Teacher Education with an Attitude: Preparing Teachers to Educate Working-Class Students in Their Collective Self-Interest

12. Literacy with an Attitude and Understanding the Water We Swim In

12 Literacy with an Attitude and Understanding the Water We Swim In John Otterness JOHN OTTERNESS, FACULTY, UCLA School Management Program, observes that many teachers teach the way they were taught, and for teachers of poor and working-class students that almost always means domesticating education. He describes his experiences in helping administrators and teachers, in schools in the Los Angeles area, change their attitudes using a “walk-through” of three classes with a wide range of teaching practices. The teachers saw little to admire in the more student-centered classes but much to admire in the rigid teacher-centered class. In a second walk-through, after reading part of Literacy with an Attitude using the “insert method,” teachers saw problems in the teachercentered class and much to emulate in the other two classes. ❖ When I mentioned Patrick Finn’s book, Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest (1999), to a colleague, she said that she had given a copy to her Physical Trainer and he told her he was insisting that all his friends read it. I asked her why and she said her trainer’s mother was from El Salvador, but he was born here in California and attended a local elementary school. His mother cleaned house for a person who was on the board of a prestigious private school. She took an interest in her cleaning lady’s child and got a full scholarship for him at this school. From there he went on to a private college and is now working on his masters degree in physical therapy. His younger sister, however, is attending a large urban public school and having a very different type of education.When he read Finn’s book, he found explanations for many of the situations in his life he had puzzled about, and he found areas of concern he didn’t even know about. This is why he has been pushing all his friends to read it, including his 13 year old sister, who really struggled with it, but he was relentless and she learned from it! His conversation is now filled with the same passion, indignation, and desire to do something expressed in Literacy with an Attitude.This story indicates something of the book’s power and appeal and why we use it in our work with schools. The “School Management Program” (SMP) is a joint initiative of the Anderson Graduate School of Business and the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. SMP was formed in 1992 as a university 191 192 TEACHER EDUCATION WITH AN ATTITUDE initiative to take a larger role in public education. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was our first client as we were selected to guide their LEARN school reform project. The role of SMP has changed over the years, from working exclusively with LAUSD schools, to working with schools throughout the state of California that want to provide a more successful education for their students, as well as schools that have been identified as underperforming by the state of California or the No Child Left Behind law. SMP faculty are the trainers and coaches who have assisted the leadership teams from approximately 700 schools with their local school reform efforts. SMP draws their faculty from the ranks of practitioners: administrators (principals , directors, superintendents); teachers, and practitioners from industry.We work with all levels of teachers: kindergarten through high school; administrators : from school site administrators and coordinators to district offices and school boards; and parents: as members of school leadership teams. We use a wide variety of structures in our work with schools: Institutes around specific concepts such as the Data Institute; the Writing Institute; ClassroomWalk -Throughs; Bridges to Understanding (English Language Learners); and Critical Friends Groups.These range from two to five days in length and are held away from the school site.We also provide services tailored to an individual school or district’s need, including such items as coaching, workshops, observation and reports, or other structures that will be of assistance to the progress of the schools. SMP has used Literacy with an Attitude both internally, to enhance our own understanding of the schools we work with, and externally to help schools begin to think beyond the tests and subject content as they work to improve their student’s capabilities for school success. In the following pages I will refer to the work of Jean Anyon...