National School Reform Faculty

Blaming the Victim
Date: December 12-13, 2006
Listserv: Coaches

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 12:46 PM
The recent exchange on Advisories was very helpful to the students I am working with so I'm going to jump in with my own request for help.

I am working with aspiring principals and special education directors in a Masters program at Castleton State College in Vermont. This is a cohort program where each candidate has to undertake a two-year-long project in their school focused on improving student achievement. This involves working with a study group and trying to promote a sense of collaborative inquiry around a high priority learning issue. In their study groups, many of our candidates are confronting a culture where it is common to blame the students: i.e. e. what can you expect from these kids given their background, etc.

I would love your suggestions on readings or approaches which I might pass along to the cohort to help them confront this mindset.
Roland, VT

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:48 PM
We do an activity called "Blame Storming" and after we get it all off our chests we then sort out "What we can control," "What we can impact," and "What we can change." And only then do we begin to work on IMAPs addressing those items. I hope it gives you some ideas or direction.
Bill, NJ

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:49 PM
Over a three-year period of working with principals, assistant principals and leadership teams, we too struggled with how to get them past the "blame game." We had good success using Kegan & Lahey's "How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work" to get to the root of the bitching. Once we collaboratively examined and created understanding about the way "we" talk about students, we moved the groups into DuFour's, "Whatever It Takes". By using it in this order we found we had a greater success changing the conversation and heightening awareness. We had reports of principals who stopped themselves from blaming (Kegan and Lahey) and then moving into the mode of "...whatever it takes..." to help a student succeed. Our groups met monthly over the academic school year for 6 hours per month. We planned 1 - 1 1/2 hours per month to work on the texts. I will add that sustaining the outcome once the language of blame has been addressed is difficult without constant, outside support.
If you would like more information, please let me know.
Ann, NM

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 2:47 PM
I second Ann's suggestion. This is great work and we have used it in our CFG trainings.
Kim, OR

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 3:33 PM
I agree that Kegan and Lahey's work is powerful, as is DuFour and Eaker's. Have you looked at Luis Moll et al.'s work on Funds of Knowledge? I have found it to be helpful in overcoming deficit thinking about students and their families.
Scott, GA

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 5:06 PM
I think the books written and published by Kathleen Cushman / What Kids Can Do provide compelling portraits of children in the throes of their real lives, and in straightforward ways that illuminate the complexities that confound simplistic or reductive thinking. It's pretty hard to blame the kids whose stories are told for what they have or don't have, know or don't have access to, and yet the books focus on what, presumably, we're about: helping kids and changing the world (and in the face of everything that's daunting, believing we can!?) I'm thinking particularly here of Fires in the Bathroom, and of the more recent "40 Cent Tip"- although I may have that title wrong (with apologies).

Not so much scholarly research as testimony to how much our students need us to see who they are if we are really to do our best on their behalf.
Teri, MA

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:05 PM
Bad Boys by Ann Arnett Ferguson and Colormute by Mica Pollock are very interesting reads. Bad Boys is from the perspective of African American elementary students and Colormute looks at the culture of the teachers. Also look at Henry Giroux's work on resistance. Another background book which gives an insight into obstacles blocking academic success is A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind who follows a young man from his junior year at Ballou H.S. in Washington D.C. through his freshman year at Brown University. Also look at Jean Anyon who writes about sociological aspects of schools, and the classic Ways with Words by Shirley Brice Heath on schools and discourse.
Susan, CA

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 9:44 AM
Thanks to all of you for your very thoughtful responses. Very, very helpful!
Roland, VT

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:48 PM
I recommend an article by Andy Hargreaves titled "Emotional Geographies of Teaching". It appeared in Teachers College Record, December 2001 (pp. 1056 - 1080). You may be able to get an electronic version by emailing him at Boston College. I believe he has a book on this topic due in the spring. The abstract is as follows:

"This paper introduces a new concept in educational research and social science: that of emotional geographies. Emotional geographies describe the patterns of closeness and distance in human interactions that shape the emotions we experience about relationships to ourselves, each other, and the world around us. Drawing on an interview-based study of 53 elementary and secondary teachers, the paper describes five emotional geographies of teacher-parent interactions – socio-cultural, moral, professional, physical, and political -- and their consequences."

At the beginning of the school year, we used the Rich Text Protocol with the (somewhat long) article, and had a powerful discussion that we continue to reference as the year progresses.
Kim, NH