Teacher Identity & the Classroom
A teacher's identity can impact a classroom in nearly infinite implicit and explicit ways. Let's go back to questions we discussed at the beginning of the semester: why is school important? What do we hope to get out of educational experiences? What makes a good teacher, and a good learning environment? Maybe the answers include factual information, or life skills, or curricula, or open-mindedness, or curiosity. Regardless of how you measure success, I think we can agree that teachers have a great impact on it. Stu dies have shown that students are more likely to score higher, develop interest in a subject, and stay in school if taught by someone with an identity -- such as race or gender -- similar to theirs. I can imagine many reasons this may be true. Someone with a similar background to you may also share a cultural background, and therefore may be able to get information across in a way that works with your worldview, understand the previous schooling you've had, or e...