Analyze scenario: a silent child

Analyze scenario: a silent child
Comment on a scene.Address two elements of the question which may be answered together or ‘separately’ in a full narrative flow. State how you understand the cultural perspective of the main characters and suggest ways in which classroom practice could be more culturally responsive. The scene obliges you to come back from theory to the situation.

SCENARIO 2012

Getting Started With the Assignment
Don’t try to short cut from the initial discussion of the scenarios to your conclusions. The scenarios are meant as a challenge to you to think about situations in depth, about their implications for how individuals act and how schools run. They are a stimulus to read and to engage in other forms of learning to deepen your understanding. If you rush at it, and miss out on the learning in the middle, you’ll end up with a poor professional understanding – and probably quite poor grades.
As you read the scenario, you should ask yourself the following:
• What is the context of the scenario? (e.g. the influence of the school profile; the characters’ roles and positioning; the nature of the situation, etc.).
• What are the underlying assumptions being made by each of the characters in the scenario?
• What are the range of attitudes and understandings of the different characters in the scenario, and how might these differences be understood?
• How might these attitudes, understandings and assumptions lead to conflict and possible injustices?
• How, if at all, do these attitudes, understandings and assumptions reflect and/or challenge oppressive practices such as racism and homophobia?
• How might the views and beliefs expressed by the characters inform practices in and beyond the school?

When you are considering how to examine the scenario, think about the following:
• Responses that might have been made immediately by an individual member of staff.
• Medium- and long-term responses.
• Whole-school responses. These might involve changes to (for example) the curriculum, approaches to pedagogy, and whole-school policies on issues such as bullying, discipline/behaviour and equal opportunities.
• Responses that go beyond the school, and which seek to involve parents and the community more broadly.
• Responses based on a ‘deficit model’ approach – that is, where the individual child and/or their family are seen to be the problem.
• Responses based on a ‘social model’ approach – that is, where structures within society and within schools (including racist, sexist, homophobic, class-based and disablist practices) are seen to be the problem.
• Responses based on distinct understandings of social justice.

These questions are starting points to get you thinking. Your initial answers to the questions will help you to think about the literature: as you read around the subject, bear these questions in mind, as this process will help you read analytically and will enable you to engage in an increasingly sophisticated way with the scenario. There is no substitute for reading and thinking, so you should ensure that you subject your first ‘common-sense’ responses to critical scrutiny as you progress.

Scenario: A Silent Child
There are six characters in the scenario: Tina (the main PDE character); the Polish pupil; School mentor; Subject tutor; Tom (a fellow PDE student); and the Learning Support teacher, Ms Phelan.
Tina is only teaching one month as ‘a Dip’ and has noticed that a Polish child in her first year Geography class is very withdrawn and does not seem to mix very well. The child seems to understand what is going on but does not speak much. His homework is always completed but he sits there fairly lifeless in the class. She resolves to seek advice. Her school mentor, whom she hardly ever met, shrugs her shoulders:
Mentor: You don’t need to worry about this. Just go and teach your classes. Maybe have a chat with Ms Phelan in Learning Support? She deals a lot with pupils with difficulty.
Tina: Okay.
Mentor: His language is pretty good, isn’t it? I mean his homework is okay, isn’t it? Doesn’t he hang around with someone else from Poland during break time?
Tina: No, I think that chap is from Lithuania.
But the issue does not go away. No matter how she tries, she can’t help thinking that the child is unhappy and though she smiles at him a lot and makes a fuss over him in class when she can, every day appears the same: the child sits on his own in the class. She wonders about asking to see the parents but, as ‘a Dip’, how can she do that? She wonders if the pupil might be depressed and thinks of recommending him to see a school counsellor, but with current cutbacks she wonders if that would be possible. She doesn’t even know if there is any counsellor in the school. To make matters worse, the other teachers do not seem to notice or think the situation so important. Maybe it is just her. She approaches her subject pedagogy tutor in the University:
Tina: I spoke about it to my school mentor but I am not sure…I mean I am not sure she is responsive to it or whether she takes…I think she more or less kind of brushes my recommendations aside kind of….
Subject Tutor: Because you are only starting teaching, is it?
Tina: Yes, I think so. I am not sure. She kind of entertains me but she doesn’t really take me seriously.
Subject Tutor: Well, maybe you’re picking this up wrongly. The mentor is experienced enough and there are experienced teachers in the school and they should know. Could you go to one of them that you trust?
Tina: I don’t really know anyone and Tom, who is the other ‘Dip’ in the school, doesn’t teach that class…

A month later and after the mid-term break, Tina is looking glum. Her subject tutor spots this and asks if there is anything wrong. She replies:
Tina: I suppose there are lectures in college…like there is an awful lot of theoretical help. But I feel like if I step into the school and I do something about this that I would literally be the only person who would even think of it, there is no culture of it in the school so I can’t just slot into line with the other teachers and their strategies. I would be the only one and I would feel a little bit like, God, I am being very creative for a student teacher now going out on a limb with this student that has needs that I don’t really have a grasp of what they are…
Subject Tutor: But he is doing okay in Geography lessons, isn’t he?
Tina: I suppose…
Assignment 2012:

Having studied ED6306 (Multicultural Lectures), you are invited to critically analyse this scenario. State how you understand the cultural perspectives of the main characters and suggest ways in which classroom practice could be more culturally responsive.

Administration Guidelines
• Please submit ‘Multicultural’ ED6306 assignment (Dr F Long / Dr S O’Brien) in a single separate hardcopy document.

• Spiral bound.

• Please complete ‘Covering Sheet for Coursework’ (available in main office) and attach to front of assignment – incorporate into the spiral binding – label as Multicultural.

• Title Page.

• Layout – use subheadings as appropriate – please ensure that assignment is easily navigable for the reader.

• Total word count is 2,000 maximum.

• Please see Protocol for Submission of Coursework (PDE Student Handbook) – Times New Roman / Size 12 / Spacing 1.5/ Separate A4 sheeted paper.

• *Marking criteria: Please refer to the remainder of this document.

• Final submission date and time: Week of Monday 17th DECEMBER 2012 [Final Date and Time to be announced].

• Assignment submitted to Ms. Carol Kennedy, Education Dept. Office, ‘Leeholme’, Donovan’s Rd [Final Venue for submission to be announced].

Academic Guidelines
• Evidence of engagement with the course module’s (ED6306) core readings and substance.

The lecturers will use these assessment criteria descriptions to arrive at a mark for your essay. Please note that the mark is based entirely on your written submission. Your commentary must be your individual work and it must be independently written.

These are the criteria against which you will be marked:
ED6306 Inclusive and Multicultural Education
Description Mark Allocation
(%)
Honours 1
Outstanding coursework showing thorough understanding, with discrimination in the use of information and demonstrating good analytical ability 70- 100
Honours 2.1
Well argued coursework that addresses the issue at hand and shows a good understanding of the critical concepts 60-69
Honours 2.2
Coursework which demonstrates a limited ability to argue logically and to organise material. Knowledge base is sound but limited. 50-59
Pass
Engages somewhat with the question but lacks understanding of issues and shows inaccuracies. Assertions and opinions not supported adequately by analysis, knowledge or evidence 40-49
Fail
Coursework which is seriously lacking in content and accuracy 0-39

 

 

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