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An essay-review of teacher personal theorizing: Connecting curriculum practice, theory, and research
Teaching & Teacher Education, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 121 124, 1994
0742~051X/94 $6.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd
Printed in Great Britain
EMPHASIZING
THE PERSONAL IN RESEARCH ON TEACHERS' THINKING
RENEE T. C L I F T and ANN E. LARSON U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois at U r b a n a , C h a m p a i g n , U.S.A.
AN ESSAY-REVIEW OF TEACHER PERSONAL THEORIZING: CONNECTING CURRICULUM PRACTICE, THEORY, AND RESEARCH E. W a y n e Ross, Jeffrey W. Cornett, a n d G a i l M c C u t c h e o n , Eds. (1992). N e w Y o r k : State U n i v e r s i t y of N e w Y o r k Press (ISBN 0 ~ 7 9 1 4 ~ 1 1 2 ~ - 5 )
The editors of Teacher Personal Theoriz&9: Connecting Curriculum Practice, Theory, and Research provide us with an interesting collection of papers that are intended to "shed light on teacher theorizing, and the issues and problems surrounding it, in an effort to provide an integrated perspective on curriculum practice, theory, and research" (p. xi). The authors and editors collectively assume relationships between teacher thinking and teacher action that are guided by personal practical theories. Such theories can be examined empirically (Chapters 4-9), can inform practice (Chapters 1-3), and can guide future research on teaching and curriculum (Chapters 10-16). These assumptions put teachers at the center of curriculum work and give teachers the responsibility for critical and continuous examinations of school curricula. The title of the book suggests that this volume will attempt to integrate curriculum theory with recent research on teacher cognition. Each of the 16 chapters in the book represents views on how to accomplish this integration. The editors encourage us to synthesize across the fields of philosophy, psychology, and curriculum and to view teaching holistically. While one might quibble about their inclusion of a few chapters, it is our opinion that this book represents an important contribution that is well worth reading. To encourage you to do so, most of this review concentrates upon brief discussions of the
chapters. We conclude with our own personal interpretations of the book's contribution to research and practice in teaching and teacher education. The first chapter, written by the editors, explicates their collective assumption that all practical activities, one of which is teaching, are guided by theory. Drawing from Dewey they argue that curriculum is something that is experienced, having "a dynamic quality, focusing on the interactions of the student, teacher, and subject matter" (p. 10). This dynamism gives teachers an important role in research and theorizing as they work to understand educational practice and continuously develop educational theory. Teachers' personal, practical theories provide a structure for activity and guide decision making. Thus, teachers' and researchers' tasks begin to move closer together. This blurring of distinctions offers the potential of better communication among the two communities. The remaining two chapters in Part One serve as both introduction and foundation for the book and deconstruct the concepts and issues in the chapters which follow. Lynda Stone's chapter on "Philosophizing, Meaning Constructs and Teacher Theorizing," provides a detailed, scholarly account of the ways modern and postmodern perspectives can provide philosophical lenses for analyses of teachers' theories. Bill 121
122
RENEE T. CLIFT and ANN E. LARSON
Ayers' chapter, "Teachers' Stories: Autobiography and Inquiry" describes the stories that teachers tell in cultural contexts and conveys his belief that paying attention to these powerful stories is an important pathway into exploring the meaning of teaching. For Ayers, research on teaching can be seen as the sharing of unfinished autobiographies to convey a sense of individuals' differing realities and perceptions. In Part Two, the authors use a variety of qualitative, empirical data on a variety of teachers' personal theories. Their findings do not always confirm one another. Audrey Kleinsasser's case studies of eight language arts teaching interns examines the painful dissonance students experience as they are caught between university-based and field-based situations. Theories of teacher education encouraging critical thinking and transcending self-interest and theories enacted by practitioners in the school culture were often opposite one another. Sharon Pape reminds us that some prospective teachers are able to embrace the ambiguities and uncertainties of their own practice. She studied one elementary intern teacher's evolving perspectives on teaching and learning reading and mathematics. Nicole, an extraordinarily articulate and reflective young woman, presents an example of how action, reflection, and participation in a research project interactively affect the development of personal theory and teaching practice. Steve Thornton focuses on elementary teachers' epistemological assumptions related to curriculum decision making. He concludes that while the teachers' beliefs affected curricular and instructional choices, content coverage, and evaluation of children's understandings, teachers seldom questioned their assumptions or the values that underlie the assumptions. He argues that changing practices is irrevocably linked with changing beliefs, but that neither are simple to achieve. Walter Parker and Janet McDaniel present a case study of teachers involved in curriculum change, suggesting a parallel between teachers and bricoleurs (an anthropological term meaning those who take an improvisational, onthe-job approach to accomplishing tasks). Teachers' work does not change as a function of a formal decision or curricular imposition. Because their work is always situated in a particular social and cultural milieu, change is a complex
