Elementary Education

Teaching

“A Profession or Vocation”?

for

Professor Guy B. Senese

Sociological Foundations of Education EDF 703

Northern Arizona University

by

Carl A. Blunt

November 10th, 2016

Abstract

This article raises 2 basic questions: what are some of the motivating factors of individual’s who

elect to teach at the elementary school level and are they being properly and adequately

prepared to provide the highest and best instruction to working class students? I utilized select

readings from ;The Structure of Schooling: Readings in the Sociology of Education (3rd

Edition), notes form EDF 703 class discussions, interviews, public information and my personal

life course experiences and perspectives to develop my hypothesis.

Most of the required readings held special significance to me regarding my experiences in:

Catholic schools, my exposure to social consciousness and Civil Rights in the 60’s and 70’s,

exposure to academic tracking, Cultural Capital, Bullying, SES, (mis) education, gender play, the

income and achievement gap and educational stratification, just to name a few.

I will apply my past personal experiences to put some historical context and “color” around the

various authors points, both those I agree and disagree with.

In the required readings, there was analyzation, theory and deduction in respect to the family

upbringing, socioeconomic standing, the lack of extracurricular activities, resources and the

biased educational system as various reasons for minority and working class children achieving

at a lower standard than more privileged children. However, very little focus was given on those

factors that apply to the commitment and predispositions of the teachers.

Let’s begin with the historical basis of elementary school teaching and the so called

“feminization” of teaching. In the article, Teaching and Women work by Michael Apple, he

draws the parallel of the transition of men leaving the classroom setting and women going in,

primarily because women were being offered lower wages and discipline and other management

type decisions were being taken out of the classroom teachers hands as well. Apple states

“Elementary school teaching became a woman’s occupation in part because men left it” (Apple,

1985 pg. 471)).

Data supporting women teaching shows that “in 1840, only 39 percent of teachers were women,

and by 1920, that percentage was at 89 percent”. (Apple 1985, pg. 471). The shift of non-

agricultural employment played a large part in this demographic. Men had traditionally taught

part time in between harvests but began to look elsewhere for employment.

With the high added cost of compulsory schooling, cheaper teachers were being sought, thus the

hiring of women who, because of the patriarchal times, would be paid less. Why would women

still flock to teaching? “Because women needed work and with the alternatives of laundering,

sewing, cleaning, or working in a factory, teaching offered numerous attractions. It was genteel,

paid reasonably well, and required little special skill or equipment”. (Apple, 1985 pg. 474-475).

Even though the thought process of the day saw teaching as a training for marriage and raising a

family, many choose teaching because they wanted to teach children conventional right from

wrong, foster social, political, or spiritual change and persuade the young to move towards

temperance, racial equality and Christianity.

Apple states that class dynamics dictated who became a teacher and what their experiences were.

Women of different class and backgrounds taught at different type schools. Middle class teachers

were in private same sex schools while working class teachers taught in working class mixed sex

schools.

That historical concept leads me to believe that the premise of same sex elitism and mixed sex

working class schools carried over into the 50’s and 60’s when I was in elementary school. The

perception of elitism was displayed by mixed sex schools being divided into the boys and girls

seating in class, boys and girls lines for lunch and recess, boys and girls sides in the cafeteria and

boys and girls yards. My experience with elementary school teachers was some-what myopic

because all but 2 of those teachers, during my formidable years were nuns.

The nuns had been trained and prepared to deliver instruction to us during my grammar school

experience, in a uniform and standard method imbued with the Catholic teachings. “Catholic

schools are expected to develop a community with their students, faculty, and parents to engage

in the mission of social justice. For Catholic schools, the structure of community is an integral

mechanism that asks Catholics to prioritize the community and relationships with others”.

(Aldana, 2015).

That statement rang very true to me. My grammar school, St. Dominic’s, was located in an area

of San Francisco officially named the Western Addition. It was a working class neighborhood

that bordered the super affluent Pacific -Heights neighborhood in which many consulates were

located, but the enrollment was approximately 40% Black, with an overall mix of approximately

70-75% minority, including foreign students.

