As a second-year education doctoral student at Teachers College, I, Catherine Cheng Stahl, took my first philosophy course with Professor David Hansen. This ‘philosophy of education’ course has transformed me, my thinking with regards to my own education, and my sense of self-trust in my own writing process. Here, I share the very last essay I wrote as part of my own philosophical journey—an essay that I believe provides the foundation for my own philosophy of education to guide me into the new decade.
Read moreWriting in Graduate School: Reflecting on the Art of Teaching
This is me, sharing one of my last papers written during my first year of graduate school at Teachers College, writing as Catherine Cheng. Here, I reflect on the tendency of teacher preparation programs to overemphasize practice rather than to provide a rich education that supports teachers in recognizing the aesthetics of teaching. I argue for a recognition of and, perhaps, a return to an “art” of teaching that takes into account the affective dimension and emotional labor of working with students.
Read moreThe Production of Differences in Schools and How Educators Can Disrupt Them
I’m sharing another original piece of academic writing for a course I took at Teachers College. As part of this course on gender, difference, and curriculum, we read a diverse set of books, articles on theory, as well as articles of empirical studies. My essay is an integrative one, in which I tried to draw on a wide range of theorists and practitioners to describe how differences are produced via school curricula, ideas of “normal”, and structures/traditions…
Read moreWhen At First You Don’t Succeed, Don’t Give Up Too Soon
Real student life has kicked in. One week later, I can tell you that I hit an absolute low point in my self-esteem this week, doubting my sense of worth. Have you ever felt like you are an imposter, like you don’t belong? That’s how I felt on Tuesday, the first “official” day of one of my doctoral seminars in the program. Although I thought I had done everything right to prepare…
Read more10 Years Later: On Being a Student Again
It is 10pm on a Tuesday evening as I’m starting to write this, but this Tuesday feels different. This Tuesday is September 4, 2018, and today was my first day back in school, but not as a teacher. Today, I became an official student again---a doctoral student in an Ed.D program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching…
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