Download Student Experiences of School Reform and Social Change

Student Experiences of
School Reform & Social Change
• Progressive era reformers (such as John
Dewey and others, 1890s-1930s) called for
bold changes in teaching and learning.
• How did various groups of students and
teachers actually experience Progressive era
school reform?
• Did educational policy influence classroom
practice -- or not?
Larry Cuban, How Teachers Taught:
Constancy and Change in American
Classrooms, 1890-1990
Research Question:
Did Progressive-era “policy
talk” influence classroom
instructional practice?
Larry Cuban, How Teachers Taught
• Source materials to address the research question:
– Photographs of Progressive-era classrooms
– Textbooks used in classrooms
– Student recollections from this period, in diaries or
memoirs
– Teacher self-reports written during this period
– Reports written by classroom visitors
– Descriptions of classroom architecture (building plans
and classroom layouts, placement of desks, etc.)
Larry Cuban, How Teachers Taught
• Definitions for analyzing photographs:
• Teacher-centered instruction:
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Teacher talk dominates student talk
Frequent use of whole-group instruction
Use of class time determined by teacher
Classroom organization usually rows facing board
• Student-centered instruction:
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Student talk on learning tasks equal to teacher talk
Individual or small/med group instruction, rather than whole
Students help to choose and organize content
Teacher permits student to partly choose rules of behavior
Varied instructional materials (centers) available in classroom
Using Cuban’s question and definitions, analyze this photo:
Source: Library of Congress
Using Cuban’s question and definitions, analyze this photo:
Cuban’s thesis:
• Some student-centered instructional practice
appeared in elementary schools between 1920-40,
but only in one-fourth of the school districts that
systematically tried to implement it; unevenly
throughout the day.
• These small changes were enough to allow policy
rhetoric to flourish, though its real impact was
quite limited.
In Cuban’s other book, Teachers and Machines, he argues that
technological innovation (radio, television, computers) has not
altered traditions of teacher-centered classroom instructional practice.
1927 Los Angeles
Students’ Views from Classrooms
• How did American Indian students
experience Progressive-era schools?
From Carlisle Indian Industrial School (PA), 1879-1918
Student body assembled on the Carlisle Indian School Grounds, 1892.
Source Detective Q: Is this website a credible source?
http://home.epix.net/~landis/index.html
Students’ Views from Classrooms
• How did Italian immigrant students
experience Progressive era US schooling?
Source: Leonard Covello autobiography
Source Detective Q:
How to find a book review of
Lassonde, Learning to Forget?
Students’ Views from Classrooms
• How did Puerto Rican
migrants experience
mainland US
schooling in the post1945 era?
• Source:
– Esmeralda Santiago
autobiography
Students’ Views from Classrooms
• What words would you use to characterize
American Indian, Italian American, and Puerto
Rican children’s experiences of schooling?
• Assimilation?
• Integration?
• Annihilation?
• Segregation?
• Americanization?