I aim to disrupt the status quo in education and society and advance emancipation for historically marginalized individuals and communities. Through my teaching, I challenge my students to do the same.
The systemic oppression of people from non-dominant backgrounds is an international crisis. Those from non-dominant backgrounds include people whose social identities (e.g., race, class, and ability/disability) and bodies, cultures, histories, and perspectives—which are linked to their social identities—are positioned at the margins of society by members of the dominant group and those who align ideologically with the dominant group (Lears, 1985). In the United States (U.S.) context, members of the dominant group are White people, particularly those who value and uphold Whiteness, cisgenderism, middle-classness, heterosexuality, patriarchy, able-bodiedness, Christianity, and English as the normative center to which all else is compared (Leonardo & Manning, 2017). The dominant group achieves hegemony by controlling policies, practices, and discourse from their institutional positions of power and ensuring that the status quo goes unchallenged (Lears, 1985). Institutionally, teachers are best positioned to address this crisis as the education system affords teachers the opportunity to establish spaces where oppressive assumptions about difference can be challenged and equitable ones can emerge (Waitoller & Kozleski, 2010). Granted, many formal educational spaces have historically favored the position of the dominant group and promoted a top-down approach to teaching and learning in which students function as empty vessels, passively receiving knowledge from omniscient teachers (Friere, 1970).
My pedagogical practices are informed by the idea that teaching and learning are reciprocal social processes embedded within a cultural-historical context (Roth & Lee, 2007). I emphasize learning in addition to teaching to highlight that learning is an inescapable aspect of teaching; the two activities go hand in hand. I am both a teacher and a student – as are the students with whom I work. When I enter a learning environment—this could be a physical classroom, a virtual space, or the local bodega—I bring with me a unique history, culture, and set of beliefs and values that shape my understanding of the world and the practices I choose to employ (White et al., 2005). My knowledge and activities are also shaped by the cultural assets my students bring. Students’ assets are not limited to the aspects of the student I may view favorability (e.g., their participation in #BlackLivesMatter protests). Rather, their assets encompass the entirety of their being, including beliefs and values they hold that run counter to an emancipatory mission. Oppressive ideologies often function in the background of our daily lives and are largely unexamined (Kozleski & Handy, 2017). It is common for people to be unaware of the harm that results from (some of) the beliefs and values they possess. I recognize that, by establishing an intellectual environment in which students and myself can present and unpack our values and taken-for-granted assumptions of the world that reproduce inequitable outcomes, we can challenge those notions and co-construct new emancipatory knowledges that can be utilized to re-mediate oppressive policies, practices, and discourses in education, specifically, and in society, broadly (Andrews et al., 2019).
To challenge my students to do the type of transformative work I wish for them to perform in their own classrooms and communities, I model for them how to enact culturally responsive pedagogy and I explain to them why I make particular pedagogical decisions. Teachers can gain confidence about their ability to engage in emancipatory teaching if they experience that type of teaching firsthand. Oftentimes, in teacher education programs, preservice teachers are taught the importance of culturally responsive teaching and told that they have a professional responsibility to work toward equity and justice. However, seldomly are those teachers immersed in that kind of practice during their teacher training (Milner, 2010).
In their anonymous course evaluations, several students recognized and valued my practice of modeling culturally responsive practice:
- "He provided many examples that are super relevant to today in classrooms. William Proffitt made sure we all had a clear understanding and modeled many in class techniques that are super helpful."
- "Gave strong, consistent examples of the content they wanted to convey. Was supportive of all students and understanding of student life. Varies teaching styles to accommodate learning styles."
