Methodology: Inquiry Project, Higher Education and its impact on Newark

Before discussing my methodology for my project, I feel it is necessary to restate my topic or question of interest, as it has been shaped and reshaped again over in my head since its initial proposal.

After visiting Newark and collecting some data in the form of photographs, as well as attending an Open Advisory Board meeting in Newark, my question now exists as follows:

How do institutions of higher learning (5 total in Newark, I have examined in particular two which exist in close proximity, NJIT and Rutgers Newark) impact local urban life? What types of changes in terms of housing, local establishments, street culture, if any, have resulted from the placement of these universities within the city? What types of buildings-landmarks-atmosphere classify these college communities; further, how are they defined visually? What lines, if any, divide these communities from the rest of Newark (I know,these communities are still a part of Newark, I need to work on re-wording), and what do these lines look like?

Methodology: My project consists of research done on multiple trips to a specific section of Newark, particularly the areas in and around Rutgers and NJIT. The data I have collected consists of photographs, videos, as well as personal observation (field notes) in what I will call transition or border zones between college "campuses" and the rest of Newark as a city. Campuses exists in quotes both because these colleges exist side by side and not discrete from each other, and also because I, for the purpose of analyzing my data am seeing them as distinct from the rest of the city in order to assess what the borders around these areas look like visually, and what the significance of these areas could be to Newark citizens.

During one of my visits to the area I brought what I would consider an "insider" with me who knew the area, a former NJIT student. He served as both a guide as well as a reference and gave me his perspective on the situation. It was important that I situated his comments and viewpoint within a broader perspective of his experiences as well as what the purpose of my inquiry was, in order to make sense of what he was telling me and use it as relevant information without becoming partial as a researcher.

Prior to my discussion of the data collected, I will look at and discuss the history of Newark and its construction, as well as the interaction and role these institutions have within the city, economically, politically, and culturally. It is here that I will tie in data (notes) I have from the Open Advisory meeting to demonstrate how these institutions affect urban youth (i.e. magnate schools vs. comprehensive schools).

Upon analyzing my data, I will then discuss the dual city theory which I believe demonstrates a lot of what my photographs of these transition zones demonstrates. Lastly, I hope to incorporate Fruchter's book in to my discussion as I feel that he sums up a lot of things which we have been pointing too all semester, sort of all roled up in one, but I haven't quite figured out how I will fit him into my discussion. Perhaps I need to continue reading! This, my friends, is a mere draft/plan/brainstorming session, please...offer up your suggestions!

Standardized Testing, an Environment of Anxiety?

On Saturday, I took the Biology and General Science Praxis II exams to become an individual, in the eyes of the state, who is qualified to become a teacher. After a thorough cleaning out of the cobwebs and refreshing on my knowledge of the topics, I felt adequately prepared to take these two tests.

Upon sitting down in the stuffy basement of an old building with an inferno-like heating system, I began to get nervous. Not nervous because of the exams, but because the entire testing environment and procedure created a knot in my stomach. I had forgotten about all the round bubbles and number two pencils and the whole erasing of the bubble completely if you change your mind. I actually almost tore my "answer sheet" in a bout of feverish erasing as I reviewed my exam. I had forgotten the type of environment in which this tests take place, and now upon reflecting, I think of my future students, NCLB (for more info, go here, and the serious consequences of standardized testing.

The directions alone before the test, were daunting. My ID was checked twice, and I was warned of the implications of being an impostor and of using my cell phone during the test. Throughout the test, I felt as though the proctor was almost expecting me to cheat.

Am I paranoid?

I found myself thinking this as I waited for the two hours to tick by so that I could have an opportunity to finally rise from my seat. I felt this stress, even as an adult, after a lifetime of taking standardized tests. Imagine being a struggling student who has issues with taking tests in general.

I do believe that testing is necessary and that standards are not always a bad thing. I also believe that tests need to be administered in some sort of uniform way as to ensure their legitimacy. What I am wondering, is if there is a better way to administer these types of test? Maybe what I am really asking is if there is a better test we can use to assess our students?

At the end of my test, the proctor read from the booklet the procedure necessary to cancel our scores immediately, should we feel the need to. Unfortunately, my future students will not be given the opportunity to make this same decision. Their scores will effect their future, as well as my future and the future of the school. These types of tests, which are taken in an environment which I personally feel intimidated by, dictate the future for our students under NCLB. Any suggestions?

Successfully contrasting the Pedagogy of Poverty

In Martin Haberman's article, The Pedagogy of Poverty, "good teaching" is described in opposition to the current popular methods for teaching urban students, labeled by Haberman as the "pedagogy of poverty". The pedagogy of poverty positions teachers at the apex of the hierarchical system that exists in the classroom, whereby teachers issue directives to students and students obey, no questions asked. This top down, one-way relationship makes teachers responsible for their classrooms and the learning that occurs inside that classroom, rather than disseminating this power outward democratically; to teachers and students alike.

