Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Seventeen: The Failure of Micro School Reformism to Address Children’s Poverty

This is a continuation of a series of posts on summaries of articles, mainly on education.

When I was a French teacher at Ashern Central School, in Ashern, Manitoba, Canada, I started to place critiques, mainly (although not entirely) of the current school system. At first, I merely printed off the articles, but then I started to provide a summary of the article along with the article. I placed the summaries along with the articles in a binder (and, eventually, binders), and I placed the binder in the staff lounge.

As chair of the Equity and Justice Committee for Lakeshore Teachers’ Association of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS), I also sent the articles and summary to the Ning of the MTS (a ning is “an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks”).

As I pointed out in a previous post, it is necessary for the radical left to use every opportunity to question the legitimacy of existing institutions.

The attached article for the ESJ Ning is prefaced by the following:

Hello everyone,

Attached is another article for the ESJ Ning. I prefaced it with the following:

Bernie Froese-Germain, author of the editorial “Make Child Poverty History? Yes We Can,” argues that there is not an either-or view of child poverty. There are many actions that can be taken in schools to address child poverty without eliminating child poverty altogether.

Froese-Germain then outlines some measures that can be taken in schools to address child poverty without directly attacking child poverty.

This view is typical of many social reformers. Social reformers view the world in terms of the possibility of changing some things while leaving other things intact.

Interestingly enough, the editor refers to a research project on urban poverty and Canadian schools by Ben Levin and Jane Gaskell. I was a research assistant to Ben Levin on that project and eventually withdrew because I judged that such research in fact would not lead to questioning basic causes of poverty and would have minimal impact in addressing the issue of poverty as such and its impact in schools. In fact, I attended a conference in Toronto with Ben Levin, and several academics and school bureaucrats were there as well. My general impression then, as now, is that it was a group of reformers who would never really attack poverty in Canada.

When reading this article, then, I was quite sceptical of its suggestions. Indeed, Froese-Germain relies on another reformist professor—Professor Fiessa, of OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), who argues against the “either-or” viewpoint. The either-or viewpoint is supposedly that either only conditions within the school or conditions outside the school matter; Professor Fiessa undoubtedly considers his viewpoint to be superior to such dichotomous views.

I support one of these views, namely, that conditions outside the school should be the focus of our efforts rather than a focus of what transpires within the school walls. In the first place, suggestions about what to do in schools for the children of poorer parents, without sufficient power from the poor themselves, is merely band aid methods. For instance, I have serious doubts about the contention in the article that early intervention to help children of low-income parents results in “success” (as defined by the current school system, of course) of such children. What probably happens is that such “interventions” become substitutes for addressing the issue of why the parents receive a low income in the first place. The issue of poverty and eliminating it then becomes swept under the rug and never addressed through a frontal assault on it. The “interventions” within school walls in the 1970s in Winnipeg, for instance, have not changed substantially the situation of poverty in inner-city schools in the twenty-first century. Why is that?

In the second place, the author of the article is too optimistic about the ease with which poverty can be eliminated—given the capitalist nature of the economic structure. The economic crisis of 2008 has undoubtedly limited the possibility of eliminating poverty. For example, despite efforts to eliminate child poverty in Ireland, the level of poverty increased from 2008 to 2009 in that country, from 4.2 percent to 5.5 percent (which is still quite low when compared to Canada). Given the economic difficulties that the Irish working class have faced since then, the probability is that the level of poverty has increased even more—while CEOs and other high-end managers receive millions and even billions of dollars, pounds or other currency.

In the third place, of course, something can be done within school walls, but what is done goes around in circles since the issue of poverty takes second place. If poverty did not take second place, then teachers would have to organize, struggle and fight for the abolition of the conditions which tend to reproduce poverty among children. Neither the author, nor Professor Fiessa, on whom he partly relies, refers to the need to engage in struggle and power politics if poverty inside and outside schools is really going to be addressed.

In the fourth place, Professor Fiessa, like so many others, assumes that the general structure of schools is rational and that changes are to be effected that fit within that general structure (Professor Fiessa and the author show no evidence indicating that they question the standard of success as defined by school bureaucrats. Those who do not work for an employer are often stigmatized and treated as second-class citizens. So too in all likelihood are their children.)

Those who wish to focus on changes in school relations would have to show how such changes actually lead to better lives for the poor—without assuming that success is defined in terms of doing well in the present school structure (as so many middle-class researchers do). The implicit assumption of many researchers is that the modern school system constitutes the standard and that supports are to be provided so that the poor can compete on the same level as other children and adolescents of the middle and upper classes. There is little criticism of the standard itself. In other words, reformist teachers really do not critically engage with their environment. They merely want to reproduce the status quo, but they want to make the playing field of competition more equitable and just. Does not critical thinking demand that we question the assumption that the modern school system constitutes the standard for defining educational success?

What is required, then, is a simultaneous focus on poverty and struggle to eliminate it, on the one hand, and a critical approach to the definition of what constitutes school success on the other.

Equity and social justice demands that we do so, does it not? Or are those who are concerned with equity and social justice issues more concerned with the micro issues in school and classroom that will never address the impact of poverty—and class—on children’s life and results in schools?

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Real Assumption of Some Bureaucratic Tribunals, Part Six

It is supposed to be a fundamental principle of criminal law that a person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the State (government). This is the ideology or the rhetoric (which much of the left have swallowed). The reality is otherwise. In reality, the administrative apparatus of various organizations of the government and semi-governmental organizations assume that you are guilty first and that you have to prove your innocence; otherwise, you suffer negative consequences.

An example is the requirements that the Ontario College of Teachers imposed on me in order for me to qualify as a teacher in the province of Ontario after I moved from the province of Manitoba. To qualify as a teacher in Ontario, you must gain the approval of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). The OCT website explains what this organization does:

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

The Ontario College of Teachers licenses, governs and regulates the Ontario teaching profession in the public interest.

Teachers who work in publicly funded schools in Ontario must be certified to teach in the province and be members of the College.

The College:

sets ethical standards and standards of practice

issues teaching certificates and may suspend or revoke them

accredits teacher education programs and courses

investigates and hears complaints about members

The College is accountable to the public for how it carries out its responsibilities.

You can find the qualifications, credentials and current status of every College member at Find a Teacher.

The College is governed by a 37-member Council.

23 members of the College are elected by their peers

14 members are appointed by the provincial government.

To qualify as a teacher in Ontario, among other things, you have to answer a questionnaire. On the questionnaire, there are questions concerning arrest–and since I was arrested by the RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) (but never convicted), I was obliged to prove my innocence in various ways.

I needed to provide three references from professionals who knew of the circumstances surrounding my arrest and my teaching.

The following is a letter by one of my references to the Ontario College of Teachers.

From : Wyndstone Circle, East St Paul, MB R2E 0L8 , September 9, 2014

To: Linda Zaks-Walker , Director of Membership Services , Ontario College of Teachers

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is written in reference to Dr. Fred Harris for whom I am pleased to provide a letter of recommendation. I have known Fred since 2008, the year we both signed permanent Lakeshore School Division contracts with assignments at Ashern Central School involving Fred as Senior French teacher and myself in Special Education with a focus on “At-Risk” high school students. During the period of time Fred was at Ashern, I also found myself teaching Senior Art in the classroom adjacent to Fred. During that period of time , we made a practice of going for tea afterschool once a week at the Bake Shop. That context together with occasional attendance at the same Professional Development workshops provides a basis for the requested response in areas beyond the normal scope of pedagogical reference, as does my general background in teaching, administration, and special education from 1965-1997 when I first retired after 32 years of teaching senior high, with 27 of those years as K-XII School Principal and the final 6 years involving K-XII Special Education as well.

As a person, Fred has always presented as one genuinely interested in the well-being of others. As a teacher, Fred worked diligently to provide appropriate learning activities for his students; he adapted and individualized work as needed; and his classroom was made available through noon hours for those wishing a quiet spot or extra help. His relationship with students and staff was professional in all contexts of which I am aware. He challenged students and staff alike to examine issues of importance and encouraged debate to the degree possible in their respective spheres. He is a temperate man and I have not know him to raise his voice or lose his temper. He displayed commendable patience with some of the more challenging students in our school, and this was especially so in the context of presenting French instruction to many students at ACS who historically had no interest in taking the course in the first place and tended to bemoan the fact that an easier non-french option was denied them by parental or administrative fiat.

As a teacher, Fred was intensely interested in the learning process and he came to understand it profoundly as to application of John Dewey precepts . This produced a teaching stance that involves reflecting on matters of educational importance through every planning process , seeking clarification from our “movers and shakers”, and presenting relevant issues for staff discussion. The fact that average teachers were on a different pedagogical page surprised Fred but did not discourage him. At all times, I found Fred thoughtful, open-minded, ready to share, temperate in his responses, unafraid to question , and welcoming of all thoughtful response.

