Teaching to transform the world.

Today, many classroom teachers are busy preparing for standardized tests. The No Child Left Behind Act encourages such behavior. Little time is left to devote to subjects that previously were considered a vital part of the curriculum, such as social studies, physical education, art, and music. Needless to say, if these subjects have taken a back seat, teaching children to care and make a difference in the world has been packed away and placed in the trunk! However, now more than ever, teaching to transform the world needs to be a salient part of every classroom, from preschool through graduate school.

According to Wink (2000), teaching to transform the world involves transformative lessons. A transformative lesson

distinguishes itself in two ways from the generative, or constructive, lesson. First, it is designed so that students act upon and use their generated knowledge for self- and social transformation. The socially constructed knowledge of the classroom is to be applied in the social context of life. Second, this lesson design is inherently grounded in democratic principles. (p. 129)

For this column, Kay Emfinger, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education and the Director of the Early Reading First Project at the University of Alabama Birmingham, joined me in reviewing some articles that describe ways we can create classrooms that make a difference in the world.--JA

INCORPORATING SERVICE LEARNING INTO LEADERSHIP EDUCATION: Duke TIP's Leadership Institute. Pleasants, R., Stephens, K., Selph, H., & Pfeiffer, S., Gifted Child Today, 2004, 24(1), 16-21. Duke University's Talent Identification Program (TIP) provides a leadership institute for gifted youth. This program incorporates a service learning model that was chosen for three important reasons:

First, Duke TIP was interested in introducing gifted students to opportunities for community and civic engagements. Second, service learning teaches gifted students through real-world experiences.... Finally, service learning allows students to pursue their own interests and direct their course of study. (p. 17)

The article details the benefits of service learning, a framework of leadership theory, and the impact of service learning on the gifted students who participated in the TIP leadership institute. While the description of the Duke program was interesting, "A Plan for Implementing Leadership in the Classroom" was perhaps the most helpful for classroom teachers. This section describes how any teacher can develop a service learning plan for a classroom by using or modifying 10 specific and practical suggestions.

Teachers who are interested in developing a service learning program should find this article to be a valuable resource. Even though the focus is on gifted students who attended a college-sponsored institute, the recommendations could be applied to most any classroom that incorporates service learning.

IN THE CLASSROOM: "Each One, Reach One." Hargrove, K., Gifted Child Today, 2004, 27(1), 22-23. Hargrove inspires teachers to think outside of the box while trying to reach marginalized students who have exceptional potential. She begins by describing Frank Laubach's approach of "Each one, teach one." He applied this approach while working with students living in extreme poverty in the Philippines.

Three specific examples of other teachers who made a difference by assisting gifted students attending enrichment programs were described. The examples included one teacher in a rural area who helped three students get into a summer program with high entrance standards, one teacher who assisted a non-conformist child, and another instructor who helped a Hispanic family learn how to navigate the system in order to receive services for their child. Hargrove reports,

Each of these three individuals "tackled the big job" by investing themselves personally in the lives of their students.... These interventions cost little in money, but much in effort, and they made a difference in the lives of five gifted students. Perhaps many of us could do the same. (p. 23)

This article has potential to inspire teachers to expand that effort. However, the idea of "each one, teach one" should not be limited to just gifted students. Students with challenges also should be considered. Transformative teachers can challenge children to reach others through service learning.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF CARING: Effects of Mothering a Child With Special Needs. Leiter, V., Krauss, M., Anderson, B., & Wells, N., Journal of Family Issues, 25(3), 379-403. What does mothering a child with special needs have to do with teaching to transform the world? With the advent of inclusion and the need for better teacher-parent relations, this article can help teachers better understand the challenges of caring for a child with special needs, and thus make a difference for both the child and family.

The authors report that the most serious effects of having a child with special needs are "strongly associated with the child's health characteristics" (p. 379). Of the mothers who stay at home with a child with a disability, over half of them reported that the child's needs were responsible for their ceasing paid employment. Of those employed outside the home, over half of these reported reducing their work hours.

Women who parent a child with special needs, particularly a child with a health condition, become long-term, and in many cases "permanent," caregivers at a much earlier age than other women, who may eventually assist or care for an aging parent or spouse. The demands and isolation are overwhelming. The child's teachers need to understand this predicament and be especially sensitive in scheduling conferences and making demands on an already overwhelmed parent.

If we are truly committed to transformative teaching, further questions arise, such as, "How can we better assist parents with children who have debilitating health issues?" Teaching to transform the world involves more than the students we teach--it also includes their parents or guardians.

PARTNERING WITH FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES. Epstein, J, & Salinas, K., Educational Leadership, 2004, 61(8), 12-18. Epstein and Salinas explain that a "school learning community" is an "organized program of school, family, and community partnerships with activities linked to school goals" (p. 12). Annual action plans are designed, based on what Epstein and Salinas refer to as a research-based framework. The authors describe six types of involvement used in annual action plans or school improvement goals: "parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community" (p. 12).

The authors provide numerous examples of stories from the field. Exceptionally diverse programs from schools throughout the United States and one from Canada were highlighted. As might be expected, some programs focused on improving test scores, while a few represented more authentic, transformative projects. One of the best examples of a transformational focus was a program called Gifts We Share, which is designed to

help students and families in high-poverty schools give of themselves, meet their neighbors, and improve students' writing and reading skills. Students wrote letters to invite senior citizens to become pen pals and to interact in other ways. Parents helped students coordinate several events, including a dinner to honor the seniors. (p. 17)

Some of the projects were transformational while others were not. The authors focused on a research-based framework more than they did on the development of a transformational program. However, research and transformation are not mutually exclusive. While the article provided excellent examples of six types of involvement, we would encourage school learning community teams to make sure they add transformation as a major goal for all collaborations.

BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF HOPE. Sergiovanni, T., Educational Leadership, 2004, 61(8), 33-37. Sergiovanni distinguishes between wishful thinking and hope. Wishful thinking is passive, lacks faith, and has no plan for action or change. In contrast, hope is active, incorporates faith, and involves an action plan for change. The author goes on to describe a framework for hope, giving specific examples of schools that implemented this framework.

Building a community of hope incorporates several transformational ideas. Some of these were structural in nature, while others involved the process of transforming hope into action. Specific structural changes that can be used to promote a transformative curriculum are the development of smaller learning communities that provide a "continuity of care" (p. 35), the reduction of the adult-child ratios to 15:1, and the provision of multiple and diverse chances for students to learn. Processes for transformation included the development of goals, pathways, and beliefs.

One of the major points of this article was the importance of action. Sergiovanni stresses that hope "does not occur by accident; the school staff nurtures hope through a carefully planned, sustained school improvement effort.... Educators can be both hopeful and realistic as long as the possibilities for change remain open" (p. 37). This article would be helpful to any school committed to change and dedicated to taking the action necessary for transformation.

CREATING A LABORATORY FOR DEMOCRACY. Beatty, E., Educational Leadership, 2004, 61(8), 75-78. In 2001, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) of Alexandria, Virginia, and the First Amendment Center of Arlington, Virginia, joined together "to transform the ways in which schools model and teach the rights and responsibilities that frame civic life in our democracy" (p. 76). Eleven schools across the United States were chosen to implement the vision of moving the First Amendment from the textbook to the reality of schools.

A major theme of First Amendment Schools is the importance of all stakeholders, including the students, being involved in the school and learning how to practice First Amendment rights. One of the schools involved in the project was Fairview Elementary School in Modesto, California. The author described how the students got a firsthand lesson in First Amendment rights when they petitioned to have macaroni and cheese removed from the lunch menu; they had previously petitioned to have ravioli removed. Test scores for Fairview, a low-income school, were very high.

While First Amendment Schools have tremendous potential for transformation, I was concerned that the students' interests in changing the lunch menu and the program's emphasis on higher test scores are not the best examples of a transformative agenda. Hopefully, as First Amendment Schools grow and learn, they will move beyond the lunch menu and test scores to making the world a better place. It is not enough for students to have a voice. They must be encouraged to use that voice to make a positive difference that goes beyond their own lives and immediate concerns.

RE-VISIONING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. Weisman, A., Bank Street College of Education Occasional Paper Series: Teaching Through a Crisis: September 11 and Beyond, 2003, 11, 25-30. The Bank Street College of Education publishes an occasional paper series on current topics in education. Volume 11 is concerned with transformational teaching that moves children beyond 9/11. Weisman, a 6th-grade teacher at the Bank Street School for Children in Manhattan, describes a study completed by her students regarding the World Trade Center site. Students were assigned to three distinctive world views: monotheism, polytheism, and atheism. Each group was to determine what should be built on the site of the former World Trade Center.

According to Weisman, the students' work "represented several weeks of thinking, discussing, planning, and building. The designs didn't necessarily represent the actual beliefs of the students who built them, but rather their interpretation of the three views described" (p. 26). She indicated that after the project, the students were left with many questions regarding their own beliefs, including what should be done with the World Trade Center space, and how their own ideas and beliefs shape the questions and answers to this problem.

This article was exceptionally thought-provoking, particularly with regard to what constitutes a transformative curriculum and how this is implemented in different contexts. Bank Street School for Children is a private, liberal, progressive school in New York City. Many parents whose children attend public or private schools in more conservative rural or suburban areas might object to their children being assigned a "religious" viewpoint, even for a project like this one. How do teachers in these areas teach to change the world without evoking the wrath of parents and the community at large?

Those seeking to design a transformational curriculum have other difficult issues to address as well. At least three other important questions can be asked: 1) Whose transformation is it? For example, Michael Moore's brand of transformation is quite different from George W. Bush's view. 2) What are we transforming, and why? Finally, 3) Is it considered transformation if we discuss ways to change, such as this class's ideas about what should replace the World Trade Center? Or, do we have to actually act to make a real difference in the world?

CRITICAL LITERACY: A Questioning Stance and the Possibility for Change. McDaniel, C., The Reading Teacher, 2004, 57(5), 472-481. McDaniel explains the difference among critical literacy, functional literacy, cultural literacy, and progressive literacy. Only critical literacy focuses on transforming one's life and the lives of others by acting on the knowledge we gain from reading and writing.

While McDaniel makes a strong case for transformation through critical literacy, she also points out its limitations and cautions us to consider the difficulties in using it. Specifically, she suggests, "Such a critical stance is dangerous--for educators and children. Teachers often face rejection and ostracism when they criticize the 'system,' as well as disapproval from parents for 'subversive' teaching that uses inappropriate texts or undermines adult authority" (p. 480).

A real strength of this article is a list of picture books that can be used for critical literacy. McDaniel explains, "As with many texts, picture books contain multiple layers of meaning, so a reader's interpretation will depend on his or her experiences as well as intellectual and emotional development" (p. 479). Beyond their developmental levels and understanding of a text, children are also "influenced by the amount and type of scaffolding or support strategies they receive from adults" (p. 479).

This article leaves the reader with questions to consider. What is the role of critical literacy in teaching to transform the world? Reading or writing about difficult issues will not, in and of itself, change the world. What must students do to move beyond critical literacy to make a difference?

Reference

Wink, J. (2000). Critical pedagogy: Notes from the real world (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.