Response to Workshop 9

Will social and economic problems be solved if teachers could decide if whole language, skill and drill, basals, or balanced literacy is the best method? Likely not says Luke in “Getting Over Method: Literacy Teaching as Work in “New Times’”. “The matter, thus is not one of finding the right and correct scientific methods of teaching literacy and “targeting” these at marginalized groups.” Rather “it is about how and to what ends we can reshape students’ reading and writing practices” so they can successfully encounter the global economy, new technologies and future literacies.
In order to accomplish such a feat, we as teachers must have a vast repertoire of skills and abilities. We need to understand the social practices around teaching, what is relevant to our students and we also need to facilitate critical thinking in our students. Not just to be critical, but to help them see their potential and influence they hold. Certainly the demands on teachers are great. It seems each year more and more is demanded from us while society’s regard for teachers is less and less. I recently attended a workshop for Kindergarten teachers where the speaker spoke briefly to the issue of society’s regard for teachers. He showed a photo of him speaking with a parent at his desk in the classroom. He stated he has placed his degrees, certificates and awards directly behind his desk, in clear line of sight for the person facing him. He does so in order to demonstrate to the people that visit his room that he is a professional, fully qualified to the work he does. A bit much? Maybe, but it clearly illustrated in his experience, teacher’s work is respected.
My parent’s generation generally has a much higher regard for the teaching profession. To be a “school teacher” was a noble profession. How is it that such a shift has happened in the last 50 years? Luke’s Introductory Guide to Teacher’s Work in “Getting Over Method” provided some insight for me. Certainly we are asked to do more and more with less and less. Class sizes are bigger, individual attention to children is almost impossible some days. Test scores are driving decisions around teaching and learning. Cuts to the arts programs in our schools are not new. Luke states that the top down model of school is driving this. School as business is a far cry from the one room country school house where the teacher held the respect of the community. However, the “human capital model of education” was not designed by teachers. Which raises the issue of control- often the illusion of teachers having control is there, but too often it is just that, an illusion. We need to advocate for not just our students but ourselves.
Another issue raised in Luke’s article that I had not considered before is that of the feminization of teaching and the “gendered division of disciplinary knowledge and labour”. This framed teaching in a different way for me. It is something I would like to read and consider further.
So, it seems there are many negatives around teaching. Pressure to eradicate illiteracy thus improving society, demands to do more with less, lack of control and diminished public support are just some of those. However, I still say I have the best career in the world. I can’t imagine doing anything else.