During the 40,’s, 50’s and on into the 60’s, upper middle class, middle and working class

families of various backgrounds from all over the globe, bolstered by the migration of African

American’s had “back filled” the Western Addition neighborhoods and businesses vacated by

the Japanese who were forced into interment/relocation during World War II. This mosaic of

varying Post War socioeconomic levels, varying cultures, development and implementation of

new ideas and customs, ranging from music and venues such as “Jacks” and “New Jacks Jazz

clubs, The Fillmore West and Winterland auditoriums, cultural cuisines and African American,

Far Eastern, European and other minority entrepreneurial businesses (both legal and illegal),

spawned a consciousness dubbed “The Fillmore”. (This neighborhood has since been absorbed

by the affluent white neighborhood and is now identified as “Lower Pacific Heights).

To use a western movie analogy, St. Dominic’s elementary school was akin to a frontier fort

during the western expansion of the United States. It was a safe haven for children, immigrants,

and any pilgrims who sought “the light”. St. Dominic’s served as a seat of learning, not only for

academics, but for understanding the meaning of the social upheavals of the time, tolerance for

the different paths others have taken and for the teachings that “each human being is called to be

in a loving relationship with self, God and others and is encouraged to see the interconnectedness

of all creation” (Cook & Simonds, 2001, p 323).

“St. Dominic’s School closed for the final time at the end of the school year after more than a century of educating
economically disadvantaged children in the neighborhood.
Yet the future for both the school and its Gothic home on Pine Street, erected in 1929, seems filled with promise. In
1863, the Dominican friars paid $6,000 for the city block bounded by Steiner, Bush, Pierce and Pine Streets, founding
the first St. Dominic’s Church in 1873.
“The Dominicans have been here for nearly 150 years,” says Father Xavier, “and we want to be here for another 150
years.”(The New Fillmore, June 30th, 2011. Editors).
The nuns and few lay teachers were entrusted with the education of an assemblage of upper,

middle and working class Black, White and Immigrant children. We were taught at the same

pace and level and encouraged to peer mentor those who needed extra help.

Yes, the gender separation at school was still the order of the day. Aside from the separate boys

and girls yard, gender specific lines for recess and lunch, separate bathrooms and gender divided

classroom seating. In addition exclusions such as no girls on the traffic patrol or serving as alter

attendants and no boys as peer tutors or office messengers were in effect. “This phenomenon,

which has been widely observed by researchers in schools, is often called “sex segregation

among children”. (Thorne, 1993, p 462).

The irony here is that the local public library was a meeting place for us on the weekends and

after school. Even though boys and girls would not sit together while in the library,( unless it

was brother and sister or cousins), we interacted with each other, chased and teased each other

rode bikes together and walked to Ms. Bowman’s “Sweet Shop” as a group. The nuns were

females but their devotion to a higher authority and their commitment to providing social,

cultural, spiritual and academic training allowed us as students to gain a keen sense of who were

we were as both genders and develop an understanding of what is right and wrong and what was

appropriate between young girls and boys along with a tolerance for those that may have been a

little different.

We realized that the gender separation and uniforms, during school was a tool of discipline to

keep us focused on studies and not allow those rules to hamper our social interpersonal growth as

we moved to young adulthood.

My point is that those that taught us in the Catholic school elementary school environment did

not bring any overt or visible personal predetermined biases or prejudices into the classroom

with them. The statement regarding academic sorting and tracking based on, ”a pattern of a

students’ socioeconomic position, their ethnicity and their chances of being placed in a particular

track level” Oakes, (1985) seemed not to apply in this case. The teachers at our Catholic school

had all been prepared to teach students in the same manner and those tenants of teaching were

reinforced not only in each successive grade progression, but by the parents as well, regardless of

their educational or social class background.

Conversely, the nuns and lay teachers reciprocated by reinforcing the home manners that our

parents were instilling in us.

