While educators are no doubt taxed by overexertion, there is more to the story. Often overlooked ... more While educators are no doubt taxed by overexertion, there is more to the story. Often overlooked in discussions of educator well-being is how the stress of teaching can be compounded by feeling consistently undervalued or unfulfilled by the work, especially when the stakes of providing an equitable education are so high. Here, we propose addressing educator despair by prioritizing community. Specifically, we recommend supporting educators with cultivating or perhaps finding supportive communities that enable them to live their values. Certainly, some despairing educators may be suffering from depression or other mental health challenges and require professional help. But for others, opportunities to probe their despair with peers could prove transformative by revealing new or forgotten possibilities for finding joy and purpose in teaching.
Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 2018
The archetypal sage character is a common, though relatively unexplored, character in young adult... more The archetypal sage character is a common, though relatively unexplored, character in young adult literature (YAL). Employing a sociocultural, constructivist understanding of archetypes, we unpack features of the sage through an examination of three sagacious characters: the Receiver of Memory in The Giver, Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games, and Anatov in Akata Witch. Our analysis reveals how these characters are each marked with physical or behavioral abnormalities, are isolated from society and its institutions, and possess dangerous knowledge of eros (The Giver), power (The Hunger Games), and identity (Akata Witch). They are also depicted as standing in sharp contrast to other, more typical teachers in the intimate relationships they form with students and degree of vulnerability they display. All of these characteristics, we argue, might explain the appeal of the sage character in YAL, as well as its curious absence from our common understanding of K-12 teachers and curriculum. Indeed, we see these characterizations of fictional teachers as raising interesting questions about sagacious mentorship and wisdom in schools.
Many classroom units and lessons are now organized around engaging students in developing claims ... more Many classroom units and lessons are now organized around engaging students in developing claims and evidence. An aspect of teachers’ work that is understudied is how teachers manage the complexity inherent in navigating between claims and empirical data. In other words, what do teachers do when students do not see what they are “supposed to” see or when they make sense of observations in unexpected ways? We contend that such complexity is inherent to the scientific endeavor, and that engaging with it is central to doing science. Therefore, the moves that science teachers make in this con- text have important consequences for students’ conceptual and epistemic understandings. We apply an epistemic levels coding scheme to three classroom episodes in order to better understand the complexity of classroom evidence construction and to develop a description of strategies that teachers might enact to manage this complexity. We then discuss the implications of these strategies for how students are positioned to engage in scientific knowledge construction.
Treating narrative as a social practice has enabled examination of the identity work accomplished... more Treating narrative as a social practice has enabled examination of the identity work accomplished through interactive story construction within various communities, including teacher preparation programs. Largely unaddressed in this literature is the presence of desire – the sense of longing conveyed through expressed wants, wishes, and hopes – and how it works in and through narrative practice. Following James K. A. Smith (2009), I posit that some stories may be liturgical in their conscripting of tellers and listeners into narratives that shape their identities and direct their desires. To explore this empirically, I examined desire in the joint construction of a professional identity narrative – teacher as lifelong learner – within an urban teacher residency. My analysis suggests that program leaders’ expressed desires of and for the novice teachers established the leaders’ authority and worked to conscript novices into the narrative. However, novices were actively negotiating the narrative and the desirability of the professional identity.
Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholde... more Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning—desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning could enrich this discourse. In my view, such research could benefit from a framework of desire compatible with the theory’s central assumptions of learning as socially situated in cultural practices, teleological, and transformational. To this purpose, I offer a liturgical framing of desire put forth by James K. A. Smith, which treats humans as essentially desiring beings and defines desire as a potent force formed through participation in communal practices that orient practitioners’ hearts (eros) toward particular futures (telos). I show how this framing satisfies key features of sociocultural theory and highlight two examples of how desire has been qualitatively examined and where the framing might enrich further examinations of education settings.
