Beyond Anxiety and Nostalgia: Building a Social Movement for Educational Change

Author(s): Andy Hargreaves

Source: The Phi Delta Kappan , Jan., 2001, Vol. 82, No. 5 (Jan., 2001), pp. 373-377
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International

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Beyond Anxiety and Nostalgia
Building a Social Movement
For Edgucational Change

Closing the door on parents 5- - .

and trying to controlthe te .
interaction with them might : j.
alleviate teachers' anxiety,
Mr. Hargreaves points out,
.but it does so only by
mortgaging- their own future
and that of thei'r students.

BY ANDY HARGREAVES

P ARENTS today are often ex- (*

alted as teachers' best partners v \
and one of their most underused
resources. Good teacher/parent
relations, it has been shown, help
children learn better at home and
in school and can provide teach
ers with the practical, fund-raising, and emo
tional support they sorely need. Yet to many
teachers today, parents sometimes seem less
like partners and more like a pain! Con
sider the remarks of these two teachers.

Sometimes, when parents call and

they're sort of being very pointed in their
criticism over the phone, you get very
defensive, and you feel like, "Hey, wait
a minute, you know, I've done this, this,

ANDYHARGREAVES is a professor in the

Department of Theory & Policy Studies in Ed
CetefrEucationaldcodrctro Chane, OntearionaI

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 this, and this." And, you know, "Don't teacher/parent relationships remain formi especially angry that the parent believed
tell me how to do my job." And you dable. Parents are concerned about their the student's claim that the teacher had in
know there's those kinds of feelings that own child, whereas teachers must consid deed been notified);
come out. You feel annoyed that there is
er all the children in the class.4 Secondary * a student taking calculus a year ahead
this person who keeps phoning and say
school teachers in particular usually teach of the norm - against the teacher's ad
ing you're not doing your job, and you
too many students to be able to know them vice - and struggling with it turned down
just sort of wish he'd go away. But you
also feel this sort of sense of responsi or their parents well.5 Escalating demands the teacher's offers of extra help while the
bility because you can step back from on teachers' time squeeze their interactions student's parents showed no confidence in
him and say, "Well, maybe he's not han with parents to the margins.6 Teachers are the teacher's skills and purchased private
dling this the best way he could." (Male expected to maintain a professional dis tutoring for their child;
secondary teacher) tance from parents7 and often come from * parents questioned the grades the teach
* * *
communities that are culturally, socially, er awarded and the criteria on which they
You can't help but
and get
physicallyangry
removed from and up
those of their were based or even challenged how the
set by it. You have to remain calm and teacher had calculated their child's over
students.8 Moreover, in uncertain times, par
not get defensive and just do the best
ents can be excessively anxious for their all average score (failing to understand that
you can to defuse the situation and meet
children, demanding of their teachers, and the individual marks they saw had been
and hopefully make the parent more
aware. (Male elementary school teach insistent that, as people who were once stu given differing weights by the teacher);
er) dents themselves and know what classrooms * a parent who did not understand cur
are like, they have a right to question the rent teaching approaches demanded to see
The comments of these two teachers, expertise of teachers.9 curriculum documents and insisted that the
drawn from interviews with 53 teachers teacher should be teaching differently;
that my graduate students and I conducted * a parent volunteer in an elementary
High Anxiety:
in our study of the emotions of teaching, school who was seen as ambitious for her
Obstacle to Teacher Change child went behind the teacher's back to
