My aim in this chapter has been to give some indication of the myriad complex ways in which our actions and decisions in the classroom carry moral meaning. The moral significance of classroom interaction cannot be avoided; it is a foundational part of what we do as teachers. Furthermore, we are not the only moral agents in the classroom: Our students also act in morally meaningful ways, and it is in the interplay between our agency and theirs that the moral essence of the teacher-student relation lies. I wish to end this section by saying two things. First of all, I believe that reflection on the moral dimensions of classroom interaction offers a vital source of professional growth and understanding for teachers. What emerges for me from this chapter is that the interplay of values in the classroom is always more complex than I might at first imagine; it is crucial to gain some conscious awareness and understanding of the ways in which values and moral judgments are subtly encoded in what is said and done in class. Second, though I have throughout been emphasizing the complex, ambiguous, and contradictory nature of moral decision making, I do believe firmly that there are better and worse decisions to be made; in other words, that what teachers do and say matters deeply. I have been in too many good and bad classrooms—as a student, as a teacher, or as an observer—to think that all of this uncertainty renders our work meaningless. The problem is not whether our work makes a difference—it does—but that it is never possible to apply blanket rules to situations to determine simplistically what our course of action should be. In every case, we have to re-examine our values and how they play out in the given circumstances; the morality of our decision making lies in the encounter between our own values and the complex details of particular contexts and cases. It is this that makes our work so difficult; yet it is also this that makes it profoundly human and profoundly meaningful.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
1. What rules for attendance and participation do you have in your classroom? What values underlie these rules? What moral messages might be sent by them? How else might the rules be set up?
2. In discussing the extract from Damon’s class, I argued that there is a tension of values between the desire to listen to what students actually have to say and the need for them to “say anything”—to simply keep talking to practice their fluency. What is your perspective on this tension? In your own classes, how do you balance the need to encourage fluency with the need to listen to your learners as people?
3. Have you experienced a situation like the one from Jackie’s class, in which a student voices an opinion that is profoundly different from your own values? How did you handle it? What would you have done in Jackie’s position? What other ways did she have of responding to the student in question?
4. The following “letter” and “reply,” both in fact written by an ESL teacher in the IEP of a midwestern university, appeared in the IEP newsletter aimed at students: Dear Ms. Manners: I am often homesick and my mother tongue makes me feel warm inside. I love to talk with people who speak my language during the classroom breaks. Sometimes the teacher is still in the room and he tells me to talk in English. The other students seem to agree with him. Nobody seems to understand how hard it is for me here. My teacher made me really angry once by asking me to speak in English at the coffee hour. He does not understand the purpose of the coffee hour. Sincerely, Stranger in a Strange Land. Dear Stranger, Although Ms. Manners hates to be disagreeable, she must disagree with your criticism of your teacher. Is it possible that you do not understand the purpose of the coffee hour? In the IEP, the coffee hour provides an opportunity for students to practice English in a comfortable atmosphere. That’s why the coffee hour is held during class time, If you do not want to speak English, you might try visiting a country where nobody speaks English. Now, about your homesickness… Ms. Manners would like you to remember that most everyone is homesick at some time or another. Ms. Manners misses her mother terribly! Your fellow IEP students are as homesick as you are, and they can help you adjust to life here in B. Try talking about your friends and family at home with your new friends here. You will find that everyone shares a similar problem, and that talking about it in a common language, like English for example, is a great way to feel better. Save your mother tongue for when you call…well, your mother. What is your view on what the writer says? How can this advice be reconciled with what was said earlier about voice in the classroom? How might you have responded to a student who raised the question expressed in the letter?
5 Take a look at the coursebook you are currently using. How does it position the learners: To what extent does it encourage their active participation, and to what extent does it treat them merely as passive receivers of information? What moral messages are encoded in the way the units or chapters of the book are presented?
6. Think about the rules and regulations in force in your classroom that come from your department, school or institution, school district, state, and so on. Do you ever go against these rules? In what circumstances? Do you ever find your own values at odds with the values implicit in the rules you are obliged to follow? What happens in such situations?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
1. What rules for attendance and participation do you have in your classroom? What values underlie these rules? What moral messages might be sent by them? How else might the rules be set up?
2. In discussing the extract from Damon’s class, I argued that there is a tension of values between the desire to listen to what students actually have to say and the need for them to “say anything”—to simply keep talking to practice their fluency. What is your perspective on this tension? In your own classes, how do you balance the need to encourage fluency with the need to listen to your learners as people?
3. Have you experienced a situation like the one from Jackie’s class, in which a student voices an opinion that is profoundly different from your own values? How did you handle it? What would you have done in Jackie’s position? What other ways did she have of responding to the student in question?
4. The following “letter” and “reply,” both in fact written by an ESL teacher in the IEP of a midwestern university, appeared in the IEP newsletter aimed at students: Dear Ms. Manners: I am often homesick and my mother tongue makes me feel warm inside. I love to talk with people who speak my language during the classroom breaks. Sometimes the teacher is still in the room and he tells me to talk in English. The other students seem to agree with him. Nobody seems to understand how hard it is for me here. My teacher made me really angry once by asking me to speak in English at the coffee hour. He does not understand the purpose of the coffee hour. Sincerely, Stranger in a Strange Land. Dear Stranger, Although Ms. Manners hates to be disagreeable, she must disagree with your criticism of your teacher. Is it possible that you do not understand the purpose of the coffee hour? In the IEP, the coffee hour provides an opportunity for students to practice English in a comfortable atmosphere. That’s why the coffee hour is held during class time, If you do not want to speak English, you might try visiting a country where nobody speaks English. Now, about your homesickness… Ms. Manners would like you to remember that most everyone is homesick at some time or another. Ms. Manners misses her mother terribly! Your fellow IEP students are as homesick as you are, and they can help you adjust to life here in B. Try talking about your friends and family at home with your new friends here. You will find that everyone shares a similar problem, and that talking about it in a common language, like English for example, is a great way to feel better. Save your mother tongue for when you call…well, your mother. What is your view on what the writer says? How can this advice be reconciled with what was said earlier about voice in the classroom? How might you have responded to a student who raised the question expressed in the letter?
5 Take a look at the coursebook you are currently using. How does it position the learners: To what extent does it encourage their active participation, and to what extent does it treat them merely as passive receivers of information? What moral messages are encoded in the way the units or chapters of the book are presented?
6. Think about the rules and regulations in force in your classroom that come from your department, school or institution, school district, state, and so on. Do you ever go against these rules? In what circumstances? Do you ever find your own values at odds with the values implicit in the rules you are obliged to follow? What happens in such situations?
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