Virtual Topic Seminar 10/6/04
Dr. Sharon Baker
Note: this transcript prepared for possible submission for captioning.
Start Time: 00:00
Dr. Sharon Baker is in the main screen. Dr. Harold Johnson and Tom McNeal are in the
smaller screen in the lower right hand corner.
Dr. Harold Johnson: Topical Seminar ah it’s ah the second topic. This topic ah is looking at the
diversity of our pre-service teachers. Ah and today’s presenter is Dr. Sharon Baker at the
University of Tulsa. Ah Dr, her college, ah Joyce Daugaard from the University of Minnesota,
presented on, on ah Tuesday. Today, Dr. Baker is gonna, is going to be doing just a wee bit of
summarizing and information from, from ah Joyce Daugaard; particularly talking about the
applications of this information. And talking to you about, you know how people can get
involved with this topic. Of essentially how to increase the diversity of our pre-service teachers
and our, and therefore our, eventually our existing teachers. Um, Tom McNeal and I are here.
I’m Harold Johnson at Kent State University. I’m the director of the Join Together grant and
Tom McNeal is one of the Topical Team Leaders and really kind of the brains behind the, the
use of the web based videoconferencing technology. Tom..
Tom McNeal: Thank you Harold (Laughing)
Dr. Harold Johnson: We have a dog and pony act that we have to get down a bit more. Ah
given that brief introduction, ah I would like you know ah now turn the presentation over to Dr.
Baker. And we will be changing it so that you will be seeing her in the small screen in the right
hand side of your monitor and then her PowerPoint presentation ah in the larger part of your
screen. So, Dr. Baker thank you very much you know for sharing with us your expertise. Ah, you
are definitely one of the leaders that we have in the field ah that understands and lives ah
diversity and so we appreciate you know your assistance in understanding this important topic.
Dr. Sharon Baker: Thank you. (nodding her head) (There is a few second pause before she
begins speaking again.) Ok, good morning, aum I will be continuing Joyce Daugaard's
presentation from yesterday and inviting you and explaining about how you can become
involved in the work that we're doing in this very important project. Um, I am beginning with the
same slide that Joyce used yesterday. “Our teachers should be excellent, and they should look
like America”, and Richard Riley said that in1998. I believe that's really our over arching goal of
this objective.
Next slide.
Our objective relates to pre-service teacher diversity, and I’m working with Joyce Daugaard
from the University of Minnesota of, they have been very involved in ah training pre-service
teachers, preparing them to work with the diverse students who live in Minn, Minnesota,
especially in the Minneapolis Saint Paul area. And I ah am Sharon Baker and I am at the
University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.
Next slide.
Yesterday Joyce talked about the changing demographics of deaf and hard of hearing students.
And she quoted the Gallaudet, a research institute, that said there’s a decline in white or students
from a European descent and an increase in children from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds. And if you’re out in schools working with teachers and deaf and hard of hearing
students, it's very evident that our student population is changing. We are becoming, the students
are becoming more diverse. At the same time, the survey results that you recorded last May
showed that ah we're not recruiting people from a potential, pre-service teachers from culturally
and linguistically diverse backgrounds; that the majority of our teachers remain from the white,
European descent ah population. So we hope to change that and increase, find ways that
university teacher preparation programs can recruit more diverse pre-service teachers.
Next slide.
So why is that important? Why do we need to recruit pre-service teachers from diverse
background? Ah, because there is a general consensus, that student learning increases if there is a
teacher student match. If that teacher understands the language, the culture, the background of
the student then student learning increases. And as the first slide said, we want excellent teachers
and we want teachers that look like America; that reflect the students that we are teaching.
Next slide.
So, Joyce and I gleamed the literature and we found that there are several benefits of a more
diverse pre-service teacher or teacher pool, that, that student learning increases because of
several points. There’s a passive teacher affect and this is something that is very subtle. But it's
where
Time: 5:00
In the lower right hand corner you can see Dr. Sharon Baker talking. The rest of the screen
is being taken up by her slide presentation. The title on this slide is “Benefits of Diverse
Teachers on Student Learning” There are six points to this slide.
a student feels comfortable in approaching that teacher. That there’s not ah a fear, their barriers
are reduced.