While this writer intends the foregoing as commendation, it will come as no surprise to administrators that the pro-active professional attributes Fred displays are not universally admired. During Fred’s tenure at Ashern Central School , the Principalship changed three times in four years, bringing with it in each case truly dynamic change throughout the system and also within the subjective filters through which teacher performance may be viewed. It is fair to say that Fred’s current unemployment status relates in significant ways to that change. It no doubt relates also to the imposition of intensive supervision on Fred, even as he faced a life-threatening struggle to overcome cancer. During medical absences throughout this time, Fred’s preparation for substitutes was formidable, and at school on a daily basis, Fred demonstrated amazing resilience in fulfilling teacher duties .

Neither staff, students, nor the public-at-large have knowledge of the personal family problems Fred was facing during this time. During our once- weekly “tea” break over the years, I became privy to most of the circumstances that provided further grist for Fred’s stress mill. Then at the time when matters came to a head with SCFS and RCMP action occasioning Fred’s discreet absence from school, he shared with me antecedent documents that clarified for me the chronology of prior events and specific actions Fred had taken to have the WCFS recognize and address the incidents of Francesca’s physical abuse by her mother. Since then, my only contact with Fred has been via telephone and e-mail conversation but, on that basis, I consider myself reasonably up-to-speed on Francesca’s on-going relationship with her parents and the chronology of Fred’s dealings with WCFS and the RCMP.

Based on all of the foregoing, the following personal observations, questions, and recommendations accrue:

In all of the school contexts of which I am aware, Fred has presented himself as a very professional , hard-working teacher very much in command of whatever curriculum be put before him. He would not describe himself as a “ fun teacher ” and being liked was for him much less a priority than having students meet curriculum outcomes at the highest standard possible for each individual. At different times, both Fred and I had occasion to do some teaching at the Alf Cuthbert School in Moosehorn, a K-VIII facility with historically high levels of community support and outstanding student attainment. Teachers like Fred thrive in that kind of school environment and are well regarded by staff and students alike and at Ashern Central School ( the receiving school for Moosehorn high school students ), this relationship continues across all contexts. It should be noted that ACS presents unique challenges to all teachers as they endeavor to engage students from thirteen disparate communities, almost all of whom are at significant disconnect from the school. In the context of the French courses Fred found himself teaching, engagement of students and achieving home support proves most difficult and indeed nigh onto impossible if for any reason a teacher finds himself on what I call “the dumb list”. That is the general circumstance in which Fred found himself while facing a regime of clinical teacher evaluation at a time of extreme health vulnerability. His resignation was no doubt a personal health necessity. Given an opportunity to teach again elsewhere, do I believe Fred could be a worthy candidate? My considered opinion is “Yes” , and I profoundly hope he gets that opportunity.

Throughout the period of time I have known Fred, addressing daughter Francesca’s needs lay at the heart of Fred’s family focus. That he loved and cared for her was always clear. That Francesca carried emotional and behavioral baggage with her wherever she went was also clear, be it in the contexts of living separately with mum, dad, extended family including her mother’s aunt and cousin, or in foster home placement. From what I understand, events which explain Francesca’s behavior may include sexual abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend and the pattern of physical abuse by her mother which became cause for reference to WCFS by Fred. From what I also understand, systemic failure by WCFS and the RCMP to satisfactorily acknowledge and address Francesca’s abuse also occurred, and Fred’s written efforts to take these organizations to task through letters sent severally to The Minister of Justice, the Minister of Education, and the Premier himself no doubt proved counterproductive . Given Fred’s background as a Marxist scholar and his predisposition to characterize CFS actions as fascist, systemic responses by CFS and RCMP directed at Fred were immediate when Francesca indulged in what I would take to be learned behaviors which involve lashing out physically and playing abuse cards as a means of precipitating change in her home circumstance. Do I believe that Fred would act physically towards Francesca in any manner beyond necessary physical restraint? No. Do I believe there was any substance to the charges directed at Fred in the first instance and then while Francesca was living unhappily with Fred at Ashern? No, and the fact that charges only appear but to disappear confirms that opinion. Does an abusive father continue to express his love for his daughter? Not usually. Advocate that her need be met for a systemic admission that she has indeed been abused by her mother? Not forseeably. Follow with great interest Francesca’s progress while in foster care while she then completed high school at Morwena’s private school? No. As a relatively poor man, take his daughter on a two month trip to Guatemala? No. And finally, continue to follow with love and great interest as his daughter takes her place in the world of work and independence? No. Based on my background knowledge of Fred and every bit of gut instinct, my answer to all these questions is “No”. From everything I have been able to see and interpret, Fred actions towards Francesca are those of a loving , concerned, and responsible parent.

Surely, Fred’s present quest to return to teaching in Ontario needs to be given a fair opportunity. He has lots to offer and hopefully a long life ahead of him to contribute meaningfully towards student equity and a world where there is greater social justice for all.

My hope is that those adjudicating the case for Fred’s admission to teaching in Ontario will recognize from my words that the baggage with which Fred must presently travel in his career quest appears to have been packed prejudicially . This letter comes to you from one who retired for the second time in June ,2014 at the age of 71, having enjoyed almost every moment of what-has-been a distinguished 38 year career ! During the course of it, I have had occasion to both hire and fire teachers, and the views I offer herein represent , without prejudice, a deeply considered opinion in regard to Fred’s candidacy for consideration .

Yours sincerely,

R.Glen Langton

A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Five

The following is the fifth of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a “clinical evaluation” (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 French.

I provided Mr. MacNeil’s assessment grade by grade in separate posts, followed by my reflections (response). In other words, the performance evaluation of the three grades is distributed over three posts.

The previous post referred to the first area of peformance evaluation criteria (Domain I, Professional Responsibilities), with Mr. MacNeil’s comments and my reflections (response).

This post deals with the performance evaluation criteria of Domain II (Educational Environments), with Mr. MacNeil’s comments and my reflections (response).

Two further posts will follow in the future that include performance criteria for Domain III (Teaching and Learning) and Domain IV (Professional Relationships), Mr. MacNeil’s comments and my reflections (responses).

The radical left should expose both what management does and how it does it. Discussion of the situation that various kinds of employees face need to be openly discussed, but to do that it is necessary to expose, in a transparent way, managerial behaviour.

Some of my responses will make sense only in conjunction with my responses in earlier posts (such as when I refer to something that I mentioned “above.” I invite the reader to read earlier posts in this series to better understand the context.

Lakeshore School Division

Teacher Clinical Evaluation Report

Teacher: Fred Harris

School: Ashern Central School

Subject/Grade: MY French; ELA Trans. Focus 30S; SY Support

The teacher and administrator will review Administrative Regulations and Procedures Evaluation Process-Professional Staff (2.3)

Domain 2: Educational Environments

2a. Creating an environment of respect and rapport

2b. Establishing a culture for learning

2c. Establishing and maintaining classroom procedures

2d. Managing student behaviour

2e. Organization of physical space

Administrator’s Comments

Grade 6 French is being taught in the grade 6 classroom. Grades 7 and 8 French are being taught in a classroom provided to Fred at the beginning of the second quarter (mid-November). Fred has been encouraged by me to make the classroom an engaging and invigorating environment for students, and some suggestions were provided to him a month ago, especially in terms of keeping the room organized. At this point, he has put 8 – 10 posters up on bulletin boards in the room, although these are not well situated for use by students, nor have they been seen to be utilized by students during the observations. Some older posters (e.g. a written alphabet) and a map continue to be present at the front of the room. There are tables arrayed across the front of the room, in front of the whiteboard. These appear to impede Fred when he writes on the whiteboard, and would block any shorter students from being able to do so (although that has not happened). There is a variety of materials scattered across these tables, elsewhere in the room, and on Fred’s desk which usually appear to be disorganized and scattered. This lack of organization has been previously identified by both Fred and previous administrators as something requiring remediation, as far back as three years ago.

Students did not demonstrate any significant respect for, nor rapport with Fred during observed lessons. There were many instances where Fred seemed to be striving for their attention and interest, and they would instead seem to ignore or actively disrupt what he was doing. Students will put their heads down, doodle, speak with one another, and otherwise indicate a lack of interest in the lesson. Fred will often respond by telling students to pay attention and/or to cease the behaviour indicating their lack of engagement. They will respond either by completely ignoring the request, or complying for a moment and then quickly resuming the behaviour. e.g. Lifting their head from the desk, and then putting it down again in a few seconds. Stopping their doodling, and then resuming when Fred turns around. Getting up and walking around the class, and then continuing as though they haven’t heard Fred tell them to sit down again, as Fred goes back to trying to continue with the lesson.

