Could have sworn I posted this Wednesday night.... Better late than never.
I chose to
read Kathryn Rickett’s piece: “Bitter Toughness Meets Fierce Love: Narratives
Unwrapped from Teen Mothers’ High School Experiences”.
I was
struck by Kathryn’s description of unexpectedly becoming the subject of
(re)search in this project. As teachers, modern pedagogies place teachers as
both the source and transmitter of knowledge – there are few teachers who
meaningfully see their students as sources for knowledge, or that they (the
teacher) will have opportunities to learn during class. In this piece, Kathryn
quickly realizes that not only is this possible, but it is necessary for her to
connect with the mothers participating in her project. Additionally, the unique
needs and confidence of the participating mothers meant that the way forward would
not follow any sort of prescribed schedule. By acknowledging the role that
these mothers place in their own learning, the burden of ‘teacher’ was shared
by all in flexible, intuitive ways. This defies traditional (colonial) ways of
knowing and interacting with experience/knowledge. With an understanding that
all research is subjective, we embrace and embody our work so as to shed
ourselves of expectations.
It also
strikes me how desirable the culture Kathryn helped cultivate sounds for any student, not just those who are
steeped in the responsibility of caring for another person. When
teachers/facilitators wonder: “What are [my students] stories?”, a dialogue can
begin that is devoid of expectation. If teachers really mean this question, we
won’t be asking it with the intention of leveraging the student’s story to
suite our own vision of their learning. Rather, it offers us a way to ‘meet the
student where they are’. It is the first step towards understanding and meeting
a student’s unique needs.
I’m very
interested to hear how Kathryn describes the role of teachers in classrooms
with cultures such as this.
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