STUDENT REBELLION? (Part II)
- Shaina Thomas
- Dec 28, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 10, 2021
Conscious Not-Learning: Student Self-Identification,
Labeling & Schooling
REFLECTION: Individual Change Project
Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Howard University
Organizational Change, Fall 2020
Individual Change Project Link:
INQUIRY
The following questions below were identified within common themes that emerged from my early research interest as a first-generation student and my experience as a beginning educator in the year of 2014 as a student intern within a graduate program at the University of Oklahoma. Presently, as a five-year educator and doctoral candidate attending Howard University, I have continued to focus on how educational institutions may or may not shape students' self-identification processes through social and school-based labeling. For a Fall 2020 Individual Change Project, a semester long independent study, the core questions that I engaged are listed as:
What are the existing conditions within educational institutions that impact students' self-identification?
Which social or school-based labels, if at all, shape how students' self-identify?
What happens when how students self-identify begins to feel threatened?
PROCEDURE
I engaged my Individual Change Project as a recursive process. Diving into one step to another, from a literature review to evaluating my own core inquiries, I found myself in need of more texture. I decided to conduct interviews, engage/discover more sources and explored other ways to dissect my topic of interest. As a foundation, I revisited my early and latest literature reviews. Literature stretched across disciplines as I examined studies on identity development, oppositional identity, social conditioning, social labeling, practitioner journals on serving disengaged and/or underachieving students, psychological development, symbolic violence and rejection of schooling. To explore the spaces that I occupy as an educator during the unique year of 2020, I conducted ZOOM interviews and observation shadowing that consisted of:
2 Students
2 Parents
4 Colleagues (educators)
1 Head of School
2 Assistant Principals
1 Dean of Schools
2 Principals
1 Superintendent (Ongoing)
Within each engagement, I included a range of questioning that surveyed conceptualizations of curriculum theories, effective instructional practices, labeling, biases, school cultures and student outcomes. Organically, a range of labels emerged when discussing school culture and data within interviews, teacher-student interactions during class observations and parent-student interactions during parent-approved interviews. Common labels used include: racial identity terms (i.e. Black and Hispanic/Latinx), Special Education (SpED), Honors, Urban, International Baccalaureate (IB) Profiles (i.e. Risk-Takers and Inquirers), gender terms (i.e. boys and girls), Gifted, Talented, At-Risk and Struggling.
FRAMEWORK
Along with many texts, the two course texts that left quite an impression on my Individual Change Project was Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal’s Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership (2017) and Carolyn M. Shields’s Transformative Leadership in Education (2018). Together, these texts broadened the scope of my project by expanding my thinking about transforming educational structures beyond the classroom or rather beyond teacher-preparation. I once believed that effective teacher-preparation could combat biases and other conditions within the school-setting that infringes upon students’ educational, personal and social experiences. While a focus on improvements to teacher-preparation may be fruitful to some degree, throughout my Individual Change process, I realized that in order to grasp full transformative change, an organization such as the American public educational system – as a whole – must embrace transformative leadership to “ensure more equitable, inclusive and socially just opportunities for all,” (Shields, 2018, p. 5).
As I continued to dive into these texts and others, I situated myself within a specific topic of interest with a broadening conceptualization of frameworks and a heightened focus on transformative leadership. My Individual Change Project was centered around my early interest in social and school-based labeling and their potential impact on students’ self-efficacy, self-identification and overall outcomes. When searching for gaps in my early research, An Autoethnography: Humanizing Disengaged Students (2015), I returned to my Individual Change Project with an eagerness to approach it through a multi-framework based upon aforementioned course readings. For me, the text Reframing Organizations (2017) by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal introduced the Structural Frame, Human Resource Frame, Political Frame and the Symbolic Frame. Out of the four frames, the Human Resource and Political Frame have a deeply rooted space in my Individual Change project that calls for more exploration. As a collective, these four frames expanded my existing interpretations of complementary instructional philosophies such as student-centered, scholar-academic, social efficiency and social reconstruction (Schiro, 2007).
