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| Photo courtesy of nmsua.edu |
Next year, as I begin my new chapter of teaching in my own classroom, one of my immediate goals will be to attempt establishing trust and building strong relationships with the community, students and the school in the neighborhood that I will teach in.
I think the first step to building relationships and establishing trust would be to identify what are the "funds of knowledge" that are available in the community. Moll defines these as representing"... a positive (and realistic) view of households as containing ample cultural and cognitive resources with great, potential utility for cultural instruction." (Moll 134) What that means, is that each neighborhood, and each household are a great source of cultural capital that I can tap into to make my instruction and communication more relevant and representative of the culture that I'm teaching. This year, I think I made great strides in overcoming looking at the neighborhood that I taught in from a deficit-type model through active participation in community events and from open communication with parents. I want to research more about the neighborhood that I will be teaching in next year and identify what are the sources of cultural and social capital that already exist within that I can draw from.
In his book Organizing Schools for Improvement Anthony S. Bryk distinguishes between two types of social capital, bonding and bridging. Bonding capital refers to "density of supportive social ties within a neighborhood or community." (169) and bridging capital as "the opportunities to engage with external individuals and organizations." (169). I foresee myself first establishing trust and drawing on the bonding capital. I will need to earn my trust with the community. Because if I don't, I will be potentially seen as an external or the "other"member of the community. That can cripple my ability to connect and earn the respect of my students. Learning what opportunities and resources are available in the area, and utilizing them in your instruction and making them a part of my culture, can further solidify my bonds with the place I am teaching in. This may look like creating a culturally responsive curriculum in my class, emphasizing individually, learning about the experiences of my students and giving students a chance to witness themselves being fairly represented within the larger scheme of the class and school community. I think that ultimately, if I am able to link community, school and classroom and integrate it into my curriculum, I can really create a sense of unity and interconnectedness between what my students experience outside of the classroom and what we will use as foundation in our classroom.
While these are lofty goals, I know, achieving them is more difficult than it seems. Especially in the light of the recent school closings, the reception of a new AUSL school is often met with a mixed bag of reactions. An article in a CTU post, highlighted the rallying of parents to prevent AUSL control of their school. So what can I do if I will meet resistance from the community? This is something that's very common in a fresh turnaround environment. Talking to parents may become difficult because of the ways and different perceptions that culminate from the situation. Some parents may see me as a threat. As though I am a part of a system that has caused them the inconvenience and disservice by firing their teachers and school staff, with whom they have potentially built trust. I feel like I would like to communicate and make the parents understand that my commitment is to the students and their education. Realistically, all I can do is consistently show that I am committed to the education of their students and am looking out after their interests and that many of the systematic decisions made in the network that I am a part of are out of my control. I think that also showing genuine interest in building relationships by calls, home visits and meetings, as well as partaking in community and school events, can help me rebuild and mitigate the lack of trust that may plague the community/school environment.
For more information on how I integrate community into my classroom and strive for building trust between families please visit my Masters Portfolio Community Section.
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