Teaching Them to Speak Their Minds: Ambitious Teaching as Advocacy in One Urban School

• In Event: School-Based Preparatory and Retention Research Supporting Ambitious Pedagogies for High-Need Urban Schools

Abstract

Purpose
This paper presents research drawn from a multiple-case study conducted with a group of effective teachers, graduates of an intensive, urban-focused alternative preparation program. It focuses on one of the cases, exploring ways in which the teacher participant enacts and sustains her vision as an advocate for her students through her commitment to ambitious teaching practices.

Theoretical Framework
This presentation is drawn from a multiple-case study that is situated within Ladson-Billings’ (1994) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and informed by literature on the ways that teachers’ visions for their work influences their effectiveness and perseverance (Hammerness, 2006, 2008). Preparing teachers who maintain high expectations and advocate for all students despite differences and, who maintain and enact a commitment to change through developing their diverse students’ cultural competence and sociopolitical consciousness, necessitates expectations for teachers that go beyond traditional teacher roles (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Methods
Participants in the study were nominated and confirmed to be effective teachers of diverse students. Multiple data sources captured the work of the teachers providing a window into the participants’ work as advocates for their elementary students in a variety of situations and locations. The backwards design approach to link effective teaching to initial preparation is an approach that goes beyond positive shifts attitudes and dispositions by tracing practices of effective teachers to elements of their teacher preparation program (Clift & Brady, 2005; Sleeter & Owuor, 2011).

Data Sources
Data sources for each participant include analysis of personal program documents, three individual interviews, and three school-related observations. Participants also engaged in three focus group interviews. Cases were analyzed individually and across cases in a recursive, generative process to uncover similarities and differences between cases and to understand the role of contextual factors in the work of the teachers.

Results
Participants in this study enacted visions for their work as advocates that extend beyond the traditional bounds of the role of a schoolteacher including a commitment to ambitious teaching practices (Lortie, 1975). Ambitious teaching includes activities that not only address the curriculum standards, but also provide experiences with authentic problem solving resulting in deep thinking and intellectual dialog (Lampert, Boerst, & Graziani, 2011; Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2011). This case provides insight into the ways that one teacher enacts ambitious teaching as a means of 1) providing equitable learning opportunities, 2) challenging and erasing negative labels, and 3) strengthening reasoning and communication skills. A commitment to urban schools and diverse students, a supportive university and school environment, and a growing record of student success are factors that sustain the teacher in her work and support her resistance to professional weathering forces.

Significance
This research is significant as it reveals the ways that teachers may incorporate and sustain ambitious teaching within their practice as a means of advocacy for students in urban schools. The results add to understandings about the role of teacher education and school contexts in developing and supporting effective teachers who are committed to urban schools and students.

Author

• Kim Stevens Barker, Georgia State University