Social, Cultural, Political and Community Dimensions of Education
ED 613
Overall Course Reflection
For this class, we had several major focus areas. First, we focused on how school districts are impacted by decisions at the local, state, and national level. We also examined how indigenous people in Minnesota were treated through the reading of the book “Night Flying Women”. Finally, we examined a major issue in education with a group, and discussed ways to improve upon that issue, including how we as educators can advocate for that change. I really liked the different work we did in this course, especially with examining education at a local level. A lot of times we tend to focus on how our school districts make rules for us to follow, but we don’t often examine how the school board directs the district to implement specific policies. I really appreciated the school board summary, and the discussions that we had in class on this topic.
The other aspect that I really appreciated was the group issues project. My group had seven people, and I had never participated in a group project with that many people. It was tough to coordinate schedules, but we also had lots of good ideas come out of our discussion, because we were all from different places and had different backgrounds. We focused on and discussed many of the reasons that we believe that our profession is currently experiencing a shortage of educators, including poor teacher pay, poorly planned professional development, non-paid student teaching, and lack of teacher voice.
Course Artifacts
School Board Summary
This artifact was a summary of a school board meeting that I attended in my district. I discussed some of the things that happened in the meeting, including approval of switching health care plans, approving a bid for updates to a space in the high school, and non-renewal of probationary teachers. I then commented on some of my feelings on our school board and school boards in general. Overall, I wish that my community was more involved in our school board. We have around 40% EL students in my district, but none of those families are represented on the school board. I included this as an artifact in my portfolio, because it shows my understanding of the importance to school boards when it comes to engaging the community. It is a balance between making decisions that most stakeholders (parents, students and staff) will be happy with, as well creating a good environment for students to learn and thrive.
(Creation time: 2.5 hours)
Legislative Bill Summary
Another important aspect of this course was how politics engages with education, which is demonstrated by my next artifact. This artifact is a summary on the legislative bill HF5, which dealt with free school lunch and breakfast for students, passed in 2023. This was a program that was vital for my school. I teach in a district where over 78% of our school population qualifies for Free and Reduced lunch. Those families who did not qualify no longer have to worry about covering an additional expense for their students. It eliminates the stigma on free and reduced lunch for other students. However, this bill failed to account for how much funding is tied to the forms that were required for Free and Reduced Lunch. When the switch happened, we lost a lot of funding that was tied to families filling out those forms. This is something that is still being discussed with the changes to the compensatory aid formula. I included this artifact because it shows my ability to critically analyze how legislation directly impacts my students, school, and teaching practice. This artifact illustrates my commitment to understanding the broader political context, so that I can better advocate for my students.
(Creation time: 2 hours)
Educational Issues Group Project
For my final artifact, I included the group project that I participated in on the teacher shortage. I engaged with a group of six other educators, and together, we focused on how we can help to recruit and retain teachers. We focused on a few aspects of why we thought that there is a teacher shortage, including poor teacher pay, poorly planned PD, student behaviors and admin support, teacher voice, and student teachers. My contribution to this project focused on how student teaching and mentoring is affecting the teacher shortage. We are failing to recruit new and excellent teachers into the profession, and one of the reasons is by failing to pay teachers during student teaching. Student teaching is an enormous financial hurdle for incoming teachers. Additionally, not paying student teachers impacts those who are already underrepresented in the teaching profession. I included this artifact because it demonstrates how I have examined systemic issues in education beyond my own classroom.
(Creation time: 2.5 hours)