Paul Hernandez’ October 25th keynote address at Henry Ford College was surprising. The assembled faculty from HFC and University of Michigan - Dearborn did not expect his vulnerable, emotional, captivating story. He told us that he was raised in deep poverty, engulfed in gang life in Los Angeles, and watched his momma work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day until her fingers bled. Though some of us in the room were waiting for him to get to specific teaching techniques, we were all rapt with attention to his personal and honest story. Only after the hour session was finished, in which about 40 minutes was his personal narrative and the rest of the time Q & A, was it clear how much we learned about teaching without a list, a description, a specific outline of teaching techniques, or a powerpoint (aside from one slide of him and his momma beaming at his graduation from his doctoral program).
Hernandez showed us how his upbringing and his worldview made him appear to his teachers as disengaged, apathetic, and disruptive though he himself felt hungry, scared, and focused on his immediate needs rather than the long term investment of education. We heard his story of dropping out of middle school and community college once. Eventually he succeeded in community college, at California State University, and in graduate school at Michigan State University. He did so because of teachers who took the time to connect with him, which changed his life path from the streets to his doctoral degree and eventually his nationally renowned work as an activist to improve teaching and learning for underserved students. His stories of teachers who connected with him encouraged us to think of ways to reach out to our most vulnerable students. Hearing the power that his teachers had on him, just by connecting and trying to understand his worldview, inspired us to see our students differently, as real people with real struggles whom we can help by understanding where they are coming from.
In the two faculty workshops that followed the keynote, Hernandez modeled his Real Talk approach by being accessible, vulnerable, and relatable with faculty. He shared his own missteps and failings with students which helped faculty connect with him as a presenter. He also shared his successful alternative assignments that take his students’ worldview into consideration in order to make sure that students see themselves in the learning activity. Faculty had time to apply his techniques to their own assignments in small groups composed of both HFC and UMD faculty. An added bonus of these joint events are the conversations they encourage between faculty across our two campuses.
The Hub held a follow-up conversation to consider our students’ worldviews with respect to technology and how they might differ from faculty’s. Autumm Caines, an Instructional Designer in the Hub, led a conversation about students’ use and views of technology for learning and academic work. The questions posed were: How might it be different than our use and views? What does this difference mean for our teaching? What are the stereotypes of student use of technology? Are they accurate? The goal was to begin to consider digital teaching strategies that reach all of our students. The conversation was wide ranging but one concern raised by everyone at the table is how to teach students who, due to experience with social media (and faculty are not immune), may have become accustomed to expect entertainment and are unaccustomed to sustained focus. Eric Charnesky, a Lecturer in Computer and Information Science, shared this quote:
The goal of intellectual education is not to know how to repeat or retain ready-made truths. (A truth that is parroted is only a half-truth.) It is learning to master the truth by oneself at the risk of losing a lot of time and going through all the roundabout ways that are inherent in real activity. - Jean PiagetHernandez’ call for Real Talk dovetails nicely with Piaget’s insistence on real activity. Connecting with our students is the best way to make learning meaningful for our students. If you missed Hernandez’ keynote and workshops but would like to be inspired by his story, you can view his TED Talk.
