Creating and Using the Persona in Teaching: Challenges of Connection and Control

teaching;teacher education;diversity;equity;practice based;relational work;Education;Social Sciences;Educational Studies

Curren-Preis, MarthaO ; ; Connor, Carla ;

University of Michigan

关键词: teaching;    teacher education;    diversity;    equity;    practice based;    relational work;    Education;    Social Sciences;    Educational Studies;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/144032/marthacp_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Because teaching is inherently interpersonal and relational work, teachers use expressive behaviors such as voice, body language, and facial expression as they interact in the classroom. Yet the effects of the expressive dimensions of teachers’ practice on their relationships with children and their instruction are not well-understood in education. This dissertation investigates and conceptualizes this expressive domain in teaching, which it refers to as ;;creating and using a persona,” or ;;persona work.” This study draws on classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student focus groups and surveys to explore patterns in teachers’ persona work and unearth its purposes. Specifically, it employs multiple case study analysis to describe the expressive practice of six White, female, experienced and ;;expert” teachers. It also shows how the 220 students across these teachers’ diverse middle school English language arts and social studies classrooms responded to their persona work. Taken together, findings from this dissertation show that the teachers’ persona work was central to their instruction and relationships with children, and that it had the power to create as well as limit opportunities for children. The teachers in this study used their expressive behaviors to control and shape interactional conditions in the classroom. Their persona work helped teachers engage children and maintain their attention, lent clarity to teachers’ explanations, communicated teachers’ expectations, and otherwise augmented teachers’ instructional and relational goals. However, teachers’ persona work was not always successful, and did not always benefit every child. In particular, especially among children of color, teachers’ persona work could also be inequitable and could communicate a lack of care or intellectual regard. As this study shows, although teachers’ persona work might help some children learn and engage, it can also limit other children’s opportunities in classrooms, especially among students from historically marginalized backgrounds. This study has important ramifications for teaching and teacher education, especially in relation to cross-cultural teaching contexts. Without growing teachers’ abilities to create and use personas in the classroom in ways that are just, equitable, and responsive to all children, the field continues to relegate to chance teachers’ mastery over this ubiquitous, influential, but until now underdeveloped domain of teaching practice. This, in turn, will continue to put young people—and especially children of color—dangerously at risk.