The systemic oppression of people from non-dominant backgrounds is an international crisis. Those from non-dominant backgrounds include people whose social identities (e.g., race, class, and ability/disability) and bodies, cultures, histories, and perspectives—which are linked to their social identities—are positioned at the margins of society by members of the dominant group and those who align ideologically with the dominant group (Lears, 1985). In the United States (U.S.) context, members of the dominant group are White people, particularly those who value and uphold Whiteness, cisgenderism, middle-classness, heterosexuality, patriarchy, able-bodiedness, Christianity, and English as the normative center to which all else is compared (Leonardo & Manning, 2017). The dominant group achieves hegemony by controlling policies, practices, and discourse from their institutional positions of power and ensuring that the status quo goes unchallenged (Lears, 1985). Institutionally, teachers are best positioned to address this crisis as the education system affords teachers the opportunity to establish spaces where oppressive assumptions about difference can be challenged and equitable ones can emerge (Waitoller & Kozleski, 2010). Granted, many formal educational spaces have historically favored the position of the dominant group and promoted a top-down approach to teaching and learning in which students function as empty vessels, passively receiving knowledge from omniscient teachers (Friere, 1970).
My pedagogical practices are informed by the idea that teaching and learning are reciprocal social processes embedded within a cultural-historical context (Roth & Lee, 2007). I emphasize learning in addition to teaching to highlight that learning is an inescapable aspect of teaching; the two activities go hand in hand. I am both a teacher and a student – as are the students with whom I work. When I enter a learning environment—this could be a physical classroom, a virtual space, or the local bodega—I bring with me a unique history, culture, and set of beliefs and values that shape my understanding of the world and the practices I choose to employ (White et al., 2005). My knowledge and activities are also shaped by the cultural assets my students bring. Students’ assets are not limited to the aspects of the student I may view favorability (e.g., their participation in #BlackLivesMatter protests). Rather, their assets encompass the entirety of their being, including beliefs and values they hold that run counter to an emancipatory mission. Oppressive ideologies often function in the background of our daily lives and are largely unexamined (Kozleski & Handy, 2017). It is common for people to be unaware of the harm that results from (some of) the beliefs and values they possess. I recognize that, by establishing an intellectual environment in which students and myself can present and unpack our values and taken-for-granted assumptions of the world that reproduce inequitable outcomes, we can challenge those notions and co-construct new emancipatory knowledges that can be utilized to re-mediate oppressive policies, practices, and discourses in education, specifically, and in society, broadly (Andrews et al., 2019).
To challenge my students to do the type of transformative work I wish for them to perform in their own classrooms and communities, I model for them how to enact culturally responsive pedagogy and I explain to them why I make particular pedagogical decisions. Teachers can gain confidence about their ability to engage in emancipatory teaching if they experience that type of teaching firsthand. Oftentimes, in teacher education programs, preservice teachers are taught the importance of culturally responsive teaching and told that they have a professional responsibility to work toward equity and justice. However, seldomly are those teachers immersed in that kind of practice during their teacher training (Milner, 2010).
In their anonymous course evaluations, several students recognized and valued my practice of modeling culturally responsive practice:
- "He provided many examples that are super relevant to today in classrooms. William Proffitt made sure we all had a clear understanding and modeled many in class techniques that are super helpful."
- "Gave strong, consistent examples of the content they wanted to convey. Was supportive of all students and understanding of student life. Varies teaching styles to accommodate learning styles."
Emancipatory Teaching in Action: Exemplary Experiences from SPED 326
Modifying the Syllabus
A syllabus is the physical representation of a course’s official curriculum, that is, the “structured summary or outline of what should be taught or learned” (Luke et al., 2013, p. 10). However, it does not necessarily reflect or index the actual teaching and learning experienced by teachers and students in particular classrooms as it is, in some part, modified when enacted by teachers and students (Luke et al., 2013). Below, I discuss briefly how I adapted—to the extent possible—the syllabus of a course I taught in the fall of 2019 to stress the necessity of considering context and critically examining issues of race, gender, and other social identities with regard to special education.