The following statement was made in Lamont and Lareau’s Cultural Capital article, “The well-

known argument goes as follows: schools are not socially neutral institutions but reflect the

experiences and the dominant class. Children from this class enter school with key social and

cultural cues, while working class and lower class students must acquire the knowledge and

skills to negotiate their educational experience after they enter school. Although they can acquire

the social, linguistic, and cultural competencies which characterize the upper-middle class, they

can never achieve the natural familiarity of those born to these classes and are academically

penalized on this basis” (Lamont & Lareau 1988, p 45-46).

The experiences I have related to a Catholic school education poses’ the argument that teacher

preparation, coupled with the fair and sincere delivery of instruction, can overcome the

possibility of students being academically penalized for their social and cultural status. The nuns

and lay teachers successfully took the diverse socioeconomic nature of their classrooms and
crafted an academic, social and community oriented curriculum that gave all the students an

equal chance at achievement.

In the article “The Distribution of Knowledge” the author, in her research, was on the right track

when she stated “We wanted to know specific information about what students were being

taught, how teachers carried out their instruction, what classroom relationships were like and

how students seemed to be in classroom learning” (Oakes, 1985, p 259).

We all know that teachers have a major amount of influence on the elementary student’s

development and the level of the teacher’s preparedness, commitment, understanding of the

community and delivery of instruction should supplement and enhance the students home and

community influence as opposed to conflict with it.

“The most universally recognized function of schools is to impart knowledge and skills that will

enable the learner to participate successfully in the society’s institutions”. (Epps, 1995).

This statement by Edgar Epps supports the first half of my argument. Let me paraphrase and

reiterate. The mission of educating students is clear in imparting knowledge and skills, enabling

the learner to successfully participate in society. If the teacher is qualified, not only in curriculum

content but also in social dynamics. If they are aware, confident and bring no predetermined bias

to the classroom, the student will have an equal opportunity to learn. I am taking onto account

that the hypothetical student does not have any major learning disability that will hinder their

ability will learn.

Going back to my Catholic school scenario, the nuns looked upon us as children of God and

students regardless of race, and class. They involved us equally in daily classroom, school and

Church activities and placed regular scheduled calls home or sent notes to inform the parents of
our progress. Every so often, the parish priest or Brother Superior would make a scheduled visit

to the house to have coffee. This illustrates the following statement. “Catholic schools are

expected to develop a community with their students, faculty, and parents to engage in the

mission of social justice” (Aldana 2015).

The parents of all socioeconomic levels felt empowered because a Church or school “official”

was taking the time to visit and converse with them. Many times the visit was a sort of progress

report or “heads up” if there were problems or kudos regarding the child. Most often though, the

visit was just about the availability of serving Mass on Sunday, giving details on the upcoming

rummage sale or pageant, or in many cases to remind the parent that there were opportunities to

pick up a little part time work at the school or Church or food baskets available.

Father knew quite well his visit demonstrated that his “reach” extended into my home, and that

fact would be helpful in preventing any discipline problems out of me while at school. Most

likely he had received permission from my parents to straighten me out if it was warranted.

So, my argument is about my elementary school learning experience being enhanced and

developed by the commitment the nuns had in their delivery of their lessons to us as students.

This was evident, not only academically, but culturally and socially as well, the nuns utilizing the

diverse socioeconomic levels of the composition of the class as a positive influence.

Those nuns made us believe that we were all made in the image and likeness of God and that we

all had the capacity to learn. Some student’s learning curve was slower than others, but everyone

felt that they had the ability to learn nevertheless. Religion and prayer were always at our

disposal to serve as a motivator and as a safety net. Take the “Pagan Baby” concept. Anyone

who attended Catholic elementary school in the 50’s & 60’s knows what I am referring to. That
weekly act of a nickel or dime reminded us all, that no matter what our economic station was in

life, there was always someone else who needed and appreciated our help.

Parents, neighborhoods and communities were brought into our educational sphere of learning

and extracurricular activities were “built in” through church activities.” Now, not everyone got

all “A”’s, or were “prized Pupils, but it was not because of opportunity or access. If a student

was lacking in some cognitive skills, “Sister” always had an alternative duty for them to perform

to give them confidence. (ie) taking roll, leading the “Pledge of Allegiance, distributing books or

leading the class out to lunch or recess. Discipline played a part in the learning process as well.

