Rationale
Grow
Your Own (GYO) educator programs are a potential strategy for districts and
universities to employ to help recruit and retain teachers of color. When
designed within an asset-based framework, they emphasize equitable approaches
and critical perspectives that combine the powerful roles of “homegrown”
teachers, culturally-relevant curriculum, and social justice pedagogy in
addressing achievement and opportunity gaps, especially for the nation’s
woefully underserved, largely urban, students of color (e.g., Rivkin, Hanushek,
& Kain, 2005; Sanders & Rivers, 1996). A growing body of scholarship
underscores the value of recruiting people from communities who could
successfully transition as teachers to the very communities from which they
emanate (Fenwick, 2001; Gist, Bianco, & Lynn, in press; Skinner, Garreton,
& Schultz, 2011; Valenzuela, 2016).
Equity-based
GYO teacher programs help address teacher shortages, retention issues and
teacher diversity by engaging in a variety of strategies that aim to recruit
teachers from local communities in hopes that the pool of candidates will
increase in diversity and will be more likely to stay teaching in the
community. GYO programs come in many shapes and sizes in terms of recruitment,
financial assistance, curriculum and support. Some programs recruit prospective
teaching candidates from middle and high schools, some from the college level,
and others recruit paraprofessionals and college graduates with non-teaching
degrees. Some also are designed at the state and university levels, while others
are designed at the school district and community level, or a combination
thereof (see e.g., Skinner, Garreton, & Schultz, 2011). From an equity
perspective, it is important to keep in mind that when designing GYO programs,
different strategies may work differently for different communities.
This
special edition on strategies derives from many years of experience in setting
up and facilitating the work of GYO programs nationally under the auspices of
the National Latino Education Research and Policy Project (NLERAP [pronounced
“nel-rap”], see Valenzuela, 2016). This piece highlights one such program
involving a community-based partnership with a local school district to carry
out the work of a Saturday academy for fourth- and fifth-graders named Academia
Cuauhtli (a Nahuatl term [pronounced ‘kwow-tley’], which means,
“eagle”) in Austin (Valenzuela, Zamora, & Rubio, 2015). Academia Cuauhtli
adheres to NLERAP’s approach that is arguably distinctive from the “community
schools” model, as captured well by the National Center for Community Schools
(2014).
Of
specific importance to all NLERAP GYO teacher sites is a focus on
culturally-relevant, social justice curricula that more fully incorporates the
students’ and communities’ experiences, struggles, stories, histories,
cultures, languages, and student identities. This is essential to the larger
goal of wholly transforming public K-12 education and university-based teacher
preparation programs. In all instances, NLERAP scholars call for a social
justice framework that informs its partnership-based organizational model and
equity-based strategies that are pertinent to this report (Valenzuela, 2016;
see box below).
This
requires that K-12 and higher education undergo transformation in the process,
incorporating in an intentional manner the cultures, languages, intersectional
identities, histories, and funds of knowledge in all their complexity.
Consequently, the overall initiative should result in an increased presence of
critically-conscious teachers who emanate from historically marginalized
communities to which they return upon graduation from the university, with a
teaching certificate in hand.
Important assumptions that attach to this proposed framework are that you are a community-engaged scholar or community advocate and that you are starting from scratch, in the exploration stage. You are already aware of the importance of school, family and community engagement. The importance of children having not only out-of-school time, but also in enriching community contexts is obvious and appealing to you. Ideally, you are also open to an array of possibilities before you and consider these in light of local interest and initiative given the high level of volunteerism that this requires. Finally, you understand that inserting yourself means that you will assume a lead partner role, including planning, implementing, and maintaining the initiative. Moreover, as lead partner, you are the intermediary between the district and the initiative, as well as between the university and the initiative. Finally, your initiative can begin at any level of schooling, from elementary through high school. Since the initial community conversation of Academia Cuauhtli (discussed below) emphasized children’s literacy, the elementary grades became the focus.
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Community-Level Strategies to Consider in
GYO Educator Programs
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1. Structure
A GYO
effort always has a lead partner, ideally a community-based organization (CBO)
that subsequently partners with a school district and a university – including
community colleges, as partners – to direct the work of the GYO initiative.
NLERAP’s term for this is “Grow Your Own-Teacher Education Institutes”
(GYO-TEI), with Academia Cuauhtli being one of these. To ensure the
sustainability of the GYO-TEI, the CBO works closely with partners to develop a
shared responsibility framework to foster collective impact in cultivating
critically-conscious teachers for the pathway. Individual university faculty
and school district members can and should be members of the CBO, as this will
provide legitimacy, status, and resources for the initiative. However,
individual-level involvement, while necessary, does not equate to a formal
partnership with higher education. The latter may likely require a memorandum
of understanding or other legal, contractual agreement among all primary
partners.
