Interview - See details Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Interview - See details - Essay Example Finally, the interview with the parent revealed a perspective greatly varying from the previous internal perspectives. The parent placed most emphasis on student success on the actual student. Introduction The 21st century has ushered in a new host of challenges. While globally there are emerging concerns over energy and the environment, some of the most prominent domestic concerns involve education. If the United States is going to remain successful in this increasingly competitive global world education will undoubtedly play a major role. As a means of investigating some of the challenges and perspectives in education this essay constitutes an analysis of perspectives gained from a teacher, administrator, and parent. To ensure confidentiality the names and personal information of these individuals have been withheld. Analysis The first interview that was conducted was with a teacher. There was a large amount of significant information gained from this interview. The specific teache r works at a high school. They informed me that they currently teach junior and senior level English classes. They have an Advanced Placement class, as well as classes at different ends of the educational spectrum; in this way they indicated that they gain a broad view of the different students at the school. In terms of specific background information they stated that they had a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and had worked for a period in instructional design. They indicated that there were a few difficult parts of the job. To a large extent these challenges seem to be indicative not simply of this teacher’s classrooms, but endemic of the larger school environment. In this way one of the greatest challenges is motivating the lower-tier students. Many of these students refrain from completing any after school work. This makes reading novels or any engaging in any extended material difficult. Additionally, classroom behavior in these environments oftentimes suffers as the students are disengaged from the lesson plan. While the teacher expressed a great amount of joy he received from his profession, it’s clear that he was also disenchanted with much of the process. For instance, he found some of the administration at the school lacking. He indicated that while he recognizes the importance of a strong administrative staff, many of the administrators at the school had not been inside of a classroom in many years. He believed then that there was a significant divide between what their perceptions were and the actual occurrences of the classroom environment. This perspective seemed to be thematic throughout the interview. In this way he believed that innovation and lesson plan development at the school was highly difficult to achieve because of an administrative staff that was chained to antiquated methods of instruction. One notable point he made was that with the onset of the Digital Age students are increasingly engaged with digital technology; still the school environment remains committed to traditional teaching practices. He believed that much of the behavior problems he had in his lower-level English classes can be attributed to students who were rejecting these traditional teaching methods. There is the recognition that research literature has supported this teacher’s position. For instance, Kember (2008, p. 249) indicated that one of the primary determinants of student motivation was perceived relevancy. In these regards it seems