Well, I have made it halfway. Two years down, two years to go. As I think back over the last two years, I think about how much I have learned and how I have grown as a teacher, scholar, and person. In such a short time, I have gained so much, as well as whittled away to the core of my teaching philosophy and theory. I have been through the fire of doctoral education and emerged a stronger teacher and a budding scholar. I have explored topics and found theory and philosophy to still be my favored subjects. Next fall, I will take my comprehensives and become a doctoral candidate and begin the marathon of writing my dissertation.
There are many topics I could pursue in my research, though I do know for sure I want to further explore sociocultural and critical theories in my research. These two theories, of which I have only been able to brush the surface so far, are the ones that resonate the most with my teaching style, goals and personal philosophy. I believe that learning is socially constructed rather than built in the mind of a singular learner. I think that education must have relevance and bring equality to our students. It should lift those that are downtrodden and further expand the world for all students.
I have reanalyzed a lot of my positions in this time; educational as well as political and religious. I have done a lot of thinking, reasoning, talking and reading as I have refined my thoughts in all areas. I have realized just how much is out there and that I will never know it all. Though that is not going to stop me from continuing to explore and refine my thoughts.
As for my dissertation, I am thinking of focusing on dialogic teaching in the science classroom. I think that talk is a key piece that is missing in the classroom. Student talk that is. As it stands right now, the one doing the most talking is the teacher and therefore the teacher is gaining more understanding of the subject. But that is wrong, the teacher has already learned these things and it is the students that need to be discussing and refining their knowledge of the topic. The student should be talking and reasoning, as well as reading and writing like a scientist.
In my two years, I have realized just how much I believe in the need for science teachers to be literacy teachers (or at least work closely with a literacy coach) as well as a master of content. I understand that I am asking a lot of science teachers. I would ask the same of math and history teachers as well. If our students are not reading and writing in our subject, they will never be able to communicate or understand the workings of science (or history or math). In today’s world and political climate, it is more important than ever that we teach our students to be thinkers, seekers of knowledge and understanding, curious and open-minded.
Our president has just taken us out of the Paris Climate Accord, confirming his position as a climate change denier. Why do I mention this in a reflection on my time in graduate school? Well, as a science educator I see and understand the trouble we are passing to our children. We are handing them a broken world. One that will soon fail to support our life. And Trump has only further hindered our ability to make the necessary changes to delay the downfall of the earth. His and his core supporters’ shortsightedness is going to cause damage. The only hope I am holding on to is the corporations that have said they will do what needs to be done, whether or not the country is in the climate agreement.
As an educator, the rise of this type of thinking and the high coverage of “alternative facts” is disturbing. People making up their own “facts” and ignoring the real and proven ones is disconcerting, to say the least. In the 10 years I have been teaching, it has been my goal to teach my students to question and seek the best answers rather than blindly follow the leader. In today’s world, I see the results of a lack of inquiry and curiosity in the education of the past and hope that it is not too late to stem the tide of blind faith or beliefs that are currently dragging our society down.
I do believe that this wound can be bound and healed. But it is going to take the dedicated effort of our leaders and our teachers to stop the bleed. What does all of this mean to me and my studies? It adds an urgency to my work. My goal to teach teachers how to teach science better is more pressing. Time runs short. I must push to improve, myself and the world. Now is the time to take the strategies and techniques that I have honed in my own practice and pass them on to teachers and future teachers so I can influence as many students as possible. Help stop the bleed. Help move our world in the right direction. As a classroom teacher, I got somewhere around 120-150 students each year, but if I teach 10 new teachers best practices, that is 1200-1500 students I will have reached each year.
This is both a gratifying, yet a terrifying idea which drives me to do my very best in everything I do. To live the life of a teacher in constant search for the best way to reach my students so they may find the best way to reach theirs. That is my motivation, the thought of all those students who need the very best teacher that will believe in them and challenge them, push them to greatness, so our future will not be defined by the bad decisions of today. Rather the future will be informed by a generation that will respect the history of our world yet push for a better future for this world.
So that is where I stand in the middle. Halfway through, already affecting future teachers through my work as a supervisor of a new generation of teachers, striving to be the best mentor that I can be. And at the same time, searching. Searching for understanding, searching for the next opportunity, searching for the best me, so that I may improve the world in my own small way. Leaving this place better than I found it.
O's Bureau of Scientific Investigations 