Research & Realities

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Since my last post, I've been focusing my mental energy on the research side of my time here.  Thankfully I've been able to make connections with Fulbright alumni and other teachers and made headway on the project. 

Shifting from practitioner to researcher has really pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I feel a little insecure with my research skills and knowing the next steps to take along the way, but have support from my faculty advisors.  I can say I've grown more in these short three months personally and professionally than I have in a very long time.  I'm so grateful for the space and time to dig into the literature, learn from other educators and interact with fellow researchers.    

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It makes me wonder why we don't provide the space and time for teachers to dive into research to enhance their own practices.  Immediately the dreaded terms inservice & professional development (PD) come to mind.  In my experience, the time and space reserved for these opportunities are district-led and administratively curated.  Teachers show up, are fed the research deemed relevant to the current initiative or agenda, then assigned a task deemed necessary by the planners.  I'm learning that this is not accurately reflective of an active inquiry at all, and perhaps a reason that there is such disengagement in top-down professional developments.  Throughout this process I keep asking myself what's so different? that makes this experience so much more valuable than typically PD.  

Here are my initial thoughts:

Passions and priorities rarely align:  Every teacher has their/her/his why for teaching.  Something that has pulled them into the profession and reignited their flame when days are difficult.  However, after the initial interview, teachers are never asked about their whys so they are not accounted in PD planning.  We can't expect anyone, student or teacher, to be invested in work that they don't consider a priority or have a passion for - especially when overloaded with other responsibilities.  The focus of my inquiry is directly related to my why but through lenses of best practices and research-based strategies.  It's very possible for districts to support teachers pursuing their professional passions, but it will require a mutual understanding of autonomy and accountability.  

Professional capacity of teachers is not acknowledged:  There's a really interesting hierarchy in education that places more value on degree type and licensure than experience.  This is one aspect of our career field that differs from other areas.  For instance during my time working for Marriott I realized that it's possible to move into supervisory and managerial roles after working in various roles and learning the ways of the company.  However in K-12 education to moving into administration requires a Masters degree in leadership and a state-issued certification.  As a mid-career teacher, I too have earned a Masters in my area of practice and often have more years of experience than those to whom I report.  It creates a dynamic where the people making decisions regarding my professional growth are neither more experienced in my area of expertise, nor hold a greater level of education.  I had a superintendent who acknowledged this by saying there's no "promotion" for teachers.  While true, it should not be the standard, and just as we are investing in "homegrown" teachers we should value the experience of our teachers in the same way.  My faculty advisors during this process are Ph.Ds with years of research experience in education.  They have been able to suggest relevant works of literature, connected me with collaborators and provided support as I falter, learn and grow.  

PD tends to be myopic: Regardless of how rural our school may be, we do not teach in a vacuum.  The factors that influence education go beyond our classrooms, schools, communities and even countries.  Education is a complex social science involving economics, sociology, history, philosophy and many other fields - especially during this polarized geopolitical environment.  This was reiterated to me last week during the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) Fulbright conference.  Researchers from across the country came together to share their work and findings.  I attended panels about anthropology, public health, language, religion, sociology and technology.  Each session helped me connect the dots to what I was seeing in my own research.  However, in K-12 professional spaces we rarely involve these experts.  Perhaps if we extended our knowledge-base we could improve practices in a holistic way.

I am not naive to the pressures that district and school leaders face and the limited time available for professional development.  However, just as schools and teachers are reimagining the way we deliver instruction and engaging students post COVID, we need to do the same for teachers.