UVM Theses and Dissertations
Format:
Print
Author:
Pobric, Gordana
Dept./Program:
College of Education and Social Services
Year:
2011
Degree:
M. Ed.
Abstract:
I was born and raised in Bosnia and lived as a refugee in Germany for almost six years. I finally found a home iIi the U.S. in 1997, and I became a U.S. citizen in 2002. I had many new beginnings. While searching for a safe home for my family and me, I also was seeking for a life that would offer me the opportunities to realize my dreams and potential. Through the rough times I have always come back to education: "My study, you see, is my refuge, my gateway space. It is not a prison. How could it be? It is the place where I make meaning."¹ Education is so central to my being that I believe it is fundamental to human happiness.
More than a decade ago, I lost everything: home, country, friends, and identity-to the terrifying tragedy ofwar. Living a difficult struggle as a refugee, searching for a way out, I realized that the one bright light that kept me going was my wisdom and my strength to realize my academic promise. I wanted to find my lost path of education and continue that journey further: I did it. I went back to school, and today, I am on the other side of that educational equation, as a teacher, and a faculty member, at a public high school and a community college. In the public educational system of the U.S., I am exposed to some practices, such as tracking in middle and high school, and some contradictions, such as students being accountable for that for which they have had little or no exposure. I would like to uncover, clarify, and illuminate those practices and contradictions in this document.
My thesis explores why education matters to me, why I think the way I do, why contradictions in U.S. education bother me, and most importantly, why we are not achieving the educational excellence for which we are all striving. I also hope to give a voice to my students for whom I work. For me, it is a simple concept to understand: I work for my students, and the main purpose of my position is to educate and guide them to succeed in school and the broader world. To be a teacher, for me, is to be a role model, a coach, and a mentor. The objective of my thesis is to identify and analyze the confusion that I have regarding public education in the U.S., and also, to determine why it all matters to me. I will do that through my own narrative, using SPN (scholarly personal narrative). This is a methodology that allows me to use down-to-earth English and to use my voice and my point of view, supplemented with qualitative/quantitative research, to better understand my conflicts with, and role within, the American system ofpublic education.
More than a decade ago, I lost everything: home, country, friends, and identity-to the terrifying tragedy ofwar. Living a difficult struggle as a refugee, searching for a way out, I realized that the one bright light that kept me going was my wisdom and my strength to realize my academic promise. I wanted to find my lost path of education and continue that journey further: I did it. I went back to school, and today, I am on the other side of that educational equation, as a teacher, and a faculty member, at a public high school and a community college. In the public educational system of the U.S., I am exposed to some practices, such as tracking in middle and high school, and some contradictions, such as students being accountable for that for which they have had little or no exposure. I would like to uncover, clarify, and illuminate those practices and contradictions in this document.
My thesis explores why education matters to me, why I think the way I do, why contradictions in U.S. education bother me, and most importantly, why we are not achieving the educational excellence for which we are all striving. I also hope to give a voice to my students for whom I work. For me, it is a simple concept to understand: I work for my students, and the main purpose of my position is to educate and guide them to succeed in school and the broader world. To be a teacher, for me, is to be a role model, a coach, and a mentor. The objective of my thesis is to identify and analyze the confusion that I have regarding public education in the U.S., and also, to determine why it all matters to me. I will do that through my own narrative, using SPN (scholarly personal narrative). This is a methodology that allows me to use down-to-earth English and to use my voice and my point of view, supplemented with qualitative/quantitative research, to better understand my conflicts with, and role within, the American system ofpublic education.