I have to admit these three articles had me thinking about a lot of different things that would make this blog go on forever, so I decided just to take a couple of points.
1) Streaming – I wonder if discussion of streaming rises with as much fervour as it does in mathematics. It certainly seems to rear ‘its’ head in every school I have worked in, and generally the math teachers were always in favour of streaming. Now I have to admit I have worked mostly in schools where the streaming was academic and enriched, general was not offered; therefore the students who were in academic were not at risk of limiting their future choices as seen in the chapter by Dei et al. Do I agree with streaming, I have to confess there are days when I will say yes, and then other days when I will say no. It is a subject that I have never been able to be definitely on one side or the other.
Many years ago I was asked to research the viability of deciding to stream from grade 7 on. I did the research, I went to a few schools where streaming was instigated to ask why and teachers’ thoughts about it, and I have to say that again I could find arguments for and against – it was a somewhat frustrating journey. This is not a topic with a clearly defined right or wrong answer. Again, I do speak from a unique perspective of academic vs. enriched, so my concerns for streaming may not be necessarily the same as seen in the report or chapters. Except for perhaps the concern that enriched courses may be seen as status symbols – ‘ins’ versus the ‘not-ins’ as described by these authors. This always tends to be a frustrating topic for me.
2) Balkanisation - I can understand where the teachers are coming from in Roxburgh High. I do believe that teachers do gain a comfort level in their teaching and feel that their ‘methods’ are working so why change them. I confess that for the last couple of years I felt that I was falling into a rut myself and decided it was a good time to leave teaching for the year to earn my Master’s. I feel that I can honestly say that the courses I have taking thus far has forced me to reflect on my practices and determine what I may be able to do when I return to teaching. However, having said that I know that once I step back into the school environment I am going to have to fight against a lot of bureaucracy and pressures that comes with an ‘academic’ setting that may slow down my chances of implementing new ideas, especially if positive results are not seen quickly. Perhaps this is a possible concern of teachers at Roxburgh? Why change what is working? Yet from the article, it would seem that the teachers were not aware that what was happening was not in fact working for the students in the general courses.
In the IB programme, students are to take a course from six groups (first language, second language, humanities, science, math and arts), but in actual fact they can opt out of taking a course in Group 6 – the arts. Generally, a lot of students choose to do drop arts and take a second science or humanity course. I never thought to ask my colleagues how they felt about this option for students to drop out of Group 6, but I would have to think that there must be (?) some level of discontentment that this is allowed. I really should find out!
I think I am going to stop here for I believe I could write a lot more.
Thank you.
Balkanization - inter-departmental grievances...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Leslie, that it is very easy to get into a "rut" and to get very comfortable with the subject and courses that one teaches. This is one of the reasons that in spite of the confusion and, at times, frustration of being in three different departments last year (Math, English, and Moderns) I sort of loved it in a way. I had the privilege of interacting with three different departments, three different sets of teachers that did not normally work together. I got to take away the best strategies from all three departments and use them in all three different courses that I was teaching.
Reading the article, I realize the balkanized nature of every school I taught in as a practice teacher as well as in my current school. Balkanization is natural because it is easier, more comfortable, and MANAGEABLE to work within one department. My English department head often complains about having so many people being part-time department members because she hates feeling disconnected from us. I confess that because my desk is in the math department and I work more closely with the math department head, I feel more like a "mathie." It is definitely less of a mess being part of two departments instead of three, and it would be even easier to be in just one department.
However, the dynamics of the balkanized school structure comes out during department meetings and during within-department discussions. For example, exam schedules used to be a point of contention because math, English and science would fight (and win) to get the first exam slots so that our marking can get done first because we have the "harder" exams to mark. Also, when guidance counsellors call students out of class, math teachers will often complain and wonder why they couldn't pull them out of "less important" classes.
Related to what you wrote about dropping arts, in my school there's also discontentment with regards to course offerings and enrollment this year because more math and science courses were added yet a French section with 20-something students enrolled was dropped from the offerings. There's definitely an emphasis placed on more "important" courses...but besides some grumblings in individual departments' workrooms, I don't think there's been anything done to make changes...and I don't think there will be anything done since the biggest departments in the school (math, science, and English) are the most "powerful" in terms of the number of course offerings, the number of teaching staff and the resources given...
Hi Vivian,
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I was surprised to hear that math was able to get one of the first time slots for exams. We have argued for years to have it first more so because students find math so difficult and labour intensive in terms of studying, most wanted it over with. However, we always tend to be the last subject tested. This is due, understandably, to the fact that other exams such as English and the Humanities take so long to mark in comparison to math, and with the turnover for writing report cards being quite short, math is last.
I definitely agree about trying to help students and parents understand reasonable expectations. I certainly believe students should feel that they can attain whatever goal they wish, but sometimes it is hard to see students pushing themselves so hard in a subject that they really dislike, or really struggle with because of a goal that someone else has set for them. However, (this comment will resemble my feelings about streaming - back and forth), I do know that for some, math 'clicks' later and so they shouldn't give up too soon! Of course, if we could see in the future, we would be able to guide more ably...
Hello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI was reading your interesting perspectives of balkanization and I really couldn't have agreed more. While reading Hargreaves (et al), I was particularly interested in the cohorts present at Lincoln High. Ironically, the cohorts were created in order to avoid/prevent the balkanization of teachers. Yet, despite these efforts, I still felt as if the cohorts were another form of balkanization - if you replace the word "cohorts" with "subgroups" it sounds like the balkanization is repeated.
The school I am currently working at doesn't seem to faciltate balkanization. First of all, we have a common staff area where all teachers work, eat and photocopy - I guess you could say that the photocopier room is the "happening place" in my school. Interestingly enough, because of this shared space, I was able to have interesting pedagogical conversations with other teachers from different departments. As Vivien pointed out earlier, I definitely agree that school layouts and designated spaces are important factors that either facilitate or prevent balkanization of teachers.
As a teacher in a small school we have much less balkinisation in that almost every one teachers in more than one area and we have one staffroom. The math teachers used to complain that we didn't see and talk enough because we were spread out through the school
ReplyDeleteWhere there is balkinisation is in the science department who have their own prep area...