Double Entry Journal 5

1. What is reverent listening and how can it support culturally responsive teaching?

Reverent listening is listening with a humble and respectful mindset, seeking not only to cognitively grasp what is being said, but also to form connections between listeners and speakers. It involves keeping in mind that even if the listener is older or more experienced, as human beings we can all learn from each other. It is respecting the speaker as another person who deserves respect and to be listened to, remembering the limitations we all have as people, as well as our potential to teach one another, regardless of position.

Reverent listening is central to culturally responsive teaching because both emphasize knowing students individually as people, and cultivating a sense of mutual respect and connectedness in the classroom. A characteristic of reverent listening is transcendence- attending to the needs of a variety of students with varying needs- a characteristic that is almost synonymous with inclusion. If a teacher knows how to reverently listen to his or her students, knowing their subject matter as well as their students, and keep in mind that the classroom is an extension of the community, not a separate box in which to force-feed instruction, teachers will have a major step forward in being successful as culturally responsive educators.

 

2. Give an example from your own schooling experience of what this quote means:   Reverent listening is not to be confused with humiliation and domination by others who force us to listen, and even less so, with the kind of incompetence that wants to be told what to do.

I have had experiences with adults in my life growing up who I always listened to very carefully, but mostly because I was afraid of making them mad. I would actually get myself into more trouble that way, because as soon as they started speaking I would try to guess what they were going to say and analyze every word for possible meanings. Often I would just get confused about what I was supposed to understand, making them angrier, and I would be called stupid or that I never listened. That only made me try harder to please them, because I didn’t want to hear that. My experiences with authority figures in my life like that has taught me that fear hinders communication. I think that relates to this quote because as a teacher, I don’t want students to hang on to my words because they are afraid if they don’t get it right they will be ridiculed or humiliated or left behind. I want them to listen because I have created a community inside the classroom in which the students are motivated by internal motivation and by each other, and are actually interested in what I am saying. I want them to listen because even if they don’t personally find the material fascinating, they are drawn in by my own excitement and motivation that I communicate in instruction. I also don’t want them to listen just because I am the teacher and that’s what they are supposed to do. I want them to listen not because they fear me, but because they can tell I respect and care about them, and as a result, they respect me in return.

 

3. What is meant by a "laundry list of value ethics"? Give an example from your own schooling experience. And then explain how this     approach to character education can be NON-culturally responsive.

Suzanne Rice explains “a laundry list of value ethics" as the narrow set of shallow, conventional character values that focus on work ethic and duty that dominates many Character education programs. Programs that dogmatically stick with this list are often over confident and exclusive, completely missing the virtue of reverence. I have had many classes in which posters were hung advertising the virtues of “recreation comes after education” and “don’t speak while others are speaking”. I think these posters were on the right track, but very seldom do I remember getting instruction about why these virtues are important. Since I did not see an immediate application of them to them in my life, I barely even noticed them until I began to develop my own set of morals.

As Rice points out, virtue and vice are delicately balanced, and there are many fine lines between them. Simply drilling detached virtues such as “be considerate of others” into students’ heads might not hurt them, but it is not a particularly culturally responsive approach to character education. Students come from many different cultures and backgrounds with a vast range of what is socially appropriate and what constitutes good character. Also, what constitutes right and wrong often depends on circumstances. So instead, Rice supports situating “..virtues in the context of human capacities and limits.” Reverent listening can facilitate this because teachers who apply it must listen to their students and be willing to have shared, ongoing, democratic deliberation about right and wrong and its application in the classroom. Teachers must be flexible, listen to the concerns of students and be willing to change rules and implement new strategies.

 

4. Have you ever had a teacher that at one time or another exhibited the traits of a reverent teacher? What did they do? How did they make you feel?