Rationale for a
Community-Anchored Initiative
· Rather than community being an afterthought – as
it typically is in virtually all education reform efforts – community-anchored
approaches acknowledge community as having not only the greatest, direct stake
in the outcome of “the reform,” but also that they can work actively with
higher education and school districts to inform curriculum, support students,
and develop the applicant pool for the pathway.
· The CBO ensures the development of age- and
grade-level appropriate curricula that are further state- and district-aligned
with respect to standards. These curricula are social justice-oriented and
culturally responsive to the precise geographical community within which the
CBO is located. It draws on the local histories and funds of knowledge, values,
experiences, opportunities, and resources that can inform both curriculum
writing and teacher development opportunities that prepare teachers to teach
it.
· It encourages sustainability by assuring a level
of continuity that universities and school districts can scarcely guarantee.
Even under good conditions, universities and school districts frequently
undergo a great deal of instability due to an array of factors, including
individuals’ pursuit of other opportunities, restructuring, reorganization,
retirement, and the like. If one rests full responsibility in these
institutions, the predictable departure of district and university “champions”
jeopardizes the whole initiative. In sub-optimal conditions, such as when
resources get cut, the CBO can look for other sources of funding to continue
the work of the GYO initiative, thereby sustaining the initiative as a whole.
2. Process: Steps to Anchoring the GYO Pathway
in Your Community
Organize a community conversation
As
members of civil rights groups, CBOs, or the non-profit sector, consider
organizing a community conversation in a community-based, non-profit or
cultural arts institution. Since an ultimate goal of the GYO is to grow
critically-conscious educators who are themselves community-oriented with
support for local, community institutions, this kind of positioning potentially
benefits all. For this initial convening, public schools, churches, and city
recreational sites may be other options to hold the meeting.
A cautionary note. Although schools are frequently well-positioned to offer
these spaces, think carefully through this detail. Since the norms, values, and
school-based practices, often bureaucratic, tend to accompany school spaces,
opportunities that are specific to the community to which schools do not
otherwise have access, could get over-looked. Academia Cuauhtli provides a good
example of this (Valenzuela, Zamora, & Rubio, 2015). Specifically, chances
of incorporating a danza Mexica curriculum that involves Aztec
dance or ceremony would have diminished significantly had it not been for the
location of the CBO in the local community where exposure to danza
Mexica was not only more probable, but also valued and respected
(Valenzuela, et al., 2015).
Who makes the invitation?
Anyone
can. However, well-grounded, engaged university faculty may be particularly
well-situated to organize an initial convening or “public conversation”
pertaining, perhaps, to the question of literacy for children and youth in the
community. Also, since an important goal of a GYO initiative is to impact
systemic change at the higher education level, it makes sense for university
students or faculty to take at least an initial lead in sponsoring and hosting
this community conversation. NLERAP’s experiences show that community members
take such invitations seriously when they come from faculty who are themselves
community-engaged scholars.
Hold a community conversation
As
the initial convener, organizers should be prepared to designate a lead person
for this. If all you want to do is facilitate the convening, then have someone
in mind who can lead. Talent, interest, and motivation also develop
organically, so do not feel obliged to have to carry the initiative forward
simply because you are the organizer.
· Consider carefully the categories of
persons who are invited to the community conversation. For example, if you
anticipate wanting to develop curriculum in history or civil rights for
bilingual classrooms, it would be good to invite pertinent school district
staff, school board members, bilingual or dual language teachers, presidents of
local bilingual education association chapters, curriculum writers, arts
teachers, school librarians, as well as children’s book writers and
illustrators, city librarians, historians, archivists, members of the arts
community, local parent leadership groups and organizations, indigenous
organizations (kalpullis), elders and advocates with a background in
such matters, and union members – for example, local National Education
Association and American Federation of Teachers affiliates. It is also helpful
to invite local faculty from various institutions, as they are potential
partners that can bring university resources to the table. In general, the
invitation goes to individuals who would likely appreciate getting invited at
the inception of your initiative.
· A culturally-relevant CBO is intergenerational
and encourages the presence and participation of elders who can provide the
knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration for the initiative. These could include
1960s and 70s civil rights activists, a number of whom may be retired teachers
(for a discussion of elders in the civil rights movement,” see Valenzuela,
2012).
