Teachers moving toward education for liberation
by Guest blogger on Apr 26 2010 Posted in Community voices
This week's blog post comes from Teacher Action Group members Sulaiha Schwartz and Anissa Weinraub.
It’s a Monday evening and 15 teachers from the School District of Philadelphia are sitting around a table. They’re engaged in a lively conversation about the outside influences that impact the types of curricular decisions they get to make daily.
“It all bears down on us from the outside,” one teacher points out. “The push for ‘accountability’ at the federal level funnels all the way down through the state, the District, and the school levels, ending up at the classroom. It’s like we’re a target.”
“The pressures of No Child Left Behind and making AYP loom over my school. It feels like all we’re expected to do is prep our students for tests,” comments another, in frustration. “There’s no space for me to really teach or do the projects that I know my students would benefit from. I feel powerless.”
These teachers, members of the Teacher Action Group (TAG), are interested in exploring the larger picture – the web of federal policy, state, and local pressures to “perform”, and the way money moves – in order to better understand the limits placed on their teaching practice.
These individuals are not alone. Teachers across the city are expressing similar frustrations on a daily basis. However, this group is not willing to solely sit around and complain about the state of education today. Instead, the Teacher Action
