Educating future teachers on the humanity of teaching

Making connections and building relationships is a cornerstone of teaching. That’s what Dr. J. Scott Baker works to demonstrate for his students each day — sometimes dressed as Lumière, a “Bridgerton” character, a Care Bear, or one of the other 200-plus costumes at his disposal.

Baker has been a St. Cloud State University faculty member for about four years and is an associate professor of secondary education. He is the program director for the K-12/5-12 professional education sequence, accelerated post-baccalaureate certificate and licensure, and curriculum and instruction master's degree programs. He previously worked as a high school speech and debate and English teacher in Texas for nearly two decades, earned his PhD from Texas A&M University and then worked at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse before coming to SCSU.

“I’ve always felt like in teacher preparation there's often a disconnect between urban schools and rural schools, and what I really like about St. Cloud State is that I feel like it's a combination of both. We do have the students from larger cities, but we also have students that come from very rural communities, and I think it's really important that as we move forward and prepare pre-service teachers to be cultural responsive — especially those students who don't have a lot of experience in that, because their schools did not offer them that opportunity — that's really important to work with them. So that's one of the reasons I wanted to be at St. Cloud, because I felt like there was a good combination of students who wanted to know, and students who were living those experiences, and to be able to have those conversations.”

Baker encourages his students to engage in conversations to share ideas and perspectives while at SCSU so they’re prepared to enter the classroom as they go out into the workforce. He stresses the “human element of being a teacher” as one of the most important things for his students to remember.

“I think my primary goal is that — in the K-12/5-12, often called the secondary education program — that we are producing pre-service teachers who understand the humanity of teaching; that it is not just the content that they teach, but who they are as people. When they go into their classroom and then the interaction and engagement they have with their students, I want them to be able to go into any classroom in the country and know they are going to be able to make connections and build relationships,” he said. “I think that's incredibly important, and in the hustle-bustle of licensure, sometimes those conversations get overlooked — focusing on lesson plans and making sure standards are met.”

One of the methods Baker uses to inspire conversations in his own classrooms is through costumes.

“The costumes started in response to COVID. When I was at UW-Lacrosse I had a student who was wearing a hat every day to class to signal their queer identity — not that everybody would notice it, but that the right people in the class would see it. And so I realized I needed to respond to his call. So I wore a rainbow hat and had two squeaky unicorns, and I actually told him before class started, ‘Let's see whose hat game is better,’ jokingly,” he said. “The reaction from the students — like the class came to life. It was something different. This was in fall of 2020, when everybody was struggling just to survive, and it just made class more interesting. So I started doing costumes that would connect to the lesson of the day.”

Baker would use music when in online classes, or videos in an attempt to bring more joy and humor into the classes as well. Once he realized the change from the typical college classroom atmosphere made the classroom interactions and discussions more vibrant, he was inspired to continue the trend.

“When I look back, it's really about making sure students understand that human connection. The students never know what I'm going to wear to class. Whether they see me in an online video or whether I'm face-to-face in class, there's usually some kind of connection — whether I’m wearing a ‘Bridgerton’-inspired outfit to talk about socioeconomic status, I may dress up as a Care Bear to talk about how we need to care for ourselves, our self-care, as well as others, and I probably have 200 costumes at this point,” he said. “I’m fortunate that my husband tolerates my costume addiction. But it allows the students to make connections, and I will very often walk into a class — we do a lot of student presentations — and I will walk in class and sit in as the presentations happen and let students try to figure out what is the purpose of the costume. Sometimes it is very tongue in cheek; sometimes it is a little bit more theoretical.”

It all comes back to encouraging his students to see their own humanity in their future classrooms for Baker, and it’s one of the best parts of his job.

“I think my favorite part about teaching is the exact same thing that I want pre-service teachers to learn, is that the primary goal as a K-12 teacher is to build relationships. If we can't build those relationships, if we can't communicate with our students, then they won't listen to the content we're trying to teach,” he said. “So the goal — and then this also embeds with the costumes — is how do I spark their interest, how do I engage them, how do I get them involved, how do I have them see themselves as a future teacher?”

Baker believes SCSU is a leader when it comes to molding bold and innovative future teachers.

“One of the things I love about St. Cloud State is that there is a clear desire in our program to make change-makers, to understand that education is a continual changing entity, and that focus is there. We are constantly working on how can we make things better, how can we make sure our students are learning from diverse voices and perspectives, and how they can then go into their classroom — because if they build relationships, when the content changes, when things happen and they need to adjust, they're not left blindsided,” he said. “They can figure that out, because the focus is the relationship and moving forward. I feel like St. Cloud State does a really fantastic job of framing that. Our theoretical framework for the College of Education & Learning Design really does hone in on building good humans moving forward into the classroom.”

Baker said it’s easy for education programs across the country to fall into the formula of focusing on lesson plans and standards over everything else, but he is glad that SCSU faculty also focus on the human element. Being a licensed educator is a full-time job, and he said it’s important for students and future teachers to focus on who they are and how they see the world, as well as the different perspectives others bring with them into the classroom.

“Education as a field has been under political attack in the last few years, but it is so vitally important to our society. I tell students all the time the unknown is what makes teaching so exciting, but also so scary. I think helping students see that, understand that and realize that who they are going to be as a teacher is different than the teacher in the classroom next to them — that they can't compare themselves to their peers, even if they're teaching the same content in a large school right next door to other teachers. They are uniquely different, and how they approach their students and the context in which they engage with their students is incredibly important,” Baker said. “Understanding who they are moving forward — even if they begin the program not fully sure who they are as a teacher — if they can develop that voice, if they can develop that understanding of how they see things and what they need to do moving forward, I think it sets them up for success. It also fights back against the narrative that education is unimportant and that public schools are struggling. Our public schools are doing fantastic work. They are incredibly strong and working with students and pulling ideas together, and we need teachers to make sure we continue that moving forward.”