Amber's Statement of Inquiry: Everything in my Brain

Statement of Inquiry

Amber Jensen

21 July 2015

Where Have I Been?

So for nine years, I have been an English teacher at a public high school in Fairfax County, Virginia. Even though I’ve carried one title on my contract during that time, in reality, I have played a lot of different roles (no surprise to any teacher out there): I have been a teacher of 9th grade, 10th grade, IB English 1, and Advanced Composition. I have been a curriculum developer for Advanced Composition, a founder and director of a high school writing center, and a mentor-trainer for other teachers who have started high school writing centers. Now I am also a PhD student and a co-director of the NVWP Invitational Summer Institute.

I never imagined myself teaching high school for so long. I would have been gone long ago if it hadn’t been for the autonomy and leadership I was able to assume as I envisioned, designed, and implemented the writing center at my school. For me, it was all about an issue that gave me a chance to network with other teachers and find a voice that seemed to matter to my colleagues. It was about helping my students find that voice within themselves, too: as rewarding as it has been for me to publish an article and present at national conferences and be elected to the boards of some national organizations, it has all come together for me as my students have mirrored those same experiences in their professional development as students, writers, and tutors. Traveling to Chicago and Orlando with some of my writing center tutors to watch them present to audiences of both high school and postsecondary peer tutors is possibly the most rewarding thing I have experienced as a teacher. To have them start a blog and manage the regular publication of blog posts (read it here!), to run for and be elected to positions of leadership in peer tutoring organizations beyond their school, to have the space and autonomy to propose and implement ideas in our school: this is what teaching and professional growth is all about for me.

Where Am I Going?

As I transition out of full-time public school teaching and enter the full-time world of academia, I am headed on a path that I will have to navigate, once again, without a lot of direction or precedent. In the PhD program here at Mason, I am the only one who is still a high school teacher (in my experience, many of my K-12 teacher colleagues who start doctoral programs end up leaving the classroom altogether, which is totally understandable). In my role with NVWP and with my paired interests in Education and English, I am uniquely positioned to try to find a bridge between the two. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree: these are two worlds that should be interlaced, but unfortunately, often aren’t. My challenges include:

• finding a research interest that asks a specific enough question and ties the two fields together in a meaningful way and may provide a lens or a perspective that hasn’t already been explored in depth
• legitimizing my academic study in two different worlds that value different approaches to research, different ways of knowing, and different audiences
• sorting through all of the theories and research that already exists to find my own place
• making sense of, and hopefully making use of, my own experiences in a way that will inform and inspire the work I continue to do

Ultimately, I hope to tie together my interests in composition pedagogy and teacher voice and professional growth as a full-time, tenure-track professor in either an English or Education department that values preparing teachers as professionals. I am excited about continuing to work with my students - this time pre-service teachers - to find their own voices and the help them learn how to navigate their careers and feel empowered as change-makers.

What Do I Know?

Most of what I know is from my own experiences. I know that becoming part of a network that exists beyond my school has been sustaining and inspiring for my continued work and professional growth. I know that mandated collaboration feels like a really big pain - as does mandated professional development. I know that not all teachers are super motivated or confident to engage in the kind of work that really excites me. I know that there are bureaucratic challenges to teachers being change-makers and having a voice in decision making. I know that teaching is really, really hard work and the profession isn’t really set up to give teachers time to do the kind of reading, reflection, and research that is necessary for them to engage in this work; teaching is exhausting!

I have learned a lot from my PhD course in Public Sphere Theory, and I am excited about how some of that relates to teachers’ voices. I know that there are organizations out there that value and draw upon teacher voices, and that there are many, many great models of teachers who find value and are empowered in the work they do.

What Do I Still Need to Know?

I am curious about the ways in which certain professional organizations and career opportunities impact teachers’ professional growth. I want to know more about if and how programs like the Northern Virginia Invitational Summer Institute and its ongoing community enriches teachers’ conception of self, their involvement in wider discussions around teaching practices and policies, and their future involvement in leadership and decision making at their schools. I want to know if there is a link between teachers who feel empowered and their classroom pedagogies and professional practices - do their students benefit? In what ways? How and does a teacher who feels autonomy in his/her practice create a classroom environment that does that same for students? What are some of the barriers teachers feel when it comes to engaging with colleagues, administrators, and the wider public? What are some of the barriers students feel? Are there ways to change the cultures of the teaching profession and the classroom to bring about more buy-in, investment, leadership, and autonomy in both teachers and students?