interaction in which teachers and curriculum both are transformed. Kenneth Tobin and Sarah Ulerick LaMaster investigate beliefs, metaphors, and the personal epistemology of a high school science teacher (LaMaster) to consider how teacher theorizing influences teacher beliefs in relation to curricular and instructional practice. They argue that beliefs can be changed when roles are reconceptualized. In other words, beliefs may change as new metaphors are used for framing new actions. Jeffrey Cornett, Sue Chase, Patricia Miller, Debbie Schrock, Betty Bennett, Alan Goins, and Christopher Hammond analyze their own teaching, confessing that they all experienced some anxiety while encountering themselves as sources of data. They conclude that once their fear had been set aside, the improvement of self and decision making is well worth it. Part Three also presents empirical, data-based discussions, but these chapters serve as arguments for change in educational practices. In Chapter 10, Kenneth Tobin and Elizabeth Jakubowski discuss the importance of attending to the role of imagery in learning about teaching, and learning became apparent from their study. Wayne Ross's chapter, "Teacher Personal Theorizing and Reflective Practice in Teacher Education," argues that current conceptions of reflective practice in teaching and teacher education are too firmly grounded in individual's constructions. He posits that what we have learned from the research on teacher socialization should tip us offto the importance of looking at "the tensions that exist between values of individualism and community in teachers' work" (p. 189). Ross's chapter underscores the importance of climates/cultures that encourage teacher personal theorizing in professional social contexts. Gail McCutcheon presents brief examples of teachers reflecting on the roles of their students. Her work contributes important information about ways supportive context can facilitate systematic teacher theorizing. Chapters 13 and 14 also examine the importance of context as they examine relationships between reflection or theorizing and school organization and administrative preparation. Thomas Skrtic and Linda Ware examine teacher theorizing as a theme in a larger discourse about education reform and school renewal. John Daresh's chapter, "Reflec-
Emphasizing the Personal tions on Practice: Implications for Administrator Preparation," describes how the traditional approaches to administrator preparation have stayed well past their welcome. New times, new settings, and new issues in education demand a new paradigm for leadership. This chapter represents an important voice in the discussion about teacher personal theorizing, a voice which is often set apart in discussions about reflective practice for practitioners in schools. In Part Four two curriculum theorists present their reflections on the concepts and issues raised in the first 14 chapters. Landon Beyer notes that only recently have conceptions of teachers as theorists been taken seriously by many academic researchers. While clearly in favor of the concept, he cautions that what counts as legitimate theorizing depends on "the culture within which it is practiced and the material and ideological contours of daily life in schools" (p. 254). He further argues that because the examples of theorizing found in the book are inherently personal that educators must be careful not to fall into discourse leading either to atomism or to extreme relativism. While Beyer relies on the language of academia, Schubert provides an introspective, personal chapter as he theorizes about teacher personal theorizing. His chapter provides a warm, yet scholarly finale to the book through personal anecdotes and reflections, discussions of teacher and student lore, invitations to envision many possibilities, and arguments for considering the roles of history and philosophies in curriculum theory. One belief evident in several of the chapters was the importance of giving voice to teachers in discussions of research on teaching and learning to teach. We applaud the authors and editors who acknowledge that such research is, "inherently participatory and must be ultimately grounded in terms of the insider's perspective. The key difference is that practical social research consists in challenging lay interlocutors with (expert) social research findings rather than merely facilitating mutual understanding of the rule of the game" (p. 14). We would only add that the examples provided in this text are examples of willing participants. As researchers and teacher educators ourselves we are concerned about our lack of knowledge about teachers on university campuses or pre-kindergarten to grade 12 campuses who have no desire to discuss either
123
