I'm starting to understand who they are

I am listening to the interviews and I am getting an idea of who DD and GT are as people and as educators. GT wants his students to ask questions and wants to push his students to do some work outside of class. He identifies with the College Prep student who has not yet come into his or her own yet and has a fear of failure and a fear of success. He remembers sharing that identity with those students as a teenager. But seeing as how GT went on to acquire a PhD in pharmacology, he came to understand that he needed to do some work to get there. I relate his experiences with his Dad to the spark that propelled him to succeed. His father's identity influence GT greatly. And yet his is experiencing success in getting students to read and study outside of class, because he has made that his main focus. He sees that discourse is increasing because in his words"they now have something to talk about because they have done the reading.

DD on the other hand came from the working poor class. He has stated how greatly that influence him as he was growing up and what a wonderful childhood he felt he had in spite of the economic challenges. Dan relates to the lower level student and feels he has street cred because he lives on the South Side of town where many of the less wealthy students live. DD is much more aware of racial statistics in the school. Listening to his life story I found that DD was deeply influenced my MLK and the racial issues of the 50s and 60s when he was growing up. DD wants his students to be open about their thoughts and questions and to feel comfortable and enthusiastic about his class. He wants them to perceive him as an ok guy who is not so different from them. He sees his students as potential friends in the future.

What is a bit saddening is that neither DD or GT or FR thought that there was much room for true discourse in their classes due to a number of issues. The acknowledged that there was pretty much exclusively fact giving and clarification. But both GT and DD acknowledged that they allow students to go off into tangents if they will only ask questions. I need to observe them for myself to try to capture some of these tangents. They feel that very little critical thinking and synthesis takes place, but some students are thinking if they are willing to ask questions that they have come up with on their own. I am beginning to understand what is coming out of these data. But at the same time, I need to see for myself what is going on in their classrooms. Since there can be no video recording, I have to just take some days off next year and sit and observe.

Now, to rope in MG. He agreed to participate! Woo Hoo!