Writing hundreds of “I will not” lines, perfected our cursive writing, having us stand in the

cloakroom, isolated us and made us realize that our absence did not stop the activities of the day.

Having to apologize to the class for disrupting their time inculcated humility and respect, and

having the class applaud as we were brought back in to join the class made us feel worthy.

Therefore we were given confidence that we could rebound from mistakes and succeed, if not

one way, then another.

How was it that the nuns that taught me in elementary school succeed in utilizing the different

cultural, variables that many researchers claimed were factors that hindered students ability?

“The schools success as a socializing agent depends upon its ability to teach students to see

themselves, as the school and the society defines them”. (Epps, 1995), Perhaps that statement

points to the power of their “vocation”.

The nuns instilled in us, a sense that the school, the community, the Church and society saw

value in us and what we did, and that attitude was leveraged with the support of God’s love.
“African American scholars have attributed much of the responsibility for the academic

problems of African American children to the attitudes and expectations of school personnel. For

example Kenneth Clark (1965) contended that a key factor leading to the academic failure of

African American children is the fact that generally their teachers did not expect them to learn,

and adopted , as their concept of their function, custodial care and discipline” (Epps 1995).

That statement immediately illustrates the basic difference in the approach the nun’s took. It goes

on to further to say, “Results from a survey of 474 elementary school teachers in a metropolitan

area suggested that teachers do not take any responsibility for the school failure of the African

American, Hispanic and Vietnamese students in this district. Teachers explained that African

American student’s academic failure as a function of their parents’ inadequacies and deficiencies

in the student’s personal traits and characteristics, lack of motivation, discipline and negative

self-concept. For the Vietnamese and Hispanic students, teachers explained academic failure

primarily as a function of language difficulties.” (Irvine & York 1993 p 169).

I graduated from the 8th grade in 1965, and I am using 51 year old rationale but the teachers

blaming the students and their parents for the inability to learn is a bit much for me to fathom.

In the majority of the articles and recommended readings, I digested a lot of material that had a

recurring theme of external factors such as socioeconomics, culture, self - esteem, lack of

support at home, parents lack of academic competence, neighborhood environment, language,

tracking, sorting racism and on and on as reasons for low achievement. There were a few

mentions and intimations that teachers may be at fault, even though it was stipulated earlier that

teachers have a major impact on elementary student’s development and teachers low

expectations create an environment of academic failure.

Yes I believe my elementary school experience was unique. The 60’s in San Francisco was a

learning experience that many people did not get. Those opportunities coupled with the

acceptance and application of corporal punishment both at school and at home, gave me the

ability to choose right from wrong. (Well, most of the time. I could always go to confession)!

Today’s question is, how equipped are teachers today? Let’s leave the realm of the early sixties

and move into today’s reality.

The “old school” Catholic school form of education was always perceived as “a cut above”.

Why? Maybe because of the passion of brothers and sisters who realized they were “called” to

teach and both their imminent and intimate understanding of the children they were teaching.

Now we have the private charter school concept emerging as the new parochial school form of

education, but without the commitment of educational, cultural and social equality or the sincere

desire of its instructors. “Charters were sold as a fair and even playing ground for children of

“underserved” races and classes to choose a school better than the one that underserved them”.

(Senese 2013).

I entered the “Teacher Corp” in 1974 after earning my Bachelor’s Degree in History at San Jose

State. I always felt and totally agree that “In public schools, textbooks and pedagogical practices

have reinforced the same white European narrative for centuries” (Watson & Wiggan 2016). I

wanted to “tell the truth” about history and change the perception of the way Black people were

perceived.

In the 70’s Black people were even struggling to come up with a nomenclature that defined who

they were. The “old guard was still clinging to the term Negro and Colored, while the Black

Muslims were touting “Black. Those that were coming out of the 60’s, coined the term “Afro
American” and the established Black intelligentsia came up with a safe semi inclusive term that

they thought would appease both the radical Black element and the white establishment. That

term was African American.

