For the last two column articles, I was happy to present interview responses from our union president Richard Stutman, as well as forty-two year teaching veteran Jerry Howland of Another Course to College.  I have another two, excellent interview transcripts forthcoming as well, one from a senior policy advisor to Secretary Duncan and one from another teacher-leader in BPS.  Both had thoughtful, provocative things to say.  Definitely stay tuned.

Dividing Lines in a Road, Dividing Lines in our Profession?

This month though, I wanted to spend some time in consideration of the Other.

What do I mean by that?

Consider the multiplicity of the typical, practically pre-folded divisions that can be named right off the bat in the realm of public education.  Younger teachers and what they want, as opposed to veteran teachers and what they want.  Traditional public schools versus charter schools.  Schools and students with good test scores on one side, and schools and students with poor test scores on the other.  Labor interests as represented by the Boston Teachers Union, versus management interests as represented by the Boston School District.

Lines drawn, sides identified and positions hardened.

And doesn’t the capitalized Other almost bring alien-like beings to mind?  It emphasizes a particularly formed set of opinions, biases and positions with completely oppositional characteristics—as if the Other is a golem formed from an entirely different river’s clay.  (That one is inspired from Michael Chabon’s excellent book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  Do check it out).

The Other, in other words, is the result of a kind of groupthink that’s substantiated, and then perpetuated; it’s a way to make sense of a complex environment.  We all do it.  It’s about identity, about orientation and even can stretch to moral convictions of what is right and what is wrong.  Politics, anyone?

The problem, however, is the following: while identifying Otherness can help us begin to make sense of complexity, it does very little to meaningfully resolve it—or perhaps more accurately, to build (as opposed to tear down) within that complexity.  Effective and meaningful change, one that keeps students at the center of the conversation, while also balancing the needs and interests of multiple constituencies, has to lie in the vast area between the drawn lines of Otherness.

So what can we do about it?

It’s no secret that I’m a believer in collaboration, as both an operational tone and strategy, to effectively improve our work in our classrooms and schools—and beyond that, in our school district and the public education system at large.

The Roads We Travel

I also know, like you certainly do, that it’s a lot harder than it sounds.  It’s not simply a matter of scheduling an extended group hug, afterall (although I think that would be something else to witness.  Everyone put your arms around the person next to you and smile!  Squeeze gently!  Do it again!).  And just consider the complications and mistrust that always swirl around education policy concerns, in particular the translation of education policy to its often-unsteady manifestation on the ‘shores of our classrooms.’

I do want to suggest, however, that positive momentum builds off of small, core successes and exemplars.  And that if we as teaching professionals want a place at the decision-making tables, our union itself needs to reflect collaborative, barrier-reducing approaches as central to the professional organization.  There are potent opportunities for our union to make collaboration around teaching and learning a true hallmark of our work together—collaboration that involves, and even depends on, participation from and partnership between all teachers, new and veteran.

BPS teacher Robert Tobio of the Mary Lyon pilot school and Bill Madden-Fuoco of the Urban Science Academy suggested the same in their Diary of a New Teacher articles from the AFT Advocate earlier this year.  Reflecting on his initial mistrust of the union, Robert concluded with the following:

…We have a responsibility to our students. I still believe education is the single most important variable in many kids’ lives. But now I believe in being part of the union—union, not just in name but also in action. We need to support each other and to push each other. We don’t need public outcry or district evaluations to improve. We need to share our successes with our colleagues and to improve our weaknesses by learning from colleagues. Every teacher has something to offer and every teacher can improve. We need to continue to improve, as a strong union of professionals.

We are part of a union, we benefit from our fellow union members, and we need to ask if they are benefiting from us.

Compelling, isn’t it?  What opportunities and structures can our union create to facilitate this type of sharing and learning within our schools, and between them, across the city?

I, for example, would love to hear how Bill is doing with vocabulary instruction improvements that he referred to in his own article, and his newly adopted ‘Flagged for Success’ experimentation related to student data and strategic intervention.

In language, in structure and deed, let’s do something to address one of the core question of this Teaching Pulse forum:

How can we build membership interest, involvement and investment in the Boston Teachers Union as an organization focused on teaching and learning in the classroom?

As Bill similarly ended his own written reflections, Let’s talk about that.

***

As always, please consider visiting the online forum at www.theteachingpulse.org to offer your reactions, thoughts and suggestions.  All the best and here’s to a great beginning of 2011…, er, 2012.