After three months of French classes, many students still come to class without their binders or other resources. Fred has remonstrated with them, but the situation continues. Other procedures appear to be enforced/reinforced sporadically, and students have not yet learned to follow them. For example, Fred will at times tell students that they must raise their hands to speak, and at other times allow them to speak without doing so. He will tell them that they must not interrupt him, but sometimes respond to their comments or questions when they do interrupt him without insisting upon not doing so. As we have discussed appropriate methods of establishing classroom routines and managing student behaviours, Fred has alternately maintained that he believes he is doing an appropriate job of doing so, and that he needs to become a better disciplinarian. In any event, Fred has indicated that these negative behaviours are a result of not having been “hard enough” on the students, and has not observed that the behaviours are a result of any want on his part in terms of generating and maintaining appropriate student engagement in the subject. At the end of each observed class, there was no summation of the class’s learning during the period, and students moved on to other activities or preparing for recess while ignoring Fred’s last words about what might happen next class (said in a low voice while he was walking out of the room).

Teacher’s Reflections

Re: “Grade 6 French is being taught in the grade 6 classroom. Grades 7 and 8 French are being taught in a classroom provided to Fred at the beginning of the second quarter (mid-November). Fred has been encouraged by me to make the classroom an engaging and invigorating environment for students, and some suggestions were provided to him a month ago, especially in terms of keeping the room organized. At this point, he has put 8 – 10 posters up on bulletin boards in the room, although these are not well situated for use by students, nor have they been seen to be utilized by students during the observations. Some older posters (e.g. a written alphabet) and a map continue to be present at the front of the room. There are tables arrayed across the front of the room, in front of the whiteboard. These appear to impede Fred when he writes on the whiteboard, and would block any shorter students from being able to do so (although that has not happened). There is a variety of materials scattered across these tables, elsewhere in the room, and on Fred’s desk which usually appear to be disorganized and scattered. This lack of organization has been previously identified by both Fred and previous administrators as something requiring remediation, as far back as three years ago.”

This is true. I have since addressed the immediate issue of the tables by separating them somewhat. It organization will be a continuous work in progress for me.

Re: “Students did not demonstrate any significant respect for, nor rapport with Fred during observed lessons. There were many instances where Fred seemed to be striving for their attention and interest, and they would instead seem to ignore or actively disrupt what he was doing. Students will put their heads down, doodle, speak with one another, and otherwise indicate a lack of interest in the lesson. Fred will often respond by telling students to pay attention and/or to cease the behaviour indicating their lack of engagement. They will respond either by completely ignoring the request, or complying for a moment and then quickly resuming the behaviour. e.g. Lifting their head from the desk, and then putting it down again in a few seconds. Stopping their doodling, and then resuming when Fred turns around. Getting up and walking around the class, and then continuing as though they haven’t heard Fred tell them to sit down again, as Fred goes back to trying to continue with the lesson.”

I was unaware of certain misbehaviours—as I indicated above. The administrator abstracts from the judgement of the previous teacher of the grade 6 class as well as the teacher who was present during the observation. Some in the grade 7 class did not pay attention, but many asked questions and raised their hand to do so. The grade 8 class, on the other hand, is indeed disengaged. As I have said, I am trying to address that issue.

As for respect—it is earned, not imposed. True respect emerges through sharing in common goals and concerns. It is a process that takes time—especially when children live in impoverished conditions and may have a difficult time trusting adults—as many students in the grade 6 class probably do.

I indeed made a major error in accepting the behaviour of certain students in French in the past; however, I think there is a difference between shenanigans (throwing a paper airplane) and insulting a teacher. I have learned that certain behaviours by children are disrespectful and require firm measures that I am working to further develop and employ as a more mutually respectful classroom.

Re: “After three months of French classes, many students still come to class without their binders or other resources. Fred has remonstrated with them, but the situation continues.”

The use of the adverb “still” implies that the students have persistently not come to class with their binders. Some, at the beginning of the school year, did not come with needed supplies, so I instituted a system of detention. That stopped for awhile. Since some did not bring their binders to class (the change of rooms might have been a factor), I reminded them to do so. The administrator, as usual, interpreted the situation in the most negative light possible.

Re: “Other procedures appear to be enforced/reinforced sporadically, and students have not yet learned to follow them. For example, Fred will at times tell students that they must raise their hands to speak, and at other times allow them to speak without doing so. He will tell them that they must not interrupt him, but sometimes respond to their comments or questions when they do interrupt him without insisting upon not doing so.”

I admit that I might have to be more consistent in this area, but as I indicated above, a rigid adherence to rules seems to be counterproductive. Furthermore, if I tried to “insist upon adherence to the rules,” the administrator would probably criticize me for that as well—as he did above.

Re: “As we have discussed appropriate methods of establishing classroom routines and managing student behaviours, Fred has alternately maintained that he believes he is doing an appropriate job of doing so, and that he needs to become a better disciplinarian.”

The administrator did suggest, constructively, that I differentiate instruction for one student in grade 7. When I asked him for other suggestions about other situations, he stated that it was the responsibility of the teacher to come up with a solution.

Re: “In any event, Fred has indicated that these negative behaviours are a result of not having been “hard enough” on the students, and has not observed that the behaviours are a result of any want on his part in terms of generating and maintaining appropriate student engagement in the subject.”

I did believe that the methods I was trying to use were “higher order” methods of learning. If there are other, superior methods that can be recommended, I am willing to try them. I certainly see the need to adapt my pedagogy in the case of the grade 8s.

My reference to not being “hard enough” is simply a recognition that sometimes I have not established or followed rules when I should have done so.

Re: “At the end of each observed class, there was no summation of the class’s learning during the period, and students moved on to other activities or preparing for recess while ignoring Fred’s last words about what might happen next class (said in a low voice while he was walking out of the room).”

That is a useful observation. I should sum up the lesson and be more firm before the end of the class.

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Sixteen: The Mechanistic Learning in Schools Versus a Democratic and Living Way of Learning

This is a continuation of a series of posts on summaries of articles, mainly on education.

As I pointed out in a previous post, it is necessary for the radical left to use every opportunity to question the legitimacy of existing institutions.

The attached article for the ESJ Ning is prefaced by the following:

Hello everyone,

Attached is another article I sent to the ESJ Ning. I introduced it with the following:

Richard Gibboney, author of the article,” Intelligence by Design: Thorndike versus Dewey”, argues that Thorndike’s mechanistic views on education won out over Dewey’s humanistic views. As a consequence, the vast majority of reforms over the past half a century have not improved schools.

Thorndike’s mechanistic views of education have been implemented in schools. The author implies that teachers’ own work has been deskilled in the process. Experts are able to define what to teach, how to teach and how to assess independently of the interaction of the teacher, on the one hand, and children and adolescents on the other.

The author is certainly correct to point out that Dewey was concerned that schooling lead to the formation of democratic relations, but democracy was to be a way of life and not merely a political form of governance. The democratic way of life was to be intimately connected to the democratic control of basic processes vital for human life, such as the production of food, clothing and shelter.

Learning in schools, as the author affirms, was for Dewey to be a process of developing an attitude to learning—being motivated to learn as varying conditions warrant it (an evolutionary view); such learning could not be captured through “tests.” Thorndike, by contrast, considered learning to be subject-bound and tested within narrow limits—a feature characteristic of most modern schools.

Gibboney draws the contrast in the following manner: Thorndike considered education in the form or image of the machine whereas Dewey considered education in the form or image of life. Since modern schools have opted for Thorndike over Dewey, they have reduced the educational process to a machine process rather than a living process. For Thorndike, all quality could be reduced to quantity—and the modern school system reduces all human life to purely quantitative terms as well (see the post Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Fifteen: Progressive Versus Regressive Grading Systems in Schools).

Thorndike relied on a mechanistic stimulus-response schema to explain human behaviour whereas Dewey argued that a child’s or adolescent’s aims contributed to what constituted a stimulus and thus had to be taken into account in formulating a theory of learning and putting it into practice.

Thorndike implied that tests were objective and certain; Dewey, on the other hand, considered problems to arise from uncertainty and, although solutions may be sought and realized, they were always subject to revision—an essential characteristic of the scientific method.

The author considers an evaluation of school reforms in light of two criteria, derived from Dewey’s theory and not Thorndike’s theory: 1. Do the reforms contribute to a democratic education; 2. Do the reforms lead to practice that is more intelligent by the teacher on the one hand, and children and adolescents on the other. Gibboney found only six reforms in the last half of the twentieth century that satisfy these two criteria.

Most reforms in the second half of the twentieth century have led, in fact, to a weakening of the democratic ethos even when they contributed to the intelligence of teachers, on the one hand, and children and adolescents on the other—defined in narrow, curricular terms, of course. Thorndike’s mechanistic view of education has predominated throughout schools in the last half of the twentieth century.

Gibboney—rightly—castigates teacher organizations for having remained complacent about the attack on the democratic curriculum in schools. They have largely ignored such an attack.

They have also, he implies, bought into the ideological rhetoric that school reform alone will address the needs of children and adolescents and will ensure equality of opportunity. It is poverty that leads to school failure, and no school reform will be able to compensate for the effect of poverty on school outcomes. What is needed, rather than curriculuar reform, in the first instance, is a concerted assault on child poverty.

