TOWARD A THEORY OF THE EDUCATIONAL INTERRUPTION: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE TELLING BREAK BY KATHERINE MARY HEAVERS A dissertation submitted to The Graduate School of Education Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education Graduate Program in Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Approved by ______________________________________ James M. Giarelli, Chair ______________________________________ Colette C. Gosselin, Committee ______________________________________ David T. Hansen, Committee New Brunswick, NJ May 2012 ©Copyright by Katherine Mary Heavers, 2012 All rights reserved. ii ABSTRACT TOWARD A THEORY OF THE EDUCATIONAL INTERRUPTION: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE TELLING BREAK Katherine M. Heavers Dissertation Chair: James M. Giarelli, Ph.D. Classroom experience for students and teachers alike is dictated by bureaucratic structures and curricular requirements and interruptions are something that teachers are expected to eschew. However, recent research reveals that the “interruption is at the heart of the educational matter” (English, 2007, p. 138). This study sets out to define the teacher-generated interruption and to determine the nature of the space it opens for learning. This philosophical investigation analyzes phenomenological data in two textual forms: student interviews and excerpts from six autobiographical novels about teaching. The model of the educational interruption resulting from this analysis is called “the telling break.” The dimensions of this conceptual model are derived from the philosophical literature on interruptions and applied to the data to offer a more complete picture of the role interruptions play in the educational process. This dissertation argues that the telling break is a phenomenon that, far from being on the periphery of the learning experience in classrooms, is at its core. A telling break is almost always a spoken interruption in a school classroom. Everyone in the room feels it as a break in the continuity of instruction and learning. The single most defining feature of the telling break is that it opens up a space in which everyone involved, both the teacher and the students, exists in a new state of iii “perplexity,” (Dewey, 1910/1997, p. 117). Teachers and students alike realize that a “genuine perplexity” has “laid hold of their minds,” (Dewey, 1910/1997, p. 207). The telling break “pulls us up short,” creating the space in which existence becomes shared presence (Kerdeman, 2003, p. 294). We wake up and are reminded that we are alive and open to growth. This model is intended to help educators think deeply about the ways telling breaks rupture the classroom experience; we can consider how the space changes, depending upon the nature of the interruption that creates it. The model is intended to inspire discussion among educators about the ways we can break through the “manacles” of “inflexible bureaucratic standards” (Garrison, 2009, p. 76). Teachers who open themselves up to possibilities that the telling break can render will be better able to integrate the symbolic universe of the school with the real life experiences of those it is designed to educate. iv DEDICATION To my father, Dr. Richard M. Heavers, ever the Teacher Man, who told me his stories and sang me his songs. And to my mother, Dr. Barbara A. Heavers, artist in the classroom and on the canvas, who taught me to dream and to create. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My doctoral advisor, Dr. James M. Giarelli, has given me exactly the right balance of guidance and freedom. It was Jim who introduced me to Dewey, and Jim who taught me “how to think” and live this work into being. I am indebted to him for his wonderful lessons in philosophy. To Jim I express my deepest gratitude for being an exceptional teacher, the kind of teacher one meets once or twice in a lifetime. Dr. Colette Gosselin has been an invaluable mentor and friend to me through many years of this work. Colette is a passionate teacher who gave me invaluable feedback on my writing all along the way. For her support with this dissertation, and for her loving friendship, I am truly grateful. I would like to thank Dr. David T. Hansen, who told me to be “tenacious” and gave me sage advice early on about staying open to the possibilities. I am grateful for his important contributions to the writing of this dissertation. My loving family has supported me throughout this entire process. My father and mother always believed in me, Nate and Ian encouraged me, and Katie and Rachel cheered me on when I needed it the most. My fellow teachers have been supportive, steadfast companions along this path with me, both in my teaching and in my research and writing. I am