jean--interpretivism


 * Interpretivism--Jean Ellman**

Organizational culture and symbolism are key components of interpretivism (Hatch and Yanow, p 71ff). Religious communities are organizations filled with many aspects of interpretivism. I will speak about the organization that I know best, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a community that because of its internationality transcends national cultures, even as it is influenced by them. The SSNDs are an organization with a shared history, purpose, and meaning. Our lives are centered on the shared values of unity, seeking God’s will, preferring the poor, and educating with a world vision. We have a clearly articulated mission and a “charism [that] flows from our spiritual heritage…and continues to develop in the living community….” (**You** **Are Sent**, pp. 18-19). Symbols that express our shared meaning include language specific to religious life and, in particular, to our community; rituals such as vow ceremonies, jubilee, and missioning ceremonies; and documents, such as our Constitution and General Directory. Our community embodies structural stability and patterning or integration, as explained by Scheid (in Shafritz, et. al., p. 363). The culture of the community survives by teaching the shared assumptions and norms to new members (Scheid, p. 365), most of whom are joining the community in Brazil and the four countries of Africa where we are ministering. These new members from the aforementioned countries, along with the newer and older members of the Western world (Europe and North America) are reconstituting the community (Cook and Yanow in Shafritz, et. al., pp. 376-7). in ways that are still in process.
 * Culture** []

Interpretivists maintain that individuals give different meanings to situations and experiences based upon their past experiences and their environment. Many teachers teach students from a culture other than their own. When this is the case, it is imperative that teachers listen to students’ stories in order to gain insight into how the students understand and deal with a particular issue, e.g. family relations, ways of showing respect, or preferred ways of learning. It is important for teachers to be able to put aside their own assumptions in order to get inside the context and lives of their students. This can be done in many ways: participating in an activity in the after- school program (a less formal way of relating to the students), talking with students in the cafeteria or on the playground, meeting with them individually to chat or to discuss issues, observing them in informal situations, attending functions, such as sports events or dances, or visiting with them and their families in their homes. Since most of the teachers at Notre Dame Middle School are Anglo and most of the students are Latina, teachers are highly involved in the above-mentioned ways of learning in order to understand their students better.
 * Subjective Experience Via Narratives http://www.ndmswi.org/School_After_School_Program_0006/**

Excellence (both academic and personal) is a goal of educational institutions and assessments are an integral part of measuring those levels of excellence. Some assessments are objective, such as standardized tests, (although even these are not totally objective). And there are many other assessments that are subjective, yet still valid. One of the assessments we use at NDMS is our students’ participation in the Graduate Support Program. There are many ways our students can participate in this program: they can return daily for a study hall in which they can interact with a mentor or get tutoring; they can participate in our yearly week-long service trip to an impoverished part of the country; they can continue and deepen friendships made when they were students at NDMS; they can get academic or personal counseling from our graduate support director. These are just a few of the ways that they are able to continue their relationship with NDMS and we are able to assess their success in high school and in life. Our Graduate Support Program also enables us to keep in contact with the high schools that our students attend and to monitor their academic and personal progress. Because of our involvement in their high schools, we are also able to serve as a source of communication when necessary between the parents and their daughter's high school, especially in instances where parents and staff do not speak the same language or if parents feel uncomfortable or intimidated by a school with an unfamiliar educational system. Interpretivism
 * Assessments in Education [|NDMS Website] **