Dr. Sharon Baker: And so, therefore student learning increases because of that comfort in
working and learning from the teacher. Ah the diverse teachers often are role models for the
children in our classrooms. They sometimes bridge from school to community, um they bring
that language proficiency that those of us who are learning another language as a second
language don’t have; that native language proficiency. They also are more knowledgeable of the
different learning styles that children have from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
I know here in Oklahoma we have a large population of Native American children and they
represent a very, very different learning style from the other children in the class. So, those
teachers bring about ah that knowledge of learning styles. And a more diverse teacher pool
actually enhances the education of all children because they bring about, they bring to the
classroom that, that um culture and language that, that enhances the education for all children.
Next slide.
So how do ah Joyce and I hope to accomplish this very important goal. Um we have identified
several activities in that ah we hope that you will get involved in. Ah from the survey that we
conducted last May, their results were that 74% of university teacher preparation programs said
that we're doing a poor or moderate job of recruiting a more diverse pre-service teacher pool.
And so we looked at that and we thought, "Well, these are the activities that we could develop;
that would help you do a better job."
First of all, we are going to develop a list of frequently asked questions. And we have recruited
an expert to help us. Barbara Gerner de Garcia at Gallaudet University; who’s been recognized
as an expert in Deaf Education. Ah and she works extensively with under-represented groups. Ah
we’ve recruited her to develop this list of frequently asked questions. She will develop um a list
of potential questions that all students ask when they're deciding about teaching as a career. And
then from that, she will look at what are the specific questions, concerns, barriers that pre-service
teachers, that represent the more diverse background many have, so she’ll be coming up with
that list. She also would like to a work with ACE-D/HH members who have had experience in
recruiting such students and ah maybe develop a frequently asked question based that faculty
might be asking about how to recruit a more diverse pre-service teacher pool. So she’s going to
be developing a lot of, of frequently asked questions that will be a resource to university teacher
preparation programs. If you would like to be involved with Barbara in developing these
frequently asked questions lists, please contact her at Gallaudet. Her email is
barbara.gerner.de.garcia@gallaudet.edu.
The next thing that we will be involved in is a focus group. Ah we hope that, we’re going to pilot
a focus group this Fall, and we hope that other university will also ah use our pilot and conduct
some research at their own universities. We have recruited a graduate student from Lamar
University. Lamar was identified in our survey as being, ah having a more diverse ah pre-service
teacher student population. So we’ve recruited one of their graduate students, Melissa Delana,
and she is going to be involved in developing this process that other universities can use. We will
be developing a survey of the students who enrolled at Lamar in the Deaf Education Teacher
Preparation Program. Um, we will ask specific questions about: Why did you choose Lamar?
Um, what have been the challenges to you earning a graduate degree? What have been the
barriers? What works? What, what made you decide to use, to choose
Time: 10:01
Dr. Sharon Baker is still in the lower right hand corner talking and there is a slide taking
up most of the screen. The title on this slide is “Objective 1.3 Pre-Service Teacher Diversity
Activities” There are also four bullets on this slide.
this university?
Dr. Sharon Baker: And from that initial survey then we will have a focus group of individuals
who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Most of the individuals in the focus group will be
deaf plus a different ethnicity, so Deaf Hispanic, Deaf Native American, Deaf African American,
Deaf Asian, and we will ask them to provide additional comments or additional ah information
about why they chose that university and what other universities could do to recruit a more
diverse teacher pool. Ah once this is done, the results will be published and shared with you and
the process so that if you would like to do this at your own university, or replicate this study, um
we would invite you to do that. If you would like to be involved in and conduct your own focus
group, please contact either Joyce or me and we would be happy to get you involved.
The third area that we will be doing is the collection of personal stories. We want to hear the
personal stories of teachers out in the field and ah pre-service teachers in the field who are from
culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. We want to know: Ah, why did they choose
teaching as a career? Um. Where their background, their early experiences? Maybe how did
they make a difference, ah in their classrooms today? And so, we want to gather these personal
stories in order to share them with other potential students. Likewise, pre-service teachers ah
preparing to teach deaf and hard of hearing children will be asked to share their background in
career decisions. Why did you choose to become a teacher and attend this particular university?
