For this meeting we were all tired after a long day of processing last minute enrollments, drops, transcript evaluations, advising students, taking phone calls, answering and sending emails, and administering tests. At the beginning of the session I could see how tired the participants were. Two participants were getting over colds from the previous week. Still, they were ready to provide their responses to questions and additional prompts once the session began. However, before the session, I allowed the conversation to continue naturally between. These interpersonal interactions are an essential element of my study. Seeing this interaction supports the camaraderie I am looking form in laying the groundwork for a community of practice. Additionally, I did not want to be a rude leader or administrator, only concerned about my agenda. Given that I want to learn from my participants, I felt that it was important for me to sit quietly for a few minutes and allow the participants to speak freely about the day and exchange stories with each other. I also wanted the participants to be at ease. I allowed the conversation to continue and saw it as a precursor or warmup to the discussion were about to engage in. Even with my participatory position, there were still instances where a participant saw that I was in the room and hoped that I was not recording. I assured them that I would not turn the recorder until everyone is ready. Even after turning it on, I would remain consistent with the consent form that they signed at the introduction meeting.
Once the conversation died down, they turned toward me and took this as my cue to begin. I asked them if it was okay to turn on the recorder. They gave their approval and the recorder was turned on. I recapped the key points from the previous meeting. I recapped the goals of this meeting, which were to take a subject and expand upon it from a leader's perspective. I asked them to provide both an impassioned and well reasoned argument. The I gave them three key topics from the first meeting and Females in STEM was chosen. From that point, the participant who first presented the topic began to share her views. Next, each of the other the two participants provided their perspective. Once built upon the view of the first participant while the third contributor provided a reasoned alternative view with an example. I asked the first participant to provide reasoned argument for keeping the arts amid budgetary constraints. She provided her primary stance and then provided an alternative stance. This showed that she understood that she may not be able to get exactly what she wanted. It was impressive that she had an alternative argument ready to heard in its place.
The other participants were equally up to the task of responding to the points presented by their partner. I participating through use of timely questions, providing clarification where there were stuck places, and providing synergy where there were opportunities to connect ideas. At this point, I've grown from participant to coach to mentor. Each of the participants have also revealed some interested aspects of their personalities in their dialogue. In the end, I saw a political/education activist, a primary or secondary teacher or counselor, and a higher education advocate. Below is a recap of our conversation. I attempted to be a little less involved in this conversation because I wanted to leave plenty of room for each participant to express their truth from their perspective. I avoided making statements or comments that may persuade or dissuade them. I wanted the conversation to be completely theirs. However, on occasion they did look to me to provide clarity. In those instances, I was a willing participant.
Below is a recap of yesterday’s dialogue. What talked about Early
Childhood in Education, Inadequacy in education, and Females in Stem.
Having a child who is very, very arts and literature heavy,
I feel the emphasis is real detriment to kids who aren’t STEM
I’m worried about the funding for K-12 for the arts, they’re
taking away things like music and theater production, arts and humanities,
taking away recess from elementary school kids, it would terrible for kids and
teachers, because they need that break
Old enough to remember when girls weren’t given a fair
shake. I don’t remember Title IX, but I remember the early ramifications, not
just sports but it morphed into other things
The united states is worried about other kids from other
countries are coming from countries where they are math heavy
I understand, but society needs artists and musicians,
without the arts, our society is going to die, I do see the importance of STEM,
but there is an opportunity for “cross-teaching”, these opportunities aren’t
recognized well, They impact may not be seen right now, but in later
generations
STEM example at son’s school, all they talked about was
their STEM programs, you have to pull out the pros and cons of the arts and
communications. She talked about the loss of her Bachelor program and other
social and arts programs at her Alma Mater
Who’s going to run the libraries, who’s going to run the
general libraries, who going to teach kids to write, who going teach kids the importance
of music even to math students, if taken away that’s a detriment to society. Negative
impact on the next generation coming up (Millennials or Gen-y are current) and
Gen Z is coming
Breda thought of Margi and her position on stem. She talked about
how her cousin was being doting on for getting into a stem program. But their
daughter is artistic and her gifts aren’t as valued. Parents are into sports
and have different personalities that lean more toward the son than the
daughter. If I had a quarter for everyone who is majoring in Nursing and
engineering. I’ll be interested to see if they’ll be able to get a job or LPNs
may not be able to get a job because they are being replaced by RNs. College is
expensive and arts devaluing in the job market is impactful when deciding on a
major. People want to make a living. Will fields become flooding because it.