· Consider carefully the kinds of
persons that you invite to join you in the overall initiative. Your goal is a
diverse working group that can hit the ground running in a supportive
environment. Since the success of this initiative depends on a high level of
relationality, democratic processes, transparency, inclusivity, and confianza (trust)
that builds over time, be wary of incorporating individuals known to be
divisive or problematic and who can derail an otherwise good intention.
· Have a sign-up sheet with contact information for
those who want to continue the conversation and then invite them to follow up
with regularly scheduled weekly meetings to discuss curriculum development,
teacher preparation, specific grade levels, schools to target, and finding your
champions at the district level, such as within the department of English
learners, dual language, or bilingual education. Maintain a regular sign-up
sheet for attendees.
· At each meeting, consider having a Flor y Canto
(translated literally from Spanish as “flower and song,” it is an indigenous
phrase for celebrating life and personal accomplishments), with one person
taking a few minutes at the beginning to share something personal and
inspirational. This could be a song, poem, short video, or a meaningful experience.
This helps build trust and depth in relationships while encouraging the work of
the group.
· Maintain good minutes and a good record of votes
taken. Have an established, weekly meeting time – ideally, at the site where
your initiative will ultimately be housed if that location can be determined.
3. Become a CBO and identify your partners
Democratically
arrive at a name, develop a vision, mission statement, logo, identity, guiding
principles, funding sources, partners, and find (or establish) a non-profit
that can be the organization’s fiscal agent. Note: Establishing a non-profit is
a big item and takes a lot of time. We recommend you latch on to an existing
one whose goals align with that of the CBO. For example, in Austin, the
organizers first set up the CBO and gave it a name, Nuestro Grupo.
Within a year, the group chose Academia Cuauhtli to be the
name of the academy, which operates from October through April on Saturday
mornings from 9:00 AM to noon.
Develop a strategy for engaging district officials with the idea
of potentially drawing down Title I and/or Title III monies to fund the initiative. Such leaders may be assigned to the office
of academics, curriculum, or English learners. These monies require that the
students you serve attend high-poverty schools (Title I) and serve English
language learners (Title III). Districts apply for these federal dollars
annually. Most districts have dedicated staff who focus exclusively on applying
for and managing federal dollars for underserved youth.
· Building good rapport with district officials is
essential. At least initially, the role of your group’s “district liaison”
should go to the person or persons that have experience working in or with the
school district, ideally a person who is already known and respected. Former or
current teachers or mid-level administrators can often better navigate district
bureaucracy than “outsiders.”
· Remember that you are envisioning a partnership
that consists of shared responsibility; however, since your initiative is
sometimes viewed as apart from “core operations,” be patient in your dealings.
Trusting, reciprocal partnerships truly take time.
Meet with district officials to develop a budget and establish the
legal, contractual framework of roles and responsibilities for the
establishment of a Saturday academy or after-school program.
· School budgets can cover such expenses as
teacher salaries, supplies, breakfasts, books, transportation, curriculum
development, and coordinator stipends (see below). Other extraneous expenses
occur and can get picked up by the CBO that in turn leverages additional
outside funds for field trips, additional curriculum development, teacher
preparation, and so on.
Get a fiscal agent. Since the Nuestro Grupo approach and vision
aligned perfectly with NLERAP, the latter became the fiscal agent. Having a
fiscal agent allows you to do independent fundraising to cover extraneous
expenses not covered by district dollars, including t-shirts, buttons, speaker
honoraria, meals and refreshments for teacher pláticas (the
name we give to teacher professional development convenings), event expenses,
etc.
Establish a Saturday Academy or Afterschool Program. A home for your initiative can be a community
center or school that has a community-oriented principal. The value of a
community institution is that they, too, have resources, and they can draw
children, youth, and parents from various school sites. In doing so, they could
build audience participation for their own initiatives – many which could
overlap with that of the CBO and academy.
Establish paid roles for at least two coordinators. While the academy is largely a volunteer effort,
essential roles within the CBO need to be remunerated with stipends covered by
the district budget. At least two co-coordinators are needed. One who can work
directly with the schools, parents, and community and who should be a fluent
bilingual (depending on the scope of the academy). The other interfaces between
the CBO and the school district, preferably someone familiar with district
policies and protocol so that they can coordinate bus stops, budgets, service
contracts, teacher schedules, and field trips. Regarding the latter, Academia
Cuauhtli has at least five field trips, annually. Field trips include the
Tejano Monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol, the Alamo in San
Antonio, and Austin’s annual Powwow, which helps students to learn about
others’, as well as their own, indigenous heritage. Corresponding curricular
units on Tejano identity and history, indigenous ancestry, culture, and
history, as relevant, are taught in preparation for all field trips.
