Evoking Meaningful Task Management: The Hand-in-Hand Nature of Teaching, Service and Scholarship
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
This panel discussion will provide insight into how teacher educators can use service in schools and community settings to model engagement and scholarship for pre-service and in-service teachers. As we value teaching to the whole child as a member of a family and community, we encourage our undergraduate and graduate students to see the child situated in this more inclusive community of learners. Teaching begins as we come to see the students before us. In order to see our students, we must understand the context and contours of their lives, as well as reflecting on our own. It is only through authentic and multicultural engagement in these borderlands that we may transform the tensions and narrow the distances that divide us. Each panel participant will describe his/her course outreach and how it breaks down the barriers between the content, the university classroom and the children in the communities we serve. Included is a discussion of how faculty incorporates course assignments into scholarly presentations publications and grant writing. Modeling our research techniques and situating ourselves as lifelong learners comes naturally when we accompany students to classrooms, service projects and community sites. We learn from our service and our work. Alongside our students, we experience community issues, concerns and celebrations. Our students look to us to help navigate and mediate the tough issues of teaching. The important questions they raise become the questions we investigate. It is difficult for us to predict the fronteras nuevas for students who may come from a different generation and a variety of cultures, language backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, and geographic areas without ourselves accompanying them into the community. As our university moves toward a more field based teacher training program our faculty likewise see this as an opportunity to step outside the university boundaries, enter sites with care, and broaden our scholarly community. Our goal is to make our work visible—not only to students, but to our colleagues and professionals in the field.
