Research Question Reflection
Travel to a new place can be overwhelming: a whirlwind of sights, sounds, experiences. A traveling teacher can start to make sense of the chaos by setting specific focus areas in advance. In just a few weeks of travel, it’s impossible to learn everything about a new place. Which questions can help guide our experiences as we travel and learn?
When I traveled to the Philippines in the summer of 2015, I decided to focus on diversity and communication, two driving passions in my work back in the United States. When traveling halfway around the world to this completely new environment, a research question helped to guide my thinking as I encountered new people, places, and experiences. The essential question I hoped to explore was How does diversity influence communication?
Pre Travel Inquiry
In my large suburban school district, questions about diversity guide much of our thinking around education. In just the past twenty years, our county’s student population had grown remarkably diverse, from a majority white, middle-class, American-born population, to an increasingly international. socioeconomically mixed population without a single dominant ethnic or racial group. As we design our units and lessons, teachers hope to provide educational experiences that reflect students’ diverse backgrounds and challenge them to expand their horizons by learning about other groups.
A recent instructional focus area in our school and county has been on promoting student discourse. Teachers are encouraged to get students talking to one another, both in informal partnered and small group discussions and in structured models such as Shared Inquiry and Socratic Seminar. In these types of discussion, students are taught to support their statements with evidence. These structures provide a good framework for students as they interact with others outside of class. They learn to listen actively and to show respect for others’ opinions even when disagreeing.
Educators in our district have also taken a critical look at the texts we use in classes. Do our chosen texts provide “mirrors” where students can see their backgrounds and experiences reflected, and “windows” where they can view experiences and backgrounds different from their own? As a member of the Evaluation and Selection Committee in my county, my charge is to find diverse texts for the English classroom, with authors, characters, and settings that reflect the vast array of human experiences rather than a single representation.
Before I traveled to the Philippines, I was very curious about the forms of communication that occur inside and outside the classroom in the Philippines. Did students engage in structured discourse? Are students empowered to share their views? What types of diversity exist in the Philippines, and how do those types of diversity affect the ways that people communicate? What texts do students use in their classes, and how do those texts reflect or promote diversity?
Discoveries and Reflections
While I was in the Philippines, I visited ten different schools, both in the metro Manila area and in the province of Iloilo in Western Visayas. The schools represented a wide swath of Filipino culture: Pre-K through university level, public and private, urban and rural, specialty magnet schools for science and technology, and schools that served a wider community. At each school, I interacted with as many teachers and students as I could, asking questions about their views, their curriculum, their practices, and their educational system. Although I was only able to spend a short time in most of the schools, I noticed some trends emerging:
I used my blog as a way to ruminate on these observations and how I could incorporate the best of what I saw in the Philippines in my own teaching practice back in the United States.
Lingering Questions
Do you have ideas about diversity, communication, and education you’d like to share? Please send your thoughts my way!
When I traveled to the Philippines in the summer of 2015, I decided to focus on diversity and communication, two driving passions in my work back in the United States. When traveling halfway around the world to this completely new environment, a research question helped to guide my thinking as I encountered new people, places, and experiences. The essential question I hoped to explore was How does diversity influence communication?
Pre Travel Inquiry
In my large suburban school district, questions about diversity guide much of our thinking around education. In just the past twenty years, our county’s student population had grown remarkably diverse, from a majority white, middle-class, American-born population, to an increasingly international. socioeconomically mixed population without a single dominant ethnic or racial group. As we design our units and lessons, teachers hope to provide educational experiences that reflect students’ diverse backgrounds and challenge them to expand their horizons by learning about other groups.
A recent instructional focus area in our school and county has been on promoting student discourse. Teachers are encouraged to get students talking to one another, both in informal partnered and small group discussions and in structured models such as Shared Inquiry and Socratic Seminar. In these types of discussion, students are taught to support their statements with evidence. These structures provide a good framework for students as they interact with others outside of class. They learn to listen actively and to show respect for others’ opinions even when disagreeing.
Educators in our district have also taken a critical look at the texts we use in classes. Do our chosen texts provide “mirrors” where students can see their backgrounds and experiences reflected, and “windows” where they can view experiences and backgrounds different from their own? As a member of the Evaluation and Selection Committee in my county, my charge is to find diverse texts for the English classroom, with authors, characters, and settings that reflect the vast array of human experiences rather than a single representation.