My thinking about teaching and cross teaching. I don’t know
if teachers are teaching every subject in elementary school anymore. Because that’s
where I got my basics. I didn’t get to algebra until junior high. That’s where
I began to struggle. I don’t know how much that cross-teaching is taking place.
Margi – in my son’s school there is always math, reading,
science but one year there is history, there’s no civics. The other subjects are
one off. Latanya – it depends on what school, it depends on what’s there. Margi
– gave an example of a school where arts, history, music, recess would be cut.
Depends on the school district. Latanya – it really what they’re focusing their
importance on. She talked to her niece about a career in education – find your
niche. Latanya – example Son of Serendip – talking about doing what you love
and appreciating the arts, cello, harp, piano and sings. Never seen a 6’4” man
play the harp. One has a Master in harp music, master’s in cello, and one was a
lawyer who left his practice to pursue what he loves. Three were teachers, one was
a lawyer. Got degrees in non-stem things and make a career out of it. The Arts
are still there, they may not be in the forefront, but they are still there.
Example: brother – he developed a comic book – natural artist – he painted on
every surface – he drew all over walls, desks, paper, drew free hand, artistry
was in him – he worked for the newspaper – it’s not that their not there, it’s
how can you use it as a career – hopefully in schools those kids get seen and
are given an opportunity to use their gift
My question to Margi – I am talking budgets, what would you
say to me to persuade me to keep the arts? Margi – Learning across the
curriculum – there are published studies that say that arts benefit children –
not just artistic kids – stem as well – music supports math – arts support figuring
things out – theater there is a vast variety of opportunity for math – stage dimensions
– sound – stage directions – that’s math – I suspect that painting is similar –
logical reason is in painting – it’s not just teaching art, it’s teaching
across the curriculum – if budgets are to be cut, I hope that they would not
start with the arts – if so, I would rather see teaching across the curriculum –
emphasize different areas rather than algebraic equations
Breda – it connects concepts to the real world. Latanya – you
need adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. My example: We talked
about geometry and had pool are connected. Baseball and velocity. My part: you’re
talking about an evolution is education, not just partitioning education. I
asked for a challenge but you gave me something else. You’re talking about
evolving and taking our sectioned off education and marrying it together. Which
may help students in disadvantaged groups, marrying subjects helping students
work together, socially, intellectually, and creating an evolved classroom.
Latanya – the goal is to marry them to together as you move along. I think that’s
the goals of education. Margi – don’t you think that’s the goal of a Liberal Arts
education. Breda – technical schools – that’s the knock – you’re not well-rounded
enough. Breda – do they still have all of the standardized tests. We talked
about how schools’ focus on standardized testing, has lead to number fudging,
reduction in just-in-time resources for students who need them – that school essentially
has no advocate – especially students in disadvantaged groups – they are
essentially nudged out – and they don’t get to be life-long learners. Marji
talked about testing is started to go away, she talked about how the kids boycotted
and the high school got into trouble. It’s not the difficulty of the tests, the
curriculum is structured around the standardized testing – which may be against
their teaching values – which is detrimental to students in disadvantaged
groups – which becomes a detriment to society – one focus on stem – and not enough
on the other areas of growth may lead to a mass exodus of teachers from public
school systems – The united states is becoming similar to Europe in separating
the wheat from the shaft. Unfortunately, unlike Europe, in the united states,
students don’t fall into the trades. They just fall and the focus becomes
survival and the failure is in school systems failing to engender life-long learning
and growth in all students.
I gave my recommendation
LaTanya – Elementary Ed or a Middle School Guidance
Counselor/you seem to shine the brightest when talking and advocating for
students in the 5-14 age group/I’m not trying to knock her off her path/I have
a passion for education/Where there’s fire, there’s life/Where am I on
fire?/Volunteerism is draining/work on not burning yourself at both ends/make a
decision/can’t live in limbo/from where you’ve gone, consider that
Margi – How can you resurrect the political science and the
education system understanding/Olympia school district/involved in activism in
college and right after/went into non-profit and steered that way/I loved doing
activist work/I think that you should try to get that back in your life
Breda– you could be the dean/you understand the college
student/you sit in the seat of a college student/career connections/student
services/the workings are there to figure out how to improve this path for
students/great advocate for students/I don’t think that you would be afraid
Nature vs nurture – you may go into one career out of job
necessity – but you have that inner desire to be someone else – I recommended participating
in a dependable strengths training and go back and unpack those buried goals
and dreams. Next professional development – identify your strengths.
Leadership challenge became a growth kind of focus. How can
we marry these things? Evolved classroom vs partitioned disciplines. Curious to
see how the arts are perceived in countries where education is provided for
without being saddled with “a bunch of debt”.
