ABSTRACT
Our early connections with our Belizean colleagues were based on material goods, such as school supplies and instructional programs. At first, the potency of providing these resources seemed an authentic expression of solidarity in our collective work toward literacy education in Belizean partner schools. However, we came to an impasse that we could not ignore. With our intense focus on Belizean teachers’ instructional strategies, we ignored key dimensions of collaborative work and ones that mattered immensely to our colleagues. We wondered if we may have dismissed who these educators were as people. Had we ignored their lives, desires, and the challenges of their own human experiences? If we wanted more attention devoted to teaching reading in classrooms, did we need to pay more attention to the reading teachers? With these hazy concerns and realizations, we became much more deliberate about building relationships with our Belizean colleagues and more collaborative in our work with them. We shifted our focus from changing instructional practice to building solidarity – to connecting more deeply with each other as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, and yes, as committed though imperfect teachers. We wondered if we could be more effective in transforming reading instruction and students’ reading success if we ALL (educators from both Belize and the United States) became vulnerable to each other, and if we ALL became available for transformation. We realized increasingly that becoming collaborative partners with genuine and abiding relationships would likely help us the most in helping our students (the future stewards of our shared planet) become more successful, more critical readers and writers.
