Some evaluations of me and of my programs
Instructor Evaluation Andre Stewart
Raul Nakasone Destiny Fall 2001
I've had difficulties with the teaching methods of my instructors all my life. When I had the opportunity to attend Evergreen, I was under the impression that the principles of the learning environment and the uniqueness of this school would fit in with my learning style and allow be to be successful here even though I often wasn't under the constraints in standard grading systems that I experienced in junior college. However, early on I found that this wasn't exactly the was that some teachers approached teaching at Evergreen. My first course caused me great frustration because I wasn't allowed to voice my opinions, I wasn't allowed to share my persepective and learn from the perspective of others. I was dictated to by a single professor who lectured and focused on readings that enforced her own voice, not the students. Although I thought at the time this was an isolated incident, it has reoccured this year.
A soon as I began taking a course taught by Raul, I realized that there actually were teachers that "taught" according to the philosophies that Evergreen is enncouraged to uphold. I actually wouldn't call it teaching but exploring. He helped me to explore the subject matter myself to form my own opinions, perspective, voice and identity in relation to the classroom focus. I was encouraged to use the learning environment of evergreen to focus on subjects that were truly important to me and my life. It was explained to me that you're not just a student in the classroom, that I was a student of life and the situations around me. I've been able to truly grow with this knowledge and while I've always felt that I was an athlete first and a student second here at Evergreen I felt extremely successful as a student this quarter under his guidance. He's inspired me not to perform my research papers just on any topic but one that had meaning to me, that I could truly learn and grow from. I believe that its teachers like this who actually take and interest in students and help them analyze their direction in life that truly make an impact on their future and what they learn today.
As far as the impact that Raul had on the class as a whole, it was entirely positive, from my perspective. In Raul's seminar and workshops, he focused on having us articulate and investigate our questions regarding a subject. He encouraged us to work as a community within the classroom instead of just having a student - teacher environment. He helped to instill in ourselves accountability and responsibility for our actions and course work and the implications of our choice not to participate or act. Most importantly, our academic development in the classroom was focused on our own needs and individuality and helped us to explore a plan not only for the future of our academic career but our lives.
Colleague Evaluation: Gil Salcedo to Raul Nakasone
Conquest and Revolution Program: 1993-1994
a) Subject matter expertise
Raul had two large program responsibilities in relation to subject matter expertise: Peruvian culture history and politics, and Spanish language. As the only native speaker of Spanish on the faculty team Raul was editor-in-chief of all our Spanish workshop materials; his seminar was entirely composed of students whose Spanish language proficiency was intermediate to advanced, and discussion in that seminar was for the most part conducted in Spanish, rather than in the deliberately mixed Englis-Spanish which characterized the seminars for Spanish language beginners.
From the early planning phases of the program in the summer of 1993 to its completion in the spring term, 1994 (when Raul and I constituted the entire faculty team) Raul demonstrated a thorough familiarity with the social and political history of Peru (his native country) and a superb teaching competence in Spanish language. He was instrumental in selecting both Spanish workshop materials as well as books and film for the Peru component of the curriculum.
A frustrating though not insurmountable circumstance for Raul in the fall term was the difficulty of obtaining a suitable narrative history text to provide students necessary background on Peru. Raul’s program lectures, films, and contribution in faculty seminar helped to alleviate the difficulty, but his single most significant contribution in this connection during the fall and winter terms was the adoption of the Ciro Alegria novel, Broad and Alien is the World; the primary source by Agustin de Zarate, History of the Conquest of Peru; the engaging social history of women in the colonial period by Luis Martin, Daughters of the Conquistadores; and Lillian Fisher’s now-classic narrative account of the major mid-eighteenth-century insurrection, The Last Inca Revolt.
During the spring term Raul and I dealt with the culture and politics of Peru and Mexico in the twentieth century, and we enjoyed the availability of a considerable spectrum of published material from which to select appropriate seminar readings. Raul delivered an excellent lecture concerning the complex chronology of contemporary politics in Peru as background to our study of the failure of conventional leftist reform and the subsequent emergence of the Shining Path movement. Raul’s thoroughly-informed comments were very much appreciated by the students, a number of whom were quite conversant with contemporary political studies.
b) interdisciplinary approach to the materials:
Raul’s academic field is in Mathematics, yet he was impressively adept in blending humanities and social science (Spanish language, history, and politics) in his teaching and curriculum planning. This was particularly evident in his understanding of the novels by Jose Maria Arguedas (Deep Rivers) and Mario Vargas Llosa (Historiua de Alejandro Mayta). Raul’s own personal familiarity with the cultural; dynamics behind contemporary Peruvian politics was a tremendous help in our study of the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla movement (Simon Strong, Shining Path: Terror and Revolution in Peru). The strength of Raul’s formal training in school and university enabled him to recognize throughout our teaching together a number of highly useful parallels between the history of Peru and that of Mexico.
