LEARNING THEORIES [EDCI5065] WEEK 5 T2P

Level 7 T2P Hypothesis: A) “Keep Your Head Up”

Youtube Video: Young Women United

If the classroom does not provide students with safety and basic human needs, then students will search elsewhere within their social environment for protection because students seek emotional affinity. (Strength in numbers)

For example, in the video “Who We Be,” five female students describe their encounters in school that drive them to seek safety in numbers within a group which they describe as a, “Circle of Strength.” Their growing understanding of a woman’s identity in their town of Albuquerque, NM - though at first based on their own experiences - blooms to encompass and question the identity of women in society. The personal experience of these women brought them together, in a group that speaks out against violence and ill treatment of women. In many cases the school environment was the setting for sexual harassment. The following examples illuminate the issues that forced these women to seek refuge in each other. But keep in mind, that instead of stopping there, these women went on to conduct research that fueled their growing understanding that to survive is to fight against the injustice by standing together. One example from the video is a girl named Sheila, and she tells of a teacher that sexually harassed her in the school setting, she responded to her teacher, Mr. Pena: “Don’t ever touch my ass like that again…Cuz you’re not supposed to be touching me like that, and I just walked away.” Another example from one of the students is from a girl named Keyna, she says, “Guys treat women like shit, like a sex object, and use them for whatever they want.” The student named Charlie mentions that she is hyper-aware of the segregation and separation of students based on their skin color. And finally another student in the group tells of the research the group conducted about “women of all races and all faces” – here she describes that no matter what, all the women describe the same feelings of physical abuse, low self-esteem, drug abuse and the notion that women are pushed out of positions where they could succeed based on their gender in this male dominated society. This is a national issue. Their collective ability inspired them to create a community group in which they collaborated to collect data on how women, other than themselves were being treated, and how they felt about it. In this particular case, the students were teaching themselves emotional intelligence levels that some other students may never achieve. Their social environment lacking basic needs fosters this understanding at a very young age. As a teacher, I must be aware of the social environment that my students are a part of, but I must also provide a safe environment where they can question that same environment. How can students be motivated to learn if their basic needs for safety are not met? (Maslow’s Hierarchy) More importantly, teachers can not always assume that their EQ is at a higher level than the student because in many cases the students life experiences have forced them to mature long before a student of their same age, in an environment where basic needs are met – ever has to. Mr. Duncan-Andrade studied the fact that awareness of youth culture is very important to make classroom material relevant. As a teacher, it is my moral responsibility to care for my students enough to find out if their safety is threatened and I must stand beside them in questioning this. I must help make who they are as people and classroom material relevant to where they want to fit into society. While this goal scares me, it reminds me that to start, I must provide a space where students can talk about these ethical issues to share and develop their voice. And through this process I must be a constant ‘bridge’ to help them bond together in strength so that their collective voices may be heard.

Level 7 T2P Hypothesis: (B) “Nostalgic Regretful Feeling”

Youtube Video: High School

If a student’s prior knowledge builds on top of prior learning then their emotional intelligence grows because a supportive social environment fosters their learning.

When watching this particular video I couldn’t help but think that children who have their basic needs met tend to be more susceptible to distractions. But they don’t deserve that hypothesis. I tried to dig deeper to find some evidence in the video. The video is described by the author “as a scrapbook of sorts to explain the hidden truths in American Public High School.” As I watched the film it seemed to be to more emotional assumptions based on similar/typical/generalized personal experiences of adolescents in a certain social context. The most interesting thing though was the comments posted by other youtube.com users in response to this video. The first example from data collected is from a high school student (darcylikesbeanies) in Australia who writes, “This made me sad. :( Even though I'm Australian and we do things differently, I can see those stages clearly in our High School lives.” And the second was by a student in the U.S (6524 Dancer) who writes, “Thank God! Someone says the truth!” How could I, as a pre-service teacher ignore the evidence when clearly there are students out their who empathized with this video. I remembered these videos are through the eyes of the students. Students are hyper-aware of their surroundings on a level that us teachers can only strive to understand. Social context. In this case, the secondary school level is when students begin to understand that there are hidden truths that exist. They build on knowledge and questions answered each year of high school, from freshman year all the way to senior year. But, because the students who created this film (and I am speculating here) had their basic needs met, they were able to concern themselves with other learning experiences. For example the video author notes that Freshman seek attention, then sophomores worry about fitting into functioning school society, juniors worry about sexuality and stress while seniors put all of that together to worry about what the future holds and who they are in society. Are not all of these things (in many contexts of course) something that every person feels as a member of society? Every person worries about getting attention for his or her basic needs or gaining, keeping, losing their income status. And everyone seeks to know with what group they can belong to and how that group functions within society as a whole. Children grow into adults who worry about the same things in a continuous cycle. In this case, school environment mirrors society and the mysteries of existence that it holds. The way that students analyze their school environment will therefore greatly impact the rest of their lives. Students that have basic needs (Maslow’s Hierarchy) met in school environments are able to analyze these social scenarios and how they fit into certain institutions. After looking at the responses on the video and challenging my pre-service teacher perspective - I realized that there is a good possibility that High School is a sort of training ground for the society structure students will become a part of. And I will be a part of this structure. Even with out knowing it students and teachers alike are building on their prior-knowledge, picking it apart and forming hypothesis that come up again and again (baggage) in situations throughout their experience as growing adults. Lessons learned in these phases of development will stay with students (and teachers) throughout their lives. The part that impacted me the most in this video data was the very last statement, “[seniors] …start to realize how different life will be in September, start to sort of appreciate the things they were sick of, start worrying about money, start missing friends before they are gone, wish they’d tried harder, wished they’d dressed better, wished they’d made more friends, wished they hadn’t hated so much, wished this nostalgic-regretful feeling would go away – start to notice this nostalgic-regretful feeling in adults.” I am going to go ahead and make an educated guess that although not everyone cares about ‘what they wear’ they have experienced that ‘nostalgic-regretful feeling” about something or some point in their life. As a teacher I think the data suggests that students (& their EQ) are aware of the Big Picture but that the teacher can help navigate these feelings to a clearer understanding for each individual and to support their changing perspectives.

