LUTE Reflection

The Lehman Urban Transformative Education (LUTE) framework is grounded in the community in which we teach and learn:  The Bronx.  The Bronx is diverse culturally, socially, linguistically, and economically.  The communities of the Bronx have traditionally been underserved both politically and educationally.  As the LUTE framework states, however, education has the power to transform.  It is with this belief in the power of education that I have undertaken this program.

Although I am not from New York originally, I have spent nearly a decade and a half teaching at public schools in the Bronx—the entire time I have lived in New York City.  Serving in schools with high levels of poverty, large percentages of English Language Learners, and great diversity in cultural background, I have come to appreciate these and other differences as potential assets.  The EDL courses have strengthened my awareness of these potential assets.  In EDL 703, for example, I collaborated with other students in developing a plan for an adult ESL program that drew on the resources of the community.  While it may be easy to focus on the problems that arise in diverse communities, learning to re-frame these situations, as reflected in the LUTE framework, opens up opportunities to engage in greater learning.

The EDL program has also forced me to rethink the power of collaboration.  The majority of the work we did for the program was done in teams, and our class discussions always brought forth the perspective and experiences of other students.  By natural inclination, I prefer to work and think by myself.  Schools, however, are open systems that are driven by relationships.  To be an effective school leader, I must widen my perspective and engage with other stakeholders, adults and students alike.  As collaboration is a cornerstone of the EDL program, it helped me reconsider my outlook.  Working together, the results of our collaborative projects were always greater than the sum of our individual contributions.  And even when the group dynamics for an EDL project were not ideal, such as happened to me for the Inquiry Team Plan in EDL 708, I learned as much from those experiences as I did when the collaboration was more smooth.  As a school leader, I will surely encounter fractious situations with other stakeholders; as a result of the experiences in this program, I am more confident that I will be able to navigate those circumstances.

Finally, the LUTE framework calls on us to “create an environment that is responsive to change and need.”  If nothing else, the EDL program has instilled in me a sense of urgency.  While change is often slow and the process of establishing new systems to address school weaknesses takes time, the instructors in the program—to a person—drove home to me the fact that every student in my charge deserves my best efforts, day in and day out.   When I chose to be an educator in the Bronx, I chose to work in a community of high need.  With that choice comes an ethical obligation to work for change.  As I move into roles of greater school leadership, that ethical charge becomes even more significant.