Before I traveled to the Philippines, I was very curious about the forms of communication that occur inside and outside the classroom in the Philippines. Did students engage in structured discourse? Are students empowered to share their views? What types of diversity exist in the Philippines, and how do those types of diversity affect the ways that people communicate? What texts do students use in their classes, and how do those texts reflect or promote diversity?
Discoveries and Reflections
While I was in the Philippines, I visited ten different schools, both in the metro Manila area and in the province of Iloilo in Western Visayas. The schools represented a wide swath of Filipino culture: Pre-K through university level, public and private, urban and rural, specialty magnet schools for science and technology, and schools that served a wider community. At each school, I interacted with as many teachers and students as I could, asking questions about their views, their curriculum, their practices, and their educational system. Although I was only able to spend a short time in most of the schools, I noticed some trends emerging:
- There is a great emphasis on formality in communication in the Philippines, much more so than in American society. We American teachers were introduced with full titles, as were each of the administrators and local dignitaries we met. Students addressed teachers as “sir” or “ma’am,” and greeted each adult with eye contact and “good morning” or “good afternoon.”
- Room for improvement exists in encouraging student discourse in the Philippines. A typical lesson involves a teacher presentation, student repetition, and recall-based questions asked by the teacher and answered by student volunteers. Higher order questions are rare and are frequently met with silence by students. Some teachers we observed had students work in groups to accomplish tasks. In some cases, I observed students contributing equally to those groups, and in other cases, a few students assumed the responsibility for carrying the group along without much input from fellow group members. Teachers I spoke with indicated an interest in increased student discourse, but are frustrated by large class sizes (50 or more students in each class) and a prescribed curriculum that didn’t always allow for flexibility.
- The schools I visited in the Philippines reflect some socioeconomic diversity, but less racial, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity than my district in the United States. The majority of students are Catholic and speak Ilongo or Filipino at home, and Filipino and English at school. Despite the relative homogeneity, students express tolerance for people and viewpoints different from their own. Many students asked about my views on religion, gay marriage, moral values, and school disciplinary policies. Although in some cases their views differed, they were open minded and accepting of mine.
- In formal settings such as panel presentations, teachers clammed up, reluctant to ask questions or share views. In more informal settings, though, out of earshot of school administrators, those same people dispensed immediately with timidity and were remarkably candid in sharing their true concerns about schools and education. Once my teaching partner and I discovered this dynamic, we eschewed formal presentations in favor of open dialogue, with much improved results.
- Despite the concerns shared about class sizes and insufficient resources, the attitudes of teachers and students in the classroom are unfailingly positive. Students value their education. Teachers are warm and energetic, teaching with heartfelt passion even without any fancy technology or other resources. Teachers cultivate strong, family-like relationships with students.
- Curriculum in public schools is nationalized, with set texts offered at each grade level. In the classes I observed, teachers supplemented traditional texts such as Beowulf with poetry, short stories, and song lyrics that offered diverse perspectives. For example, in one class students used the lyrics of a popular song to practice the skill of paraphrasing.
I used my blog as a way to ruminate on these observations and how I could incorporate the best of what I saw in the Philippines in my own teaching practice back in the United States.
- Building positive relationships with students
- Facing challenges with resourcefulness and a growth mindset
- Expressing an open mind about the views of others, and encouraging students to acknowledge and respect others’ perspectives
- Appreciating what I have, and engaging in honest dialogue with students about global educational challenges
- Infusing my teaching with diverse texts, including shorter works such as current song lyrics
Lingering Questions
- How can I make my own classroom feel more like a family, so that students feel comfortable to take risks, practice personal growth, and share their talents?
- How can I build upon the partnerships formed with schools in the Philippines? Is there a way to offer mutual feedback and share best teaching practices despite our different teaching environments?
- Can I set up a way for my students to communicate with the students I met in the Philippines, in order to foster mutual cultural understanding?
- ·How can I make my blog and my Global Education Guide truly useful to people back home?
Do you have ideas about diversity, communication, and education you’d like to share? Please send your thoughts my way!