When you enter Charlie Rathbone's office, you get the sense of someone who can't stop thinking. You get a sense of determination, and of passion. As you scan the bookshelves, titles like "Teaching for Social Justice" and "Adventures in Peacemaking" pop out at you. Charlie is a dedicated man—dedicated to teaching and dedicated to making the world a more just and peaceful place. He probably wouldn't separate these endeavors though. To Charlie, teaching is making the world a better place.
Charlie's career in teaching began in Syracuse, NY. One day a brochure for an urban teacher preparation program caught his eye. He interviewed, and within two weeks was teaching Social Studies and Government to urban kids in Syracuse. He fell in love with it—"I was able to see they were amazing kids, angry that society didn't think they would go anywhere," Charlie says of the "heart-connection" he made with those kids and his work teaching them.
For Charlie, helping these kids see that they could make a difference was a mission of social justice. He tells of a letter-writing campaign the kids started.
"An autumn windstorm had blown through the area and toppled many elms on the city's streets but not in the city's inner-city project area. I was teaching local government to the kids, and we used the letter writing campaign as part of this government study. We also went to see the common council—the local legislative body—in action. We were trying to get the trees picked up so parents and others wouldn't get ticketed by the police for parking on lawns because the windfall was cluttering the streets." When the kids saw that their voice counted, Charlie felt he was accomplishing what he needed to as a teacher.
The ideas of social justice and helping students see that they can make a difference have formed the foundation for Charlie's teaching and his research ever since. He is interested in how a social as well as academic climate can be created in classrooms and in helping future teachers understand how to influence the social dynamics of classrooms. Among other topics, his students explore the role that status plays in helping or hindering childrens' learning. Students conduct sociometric studies of kids' status in the classroom and learn to apply Complex Instruction strategies to ensure equal access to learning by all.
The teaching tools Charlie has used over the years to accomplish his goals—to help students develop an understanding of, and the ability to describe, social networks—have changed over the years. At first, his primary tools were the quantitative tools, like the Flanders Interaction Analysis framework, that allowed him and his students to categorize and study social interactions in the classroom. Charlie describes these analytical tools as "systems that allowed us to grab teaching and look at it."
He soon adopted video as a technological tool to analyze of classroom interactions. Video "...seemed more salient than interaction analysis tools because it captures more of the "stuff' that's happening in the classroom". Using video (at first video tape and now digital video) has helped Charlie's students make a much more personal connection to the sociometric studies because they see themselves interacting too. They're no longer just an observer.
Charlie has also begun to explore the use of the Web to help him leverage the social networks that exist in his own classroom. The use of a course Web site has proven a vital way for Charlie to connect with his students who spend much of their time in clinical work, away from campus. The Web site also helps students stay connected to each other and to learn from each others' experiences.
Charlie's interests and objectives for his students haven't changed drastically over the years. He has always been interested in achieving equity in the classroom, and helping his students do the same. Through the course of his career, though, Charlie has sought new ideas and new tools to use in pursuit of these objectives. His search has had a tremendous impact on his students' learning, and their teaching.
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