show that teachers can experience great
anxiety in their interactions with parents.' Let's look at the gritty reality of teach solicit additional, more difficult work for
While the rhetoric that teachers should treat ers' anxieties. In our study of the emotions her child from the teacher of the next
parents as partners in their children's edu of teaching, my graduate students and I grade;
cation is widespread, and more than a few asked teachers to describe positive and * a working mother blamed her child's
positive partnerships exist, the reality is negative emotional episodes in their rela failure on the teacher but would not allow
often very different.2 tionships with colleagues, students, parents, her daughter to do homework because of
In this article, I explore the reasons that and administrators. The major reason that household responsibilities, yet would not
teachers are anxious about their interac teachers had negative feelings about par let the school provide "extra assistance
tion with parents. I encourage teachers to ents was that parents questioned their ex because she's able to do it - she's just be
overcome these anxieties in order to com pertise, judgment, status, and purposes. ing lazy";
bat the parental nostalgia for "real schools" Questioning teaching and learning deci * a parent volunteer followed a teach
that often undermines school improvement sions (rather than behavioral issues) strikes er's class to the computer laboratory and
efforts. Last, I advise teachers to see parents at the core of teachers' work - at the foun argued that the program being pursued there
not as adversaries but as allies who can work dations of their purposes and claims to pro was insufficiently rigorous.
with them to build a powerful social move fessional status and judgment. Teachers com In all these cases, teachers were ques
ment for the reform of public education. plained about moments when tioned about their competence, expertise,
In his masterly work on the sociology of * a parent unreasonably insisted that the program decisions, and assessment prac
teaching, Willard Waller was characteris teacher force a senior student to improve his tices - the very heart of their profession
tically blunt about the problem of teach study habits and do more reading out of class, al practice. The teachers were angry and up
er/parent relations. when in the teacher's judgment, he could on set. They did not like it when parents ques
ly "go 50% of the way" in demanding such tioned their judgment directly, bypassed
From the ideal point of view, parents commitments from a senior; them to consult other teachers or hire pri
and teachers have much in common in * a parent challenged the judgment of vate tutors, or believed their children's ver
that both, supposedly, wish things to oc a teacher who made a student finish in sions of events instead of the teachers' ver
curfor the best interests of the child; but complete homework away from the main sions. Reflecting on the significance of the
in fact, parents and teachers usually live
class (with other noncompleters) and there episodes they described, teacher after teach
in conditions of mutual distrust and
by miss what the parent regarded to be vi er expressed to us irritation or incredulous
enmity. Both wish the child well, but it
tal class instruction; ness about parents' failure to understand
is such a different kind of well that con
flict must inevitably arise over it. The * a parent complained that her child their classroom practices. A secondary teach
fact seems to be that parents and teach had missed making a presentation to the er who had previously worked in industry
ers are natural enemies, predestined each class because of a minor operation and portrayed the almost sacrosanct nature of
for the discomfiture of the other.3 had not been allowed to present later (and his expertise in the following way:
thereby receive an important grade) be
Waller's words may be too melodramat cause the teacher said she should have Parents think that they're the experts
ic for today, but the obstacles to effective been notified in advance (this teacher was in education, and it amazes me. I sent a

