Advocacy - It Starts With You!

There are many ways to define advocacy, but when specifically referring to education, you are left with three main areas: Parent advocacy, educator advocacy, and administrative advocacy.  All of these areas have a common goal: helping, representing and encouraging students to grow and learn to the best of their abilities. As an educator, it is my job to ensure my students have the best resources, opportunities and individual support to guarantee they have the best possible environment for learning. 

               Teaching at a private kindergarten in South Korea provides so many challenges for teachers as advocates. There is a business model that runs the school and administrators are often focused on the enhancement of profits rather than students. There is a delicate balance to be had between educators and parents as well, and there are many cultural and social barriers that affect students' abilities to communicate their needs clearly.

            With all of these factors in mind, there are a few key strategies to becoming a great teacher advocate in the classroom. I can take these factors and apply them to a schools’ current needs and determine the best course of action for making a better classroom and school.

Individual Frame of Reference

              In order to become a great advocate for my students’ needs, I should consider my individual frame of reference by reflecting on how and why I choose to fight certain battles. One way of doing this is by looking into my past as a student, and thinking about any positive experiences I had in the education system. 

           As a student in the 8^th grade, I had a math teacher that I adored. Mrs. Hiltz was beautiful, funny, young and kind to her students without being a pushover or disrespected. She had the attention and respect of a room full of 13-year-olds, which, I realize now, is no easy feat. During this time, I had lost a few friends due to ever changing social pressure and I had gained weight over the summer. After a few months, Mrs. Hiltz asked me if anything out of the ordinary was going on because my grades were suffering. I told her about my recent struggles and she sympathized and told me she went through the same thing at her age. She also frequently gave me ideas or tips on how to stay happy and healthy throughout the year. She constantly let me know that my grades weren’t a reflection of my skill or knowledge, and helped me after school and in between classes. With that kind of support, I felt a weight lift off of me and I finally cared enough to try harder because she cared enough to take time from her schedule for me.

             I have taught kindergarten for 6 years, and I have a lot of students I’ve kept in touch with over the years. One of my students is now in 5^th grade, and she has a lot of pressure to remain at the top of her class academically, have a lot of friends and play dates and study piano and violin diligently. She often tells me that she enjoys these things, but that they can be stressful for her. Many of my students often lament about the pressure that their parents put on them for perfect ‘grades’ and don’t focus enough on social development. My experience with Ms. Hiltz showed me that caring for someone individually and respecting their interests and fostering a sense of comfort and security in a teacher-student relationship is so important.

             I make it my personal vow that each student in my class will not feel stressed or worried about their inability to do something because they feel they aren’t smart enough. I also try to consider each student’s personality, strengths, and weaknesses when creating lessons while keeping their best interests in mind because I know how much a caring teacher can influence a student's motivation and continued interest in learning. 

School Advocacy

             After considering my own personal influences and ability to advocate, I also have to consider the goals and attitudes of my current principal and see where our commonalities and differences lie. I interviewed the principal of my current school and there were some definite barriers during our communication. First of all, in Korea, there is a workplace and social hierarchy, but since the school employs teachers from all over the world, our methods of communication are decidedly different than the Korean cultural norm. Nevertheless, my principal was visibly uncomfortable with this interview due to these cultural differences and, I suspect, some language barriers.

            My principal stated that within the school the goal is to focus on advocating for students’ success in English. I asked her to clarify and add more specific details and she elaborated that the goal is to have students who can speak, write and read at a certain grade level by the time they exit the kindergarten program. Additionally, she states the school advocates for the social development  - to develop manners, social skills and interaction with others, as most kindergarten programs do.

The school promotes involvement by asking teachers to be very interactive with the parents – having teachers communicate with parents by phone call at least once per week and  write daily reports about the child’s experiences, problems or needs. Additionally, the school invites the parents to watch their children in bi-annual performances and they are welcome to have conversations with any member of the staff at any time.

             Next, we talked about the teachers. My principal claimed that the school advocates for its teachers by defending their choices and teaching methods, but this is highly contested among other teachers. Definitely our administration advocates for us in personal matters, such as if we have problems with banking, bills or health matters, but in terms of defending and standing behind teachers’ practices in the classroom, often the administration will side with parents’ decisions or opinions. That being said, our school is a private institution with very high tuition and for those reasons administration often defers to the parents.

Assessing Needs

             Now we combine the teacher’s and principal’s ideas for advocacy and decide what the needs of the students are, while also creating best practices for them.

At the kindergarten level, students needed to be placed in appropriately leveled classrooms. We are a private school, meaning we don’t have to adhere to specific federal or provincially mandated laws regarding classroom placement. At our school, there are multiple ‘levels’ for each age group, and students should be placed into a class that fits their needs. There are occasions when students who should be placed into lower classes are not because their parents expect that we should be able to teach them sufficiently in a year. Of course, some students are more than able to move up each year, but some are slower and would benefit greatly from a program more tailored to their needs.

             Students are required to take tri-annual placement tests to measure their progress and program suitability and they take an Assessment Test before being placed into classes at the beginning of the school term. Even if the score shows the student is not ready for the class, often they are placed in the class anyway. Students need to be able to be placed in a class they can academically succeed in and have the opportunity to create a solid foundation for their English literacy goals.

             Additionally, I believe the administration needs to advocate more strongly for the teachers. We feel like we are constantly being pulled in multiple directions and rarely supported by our employers. We have to defend our choices over simple matters and it causes extreme dissonance between administration and employees. There have been multiple instances of teachers being admonished for choices they make in their classroom with intent to enhance or inspire students. These efforts are misunderstood and unappreciated by parents and instead of reassuring parents that we are doing our best to abide by the goals of our school, we are denounced and parents are validated. Supporting teachers and explaining our intentions to parents is preferable to being made to look like inadequate and inhuman.

             Advocacy is important in so many fields of life. In the educational realm, it’s important to advocate for students by combining the efforts of teachers, parents, and administrators. The ultimate goal is to have all three parties willing and able to work flexibly work together to create a dynamic and interactive environment tailored to each classroom’s unique atmosphere. Unfortunately, there are often barriers each group faces, and it is difficult to get everyone on the same page. Teachers often lack materials, parents lack the ability (especially if they are do not speak the same language as the teacher) and administrator’s hands are tied. It takes a mountain of effort to achieve change sometimes, but starting small and working to build a stable and solid system for ensuring students’ success.