So, individuals throughout the country can collect these personal stories and we will produce
them into products that we can share, probably on a website. If you would like to gather a
personal story, ah if you know this fantastic teacher that ah is from a culturally and linguistically
diverse background, you would like to share their story, then what we want you to do is use a
multimedia application. We want you to use digital photography, a digital video along with a
written transcript. Ah and provide that to either Joyce or me. And then, we will send it to a
company that will be developing it. So, if you want to be involved in this collection of personal
stories contact either Joyce or me and we'll help you get started.
Um and the next area that we will be involved in is having university faculty investigate
resources at their own university. I know here at the University of Tulsa we are actively
recruiting students everyday. We have recruiters all over the country. And I really am not clear
about what they do. I talk to them every once in a while and they'll call me with specific
questions, but I’m not sure how they recruit students from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds. So, for this activity we're asking faculty to recruit or to, excuse me, yes to recruit,
but to research what occurs at your own university. What resources? What strategies for the
recruitment and retention of students that are culturally and ling linguistically diverse occur at
your school? Ah, we want to know what you do before a student enrolls? Who is responsible for
recruitment? What strategies do they use? Um, which strategies have been most successful?
Which have been least successful? Then we want to know: What occurs after a student is
enrolled? Are there specific preparation, mentoring, or retention strategies employed? What’s
been most successful? What’s been least successful? Have the people you contacted shared any
personal stories or anything? Ah, actual stories about recruiting, um more diverse pre-service
teacher pool? So, after you have completed this investigation we’ll ask you to write a synopses
of your findings with specific resources and strategies that your university uses.
Time: 15:00
Dr. Baker is still in the lower right hand corner talking. The title on this slide is “Objective
1.3 Pre-service Teacher Diversity Activities” There are also four bullets on this slide. This
is the same slide as mentioned before five minutes ago. It did not change.
Dr. Sharon Baker: We also ask that you select one of those strategies that have been identified
to implement in your own program and monitor whether this activity is made a difference. So, if
you would like to be involved in the investigating your own resources at your university, contact
either Joyce or me. We’ll have, we’ll be happy to get you started.
So we're going to be collecting a lot of information in this project. And we're working hard to
make sure that it will be shared in a very efficient and productive way. Harold has contacted ah
connected us with New Media Center at Kent State University and this is an award winning
technology center ah that is there, located is, located at Kent State. And we are working with
New Media to, to create a resource for universities when recruiting students from
underrepresented groups. So what will it look like? We don’t know yet. We're still envisioning it.
It could be a website, it could be a CD-ro, rom, it could be video; we're not sure so we're letting
the experts decide on that. What we are going to do, as ACE-D/HH members is develop the
content for now and they will do the production. Um, so we're very excited that the products that
we develop may actually be ah um high quality products that people can use in their recruitment
of pre-service teachers from underrepresented groups.
Next Slide.
Um and as we mentioned they're with New Media Collaboration.
The other way that we want to share our findings is with the ACE-D/HH Conference in Banff.
Um during that conference, we will be presenting ah a preview of our work; we hope to have
some products that you can preview. And ah we also hope to coordinate a faculty panel of
teacher preparation programs that were identified in the survey, survey last Spring as having a
more diverse teacher ah pre-service teacher pool. We want to learn from them. Ah we want to
learn about specific strategies and resources they’ve used in the recruitment and retention of
these diverse students and so during the ACE-D/HH Conference we will have time to not only
showcase some of our work that we’ve done so far, but also learn from other faculty. Um so,
Next slide.
In summary, we are very committed to this ah objective, because we feel that it’s very important
for the students that we educate. And we hope to get as many of you involved as possible and so
if you would like to contact us, you can reach Joyce Daugaard at the University of Minnesota,
her e-mail and phone number are listed on this slide, or me, Sharon Baker at the University of
Tulsa, and my e-mail and phone number are there. And we just hope to get a lot of people
involved so that we can get this project really rolling. Um, Harold do you have any questions
about what were doing?