their own perspectives or the findings derived from others' perspectives. It is difficult to have a conversation with unwilling participants; this difficulty is exacerbated when participants feel threatened by public conversation. As several authors noted, confronting self and long cherished personal belief is far more challenging than confronting others' beliefs. The chapter authors all seem to agree that individuals construct knowledge, that knowing about teaching is personal and often unique to the individual. This view is not challenged until Beyer reminds us that the culture in which one lives and works acts as a filter of information. We would add that such filters operate both overtly and covertly. The painful dissonance documented by Kleinsasser resulted from students' inabilities to look at situations with multiple lenses; LaMaster's changes in belief as a function of changes in role occurred, in part, because of the culture of the research team that encouraged reviewing, reshaping, and change. Attention to the individual in this volume results, in part, from the data collection and analysis procedures authors employed to study individuals or small numbers of students. Educators and social scientists have rightly criticized an over-reliance on inferential and descriptive statistics that lose information about the individual through aggregating data. We must be equally careful of an over-reliance on case studies and action research by individuals that do not allow us to examine closely the differences and similarities among individuals in relation to their cultures. This is difficult to do, for such studies require large amounts of time and other resources. While we cannot be certain, it seems to us that much (but not all) of the research we read in this text may have been conducted without cost to either researchers or their institutions. Interviews and observations of one or a few individuals do not require one to pay observers, computer programmers, or statistical consultants. Nor is expensive equipment involved. If researchers were to design more elaborate and complex studies that would permit greater understanding of an individual, a particular context, and relations between the particular and the aggregate, they would require external support. In a strong sense, the culture in which universitybased researchers live and work shapes the studies we are able to conduct, independently of
124
RENEE T. C L I F T and A N N E. LARSON
the beliefs and theories that guide our choice of design. We conclude with one final observation on the current relations between the university culture and access to knowledge. We have noticed that m a n y of our colleagues--professors and graduate students--rely on the E R I C database for searching through relevant literature on any given topic. This is a fast and efficient way to search for articles in the latest educational journals. But, to our knowledge, the chapters in this book will not be tapped by E R I C searches or other databases that limit their entries to journal articles. While we can all remind ourselves of the
importance of perusing b o o k reviews, library stacks, and vendors' catalogues, we often find a trip to our local library computer more convenient. If we are to use books such as this one to challenge our own thinking, perhaps it is time that we worked on making b o o k and chapter abstracts more accessible to those who use technology to scan the professional literature. We urge the readers of Teaching and Teacher Education to take the time to find this text and read through the chapters themselves. We expect that you will find them to be interesting, provocative, and well worth the effort it takes to search for the book.
0742~051X/94 $6.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd
Printed in Great Britain
EMPHASIZING
THE PERSONAL IN RESEARCH ON TEACHERS' THINKING
RENEE T. C L I F T and ANN E. LARSON U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois at U r b a n a , C h a m p a i g n , U.S.A.
AN ESSAY-REVIEW OF TEACHER PERSONAL THEORIZING: CONNECTING CURRICULUM PRACTICE, THEORY, AND RESEARCH E. W a y n e Ross, Jeffrey W. Cornett, a n d G a i l M c C u t c h e o n , Eds. (1992). N e w Y o r k : State U n i v e r s i t y of N e w Y o r k Press (ISBN 0 ~ 7 9 1 4 ~ 1 1 2 ~ - 5 )
The editors of Teacher Personal Theoriz&9: Connecting Curriculum Practice, Theory, and Research provide us with an interesting collection of papers that are intended to "shed light on teacher theorizing, and the issues and problems surrounding it, in an effort to provide an integrated perspective on curriculum practice, theory, and research" (p. xi). The authors and editors collectively assume relationships between teacher thinking and teacher action that are guided by personal practical theories. Such theories can be examined empirically (Chapters 4-9), can inform practice (Chapters 1-3), and can guide future research on teaching and curriculum (Chapters 10-16). These assumptions put teachers at the center of curriculum work and give teachers the responsibility for critical and continuous examinations of school curricula. The title of the book suggests that this volume will attempt to integrate curriculum theory with recent research on teacher cognition. Each of the 16 chapters in the book represents views on how to accomplish this integration. The editors encourage us to synthesize across the fields of philosophy, psychology, and curriculum and to view teaching holistically. While one might quibble about their inclusion of a few chapters, it is our opinion that this book represents an important contribution that is well worth reading. To encourage you to do so, most of this review concentrates upon brief discussions of the
chapters. We conclude with our own personal interpretations of the book's contribution to research and practice in teaching and teacher education. The first chapter, written by the editors, explicates their collective assumption that all practical activities, one of which is teaching, are guided by theory. Drawing from Dewey they argue that curriculum is something that is experienced, having "a dynamic quality, focusing on the interactions of the student, teacher, and subject matter" (p. 10). This dynamism gives teachers an important role in research and theorizing as they work to understand educational practice and continuously develop educational theory. Teachers' personal, practical theories provide a structure for activity and guide decision making. Thus, teachers' and researchers' tasks begin to move closer together. This blurring of distinctions offers the potential of better communication among the two communities. The remaining two chapters in Part One serve as both introduction and foundation for the book and deconstruct the concepts and issues in the chapters which follow. Lynda Stone's chapter on "Philosophizing, Meaning Constructs and Teacher Theorizing," provides a detailed, scholarly account of the ways modern and postmodern perspectives can provide philosophical lenses for analyses of teachers' theories. Bill 121
