Thursday, February 10, 2011

What Are My "I"s?

Before reading Peshkin (1988), I thought subjectivity was something I had to carefully guard against in my research. I hadn’t thought of it as something unavoidable, something to be understood and weighed, but reading “In Search of Subjectivity – One’s Own” has made me realize that my subjectivity is a part of me that I need to try to understand better. I am very early on in my thinking about this, but here are a few of the “I”s I see in myself so far:
The Teacher I is hard to separate from the Researcher I. When have to test my students, for progress monitoring, IEP evaluations, or for research, it is hard not to turn everything into a lesson. I find it hard to follow the script that comes with standardized tests without letting inflections creep into my voice in a way that makes the test seem more like a lesson – so hard to evaluate without slipping in some teaching! Does this cause my test results to be less than accurate for my struggling students?
The Mother I wants to take care of all my students, and her heart breaks for each of them when they are frustrated or sad. I want to scoop them up in my arms and comfort them, but does this “I” influence me to read things into my research results; and prevent me from critically evaluating student performance?
The Judgmental I - I am embarrassed to admit to this one, but I get annoyed at the parents when I can see that a student is not being properly cared for by his or her family. For example, a little girl in my class often comes in with her hair dirty and uncombed, is not bathed frequently enough, and is often wearing the same clothes two or more days in a row. (With my principal’s permission, I have spoken to her parents about this; they don’t believe it is healthy to bath more than once a week, so I asked them to change her clothes more often.) She comes from a low SES family, and her parents do not speak English well, and do not read or write. I understand that her family’s resources are limited, but it still upsets me when I see that she is dirty, and I feel angry that her parents don’t do simple things, like having her bathe and washing her clothes. When I think about it, I know that their lives are not easy, and I really don’t know what it would be like to walk in their shoes. There is probably some part of this “Judgmental I” that creeps into how I evaluate my research, though I need to figure out how.
The Critical I kicks in when I think my kids are spoiled or have poor manners. Some of them, typically the higher SES kids, tend to talk to adults like they are servants, while others seem not to have been taught common courtesies (e.g., “excuse me” when you bump into someone). Do I judge these students’ work more severely? I like to think I don’t, but maybe…
The Religious/spiritual I - I haven’t figured out yet how this “I” would effect my research, but it is part of my being, and certainly worth thinking about. The majority of the population in my neighborhood is, as I am, Christian; am I less sensitive than I should be to those of other faiths around me?
I’m sure I am just beginning to scratch the surface of my subjective “I”s.

2 comments:

  1. When I had posted, I hadn't thought about a "judgmental I" or a "critical I" yet. I think these two "I"s are inescapable. We're all human and apt to be judgmental and critical. I think that the key of course is to keep this in mind and not to let it color our perspective when we observe the world, participate in activities, and conduct interviews. I enjoyed reading and responding to your post Margaret. Nicely done!

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  2. I love your honesty. We all have the judgmental I, and not everyone chooses (or allows him/herself) to recognize it.

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