Dr. Harold Johnson: Thank you Dr. Baker I appreciate that. Ah, you know this topic is one
that I have been involved in numerous conversations over the years. And invariably everyone
gets excited about it and no one does anything and so, but you and Joyce have put forth, it makes
sense, ah it’s a logical progression. It’s doable, is step-by-step. Ah, your sense of, of what are
some of the barriers that have stopped people from following through with these logical ideas in
the past? Why haven’t we done this before?
Dr. Sharon Baker: Um, you know I think that we realize that it’s a very important thing to do,
but when we look at all the things that we, like me here at University of Tulsa I’m alone, I’m the
only professor. So, I run the whole program, and so often times this very important thing is put
down on the priority list because there is so many other things that we have to do. So we hope
through this project that we will have ah products that can be, it won't be as time consuming, it
will be things that people can actually use to recruit this pre-service teacher pool.
Time: 20:00
Dr. Baker on the bigger screen talking, while you can see Dr. Harold Johnson and Tom
McNeal in the lower right hand corner listening.
Dr. Sharon Baker: And ah make it more efficient. Also we haven’t known where to go, you
know we haven’t known how do we recruit people from underserved populations, we haven’t
known how to retain these students and so the more knowledge base that we have then the more
aware we will be of how we can do it.
Dr. Harold Johnson: Your absolutely right, you know and I, I think to that you know that all
here at Kent State maybe at your university as well. Diversity is how we value it, but not oft, but
not often readily realized. And that they really do want more diverse students but they don’t
really know how to do it either. If a program like a deaf ed program, which is small and very
specialized, can help kind of lead the way to, for the university to increase their diversity. At the
same time, increase the number of students in the program. Ah and get more recognition to the
program. It’s a win, win, but think you know like what you and Joyce are doing is that it takes
colleagues, it takes peers, it takes working with someone else so your not you know alone
working on this idea. That’s what you're doing you're working to say, "Who’s interested? Who
wants to take a small piece of this?", and adding it together you got a lot more then any of the
pieces by themselves. Ah, so I think it’s exciting. I think it has tremendous possibilities and
finally after so much period of talking about it you know you and Joyce are helping to lead the
way. Ah I would encourage everyone who is watching this Virtual Topic Seminar certainly to
contact Joyce or to Sharon. Ah, you can also call the Grant office and we can tell you how to
contact them as well. Ah, the Grant office phone number is 330-672-0735, so if you have any
questions about how to contact Dr. Baker or Joyce Daugaard or Dr. Barbara de Garcia at
Gallaudet we'll be happy to make those contacts for you. Ah, Dr. Baker I thank you very much
you know for the hard work that you’ve done. Ah it's ah I’m excited about what’s coming forth
and also excited about information that, that you and Joyce and our colleagues will be sharing in
Banff at our 2004 conference for our Association of College Educators for D/HH. Ah are there
any last ah words that you would care to leave with.
Dr. Sharon Baker: Ah, we just hope that we have a lot of people contact us because we have a
huge job. And we're going to be developing lots of products so we’ll actually have something
tangible there. And we would we need team members to help us.
Dr. Harold Johnson: And you know ah for those of you who don’t know that Joyce and
Sharon, as do all of the Topical Team Leaders, not only have the meaning, but they also have
resources you know there are actually funds that are part of the Join Together Grant. That if you
put forth a good proposal you know with Joyce and Sharon’s assistance they actually can
recognize that by giving you some funds for that. Also too, for all of you who are working
towards tenure and promotion, ah being involved in a national activity in developing these
products making a difference, that’s a very real aspect of your professional work as well. So I
would encourage you to contact you know Joyce or, or Sharon or the Grant office at 330-6720735 if you would like to get involved in this effort. Tom, you have anything you want to say.
Tom McNeal: Uh no. It’s just that uh if you had a chance to see this and want someone else to
see it, go to our website and it will show you where you can to go to see a copy of this ah very
important presentation. Uh and if you went there before to see Joyce’s it wasn’t up, but it's up
there now. So, you can also look at Joyce’s Daugaard's presentation.
Dr. Sharon Baker: Thank you very much.
Dr. Harold Johnson: We are recognizing that most of you are watching this asynchronously,
it's October 6 and a we look forward to working with you guys regardless when you pull this
down. Thank you very much Dr. Baker. That was a superb presentation we appreciate it.
Dr. Sharon Baker: You're welcome bye-bye.