Aother interesting week of readings. I was particularly struct by the locus of control and the self-efficacy articles because it frames what an ideal situation looks like in motivation and learning. Bandura's discussion of mastery left me thinking that if a child grows up in a supportive environment where he/she is encouraged to try new things and failure is part of learning, encouraged to take risks as part of that learning, and is praised for the effort, not necessarily the outcome, then you end up with a model student. Of course I am a realist though and I know this does not happen very often! The problem is that there are so many other variables that can contribute to the learning. I do believe that if a child has had that type of supportive environment that they do have a better chance (because of their toolkit) of shrugging off whatever negative messages they receive later on but if the positive reinforcement isn't consistent, then I also believe that a child can easily come undone, or the work that has been done can come undone. This scenario does not seem to work so well backwards though. There is a group of students in my daughter's school who, as a whole, are struggling and this whole motivation issue has me thinking about ways to undo what has, for years, been done. The students are Native Americans from the Oneida reservation and they are in an independent school through an agreement between the school and the Oneida Chiefs. The students can easily attend their home school on the reservation but if their parents choose, they can attend the independent school tuition-free (the Nation pays the bill so meaning tuition-free for the parents). The school has roughly 35 Native American students in preK-12 currently. The problem is that the majority of the students are struggling academically, such that a few have been asked to leave because of it. Socially, they are faring little better. They keep to themselves much of the time which doesn't seem to be alarming to some who see it as self-selection but to others (like me), we see it as a problem of alientation. They are not feeling welcomed within the school community and are seen as the outsiders, which is strange to me because we also have large population of international students who would be thought of as the outsiders, generally speaking. Anyway, some of these Native American students have other issues surrounding their lack of success as well. Some have less than supportive parents in the way that the independent school expects parents to be very involved and the parents think they should be minimally involved. This could be a cultural difference, remains to be determined. Some NA parents have said that it is the school's job to educate their child, not the parents. Some of the NA students also receive their fair share of criticism from their NA peers who attend their home school on the reservation (you think you're better than us, we're not good enough for you, etc). There is also the fact that the students spend an hour on the bus each way which does not leave a lot of time to spend doing the expected 2 hours of homework per class each day. So there are several issues plaguing these students at some point or another. My issue is that the students come in to the school able to pass the entrance exam (otherwise they would not be allowed in) and somewhere along the way, they get lost. Generally, they have all come in in lower school (preK-5) so the test is very basic for the age groups but that still means that they have the basic knowledge for their grade. It's as if all their enthusiasm leaves them once they get there. Like I said, there are numerous variables contributing to the problem but think one major factor is the motivation. In reading about the Locus of Control, I can visibly see in these students that they feel they have no control over what happens to them. They are waiting for others to make the decisions about their lives. Obviously I am not talking about the younger ones but the middle and upper school kids have actually said thngs like "it's out of my hands" and "we don't make those decisions". It just seems like such a waste. Here is the offering of a perfectly good education and the majority of the NA kids don't make it to graduation. There have been countless meetings between the board of trustees, teachers, Chiefs to discuss the issues and attempt to come up with solutions. We have made learning about their culture a part of the curriculum, having NA Chiefs and others from the reservation come in for lessons on the culture, including storytelling as a way of learning, field trips to their Native land, essay contests for all students about NA topics, etc. Nothing seems to work, or it only works in small increments, and temporarily. So I am wondering what is going on in the classrooms and if the teachers are sending positive messages and how they can "convince" these students that they are worthy of doiing the work and worthy of this education. It is a college prep school so the expectation is that one graduates and goes to college. There is never discussion of there being any other option actually, which may seem daunting to some who aren't taught that from the very beginning but the majority of the kids come in in lower school so they are hearing it steadily from a young age.