*Find the modified syllabus here: -> MODIFIED SYLLABUS <- Major changes to the syllabus are written in text boxes on the course agenda. Changes are positioned next to the original topics, objectives, and homework.*
During Fall 2019, I taught a course titled, “SPED 326: Teaching Exceptional Children and Youth in General Education.” The course was designed for general educators—to prepare them to teach students with disabilities in general education in accordance with special education law and evidence-based practices. Much of the syllabus/curriculum design was out of my control; however, the first few weeks of the course allowed for some flexibility, which I leveraged to make the curriculum more critical. For instance, for Class #7, I engaged students in a lesson on intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) to help them consider how intersectionality—interlocking social identities with their multiple oppressions and privileges—mattered in the lives of individuals with disabilities (and their families) who were depicted in the documentary Including Samuel. First, I tapped into students’ background knowledge by asking them to respond to a prompt on the website Socrative: “Tell me what you know or think you know about the idea of intersectionality. If you don't know anything about the idea, that is okay.” Second, I had students’ read Crenshaw’s (1989) article on Blackboard and consider the question, “What does Crenshaw mean when she says ‘intersectionality?’” We discussed the students’ responses, first in small groups and then in whole group. I then showed students a YouTube video explaining intersectionality and followed that up with my own condensed definition of the concept that students could decide to reference in the future. I concluded by having students discuss with self-selected partners how intersectionality operated in Including Samuel. For support, I instructed students to think about the various socially constructed identities possessed by the people in the film.
On the syllabus, Class #7 was intended to be dedicated to discussing Including Samuel without explicit reference to critical theory, but having previously co-taught this course and having recognized that many of the mostly-White preservice teachers required extensive support in regard to thinking through and discussing issues of race and other identity markers, I decided to foreground intersectionality. Before beginning the lesson, I explained to the class the change I made to the syllabus and why I made that change. I also told the class that the decision I made was a personal one rather than an institutional one, and that I would likely be the only instructor for SPED 326 who chose to highlight intersectionality. I emphasized the importance of finding creative ways to engage in critical, culturally responsive pedagogy within the confines of institutional requirements.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONAL NOTE - Assessing students' background knowledge of intersectionality at the beginning of Class #7 allowed me to provide more intensive support to particular students when students worked in small groups. Data revealed that some students understood the concept fairly well while others had little to no understanding of intersectionality:
*I asked my students for their permission to use their quotes, and they gave me permission to do so.*
- "I believe that intersectionality is how different identities intersect with each other. Some identities include gender and race. These 2 identities affect each other and the way they intersect is a part of a person's identity."
- "Intersectionality is the idea that different aspects of peoples lives, such as gender, race, religion, etc. will interlap with each other to make for a full unique perspective. Example of this is while a Jewish white woman and Christian black woman will have similar experiences due to being both women, they will also have unique perspectives of discrimination due to their race and religion."
- "I have never heard this term before. I feel that it has something to do with integration or how different things such as subjects being taught, the educators themselves or the school system all come together to assist in students learning."
- "I honestly don't know anything about the idea of intersectionality."
Modifying the Syllabus
A syllabus is the physical representation of a course’s official curriculum, that is, the “structured summary or outline of what should be taught or learned” (Luke et al., 2013, p. 10). However, it does not necessarily reflect or index the actual teaching and learning experienced by teachers and students in particular classrooms as it is, in some part, modified when enacted by teachers and students (Luke et al., 2013). Below, I discuss briefly how I adapted—to the extent possible—the syllabus of a course I taught in the fall of 2019 to stress the necessity of considering context and critically examining issues of race, gender, and other social identities with regard to special education.
*Find the modified syllabus here: -> MODIFIED SYLLABUS <- Major changes to the syllabus are written in text boxes on the course agenda. Changes are positioned next to the original topics, objectives, and homework.*
During Fall 2019, I taught a course titled, “SPED 326: Teaching Exceptional Children and Youth in General Education.” The course was designed for general educators—to prepare them to teach students with disabilities in general education in accordance with special education law and evidence-based practices. Much of the syllabus/curriculum design was out of my control; however, the first few weeks of the course allowed for some flexibility, which I leveraged to make the curriculum more critical. For instance, for Class #7, I engaged students in a lesson on intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) to help them consider how intersectionality—interlocking social identities with their multiple oppressions and privileges—mattered in the lives of individuals with disabilities (and their families) who were depicted in the documentary Including Samuel. First, I tapped into students’ background knowledge by asking them to respond to a prompt on the website Socrative: “Tell me what you know or think you know about the idea of intersectionality. If you don't know anything about the idea, that is okay.” Second, I had students’ read Crenshaw’s (1989) article on Blackboard and consider the question, “What does Crenshaw mean when she says ‘intersectionality?’” We discussed the students’ responses, first in small groups and then in whole group. I then showed students a YouTube video explaining intersectionality and followed that up with my own condensed definition of the concept that students could decide to reference in the future. I concluded by having students discuss with self-selected partners how intersectionality operated in Including Samuel. For support, I instructed students to think about the various socially constructed identities possessed by the people in the film.
