this wouldn’t motivate students to behave better, because physical activity can help students get out pent up energy and allow them to focus more during instruction. There were a few times where the teacher would make the student do a lap or two around the track before they could play, because of their misbehavior. I do not agree with taking away recess or making a child run laps, but I think that the laps may have acted as a breather for the students. I think that taking away any physical activity time is more detrimental and dehumanizing than taking away other “privileges.”
ReplyDeleteI have seen many examples of teachers implementing humanizing teaching strategies. While in Italy, I observed a Reggio and Waldorf inspired school. Both schools looked at students as a “whole child”. The teachers took into consideration their environment, interests, and growing maturity. While I see some of this in schools in the United States, I have seen some dehumanizing teaching strategies as well. In my last practicum class, the teacher would call out grades for the whole class to hear. This makes the students who did poorly feel called out and inferior. This kind of strategy promotes a negative classroom environment, views towards learning, and self-efficacy.
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed both teachers that were humanizing and dehumanizing. I think most of the dehumanizing classrooms were from a school attitude with pressure for test results not mastery. Ayers reminds of a speaker I saw at a STEM professional development. He spoke of the information era and how we can have information at the drop of a hat. He said we need thinkers not people that can regurgitate facts that’s what the internet is for. We need people that can disseminate information. We need innovators, so we need a humanistic classroom. We need ethical students to move us into the future to decide how to steer innovation to destruction or a quick buck or to steer us to a more global community. I hope to allow autonomy in my classroom. I hope to have a community have students that help each solve problems and learn from each other. I hope I remember to let go of my type A personality, and now that it will be okay.
ReplyDeleteOne dehumanizing act I saw in my practicum experience involved a fifth grade teacher who believed it was acceptable to ask students to raise their hands if they scored lower than a 50% on any test or quiz grades. The approach was humiliating for me to watch, so I can only imagine the students’ embarrassment. I asked the teacher why she used the strategy and she explained, “Because they are capable of so much more.” While that may be true, I feel like she could have taken a different, more effective approach that did not provoke embarrassment. With that said, I am sure that a majority of teachers believe their approaches are humanizing, however it is much easier to recognize dehumanizing approaches from an outsiders perspective.
ReplyDeleteI'm still unsure exactly how to define "humanizing" and "dehumanizing" practices in the classroom, but I can't help to think of one recent experience that may relate.
ReplyDeleteAt my tutoring practicum placement, a third grade boy was sitting outside of our classroom against the wall. He came in and said, "Can one of you guys work with me?" I felt honored with a hint of sadness, and decided to reply, "what do you need help with?" He said, "reading... mostly." I acknowledged him with a smile, but I didn't verbally respond because I didn't quite know what to say.
We had about 20 minutes before class started, so I went ahead and decided to go out to the hall and read him a Dr. Seuss book. I read the book and he began opening up. I found out that his whole class was going on a field trip, but he wasn't. I asked why and he told me, "I don't have the money. It was $36.00. But there is one in May, and I hope I can pay for that one." My heart immediately sank. This child can't attend a field trip because he is too poor? If this isn't dehumanizing, I don't know what is. You would think that the teachers or administration would have tried to set up a fund for him or work with his family somehow, but no. He was forced to stay back while all of his peers enjoyed their day. I just couldn't believe it.
Amanda Kern
ReplyDeleteI went to UNC Greensboro in North Carolina for two years and was a elementary and special education major there. While there, I had a practicum experience in a Winston Salem kindergarten classroom at a magnet school. The school was predominately african american and latino. There was a specific boy in the class who spoke little to no english, coming from a home that only speaks Spanish. It was spring time when I was in the class and the teacher had completely given up on him because he couldn't speak english and therefore was falling way behind his peers. She would continue teaching as though he wasn't in her class at all. This happened the whole time up until it was time for testing. I quickly learned how big of a deal the common core testing was when this kindergarten teacher told me about how they would get bonuses if their class did well, another one if their grade level did well, another one if their hall did well, and yet another one if the whole school did well. (Im not sure where all this money comes from..) As the little Spanish speaking boy was taking the test, she would occasionally give him an answer as she was doing her laps around the room. This situation that I personally witnessed, makes me wonder how often this happens where teachers just sweep struggling students along to make their lives easier as to not have to deal with them. It just sets students up for failure in the future.
