Surfacing values and beliefs

An ISTE describes how challenge from a colleague led her to question her own ability to be contextually responsive and, in particular, to probe the theories and assumptions that sit beneath teachers’ practice. Drawing on ideas from Julia Atkin and Carol Mutch, the ISTE designed analytical tools that she could use to help a teacher to voice her espoused theories and compare them to her theories-in-use. For both teacher and ISTE, a period of dissonance led to new learning and changed practice.

I’ve been working with a small group of colleagues – “critical friends” – to closely examine our practice as facilitators. We were watching a video of a stimulated recall session I’d conducted with a teacher in order to identify aspects of my practice that I could improve upon. My colleagues praised my teaching and facilitation skills: good questioning, appropriate wait time, stillness, strong listening skills. However, one of my colleagues asked, “In what ways are you being contextually responsive to this teacher? How are you meeting her particular needs?”

This prompted me to ask myself how I could get beneath the surface. How do I establish what a teacher’s real needs are? How do I go beyond strategies and techniques to find out what assumptions they are making about their students’ learning that cause them to react in a particular way? How can I assist the teacher to achieve a mind shift and lasting change?

"Through raising awareness in teachers’, parents’ and school leaders’ minds about the assumptions that frame their teaching or expectations, new mind sets can be formed.”

Atkin, 1996, page 6

Prompted by Julia Atkin’s writing on values and beliefs and Carol Mutch’s concept of “locating self”, I became interested in the importance of teachers surfacing their values and beliefs and exploring them in relation to their practice. I “talked out loud” with a critical friend to advance my thinking on locating self. Striving to move away from simple solutions, I wanted to find a way to help teachers to make explicit the assumptions, values, and beliefs that give direction to their actions.

I developed a questionnaire to elicit teachers’ values and beliefs and began to use it as a starting point, face to face, with teachers. This was a moment of significant discovery, as I realised that, combined with identifying successes and struggles, the questionnaire provided a lens through which to inquire into the congruence between teachers’ values and beliefs and their classroom practice.

I began work with a teacher, examining underachieving students’ journals. Using a transcript of our conversation, my critical friends drew my attention to the teacher’s use of the word “laziness”. I developed an analytical tool to support the teacher in an analysis of the same transcript. In a further face-to-face discussion, I challenged her deficit thinking.

This led to an “aha” moment for the teacher:

“So I’m saying that a student is lazy … but actually maybe it’s that my instructions aren’t clear enough. Or that I’m not giving them enough time in class.”

The teacher also identified shifts in practice:

“I am also changing my approach to journals. I’m stressing their importance and being positive about them, rather than just leaving them out. I think that your attitude as a teacher has a lot of influence on how the students will respond or what they will do. My strategies are also that as soon as I get their journals in, I mark them if I can that night. So I am trying not to take them in unless I can actually look through them, make a comment, and hand them back within two days – so that they get immediate feedback while their work is still fresh in their minds.”

Through closely examining and explicitly stating her values and beliefs in relation to what was happening in the classroom, this teacher came to realise:

“If you are denying your own beliefs and values, then you are denying yourself. You are not an effective teacher because you are not being true to yourself. And if you are not true to yourself, then how can you stand up in front of a lot of kids and expect them to do something for you?”

In accordance with Atkin’s work (1996), I have been able to establish a trusting relationship in which “individuals can bring into the open the values and assumptions behind their thinking and actions, an atmosphere of trust is developed, true dialogue can occur and an opportunity for collective learning can emerge” (page 11). In working closely with me and using tools to examine her assumptions and analyse her practice, the teacher came to realise that what she was actually doing in the classroom was not congruent with how she believed she practised as a teacher. The experience represented a mind shift for her and also confirmed learning for me: I had become more responsive and met some of her real needs.

Return to top