On the syllabus, Class #7 was intended to be dedicated to discussing Including Samuel without explicit reference to critical theory, but having previously co-taught this course and having recognized that many of the mostly-White preservice teachers required extensive support in regard to thinking through and discussing issues of race and other identity markers, I decided to foreground intersectionality. Before beginning the lesson, I explained to the class the change I made to the syllabus and why I made that change. I also told the class that the decision I made was a personal one rather than an institutional one, and that I would likely be the only instructor for SPED 326 who chose to highlight intersectionality. I emphasized the importance of finding creative ways to engage in critical, culturally responsive pedagogy within the confines of institutional requirements.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONAL NOTE - Assessing students' background knowledge of intersectionality at the beginning of Class #7 allowed me to provide more intensive support to particular students when students worked in small groups. Data revealed that some students understood the concept fairly well while others had little to no understanding of intersectionality:
*I asked my students for their permission to use their quotes, and they gave me permission to do so.*
- "I believe that intersectionality is how different identities intersect with each other. Some identities include gender and race. These 2 identities affect each other and the way they intersect is a part of a person's identity."
- "Intersectionality is the idea that different aspects of peoples lives, such as gender, race, religion, etc. will interlap with each other to make for a full unique perspective. Example of this is while a Jewish white woman and Christian black woman will have similar experiences due to being both women, they will also have unique perspectives of discrimination due to their race and religion."
- "I have never heard this term before. I feel that it has something to do with integration or how different things such as subjects being taught, the educators themselves or the school system all come together to assist in students learning."
- "I honestly don't know anything about the idea of intersectionality."
Teaching about Lynching
Teacher candidates across the country often critique their teacher preparation programs for focusing too heavily on theory and failing to provide them with sufficient practical knowledge to support student learning when they formally enter the classroom (Darling-Hammond, 2010). This was true for the students I taught in SPED 326. At one point in the semester, when I anonymously surveyed the class regarding how they thought the class could be improved, several students verbalized wanting to learn more concrete ways to establish an inclusive classroom. For example, one student stated, “I wish that we would talk more specifically about what we can do as teachers to be more inclusive.” Another expressed, “we don’t talk a lot about real world examples when talking about topics, we just say what it is and how it is implemented without actually seeing or hearing about a real-world example.” I took students’ feedback into consideration and worked to demonstrate for them (i.e., model) how to support students with disabilities, especially those from historically marginalized racial groups, in culturally responsive ways.
For instance, in October, I engaged preservice teachers in a lesson I titled “Strange Fruit.” The purpose of this lesson was to demonstrate to preservice teachers how to design and execute an inclusive, sociocritical lesson within a context constrained by time (i.e., one hour) and local educational demands (i.e., the need to address Kansas English Language Arts Standards). I created three objectives for the lesson that were aligned with KS ELA standards: (a) students will determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, (b) students will interpret figures of speech in context, and (c) students will determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text. These objectives were visible to students on a PowerPoint presentation that I displayed at the front of the classroom and from which I read; I provided students with both visual and audio supports.