This paper shares a novel format for Math Circles, which we call “circles with no center.” Circle... more This paper shares a novel format for Math Circles, which we call “circles with no center.” Circles with no center do not have a traditional facilitator. The problem or activity is novel to everyone in the room. All members engage in mathematical inquiry, and everyone takes responsibility for running the gathering. The “no center” format has benefits for participants and organizers. For participants, the format offers more freedom and more responsibility. For organizers, the format is easier to organize, more fun, and involves less pressure. We describe the “no center” format, discuss the benefits, and provide tips for organizers.
The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers, 2024
Jean Lave is a social anthropologist whose studies in the 1970s and 1980s of apprentice tailors i... more Jean Lave is a social anthropologist whose studies in the 1970s and 1980s of apprentice tailors in West Africa and everyday routines such as grocery shopping contributed to the development of situated learning theory, which posits that learning is embedded within socially, culturally, and contextually specific activity. With Etienne Wenger, she conceptualizes situated learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. Learning is fundamentally change, they argue, that emerges through nuanced interactions between newcomers and old timers as the former moves toward full participation in a community's defining practices. Practices, people, and communities mutually constitute one another and generate conflicts and contradictions that must be negotiated. Learning is thus political for Lave, as are learning theories in the ways they frame social relations and structure the world. Lave challenges dominant psychological views of learning as mental processes of acquisition and transfer, noting how schooling practices reproduce these views as common sense. Lines of research drawing upon Lave’s work include studies of cognitive apprenticeship, communities of practice, and critical examinations of transfer and schooling. More recently, scholars have embraced her ethical-political project by using a situated view to foreground culture in educational practice and center justice and equity in the study of learning within historically marginalized communities.
Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review da... more Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review data and rework lessons.
In this paper, we revisit a long-running conversation about situated learning and the design of e... more In this paper, we revisit a long-running conversation about situated learning and the design of environments for disciplinary engagement. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, scholars advanced an anthropological critique of the then-dominant acquisitionist paradigm of formal schooling with a situated view focused on membership in communities and participation in practices. The critique led to a practice turn in education and a consensus model for reform-oriented school classrooms as orchestrated practice fields where students engage in disciplinary practices within a structured environment. Questions remain, however, about the nature of the practices and communities that this model engenders. We join this conversation through an anthropological investigation of a selforganized group of teachers who gather outside of school hours to engage in collaborative mathematical activity. Participants have the flexibility to conduct their mathematical activity however they want; yet as we show, they tend to reproduce a practice field resembling a reform-oriented school mathematics classroom. This may seem unremarkable, even desirable for many reformers. However, assuming that teachers can or should only replicate practice fields when doing mathematics may be selling them short. Our findings suggest a durability and invisibility to practice fields that may be limiting the possibilities for the production of novel learning communities within schools.
Teachers construct professional identities within community as they converse about their work and... more Teachers construct professional identities within community as they converse about their work and negotiate what it means to be a teacher. Grossman, Wineburg, and Woolworth (2001) suggest that such negotiation must account for an essential tension between focusing on pedagogical versus disciplinary concerns. How teachers navigate this tension and what this means for their joint production of identity and community is unclear. This gap in the literature became evident in our work with Math Teachers' Circles (MTC), where we observed K-12 math teachers indexing instructional experiences and concerns despite the program's explicit invitation to set teaching aside and do math problems together for pleasure. Drawing upon a community of practice framework and positioning theory, we consider the work this professional talk accomplished within MTC gatherings. We show how the teachers positioned themselves and established their community, thereby producing hybrid identities and MTCs as a kind of hybrid community.
The Road to Tenure: Interviews, Rejections, and Other Humorous Experiences
The Road to Tenure offers humorous recollections of the messiness and confusion that fill the day... more The Road to Tenure offers humorous recollections of the messiness and confusion that fill the days of a pre-tenure academic—from graduate school through the postdoc and into the assistant professor days. The book’s three sections roughly map onto the chronology of academic life, beginning with graduate school and the job search experience; followed by teaching, research, and service; and finally the challenges of family and academic identity. The book is not a how-to, nor does it emphasize “lessons learned” on the way to tenure. Instead, the collection earnestly, and with good humor, captures a significant and meaningful slice of the experience of pursuing academia in contemporary colleges and universities. For the doctoral student or newly hired faculty member, these essays will provide some comfort with their implicit suggestion that, while it’s certainly hard work, you are not alone.
Sports and K-12 Education: Insights for Teachers, Coaches, and School Leaders
Much of the landscape of K-12 education is infused with sports. In the United States and the Unit... more Much of the landscape of K-12 education is infused with sports. In the United States and the United Kingdom, nearly half of school-aged children play some form of organized sport. The impact of athletics on schools is enormous when informal athletic activity and the ubiquity of sports merchandise are also taken into account. What does this mean for educators? What challenges and opportunities do sports and athletic participation present to educators serving in K-12 schools? As an introductory text, Sports and K-12 Education addresses these questions through an accessible and engaging collection of chapters divided into three overarching themes: sports and classroom success; sports and identity; and sports, media, and schools. The book’s diverse set of authors—scholars, teachers, administrators, former athletes, athletic directors—offer a multifaceted exploration on a range of topics, including parallels between coaching and teaching, the complexities of student-athlete identity, role conflict among teacher coaches, strategies for supporting athletes from marginalized populations, media representations of female athletes, sports values and teaching, and more.
Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Film: Reel Education
Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learn... more Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learning mean in schools. An analysis of this medium reveals much about the historical, cultural, political, and philosophical dimensions of education. Timely and engaging, this book fills a gap for scholarly and informed public commentary on the portrayal of education in film, offering a wide range of conceptual and interpretive perspectives. Explores several key questions, including: What does it mean to be a good teacher? How do these good teachers instruct? When is and what makes teaching complex? What constitutes learning? Do educational reforms work? The book’s interdisciplinary group of contributors answers these important questions in essays highlighting Hollywood, independent, and documentary films. Prospective and practicing teachers will engage with the thought-provoking educational issues raised in this book and gain insight into the complexities of teaching and learning portrayed in film.
While educators are no doubt taxed by overexertion, there is more to the story. Often overlooked ... more While educators are no doubt taxed by overexertion, there is more to the story. Often overlooked in discussions of educator well-being is how the stress of teaching can be compounded by feeling consistently undervalued or unfulfilled by the work, especially when the stakes of providing an equitable education are so high. Here, we propose addressing educator despair by prioritizing community. Specifically, we recommend supporting educators with cultivating or perhaps finding supportive communities that enable them to live their values. Certainly, some despairing educators may be suffering from depression or other mental health challenges and require professional help. But for others, opportunities to probe their despair with peers could prove transformative by revealing new or forgotten possibilities for finding joy and purpose in teaching.
Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 2018
The archetypal sage character is a common, though relatively unexplored, character in young adult... more The archetypal sage character is a common, though relatively unexplored, character in young adult literature (YAL). Employing a sociocultural, constructivist understanding of archetypes, we unpack features of the sage through an examination of three sagacious characters: the Receiver of Memory in The Giver, Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games, and Anatov in Akata Witch. Our analysis reveals how these characters are each marked with physical or behavioral abnormalities, are isolated from society and its institutions, and possess dangerous knowledge of eros (The Giver), power (The Hunger Games), and identity (Akata Witch). They are also depicted as standing in sharp contrast to other, more typical teachers in the intimate relationships they form with students and degree of vulnerability they display. All of these characteristics, we argue, might explain the appeal of the sage character in YAL, as well as its curious absence from our common understanding of K-12 teachers and curriculum. Indeed, we see these characterizations of fictional teachers as raising interesting questions about sagacious mentorship and wisdom in schools.
Many classroom units and lessons are now organized around engaging students in developing claims ... more Many classroom units and lessons are now organized around engaging students in developing claims and evidence. An aspect of teachers’ work that is understudied is how teachers manage the complexity inherent in navigating between claims and empirical data. In other words, what do teachers do when students do not see what they are “supposed to” see or when they make sense of observations in unexpected ways? We contend that such complexity is inherent to the scientific endeavor, and that engaging with it is central to doing science. Therefore, the moves that science teachers make in this con- text have important consequences for students’ conceptual and epistemic understandings. We apply an epistemic levels coding scheme to three classroom episodes in order to better understand the complexity of classroom evidence construction and to develop a description of strategies that teachers might enact to manage this complexity. We then discuss the implications of these strategies for how students are positioned to engage in scientific knowledge construction.
Treating narrative as a social practice has enabled examination of the identity work accomplished... more Treating narrative as a social practice has enabled examination of the identity work accomplished through interactive story construction within various communities, including teacher preparation programs. Largely unaddressed in this literature is the presence of desire – the sense of longing conveyed through expressed wants, wishes, and hopes – and how it works in and through narrative practice. Following James K. A. Smith (2009), I posit that some stories may be liturgical in their conscripting of tellers and listeners into narratives that shape their identities and direct their desires. To explore this empirically, I examined desire in the joint construction of a professional identity narrative – teacher as lifelong learner – within an urban teacher residency. My analysis suggests that program leaders’ expressed desires of and for the novice teachers established the leaders’ authority and worked to conscript novices into the narrative. However, novices were actively negotiating the narrative and the desirability of the professional identity.
Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholde... more Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning—desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning could enrich this discourse. In my view, such research could benefit from a framework of desire compatible with the theory’s central assumptions of learning as socially situated in cultural practices, teleological, and transformational. To this purpose, I offer a liturgical framing of desire put forth by James K. A. Smith, which treats humans as essentially desiring beings and defines desire as a potent force formed through participation in communal practices that orient practitioners’ hearts (eros) toward particular futures (telos). I show how this framing satisfies key features of sociocultural theory and highlight two examples of how desire has been qualitatively examined and where the framing might enrich further examinations of education settings.
This paper shares a novel format for Math Circles, which we call “circles with no center.” Circle... more This paper shares a novel format for Math Circles, which we call “circles with no center.” Circles with no center do not have a traditional facilitator. The problem or activity is novel to everyone in the room. All members engage in mathematical inquiry, and everyone takes responsibility for running the gathering. The “no center” format has benefits for participants and organizers. For participants, the format offers more freedom and more responsibility. For organizers, the format is easier to organize, more fun, and involves less pressure. We describe the “no center” format, discuss the benefits, and provide tips for organizers.
The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers, 2024
Jean Lave is a social anthropologist whose studies in the 1970s and 1980s of apprentice tailors i... more Jean Lave is a social anthropologist whose studies in the 1970s and 1980s of apprentice tailors in West Africa and everyday routines such as grocery shopping contributed to the development of situated learning theory, which posits that learning is embedded within socially, culturally, and contextually specific activity. With Etienne Wenger, she conceptualizes situated learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. Learning is fundamentally change, they argue, that emerges through nuanced interactions between newcomers and old timers as the former moves toward full participation in a community's defining practices. Practices, people, and communities mutually constitute one another and generate conflicts and contradictions that must be negotiated. Learning is thus political for Lave, as are learning theories in the ways they frame social relations and structure the world. Lave challenges dominant psychological views of learning as mental processes of acquisition and transfer, noting how schooling practices reproduce these views as common sense. Lines of research drawing upon Lave’s work include studies of cognitive apprenticeship, communities of practice, and critical examinations of transfer and schooling. More recently, scholars have embraced her ethical-political project by using a situated view to foreground culture in educational practice and center justice and equity in the study of learning within historically marginalized communities.
Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review da... more Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review data and rework lessons.
In this paper, we revisit a long-running conversation about situated learning and the design of e... more In this paper, we revisit a long-running conversation about situated learning and the design of environments for disciplinary engagement. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, scholars advanced an anthropological critique of the then-dominant acquisitionist paradigm of formal schooling with a situated view focused on membership in communities and participation in practices. The critique led to a practice turn in education and a consensus model for reform-oriented school classrooms as orchestrated practice fields where students engage in disciplinary practices within a structured environment. Questions remain, however, about the nature of the practices and communities that this model engenders. We join this conversation through an anthropological investigation of a selforganized group of teachers who gather outside of school hours to engage in collaborative mathematical activity. Participants have the flexibility to conduct their mathematical activity however they want; yet as we show, they tend to reproduce a practice field resembling a reform-oriented school mathematics classroom. This may seem unremarkable, even desirable for many reformers. However, assuming that teachers can or should only replicate practice fields when doing mathematics may be selling them short. Our findings suggest a durability and invisibility to practice fields that may be limiting the possibilities for the production of novel learning communities within schools.
Teachers construct professional identities within community as they converse about their work and... more Teachers construct professional identities within community as they converse about their work and negotiate what it means to be a teacher. Grossman, Wineburg, and Woolworth (2001) suggest that such negotiation must account for an essential tension between focusing on pedagogical versus disciplinary concerns. How teachers navigate this tension and what this means for their joint production of identity and community is unclear. This gap in the literature became evident in our work with Math Teachers' Circles (MTC), where we observed K-12 math teachers indexing instructional experiences and concerns despite the program's explicit invitation to set teaching aside and do math problems together for pleasure. Drawing upon a community of practice framework and positioning theory, we consider the work this professional talk accomplished within MTC gatherings. We show how the teachers positioned themselves and established their community, thereby producing hybrid identities and MTCs as a kind of hybrid community.
The Road to Tenure: Interviews, Rejections, and Other Humorous Experiences
The Road to Tenure offers humorous recollections of the messiness and confusion that fill the day... more The Road to Tenure offers humorous recollections of the messiness and confusion that fill the days of a pre-tenure academic—from graduate school through the postdoc and into the assistant professor days. The book’s three sections roughly map onto the chronology of academic life, beginning with graduate school and the job search experience; followed by teaching, research, and service; and finally the challenges of family and academic identity. The book is not a how-to, nor does it emphasize “lessons learned” on the way to tenure. Instead, the collection earnestly, and with good humor, captures a significant and meaningful slice of the experience of pursuing academia in contemporary colleges and universities. For the doctoral student or newly hired faculty member, these essays will provide some comfort with their implicit suggestion that, while it’s certainly hard work, you are not alone.
Sports and K-12 Education: Insights for Teachers, Coaches, and School Leaders
Much of the landscape of K-12 education is infused with sports. In the United States and the Unit... more Much of the landscape of K-12 education is infused with sports. In the United States and the United Kingdom, nearly half of school-aged children play some form of organized sport. The impact of athletics on schools is enormous when informal athletic activity and the ubiquity of sports merchandise are also taken into account. What does this mean for educators? What challenges and opportunities do sports and athletic participation present to educators serving in K-12 schools? As an introductory text, Sports and K-12 Education addresses these questions through an accessible and engaging collection of chapters divided into three overarching themes: sports and classroom success; sports and identity; and sports, media, and schools. The book’s diverse set of authors—scholars, teachers, administrators, former athletes, athletic directors—offer a multifaceted exploration on a range of topics, including parallels between coaching and teaching, the complexities of student-athlete identity, role conflict among teacher coaches, strategies for supporting athletes from marginalized populations, media representations of female athletes, sports values and teaching, and more.
Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Film: Reel Education
Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learn... more Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learning mean in schools. An analysis of this medium reveals much about the historical, cultural, political, and philosophical dimensions of education. Timely and engaging, this book fills a gap for scholarly and informed public commentary on the portrayal of education in film, offering a wide range of conceptual and interpretive perspectives. Explores several key questions, including: What does it mean to be a good teacher? How do these good teachers instruct? When is and what makes teaching complex? What constitutes learning? Do educational reforms work? The book’s interdisciplinary group of contributors answers these important questions in essays highlighting Hollywood, independent, and documentary films. Prospective and practicing teachers will engage with the thought-provoking educational issues raised in this book and gain insight into the complexities of teaching and learning portrayed in film.
Uploads
Papers by Ian P Renga
Books by Ian P Renga