· Retired or former teachers can be very helpful
in establishing relationships with school principals, parent liaisons, and
parents in schools where you seek to recruit students for your initiative.
Parents can also, in time, fulfill this role.
· Participating teachers and curriculum writers
ideally become regular visiting members of the CBO, as well, building a sense
of solidarity.
Decide what grade level (or levels) you want to impact:
elementary, middle, or high school. For example, if you are wanting to co-construct Texas
history for primary school children, it is helpful to know that in Texas, it
gets taught statewide at the fourth-grade level. Teachers can provide helpful
information in this regard.
· Though perhaps counter-intuitive, know
beforehand that if you decide to begin at the elementary school level, the
impacts can be immediate with volunteer teachers or undergraduate students
deciding to pursue advanced degrees or school district opportunities that are
beneficial to the initiative. Why? Because faculty involvement in the community
inspires young people to pursue advanced degrees upon seeing that becoming a
transformational change agent is possible. This is enhanced within higher
education institutions because of the intellectual, human, material, and
symbolic resources that they can bring to the table, including legitimacy,
status, research, and expertise. Also consider what grade levels you want to
impact in light of what gets taught at a specific grade level.
· Deciding which grade level to serve does not
necessarily preclude other action at other grade levels. The Academia Cuauhtli
has focused on developing curriculum in civil rights, immigration/migration,
indigenous heritage, danza Mexica, and the cultural arts. The
district asked the academy to join its ethnic studies curriculum committee to
contribute to the curriculum that is now getting taught in the feeder-pattern
high schools – and hopefully, in all high schools district-wide, soon.
· Secondary school-university partnerships are
another option. University of Colorado Denver Professor Margarita Bianco
developed a very successful partnership with five Denver high schools and the
University of Colorado Denver (UCD) called Pathways2Teaching. She works with
UCD graduate students who, in turn, work with teachers in five high schools to
implement a Critical Race curriculum.
In tandem with university faculty who serve as content providers,
co-construct a professional curriculum (exemplar lessons, units, and road maps)
and organize teacher preparation seminars for teachers to get acquainted with
the curriculum. Explore available
district- or grant-funded opportunities for both curriculum development and
teacher preparation. Academia Cuauhtli, for example, focuses on the district’s
dual language education students and teachers. It tapped into this community,
the majority of whom also hold membership in both Education Austin, the local
teacher union affiliate, and the Austin Area Association for Bilingual
Education (AAABE).
· Develop culturally-relevant curriculum and
pedagogy. This should be culturally relevant, critical, values-based,
authentically caring, social justice oriented, place-based, foster a positive
sense of identity, and grounded in the lived experiences, histories, cultures,
and languages of the community. Wider, global themes are important, too, but
only after students have a sense of their relationship as individuals to
family, community, history, and society, as well as a sense of responsibility
to self and one another (Valenzuela, Zamora, & Ribio, 2015).
· Develop a curriculum road map in advance so that
all teachers know what will get taught on any given Saturday; regularly follow
up instruction with a group reflection on what went well, areas for improvement,
needs for additional materials, etc. Because of the focus of Academia Cuauhtli
on elementary-level, bilingual learners, it has translated all of the materials
into Spanish.
· Hold teacher professional development seminars
in the summer months leading up to the new school year, as well as monthly
during the year on Saturdays after the students have departed. Academia
Cuauhtli teachers participate in pláticas.
· Organize teacher retreats in partnership with
the district and the university. Academia Cuauhtli holds an annual teacher
retreat in partnership with the district and the Center for Mexican American
Studies at the University of Texas at Austin to help teachers and participants
reflect on the year. To date, the center has funded food and honoraria for
invited speakers.
So as to not unduly tax teachers who hold full-time jobs, prepare
a pool of rotating teachers to work in teams to both develop and teach an age-
and grade-level-appropriate curriculum. Academia Cuauhtli organized teams of teachers to develop
sets of bilingual/dual language Spanish-English curriculum aligned to state
standards in the context of the Saturday academy. Rotating sets of teachers can
pair expert with novice teachers to make professional development a regular, ongoing
aspect of practice.
· Teachers should maintain ongoing communication
with the CBO to make sure all needs are met. Occasional, if not regular,
attendance at CBO weekly meetings helps facilitate this. Given teachers’ time
constraints, Academia Cuauhtli has set up a regular reporting structure with
one of the volunteers who has contact as a member and participant of their
convenings under the auspices of AAABE.