I've seen some really upsetting things in my couple of rounds of practicum, usually in the places and from the people you'd expect. But the one that sticks in my craw the most is this strange sort of attitude I saw in my practicum classroom last semester. My teacher was a very nice, soft-spoken sort of teacher, the kind of woman most people imagine when you mention a first grade teacher. There was one student in the class (we'll call him Carl) who was in the early stages of the IEP process. Carl had a lot of trouble with impulse control and attention. If someone shouted out when the teacher or I were talking or reading, it was probably Carl. If you didn't stay on him and remind him to keep on the assignment, he would quit it partway through and doodle or just play with the manipulatives. Now, it wasn't all the time, but sometimes my teacher would say some kind of dismissive things to me as asides about Carl that just came off as almost lacking empathy, and she was consistently stricter in punishing him than with anyone else. Carl was a nice kid, he just had some stuff going on. There's nothing I can specifically put my finger on; I just sort of felt as if my teacher didn't give him the same kind of chances that everyone else had. But Carl was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of dehumanizing teaching practices I'd seen, despite some of the much more apparent examples I'd seen.
ReplyDeleteFor my practicum B observation hours, I was in a kindergarten classroom. The class was majority ESL students and African Americans. I noticed that one of the students, who had recently moved from El Salvador, was really struggling with learning his ABCs and letter-sound recognition. My teacher multiple times would tell me that he was going to fail kindergarten anyways and be held back so it didn’t really matter to help him. This shocked me, so I made it a point to always help him at the stations because his teacher didn’t care about his education. She would rather let a child fail than put in the extra effort to help this child. On multiple accounts, if he was acting up in class, she would specifically ask questions, in front of the whole class, of things that she knew he wouldn’t be able to answer or know what she was asking. She would embarrass him repeatedly and it made me feel really uncomfortable to experience and be around this.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJamie Whittaker
ReplyDeleteIn practicum B I was in first and third grade classrooms. I liked my first grade teacher. She was older and had taught at the school for a long time and enjoyed the students. The other first grade teachers, I felt, were just not nice to their students. I only saw them at recess and witnessed belittling their students, make them sit out all of recess or do their classwork during recess. One boy I saw a lot doing work during recess would stare out of his classmates playing a lot. He'd walk up to his teacher with the clipboard of his worksheet and hand it to her to look over. He'd try and make a break for it to go play, but the teacher always found something wrong with the paper and instead of going over with him what was wrong, she'd fuss at him for not doing anything with the paper and make him sit back down. I'd watch him look over the paper for a little while, mark something then stare at his classmates again. I hated seeing this and was so happy that my teacher didn't do that. She would make the students do a few walks around the playground but then let them play. She knew they needed to run around and play.
Children really need their outside time. Similar to Jamie's experience I have seen children receive punishment upon incompletion of their homework. I honestly do not recall the grade level but it's because the student I observed were not in my practicum class they just happened to be sitting along the playground when I went outside for recess with my teacher. I think that homework is important and there should be a consequence for incompletion but I cannot help but wonder what the circumstances that surrounded the student's failure to complete the assignment. I feel like as teacher's we can get frustrated with student patterns and forget to ask why? Maybe the student doesn't complete homework because they have no one at home to help them, maybe they forget, or maybe they feel comfortable with the material and do not really need the extra practice. Either way I think there are more reasonable alternative than forcing students to complete homework during recess. Perhaps students can be given time after finishing an in class assignment to start on homework or be given a few minutes at the end of the day to start. All children need time to move around, it has proven exercise raises dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical released in the brain during physical activity that helps the brain focus and influence attention, motivation and goal-directed behavior.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my practicum classes I was in one of the only collaborative classrooms in the school. They only had one special education teacher so all of the students who had an IEP or 504 in the fourth grade were in this one classroom. That was over half of the class. The special education teacher wanted to be a general education teacher and took over some of the subjects, during this time the actual classroom teacher would leave the room to print out lesson plans, or make lesson plans at his desk. He didn't exactly know how to help the students who needed it and even when the special education teacher wasn't teaching, she wasn't helping. My first day in the classroom a little boy called me over to his desk. He needed help with the assignment (he didn't even have his name on it yet) so I started helping him the best that I could and giving him the attention that he needed and in my opinion, deserved. The special education teacher came up to me and snapped at me saying "Don't help him, there is nothing you can do for him. He will never get it anyway." That moment has stuck with me ever since. The rest of the semester went the same way. It was the most dehumanizing thing I had ever witnessed in a classroom. A student needed her and she completely ignored him at all cost because he was "too difficult" for her to handle. I understand that there were other students but one of the things we are taught is to differentiate our teaching in order to best serve each of our students, instead of trying to differentiate so he could learn as much as possible, they just ignored him completely. This was extremely heart-breaking to watch and I am sure it happens in classrooms all around the world, not just in Richmond city.
