Beyond the silence: Finding a voice.
Item
-
Title
-
Beyond the silence: Finding a voice.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3231960
-
identifier
-
3231960
-
Creator
-
Joyce, Pamela Althea.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Joe Kincheloe
-
Date
-
2006
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Education, Philosophy of
-
Abstract
-
The issue of teacher involvement in minority achievement relates to moving beyond academia's silencing tactics and entails teacher as well as, student empowerment, advocacy, and use of voice. This dissertation addresses silences in a schooling context and focuses on the intricacies of my teaching practices during a five-year time frame from the perspectives of self, school, and society for the purpose of self-improvement with a keen eye on alternatives to minority underachievement. I explore my personal professional history concerning matters of learning and teaching in racially and socially diverse settings found in one public school.;This research provides an opening to identify appearances of racial injustice that affect my teaching performance, student performance, and me personally through journal writing. During the journaling process, I learn that deficit and affirming influences involving racially motivated inequalities are embedded within the school walls and they are perpetuated by people in power as well as by the powerless who mindlessly follow the "norm" and unconsciously and consciously allow injustices to flourish in the schooling setting. Ultimately, in a conscious state, my personal level of criticality is heightened and I use that criticality to influence other lives to seek and act on new alternatives to the long-standing problem of minority underachievement.;During self-exploration, lived experiences of all who interact in my sphere of influence become intertwined within my experiences. Under these circumstances, I learn that as a teacher I have the power to implement change and attract collaborative assistance from colleagues for the purpose of transformative change. I become aware that questioning is an on going and essential process which can rarely bring about concrete answers concerning the problem of minority underachievement but even with that reality it is necessary to aggressively continue questioning, acting on valuable information, and reinterpreting new information. This form of unrelenting questioning eventually brings about alternatives.;My journey gave me the insight needed to reframe my original narrow-minded thoughts about minority underachievement, breaking away from the idea of silence and powerlessness, to the ability to connect with the interrelatedness of all aspects of life in order to be in a position of power to introduce as well as implement and sustain change in a constantly changing world.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
