The New Teachers' Roundtable: A Case Study of Collective Resistance

• In Event: The Teach For All Teacher Education Experience in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil

Abstract

The New Teachers’ Roundtable (NTRT) is a teacher collective developed by TFA alumni, critical of their training and the post-Katrina neoliberal overhaul of public schools within which they were implicated, with guidance from community leaders and Black veteran educators. This paper explores the ways in which NTRT shifts the perspective, pedagogy, and practitioner identity of TFA teachers and others formally affiliated with neoliberal reform.

Perspectives

This analysis contributes to scholarship documenting the ways in which TFA—and the neoliberal network within which they are situated—effects communities, schools and children (Author, 2015; 2016a). In New Orleans specifically, these reforms have gentrified the teaching force (Barrett & Harris, 2015; Buras, 2013; 2014) and school governing bodies (Buras, 2011; Henry & Dixson, 2016; Nelson, 2015), and expanded the presence of “no excuses” schools that engage in push-out practices, harsh discipline policies, and test- centric curricula (Davis, 2014; Griffin, 2016; Author, 2016b). Recent scholarship has addressed how these reforms also have the potential to cultivate “principled resistance” among teachers (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006) and acts of subversion to benefit the common good (Anderson & Cohen, 2015; Uetricht, 2014). One of the ways teachers engage in resistance—relevant to this study—is through critical study groups (Picower, 2011). This particular study is interested in study groups that bring together those implicated in and those affected by neoliberal reform.

Methods

This paper draws data from a qualitative case study (Stake, 1995) of NTRT between 2014-2016. Data collection included 2-3, one-hour formal interviews nine members of the NTRT leadership team including discussion of participants’ experiences with TFA and job placements and reflections on NTRT and observations at NTRT meetings, biannual retreats, and monthly events for the larger new teacher population. Through focus groups, participants supported data analysis and manuscript development.

Findings

Findings demonstrate that participants felt that their TFA training and experience teaching in “no excuses” classrooms were dehumanizing to their students, the larger Black community, and themselves. NTRT, however, engaged them in critical reflection and dialogue, provided access to critical texts, and created opportunities to build meaningful relationships with each other and community members. Ultimately, these experiences enabled them to 1) reclaim their own humanity, 2) recognize and honor the humanity of the indigenous Black community, 3) develop historical, social, and political analysis, 4) learn to challenge their internalized White supremacy; and 4) begin shifting towards “advocacy professionalism,” defined by Anderson and Cohen (2015, p. 17) as identifying the self as an ally to the community in service of advancing shared governance; community participation; and culturally responsive schools.

Significance

This case elucidates the ways in which TFA teachers and others affiliated with neoliberal reform can learn to serve as allies to indigenous communities and develop as social justice educators. However, just as democratic, education reform must be rooted in community; so must the resistance to neoliberal policies.

Author

• Beth Leah Sondel, University of Pittsburgh