I began by discussing and walking through the definition and examples of mood and tone with students. I then provided students with a hard copy of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” with which they followed along as I played a YouTube video of Holiday performing the song. I asked students to circle the most important metaphor in the song (i.e. strange fruit) and write what they believed to be the mood and tone of the piece. We then discussed their responses in whole group. It did not take long for students to realize that “strange fruit” referred to Black bodies hanging from trees as a result of lynching during the first half of the 20th century. Afterward, I provided students with a brief biography of Ida B. Wells-Barnett before having them read chapter 5 of The Red Record, Wells-Barnett’s research on lynching in the U.S. In small groups, and then in whole group, students discussed their answers to a number of comprehension questions for The Red Record. I concluded the lesson by asking the class to answer the following questions: (a) Why is this an important lesson to provide students? (b) What were four strengths of the lesson? and (c) How might you improve the lesson? I encouraged students to consider the supports, content, and delivery of the lesson. When several students asked me how I managed to “get away” with teaching such a “controversial” lesson in an inclusive 6th grade English class, I told them that I made sure that my objectives aligned with the ELA standards of the state in which I was teaching at the time (i.e., Virginia), and I stressed that they could do the same and had a responsibility to do so.
In response to the question regarding why this lesson was important, several students understood the lesson as helpful for facilitating challenging but important conversations. Examples:
- "This lesson allows students the opportunity to engage in discussion that is difficult and uncomfortable, and it's important to set an example as the teacher and model how to respectfully address topics that aren't commonly talked about in a classroom setting. It is important for students to gain a deeper understanding of the things that have happened in our country's history and consider how that might be impacting our society today. It also provides them the opportunity to determine what role they want to play as members of a community that is dealing with the lasting effects of these things."
- "by discussing topics that are uncomfortable, you are opening up conversations that can possibly influence change. it is important to get your students thinking outside of the box and it will encourage them to take on other hard topics"
Other students recognized the lesson as exposing students to important history that is often ignored or distorted within traditional school curricula. Examples:
- "In high school or middle school I never had a teacher talk about lynching nor a lot of the brutality that happened in the United States. Slavery was broadly discussed. I feel like our future students need to have knowledge in all aspects regardless how 'harsh' things were. The United States built off of these things. Students deserve to know everything, if you're trying to teach your students real facts. You don't want to wait till college for them to be knowledgeable of this. This is a perfect lesson to incorporate mood and tone."
- "This is an important English and History lesson. It is mostly important because of its historical context. Mood and tone can be taught with any text, but reading primary sources about lynchings is something students rarely get an opportunity to do. Lynching is a crucial aspect of America's past and students should be taught about it. American schools need to stop teaching white-washed versions of history as this continues to perpetuate racial divides in society and results in many white students having a lack of empathy for others."
Teacher candidates across the country often critique their teacher preparation programs for focusing too heavily on theory and failing to provide them with sufficient practical knowledge to support student learning when they formally enter the classroom (Darling-Hammond, 2010). This was true for the students I taught in SPED 326. At one point in the semester, when I anonymously surveyed the class regarding how they thought the class could be improved, several students verbalized wanting to learn more concrete ways to establish an inclusive classroom. For example, one student stated, “I wish that we would talk more specifically about what we can do as teachers to be more inclusive.” Another expressed, “we don’t talk a lot about real world examples when talking about topics, we just say what it is and how it is implemented without actually seeing or hearing about a real-world example.” I took students’ feedback into consideration and worked to demonstrate for them (i.e., model) how to support students with disabilities, especially those from historically marginalized racial groups, in culturally responsive ways.
For instance, in October, I engaged preservice teachers in a lesson I titled “Strange Fruit.” The purpose of this lesson was to demonstrate to preservice teachers how to design and execute an inclusive, sociocritical lesson within a context constrained by time (i.e., one hour) and local educational demands (i.e., the need to address Kansas English Language Arts Standards). I created three objectives for the lesson that were aligned with KS ELA standards: (a) students will determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, (b) students will interpret figures of speech in context, and (c) students will determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text. These objectives were visible to students on a PowerPoint presentation that I displayed at the front of the classroom and from which I read; I provided students with both visual and audio supports.