ReplyDeleteChristeena Claiborne
ReplyDeleteAs an intern, I witness many things that can be labeled as "Dehumanizing" when it comes to how teachers treat students. The most recent event happened when I had about five students running to student services in TEARS to tell the counselors about how a particular teacher called them out about their grades. They said that the teacher split the classroom into groups. One group was for students who did well on a test, and the other was for students who received failing grades. They also said the teacher yelled out "If the ones who did not pass the test were more like the students that passed, then..." First of all, this is not how we make connections with students. This is not the only incident that has occurred where teachers think they can say whatever they want to students without thinking first.
I became really frustrated because the teachers like to complain about how students are disrespectful but sometimes fail to realize that they play a small role in that (In my opinion).
Needless to say, this teacher is not too fond of counselors because she has repeatedly said, "You all always run to the counselors to tell on teachers when you don't agree with what I have to say."
Advocating is a big priority (top on the list) with my career, and I take it pretty seriously. I may not get the results I always want, but it's a good feeling to always take up for students when teachers do not make the best communication decisions.
I think there are many practices in school systems that could be regarded as dehumanizing. In schools, students are constantly told where to sit, when to eat, where and with whom to exercise, how to speak, and when they can get up to get a drink or to go to the bathroom. Following social norms is an important part of socialization, but in schools, students often have to obey strict regulations that adults are not subject to. Oftentimes, students also have little choice about who they would like to sit next to or what topics they would like to learn. Students are segregated by age, whereas in the adult world we rarely work and live in a community exclusively made up of people of the same age. Students frequently have to produce work from which their community gains no real use and which does not derive them any enjoyment or challenge, but which simply serves to be judged and then discarded. In some ways, these dehumanizing aspects of the school environment mirror dehumanizing aspects of certain adult work environments, but in other ways these controls and regulations are more intense for students.
ReplyDeleteI have also seen adults make efforts to make schools more humanizing environments. For instance, some educators try to empathize with the experience of students. Teachers might make allowances for students with learning differences or recognize that the school environment might not be the best fit for a given child without that child being inferior to others. Teachers may also try to find ways to make the work students perform meaningful or to skip assignments that will serve no purpose but busywork for the students. One teacher I remember had students write their names on the back of their papers so that he could grade their papers with fewer preconceptions. Another teacher helped to create a safe-feeling environment through gentle, non-derogatory use of humor and through providing multiple ways for students to contribute to projects and to participate in assignments.
My experience in education has been primarily in higher education, specifically students who are coming out of high school. Just because these students are more “on their own” now does not mean that they have moved from actions similar to the ones that I have read in the previous responses. At times there seems to be a disconnect between them doing what will keep them on track to graduate and the latter, which can include just about anything and everything else. This might not be a good example but at times the “for” what is in their best academic interest is “against” what they feel is their personal freedom. Much of this does not include inside the classroom activities, but at the same time is a big part of their academic experience. In residence life, there are policies and procedures put into place because there is a minority that tends to abuse or “ruin” freedoms for everyone else. This is nowhere close to the case where I am, but it reminds me of having to pass through metal detectors to enter schools. They are in place for safety, yet have a dehumanizing effect or a self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon. The more freedom that is taken away in the name of safety almost always has a backlash. Where do we give and take in these instances? (K-12 included)
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