These roles of teaching are how I view teaching to be through the lens of Social

Reconstructionism. I believe that teachers are meant to take on many different role in the

classroom and can learn a lot from other philosophies of teaching. Likewise, student and culture

can take on different roles in learning without being inherently wrong. These roles are best seen

as expectations I have for my own classroom. They are set to be high to support students in their

endeavor for achieving academic excellency.

Role of the Teacher:

The teacher should be able to empower students and provide them with the tools for

creating change. Instead of being an authoritarian figure within the classroom as believe in

Essentialism, teacher should engage with students. The teacher Should learn about student

interest so they can connect what drives students to social issues they are learning about. To

effetely teach, the teacher needs to creating connections with students so in turn the teacher can

better connect subject material to students understanding. More so, A teacher strive to be more

than a guide tocorrect understanding, as in Perennialism, or a facilitator of discussion, as in

Progressivism. The teacher inspires students to be open and express opinions freely, while

maintaining a safe space for students to do so. The Teacher will believe in students potential,

never seeing the student as having fixed intelligence or being the source of errors which happens

too often in Perennialism thinking. The teacher will always have high expectations of students

since all students can succeed. The teacher will provide feedback when a student makes a

mistake because mistakes are part of the learning process. Most importantly the teacher will

insure that students are always questioning; analyzing the content of the class, looking at the

status quo and social inequality presented in that content, in addition to making their own

predictions about the content and what they can change in society.
Role of Students:

Students are not a blank slate ready to receive information when they enter the

classroom, contrary to Essentialism and Perennialism. Students are expected to be more than just

members of the learning process as seen in Progressivism. All student are requested to be open

minded and respect others differences. This way every student can express their opinion and

debate about their own understanding of what they learned. Students are encouraged to be active

participants with in the classroom. When presented with new content students will be give

opportunity to think about how it relates to them, discus with a group of four and share their

discussion with the class a whole. Students should be able to collaborate with each other or the

community through project based learning. This includes but not limited to; simulating political

institutions such as passing a bill/proposition, reporting on relevant information to classmate on

current event related to content from the class, researching local historical landmarks to make

travel brochures or fill out preservation forms for.

Role of Culture:

Multiculturalism will be embraced in this classroom. Assimilation has been a tool used to

eliminate culture within the United State. Reinforced by Essentialism, Monoculturalism has been

proclaimed as the American culture. However, America is the home of both immigrants and

native tribal groups. Progressivism teaches us to break away from the norms, this class will

instead embrace the norms of different cultures found within the classroom and community.

This classroom will be a safe space for students of any culture to share their beliefs be it through

class discussions of in the form of a class project. Music from different historical time periods
will be an integral part of this class. Whereas students can provide music from their own cultural

background so long as it meets will school guideline.