I think Richard Sagor has bugged my house. His argument about the difference between blue collar and professional jobs is a discussion that my husband (also a teacher at AHS) and I have had numerous times. We've all, it would appear, come to the conclusion that real change in education will not occur until people, ourselves included, begin to see/treat educators like professionals. Until then "it is assumed that the qualities of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurship will be supplied by" our bosses--administrators, politicians, lobbyists, etc.--not by educators themselves (29).
Every time a prescribed program or paid consultant is force fed to us, we, the classroom teacher, lose a little bit more of our power, our motivation. "When [we are] told' to implement an 'adopted' strategy' and do it precisely as the instruction manual suggests," there is an assumption on the part of our leadership, however subconscious it may be, that we cannot deal with the tremendous obstacles in our path (32). Far from empowering the educator by providing them with a surefire cure for the warts that ail us, this approach leaves us impotent and frustrated.
Sagor's illustrates the consequence of this top down approach nicely when he gives the scenarios of the superintendent and the CEO. I do not think he's being hyperbolic when he compares the challenge of helping every student reach proficiency by 2014 to putting a man on the moon. Educational reform is an enormous undertaking. Sagor notes that "anyone who doubts that assertion should consider that throughout the world, no school system, no country, no state, no city has every been successful in making every child an academic success" (28). But where the space race lead to incredible innovation and collaboration on the part of NASA's employees, ed reform has had the opposite effect upon teachers--striping us of our autonomy and voice. The difference lies in the way that people view our respective jobs. Sagor argues that when blue collar workers fail to meet productivity goals the blame rests solely at their feet. They must be lazy or incompetent. Conversely, when professionals fail to meet the challenges set before them, "it is most often attributed to the failings inherent in the intervention or treatment attempted, not on the merit of 'worthiness' of the practitioner" (29). It was okay for NASA scientists to miss the mark every once in a while. They were given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, to work together to overcome these stumbling blocks. Unfortunately, teachers are not afforded the same privilege.
Action research puts the ball back in our court. It gives the people who are on the ground working with kids everyday a voice. It assumes that teachers are professionals, that we have the desire and the know-how to tackle some of the most complex and persuasive problems standing in the way of our goal to make education relevant and empowering for an increasingly diverse student population. Yet this confidence is as terrifying as it is gratifying. For if we truly embrace the ideas behind practitioner research, then we too must develop the confidence in ourselves to face these problems head on. Too often we try to "escape personal responsibility" for the failures in our classrooms/schools "by blaming conditions outside of [our] control"--poverty, lack of parental support, etc. (31). That is no to say that these factors do not impact our students' performance and readiness. In fact, I find it laughable when politicians and policy makers try to dismiss these very real obstacles, as they did in Central Falls, and make wild claims about "super-teachers" being the answer to all of our ills. These are very real, very intimidating problems. But we, as a society, need to change the way that we look at them. Not by pretending they don't exist but rather by acknowledging them and giving educators the freedom, time, and support necessary to research the problem, brainstorm solutions, and take action.
Unfortunately this is easier said then done. In my experience, administrators pay lip service to this idea but rarely if ever take the steps necessary to truly empower teachers. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk. They will read a book like Sagor's and decide a "culture of excellence" is exactly what our school needs. But instead of giving teachers the time and resources that would allow for real collaboration and research to take place organically, they will instead force us into small collaborative teams of their choosing and make us work on whatever agenda they've decided is most pressing at the time. Essentially the exact opposite of what Sagor is advocating.
Take PD days for example. I cannot remember the last time we as a department were given time to just sit down and talk to our peers about the issues/problems we are having in our classrooms. Instead we are given a prescribed agenda which outlines how our time is to be used down to the last minute. Real concerns are pushed aside so we can be trained in things like lesson protocol.
So I guess my question is how do we as teachers advocate for ourselves in a way that would allow us to implement the changes necessary for real change in light of the pressures and restrictions put on us by the powers that be?