I selected the Teacher Corp because its curriculum and training brought prospective teachers

from all parts of the country and walks of life to be trained, not only academically, but socially

and culturally as well. It was a grueling 2 year intern program that resulted in respect of the

community by the interns, and we earned that same level of respect as interns from the

community. During my 2 year internship in the program, I had the honor and privilege to be

taught by noted sociologists such as Asa Hilliard, Thomasina Lightfoote, and Nathan Hare.

As interns embedded in the community, curriculums were revised, new relevant assessments

were developed, parks and, neighborhoods were cleaned up, boys and girls scout troops were

established and lead, budgets were submitted and we listened and learned as politics played out

in the community. As interns, we were able to understand and recognize the needs of not only

the children but the communities that we were serving Our presence was not perceived as

educational carpetbaggers or wide eyed liberal students trying to erase some sort of twisted

cultural guilt from our souls by providing topical insincere emotional salve to the communities

many deep wounds.

Instead we brought innovation, hope, excitement and new ways of recognizing and solving

problems and we took away a true understanding of what it means to be an effective teacher and

positive agents of change while being appreciated by the schools, parents and students.
About the Teacher Corp:

“The Teacher Corps was a program established by the United States Congress in the Higher Education
Act of 1965 to improve elementary and secondary teaching in predominantly low-income areas.
[1]
 Individual Teacher Corps projects were developed by "institutions of higher education" (colleges or
universities with a teacher-training program) in partnership with local school districts. Teams of interns
under the supervision of master teachers worked in the district's schools to help carry out project goals.
A 1974 study examining 20 Teacher Corps projects that began in 1971 found that half involved
elementary school children, half secondary school children. [3] While many projects involved inner-city
schools, others involved children in rural areas like the Flint Hills of Kansas or Indian reservations. [4]
Before its demise, the Corps enlisted local colleges, public schools and poverty organizations to provide
training to future teachers to train them in the cultural and social traits of low income, socially
disadvantaged persons to enable them to more effectively teach in the inner city elementary schools.
The interns and their team leaders participated in and developed community involvement activities in the
various neighborhoods where their schools were located. They taught full-time, worked on a master's
degree full-time, and did community service work to provide enrichment for the children they taught and
to enhance the communities they lived in. They modified their curriculum to eliminate deficits and
adjustment problems to school caused by social and educational deprivation. The interns and their team
leaders created community outreach programs to get the community involved and to bring more
community resources into the schools”. ( Wikipedia 2016)

The Teacher Corp training reminds me of one of the quotes from Kristen Campbell Wilcox’s article,

“This ecology involves classroom teachers that and other school staff viewing Native youth as being

people with cultural values embedded in deep histories and who require an approach that aligns with

culturally responsive schooling (Castagno & Brayboy 2008).

I have taken you through my Catholic school elementary experiences and my post graduate teacher

preparation, which was steeped in a similar fashion as the nuns that taught me. OK, where did we go

wrong and start blaming the student and his/her environment?

Let’s take a look at so called elite teacher preparation organization today, “ Teach for America”. The

several reviews I read were mixed, but two of the three excerpts below seemed to embody

everything that teaching should not be.

  Teach For America (TFA) is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "enlist, develop,

and mobilize as many as possible of our nation's most promising future leaders to grow and

strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence." [2] The organization aims to

accomplish this by recruiting and selecting college graduates from top universities around

the United States to serve as teachers. The selected members, known as "corps members,"

commit to teaching for at least two years in a public or public charter K–12 school in one of the 52

low-income communities that the organization serves. (Wikipedia 2016)

 “TFA exists for nothing if not for adjusting poor children to the regime otherwise known as the American

meritocracy. Kopp’s model for how teachers should help poor students acclimate to the American

meritocracy is the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a nationwide network of charter schools”.

(Hartmann 2006)

 Teach For America is one of the most controversial school reform organizations operating today.

TFA recruits new college graduates, gives them five weeks of summer training and then places

them in some of America’s neediest classrooms, presuming that just a little over a month of

training is sufficient to do the job. Critics point out that high-needs students, who are the ones

who get TFA teachers, are the children who most need veteran teachers. In fact, some veterans

are now losing their jobs to TFA corps members, because TFAers are less expensive to hire, and

some school teaching communities are becoming less cohesive because TFA members promise

only to stay for two years and leave teaching at a greater rate than traditionally trained teachers.