I began by discussing and walking through the definition and examples of mood and tone with students. I then provided students with a hard copy of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” with which they followed along as I played a YouTube video of Holiday performing the song. I asked students to circle the most important metaphor in the song (i.e. strange fruit) and write what they believed to be the mood and tone of the piece. We then discussed their responses in whole group. It did not take long for students to realize that “strange fruit” referred to Black bodies hanging from trees as a result of lynching during the first half of the 20th century. Afterward, I provided students with a brief biography of Ida B. Wells-Barnett before having them read chapter 5 of The Red Record, Wells-Barnett’s research on lynching in the U.S. In small groups, and then in whole group, students discussed their answers to a number of comprehension questions for The Red Record. I concluded the lesson by asking the class to answer the following questions: (a) Why is this an important lesson to provide students? (b) What were four strengths of the lesson? and (c) How might you improve the lesson? I encouraged students to consider the supports, content, and delivery of the lesson. When several students asked me how I managed to “get away” with teaching such a “controversial” lesson in an inclusive 6th grade English class, I told them that I made sure that my objectives aligned with the ELA standards of the state in which I was teaching at the time (i.e., Virginia), and I stressed that they could do the same and had a responsibility to do so.
In response to the question regarding why this lesson was important, several students understood the lesson as helpful for facilitating challenging but important conversations. Examples:
- "This lesson allows students the opportunity to engage in discussion that is difficult and uncomfortable, and it's important to set an example as the teacher and model how to respectfully address topics that aren't commonly talked about in a classroom setting. It is important for students to gain a deeper understanding of the things that have happened in our country's history and consider how that might be impacting our society today. It also provides them the opportunity to determine what role they want to play as members of a community that is dealing with the lasting effects of these things."
- "by discussing topics that are uncomfortable, you are opening up conversations that can possibly influence change. it is important to get your students thinking outside of the box and it will encourage them to take on other hard topics"
Other students recognized the lesson as exposing students to important history that is often ignored or distorted within traditional school curricula. Examples:
- "In high school or middle school I never had a teacher talk about lynching nor a lot of the brutality that happened in the United States. Slavery was broadly discussed. I feel like our future students need to have knowledge in all aspects regardless how 'harsh' things were. The United States built off of these things. Students deserve to know everything, if you're trying to teach your students real facts. You don't want to wait till college for them to be knowledgeable of this. This is a perfect lesson to incorporate mood and tone."
- "This is an important English and History lesson. It is mostly important because of its historical context. Mood and tone can be taught with any text, but reading primary sources about lynchings is something students rarely get an opportunity to do. Lynching is a crucial aspect of America's past and students should be taught about it. American schools need to stop teaching white-washed versions of history as this continues to perpetuate racial divides in society and results in many white students having a lack of empathy for others."
Enacting Empathy
Empathy is regarded as a professional disposition of educators who effectively teach students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Warren, 2014). Empathy refers to the practice of perspective taking or “adopting the social perspectives of others as an act and process of knowing” (Warren, 2018, p. 169). Ladson-Billings (2006), Howard (2006), and Milner (2010), for instance, have inferred the utility of empathy with regard to helping teachers more effectively work with youth from historically marginalized backgrounds. Moreover, Warren (2013) found that empathy is beneficial for improving the student-teacher interactions between White female teachers and their Black male students, specifically. In the context of teacher education, modeling empathy is critical for cultivating empathy among preservice teachers (Warren, 2018). It is for this reason that I made “enacting empathy” a key practice while teaching SPED 326.