Basically I am using this week's blog to think outloud and I don't have any answers, only more questions. I am thinking about the low sense of efficacy we read about this week, the LOC, expectancy-value theory, learning vs performance goals, all of it applies here. I am tinking abut what Bandura says about self-efficacy and peer influences (p. 9). The issue here is that if the peers you hang around with (whether through self-selection or alientation) all see the world through the same lens as you, what prompts change? Is change even possible? Do we split the kids up from each other when that may certainly be their comfort zone? Work on them all together in a group? It's really frustrating to see a whole group of kids fail and when you can almost put your finger on some of the issues contributing to it but can't lick the problem, it's even more worrisome.
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ReplyDeleteHi Jen:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very authentic and poignant blog posting this week. As I read through you commentary, your concern and compassion for the Native American students in your school came shining through and I could relate to your feelings of frustration in wanting to help these students reach their full academic potential and not quite knowing how to attain that goal. In general, I think that some of the problems might be the way these student are being assessed for their learning capabilities as well as the school/classroom environment in which they are situated. For example, since this is a college preparatory school, it sounds like an emphasis is being placed on high stakes testing and accountability.
Please advise if any creative options are being offered to these students for them to express the varied and alternative ways the new academic material that they are being exposed to in the classroom. For example, is it possible for the Native American students create a poem, poster, PowerPoint presentation written or digital short story for a language arts assignment? In term of mathematics and science, have the students been shown ways in which conceptual maps and pictorial diagrams could be effective in helping them process and convey learning? These are just a few ideas that I have had about the concerns you raised in your posting.
Finally, in her blog posting this week, Sarah talked about the need to bring fun back into the classroom. You might want to share some of the readings that we have done in this class on fun, flow, and locus of control with some of your fellow colleagues with the goal of examining their classroom environment to determine if any of these elements are present. Furthermore, some of the motivational questionnaires located at the Self-determination web site might be good to distribute to the Native American students to determine where they stand on the motivational continuum.
Hello Jen and Aja,
ReplyDeleteThe issue of NA students in the school is a far larger issue than motivation. There is a larger historical context here of Native Americans and US dominant culture education. The assumptions seem to be that if students and families have chosen to send students to the school that they will automatically accept the values and culture of that school. This ignores that not all students and their families won't do this. Aside from 'cultural events' like Jen's described, many schools don't really take into account these differences.
As Aja brings up, one issue could be about how students are being assessed. But I imagine there is a lot more to it than just that. Also, on parents perceived lack of involvement, it could be that involvement looks different for these parents. I myself haven't done a lot of reading on this on a while, but I have a friend who does research on this with NA students and Higher Ed. I will ask if she knows of any references related to K-12.
Hi Professor Pusch:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your return feedback. The historical and cultural background of certain minority groups are important considerations that one has to note when doing an assessment of that group's academic performance. For the Native American students at Jen's school, is cultural alienation a factor? Do the students feel a "sense of belonging" in the school from not only their teachers but also their peers? A great article to read on this topic is Sylvia Hurtado and Deborah Faye Carter's Latino Students' Sense of belong in the College Community: Rethinking the Concepts of Integration on Campus (1996). Although written to address the social isolation that Latino students feel on college campuses, some of the overall cultural points that the authors make are applicable to Native American students as well.
best,
~Aja
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a heart-felt story in your post for this week. I've been in schools where there is a definite distinction in the social structure according to race and/or ethnicity, especially when a group is an extreme minority in comparison to the rest of the students, and it can be brutal. I think I was most moved by your question: "The issue here is that if the peers you hang around with (whether through self-selection or alientation) all see the world through the same lens as you, what prompts change?" Aja and Dr. Pusch spoke to some of the socio-political factors affecting this dynamic, but I think the concept can be applied to other types and groups of students as well. For example, what happens when our kids start to hang with the so-called "wrong kids"? How can we get kids to consider alternative views and perspectives - especially on topics concerning race, religion, politics, etc. - when they only talk and spend time with like-minded students? (There's something to be said here for the patterns of behavior - that they are mimicking, even as young kids in elementary school, the behaviors of their families and neighbors - which suggests the problem is more comprehensive than just what happens in schools, of course.) Although much of what you're addressing might be out of our immediate locus of control, there is certainly something to be said for how instructional design inside the classroom could begin to address these problems - by using more strategies that involve collaboration and inquiry, and using fewer strategies that reward student isolation.
