What Wise Graduate Students Know:
A Report from the Michigan Council of Teachers of English
"Teachers for the Dream" Program
by Julie Ann Mix, Michigan Council of Teachers of English

Wise graduate students try to position themselves on equal playing fields with their professors -- if only for a while. They purposely seek out professors who will take them on as protégés -- who will focus on positively influencing their development in the comfort of a secure relationship characterized by open communication rather than by “distance.” Lines of authority are purposely blurred in such circumstances, as collaboration becomes the modus operandi. Wise graduate students know therein lies the locus of learning. They know when pretense is removed and questions can be asked of experts in the security of a respectful, welcoming environment, they will blossom.

Where in the world do wise graduate students turn for such opportunity? The Michigan Council of Teachers of English uses NCTE “Teachers for the Dream” award funds to run a mentorship program based on this paradigm. (Other affiliates are free to submit applications and set up their own mentoring programs, too.) The Michigan “Dream” participants, who are graduate students of color from various Michigan colleges and universities, have a record of prolific accomplishments under the warm yet rigorous guidance of their mentors, those professors who have invited them to partake in professional development activities as co-workers/colleagues. The mentors hail from the following Michigan colleges and universities: Aquinas College, Eastern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Marygrove College, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University. These professors use a “comfortable space” to engage their protégés in inquiry, design, and performance at a level consonant with professorial pursuits. By doing so, they have broken down the traditional barriers and allowed the mentees in on publications and professional presentations -- welcoming their questions, guiding them, showing them, partaking with them -- giving them a taste of what professionalism really is. This approach has yielded astounding results. For the 2003-2005-to-date time span alone: twenty-two state conference presentations; five state conference co-presentations; twelve national conference presentations; twelve published articles; a co-editorship of an MCTE publication; an MCTE Executive Committee appointment; and a two-year Spencer Research Training Grant. One is struck by the remarkable quality of the protégés' experiences and, by extension, the exceptional quality of the mentors who so willingly give of their time and efforts.

Six “Dream” alumni stepped forward this spring to remark on the long-term effects of being mentored, specifically regarding their contributions to professionalism in the field. Their accounts follow:

Gwendolyn Denham
M.A. in Educational  Administration Candidate
As a Dream alumnus, I have been motivated to continue my educational career by pursuing a Master's in Educational Administration. I believe that participating in the Dream has helped me realize my potential, not only as a writer and a presenter, but also as a leader. I will be completing my Master's program this winter and am excited about stepping into a leadership role. Taking advantage of the opportunity to participate in this program allowed me to network with other professionals, present to my peers, and take an active role in shaping education in Michigan.

Austin Jackson
Ph.D. Candidate
Michigan State University, East Lansing
My Dream participants, Stephen and Raven, have been very active in English arts and education over the course of this academic year. Both Stephen and Raven have been able to transform mentoring work in the My Brother's Keeper Program (MBKP) into excellent research, professional presentation, mentoring, and graduate school opportunities.

For instance, Stephen and Raven converted critical observation and participation in MBKP into an informative presentation at last spring's MCTE "Bright Ideas" conference. Their interactive presentation, "Birth of the Cool: Developing African American Male Multiliteracies through the Discourse of Cool," demonstrated innovative ways college mentors use African American and youth popular culture to enhance written, oral, aural, and visual literacy skills among at-risk Black males. The session was well received, and Stephen has expanded this research as a scholar-participant in the McNair/SROP undergraduate research program. I serve as his faculty mentor guiding his year-long project. Stephen is currently applying for acceptance to Ph.D. programs in the New York City area (NYU, Columbia University, CUNY, etc.), and plans to use his MBKP/Dream/McNair/SROP undergraduate research as foundation for dissertation work.

Raven, also an MBKP mentor and Dream scholar, has been teaching language arts at a Lansing-area middle school while completing coursework at MSU. She graduates this semester (Spring 2005) and has been accepted into a joint Master's Degree/teacher certification program at Marygrove College in Detroit. Upon graduation, Raven plans to teach in the New York City public school system and eventually complete a Ph.D. in English Education.

Karen Keaton
Assistant Professor
North Carolina Central University, Durham
As a Dream alumni, I am contributing to the professionalism in the field by continuing to present at local and national conferences (as I did while a Dream participant), by publishing work (which I first did while a Dream participant, as well), and by continuing to teach effectively to a diverse group of students. The Dream program, in part, prepared me for life as a faculty member because it connected me with professors while I was a graduate student, and it exposed me to various conferences and settings where networking could take place.

David Kirkland
Michigan State University, East Lansing
I can attribute much of my current work to my participation with the Dream. In November, I presented a paper on using hip-hop to teach literary response at the NCTE Convention. This paper was a continuation of the work I began with the Dream. In addition, I recently published a paper in the Journal of Teaching Writing on the need for critical writing pedagogies in K-12 language arts settings. The paper developed out of my work with Keiryn Philips, a former Dream participant.  (Keiryn and I had presented a paper together in October 2003 for the MCTE annual meeting at the Lansing Center.)

Currently, I am mentoring or helping to mentor two Dream participants, Camille and Curtis. I plan to follow Camille through her first year of teaching and offer her support in terms of planning and delivering transformative English instruction. In addition, I plan to help inculcate Curtis more fully into MCTE and Dream participation.

Mary Hall
English Language Arts Teacher
Detroit Public Schools, Michigan
MCTE Executive Committee Member (co-editor of the Michigan English Teacher)
Mary began her association with MCTE through the Dream program and went on to serve on the MCTE Executive Committee.

I've enjoyed the opportunity to co-edit MCTE's Michigan English Teacher and to make new acquaintances. I believe my input is heard and considered valuable, when I have been available to provide it. I know that if not for MCTE some of my ideas for best practices may not have been exposed to the number of people I've reached through workshop sessions at the conferences.

A'Kena Long
University Instructor
The participants of Teachers of the Dream are contributing to professionalism because many of us act as mentors for entering teachers into the educational field where we share best practices with them. Also, many of us contribute to newsletters and magazines, which impacts teaching styles in the classroom across the state of Michigan. Furthermore, our curricula vitae are loaded with our involvement, which further impacts our chances to advance in the workplace, thereby providing further opportunities for us. Yet, more importantly, our advancement opens doors for others as well. Clearly, our involvement with Teachers for the Dream is two-fold: 1) we help novice teachers, and 2) we become more developed as educators ourselves.

Any NCTE affiliate can apply for the Teachers for the Dream award and, if funded, work to set up a thriving mentorship program or any type of program, for that matter, to promote recruitment and professional development among aspiring teachers of color.