My AP Geography teacher in high school exhibited many of the traits of a reverent teacher. She implemented a lot of discussion in the classroom, so that soon we were like a group of friends with shared interests that could come together on a neutral ground and talk about issues in the world that would otherwise not be breached. She made us feel comfortable enough to disagree with one another and taught us how to form an argument. She had a structure for the class, but she also made a lot of statements like “We will try this, but if doesn’t work, we can take it in a different direction.” She was interested in what we wanted to learn, and she took the ideas we brought up in discussions seriously. We could all tell she respected and cared about us, and was invested in our learning for our sake as well as her own. She shared a lot of stories about her life experiences and the places she had traveled and people she had met, which helped us to respect her even more as an educator because we knew she was someone who really knew what she was talking about and who we could learn a lot from. Somehow she managed to make me feel connected to something larger than the class, and sparked new interests beyond just getting an A. She managed to communicate and pass on to hers students her transcendent mindset, respect, and awe and wonder of the world.

 

5. What factors contribute to a "toxic" school culture?

One factor that contributes to a toxic school culture is leadership that doesn’t listen reverently.  Leaders who are closed minded and self-seeking close the door on collaboration and a sense of community that should be in a school. Authorities in education must be willing to listen, be self-correcting, and be willing to apply what they are hearing if necessary. A school is a network of students, parents, custodial staff, teachers, secretaries, and principals, who each have an equal right as human beings to be listened to. 

A lack of reverent listening in schools leads to frustrated, limited teachers, bored and resentful students, tension between school and parents, misunderstandings and power struggles among faculty and staff, and possibly an unbalanced emphasis in school policies. Reverent educators keep the mindset that nobody can ever have a full and accurate view of a situation by themselves, therefore, everyone from the custodian to the students’’ guardians, has a valuable perspective of what is important in education.

6. Find a quote in this article that you would like to incorporate into your own philosophy of education and explain how it fits or changes your philosophy of education.

One quote that from this article that seems really profound to me is this:

 ‘“Respect is given, not earned’…We may respect others, including our students, solely based on our common humanity.

All my life I have heard “you have to earn respect”, which might be true in some ways, but I don’t think it applies to the way teachers should view their students. Teachers have to remember that their students are children, not fully developed people, who will probably develop qualities that we would deem worthy of respect as they grow. We should not expect children to behave as mature adults. This fits into my education philosophy because I believe we should respect students because they are people who have unlimited potential. We may be teaching a disruptive, unmotivated, and disrespectful student, but that same student may become the next Beethoven. I want to look at each student and see not just where they are, but also where they could be, and assume that each of them will do far greater things than I will. We should show respect to our students regardless of how they treat us because as teachers, we are supposed to set the example. If problem students are given no respect from teachers simply because the teacher does not feel respected by them, how will these students learn to show respect?

7. Find a strategy/activity conveyed in a video, blog posting, lesson plan, or online article that will help you become a  teacher who cultivates a reverence in their classroom and school community (key search terms: teachers and reverence, teachers and mindfulness, teachers and rituals, routines (do not search teachers and ritual without the routine qualifier. If you do you will se disturbing stuff ). Link to it and describe how you will use it in your future classroom.

This PowerPoint is full of examples of school traditions and ceremonies that can be implemented, (especially in the second half) and explains why they are important. It makes some good connections between rituals school connectedness and how they form a sense of community. It could be very useful practically because it includes questions for evaluating the effectiveness of rituals, such as “what message does it send?”, “What are the underlying values?”, and “what are the desired student outcomes?”

Sources

RUD, A. G., & Garrison, J. (2010, November). Reverence and listening in teaching and leading. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_lNdCbUdjDIvAFO7LhRAQqe9fJc-YReeKH7qGTWlxy4/edit

Anderson, Ph.D., L. V., Schneider, Ph.D. , S., & Arnow, M.Ed., M.S. , B. (2006). Impacting school culture: Examining rituals, traditions, & ceremonies. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http://charactered.ocde.us/Assets/CharacterEd/ice-materials/LV-ImpactingSchoolCultureRTCfinal.ppt&ei=pd1ZULDDCab10gGgsIGwCw&usg=AFQjCNFmDOTCRjKPCUm4_ItzL0BOPErlsw&sig2=UzabpyRovw-xWUyf6RC03A