374 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

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is one of the
biggest obstacles
to efforto to
improve the
schools.
note home saying that the father wasn't
qualified to criticize my assessment prac
tices, and this got him a little annoyed.
And we had conversations. And I said,
"What would you think if I presumed
to walk into your office and tell you how
to do your job after you've been there
for however long you've been at your
job? And yet you think you can com
ment on my job? You're not even quali
fied. Good, you're concerned about your
kid. But don't think you're going to in
timidate me into giving him more marks,
because you're not." Parents have such
naive expectations. And yet they have
no problems commenting on what's go
ing on in the classroom. And I think that's
a sad reflection on the public's percep
tion of teaching and what's going on in
teaching. They don't trust teachers. They
think that we're lazy and that we're large
ly responsible for a lot of the problems
with their kids, and they're wrong.
An elementary teacher complained about
a parent who criticized her programming
in computer-based education:
I was disturbed by the fact that she
was questioning what I was doing as a
teacher. I'm the one with the expertise.
I'm the one with the education. I'm the
one with the degree. She is to be there
to help.
Appealing to teachers' altruism by point
ing out the benefits that students may reap
from better teacher/parent relations may
help some teachers overcome the obstacles
to partnership. For many teachers, though,
the intensely negative emotional encoun
ters they experience (or fear they might ex
116.2.175.96 on Tue, 11 Jun 2024 06:07:48 +00:00
perience) with some parents override such
considerations. Arguments that improved
relations will be directly beneficial to teach
ers themselves may thus be needed if teach
ers are to overcome their anxieties and
"move toward the danger" of working with
parents more openly and effectively.lo The
realpolitik of partnerships is that for teach
ers to make the extra effort in building them,
they must be able to see what is in it for
them as well as their students. In the long
run, this will provide benefits for students
as well. In what follows, I present two such
arguments.
Beyond Nostalgia:
Opening Parents to Change
One of the greatest obstacles to efforts
to improve schools is parental nostalgia for
schools as they used to be. When school
reforms seem obscure to parents who are
already anxious about their children's fu
ture, they often cling to the comfortable
recollections of "real classrooms" and "real
schools" that are familiar to them from
when they were children.11 This nostalgia
drives parents to press teachers to return
to and reinstate "real schooling" for their
own children. It leads them to challenge
teachers' judgment and expertise when they
deviate from what is familiar to parents.
Dramatic innovation efforts, especially in
new or model schools, often founder be
cause no one acknowledges or directly en
gages with this nostalgia.12 In their history
of education reform, David Tyack and Wil
11am Tobin catalogue how innovations have
repeatedly collapsed because uncompre
hending communities were excluded from
their development.13
When parents long for stronger stan
dards, simpler teaching, and better times,
it is not just an outcome of remembering
something better. It is also the product of
nostalgia. Christopher Lasch described the
differences between nostalgia and mem
ory:
The emotional appeal of happy mem
ories does not depend on disparagement
of the present, the hallmark of the nos
talgic attitude. Nostalgia appeals to the
feeling that the past offered delights no
longer attainable. Nostalgic representa
tions of the past evoke a time irretriev
ably lost and for that reason, timeless and
unchanging. Strictly speaking, nostal
gia does not entail the exercise of mem
ory at all, since the past it idealizes stands
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outside time, frozen in unchanging per
fection.14
Nostalgia, Lasch tells us, used to refer
to a medical condition: a pathological sick
ness brought about by estrangement from
one's homeland. Yet, as the title of Thom
as Wolfe's classic novel proclaims, You Can't
Go Home Again. When you return to the
physical place that once was home, you
will find it has changed - and so have
you."5 So when we actually act on our nos
talgia, disillusionment frequently follows.
When the past is demystified, the present
may no longer seem so bad after all.
The best cure for nostalgia, then, is a
dose of reality: confronting the myths of
the past with the realities of the past. This
can be achieved by helping parents to un
cover memories (often painful) of their
own past experiences of schooling - by
sharing stories in focus groups, for exam
ple.16
At the same time, it is important that
teachers open up the realities and achieve
ment of the present to parents by making
their work more transparent through such
means as portfolios, shared homework as
signments, three-way parent interviews,
questionnaires sent home about how their
students are learning, and so on. There is
no single strategy that will always work.
Indeed, partnership strategies are more ef
fective when they are multiple and diverse.17
Moreover, most are effective not when they
involve time-consuming additions to the
already heavy burden - through more one
time, episodic meetings, phone calls, and
other events - but when existing meet
ings, report cards, interviews, and assess
ments are handled so that trust and under
standing can be developed and learning
can flow in both directions between par
ents and teachers. Teachers will get more
support and understanding for their pro
fessional improvement efforts by combat
ing nostalgia and moving toward the dan
ger of working openly with those they have
previously been most anxious about and
afraid of. That is the counterintuitive im
perative of effective teacher/parent rela
tions.
Social Movements:
Working Together for Change
Successfully overcoming anxieties about
opening up to parents will not only help
teachers in their improvement efforts but
JANUARY 2001 375
will also help them to turn around public test marches, media campaigns, lifestyle movement for defending and developing
attitudes toward their work. Garnering sup choices, and much more. public education is truly under way?
port for public education and the work of As Paul Byrne argues, "Social move * When the public joins teachers in pro
teachers is one of the paramount priori ments are expressive in that they have be tests against state or national governments
