Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith Lynch School of Education Boston College, USA www.marilyncochransmith.com

Learning to Teach over Time: Two Teachers, Two Paths

Learning to Teach over Time: Two Teachers, Two Paths

This is a life

You heal. You help. You love. Whats wrong with that?

Is that a life, or is that a life?

Learning to Teach over Time: Two Teachers, Two Paths

OVERVIEW

stories of two beginning teachers

a framework to explain similarities and differences

implications for leadership, teaching, and learning in the 21st century

OVERVIEW

stories of two beginning teachers

a framework to explain similarities and differences

implications for leadership, teaching, and learning in the 21st century

Stories play a major role in our sleeping and waking lives. We

dream in narrative, daydream in

narrative, remember, anticipate,

hope, despair, believe, doubt,

plan, revise, criticize, construct,

gossip, learn, hate and love by

narrative. (Barbara Hardy)

Sources:

Teacher Inquiry and Learning to Teach Research Project (book) PI: Marilyn Cochran-Smith

University of Pennsylvania, 1994-1998

Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge (book)

Authors: Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan L. Lytle

New York: Teachers College Press, 1994.

Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation (book)

Authors: Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan L. Lytle

New York: Teachers College Press, 2009

(Gill Maimon chapter: Practitioner Inquiry as Mediated Emotion)

Qualitative Case Studies of Learning to Teach (QCS) Research Project (articles)

Co-PIs: Marilyn Cochran-Smith & Patrick McQuillan Core Researchers: Joan Barnatt, Lisa DSouza, Cindy Jong, Kara Mitchell, Karen Shakman, and Dianna Terrell

Boston College, 2004-2010

The Story of Gill Maimon

Planned to teach for 3 years,

then policy

TP emphasized action

research and social

justice

Struggled during

her first year

Mid 20s, white, female,

middle class

Very strong

academic background

Assigned a school

mentor and attended orientations for new teachers

TP at a major university

Teaching job in same district,

same grade level

The Story of Elsie Reynolds

Struggled her first year

Early 20s, white, female, middle class Very strong

academic background

TP emphasized

inquiry and

social justice

Assigned a school

mentor

Planned to teach for

professional lifetime

Teaching job in

same school,

in her field

TP at a major university

Two Teachers, Two Paths

COMPLETING 18th YEAR FIRED AT END OF 1STYEAR

OVERVIEW

stories of two beginning teachers

a framework to explain similarities and differences

implications for leadership, teaching, and learning in the 21st century

Learning to Teach Over Time

Deprivatization of practice

Inquiry as stance

High expectations for all students

Multiple overlapping communities

school cultures, context, resources

entry characteristics, personal situation

tea

ch

er p

rep/p

rofe

ssio

nal d

evelo

pm

ent v

alu

es,

be

liefs

, expecta

tions, dis

positio

ns

TIME

Deprivatization of practice

struggled with management

reflected on failings

conflict with principal

unsupported by mentor

advocated for by another teacher

helped by grade-level partners

reached outward for help

Deprivatization

struggled with management

ambivalent about the source of her difficulties

separated from other faculty

ignored by principal

unsupported by mentor

turned inward and withdrew

Privatization

school cultures, context, resources

entry characteristics, personal situation

teacher p

rep/p

rofe

ssio

nal d

evelo

pm

en

t va

lue

s,

belie

fs,

expecta

tions,

dis

positio

ns

TIME

High expectations

for all students

student teaching with at risk low-income students

cooperating teacher had low expectations

engaged in principled resistance

provided rich learning opportunities

documented students learning

Maintenance of High Expectations

high expectations about literature and critical thinking

cooperating teacher found her expectations too high

school culture: low expectations

gradually abandoned alternative methods

Erosion of Expectations

school cultures, context, resources

entry characteristics, personal situation

teacher p

rep/p

rofe

ssio

nal d

evelo

pm

en

t va

lue

s,

belie

fs,

expecta

tions,

dis

positio

ns

TIME

Inquiry as stance

Lucky people find work that matches

how they want to see

the worldI aim to be truthful

preparation program focused on

inquiry

fit well with her own world view

wrote regularly about her teaching in order to know more

professional groups emphasized oral inquiry and classroom

research

I have never been certain

whether I am

a teacher who writes

or a writer who

teaches

One of the reasons I write about my

classroom is to

challenge the limits of

the work, to keep trying

to know more

My turtle _____ to be alone.

My turtle MUST GO INTO THE STREET to be alone.

The writing I do is an assertion of the

inherent intellectual

nature of teaching.

It is a way that I keep

learning

preparation program focused on

inquiry

fit well with her own world view

wrote regularly about her teaching in order to know more

professional groups emphasized oral inquiry and classroom

research

Inquiry as Stance

preparation program fostered the idea of inquiry as a

project, not stance

inquiry was an inconvenient requirement, not a way to

know more as a teacher

I just dont think it works very well, throwing

inquiry on top of student

teaching

Its hard enough to plan lessons in general when

youre student teaching. But its harder to plan out

an entire research

project through lessons.

preparation program fostered the idea of inquiry as a

project, not stance

inquiry was an inconvenient requirement, not a way to

know more as a teacher

Inquiry as Project

school cultures, context, resources

entry characteristics, personal situation

teacher p

rep/p

rofe

ssio

nal d

evelo

pm

en

t va

lue

s,

belie

fs,

expecta

tions,

dis

positio

ns

TIME

Multiple overlapping

communities

nested communities during program

Teachers Learning Cooperative

school principal at new school

Philadelphia Writing Project

graduate program

hosted/mentored student teachers

I am a teacher because we are a

teacher commnity, and

because we are a teacher

community, I am a

teacher.

nested communities during program

Teachers Learning Cooperative

school principal at new school

Philadelphia Writing Project

graduate program

hosted/mentored student teachers

Multiple overlapping communities

placement at a non-partnership school

minimal involvement in programs activities

1-1 mentoring arrangement

Isolation

school cultures, context, resources

entry characteristics, personal situation

teacher p

rep/p

rofe

ssio

nal d

evelo

pm

en

t va

lue

s,

belie

fs,

expecta

tions,

dis

positio

ns

TIME

OVERVIEW

stories of two beginning teachers

a framework to explain similarities and differences

implications for leadership, teaching, and learning, in the 21st century

IMPLICATIONS:

leadership and school organization professional induction/learning of novice teachers

Learning to teach well is not

determined by single factors.

We need multi-layered policies

and school leaders who tailor

these policies for local schools

and departments.

To support quality teaching across

the professional lifespan, we must

take account of teachers multiple identities, positionalities,

and ways of knowing.

.

All teachers

(including new and very

experienced)

are not the same.

Communities for teacher learning

must be contexts where questions

and uncertainty are understood

as signs of learning,

not signs of failing

This involves deprivatization,

high expectations, inquiry as stance,

and multiple communities.

Teachers must act in an imperfect world

We have no choice but to risk ourselves. The choice is to consider

the risk private or to build a

community that accepts

vulnerability and shares risks. (Dwayne Huebner)

www.marilyncochransmith.com