I interviewed 3 teachers to understand why they were in the teaching profession:

 Larry R. is an African American male around 50 years old and has been teaching approximately

18 years. He feels strongly about minority youth and works tirelessly in volunteer and non-profit

youth endeavors and facilitates several school clubs. When asked if he viewed teaching as a

vocation or a profession, he said it was both.

  Larry L. is a Latino male who is in his 1st year of teaching with Teach for America. He is in his

late 20’s. He got into teaching because he wanted to leave the cold in the East and come to

Arizona. He said he was enjoying his assignment in the East Valley, but I detected a tone that

gave me the impression that he was not embraced by his colleagues. He said that teaching was a

profession.

 Susanna B. is a white female in her mid 20’s. She is on her 2 nd year of teaching and said she is

teaching just long enough to pay off her loans. She said teaching was a profession.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion is based on my personal unique experiences The facts do remain that the required

readings dealt primarily with factors that the authors felt affected the student’s performance.

Only two made reference to the teachers influence. With this very small sampling, reviews on

Teach for America and my Catholic school and Teacher Corp experience, I argue that it is

possible that teacher training, does not properly prepare todays teachers for real world classroom

interaction and the majority of teachers are not properly trained to turn today’s students diversity

into a positive and supportive learning process. In fact, I can adopt the position that based on

some of the Teach For America training, (or lack of it), contributes to classroom prejudices.

The commitment to teaching has morphed from a vocation to a profession. (Note the fact that

salary was not a factor or motivator for the nuns).

Vocation: “a strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work, such as religious

work, or a function or station in life to which one is called by God. (Merrimam-Webster 2007).
Profession: “A paid occupation especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal

qualification. (Merrimam-Webster 2007).

REFERENCES

Aldana, Ursula S. “Does Jesus Want Us To Be Poor”? Perspectives of the Religious Program at
a Cristo Rey Network. Journal of Catholic Education. 19 (1) (September 2015).

Apple, Michael. “Teaching & Women’s Work”. A Comprehensive & Historical Analysis.
Teachers College Record. (1985).

Castagno, A. E., & Brayboy, B.M. J. “Culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth: A
review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 941-993 (2008)

Clark, Kenneth B. “Dark Ghetto”, New York: Harper & Row.

Cook, T., & Simonds, T. “The charism of 21st-century Catholic schools: Building a culture of
relationship. Catholic Educaton: A Journal of Inquiry & Practice 14 (3), p 319-333.

Epps, Edgar. “Race , Class & Educational Opportunity: Trends in the Sociology of Education.”
Sociological Forum. Vol. 10. No. 4 (1995).

Hartmann, Andrew. The Hidden Curriculum of Liberal Do-Gooders. The Jacobian ( 2006)

Irvine, Jacqueline Jordan. York, Darlene Eleanor. Teacher Perspectives: Why Do African-
American, Hispanics & Vietnamese Students Fail. In Stanley W. Rothstein (ed) Handbook of
Schooling in America. 161-193. Westport CT. Greenwood Press. (1993)

Lamont, Michele, Lareau, Annette. “Cultural Capital: Allusions,Gaps, and Glissandos in

Recent Theoretical Developments,” Sociological Theory, Vol. No. 2, (Autumn 1988). American
Sociological Association.

Merrimam & Webster Dictionary. Edition(2016)

Oakes, Jeannie. “Keeping Track”: How Schools Structure Inequality. Yale University Press
(1985).

Senese, Guy. Thanks for Your Interest in Freire: Reinforcing Market Ethics through Restricted
School Choice. International Journal of Educational Policies. (2013)

Watson, Marcia J. Wiggan, & Wiggin, Greg. “Sankofa Healing & Restoration: A Case Studay
of African American Excellence & Achievement in an Urban School. “Africology. “The Journal
of Pan African Studies, vol 9, no. I (March 2016)

Wikipedia (2016)