ties of education reform in the 21st cen liefs and moral principles and they seek to that try to restrict teachers' professionalism
tury. Achieving this goal will require a sea persuade everyone - governments, parents, by reducing their classroom and curriculum
change in attitudes toward education and the general public, anyone who will listen discretion; by cutting back on their time
taxation. Yet it is a shift that teachers can- that these values are the right ones."20 to learn, think, reflect, and develop away
and must start to engineer right now. They are rooted not in self-interest but in a from students; or by overloading them with
The public is yet to be convinced, for clear moral purpose that ultimately works to excessive demands.
example, that teachers need more time to the benefit of all. Despite many differences * When teachers and their unions do
work with one another and notjust with stu and conflicts within social movements (for not just protest government changes that
dents. It also has yet to understand how and example, between Greenpeace activists and they oppose but also argue passionately
why teaching and the students that teach traditional heritage movements), this gen in favor of changes that they support that
ers teach have changed since the time most eral unity of purpose drives the movement will benefit all students - even if this re
parents were themselves in school. Nor has and holds it together. The principles of so quires new learning and different prac
the public yet been persuaded to commit cial movements are not compromised for tices on the part of teachers.
to the kinds of tax increases that would short-term tactical gains. Finally, social * When teachers do not stand back and
benefit the public education system and movements are embedded in a glacial time retreat from or overreact to unfounded criti
enhance the quality of those who teach in perspective.21 That is, they are committed cism, but stand up and respond to it with
it. For too long, much of the public has to a long-term future that does not protect grace, calm, and authority - in a concert
been a fragmented body of individuals or preserve the interests of one single group ed effort to gain the respect of those who
prone to nostalgia in an age of uncertainty, but advances the good of all our children criticize them most strongly.
impressionable in the face of political and and grandchildren for generations to come. * When teachers have the confidence
media-driven derision of schools and teach What better candidate around which to and maturity to acknowledge criticism that
ers, and too easily persuaded by the mar create a social movement than public edu is fair - indeed, to actively seek it out -
ket ideology of parental choice that helps cation? When democracies are threatened in a quest to maximize their own learning
them believe that, in times of chaos, at by military dictatorships, teachers are among and to push their standards of practice and
least their own private, individual choic the first to be tortured, to be killed, or to professionalism even higher.
es can benefit their own children in their go missing. In America and elsewhere in re * When parents acknowledge that their
own schools.'8 It is now vital for the teach cent decades, teachers have been so handi own child's teacher is not a heroic excep
ing profession to work in partnership with capped by the endless shaming of them as tion in the parlous state of public school
the public to become a vigorous social move responsible for educational failures that ing but is one of many exceptional teach
ment that will work to improve the quali the profession is now experiencing severe ers.
ty of teaching and learning for all.'9 No crises of recruitment, as its image tailspins * When media campaigns that defend
longer can the public afford to operate as downward. Even the sons and daughters teachers and teaching against government
a fragmented body of individuals, acting of teachers are being wamed not to follow attacks move beyond the high-cost, glossy
only in their families' private interest. their parents into an increasingly devalued public relations initiatives of teacher unions
When I describe the contributions that profession. Do we have to wait for the sup to involve extensive letter-writing campaigns
teachers and others might make to such a ply of recruits to dry up completely be by individual parents and members of the
wider social movement, I have in mind fore we grasp how important teachers are public and the provision of positive stories
something like the environmental move to democracy and public life? Does life to the media about the success of what teach
ment, the civil rights movement, or the have to mirror Joni Mitchell's lyrics that ers do.
women's movement. These social move ask, "Don't it always seem to go, that you * When, after the failure of waves of
ments have been driven neither by self don't know what you've got till it's gone?" reform, quick-fix solutions, and a lack of
serving markets nor by the sometimes de When the arteries of communication investment in public education, govern
pendency-creating state. They do not nec through government channels are blocked, ments are made to face their responsibil
essarily take the form of official organi then teachers must bypass governments ity for having contributed to low educa
zations or make use of political represen and capture the public imagination about tional standards.
tation (like parent/teacher organizations), education and teaching today. Opening up * When campaigns to increase aware
but they may include such groups. Social schools and classrooms to parents and the ness and appreciation of public education
movements may begin through reaction public -one classroom, one school at a and of those who do its work spread be
and resistance, but many (like the environ time -and allowing learning to run au yond small, professional minorities to in
mental movement) can and do become ex thentically in both directions is one of the clude a broad range of public groups and
tremely active in pursuing their own agen best ways to build the capacity, trust, com constituencies .
das. Nevertheless, they challenge the ex mitment, and support for teachers and teach * When more and more teachers make
isting order of things. Social movements ing on which the future of teaching and lifestyle choices to live (and not merely
have a wide-ranging repertoire of strate public education depends. work) in or near their school's communi
gies that includes networks, lobbying, pro How will we know that such a social ty, to build solid and trusting informal re