IMPLICATIONS
As an educator, I have always used a social reconstructionist approach when it comes to schooling. For me, this placed teachers as facilitators while prioritizing the empowerment of students as they actively participate in critical literacy and making connections between literature, their lived experiences and those around them in relation to the surrounding world—in hopes that they would grow to challenge problematic social conditions. As I continued to engage Shield’s (2018) discussion of transformative leadership and Bolman and Deal’s (2017) frames to come to my own conclusions, I realized that my expectations may be centered around a political framework that “puts power and conflict at the center of organizational decision making,” (Bolman and Deal, 2017, p. 199). When reviewing my final interpretations and implications, my Individual Change Project had evolved into considering possible vast measures and additional inquiries such as:
Additional Inquiries:
What are existing forms of symbolic violence?
If students feel these forms of symbolic violence, what do they begin to do?
What does the existence of symbolic violence mean for how districts and schools collect data and evaluate student outcomes?
What does the existence of symbolic violence mean for preparation and professional learning opportunities for district leaders, teachers and other school leaders?
What approach should districts use within their strategic plans to combat infringing upon a student's identity development and freedom of expressions?
What does all of this mean for transformation of schooling? If at all, would there be any changes to public opinion and/or value of the high school diploma?
If the high-school diploma had more "value" because of producing young researchers and supporting students in other experiential learning opportunities through a social reconstructionist lens - in what ways would this impact society, the labor force and colleges/universities?
Overarching Measures:
Proposing a new system(s) to measure and analyze data of students’ educational and personal outcomes
Ways to empower students to fight against power structures that impose upon their development
Begetting a completely reframed and transformed “ideal” school system that could empower students, families and communities by prioritizing transformative leadership
Though, as proposed by Bolman and Deal (2017), “there is no guarantee that those who gain power will use it wisely or justly,” (p. 199). On the other hand, when considering the goals of transformative leadership, I believe that “constructive politics is a possibility—indeed, a necessary option if we are to create institutions and societies that are both just and efficient” (Bolman and Deal, 2017, p. 199). In other words, if school systems function justly and efficiently by becoming more aware of and addressing its role within students' identity development (often through labeling and corresponding instructional approaches), there is a greater possibility for constructive and transformative learning.
Together, these texts enclosed my Individual Change Project into a developing framework that allowed me to have additional entry points in examining how I envisioned change within the American public-school system. Ultimately, I have learned the depths of change and how one’s perspective can determine the questions asked, system(s) challenged and outcomes sought after when seeking to implement change. As any organization and institution seek change, it must always consider the human component as it relates to interpersonal and group dynamics.
References
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. (1968). The souls of black folk;
essays and sketches. Chicago, A. G. McClurg, 1903. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.
Giroux, H. (2004). Critical Pedagogy and the Postmodern/Modern Divide: Towards
a Pedagogy of Democratization. Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2004, pages 1-16. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ795233.pdf
Kohl, H. R. (1994). "I won't learn from you": And other thoughts on
creative maladjustment. New York, New Press.
L. Marsh. (2018, June 1). Symbolic Violence: School-Imposed Labeling in a “No
Nonsense” Charter School. PENNGSE Perspectives on Urban Education,
15(1), 1-8. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1194452.pdf
Rahal, M. L. (2010). “Identifying and Motivating Underachievers.” Website:
Tatum, B. D. (1997). "Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?" and other
conversations about race. New York: BasicBooks.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal T. E. (2017). Artistry, Choice, and Leadership: Reframing Organizations. Hoboken, New Jersey. Jossey-Bass.
Campbell, D., & Fullan, M. (2019). The Governance Core: School Boards, Superintendents, and Schools Working Together. Thousand Oaks, California. Corwin A Sage Publishing
Company.
Lomotey, K., & Milner H. R. (2014). Handbook of Urban Education. New York, NY. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Palmer, R., O. Cadet, M., LeNiles, K., Hughes, J. (2019). Personal Narratives of Black
Educational Leaders. New York: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315099743
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