I, should add that, from the very outset, Raul always welcomed the variety of disciplinary viewpoints and political opinions which emerged in our planning sessions and later in faculty seminar. As program co-ordinator, his genuine fairmindedness, tolerant and relaxed manner, and excitement about teaching produced an intellectual milleu highly conducive to the open exchange of ideas.
c) Counseling and advising of students:
Raul exhibited a unique gift in his style as counselor and advisor to students. His entire manner, evident in body language and voice tone, disarmed students; his scholarly authority was quiet and never intimidating yet always commanded among students a certain respect and, as the year wore on, a distinct affection as well. Raul’s presence was a highly significant factor in program morale. His personal bearing was instrumental in defusing the highly candid confrontation between disgruntled students and the faculty team early in the winter quarter, and since students’ disaffection concerned the accelerated pace of the Spanish language requirement, Raul was perfectly qualified to deal with it.
Raul’s skill in one-to-one teaching was evident in the student-initiated individual projects during the spring term and in the individual contracts he sponsored that quarter. His authenticity, personal warmth, and professional ability were time and again in evidence in his work with students on an individual basis. Almost without exception the students in the program expressed privately to me their fondness for Raul and their high regard for his teaching style.
d) Fostering intellectual challenge, cognitive development, and communication ability:
Raul regularly articulated his expectation that students must take responsibility for the quality and depth of their own learning. In this fundamental respect, Raul’s teaching strategy represents the best traditions of The Evergreen State College. Raul always encouraged students to relax their inhibitions toward learning Spanish, for example, and to simply do their best without worrying about disapproval or mistakes. He always publicly demonstrated his own acquisition of English as a second language. He admitted his own personal preference for the Spanish language but provided a model for us all by consistently and in an understated way showing determination to increase language mastery through practice unhindered by vanity or self-consciousness. In his very regular and prominent way, Raul every day showed the students that intellectual growth is accessible and achievable, and that the means to it can be made “user-friendly.”
e) Innovation and intellectual vitality:
As program co-ordinator and and faculty colleague Raul always welcomed new teaching ideas. The largest example that comes to mind is the encouragement and support he lent to Patrick Hill’s idea about disarming the difficulties of learning Spanish by encouraging the students to freely mix English with Spanish in the style of the border patois indigenous to, say, the US-Mexico frontier.
Raul’s readiness to engage in conversations centering on disciplines other than his own were a constant reminder of his alertness to fresh intellectual perspectives. His own moral posture can hardly be described as indifferent, apathetic, or in any way removed from everyday life. His spirit of earnest political engagement as a professional educator earned his students’ admiration. His lectures about contemporary Peruvian politics were always presented within the context of his own plainly-expressed commitment to the cause of social justice through educational reform.
When Raul declared in his customary off-hand way (following a documentary film on the connection between Inca archaeology and contemporary cultural awakening) his intention to return to Peru for the summer to launch a new program of reform in primary education in rural areas, there was a sudden brief hush in the room followed by a great murmuring among the students, who were profoundly moved by what they accurately recognized as an example of one teacher’s moral and physical courage. Some of them told me afterward that they recognized the personal danger for Raul in attempting such a project in civil war-torn rural Peru where public education is in significant political question owing to its propaganda potential.
f) Meeting commitments and other items listed under Roman numeral Two in “Criteria for reappointment to the faculty”
Raul Nakasone has met all commitments required by the Faculty Handbook and by the Covenant of the Conquest and Revolution program. I have not reviewed Raul’s entire portfolio nor have I witnessed his work in DTF’s or other governance activities. I have witnessed his active participation in the Spring 1993 Core Faculty Workshop and in the Fall 1993 Core Faculty Orientation. I have also witnessed his curriculum planning participation in the 1994-1995 MIT program and I am familiar with the quality of Raul’s former contribution to the MIT program. My conclusion is that Raul Nakasone is an energetic and widely-respected faculty member whose work in teaching and learning have constituted a vital contribution to the educational mission of The Evergreen State College.
Click here to see some evaluations of my Summer in Peru programs
http://academic.evergreen.edu/n/nakasonr/whattheysay.htm