Group 4 Discussion Prompts

Sorry for the delay, had a run-in with food poisoning late Monday night! Anyway, here are the questions for consideration:

I've had my name mispronounced on various occasions, although I cannot remember any particular instance in school. However, people commonly misspell it as “Kieth” which frustrates me, but I also understand that it’s a linguistic thing. What is your attachment to your name? Are you upset when people misspell or mispronounce it? Do you have that issue if you are of primarily European descent going through a Eurocentric school system? Is there also a cultural connection to names that may or may not be present in dominant culture?

To what degree should teachers (of any race or background) be responsible for correctly pronouncing a student’s name? Any teacher, not just those from a dominant culture, would struggle with orthographies and phonetics that they have had limited exposure to. However, a teacher also should not single a student out over his or her name with comments like ‘Ooh, this name is hard to say!’ or ‘Your name is very long, do you have a nickname?’” (Kohli & Solórzano 2012, 8). What are some ways around this? What other ways can we help to avoid racial microagression altogether and “create classrooms where all children feel safe, visible, valued and celebrated” (5)?

Studenting is something we’re all familiar with. In her piece “There’s learning and then there’s schooling”, Leigh explores the stories of immigrant students in Mr. Knox’s class. In examining the case of one female student, she writes, “She had adapted her knowledge and skills to suit what she thought the teacher was looking for. This makes her a good student but not necessarily a learner in this particular situation. In fact, being a good student requires learning the style and expectations of the teacher” (8). How do we, as teachers, prepare students to face expectations, rules, and other requirements without forcing them into a role of student over learner? Is there a way to balance our practice so that we focus on the learning process rather than the end result of student work? What are some ways that we might promote learning for the sake of learning and growing, and also challenge student to demonstrate what they really know versus what they think we want them to know?

And last, because I like it, I'm stealing Maggie's questions from below (for a little sharing in class):

- What would you consider a success in teaching?
- What is a failure in teaching?
- What is your number one reason for going into education?
- What is your biggest fear going into education?