Houston teacher Anthony DeLeon is giving some prospective educators a hard-knocks lesson on life in an urban classroom.
When he was an 鈥�06 Teach For America corps member in Miami鈥檚 Little Haiti neighborhood, his colleagues assumed he was from some posher part of town, he explains. In fact, he had been born and raised in Little Haiti.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l see this when you become a teacher,鈥� he tells the half-dozen or so undergraduates who are listening in on a videoconference line. 鈥淲hen you go other places and tell people where you work, you鈥檙e going to get some kind of crazy looks. Sometimes people are going to say, 鈥榃ow, I hear that school鈥檚 rough. I hear those are some bad-ass kids.鈥� There are few things more frustrating than that, because you know those people have never been to that community and know nothing about your kids.鈥�
It sounds like something out of a class on racial justice and inequality, but in fact, the session is part of a new TFA pilot program. The initiative鈥檚 goal: to give a small number of recruits an additional year of preparation, with an emphasis on cultural understanding.
A Blended Course
Formally termed Education for Justice, the program launched this year with 75 candidates. Education for Justice participants all applied and were accepted to TFA during their junior year of college.
This year, as seniors, they鈥檝e been split into six groups that meet on a monthly basis on a Web-based platform, where cohort leaders like DeLeon guide discussions. Participants also have two face-to-face meetings bookending the course.
In between each monthly session, the students complete an online module combining everything from journal articles to videos, TED talks, and poetry. Then they reflect on those sources in online discussions. Each session also requires the seniors to complete one assignment at local schools, where they鈥檝e been matched with mentor-teachers and are expected to observe a certain number of hours each week.
鈥淚 appreciate the fieldwork aspect because it gives face to the issues that we discuss in our cohort meetings. Rather than just talking about these issues, we鈥檙e seeing it firsthand,鈥� said Kassidy Maxie, a senior at Hunter College, in New York City.
And if the course seems largely theoretical in its first semester, the syllabus for the second half is more concrete, requiring candidates to learn how to plan a lesson aligned to a content standard. They鈥檒l also have to videotape themselves giving at least one lesson and get feedback on it from cohort leaders and peers.
To evaluate the program, TFA will compare outcomes of participants with those of a control group formed of TFA corps members who applied to the program but weren鈥檛 selected.
An On-Ramp?
The Education for Justice program is based on feedback from principals, parents, and teacher educators, said Jamie Jenkins, a former TFA coach who now serves as TFA鈥檚 managing director for pre-corps development. Topping the list: They wanted teachers who knew how to teach, who were good at building relationships within schools, and who knew how to navigate cultural barriers.
DeLeon, who has taught in Texas after three years in Miami, jumped at the chance to participate in Education for Justice.
鈥淥ne thing I really loved about it was that it was going to address a lot of the concerns I鈥檝e always had with TFA,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 thought it could do a lot better with recruitment and with supporting new teachers, because a lot of them don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e going into and come into it with a lot of ideas about these communities that are really off base.鈥�
Education for Justice draws heavily on scholarship from African-American education scholars like Gloria Ladson-Billings and Lisa Delpit. The syllabus bubbles with terms like 鈥渉egemony鈥� and 鈥減raxis鈥� that come right out of critical race theory. The emphasis on culturally relevant teaching methods is a striking addition for an organization that has long faced criticism that it implicitly or explicitly promotes a 鈥渟avior鈥� narrative to the communities in which it works.
TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard says the organization鈥檚 central strength is harnessing 鈥渢op-notch鈥� talent to work toward ending educational inequity, a process that includes strengthening their cultural competency.
While TFA鈥檚 regular summer training includes sessions both on humility and on racial inequality, Education for Justice鈥檚 creators hope the additional time will mean a deeper understanding of those topics.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 separate out the conversation about diversity, community, and achievement. They鈥檙e married,鈥� Jenkins said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great on-ramp to being a culturally responsive teacher in the future.鈥�
Some of DeLeon鈥檚 charges already seem to be finding their voices.
鈥淲e have children where I鈥檓 placed who are medically complex, medically fragile, and [other colleagues] call them handicapped. And I鈥檓 like, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 say that, and here鈥檚 why you can鈥檛 say that,鈥� 鈥� one participant said during a September meeting. 鈥淚t鈥檚 little things like that that gave me a certain level of liberty. If I can get this out, I can keep speaking, and maybe things will change.鈥�
Getting Feedback
TFA still has plenty to learn about the program, such as whether it鈥檚 gotten the right balance of in-person and online interaction.
The organization has also heard from some participants that the addition of the noncredit-bearing class to their schedules has posed some challenges. As of press time, some 18 participants had dropped out citing time crunches.
But for others, Hunter College senior Maxie among them, the class is evidence that TFA has indeed taken criticisms to heart.
鈥淗onestly, it鈥檚 what TFA has been missing this whole time,鈥� Maxie said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the foundational piece needed for every TFA corps member in order to be successful in low-income areas and communities, period.鈥�
