Within the field of education today, we are faced with many unprecedented challenges. From press to politics, the world of education has been painted bleakly in the post covid era. Burnout numbers are high and enrollment in teacher education programs is waning. As teacher educators, we see the need to help preservice teachers develop skills they will need to persist in the education profession despite the many challenges they are facing. As Christians, we know that it requires much more than what we can do on our own to sustain us during tumultuous times in education. To develop long-lasting perseverance in this meaningful field of service and sacrifice, we must look to our faith to move us forward. What began as an effort to live out the mission of our university and our school, has developed into promising practices in our teacher education program. Using survey data to evaluate these strategies, we have identified some meaningful practices that can be transferred to different professional settings.
Transparency & Relationship Building
Perhaps, one of the most important ways to equip students to lean into their faith in challenging times is by establishing the teacher-student relationship. The strategies that follow are most effective when the teacher is connected to their students. While we all have differing levels of comfort in discussing and sharing our faith with our students, we leave no doubt that we cling to a higher power when the road gets bumpy.
As faculty members in Christian Higher Education, we must first model resilience, persistence, and emotional control, and we must voice how we use these skills within our vocation. As content matter experts, we equip our preservice teachers with deep knowledge of what is necessary to effectively teach students, however, it is just as important to equip them with an understanding of how preservice teachers need to sustain in the challenging world of their calling. Assuming the role of a mentor and addressing these soft skills is critical. This endeavor requires intentional time to teach and discuss character traits of impactful educators, provide guidance and support to students in developing their dispositions, and continuously evaluate and adjust our own actions and beliefs as Christian Educators. It also requires that we, as faculty members, engage in continuous self-awareness, practice humility, evaluate our own work, and possess and model a growth mindset.
Discussions
Based on our experiences, another promising practice that helps students connect their faith to their profession is the inclusion of powerful classroom discussions. In Christian Higher education, we are blessed with the incredible opportunity to openly discuss faith beliefs in our college courses. Not only should these discussions be encouraged in our institutions, but they should be an integral part of creating communities of scholars and future professionals who share core beliefs about God, Christianity, and their deeper calling towards a life of service and sacrifice. In our Teacher Education courses, we have intentionally created opportunities for authentic, meaningful discussions that require students to identify and articulate their own beliefs and directly align those beliefs to their professional calling to the field of education.
Our pre-service teachers are constantly hearing from outside voices that say “Why would you ever want to be a teacher in today’s world?” or “Kids today are horrible” or “What about all of the school violence” or “There’s no money in education”. These statements are being shared by loved ones, mentors, and many tenured educators. These voices are loud, negative, and continuously influence the Christian educator’s belief that they are called by God to engage in such meaningful work for future generations. Our education courses must provide opportunities for students to unpack these conflicting voices, reflect on their own faith calling, and lean into their God-given talents and purpose to persist in the field.
We, as faculty members, must also embed these opportunities into our instruction, teaching, and reflection if we are going to support future professionals in their faith and their work. Many of our discussions have been guided by four questions posed by Perry Glanzer that help students and professionals align their work to the story of God. These questions include: 1. What about our discipline reflects God’s good creation? 2. What is fallen about our discipline? 3. How has it been redemptive? How can we continue to redeem it? 4. What would our discipline look like in the Kingdom of God? These questions have served as guiding posts for students to really reflect on the work of a teacher and how it directly aligns with the character of Jesus and the call to love and serve others, even though we live and work in a fallen world. Students have shared that these questions have helped them consistently reflect on their “why” in trying times in the field. Many report that their faith is THE reason they chose the field of education. We believe that students must develop the skills to identify and reflect on this greater calling of faith to persist in any challenging professional field they may encounter.
Syllabi Inserts
Any of those who work in teacher education probably encounter similar types of students: those who loved school and were excellent students. Sometimes termed “type A” or “perfectionist” these students enter teacher education programs with high GPAs and expect to maintain them. Often, they see their value in the grade they receive at the end of the semester. It’s almost conditioned into students that A means you are good while lower letters mean you are bad or undeserving. When we are developing future teachers who will be handing out the grades, we need to separate the person from the letter. Held deeply in the heart of effective teachers is the belief that all children can learn, and that learning is the point of schooling. Yet this can counter what many of us have experienced in school. Therefore, including syllabi inserts and explicitly addressing the value of the person is not in a grade is essential. Using a statement written by Perry Glanzer, we address this very idea: I want to remind you that your worth and values as a person do not depend upon your grades, or what you, your parents, or professors think of your grades. It depends upon the reality that you were made in God’s image with intrinsic worth. (Written by Perry Glanzer, believed by me.) As teachers, we are dedicated to ensuring that skills are mastered, and concepts are learned. Even so, we insist that who the student is, and the inherent worth of the individual does not come from a score.
Positive Thoughts and Affirmations
As educators, we take advantage of every opportunity to model effective ways preservice teachers can manage their future classrooms. While physical aspects such as room arrangement, classroom rules, and materials are important components for creating a well-managed classroom, the manner in which we teach students to say positive words that encourage themselves and others is often overlooked as an aspect that produces a positive classroom climate. A promising practice that has proven to be encouraging for our students and faculty to create positive class time is allowing students to say Positive, Thoughts and Affirmations (PTAs) at the beginning of class. Students spend about five minutes choosing from a list of PTAs to say, and each student says at least one of the PTAs to a classmate. Students often mention how they are always encouraged by doing this activity because they always find the right words that speak to their current situation. Moreover, they continue to say words of encouragement/PTA to get them through the day.
Why should we encourage students to speak positive words? First, we all have a responsibility in words and actions to take seriously the impact of words. Second, just as God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives through spoken words, we have the authority as faith-filled believers to speak words, especially God’s words, that bring life, hope, and change. How do we bring life with what we say? Proverbs 15:2 teaches us that our words flow from either wisdom or foolishness and Phi. 4:8 reminds us to meditate on what is true, good, and excellent.
The list below includes a few of the PTAs students say:
I choose to begin and end this day with a thankful heart.
I am proud of myself for doing the best that I can.
I am loved.
I am favored by God.
With God’s help, I can be resilient.
Today is a good day!
I trust God’s timing.
No matter the place or location, speaking positive thoughts and affirmations is a promising practice that can be exercised in any setting!
Using the practices mentioned can help our preservice teachers as they enter the field. It is as important that we prepare preservice teachers with strategies to sustain them as they encounter the challenging work that is our current schools. For many, teaching is a calling and is done in His service. What better way is there to persist in the field than to turn to Him?
Lessons learned from my first year as a teacher.
When times get tough:
1. Do NOT blame yourself for everything that goes wrong in your classroom, but rather:
2. Lean on the Lord’s grace, something I completely failed to do, and suffered immensely for it. (Hebrews 4:16: “let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”)
3. Give yourself grace as well. A rookie is a rookie, and one thing that all rookies do is make mistakes. Realistic expectations of oneself are critical. Another lesson I failed to learn in my first year.
4. While recognizing that each student is a person of immeasurable worth, and to be treated as such, each is also a sinner. When you teach a classroom full of sinners, things WILL go awry, and much of the time it is because of them, not you the teacher. Yet another lesson not learned as a first year teacher. When I learned it in my second year, it had an immediate and positive impact on my emotional health. I took responsibility for my mistakes, but not for theirs.