Gibboney, however, does not really address how child poverty is to be attacked. Surely, it will require sustained struggle against those in power: internally, ranging from senior bureaucrats in the school system to principals who define learning in terms of the modern school system and, externally, ranging from elected representatives who espouse rhetoric of ending child poverty but do little to address the issue to those within the modern economic structure, who command the mass of labour of others at work—employers and their representatives.

The rhetoric of the importance of children and adolescents is rampant in school circles. The reality is otherwise. When judged on the basis of addressing child poverty, children and adolescents are not important.

Should not those who are concerned with equity and social justice face the fact that micro solutions to macro problems will not work? Should we not be organizing to end child poverty? Should we not be struggling against those in power who oppose such a goal? Should we not fight for an end to child poverty and for a democratic way of life?

Or should we acquiesce and have the Thorndike’s of the world win out over a Deweyan vision—as occurred in the second half of the twentieth century?

What does equity and social justice demand?

A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Four

The following is the fourth of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a “clinical evaluation” (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 French.

I provided Mr. MacNeil’s assessment grade by grade in separate posts, followed by my reflections (response). In other words, the performance evaluation of the three grades was distributed over three posts.

Four further posts follow that include performance evaluation criteria in Domain I (Professional Responsibilities), Domain II (Educational Environments), Domain III (Teaching and Learning) and Domain IV (Professional Relationships). It also includes my “Teacher’s response.”

This post deals with the performance evaluation criteria of Domain I (Professional Responsibilities).

When I refer to “see above” in some of the posts, it refers to previous posts in this series, such as A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part One.

Lakeshore School Division

Teacher Clinical Evaluation Report

Teacher: Fred Harris

School: Ashern Central School

Subject/Grade: MY French; ELA Trans. Focus 30S; SY Support

The teacher and administrator will review Administrative Regulations and Procedures Evaluation Process-Professional Staff (2.3)

Re: “Domain 1: Professional Responsibilities

1a Demonstrating knowledge of curriculum content and pedagogy

1b. Demonstrating knowledge of students

1c. Selecting appropriate instructional goals

1d. Demonstrating knowledge of resources

1e. Effective Instructional Design

1f. Assessment of Student Learning

1g. Maintaining accurate records

Administrator’s Comments

Fred has a strong command of the French language, in both written and verbal communication. This series of observations did not indicate his level of knowledge of the curricula set out by Manitoba Education. The instructional goals identified during the observations did correlate with goals set out in these curricula, however.

The pedagogy to which Fred ascribes (at least as according to our conversations) presupposes a level of motivation to learn and pursue a second language which he identifies as being lacking in most of his students. This has repeatedly been identified by Fred as an issue – that his students do not value the learning of French, and that it is therefore almost futile to be attempting to force them to learn the language. I have not identified any means by which Fred has successfully fostered an appropriate level of motivation in spite of the factors he’s identified as limiting this motivation. So, we are left with a situation where he believes that the students do not (for the most part) want to learn French, where he’s been unsuccessful in changing that situation, and where he therefore believes that their learning is necessarily restricted.

Earlier this year, it was made clear to Fred that a key element that appeared to be lacking was the formation of effective, empathetic relationships with the students in his classes. He has attempted to rectify this by engaging in question and answer sessions with them at the beginning of the class, wherein students ask him a question, he translates the question into French, and then responds in both French and English. It is not evident that this has led to a more effective relationship between Fred and his students. It is also not evident that this simple “exposure” to spoken French is leading to any learning of the language, as the dialogue from the students’ perspective is entirely in English – the spoken French, by Fred, seems to be ignored. To the extent that Fred has demonstrated a knowledge of his students, as persons and as learners, it would seem that the view is largely negative. For example, when we held our postconference after the 3^rd observation (grade 8 French), and I asked Fred about the 5 girls who comprised this class, he described to me in turn why each of them was not an effective learner in his class. When I went further by asking how this situation had come about, he went back to the experience of earlier years, where he identified two other students (since discontinued in French) who had “poisoned” the other students’ attitudes toward French and toward himself.

At the beginning of this process, individual lessons were based upon the completion of identified tasks. Fred has resisted the notion that specific learning goals for students should be clarified and shared with students, but has begun to take some steps in this direction. As stated earlier, there is no evidence (and none identified by Fred during our postconferences) that the questioning back and forth between Fred and the students at the beginning of classes has led to any learning by the students. Although learning goals have begun to be identified, it has not been observed that any significant movement toward attaining these goals has been made during observed classes. For example, the second observation (grade 7) was meant to increase student competence in using possessive adjectives. As an observer, it was not clear that students understood this to be the lesson’s focus, nor did they demonstrate any increased competence or confidence in the use of the adjectives or any other aspect of using the French language.

Fred has not indicated any significant understanding of either the importance of formative assessment during a class, nor of how to effectively carry out the process. When I’ve questioned how Fred would know whether students are progressing effectively in their use of French, Fred has repeatedly referred to the subsequent use of summative assessments (at some future date) as indicating this progress. No means of encouraging or facilitating student self or peer assessment is present either. A significant emphasis within the MY French curricula is to facilitate an appreciation of French culture and language in students’ affective domain. When this has been raised, Fred has appealed (as previously noted) to the obstacles in the way of increasing this appreciation of French, and has not been able to supply any means by which this is being increased. Indeed, there appears to be a significant decline in students’ attitudes toward their French lessons from the grade 6 to the grade 8 levels in Fred’s classes. In the grade 6 class, some students are smiling, spontaneous and enthusiastic. This declines in the grade 7 class, and in grade 8 there were no smiles, and what seemed to be a complete lack of spontaneity and enthusiasm.

Teacher’s Reflections

Re: “The pedagogy to which Fred ascribes (at least as according to our conversations) presupposes a level of motivation to learn and pursue a second language which he identifies as being lacking in most of his students.”

I believe that I have already addressed this issue.

Re: “This has repeatedly been identified by Fred as an issue – that his students do not value the learning of French, and that it is therefore almost futile to be attempting to force them to learn the language.”

I certainly view the forcing of learning French language to children many of whose lives at home are probably characterized by poverty to be oppressive and relatively meaningless for many of them—as I experienced when I was growing up.

Re: “I have not identified any means by which Fred has successfully fostered an appropriate level of motivation in spite of the factors he’s identified as limiting this motivation. So, we are left with a situation where he believes that the students do not (for the most part) want to learn French, where he’s been unsuccessful in changing that situation, and where he therefore believes that their learning is necessarily restricted.”

I have addressed this issue above.

Re: “Earlier this year, it was made clear to Fred that a key element that appeared to be lacking was the formation of effective, empathetic relationships with the students in his classes.”

I have displayed considerable empathy in trying to see the behaviour in the context of many students’ lives; I certainly do not consider throwing an airplane to be outrageous behaviour. To claim that I lacked empathy with students is an unfortunate misreading of situations.

Re: “He has attempted to rectify this by engaging in question and answer sessions with them at the beginning of the class, wherein students ask him a question, he translates the question into French, and then responds in both French and English. It is not evident that this has led to a more effective relationship between Fred and his students. It is also not evident that this simple “exposure” to spoken French is leading to any learning of the language, as the dialogue from the students’ perspective is entirely in English – the spoken French, by Fred, seems to be ignored. To the extent that Fred has demonstrated a knowledge of his students, as persons and as learners, it would seem that the view is largely negative. For example, when we held our postconference after the 3^rd observation (grade 8 French), and I asked Fred about the 5 girls who comprised this class, he described to me in turn why each of them was not an effective learner in his class. When I went further by asking how this situation had come about, he went back to the experience of earlier years, where he identified two other students (since discontinued in French) who had “poisoned” the other students’ attitudes toward French and toward himself.”

Note the exclusive reliance on the relation to the grade 8 class as an example. An example implies something typical, and the situation with the grade 8 class is atypical.

I had tried, with the grade 8 class, the method of asking and answering questions, but they did not respond well.

Re: “At the beginning of this process, individual lessons were based upon the completion of identified tasks. Fred has resisted the notion that specific learning goals for students should be clarified and shared with students, but has begun to take some steps in this direction.”

I have already addressed above the issue of tasks (from a Deweyan perspective, concrete goals for students) and learning goals (from a Deweyan perspective, the means towards concrete goals).

“As stated earlier, there is no evidence (and none identified by Fred during our postconferences) that the questioning back and forth between Fred and the students at the beginning of classes has led to any learning by the students.”

See above.

“Although learning goals have begun to be identified, it has not been observed that any significant movement toward attaining these goals has been made during observed classes. For example, the second observation (grade 7) was meant to increase student competence in using possessive adjectives. As an observer, it was not clear that students understood this to be the lesson’s focus, nor did they demonstrate any increased competence or confidence in the use of the adjectives or any other aspect of using the French language.”

See above.