This type of teaching results in students who have no real ownership or interest in their own learning. By issuing rules, directives, framing discussions, and being the lone individual to ask questions, teachers themselves set the tone of the classroom environment, and also alone bear the brunt of "making students learn".

Luckily, Haberman describes an alternative to this type of pedagogy, which has poor results and causes many students to harbor resentment towards the school and even their own education. He calls this alternative "good teaching". I believe that Brian Schultz, the teacher from Room 405 in the book Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, embodies and even goes beyond what Haberman describes as good teaching in the pedagogical techniques he uses at Carr.

Schultz, first and foremost, gets the students involved in a topic that is current and effects their lives directly; the squalid conditions of their own school. By doing this, Schultz follows Haberman's first suggestion and transforms "difficult events and issues...into the very stuff of the curriculum" (Haberman 1991). This not only gets his students interested and excited about the information, but it also allows them to shape and mold the topics as well as the types of learning that occur in their classroom.

Schultz also creates an environment in which real learning can occur, mainly by restricted his own voice and personal opinions and focusing more on the students. By really listening to his students and allowing them to grapple with issues amongst themselves, Schultz is not the lone educator in the room. Every individual who participates in the classroom has a valid opinion and serves as an educator to the rest of the class. The interactive relationships and discussions amongst the students themselves serve as templates through which further student investigation and inquiry can build itself. This forces the students to explore alternate resources and media forms outside of their textbooks and to make sense of material that is far beyond their grade level, to say the least.

This type of teaching as described by Haberman, is most effective. I would have to agree. Schultz's curriculum focuses on the students and the real-life problems that affect them. Besides the conditions at the school, Schultz gets the students to examine the politics and social systems that directly affect them and their school. Besides exploring the situation at Carr, students discovered the ways in which urban schools get their funding, including the complexities of issues like race and class.

By doing this, Schultz educates his students in the techniques and knowledge they will need to meet state standards, like reading and writing, as well as some of the invaluable "facts of life" (Haberman 1994), even if those facts are disillusioning. Where I think Schultz goes above and beyond is in the take home message that the students got from this extensive project.

These students learned that sometimes the "facts of life" and the "way things are" can and need to be changed. By putting their best foot forward and investing their time and energy wholeheartedly in to something they believed in, they were able to make real changes to their situation. The value of the process is not something that was lost on the students. They knew the magnitude of what they had just accomplished, and appreciated the journey and learning for all that it was worth, even if they did not ever get the new school they had hoped for. The skills they acquired from this project will be a resource for them in whatever they do in life. That is what good teaching is all about.

Challenges to Urban Students

Upon reading the first three chapters of Brian Schultz's Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, I am consistently reminded of Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhoods and of how the two books present a dialogue between each other. When thinking about the challenges that the students of room 405 face, I believe that there are many concrete as well as invisible challenges that the students are expected to not only deal with, but to rise above in order to reach expectations and standards set by the state.

The most obvious of these challenges are the deplorable conditions which the students are expected to learn in; from the unsanitory, malfunctioning bathrooms and bulletholes in the windows, to the assemblies held in the hallway (which at times doubles as a cafeteria). NCLB applies the same high standards to schools in this type of horrible condition to suburban and elite schools. This insensitive, inappropriate blanketing of expectations becomes even more vacuous as the grim reality of the place where these students come to grow into responsible individuals comes into clearer focus.

That aside, I think Schultz would fundamentally agree with Lareau about the deep-rooted presence of socio-economic stratification and inequality in the American educational system. Certain types of knowledge and "ways of being" are priviledged in this system, and more often than not according to Schultz, the school faired to recognize or validate the reasoning and life skills that these urban students had mastered outside of the classroom. Schultz believes, as do I, that: "The Curriculum itself and the way it is taught are often driving forces responsible for gross inequities that advance the unjust socioeconomic stratification of this country" (Schultz, p. 13).

Inequality is inherently a fundamental part of how schools are run, in what they teach and how they teach it, as well as in what they expect from their students. These inequalities affect urban students in harmful ways that leave them with inadequate education and a poor chance at success in the future.

Schultz's approach checks these fundamental inequalities at the door of his classroom. This is extremely hopeful to a future urban teacher. It shows that as teachers who are integrally part of a injust system, we still can go beyond these limitations in meaningful ways that allow students to gain real control of their education. We can function within an unfair system to create justice and equity for the sake of our students' education. By giving these urban students back some of the power that had been stripped of them due to the very nature of the schooling system and its curricula, Schultz shows how education can be relevant, socially conscious, and inspiring while also teaching the fundamentals that students are required to know by the government.

