The job of a teacher is simple: unlock the potential in each of their students and prepare them for the next phase in life. Of course, they must do this while managing the needs, requirements, standards, expectations, concerns, hopes, and dreads of school boards, school administrators, parents, and students alike. Accomplishing this task requires a combination of training, skill, and intuition. Yet, in the face of the challenges, thousands of idealistic young people enter the profession each year from a range of backgrounds and callings.
In a recent conversation with Voices, Pacific Oaks College faculty members Cindy Li, M.S., Ruben Cortez, Ed.D., and Marsha Swindler, Ph.D., all from the School of Human Development and Education, spoke of the realities that may cause today’s teachers to contemplate leaving the profession or discourage potential teachers from entering it. They discussed what needs to be done to reverse the trend and how Pacific Oaks is situated to prepare students to excel in the classrooms of today and tomorrow.
Challenge 1: Unrealistic expectations from district administrators
A common concern among public school teachers is that district administrators push new curricula on them without preparation or training. “There’s a pendulum shift where they want to do this one minute and then they want to teach something else another minute,” Li says.
Dr. Cortez agrees. “We have people who are making decisions at a higher level who aren’t thinking about education so much as thinking about what looks good.” As a prime example, he points to California’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards, the statewide curriculum for English and math instruction that was implemented in 2010. “Teachers weren’t prepared. Districts weren’t prepared,” he says. “So even now, what we see with Common Core is that people are not teaching it with fidelity. They were never really properly trained.”
Challenge 2: Inadequate support for new teachers throughout training
The educational process for schoolteachers continues throughout their careers. First, they must receive an undergraduate degree, then attend graduate school to become certified. Once they are hired, they must clear their credential, which entails demonstrating competency in a range of subjects—including reading instruction and computer technology—within five years of receiving their preliminary credential. To succeed in this process, new teachers typically rely on support from peer mentors and their school administration, but often that is not a smooth process.
Li says that when she was going through her new teacher training program to clear her credential, she was paired with a peer who had no experience in teaching and was not able to support her. In addition, she found herself getting to her classroom at 7 a.m. and leaving at 7 p.m. to be prepared for the school day. “I wanted to stay there longer, but my body physically wouldn’t allow me to,” Li says.
Challenge 3: Parental rights, disputes over masks, vaccines, and library books
The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to societal structures and hit the nation’s school systems particularly hard. Many children struggled with online instruction, and when they returned to the classroom, many were behind in their studies and had trouble readjusting.
At the onset of the pandemic, teachers were viewed as heroes, but as time wore on, more and more parents pushed for schools to reopen. Many objected to vaccine and mask mandates and organized to speak out at school board meetings.
“My wife’s district put a sign in our yard that said, ‘Mrs. Cortez is great,’” Dr. Cortez says. “Once the pandemic was over, many of these same people said, ‘You’re not helping enough. You’re not doing the right things.’ And now they’re saying, ‘You can’t teach this, you can’t teach these books, you can’t teach about this.’”
As with many societal debates surrounding education, arguments over pandemic safety measures and appropriate content may be determined at the state level, but the classroom teacher is the most immediate person of contact for a parent angry about vaccines or a book on a shelf. “Parents want more and more say about what is happening in schools,” Dr. Cortez says.
Challenge 4: Students’ needs are diverse
Pacific Oaks is a majority-minority institution, and many of their graduates go on to teach in diverse school systems, often in underfunded schools. Consequently, the faculty have long been attuned to working with different types of students on different learning levels.
Dr. Swindler points out that in the first days of the pandemic, teachers had to start teaching and students had to start learning online. This dramatic transition was hard on mainstream students, but it was an even greater obstacle for special education students. The human connection that they rely on was taken away. “Asking them to focus on a computer screen wasn’t working,” she says. “We had to come up with a lot of new skills, a lot of new training for our education specialist candidates to be able to teach students through a computer. And it had to happen in a minute.”
Additionally, a major preoccupation these days is the effect social media is having on children’s emotional and intellectual development. “The way a subject was taught 10 years ago should not be taught that way today because the students aren’t the same,” Dr. Cortez says. “We’re more involved in social and emotional learning. How do I help our students manage emotionally and socially through the school day? We saw more of that as we came back from the pandemic. Teachers not only had to be teachers, but now they have to be part therapist,” Dr. Cortez says.