376 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

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lationships with members of that commu dren, and gate themselves away from their 10. Rick Maurer, Beyond the Wall of Resistance (Aus
nity, and to participate actively in the work duties and responsibilities to public edu tin, Tex.: Bard Books, 1996).

of the wider community, for it is only through cation and public life. 11. Mary Metz, "Real School: A Universal Drama
amid Disparate Existence," in Douglas Mitchell and
these relationships that deep understand The road we take should not be left either
Margaret Goertz, eds., Education Politics for the
ing of the work of teaching and the world to fate or to inertia. It should be shaped New Century: The Twentieth Anniversary Yearbook
of students and their families will ever be by the active intervention of all educators of the Politics of Education Association (Philadel
truly achieved. and others in a social movement for edu phia: Falmer Press, 1990).
* When more and more parents make cational change that advances the princi 12. Seymour Sarason, The Culture of the School and
the Problem of Change, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and
lifestyle choices that attend to all children's ple that, if we want better classroom learn
Bacon, 1982); and Dean Fink, Good School/Real
good, not just the good of their own chil ing for students, we have to create superb School (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999).
dren; choices that are made as if their child professional learning and working condi 13. David Tyack and William Tobin, "The Grammar
is everyone's child and everyone's child is tions for those who teach them. Perhaps of Schooling: Why Has It Been So Hard to Change?,"
their own; and choices that recommit par this is the most urgent reason why teach American Educational Journal, vol. 31, 1994, pp.
453-80.
ents of all races and classes (especially in ers must overcome the immense and un
14. Christopher Lasch, The True and Only Heaven:
the inner cities) to the project of public derstandable anxieties that many now feel Progress and Its Critics (New York: W. W Norton,
education and public life rather than con about opening up their practice to parents. 1991).
tracting out their children's education to Closing the door on parents and trying to 15. Alfred Schutz, "The Stranger: An Essay in So
the self-interested advancement of the pri control the interaction with them is in the cial Psychology," in B. R. Cosin et al., eds., School
and Society: A Sociological Reader (London: Rout
vate sphere. worst interests of teachers. It might alle
ledge and Kegan Paul, 1973).
* When parents and other members of viate teachers' anxiety, but it does so on 16. Elizabeth Beresford, "How Do We Provide Ef
the public vote for those who will ask them ly by mortgaging their own future and that fective Education/Training for Staff-Related Work
to take more tax dollars out of their own of their students. Moving toward the dan with Parents?," paper presented at the Education Is
pockets and invest them in the future of ger is the more exciting and the only sen Partnership Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, No
vember 1996.
public education and public life. sible way ahead. 17. Ibid.
* When educators open the doors of their
18. Gary Crozier, "Parents and Schools: Partnerships
schools and school systems to public cele or Surveillance?," Journal of Educational Policy, vol.
1. Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan, What's
brations of teaching and learning through Worth Fighting For Out There? (New York: Teach 13, 1998, pp. 125-36.
performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, and ers College Press, 1998). 19. Alain Touraine, Critique of Modernity (Oxford:
entire Education Weeks - as is the case 2. Murray Sanders and Joyce Epstein, "School-Fam Blackwell Press, 1995).
in the schools of Western Australia. ily-Community Partnerships and Educational Change," 20. Paul Byrne, Social Movements in Britain (New
in Andy Hargreaves et al., eds., International Hand York: Routledge, 1997), p. 47.
* And finally, when teachers treat every
book of Educational Change (Dordrecht, Nether 21. Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Soci
parent/teacher meeting, every child's re lands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998), pp. 482 ety (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996); and Scott Lash and
port card, every piece of homework, and 502; Carol Vincent, Parents and Teachers: Power John Urry, Economies of Signs and Space (London:
every conversation at the school gates as and Participation (London and Bristol, Pa.: Falmer Sage Publications, 1994). K
a "teachable moment" that they can use Press, 1996); and Rosemary Webb and Graham Vul
liamy, "A Deluge of Directives: Conflict Between
to help parents be engaged in and influ
Collegiality and Managerialism in the Post ERA Pri
enced by the work of learning and teach mary School," British Education Research Journal,
ing. vol. 22, 1993, pp. 441-58.
3. Willard Waller, The Sociology of Teaching (New
We are now at a crossroads in the fu York: Wiley Press, 1932), p. 68.
4. Patricia J. Sikes, Parents Who Teach (London: Cas
ture of teaching and public education. One
sell, 1995).
road leads to the creation of exciting and
5. Theodore R. Sizer, Horace's School (Boston: Hough
positive new partnerships with groups and ton Mifflin, 1992); and Deborah Meier, "Authentic
institutions beyond the school. On this ity and Educational Change," in Hargreaves et al.,
road, teachers are learning to work effec pp. 596-615.
tively, openly, and authoritatively with those 6. Andy Hargreaves, Changing Teachers, Changing
Times: Teachers'Work and Culture in the Postmod
partners in a broad social movement that
ern Age (New York: Teachers College Press, 1994).
ultimately protects and extends their pro 7. Madeleine R. Grumet, Bitter Milk: Women and
fessionalism while also redefining it. The Teaching (Amherst: University of Massachusetts
other road heads toward the deprofession Press, 1988).
alization of teaching, as teachers crumble 8. Sverker Lindblad and Hector Prieto, "School Ex
under multiple pressures, intensified work periences and Teacher Socialization: A Longitudi
nal Study of Pupils Who Grew Up to Be Teachers,"
demands, reduced time to learn from col
Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 8, 1992, pp.
leagues, and derisive discourses that shame 465-70.
them for their shortcomings, blame them 9. David F. Labaree, "The Peculiar Problems of Pre
for any number of purported failures, and paring Teachers: Old Hurdles to the New Profession "The best part of being a college
sap their spirit. This road is also one on alism," paper presented at the International Confer professor is rambling on about nothing
ence on "The New Professionalism in Teaching:
which privileged parents opt out of inner while students furiously take notes."
Teacher Education and Teacher Development in a
city schools, invest only in their own chil Changing World," Hong Kong, 1999.

JANUARY 2001 377

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