122
RENEE T. CLIFT and ANN E. LARSON
Ayers' chapter, "Teachers' Stories: Autobiography and Inquiry" describes the stories that teachers tell in cultural contexts and conveys his belief that paying attention to these powerful stories is an important pathway into exploring the meaning of teaching. For Ayers, research on teaching can be seen as the sharing of unfinished autobiographies to convey a sense of individuals' differing realities and perceptions. In Part Two, the authors use a variety of qualitative, empirical data on a variety of teachers' personal theories. Their findings do not always confirm one another. Audrey Kleinsasser's case studies of eight language arts teaching interns examines the painful dissonance students experience as they are caught between university-based and field-based situations. Theories of teacher education encouraging critical thinking and transcending self-interest and theories enacted by practitioners in the school culture were often opposite one another. Sharon Pape reminds us that some prospective teachers are able to embrace the ambiguities and uncertainties of their own practice. She studied one elementary intern teacher's evolving perspectives on teaching and learning reading and mathematics. Nicole, an extraordinarily articulate and reflective young woman, presents an example of how action, reflection, and participation in a research project interactively affect the development of personal theory and teaching practice. Steve Thornton focuses on elementary teachers' epistemological assumptions related to curriculum decision making. He concludes that while the teachers' beliefs affected curricular and instructional choices, content coverage, and evaluation of children's understandings, teachers seldom questioned their assumptions or the values that underlie the assumptions. He argues that changing practices is irrevocably linked with changing beliefs, but that neither are simple to achieve. Walter Parker and Janet McDaniel present a case study of teachers involved in curriculum change, suggesting a parallel between teachers and bricoleurs (an anthropological term meaning those who take an improvisational, onthe-job approach to accomplishing tasks). Teachers' work does not change as a function of a formal decision or curricular imposition. Because their work is always situated in a particular social and cultural milieu, change is a complex
interaction in which teachers and curriculum both are transformed. Kenneth Tobin and Sarah Ulerick LaMaster investigate beliefs, metaphors, and the personal epistemology of a high school science teacher (LaMaster) to consider how teacher theorizing influences teacher beliefs in relation to curricular and instructional practice. They argue that beliefs can be changed when roles are reconceptualized. In other words, beliefs may change as new metaphors are used for framing new actions. Jeffrey Cornett, Sue Chase, Patricia Miller, Debbie Schrock, Betty Bennett, Alan Goins, and Christopher Hammond analyze their own teaching, confessing that they all experienced some anxiety while encountering themselves as sources of data. They conclude that once their fear had been set aside, the improvement of self and decision making is well worth it. Part Three also presents empirical, data-based discussions, but these chapters serve as arguments for change in educational practices. In Chapter 10, Kenneth Tobin and Elizabeth Jakubowski discuss the importance of attending to the role of imagery in learning about teaching, and learning became apparent from their study. Wayne Ross's chapter, "Teacher Personal Theorizing and Reflective Practice in Teacher Education," argues that current conceptions of reflective practice in teaching and teacher education are too firmly grounded in individual's constructions. He posits that what we have learned from the research on teacher socialization should tip us offto the importance of looking at "the tensions that exist between values of individualism and community in teachers' work" (p. 189). Ross's chapter underscores the importance of climates/cultures that encourage teacher personal theorizing in professional social contexts. Gail McCutcheon presents brief examples of teachers reflecting on the roles of their students. Her work contributes important information about ways supportive context can facilitate systematic teacher theorizing. Chapters 13 and 14 also examine the importance of context as they examine relationships between reflection or theorizing and school organization and administrative preparation. Thomas Skrtic and Linda Ware examine teacher theorizing as a theme in a larger discourse about education reform and school renewal. John Daresh's chapter, "Reflec-