Work closely with parents to address their needs. Certain members of Nuestro Grupo are not only
passionate about working with parents, but they also have experience in doing
so. They convene separately with parents on Saturday mornings after they drop
off their children in the classroom at the ESB-MACC where they get breakfast
and their teachers are ready to attend to them. The parents can have specific
concerns and needs addressed, including knowing about the advantages and
disadvantages of charter schools, helping their children do well in school,
helping their children further develop their Spanish language skills, and navigating
school-level leadership, racism in schools, and high-stakes tests. The Academia
Cuauhtli focuses on specific concerns of parents. Most recently, it established
an English as a second language class that they all attend during “school
hours,” which begins at 9:00 AM.
Hold high-profile events that bring attention to the academy,
including an inaugural ceremony, annual graduation ceremonies, and speaker
events. Invite all your
partners (school district, university-level Ethnic Studies Programs, union leadership,
etc.) to both co-sponsor and attend events. Events that also provide meals and
refreshments are often better attended than those that do not.
Seek out sponsorships to local arts events. Local institutions like museums, theater (teatro),
and ballet often are interested in cultivating arts audiences and may offer
volunteer passes to parents and children for local performances and events.
Since Academia Cuauhtli is physically located in a local, community arts
institution, it regularly encourages parents to attend such events as La
Pastorela, a local Christmas play performed by one of the theater groups
locally that also is willing to allow them to attend either for free or at a
reduced rate. Other events like Dia de los Muertos, Sábados en
Familia, and Las Posadas are free to the public and
are well-attended by the Academia Cuauhtli parents and children.
Consider partnering with a deeply connected, non-normalized,
historical signature group that critically addresses oppressive thoughts and
actions. Academia Cuauhtli, for
example, participates in a kalpulli, which is a Nahuatl term that means
coalitions of houses, a cultural form of organizing that has existed for
thousands of years. Through the kalpulli, children and youth, as well as the
CBO members, have access to a danza Mexica (Colín, 2014) which delivers the
preserved ancient knowledge through danza. Kalpullis are located throughout
Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Every kalpulli has both a name and a
danza group (for an in-depth look at the organizational and ceremonial features
of Mexica society today, read Colín, 2014). At least in the Mexican American
community, one often finds local community members, including teachers and
professionals, who belong to kalpullis. Members of kalpullis are
highly child-focused and mindful of the many obstacles that children and youth
face and work collectively to address them (Colín, 2014). Kalpullis are
an under-recognized resource in our communities.
4. A Final note
Once
your community-based initiative is well-grounded in experience, embark on a
partnership with higher education to develop with university faculty and
department chairs a process for developing a pathway to degree completion and
certification in desired areas like bilingual education, social studies,
science, and mathematics. To conclude, this process is a slow and patient one.
However, it should always be enjoyable, especially from knowing that your
contributions will have long-term impacts in children’s lives. The process of
laboring with, in, and for the community should be just as enjoyable as the
outcome around which you collectively plan, implement, and sustain.
The
IDRA EAC-South is available to provide technical assistance to
state and local education agencies to help improve and increase pathways to
teaching for faculty of color, among other capacity-building services
addressing equity issues in race, national origin, sex/gender, and religion.
For more information, please visit our website at www.idra.org/eac-south or
send us at email to eacsouth@idra.org.
The
contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the U.S.
Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent
the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement
by the federal government.
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Works Cited
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L. T. (2001). Patterns of Excellence: Policy Perspectives on Diversity in
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E. (2014). Indigenous education through dance and ceremony: A Mexica
palimpsest. N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gist,
C., Bianco, M., & Lynn, M. (in press). Examining grow your own programs
across the teacher development continuum: Mining research on teachers of color
and nontraditional educator pipelines. Journal of Teacher Education.
Rivkin,
S.G., Hanushek, E.A., & Kain, J.F. (2005). Teachers, schools, and academic
achievement. Econometrica, 73(2), 417-458.
Sanders,
W.L., & Rivers, J.C. (1996). Cumulative and residual effects of teachers
on future student academic achievement. Knoxville: University of Tennessee
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Skinner,
E. Garreton, M.T., & Schultz, B.D. (2011). Grow your own teachers:
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Valenzuela,
A. (2012). Reflection on age and generation: Last weekend’s Raza Unida Party
reunion in Austin. Rio Grande Guardian. Retrieved from
http://texasedequity.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-reflection-on-age-and-generation-last.html
Valenzuela,
A. (2017). Grow your own educator programs: A review of the literature with
an emphasis on equity-based approaches. San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural
Development Research Association, IDRA EAC-South. Retrieved from
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Valenzuela,
A. (2016). Growing critically conscious teachers: A social justice
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A., Zamora, A., & Rubio, B. (2015). “Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle: Danza
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Issue 41, pp. 46-56.