Re: “Fred has not indicated any significant understanding of either the importance of formative assessment during a class, nor of how to effectively carry out the process. When I’ve questioned how Fred would know whether students are progressing effectively in their use of French, Fred has repeatedly referred to the subsequent use of summative assessments (at some future date) as indicating this progress.”

I certainly agree that my formative assessment skills can be honed—like any other skill. To claim, however, that I fail to understand the importance of formative assessment a complete lack of understanding of my position and provides further evidence of the preformed conclusions of the administrator about my beliefs. In the University Laboratory School (also known as the Dewey School), as far as I have been able to determine, there was nothing but formative assessment. This feature of the school caused some difficulties when the students were to prepare for college entrance, but provision was made for addressing the issue:

“The oldest members of this united group (who normally would have been classified as Group XII) were given special tutoring and review courses in preparation for their college board examinations, which were complicating the program. Had the group consisted solely of those who had followed the consecutively developing program of the school, and had it not been hampered by the demands of college entrance examinations, the various courses for the oldest children doubtless would have followed a far different and more logical plan, hints of which appear in the records” (Camp & Edwards, 1936/1966, p. 237).

Since the Dewey School was designed to be an experimental school, where hypotheses were formulated about the best conditions for learning, tested and modified, depending on the circumstances. Since no summative assessment was performed until the later years, and only then for the purpose of preparing the students for entry into college, it can be inferred that formative assessment was an ideal ground for learning.

On the other hand, the principal simply did not bother to delve deeper into my beliefs. His evident disdain for my beliefs and his evident drawing of conclusions without any process of objective inquiry prevented him from understanding what we share in common.

Furthermore, the implied claim that I do not understand the importance of the present moment rather than the future misses entirely my position.

From my dissertation:

“Dewey, by contrast, considers that the prehistoric pattern of mind still functions, though in modified form, in present conditions and that it has some positive attributes. One of the major positive attributes for Dewey is the capacity to focus on the present situation. For Dewey, the present is where the life process centers, and the past and future are relative to the living present. The past divorced from the present is dead, and the future divorced from the present is fantasy.¹

Dewey gives the example of hunting in prehistoric times (1902/1976e). He outlines what differentiates it from other modes of living or acting. It is much less concerned with the mediation process or the objective side of the relationship between human beings and their environment. Its focus has more to do with the subjective side of the life process, and the subjective side, or the animate term of the life process, is always a living present. The concerns of prehistoric peoples are largely related to the personal side and not to the impersonal side of the life process. The rhythm of life is characterized by a tension that is personally felt; the stages of the life process focus on the personal at the expense of the objective. This mode of the life process is characterized by the drama, where superficiality in the treatment of phenomena is compensated by the degree of intensity of the emotions and the sharpness of attention in the use of the senses for the purpose of enhancing the personal side, such as increased acquisition and display of skills.

This personal aspect of the life process is preserved in the modern life process in the form of the “pursuit of truth, plot interest, business adventure and speculation, to all intense and active forms of amusement, to gambling and the `sporting life’” (1902/1976e, 45). Educationally, Dewey uses the hunting occupation as a model by which to criticize various theories and practices that purport to be educational but which violate the principle of the life process centering on the present and its potentialities and possibilities. In chapter five of Democracy and education (1916/1980a), for example, Dewey refers to education as preparation. This way of defining education is still prevalent in modern schools—preparation for obtaining a job, for further studies and so forth. The activity engaged in by the child is supposed to be useful in the future rather than functional now. Since the use of a structure is an integral part in the formation of the structure—function mediates structure—then the separation of the formation of the structure from its use in the vague future leads to ineffective and distorted structures that do not effectively contribute to the living present, either now or in the future.

Education needs to be preparation for confrontation of the present situation, which includes the past as relevant to the identification of the nature of the present problematic situation and to the future as the hypothesized solution to the present situation. The present, however, is still the focus since it is only the tension within the present life process that converts the past into something relevant or meaningful to the present, and the future potentialities of present conditions are likewise only meaningful in relation to the present life process:

Men are engaged neither in mechanical transposition of the conditions they have inherited, nor yet in simply preparing for something to come after. They have their own problems to solve; their own adaptations to make. They face the future, but for the sake of the present, not the future. In using what has come to them as an inheritance from the past they are compelled to modify it to meet their own needs, and this process creates a new present in which the process continues. (1938/1986, 238)

When the potentialities of the present situation are divorced from the formation of structures, then something external to the present must be attached to present behaviour—rewards and punishment. There is little wonder that Skinner’s concept of reinforcement, which focuses on the provision of an external reward having little to do with the activity, forms an essential component of the school system—the latter operates on an impoverished notion of education as preparation.

For Dewey, then, prehistoric life has something to teach us—the importance of the present as the locus for the relevance of the past and the future. Education is not preparation for some possible experience in the vague future. Freire’s philosophy, it is true, escapes some of the problems associated with defining education as preparation by incorporating some of the present problems of the peasants into the curriculum, but Freire’s abstraction from the life process a such prevents him from appreciating the positive aspect of prehistoric life and from incorporating those positive aspects into his educational philosophy and practice.

The Deweyan educational model incorporates the appreciation for the present living process whereas the Freirean model, though not excluding it, does not integrate it in the form of an appreciation of prehistoric life. Freire’s model, despite the emphasis on subjectivity, ironically, veers more towards the objective moment by treating prehistoric life as a stage to be overcome rather than a stage that is one-sided and that hence requires to be balanced by a more stable process of control of the objective conditions for human experience.”

On the other hand, I do recognize that there is often a conflict between formative and summative assessment. Summative assessment is important at the public level, for other institutions, for example, as well as for scholarships (in Deweyan terms, it is education for preparation—which Dewey adamantly criticized). There is a conflict between the importance of formative assessment, which is designed for improving learning, and summative assessment, which is designed for other purposes. The different purposes easily come into conflict.

I am in total agreement with the principal concerning the importance of formative assessment in the process of learning.

Re: “No means of encouraging or facilitating student self or peer assessment is present either.”

Agreed. It is something that I should incorporate into the process.

Re: “A significant emphasis within the MY French curricula is to facilitate an appreciation of French culture and language in students’ affective domain. When this has been raised, Fred has appealed (as previously noted) to the obstacles in the way of increasing this appreciation of French, and has not been able to supply any means by which this is being increased.”

I have addressed the issue of culture above and an appreciation of French in relation to the students’ own language.

Re: “Indeed, there appears to be a significant decline in students’ attitudes toward their French lessons from the grade 6 to the grade 8 levels in Fred’s classes. In the grade 6 class, some students are smiling, spontaneous and enthusiastic. This declines in the grade 7 class, and in grade 8 there were no smiles, and what seemed to be a complete lack of spontaneity and enthusiasm.”

The administrator’s characterization of the level of motivation as progressively lacking as grades increase is not my reading of the situation. I would say that the grade 6s are more motivated to learn than the grade 8s, with the grade 7s more motivated than the grade 6s or grade 8s.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Real Assumption of Some Bureaucratic Tribunals, Part Four

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

The Ontario College of Teachers licenses, governs and regulates the Ontario teaching profession in the public interest.

Teachers who work in publicly funded schools in Ontario must be certified to teach in the province and be members of the College.

The College:

sets ethical standards and standards of practice

issues teaching certificates and may suspend or revoke them

accredits teacher education programs and courses

investigates and hears complaints about members

The College is accountable to the public for how it carries out its responsibilities.

You can find the qualifications, credentials and current status of every College member at Find a Teacher.

The College is governed by a 37-member Council.

23 members of the College are elected by their peers

14 members are appointed by the provincial government.

I sent, along with my explanation, a table that I had constructed concerning my experiences (and the experiences of my daughter, Francesca) with the child welfare organization Winnipeg Child and Family Services (CFS), located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The table that I constructed about events is a revised version (always subject to change as I gather further evidence). I will post the table gradually, in the section Publications and Writings on this blog.

Below is the answer to the final question, I believe, about additional considerations:

III. Another aspect of the issue is the clash between the principal’s views and mine.

When Randy Chartrand was principal (from 2009 to 2011), I used to place the occasional article (including my own) or other information that might be relevant to teachers on the bulletin board. Randy had no problems with these activities.

In September 2011, when Neil MacNeil became the new principal. I became the chair of the Equity and Social Justice Committee of the local teachers’ association. I sent articles and commentaries to the Manitoba Teachers’ Society Ning on Equity and Social Justice and decided to place printed copies of such material (at my own expense) in binders in the teachers’ lounge. I provide a couple of examples of such material. (the first one is on the definition of equity and social justice and another is Sarason’s article on flawed education and the summary of the article that I had provided).

