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Our COE Framework CORE VALUES (in all of our syllabi):
ADVOCACY, PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES, COLLABORATION & RELATIONSHIPS, DIGNITY, DIVERSITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE, NEW MEXICO SITUATED, SCHOLARSHIP & RESEARCH, TEACHING & LEARNING
AS TEACHING PROFESSIONALS, WE DEVELOP: UNDERSTANDINGS, PRACTICES & IDENTITIES and these reflect the values embedded in state and national standards.
THESE UNDERSTANDINGS FRAME OUR PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY:
UNDERSTAND HUMAN GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
CULTURE & LANGUAGE
DISCIPLINE CONTENT
PEDAGOGY
TECHNOLOGY
PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE
THESE UNDERSTANDINGS INFLUENCE OUR PRACTICES:
LEARNER-CENTERED CONTEXTUAL
COHERENT
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TECHNOLOGICALLY CURRENT
THESE UNDERSTANDINGS DEFINE OUR PROFESSIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF:
CARING
ADVOCACY
INQUISITIVENESS
REFLECTION IN ACTION
COMMUNICATION
COLLABORATION
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
My philosophy of education
“Our children are living messages we send to a time we may never see.” ~ Neil Postman
I am a humanist and constructivist and not a Controller or Behaviorist. Our learning is shared together and I honor individuality, collective diversity, different ways of learning, expressing and sharing in a learning community as culturally responsive people and educators.
If a student learns because you have to or somebody is making you or because you are supposed to do it that way, or that’s what they want, then the learning experience is not authentic and is limited and constricted whereby there is no sense of ownership or purposeful learning taking place.
Learning is challenging and is not about what is easiest or most convenient but guided by intrinsic curiosity and interest. Teacher, learner and change are synonymous. Change means you have learned something in the process. Learning means you have been changed in the process. Change implies you have learned something new. I hold myself up to the same standards I am require of my students. I will never ask them to do anything I would not do myself. My learning is intertwined with their learning.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” as attributed to Einstein, is what I wrote in my philosophy of teaching many years ago. And so, I believe it is even more so applicable today. For what are we preparing students: a world of constant change and dealing with problems that has never existed before? So what is important in educating children is to nurture flexible, independent thinkers who can problem-solve cooperatively, respecting and communicating with diverse people within diverse settings, virtually or face-to-face.
Your learning is personal, guided by student interests, motivation and curiosity. I will provide a stimulating environment of inquiry where goals and objectives are set; yet the way to them are as different and creative as the number of people in our class.
I create a learning environment whereby we honor your uniqueness, respecting there are numerous ways to understand anything and everything. I will respect your individuality. Our view can only reveal partial understanding, since there are so many storied individuals with such different perspectives and experiences. I am aware of my own biases and invite students to explore stereotypes, prejudices and recognize the inequalities that exist and persist in content and context of our curriculum and society.
As culturally responsive educationalists, I honor the stories that children bring into their learning environment and use these as the content and context for learning. As a reconceptualist, I do not take everything we teach for granted but become a discerning educator who recognize bias, censorship, racial proclivities; inequalities in the curriculum we teach; disparity in the system of education and the policy makers who establish the rules which govern our profession.
I am a forward-thinking educator who does not settle on what is, but rather what can be in the best interests of students and their learning. I do not need to teach students but rather give them opportunities to learn about themselves in the process of learning. I invite learning that is relevant, stimulating, engaging and not demeaning to this digital generation of children.
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I am a critical theorist of critical pedagogy who understands there is institutional and structural racism and inequalities existing in our system of schooling.
Peter Hall (1997): “Schools represent a relatively stable system of inequality. They contribute to these results by active acceptance and utilization of a dominant set of values, norms, beliefs which, while appearing to offer opportunities to all, actually support the success of a privileged minority and hinder the efforts and visions of a majority” (Changing the Discourse in School in Race, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism: Policy and Practice, p. 151.)
Ivan Illich refered to compulsory education as a compulsory lottery system with a few winning but more losing. Those who fail to have the winning lottery number (grades) are stigmatized. This compulsory lottery system continues to higher education where it intentionally reproduces privilege rather than inspiring scholarship “Killing curiosity and killing students in the process” (Utne Reader, 1995, Snell, p. 93).
Similar to Illich’s concept was South American literacy activist Paolo Freire, who compared education to a banking system with students as ‘depositories’ and teachers as ‘depositors’. The banking system perpetuates domination and learners are passive consumers. Freire advocated for the liberating of education where the learner becomes empowered agents responsible for their own learning – not just what others want them to learn. This is what he called conscientization. Freire’s ideas about literacy empowerment were so controversial and in opposition to the dominant way of thinking that he was exiled from his own country. As educators, what kind of activists will we become as we teach in the name of educating students?
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