Creating Humanizing Urban Classrooms in Community Through Empathy, Humility, and Vulnerability

• In Event: Finding (Y)Our Pack: Coming Together to Inform and Transform Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives
The current era of neoliberal curricular reform in the United States has forefronted standardized curriculum and high-stakes tests while simultaneously pushing equity-based pedagogies to the margins (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ede, 2006; Johnson, 2012; Lipman, 2011; Sleeter, 2012). As a result, social justice educators face the dilemma of leaving the classroom, compromising their practice, or teaching in a state of fear (Lipman, 2009; McNeil, 2009; Picower, 2012). There is a need to examine how educators collectively work towards and sustain social justice teaching in the current neoliberal context.
This study examined how a group of educators enhanced their ability to teach for social justice in urban schools through a teacher inquiry group (Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Ginwright, 2016; Nieto, 2003). The teacher inquiry group provided a space for teachers to unpack collective and individual trauma, engage in vulnerability, and heal. Their participation led educators to create humanizing classroom structures, relationships with students, and humanize themselves throughout the process. The paper provides examples of teachers creating a humanizing classroom culture by engaging in empathy, humility, and vulnerability with their students.

Theoretical framework
This study brought together humanizing pedagogies and non-punitive practices in urban schools (Camangian, 2015; Freire, 2003; Yang, 2009), culturally responsive classroom procedures, care, and relationships (Ware, 2006; Weinstein, Curran, & Tomlinson-Clarke; 2003), and pedagogies of vulnerability (Brantmeier, 2013; hooks, 1994; Keet, Zinn & Proteus, 2009) to examine the way teacher activists developed their own professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) to engage in humanizing urban classroom practices.

Methods
The study utilized a qualitative case study methodology and critical inquiry group design (Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Merriam, 2009). The case was a teacher-led space that centered people of Color and used an anti-colonial framework, known as the Teacher Inquiry Group (TIG). The study focused on six educators from the twenty-five participants that were bound together through their participation in the TIG. Data collection involved participant observations within a teacher inquiry group and in six urban secondary classrooms, semi-structured interviews, teacher-created materials, and student work (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003; Merriam, 2009).

Results
The findings reveal that the TIG provided a space for teachers to discuss social and collective trauma, engage in collective vulnerability, and heal. As a result, teachers drew from the TIG space to engage in social justice education at their school sites. They developed and employed non-punitive classroom procedures, culturally informed caring relationships, and an environment of mutual respect and reciprocity. In creating a humanizing classroom, they each engaged in empathy, humility, and vulnerability with their students.

Scholarly Significance
In response to standardized curriculum and testing, the findings allow us to explore teacher-learning spaces that provide socio-emotional support to sustain and enhance social justice teaching. This study provides insight into social justice-oriented teacher education and professional development.

Author

• Oscar Navarro, California State University Long Beach