Field Experience Summary: Getting to know the Communities of my Students

As a teacher it is important to get to know the communities in which I teach. Brain research, psychological observations, and learning theory all indicate that ‘learning’ is the formation of new understandings on the framework of already existing knowledge. Any individual student builds her/his knowledge from experiences in and with the various environments with which they interact. To argue that the only important environment for learning is the school environment would be silly. Most students have learned to walk, talk, and have developed their own personalities before even entering school. If students learn a lot outside of school (even before entering school) it would be silly to ignore the ways in which the communities they come from share knowledge. A mathematical detour will serve to emphasize the point that the learning students are doing outside of school should be of interest to educators.
In this country students spend a lot of time and have many experiences in the school environment from the time they are about 5 years old until they finish school. By the time they reach high school, the level at which I will likely teach, they have spent a little under 10,000 hours in school (9 years x 180 days x about 6 hours/day = 9720 hours). Many will know how to learn in school by then, but others may not because it is so misaligned with ways of learning outside of school. Assuming an average of 9 hours of sleep per night, students reaching high school have spent much more time with their families and other places in their non-school communities learning many things. Before even beginning school, they spent 27,375 awake hours (5 years x 15 hours x 365 days per year). Once in school, they spend 185 days per year not in school, adding up to an additional 24,975 non-schooled hours awake (9 years x 185 days x 15 hours per day). Even on days when students have school, they have spent more awake hours in other parts of their community, a total of 14,580 (9 years x 180 days x 9 hours per day). The total ratio of awake (potential learning) hours spent for a student entering high school is 66,930 to 9,720, or about seven hours awake outside of school to one in school. If students are spending seven hours not in school for every hour they spend in school, it behooves teachers to learn about the ways in which they are learning in those other environments.
One could assume, ‘I grew up once, I know what they are going through and what their families are like,’ but this would be ignoring the simple fact that every community, every culture and subculture, and every family is different. Teachers who assume they know how to connect to all students tend to connect with only the students most like themselves. This is one example of how the majority white community of educators contributes to the preservation of the status quo regarding power and status in America. Many teach in ways that connect most easily with students in communities with norms and customs most like their own. They also discipline students who act in ways most at odds with their customs and norms.
This is where I come in. I am a white man studying to be an educator. I want to work with students of various backgrounds, though I have a particular interest in working with students from Hispanic backgrounds. It is possible I have experienced more diverse situations in my life than many potential teachers, having lived in urban, suburban, and rural communities that included everywhere from little to much diversity. Despite some exposure to some communities, I cannot assume my experience is generalizable to the lives of my potential students. I need to learn about the communities that my future school will service.
My immediate notion is to not limit myself to just a few groups that will be important to learn about. On the other hand, based on two important categories, I can probably narrow down the list of groups I most need to learn about. The two important categories are those groups with which I will most likely work and groups about which I know the least. I anticipate working in urban schools that serve large Hispanic populations, so I can put to use my background around Mexican and Ecuadorian cultures and the Spanish language.
Given that my life experience includes five years of living in Latin American countries, however, my need to know may be greater regarding the other cultural groups I will encounter in that urban setting. Depending on what part of the country I teach in, those groups could be distinctly different. I know very little about Asian cultures, little more about Arab cultures, virtually nothing about recent African immigrant cultures, and I could definitely use learning about Eastern European cultures. I guess that leaves many Euro American cultures, African American cultures, and Hispanic American cultures as the groups I feel I know about and interact with the most. Within each of those large groups, however, sub-cultures and family dynamics exist that I probably know little about and would be amiss to apply a general understanding of the group to.
Within the context of a given school at which I teach, I plan to analyze the groups of students represented and pursue an understanding of their cultural norms, ways of learning, and how each informs my teaching style and content. I have developed a list of starter questions and places to begin my learning through some reading and experience done last week (Jan 15-19, 2007).
Conversation Starter Questions:

• What groups/sub-groups of people live in the area?
• Why did/do people live in the area?
• What are the traditional labor/work/business areas in the local area?

The following questions could relate to either the community served by my school as a whole or the different subgroups within the community.

• What is a community strength?
• What is important to the community?
• What common knowledge is passed from the elders in the community to children in the community?
• Besides those learned in school, what skills are important for young people in this community to learn?How to they learn them?
• How do families establish social networks in the community? (i.e. for sharing resources/info)

Places/People to Observe/Interview:

• The internet (demographic info on Census2000.gov*)
• Home Depot/Lowe’s/local hardware stores
• Apartment offices
• Local places of Worship (Temple, Synagogue, Mosque, church, etc.)
• VFW, American Legion
• Local Bars/Taverns*
• Post Office*, Fire Department, DOT/DMV*, Public Transportation*
• Supermarkets*, corner stores, ethnic food stores/markets*
• Restaurants* – ethnic and otherwise
• Smaller clinics and the Hospital: ER*, psych councilors, financial councilors
• Community centers, outreach centers, ESL schools for adults, etc.
• Day care centers
• County/city courthouse*
• Local athletic events, fields/courts, community parks
• Public Library*
• Food banks, consignment centers*, etc.
• Funeral homes, Wedding planners, party planners
• Family/student homes*
  

Through observations and conversations in these settings about these questions, I hope to learn ways in which my interpretations of student behavior can become more accurate, ways I can prepare curriculum that connects with and builds on the realities of my students, and ways in which my methods can be honed to align with the ways in which students in the community learn. I visited a number of these locations to observe last week (as indicated by an asterisk*) and found the amount of useful information I gained varied based on the place, the amount of time I spent there, and whether or not I engaged people in conversations. The most useful information I gained came from conversations and data noted at the public library. The librarian with whom I spoke had thought a lot about the different communities that used the library.
In sharing and listening to thoughts with my group last Thursday, we developed a framework we can institute in any setting to learn the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) of a given community. We called it the 4 Ps to FoK and it included four aspects. First, there are People to converse with. Cultural insiders can act as guides and sources of information. Students, parents, local spiritual leaders, etc. should all be looked to as people from whom we educators can learn. Second, there are Places we can go to observe and interact with community members. These include school, the library, public transportation, walk-in service centers, restaurants, sports events, and any number of other community locations. Third, it is very important to have the right Perspectives when attempting to learn from and about a community. Most importantly, our goal is to learn, not tell. Be open to learning from kids, keep an open mind toward practices that might at first seem strange, seek to understand. Fourth, and finally, take on some new Practices. These may include reading the local section of the local paper, riding public transportation, volunteering locally, starting conversations with people, etc. By instituting the 4 Ps to FoK, I should continually grow in my understanding of my students’ cultural skills, knowledge, and abilities.
I suspect that a big part of learning about my student’s particular funds of knowledge will come from a new concept of home-visits. That is, a visit with the intent of learning from my students and their families what I should be doing better, not the goal to tell them what they should be doing differently. Based on my ongoing learning of who they are and where they come from, I can adjust my interpretations, preparation, and engagement with students. I hope to not loose track of the importance of learning about my students and how they are learning the other 7/8ths of the time they are awake.