One day in the fall of 2011, the Mr. MacNeil sent all teachers an article via email on brains and adolescent behaviour; he also put the same article in printed format in the teachers’ mail box (I do not have a copy). The article claimed that, due to adolescent brain structure and growth, adolescents behaved in reckless ways. Since my own understanding of the human life process is opposed to such reductionism of human nature to brains—such reduction is typical of many articles on brain research (see the accompanying article, “The Grammar of the Human Life Process: John Dewey’s new theory of language”), I researched the issue and placed an article opposing such a view (see the accompanying article, Mike Males, “Is Jumping Off the Root Always a Bad Idea?: A Rejoinder on Risk Taking and the Adolescent Brain”) and placed the article in the binder. This issue is related to clinical supervision.

In relation to the issue of clinical supervision for 2011-2012, during the consultation concerning my professional development plan, I had indicated that I would like to continue to contribute to the school through the submission of summaries of articles that I had read alongside the particular articles in question. During the consultation, the principal specifically claimed that the staff had expressed its disdain for my efforts. Since no one had approached me negatively concerning my efforts, I inferred that it was the principal who considered my efforts with disdain. I was placed once again on the clinical supervision model (on October 26). I continued to print (at my own expense) articles and summaries of the articles that I had sent to the MTS Ning and place them into a binder in the staff lounge until I went on sick leave in February 2012.

This is part of my explanation for answering “yes” in several of the questions.

Dr. Fred Harris

A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Three

The following is the third of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a “clinical evaluation” (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 French. This post deals with the performance evaluation of grade 8 French. It also includes my “Teacher’s response” to that evaluation.

For the context of the “clinical evaluation,” see the post A Worker’s Resistance to the Capitalist Government or State and Its Representatives, Part Eight.

As a teacher, I was earning around $85,000 a year at the time. Undoubtedly, according to the social-democratic or social-reformist left, it was a “good job,” “decent work,” and other such clichés. Being under clinical evaluation or supervision, however, was in effect legal torture–and I could not grieve the continued harassment by the principal since it was within management’s rights to “evaluate” a teacher’s performance.

I responded to Mr. MacNeil’s clinical evaluation with an initial 43-page reply, with the then Manitoba Teachers Society (MTS) staff officer Roland Stankevicius (later General Secretary of the MTS) providing edited suggestions that reduced it to about 30 pages.

Mr. Stankevicius remarked that the evaluation reflected negatively–on Mr. MacNeil:

You have provided a very scholarly response but it needs to be shortened. I hope you agree with my suggestions. …

You have made your points here. NM [Neil MacNeil] does not look good in a lot of how he states his observations (in my opinion).

I provide Mr. MacNeil’s assessment grade by grade in separate posts (and post by followed by my reflections (response) that I provided. In other words, the performance evaluation of the three grades is distributed over three posts. In the case of Grade 6, I also included the first area of evaluation (Domain I, Professional Responsibilities), with Mr. MacNeil’s comments and my reflections (response). Four further posts follow that include Domain I (Professional Responsibilities), Domain II (Educational Environments), Domain III (Teaching and Learning) and Domain IV (Professional Relationships).

Lakeshore School Division

Teacher Clinical Evaluation Report

Teacher: Fred Harris

School: Ashern Central School

Subject/Grade: MY French; ELA Trans. Focus 30S; SY Support

The teacher and administrator will review Administrative Regulations and Procedures Evaluation Process-Professional Staff (2.3)

Date and Focus of Teacher/Administrator Pre-Conferences and Post Conferences

3. Grade 8 French 2011 12 05 2:50 – 3:30 p.m.

“Pre-conference: Reviewing a quiz on passe compose. Fred will clarify expectations for a sports bulletin around research, then go up to the library for this research.

To note:

– nothing noted.

Post-conference: Fred was asked for his assessment of how this class went. He spoke to the need to review the passe compose again with the class, and to clarify again the intent of the assignment that the class was given for their sports bulletin.

I stated that, in my view, this was not the primary issue in the class. I pointed out that this was a class of 5 girls, with one new student who started this class today, and another boy whose attendance was “hit and miss” in Fred’s words. In my observation, all of the girls were unengaged and disinterested throughout the class. (Fred had occasion to remonstrate with each of the girls during this 35 minute class, and with some as many as a dozen times.)

I asked Fred for his assessment about how the situation had come to this pass, where I heard three of the girls state “I hate French” during the class. He responded by speaking to each of the girls in turn, describing what he believed to be their fault(s) in this matter. He pointed out that at least two of the girls were being forced to be there against their will, and I replied that, if we were to remove the students who did not want to be there, there might be no students left. After further prompting from me, about how this should not be the case for this class, he went back to previous years, where he spoke to the role of two boys, who have since dropped French, in having destroyed the atmosphere of the class.

I pointed out to Fred that, in all of this, he had not acknowledged his own role for the state of affairs in the class. He acknowledged that he did have some responsibility, for not having been sufficiently disciplinary with these students, but that he was working on this. He pointed out the detentions list he now has on his whiteboard. I asked how he intended to repair the relationships with these students, which he acknowledged to be damaged, and he said that he would talk with them.

Finally, Fred inquired about the next steps in this process. I clarified for him that the notes from the first two observations that I had given him were not part of my report. I told him that I would complete my report (using this template), give it to him for his comments, and that it would then be forwarded to the superintendent.”

Teacher’s Reflections

Grade 8

Re: “Post-conference: Fred was asked for his assessment of how this class went. He spoke to the need to review the passe compose again with the class, and to clarify again the intent of the assignment that the class was given for their sports bulletin.

I stated that, in my view, this was not the primary issue in the class. I pointed out that this was a class of 5 girls, with one new student who started this class today, and another boy whose attendance was “hit and miss” in Fred’s words. In my observation, all of the girls were unengaged and disinterested throughout the class. (Fred had occasion to remonstrate with each of the girls during this 35 minute class, and with some as many as a dozen times.)”

This is true. With one girl in particular, who has persistently been oppositional or defiant. I have since changed my tactics. If she does not do her work in French class, she then makes up for it during recess.

Re: “I asked Fred for his assessment about how the situation had come to this pass, where I heard three of the girls state “I hate French” during the class. He responded by speaking to each of the girls in turn, describing what he believed to be their fault(s) in this matter.”

The first thing that I said was that my formative assessment of their skills had been inaccurate—that I had overestimated their skill set. It was indeed an issue that came out when I had a discussion with the students subsequent to the observation and post-conference. One student said that I expected too much of them; I have taken that criticism into consideration and have tried to proceed more slowly and have made changes to the material as a support for their learning.

With respect to the issue of discipline, I would say that I made a serious mistake in trying to reason with certain students in past years who are no longer in French. My general approach has been to be empathetic to students (despite the contrary proposition by the administrator); I was too tolerant. I failed to identify real disrespect from mere shenanigans, and as a consequence I allowed the two students the year before too much leeway.

I have continued with the detention if the students talk while I am teaching.

As for referring to each student in turn, I indicated what they were doing that interfered with my direct instruction (such as persistent talking while I was trying to teach).

One circumstance that I did not mention was the obligation to teach in the home economics room. At the beginning of the year, I did not even know where I was going to teach. I was then assigned to the home economics room—a room ill-suited for teaching in general (apart from home economics) let alone French in particular. The room was several times used for meetings (in the evening and the day). I did not even have chalk at first and had to ask other teachers for some chalk. Then I was shifted to a different classroom. My sense was that such references to the unsuitability of environmental conditions and changes in environmental conditions would be interpreted by the administrator as “excuses.”

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Real Assumption of Some Bureaucratic Tribunals, Part Three

This is a continuation of a previous post

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

The Ontario College of Teachers licenses, governs and regulates the Ontario teaching profession in the public interest.

Teachers who work in publicly funded schools in Ontario must be certified to teach in the province and be members of the College.

The College:

sets ethical standards and standards of practice

issues teaching certificates and may suspend or revoke them

accredits teacher education programs and courses

investigates and hears complaints about members

The College is accountable to the public for how it carries out its responsibilities.

You can find the qualifications, credentials and current status of every College member at Find a Teacher.

The College is governed by a 37-member Council.

23 members of the College are elected by their peers

14 members are appointed by the provincial government.

The table that I constructed about events is a revised version (always subject to change as I gather further evidence or order it better). I posted it earlier (see A Personal Example of the Oppressive Nature of Public Welfare Services).

Below is the second and third parts of the answer to the second question (relating to whether i was fired)

II. Issues about my teaching ability. This issue needs to be broken into three parts: the issue of my competency as a senior-high French teacher, my competency as a middle-years French teacher before my assignment as a glorified educational assistant in September 2011 and my competency as a middle-years French teacher during the period from September 2011 to February 2012.

B.

Middle-years French: Earlier, I had undoubtedly some difficulties in this area—especially classroom management issues. Many students simply did not want to learn French, and I had to teach it. Since I philosophically disagreed with forcing students to learn something that they found useless and resisted whenever they could, I did my best in a bad situation. That some students hated French was obvious—and understandable.

Nonetheless, despite this bad situation, when the principal, Randy Chartrand, evaluated me in November 2010, his assessment was generally favourable (see the accompanying evaluation).

C.