grateful to all the wonderful women in my life for the many ways they have helped me to stay happy and healthy throughout this process. To Barbara and Neeru, who have seen me through the final push, I give my heartfelt thanks. Finally, I would like to give my thanks to all my former and current students. They changed me for the better, forever. vi “Music is the space between the notes.” - Claude Debussy vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii DEDICATION v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem 6 Research Questions 7 Methodology 8 Significance of the Study 9 Scope and Limitations 11 Research Participants 11 Student Interviews 12 Limitations 13 Sources of Telling Breaks in Novels 14 Conclusion 14 Chapter 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 16 Continuity 21 Holes in the Wall 22 Interruptions 23 Space 24 Language Ruptures 25 Thinking Action: Listening, Telling 26 Gaps and Breaks in Experience 27 “Pulled Up Short” 29 Interruption to Listening 30 Listening as Caring 32 Creating Space 35 Conclusion 37 Chapter 3: IN THE WORDS OF STUDENTS: TEACHERS’ TELLING 39 Interviews with Students 40 Ian 40 James 43 Kim 45 Nathan 48 viii Tommy 52 Bill 55 Kyle 57 Annie 60 Brian 62 Garrett 64 Evan 65 Patrick 66 David 67 Bridget 69 Joe 71 John 73 Nisha 75 Caroline 77 Matthew 78 Hannah 81 Conclusion 84 Chapter 4: IN THE WORDS OF TEACHERS: TELLING BREAKS 86 Part I. Introduction to Telling 86 Part II. Summaries of the Novels 87 To Sir, With Love 87 Dangerous Minds 88 Bridge to Terabithia 90 The Freedom Writers Diary 92 Teacher Man 92 The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle 93 Part III. Exploration of the Educational Interruption: Learning to Tell 95 Teachers’ Telling Breaks 99 Story 100 Personal Anecdote 102 Emotional Revelation 103 Angry Outburst 107 ix Part IV: Analysis of the Conceptual Dimensions 112 Continuity 113 The Situation to Be Interrupted 115 Open and Willing to Tell 120 Breaking Open: Storytelling 126 Breaking Open: “Pulled Up Short” 131 The Nature of the Space and What It Holds 134 Conclusion 138 Chapter 5: A MODEL OF THE TELLING BREAK 139 Introduction 139 The Definition of a Telling Break 143 The Conceptual Model of the Telling Break 149 Continuity of Curriculum and Classroom Experience 149 The Teacher Teaches 149 The Students Learn Through Listening and Taking Notes 149 The Boundary Between the Teacher and Students 150 An Interruption Breaks the Continuity 150 The Space Opened by the Telling Break 151 The Educational Interruption: The Model 152 Explanation of the Model: The Spectrum 153 Experiencing the Continuity 154 Being Open, Being Willing 156 Being “Pulled Up Short” 160 Interrupting 165 Change in Listening 171 The Nature of the Pedagogical Space 172 The Space and What Happens In It 174 Implications for Practice and Conclusion 178 REFERENCES 181 x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION It takes great courage to stand in front of twenty-five teenagers and talk about something they should know in such a way as to cause them to want to know it, and hear it, and take it in. It takes even greater courage to look out at them and actually catch their eyes. In an instant, you can tell whether it is all a farce, or that you somehow miraculously, inexplicably have captured their attention. If you have their eyes this can tell you that there are minds behind those eyes waiting to find out whether you know this. At the start of my teaching career I was simply an agent for the transmission of knowledge. I was not capable of being anything more at that time. As a young woman just four years older than her students, in order to preserve some semblance of safety in this frightening process of becoming a “teacher,” I could not yet look at my students and truly see them. Only when I began looking at them did I begin the act of telling, that is, of engaging in telling breaks. I listened to the way my students listened to me, and I did this by looking at their faces and summoning the courage to look straight into their eyes. When I was brave enough to really look at them, to look out and wonder what are they thinking? I found that I had never actually seen, nor had I listened, to them before. English (2009) tells us that prospective teachers must “learn to understand that listening involves becoming open to another person” (p. 76). When I became open to my students, when I opened myself up to them, I began to really listen to them. And when I really listened to them, when I was receptive to both the way they were feeling and the way they could listen to me, I began to tell them things about me and about my life. 1 When I began to tell, a remarkable thing happened. Each time I looked out to the class, I saw that their eyes, rather than glazing over, had become focused.