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great issue to bring up. I have had some experience with this issue but in a Hispanic and Mexican/American races. I know that this is different because of the deep rooted cultures of NA, but still might be related. I had the opportunity to tutor some students back home, and while I was tutoring them I saw some things that I really wasn't use to. For example, one day a parent came in mad at my supervisor, saying that her child went home with homework. I feel that in some cases parents really to not want to have anything to do with education part of their child's schooling. Some of the students I tutored, were smart kids, they just needed better guidance on how to do what was expected of them. after a couple of weeks of spending time with them i had already seen improvement. I know there are going to be more issues than that, for instance, maybe the private schools that these students are attending are not the best solutions for some students. Regardless of the type of school that a students is attending there are always the problems of the types of peers they might choose to hang out. Like Sarah said, younger students are easily influenced, which can be both positive or negative. If a student befriends someone who's parents really don't care and in turn the student doesn't care as well; what will that do you the next student? There seems to be a lot of factors that can play into this issue. Keep up the work.
Sorry, I'm just catching up on my blog-reading loop - internet was down. Cultural competence, cultural intelligence, cultural fit, intercultural mobility, whatever the labels -- social cultural factors play such a big part in education but as someone wrote, was it Rob, but we seem to not focus much on it. It's like the poor cousin to educational psychology. I read somewhere about a missing link between psychology and culture - what's the interdisciplinary interface that would help educators to proceed beyond, from knowing we need to do something about the social cultural bit and the internal mind bit? Beyond this, what do we do when intercultural awareness entails the engagement of an oppressor and the oppressed? Dialogue? How does that translate into classroom strategies? In my own research between a dominant and minority group, I find that 1) there must be some personal or extrinsic reward involved in order for someone to take an interest to want to engage a minority group. 2) you need a champion for these minority groups to highlight their needs and make them visible.
ReplyDeleteI've worked with Vietnamese and Cambodian students on one project and they were culturally maladapted (?) in that instance. One of the kids could hardly talk in the presence of anyone who is NOT of his ethnicity. In my brief time with him, there was not enough I could do to help him. Beyond A and R, I wondered how to effect the C and the S??? Powerless, that's how I felt.
Another thought I have based on the comments here, we talk about collaboration, this requires some preliminary steps and planning for collaboration to happen. People don't just collaborate, IMHO. They need to be taught how to collaborate. What are some motivational strategies for this to happen, I wonder. But if teachers care to champion the causes of their students, we can do something to to overcome the powerlessness.
Wow! Reading this series of postings left me simultaneously hopeful and discouraged all at the same time! Jen, I could certainly feel the emotion you bring to this topic and the strong desire you have to help the NA population of students. I am wondering how new the agreement is and whether it has been around long enough to have "successes" (NA students who have graduated and gone on to college) that could be used as models. Since our readings point out that models for self-efficacy are much more effective if the model and observer are similar, perhaps connecting the current students with a group of previous students would give them those models.
ReplyDeleteThe question you pose about like-minded people is such a great one! It really has to do with what the norms are for a group (or clique) and how emotionally safe an individual feels in breaking those norms. It is scary to move away from the familiar and I think the physical distance you describe (an hour from home)is probably almost symbolic for the emotional distance the students may feel. As I've shared with you via our email correspondence, we looked at the school you are referring to for my younger son and one concern I had was the distance from home and how it might feel like a "different world" for him. In his case, with our support, that "different world" probably would have played as very positive but for the NA students, it seems not so much.
I admire your involvement in trying to find solutions for these challenges!