By the time I started school in September 2011, my heart was already pounding occasionally. Being assigned the role of educational assistant to one special-needs grade nine student in power mechanics for the morning (the school was on the Copernican system of quarterly terms, with two classes per day for senior-high students) was humiliating. Given that many students already knew that I had a doctorate, they undoubtedly would be wondering why I was assigned the role of educational assistant. Given that Ashern has only a population of about 1,400, so too would the community. I did not find any place where I could really relax.

I still taught the afternoon middle-years French classes. However, it was clear that the principal (and the superintendent) wanted me to resign. Evidence of this, in addition to my assignment to one special-needs student in September was the situation that I faced as a middle-years French teacher at the beginning of September, 2011, I did not know where I was to teach middle-year French at first. Furthermore, once I was assigned a classroom for middle-years French, it was where the foods and nutrition teacher taught her classes—hardly the ideal environment for teaching middle-years French. It was the only classroom where there were still chalkboards rather than whiteboards. Furthermore, Zumba classes were often held at noon in the classroom so that I had little time to set up for the class.

In October 2011, my heart was pounding to such an extent that I consulted a medical doctor to determine whether there had been any physiological damage. An EKG showed that there was no rhythmic problems at least. I received some medication to reduce the pounding, but the pounding continued.

On October 26, the new principal, the superintendent, an MTS representative and I had a meeting. It was at this meeting that I was obliged to undergo clinical supervision again (see below for a possible explanation for such a condition—and not my so-called incompetence as a teacher).

This entire situation undoubtedly affected some aspects of my teaching ability—in one classroom, mainly, where I had increasing problems of dealing with the students’ behaviour and lack of engagement. The small class with which I had particular problems found French boring. I tried to make it “interesting,” but obviously failed in that effort. I had had four of the students in previous French classes, and only one made any real effort to learn French. I had contacted the parents often for the other students, but this led nowhere.

Furthermore, I had increasing problems with classroom management in that class. The situation deteriorated further in that classroom from January 2011 onwards. The students, when they often refused to do something that I wanted them to do, would complain to the principal. At one point, the principal called me into his office concerning their complaints that I was instituting detention because of their lack of compliance with my requests (and I personally find detention to be purely punitive and hardly educative, but I was expected to control their behaviour, so I instituted detention against my own philosophical beliefs). I felt my hands were tied. When the students continued to disobey me, I did blurt out at one point, “Why do you not tell the principal to have me fired.” This assertion undoubtedly led to the February meeting with the principal, the superintendent, an MTS representative and me (although nothing was specifically said about this incident).

At the February meeting, the superintendent mentioned that due to my cancer and the arrest, intensive supervision would be necessary. The superintendent indicated that I would receive various supports in order to enable me to attain the teaching standard expected of me. Since my interpretation of the intent of placing me on intensive supervision was an extension of the control expressed in assigning me to be an educational assistant and assigning me to an inappropriate environment for learning French—especially in the middle years—I spoke to a member of the EAP program of MTS (I had been seeing him since October 2011), who suggested that I go on sick leave. This is what I did.

I was not fired, but the conditions in which I was working were already difficult. I then met with a representative of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the lawyer for the MTS. The lawyer informed me that I could grieve the requirement that I be placed on intensive supervision (the issue was grievable under Manitoba law), but I would still have to undergo the intensive supervision while the grievance was being processed, up to and including arbitration. Since I came to the conclusion that I had no further desire to work for that division, I resigned.

In any case, I was neither a great French teacher, nor the inept teacher that the principal made me out to be (see the accompanying combined report by the principal and my reply. The representative from MTS indicated that he thought that the report reflected badly—on the principal. He helped me edit it so that it was 30 pages in length (but unfortunately I do not have a copy of that report). [I subsequently found a copy of the report, which I have included in another series of posts.]

This is part of my explanation for answering “yes” in several of the questions.

Note that the Ontario College of Teachers presumed that a question of the firing of an employee requires the employee to justify her/himself and not the employer. The default judgement of semi- and governmental departments is that the employer makes legitimate judgements, and the (ex) employee has to justify her/himself in view of such judgments.

The social-democratic or social-reformist left, however, rarely even acknowledge this fact. Even the radical left (or what appears to be the radical left, often enough) fail to take such common experiences of the working class when they formulate their “strategies.” Thus, they are often blind to the need for persistent ideological struggle against this default view of the capitalist state.

A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Two

The following is the second of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a “clinical evaluation” (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 French. This post deals with the performance evaluation of grade 7 French. It also includes my “Teacher’s response” to that evaluation.

For the context of the “clinical evaluation,” see the post A Worker’s Resistance to the Capitalist Government or State and Its Representatives, Part Eight.

I provide Mr. MacNeil’s assessment grade by grade in separate posts (with each post followed by my reflections (response) that I provided. In other words, the performance evaluation of the three grades is distributed over three posts. Four further posts will follow that include Domain I (Professional Responsibilities), Domain II (Educational Environments), Domain III (Teaching and Learning) and Domain IV (Professional Relationships).

Mr. Stankevicius remarked that the evaluation reflected negatively–on Mr. MacNeil:

You have provided a very scholarly response but it needs to be shortened. I hope you agree with my suggestions. …

You have made your points here. NM [Neil MacNeil] does not look good in a lot of how he states his observations (in my opinion).

Lakeshore School Division

Teacher Clin

ical Evaluation Report

Teacher: Fred Harris

School: Ashern Central School

Subject/Grade: MY French; ELA Trans. Focus 30S; SY Support

The teacher and administrator will review Administrative Regulations and Procedures Evaluation Process-Professional Staff (2.3)

Date and Focus of Teacher/Administrator Pre-Conferences and Post Conference

2. Grade 7 French 2011 11 29 2:15 – 2:50 p.m.

“Pre-conference: Students will ask personal questions of Fred. Then, students will take notes about gender of nouns, to give students a reference. Then, a lesson about possessive adjectives. When I asked what this lesson would look like, Fred responded “would you like a copy of the handout?”.

To note:

– in response, Fred says there is nothing to highlight, except that the class will be late due to coming in from recess.

Post-conference: I shared with Fred that it was not evident to me that there was any significant understanding of the possessive adjectives that students were being asked to learn/review, except on the part of one student. It was only this student who seemed to be particularly engaged during the lesson on the possessive adjectives. The only French written or spoken by the students throughout the lesson was when they recited “mes parents” twice after Fred.

We discussed two students in particular who seemed to be completely unengaged throughout the period. I shared that it appeared to me that Fred was “fighting” (for lack of a better word) with these students to pay attention, but to little or no effect. I asked whether Fred had considered other means of engaging these students, such as providing opportunity to learn in other ways for the student whom Fred identified as liking to draw. He said that he would consider this.

I asked Fred how he would know whether students had a command of the possessive adjectives which were the subject of this lesson. Fred replied that this would become evident as they worked on their family tree assignment. I asked how he might have a sense of this in the realm of formative assessment, and he said that he was led to believe they had a fundamental competence based on their responses in class. I pointed out that there were, effectively, no spontaneous responses in class aside from those of the one student who appeared interested and engaged.”

Teacher’s Reflections

Grade 7

Re:” Pre-conference: Students will ask personal questions of Fred.” I also asked questions of students.

Re: “Then, students will take notes about gender of nouns, to give students a reference. Then, a lesson about possessive adjectives. When I asked what this lesson would look like, Fred responded “would you like a copy of the handout?”.

There seems to be some confusion here. The administrator was supposed to observe a lesson on the possessive adjectives the previous week, which included taking notes on the possessive adjective. However, the same day was career fair for high-school students, and many classrooms were being used for that purpose—including my own. Ironically, it was the RCMP presentation which was located in the classroom where I taught. The presentation went to 2:30, but the observation was supposed to start at 2:15. Consequently, the observation took place the following week.

I had had the students already take notes on the possessive adjective another day. I wanted to give them a sense of the form of the possessive adjectives (certainly not “master” it in such a short period of time). I had also another day indicated that the possessive adjectives are difficult since their form is determined by the thing possessed. It can become confusing since the thing possessed may be plural while the person possessing the thing may be singular or plural. For example, mon, ma, mes: singular in the sense of the possessor, but mes is the plural form of the thing possessed even when one person is possessing the thing (ma soeur: singular thing possessed: mes soeurs: my sisters). It is true that I wrote on the objectives that the students would learn the possessive adjectives; I should have qualified that (mon, ma, mes); I made a mistake.

Re: “Post-conference: I shared with Fred that it was not evident to me that there was any significant understanding of the possessive adjectives that students were being asked to learn/review, except on the part of one student. It was only this student who seemed to be particularly engaged during the lesson on the possessive adjectives. The only French written or spoken by the students throughout the lesson was when they recited “mes parents” twice after Fred.”

