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Theisen-Homer, Victoria Marie

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Theisen-Homer

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Victoria Marie

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Theisen-Homer, Victoria Marie

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    Defending “Something Special”: A Portrait of One School’s Response to Instability
    (2014-11-06) Theisen-Homer, Victoria Marie
    Drawing primarily on interviews with a variety of teachers and other staff at a large urban Title-1 public school in California, Victoria Theisen-Homer paints an ethnographic portrait of how school personnel respond to undesirable changes. Although the school in this study, Skyline High School, had begun to thrive and most of the staff felt their school was “special,” the changes - including increased accountability in preparation for the school’s accreditation audit, turnover and conflicts among school leaders, and crippling budget cuts that removed staff and resources – threatened to compromise the school’s nascent success. While most of the participants in this study complained of the school’s declining culture and attributed this to similar issues, their responses to these factors differed significantly; their differing attempts to improve the situation ultimately served to further divide teachers and leaders in consequential ways. The author concludes with recommendations for educational leaders, policymakers, and teachers who intend to shepherd schools through similar times of change.
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    No Justice, No Teachers: Theorizing Less-Unjust Teacher Firings in L.A. Unified
    (SAGE Publications, 2015) Levinson, Meira; Theisen-Homer, Victoria Marie
    This paper combines original interviews, secondary policy analysis, and non-ideal theory to determine the “least-unjust” approach to budget-driven “Reduction in Force” (RIF) teacher firings in Los Angeles. Building from the a priori claim that schools should serve children’s interests, the paper addresses the following questions: To whom is justice owed in this case? What does justice demand for each set of claimants? How should conflicts be resolved? The authors conclude that the least unjust way to RIF teachers is based on a holistic assessment combining student evaluations, administrative evaluations, value added measures, and seniority, modified by school stability considerations. Unexpectedly, justice toward students and justice toward teachers turn out to be substantially coextensive when determining budget-driven teacher layoffs. Teachers and students are mutual allies, not antagonistic claimants. Furthermore, to the extent that teachers’ and students’ justice claims are not aligned, this lack of alignment likely reveals not an intrinsic conflict, but a policy failure that is itself borne of prior injustice.
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    Chasing Personal Meaning: Pedagogical Lessons through Always Running
    (2014-11-06) Theisen-Homer, Victoria Marie
    In this autobiographical narrative, the author recounts her experiences teaching the novel Always Running with her English classes at a high school in a gang heavy area. When she first started teaching, this teacher struggled to engage students. One particularly disruptive student requested to read Always Running, but the teacher initially resisted teaching the text. However, student interest in the novel endured, and the teacher finally decided to take a risk and teach it. She used the novel in both her freshmen “intervention” and junior English classes. Throughout the resulting lessons, the teacher formed meaningful relationships with her students and both she and they learned valuable lessons about academic content, themselves and humanity. Amidst the unit’s success, the teacher wrote a grant to bring the book’s author, Luis Rodriguez, to speak to the campus. His visit served to deepen the novel’s impact and emphasize the importance of finding personal meaning.