Reversing the trend
These many and varied challenges to our education system cry out for an equally complex response. For teacher education departments, the first step is to equip graduates with what it takes to succeed in the classroom, and the keys to success are preparation, knowing how to teach, and having the relevant skills.
Solution 1: Preparing for success
The object of teacher training is to prepare teaching candidates to be confident and effective in the classroom, which means a mastery of the curriculum and the flexibility to teach students of all abilities and from a broad spectrum of backgrounds.
“When we talk about part of our preparation for teaching a diverse population, we’re consistently asking our candidates to think about the diverse classroom that they’re going to have,” Dr. Cortez says. “We’re not talking about teaching a majority of your students or a portion of your students. We’re talking about teaching all students.”
For those going into special education, the skills required include writing an individualized education program (IEP), managing the classroom, and imposing discipline. Dr. Swindler stresses that just because a student is classified as a special education student doesn’t mean they can’t learn. It just means they learn in a unique way. “With teachers in short supply in all areas,” she says, “the schools want individuals who have been trained with all those nuances that fit special ed students.”
Solution 2: Knowing how to teach
Dr. Cortez believes it’s not about how well you know the subject matter; it’s about knowing how to teach students. He tells future teachers, “Look, you understand the subject matter, but you need to understand how to teach.”
Dr. Swindler has seen the importance of this principle firsthand. She says several of her graduates who are administrators now are calling to say they have a teacher shortage. Having gone through the Pacific Oaks program, the administrators are familiar with the teacher training and know those candidates can get up to speed faster. Dr. Swindler says the administrators tell her, “We went through Pacific Oaks. We know the program, and we know what these future teachers there are prepared to learn, and what we can do to help them.”
Solution 3: Having the relevant skills
Pacific Oaks College has been a leader in training early childhood education teachers, and the college has developed a reputation for the quality of its special education training. As bilingual programs have expanded in California, Pacific Oaks has led the way there as well, thanks in part to the diversity of its faculty and student body.
“Dr. Cortez has experience in both being a classroom teacher and an administrator. At other universities or other colleges, some of the professors have never been a classroom teacher,” Li says. “Dr. Swindler has taught special education for years. And I have a background teaching in a bilingual classroom. This is a team that you don’t see very often at other institutions.”
“The hands-on experience that our teachers get is the most important,” Dr. Swindler says. “The teacher shortage to me—from the special ed perspective— is that a lot of the skills that are needed as an education specialist might not be available for our special education students.”
Li is aiming for the same result with simulation. “We provide to our students our actual practical experience and how to apply it,” she says, “because we are always thinking about the big question: What do we want our students to take away?”
Solution 4: Training the next generation
Out of all the components of a student teacher’s training, Dr. Cortez and Li agree with Dr. Swindler’s assessment that practical experience with students is the most valuable. Toward that end, professors Li and Cortez are rolling out a program of simulations to supplement their coursework.
“It’s an opportunity for students to come and teach a small group of kids virtually,” Li says. “And the cool thing is that my students say that the kids don’t talk as if they’re AI or robots. It’s real, live people behind the face. They’re interacting live with the candidates, and they’re responding to them.”
Dr. Swindler cites the value of internships for special education students. “That’s where Pacific Oaks is unique. Students go out to their campuses, and they can complete the remaining courses within their program with a mentor teacher, a fieldwork supervisor from Pacific Oaks, and a classroom course instructor,” she says.
Rising to the moment
Due to a variety of social and economic factors, the country’s schools are experiencing stresses that they have not before. However, this is not the first time that teachers have had to adapt to a changing society. In fact, Dr. Cortez sees this moment as an opportunity. “Any time there is a shortage in any profession, people are going to want to go into that field,” he says. “I always tell teachers, when you’re not motivated, the drive is too far and the pay is never enough. But when you value what you do, pay isn’t a problem and neither is the workload.
Nicole Alise and Robert Young are completing their coursework at Pacific Oaks in the School of Human Development and Education. Here’s what they like about the college:
Nicole: I feel like I’m getting this great second chance to live my dream. I’m also benefiting frompeople who are just getting started. It’s like a rainbow. The different experiences, expertise, different talents, and the diversity piece are what drew me to Pacific Oaks.
Robert: I’m 40. In my cohort, there is a student who is a few years older than I am, and we have students who are 20, 22, and 23. It’s great because everyone works really well together-even better because of those age gaps. We get different perspectives coming in, and it’s really helpful. It’s been a really positive experience.
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