Teacher Change
Ways of changing what teachers do in their classrooms and how they teach or perceive their students include:
- Â teacher training programs
- professional development
- school reform initiatives
- leadership
- standards, testing (forcing a change by testing it)
- curriculum
I keep thinking about the issue of teachers and demographic change among their students, and how, from the standpoint of policy, we can understand and change what they do with students. One way of thinking about it is policy levers, or policy tools. Another way is social movements.
The basic issue for me centers on understanding teacher reactions to the composition of their classroom changing year to year, and how policy can make a difference in how they teach immigrant students. What do they need to feel confident teaching these students? What do they need to attain the kind of results we all want to see?
August 25th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I wonder how teachers’ relationships with other teachers at their school site affect their reactions to immigrant students because it sometimes seems as if these reactions are collective, rather than purely individual….
August 25th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I know…I think a lot about this too. And I’m reading Ingersoll again, and thinking about “control” of teacher’s work…and just how much control they have over what they do with immigrant students.