Teachers’ Perspectives on the Moral Dimension of Teaching

• In Event: Keeping the Vision in Changing Times: Preparing Teachers With Commitments to Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

For nearly thirty years, the major discussion concerning public education has focused on school reform, and within this discussion, issues of accountability and standardization have predominated (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Yet the focus on standardization, particularly as promoted through high-stakes tests and other punitive measures of accountability, have led in many cases to higher dropout rates, a constriction of the curriculum, the departure of talented teachers from the profession and, in some extreme cases, fraud and cheating (Nichols & Berliner, 2007). In addition, how to assess progress in education has been chiefly defined as the need to be “scientific,” with a rigid definition of “scientific.” Schools and colleges of education, teacher unions, and teachers themselves have been the major scapegoats, while students living in poverty, especially Latino/a, African, and American Indian students, have been the greatest victims (Nieto, 2010; Noguera, 2010). Meanwhile, the discourse of school reform has been largely organized and controlled by corporate interests, including publishing companies, as well as foundations with money to influence every educational policy from teacher recruitment to curriculum. As a result, teachers’, students’, and parents’ perspectives are for the most part missing in the ongoing debates about how to improve our public schools.

The moral dimension of teacher education, and teaching and learning in general, are also largely missing from existing notions of school reform. Achieving AYP, raising test scores, and “racing to the top” have become the major goals of public education while the broader purposes of public education in a democratic society, including the moral dimension, have become obscured. What teachers have to say about this situation is also obscured because their voices are missing not only from the debate but also from policy and practice decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the current instrumentalist discourse of education by offering an antidote through teachers’ perspectives on the moral dimensions of teacher education, professional development, and teaching and learning in a diverse and democratic society. Fifteen teachers, from novice to veteran and reflecting a diversity of backgrounds, teaching positions, and geographic regions were interviewed with a view toward understanding their perspectives on their preparation for teaching as an ethical endeavor. Specifically, the teachers, most of whom teach in diverse settings, were queried about how they thrive in spite of tremendous obstacles related to standardization and surveillance. Questions focused on the conditions in schools and society that either promote or hinder both teacher resiliency and teaching as an ethical endeavor.

Author

• Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts - Amherst