I have partially responded to this above [in a previous post]. There are further issues. I was under the mistaken impression that I had to elaborate on learning goals before moving onto a specific task (see attachment). The claim that there was little evidence that the students had learned the possessive adjectives is inaccurate. A few did use it correctly; one student, for example, who is hardly a stellar French student, stated “mon oncle.” A few others also indicated the correct form. However, once it was clear that some indeed did not remember, I reviewed the possessive adjectives on the board in combination with the vocabulary for family members. I did not expect them to understand the possessive adjective immediately.

However, on further reflection, what I should then have done was to verify that more students grasped the concept of the possessive adjective. To that extent, the administrator’s assessment is accurate. I could have improved on my formative assessment. My formative assessment skills can always be improved.

A large part of the class was dedicated to an explanation of the learning goals and the task. I reviewed the possessive adjectives.

Re: “We discussed two students in particular who seemed to be completely unengaged throughout the period. I shared that it appeared to me that Fred was “fighting” (for lack of a better word) with these students to pay attention, but to little or no effect. I asked whether Fred had considered other means of engaging these students, such as providing opportunity to learn in other ways for the student whom Fred identified as liking to draw. He said that he would consider this.”

I am not certain about to which two students the principal is referring. We discussed one student’s lack of engagement. There was definitely one student who was tuned out and who did not pay attention. The principal has a valid point here. The principal suggested, besides the specific point of possibly attempting to incorporate the student’s drawing in order to engage the student that I differentiate instruction for the student. I have done that (see attachment), and the student has now drawn a family tree and written most of the required elements.

There was another student who interrupted me on occasion and who wanted to argue. I began to document her defiant behaviour. I called her parents, and we had a meeting. They were going to have her withdraw from French. They did not. I have attempted to walk a fine line in relation to this student.. Her defiant behaviour will probably continue, and I will address it when necessary, but to address it each time would disrupt the class. I have to use my judgement. When she is openly defiant, I will and have done something. For example, during a class subsequent to the observation, she wanted to get some white paper from the library for her family tree project. I let her, but she insisted on taking her binder. I saw no need for her to take her binder and told her to leave it. She made a point of taking it anyway; she had detention as a consequence.

Re: “I asked Fred how he would know whether students had a command of the possessive adjectives which were the subject of this lesson. Fred replied that this would become evident as they worked on their family tree assignment. I asked how he might have a sense of this in the realm of formative assessment, and he said that he was led to believe they had a fundamental competence based on their responses in class.”

This is a misreading of what I said. Given my philosophy of education, I would not expect that the students would have “increased their competence in the use of the adjectives or any other aspect of using the French language” during a few classes of French. I had reviewed possessive adjectives in French in general in previous lessons to provide a general but vague background. Concretization would arise through the process of creating a family tree within the limited context of using “mon, ma, mes” (delimitation of the set of possessive adjectives to a subset of them). To expect grade 7 students to be fluent in the use of even the possessive adjectives mon, ma and mes after a few lessons is unrealistic. Furthermore, since the use of these possessive adjectives constitutes a means to the end of creating a family tree (a solution to the problem of creating a family tree in French), they would be more efficiently learned—in context.

Re: “ I pointed out that there were, effectively, no spontaneous responses in class aside from those of the one student who appeared interested and engaged.”

I have already addressed this issue in part. Furthermore, spontaneous oral response is harder than the written form (since spontaneous response is usually delimited by a shorter period of time) In addition, as indicated above, there were a few more students who did respond orally—not just one.

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Twelve: The Mondragon Educational System

This is a continuation of a series of posts on summaries of articles, mainly on education.

As I pointed out in a previous post, it is necessary for the radical left to use every opportunity to question the legitimacy of existing institutions.

The attached article for the ESJ Ning is prefaced by the following:

The authors of the following article [Christopher Meek and Warner Woodworth], “Technical Training and Enterprise: Mondragon’s Educational System and its Implications for other Cooperatives,” outlines the importance of the educational system for the success of the Mondragon cooperative system in the Basque region of Northern Spain.

There are two key components to the Mondragon educational system: the Escuela Politecnica Profesional (EPP) and Alecoop (a student-owned manufacturing firm). The EPP has provided the basis for the development of highly advanced engineering skills, and Alecoop has provided the basis for students applying emerging engineering and managerial skills to real-life problems in the context of running a company that aids them to finance their own education.

The ideal of an egalitarian social and economic system has not led to a sacrifice of concerns for efficiency. Both are possible.

The roots of the Mondragon cooperative system lie in the extreme class division characteristic of the town, with a wealthy minority and a poor majority. Despite the level of poverty, the production of quality steel characterized the town. So too did a common language (the Basque language of Euskera) and social solidarity.

Don José Maria Arizmendiarrieta, priest and founder of the Mondragon cooperatives, arrived in Mondragon in 1941, when the fascist dictator Franco was in power. Some considered Arizmendiarreta to be a communist.

Arizmendiarrieta was asked by the Union Cerrajera to teach religion at the only school available for working-class youth, the Escuela de Aprendices. However, Arizmendiarrieta soon realized the inadequacy of the school. On the one hand, access was limited to the sons of the employees of the capitalist firm (excluding about 85 percent of eligible youth) and, on the other and, on the other, no son from the working class ever attended university. Arizmendiarrieta attempted to persuade the Union Cerrajera to open up the school to more youth, but the capitalist firm refused.

Arizmendiarrieta then initiated the establishment of an alternative school, with a proposal to tie the establishment of such a school to the buidling of a soccer field—tying the school to community interest.

Arizmendiarrieta initiated a technical school rather than a traditional liberal arts school because he considered the impoverished parents and students would do better to learn practical skills that would aid them to overcome their poverty. He also considered manual labour could be a dignified practice in the context of a cooperative organization. Technical skills, the dignity of the practical arts and principles of democratic social cooperation (economic democracy) formed key elements of the Mondragon cooperative system; social justice was linked to all three elements.

Emphasis on technical skills involved investment in machinery rather than limiting production to labour-intensive processes typical of many workers’ cooperatives. To incorporate technical skills into the production process, education that respected the importance of the practical arts and theoretical considerations linked to those practical arts became necessary.

The Spanish technical system of education is organized into three levels: 1. “Oficialia,” leading to an equivalent of middle-years education; 2. “Maestria,” which consists of traditional academic courses with, however, the capacity to engage in skilled technical work linked to electricity, electronics and mechanics; 3. “Perritos Industriales,” the equivalent of a bachelors degree in engineering and mechanics. EPP expanded as the number of students increased. In 1953, the Escuela Politecnica Popular (EPP) was established.

By 1947, 11 of the original students started the advanced stage of technical education. Dissatified with the way Union Cerrajera contradicted the principles that they had learned, in 1956, Ulgo, a cooperative manufacturing company, was established by five of the 11 original graduates of “Perritos Industriales.” They obtained funding from the community through word-of-mouth. Several other manufacturing cooperatives were initiated and so was a consumer cooperative.

In 1959, the Caja Laboral Popular, the “Working Peoples’ Bank,” was founded, aiding workers to establish other cooperatives. By 1987, it had aided in funding almost 200 cooperative organizations throughout the Basque region of Norther Spain.

The EPP was reorganized as a student cooperative that functioned for the industrial cooperatives. The General Assembly of the EPP is composed of three sets of stakeholders: 1. Students and parents; 2. the teachers; and 3. the cooperative and capitalist firms that subsidize the EPP budget. Due to expansion, more modern facilities were built in 1966, with workshops and laboratories.

The teachers at EPP are responsible for the creation of their own curriculum and write their own textbooks. Graduates of the EPP are highly skilled and in high demand. In the 1978/1979 school year, it had over a thousand students enrolled in the three levels of technical education.

The other piece of Mondragon education is Alecoop. About half of those attending EPP apply their learning to an actual manufacturing environment owned by students—Alecoop. It permits a closer alignment of theory and practice (and practice and theory)—and enables students to fund at least partially their own education. It was established in 1966. Alecoop struggled to continue to exist as it faced many problems. By about 1987 it had 601 students and 33 teachers.

As the authors conclude, education has been a key element in the success and expansion of the Mondragon cooperative system. Such an education is integrated in numerous ways: technical, academic, financial and managerial education are closely linked to the principles of economic democracy and the dignity of workers. Unlike many other cooperative movements, managers in the Mondragon cooperatives share the same vision with the other workers and teachers—rather than imposing their own vision on the workers and teachers. The unity of an educational strategy, linked to technical education and financial education on the one hand, and a cooperative economic principle on the other enabled the Mondragon cooperative system not only to survive but to thrive.

Rather than relying on experts, a cooperative system would be more effective if it relied on an internal analysis of local needs and values and then develop an educational plan. Experts, government agencies and so forth could then be consulted on ways in which the educational plan could be realized. A cooperative monitoring system would ensure that objectives are being met (or modified as required, depending on unforseen circumstances), costs are controlled and the cooperatived system expanded.

Democratic control of the economy (social justice) and the respect for persons can be combined with technical and financial education and efficiency—in a cooperatively organized economic system.

Fred