I found a great news clip from Channel 7 discussing the students situation as well as the Project Citizen project which the students worked on. It allows for a visualization of some of the described conditions of the school as well as the kids of Room 405. Check this out: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v6500574DENMMFeE

Annotated Bibliography, extended article

Bailey, T. et al. For-Profit Higher Education and Community Colleges, National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, Stanford University, School of Education, Stanford, CA.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/ncpi/documents/pdfs/forprofitandcc.pdf

This article makes a distinction between Public, Community, and for-profit educational institutions in order to weigh the pluses and minuses of each type of institution. I feel it is relevant to my project because within the University Heights section of Newark itself, there exists all three types of institutions; thus I think this article will be interesting to compare my data to at the close of my project. Although I do not plan on making distinctions in my project between the three types of institutions, some of the information found in this article I can definitely reflect upon in fitting my discussion into a specific historic, political, and socio-economic context.

The article is well researched, providing case-study evidence to support its claims. Despite this, I am critical of the entire premise of the article, which claims that for-profit universities are inherently more “evil” than other types of higher education because they put more competitive pressure on public and community institutions, and shift the focus of education from real learning to making students educational consumers. Although, in this sense, for-profit may be worse than other higher institution types, ALL universities and colleges are crunched economically right now due to cuts in funding, and believe it or not, all institutions of higher learning have making money on their agendas, whether public or private (in my opinion).

The authors also argue that community colleges “educate” while for-profits “train”, another claim I disagree with. The neoliberal policies in place at this historic moment of “McDonaldization” (as Mancrine points out) make even elementary and secondary education based solely upon drilling, training and testing rather than really educating (NCLB!). This mentality pervades not just for-profit institutions, but also public and private institutions. While I think this article is relevant in some respects, I also disagree with some of its fundamental arguments and think that rather than apply their ideas strictly to for-profit institutions, they should apply they to all three types of institutions broadly.

Higher Education in Newark

Brainstorming for my Community Inquiry Project topic has led me to the point where I have realized that I am interested in learning about the historical events that led to the construction of the city of Newark, including what specific forces played a role in that constuction. I am interested in how Newark looks structurally and how the city is laid out spacially, in order to evaluate the effects that structure may have on urban youth.

If the topic seems vague, (which after reading that paragraph I too am a bit confused) I can elaborate. I started off by thinking about the higher institutions that exist in Newark, including Essex County College, Rutgers University, The Seton Hall University School of Law, The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). I found a great article by CHEN, the Council for Higher Education in Newark, which provides extensive information as to the economic impact of these institutions on the city. I am interested in uncovering the issues that CHEN does not discuss (mainly because these issues would not serve the agenda of CHEN as an institution itself); how the surrounding areas and even the city of Newark itself may suffer as a result of these higher institutions. I will have to do research in to the history of the area, and I also plan on doing a walking tour of the University Heights area as well as the surrounding area outside of University Heights to assess the situation myself via a photo analysis. Here is a map of the area.

Some important questions that I would like to address:

-How has the growth of university on-campus housing (particularly NJIT and Rutgers) and renovation of surrounding apartments changed the demographics as well as the local businesses, restaurants, etc. in the surrounding areas?

-Do these changes mean that the area is necessarily safer or a "better" place for urban youth to inhabit, if, in fact, they even live in these parts of the city?

-How do urban youth and the local communities personally feel about these institutions, and do they consider these institutions and the students that go to them to be a part of their community?

-How has the introduction of these institutions into the community changed local life, modes of transportation, housing prices, etc. in the University Heights areas? Has there been a movement of people out of the area in order to make room for and accomodate to the incoming students?

I think this is a good start, although there are many questions that I have and I am not sure if I will be able to find the answers to them...thus the process of doing research.

Put Me in Coach...I'm Ready to Teach!

So I recently started a new job at a toxicology lab, and my overarching desire for a career that involves helping real people in real social contexts is reiterated in my head several times a day. I studied biology in college and for a long time believed that I wanted to be a scientist. Now that my job involves biology in it's rawest sense, including the euthanasia and necropsy of test animals; I have gotten a better glimpse of how I understand my content area as well as how I will pass that understanding on to my future students.

Don't get me wrong, I am still a science nerd, and wearing a lab coat and PPE (personal protective equipment) makes me feel quite important. My scientific knowledge and course work from college has been very relevant to what goes on daily at my job, but each day I leave feeling both satisfied and completely unsatisfied. (Not to mention, I am an animal lover and the things I've seen are, well, not too pretty...believe me, you don't want to know.) I love science, but I love it in a way that makes me want to make others love it too. That is not to say that I do not respect it in its own right, I just feel that this job has shown me that I cannot sit at a lab bench all day dissecting rats. To me, human interaction must be the essential part of my future profession rather than a mere consequence of my job.

Teaching is the best of both worlds in this sense. Not only do I get to continue learning and discuss scientific topics daily, but I also get to show others the beauty I see in science. Along the way, I can educate and influence my students in meaningful ways that go far beyond the topic of biology. I know that seems corny and "pie in the sky", but after coming home from a long day of seeing the insides of animals, it sounds damn good to me. In fact, I am smiling right now.

I am elated at the fact that soon I will be out of the lab and into the classroom. I think that is where my real career path will begin. Unfortunately, as for now I am in desperate need of both a salary as well as medical benefits, so as for now it looks like I will be returning to work tomorrow.