Nuela was completing her student teaching experience at a local elementary school. At age 35, she had given up much to complete her education. She had quit her job and temporarily left her family in order to complete her last two semesters of academic work, owed several thousands of dollars in student loans, and had moved to the city to complete her schooling.
She was an adequate student, and had received corresponding grades throughout her university experience. The idea of actually teaching "her own" class during student teaching had been very motivating to her. She invested many hours of time in preparation and study for her 10-week third grade experience. She is the first student teacher who has been assigned to her cooperating teacher, and had visited her cooperating teacher a month prior to beginning her student teaching, and had received good information and guidance on how to prepare for the class.
As she began her experience, she felt positive, and the children responded well towards her. Her supervisor and cooperating teacher ranked her performance as "Very good." The longer she was in the class, the more comfortable she became with the children, the school, the cooperating teacher, the parents of the children and with her decision to teach. She began to feel a sense of community and responsibility toward all the involved parties.
There were some incidents which happened that had disturbed Nuela. When students misbehaved, questioned the teacher or had difficulty understanding a concept, etc., the cooperating teacher would take control immediately and deal with the problem; however, her methods were very uncomfortable for the children as well as for Nuela. It was domineering, intimidating, belittling and verbally harsh. For example, one day a child was loudly refused bathroom privileges and subsequently had an "accident" in class. The child was forced to come to the front of the room to discuss the incident with the whole class before anyone could go to lunch.
Nuela tried to ignore these behaviors, but during the 7th week, an occurrence made it impossible to ignore the teacher's methods any longer. Nuela and several of the less-than-popular students were teaching a new game to the first graders during lunch recess, and were several minutes late returning to class. Upon their return, the teacher began a verbal lashing of the children that attacked their very character and self worth.
When Nuela tried to intervene, she received a similar attack in front of the children. With all of the children listening, the teacher listed all of the mistakes Nuela had made, her own character was attacked, and issues such as, "How dare a person leave her family for several months?" were part of the tirade. Nuela was devastated, and could feel the anguish the children had been feeling all year.
During the next week the children continued to be very well-behaved, completed their work, were punctual, but not because of positive or proactive work/study habits. They achieved out of fear of their teacher.
During the eighth week of her experience, with the cooperating teacher watching, several parents approached Nuela on the playground and asked her about the experience of the previous week. They voiced their concerns about their own children - several of the children would cry about going to school. The parents had voiced the same concerns to the administration, but no action had been taken. The parents wanted Nuela to go to the administration and ask them to reconsider their lack of action.
Questions:
For a prospective teacher, the cooperating teacher's good recommendation is the "union seal of approval." Without a good recommendation from the cooperating teacher, it is unlikely that a new teacher would be hired in a competitive market. Nuela knows--in no uncertain terms-- what her recommendation will be like if she says anything to the administration about the classroom atmosphere.
However, Nuela has information and a perspective that no one else has in this situation. She feels that children are being put at severe risk in that classroom.
If she blows the whistle, she stands alone, as the student teacher supervisor has never witnessed any of the incidents.
To repeat her student teaching will require another semester away from her family, more loans, additional work, and missing the hiring time in the job market for an entire year.
The university will help her find another student teaching placement, but it will not help her with this dilemma.
What should she do?
What should the parents do?
Can or should the student teaching supervisor do anything?