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logistics and rejection
holy crap! i didn't realize all the organization and logistical crap that i'd have to do just to observe literacy practices... i have charts and schedules and lists of permission (and rejections [grrr!!]) from instructors... this sucks! this past week i've spent as much time organizing as i have actually observing. this is obviously a problem.
also, why would an instructor be totally un-open to an observer sitting in on her/her [intentional to indicate that only women have rejected my request at this point - which i find interesting; hell, *everything* is interesting to me right now as i collect this data...i want to know the why's to anything/everything] class?
i won't be sitting in on their classes, but i will be sitting outside their classes. there's still behavior to be observed (comings, goings, walking out for breaks, etc.) and/or overheard...
gotta run...
interviews will hopefully start next week (or perhaps in 2 - i'd like to visit a few classes first)
Labels: diss., observations, permission
posted by chris @ 10/02/2007 11:59:00 AM
7 Comments:
Might be that a female teacher would be MORE disconcerted by a strange man sitting outside her door than she would be having him sit in her class. You can build relationships slowly--better that than act like you're bound & determined to make life miserable.
Good luck--logistics can be awfully thorny.
Eli
Something to think about, too, is that some folks (women or men) don't want their *teaching* observed. It matters little that you wouldn't be observing THEM, but observing your student/subject . . . the teacher is still in the room and you will see them teach. Teaching is one of those things that for some is so anxiety producing. Someone might think, "maybe I teach 'wrong' and he'll see," or it could be the imposter syndrome, "he'll see what a fraud I am . . ." Again, it matters little that the teacher isn't the object of your gaze. You are still gazing.
Women, I think, have a particularly difficult time with things like this (am I essentializing?). Are your subjects in the "special" classes you write about? If so, then the observation becomes a little more troubling for female teachers as they are expected to be the "nurturing" kind of teacher. Perhaps if you observed, you would see the nurturing-teacher persona, but then, maybe you wouldn't. Being a man, and one "researching," you might have a little more assumed credibility . . . therefore, you might be perceived as one who would judge.
I don't know if that made a whole lot of sense, and I think I need to stop hijacking your blog. These are things I've been thinking about for the past few days (male / female interactions and authority), so maybe I'll just continue this over at my place. Or here at your place. Or, something.
holy crap!!! a strange visitor... Eli! daaang.
of course you have to drop in to be all logical. truth be told, it's not even physically possible for me to attend a class of each of the 40 instructors i contacted. so a few rejections aren't a big deal. probably more of a blessing, actually.
and b, you're not hijacking my blog. however, right now i'm tempted to respond to the male/female "essentializing" by saying, in the spirit of the competitive-minded: "SUCK IT UP! don't be a practice player! there's gonna be people in the stands when we turn that clock on. you're gonna have to play in front of them. get used to it!!!"
but of course i would never say something like that to an academic peer. it'd be inappropriate. perhaps the fact that i've been on campus for 7 hours to teach 3 classes, plus the fact that i'm sitting in study hall, plus the fact that i need to attend the volleyball game at the conclusion of study hall is affecting my urge to respond in a less than understanding way...
hmmm... i wonder if this is insight into the physical effects of the material conditions of (lack of) rest/sleep that i know the coaches suffer from and that the players likely do as well (info that will be recovered via interviews).
alas, i now must switch over to my secret blog so that i may begin jotting my fieldnotes for this academic observational moment...
I'm not sure why all the nays were female (she says as a female who was a chapter in someone's dissertation).
Now, if I had received your letter, I probably would want to meet with you so that I would know who the "strange man" is. And I definitely get what Billie said about gender, power, and credibility in the classroom.
Another issue is this. While you know and the teacher knows that you are observing particular students, to others in the classroom it will look like the instructor is the one being observed. Now, I always tell my students when someone is coming to observe me and I discuss it in terms of being a regular part of teaching/professionalization. And, if someone showed up to observe us and I hadn't mentioned that he/she planned to be there, it could make my students uncomfortable. When I think of how nervous students are about their writing, especially during those initial peer workshops, I can see how an outsider could disrupt the ethos of our classroom.
Anyway, just a thought or two.
I think some instructors--maybe most--view the classroom as a private place. They close the door. They say things in class that they might not want to "get around."
Ron Strickland and Diana Bell & Becky Nugent have written some fascinating stuff about the idea of a public pedagogy.
At the beginning of every semester, I send out an email inviting all faculty to visit one of my classes during the semester. I give them my teaching schedule and say drop in, no need to let me know ahead of time. Lots of people do. Lots of people also tell me I am crazy to do this. But I believe in a public classroom. (And I'm female.)
I also think there's a legitimate fear of having an observer in the classroom that grows out of the "educators must be held accountable for the fact that our kids can't read/think/whatever" crap.
Liz-- (oh, and Chris, since it is, of course, your blog) :-) I've noticed that you do the "public pedagogy" thing (I've read it at your place), and I've been so impressed by that. I've wanted to do the same/similar thing in my own teaching, but have been so reluctant to do so for the very reasons you list. On one hand, I'd be concerned that I'd so something monumentally stupid the day that someone shows up, and on the other hand, I'd be a bit offended if no one ever did come by.
I am intrigued, though, by the work that Chris is doing and how the teachers of his subjects have responded, and indeed, how we have responded to these questions. In some ways, the public pedagogy-- and the anxiety it can cause teachers-- could, in some manner, mirror the anxiety students might feel when we evaluate their work publicly (by asking questions or whatever). It's good us all to feel that anxiety at times . . .
So very interesting!
k8 and Liz -
you guys raise two really good points. i guess i just get so wrapped up in what i'm doing that i can't see how anybody would object to contributing to the good that could potentially come from trying to better understand the structures of literacy and education that affect student and teacher...
this focus makes me a pretty simple-minded individual at times.
thanks for stopping by to provide some moments of clarity/insight!
Billie -
the concern you (and Liz) speak of: you could be dead-on about teachers experiencing anxiety. i think the grand-total of formal (i.e. in the form of actually responding as opposed to simply ignoring my request) rejections is 4. Two of the rejectors sighted anxieties students would feel if there were a strange man sitting in. ONe teacher even asked his class how they would feel. Then he got back to me with a response...
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