Although I enacted empathy in a variety of ways (e.g., seeking insight into students’ experiences of the course to improve my instruction), one of the most explicit manners in which I took students’ perspectives and utilized them to alter my pedagogy was in regard to student absences and make-up work. I made my perspective on absences very clear: I do not like when students are absent. At the beginning of the semester, I informed my class of preservice teachers that SPED 326 would likely be the only course they would take during their program that addresses the lives and schooling experiences of individuals with disabilities, and it was imperative that they come to class. I told them that we all learned best when we made meaning together and that such co-construction of knowledge occurred best when they showed up to class. However, I explained to them that I understood that each of them had their own lives and that there might be times when life presented them with a challenge that would make it difficult or impossible for them to attend class. To support student success, I uploaded all lesson materials to Blackboard so students could have access regardless of whether or not they attended class. If students were going to be absent, I instructed them to email me about their absence before or soon after class so that I could provide them with a make-up assignment, which would be due before the second half of the semester. I also informed students that they would never have to give me a reason for their absence as a way to establish trust with them and to respect their privacy. Throughout the semester, I expressed to students that I hoped and expected them to utilize empathy in a similar manner with their own students, especially those who have traditionally experienced marginalization in school.
Empathy is regarded as a professional disposition of educators who effectively teach students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Warren, 2014). Empathy refers to the practice of perspective taking or “adopting the social perspectives of others as an act and process of knowing” (Warren, 2018, p. 169). Ladson-Billings (2006), Howard (2006), and Milner (2010), for instance, have inferred the utility of empathy with regard to helping teachers more effectively work with youth from historically marginalized backgrounds. Moreover, Warren (2013) found that empathy is beneficial for improving the student-teacher interactions between White female teachers and their Black male students, specifically. In the context of teacher education, modeling empathy is critical for cultivating empathy among preservice teachers (Warren, 2018). It is for this reason that I made “enacting empathy” a key practice while teaching SPED 326.
Although I enacted empathy in a variety of ways (e.g., seeking insight into students’ experiences of the course to improve my instruction), one of the most explicit manners in which I took students’ perspectives and utilized them to alter my pedagogy was in regard to student absences and make-up work. I made my perspective on absences very clear: I do not like when students are absent. At the beginning of the semester, I informed my class of preservice teachers that SPED 326 would likely be the only course they would take during their program that addresses the lives and schooling experiences of individuals with disabilities, and it was imperative that they come to class. I told them that we all learned best when we made meaning together and that such co-construction of knowledge occurred best when they showed up to class. However, I explained to them that I understood that each of them had their own lives and that there might be times when life presented them with a challenge that would make it difficult or impossible for them to attend class. To support student success, I uploaded all lesson materials to Blackboard so students could have access regardless of whether or not they attended class. If students were going to be absent, I instructed them to email me about their absence before or soon after class so that I could provide them with a make-up assignment, which would be due before the second half of the semester. I also informed students that they would never have to give me a reason for their absence as a way to establish trust with them and to respect their privacy. Throughout the semester, I expressed to students that I hoped and expected them to utilize empathy in a similar manner with their own students, especially those who have traditionally experienced marginalization in school.
End-of-year course evaluations revealed that students acknowledged and appreciated the empathy I modeled during my interactions with them and within my instruction:
- "Clearly showed care for each student and their situation and respected their opinions. Was not harsh with grading and was open to discussion about assignments."
- "William is an awesome instructor! He really wanted every student to succeed and understand the material. His passion for the subject is obvious. I especially liked how he brought in discussions about race and the intersections of race and dis/ability. Neither of these topics occurs in a vacuum, so I think it is important for future educators to understand how both may influence interactions with future students. It was also clear he's listened to previous feedback, making a significant effort to provide students with information they'll be able to use in their own classrooms. He often gave tips such as making sure to repeat yourself, giving wait time, and remembering that not all students have to be doing the same thing at the same time. He was always very understanding."
and willing to help.
- "Clearly showed care for each student and their situation and respected their opinions. Was not harsh with grading and was open to discussion about assignments."
- "William is an awesome instructor! He really wanted every student to succeed and understand the material. His passion for the subject is obvious. I especially liked how he brought in discussions about race and the intersections of race and dis/ability. Neither of these topics occurs in a vacuum, so I think it is important for future educators to understand how both may influence interactions with future students. It was also clear he's listened to previous feedback, making a significant effort to provide students with information they'll be able to use in their own classrooms. He often gave tips such as making sure to repeat yourself, giving wait time, and remembering that not all students have to be doing the same thing at the same time. He was always very understanding."
and willing to help.