Leveling Up: Reflecting on the Path to Rigor

• In Event: The Tight-Loose Paradox Around Instructional Models: Where Do I Stand as a Teacher Leader?

Abstract

Purpose: I use self-study to explore “How do I adopt the mindset that the teaching profession is a service as well as a practice?” Teaching is more than following a set of rules to produce a desired result that measures the success, or lack thereof, of teachers and students. I explore opportunities to serve others through the lens of liberation and seek to use my creativity through problem solving.
Theoretical Framework: I see opportunities to serve others through the lens of liberation. This study is also grounded in Rosenholtz’s (1989) social-organizational framework. Both the structures of the school and the social interactions within it inform my approach.
Contextual Framework: I am an African-American woman in a middle school in a small industrial city who sees opportunities to serve others through the lens of liberation. I have served in this school as a classroom teacher and ELA department chair and currently have the role of literacy coach.
Methods and Data: I use self-study to make evident my thinking through reflective cycles of decision-making (Hamilton, et al., 2008). My teacher research group colleagues serve as critical friends who continuously check the trustworthiness of my data cycles and conclusions (LaBoskey, 2004). My data for written reflective cycles include observations of self, colleagues, and students; reflections on my coaching techniques and feedback, and frequent journal entries on my experiences. Journaling on reflective cycles is the critical method. This self-study intentionally uses only data available in typical instructional practice. Coaches walk a confidentiality line; data used in this self-study is general enough to be “broad strokes” but specific enough to take action. Data for reflection during journaling cycles include walk-through forms and debrief conversations, PLC agenda forms with a focus on “How will we close the gap?”, and experiences arising from parent conferences.
Substantiated Conclusions: This is a preliminary paper for an ongoing study. Reflective cycle data in the final paper will be a narrative with cycles embedded as graphics. I have noted that we find the teaching profession rewarding and that we influence many students throughout our career. We visibly care about our students and want to see them succeed, so we do what we can inside our four walls. We speak about teaching the whole student, and that’s where service comes in. I am now exploring a “servant teachers’” realm of influence that includes the community. My evolving self-study centers on “How can our work affect a student’s home life?” and “How does it affect my life?”
Implications: This question matters because there is a shallow belief of “service,” and I find that the word is used to manipulate workers into increasing production, but I believe that service goes beyond what we see as a result of hard work or even the hard work itself. If we redefine what service is in the workplace, the work will become more meaningful and purposeful.

Author

• Patricia Cook, Chesterfield County Public Schools