Level 7 T2P Hypothesis: (C) “My Teachers”

Youtube Video 1: Is Anybody Listening?
“A testament by Village Academy High School students on the economic crisis”

AND

Youtube Video 2: Youth Voices

If there is a mutual enhancement/teacher-student relationship in place, students have a better chance at navigating their social environment, because a teacher can promote social justice.

I chose to put these two videos next to each other because they deal with similar data. Students in these particular social contexts greatly relied on their teachers for support and help in their personal lives. This is a responsibility that is realized but not always fulfilled. In the first video, Is Anybody Listening? Students describe how the economy has affected their families and therefore their education. Each student is extremely emotionally affected by their parent’s struggles, specifically – job loss. One student (Evelyn) tells us that because her parents could no longer afford to keep the family home (which was part of their personal ‘American Dream’) they had to move in with relatives. Now their living condition is twelve people in a one-room house. As the students attempt to describe their stories a common theme is apparent – students can’t focus in school when their social environment is emotionally volatile. One student (Maritssa says, “I can see [my mom] struggling … I want to help her but she tells me to focus on school. But, I can’t focus on school when I know she is struggling.” Their teacher Michael Steinmann (Village Academy High School, Pomona, CA) asked them in class one day how they all were doing – and their response inspired him to make this video. He stated that some students described situations where there was no food in the house and that their families were separating. He finished though; with the comment though that by strengthening community bonds good things were possible. Clearly he felt a responsibility. While reading the responses below this video I noticed a notation that President Obama met these students and spoke to their situation during his Presidential Address. As a teacher I can understand that sometimes my students will need me to make that extra push for them. Mr. Steinman did just that. He raised community awareness and national awareness that could have otherwise gone unnoticed. Not every teacher has to take this action; I want to be the kind of teacher who would know how to do so in the best way appropriate.
The second video also deals with a mutual enhancement/teacher – student relationship but through the eyes of an individual named Eric who attends 9th grade in Southern California. Eric describes his father’s health conditions, his extremely hard physical labor, ‘young gangster’ -controlled school environment and his teachers who guide him through it all. He tells us that, “Some of the teachers, they help me out, like Mr. Felix, he never gave up on me […] he was dyslexic and he did it too.” It is apparent that Eric trusts Mr. Felix. He looks to him not for answers, but for navigation. They mutually respect each other, trust each other, and because of this trust Eric takes his teachers help and uses it in a positive way in this life. Another teacher that Eric mentions helps him fill out his job applications. It is evident that the teachers in his life go outside the typical job description to help Eric. Or do they? Perhaps society calls for this kind of caring relationship. Teachers have to be willing to give students a chance to succeed at the student’s definition of success. Eric closes with perhaps one of the most powerful moments in the whole collective 25 videos. He says, “We are not all fuckups, just try to help us out, we like to keep to ourselves but try to figure out what’s wrong with us.” I would love to end this commentary with a happy ending for Eric but there is no ending. Eric may or may not go on to the Army and he may find the means to help his family but no matter what the teachers in his life have impacted him. As a teacher it will be my responsibility to act when because of political implications, a student’s situation is threatened. Eric is like any other high school boy in many ways, but I think the role of the teacher is to make the student know that they are not alone. I won’t be able to solve every problem but I will try to be there for them in the way they need me. I will take the time to get to know them and learn from them, so that I will in turn help them and help their peers. It is the student’s choice essentially, what path they desire to take, but it is mine to show them the bricks that make up that path, and all the other paths they have to chose from.
****
To close, here are some of the words I wrote down while finding similarities in all of the twenty-five videos (some are just emotions) and they made me understand (or at least remember!) some of the things students feel in the difficult high school years - something that we should all keep in mind as we enter the field...

~ VOICE. LONELINESS. CHANGE. RESPONSIBILITY. CHANCE. RESPECT. FEAR. QUESTIONS. HOPE. ~