TeacherAttitudes


 * Teacher Attitudes about Teaching in Urban Schools**



Urban education has long since been regarded as a work in progress. Images of minorities in weakly-funded classrooms with rapidly depleting list of resources while teachers attempt to coerce kids into caring, knowing that some of them will end up on the streets, most of them not making it to higher education. In these cases, most of the focus is on the deplorable conditions and lack of motivation. But what of the teachers? What are their perspectives on the educational system in which they have thrown themselves? How do they feel their student-teacher relationships could help the educational system, or should they even attempt to form relationships at all? How do they deal with minorities and the language barrier between them and their students? How do they feel they can change the educational system?

Definitions

Urban Education: a system of learning established in a town or city. Teacher Attitudes: the perspective of a teacher on the education of his/her students. Basic statistics: students .


 * Student-Teacher Relationships**

Teacher care in urban schools is a powerful force but current national reforms so a shift from “developing informed, responsible citizens to arming learners with test-taking knowledge (Shaunessy 2008). “ This shift in priorities sharply contrasts that of much literature that “emphasizes the importance that relationships and interpersonal dynamics play in fostering content acquisition and personal growth.” “Students define a caring teacher as one that knows their subject matter, teaches for understanding, maintains high expectations, provides constructive feedback, and models a caring attitude” (Shaunessy 2008), according to this study. Students participating in this survey were asked what makes a caring teacher. The researchers then came up with a list of attributes that make up a “caring teacher” (Shaunessy 2008): 1. Caring teachers motivate students to succeed in academic pursuits and to remain in school. 2. Caring teachers are often described as individuals who promote respectful relationships with students. 3. Caring teachers can recognize that students have differing needs and multiple perspectives, which are fostered in a classroom environment where students are encouraged to honor each other’s unique views and needs. 4. Caring teachers and students demonstrating mutual respect. 5. Caring teachers values each student for what he or she brings to the world without placing more value on academic performance or what educators often define as appropriate classroom behavior. Teachers, everyday, face the difficult challenge of addressing high-stakes testing, a range of student cognitive and affective needs, interests, and personalities, and an endless stream of paperwork (Shaunessy 2008). The results of this study show that the need for teachers who are engaged in meaningful, supportive relationships with students transcends the trends of current politics and recent education issues, as students value care taken by educators to build relationships and support learning through persistence, innovation, and consistency (Shaunessy 2008).


 * Teaching Minorities and the Language Barrier**

In an urban setting, there is bound to be a wider demographic of ethnicities and races, changing the challenges for urban educators. According to one educator, being placed in an educational setting outside the children’s natural habitat is grueling and sometimes tortuous for the child (DeJong, 2008). She even goes so far as to say in addition to children’s emotional psyche being affected, some of the children are lashing out at parents and teachers, and acting out physically (DeJong, 2008). However, because they are required to use bilingual programs in order to even slightly educate the children in the 30-day trial period of this study, it did make the kids feel more at home, even if they were in a “revolving door” type of program, switching out kids every few days (DeJong, 2008). According to these teachers, it’s a very frustrating program to be involved in, because as educators they want to help the children grow, not just learn, but it’s such a transient atmosphere that it makes it hard to make sure the kids are getting a grasp on the information. That, coupled with the emotional damage of a transient education, being carted to and from different classrooms is hard on the child’s emotional stability, and thus hard for the teachers to watch their kids go through so much undue stress (DeJong, 2008).


 * Changing the Educational System, One Teacher at a Time

**

In an ever-changing world, students are forced to adapt to their environment, whatever it may be. In urban schools, there has been an increase of 20% on minority student enrollment (National Center for Alternative Certification, 2006). This has made it increasingly hard for teachers to connect with their students, but also for the teachers to be able to adapt to their students’ needs and demands of a growing minority population. More and more college graduates are enrolling in alternative certification programs, which would allow them to be teachers, without having an education degree or obtaining a certificate. And with these alternative programs, more males and minorities are being recruited into a field previously dominated by white females (Owens and Song, 2009). With this expanding teacher demographic, educators are more and more able to connect with their students on a personal level, increasing the academic experience of the kids they are teaching, changing the educational system, one teacher at a time.

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 * References**

Jong, E. (2008). Contextualizing Policy Appropriation: Teachers’ Perspectives, Local Responses, and English-only Ballot Initiatives. Urban Review, 40(5), 350-370. doi:10.1007/s11256-008-0085-y.

Owens, E., & Song, H. (2009). The New Changing Faces of Urban Teachers and Their Emerging Teaching Belief. //Online Yearbook of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research//, 13-28. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Shaunessy, E., & McHatton, P. (2009). Urban Students' Perceptions of Teachers: Views of Students in General, Special, and Honors Education. //Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education//, //41// (5), 486-503. Retrieved from ERIC database.

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