Emphasizing the Personal tions on Practice: Implications for Administrator Preparation," describes how the traditional approaches to administrator preparation have stayed well past their welcome. New times, new settings, and new issues in education demand a new paradigm for leadership. This chapter represents an important voice in the discussion about teacher personal theorizing, a voice which is often set apart in discussions about reflective practice for practitioners in schools. In Part Four two curriculum theorists present their reflections on the concepts and issues raised in the first 14 chapters. Landon Beyer notes that only recently have conceptions of teachers as theorists been taken seriously by many academic researchers. While clearly in favor of the concept, he cautions that what counts as legitimate theorizing depends on "the culture within which it is practiced and the material and ideological contours of daily life in schools" (p. 254). He further argues that because the examples of theorizing found in the book are inherently personal that educators must be careful not to fall into discourse leading either to atomism or to extreme relativism. While Beyer relies on the language of academia, Schubert provides an introspective, personal chapter as he theorizes about teacher personal theorizing. His chapter provides a warm, yet scholarly finale to the book through personal anecdotes and reflections, discussions of teacher and student lore, invitations to envision many possibilities, and arguments for considering the roles of history and philosophies in curriculum theory. One belief evident in several of the chapters was the importance of giving voice to teachers in discussions of research on teaching and learning to teach. We applaud the authors and editors who acknowledge that such research is, "inherently participatory and must be ultimately grounded in terms of the insider's perspective. The key difference is that practical social research consists in challenging lay interlocutors with (expert) social research findings rather than merely facilitating mutual understanding of the rule of the game" (p. 14). We would only add that the examples provided in this text are examples of willing participants. As researchers and teacher educators ourselves we are concerned about our lack of knowledge about teachers on university campuses or pre-kindergarten to grade 12 campuses who have no desire to discuss either
123
their own perspectives or the findings derived from others' perspectives. It is difficult to have a conversation with unwilling participants; this difficulty is exacerbated when participants feel threatened by public conversation. As several authors noted, confronting self and long cherished personal belief is far more challenging than confronting others' beliefs. The chapter authors all seem to agree that individuals construct knowledge, that knowing about teaching is personal and often unique to the individual. This view is not challenged until Beyer reminds us that the culture in which one lives and works acts as a filter of information. We would add that such filters operate both overtly and covertly. The painful dissonance documented by Kleinsasser resulted from students' inabilities to look at situations with multiple lenses; LaMaster's changes in belief as a function of changes in role occurred, in part, because of the culture of the research team that encouraged reviewing, reshaping, and change. Attention to the individual in this volume results, in part, from the data collection and analysis procedures authors employed to study individuals or small numbers of students. Educators and social scientists have rightly criticized an over-reliance on inferential and descriptive statistics that lose information about the individual through aggregating data. We must be equally careful of an over-reliance on case studies and action research by individuals that do not allow us to examine closely the differences and similarities among individuals in relation to their cultures. This is difficult to do, for such studies require large amounts of time and other resources. While we cannot be certain, it seems to us that much (but not all) of the research we read in this text may have been conducted without cost to either researchers or their institutions. Interviews and observations of one or a few individuals do not require one to pay observers, computer programmers, or statistical consultants. Nor is expensive equipment involved. If researchers were to design more elaborate and complex studies that would permit greater understanding of an individual, a particular context, and relations between the particular and the aggregate, they would require external support. In a strong sense, the culture in which universitybased researchers live and work shapes the studies we are able to conduct, independently of
124
RENEE T. C L I F T and A N N E. LARSON
the beliefs and theories that guide our choice of design. We conclude with one final observation on the current relations between the university culture and access to knowledge. We have noticed that m a n y of our colleagues--professors and graduate students--rely on the E R I C database for searching through relevant literature on any given topic. This is a fast and efficient way to search for articles in the latest educational journals. But, to our knowledge, the chapters in this book will not be tapped by E R I C searches or other databases that limit their entries to journal articles. While we can all remind ourselves of the
importance of perusing b o o k reviews, library stacks, and vendors' catalogues, we often find a trip to our local library computer more convenient. If we are to use books such as this one to challenge our own thinking, perhaps it is time that we worked on making b o o k and chapter abstracts more accessible to those who use technology to scan the professional literature. We urge the readers of Teaching and Teacher Education to take the time to find this text and read through the chapters themselves. We expect that you will find them to be interesting, provocative, and well worth the effort it takes to search for the book.