Who are you and what are your practitioner sites?
My name is Tammy Boyle. I have been an educator since 1993, primarily serving students in the South and North quadrants of the Worcester Public Schools. I’ve taught English Language Arts to students in grades 7-12; I’ve been an instructional coach, led grant funded initiatives at the central office level, and I have been an administrator for eleven years. Currently I am the principal of Vernon Hill Elementary School which educates approximately 550 students in grades preK-6. Our families come from 31 countries around the world, including Brazil, Haiti, Egypt, and the Russian Federation. Over 40% of our students are learning to speak English– which makes for a wonderfully rich and diverse school.
What inspired you to join the Doctoral Program in Transformative Education?
I left the Worcester Public School for a period in my career to work in a more affluent and homogenous school in a bordering community. This provided me with an opportunity to see the stark differences between urban and suburban education. The economic capital that many of my suburban students brought with them looked very different from many of my urban students. That said, my urban students bring different types of capital such as social, human, and cultural capital. I want to learn how to leverage the capital my current and future students in Worcester bring with them so they are afforded more opportunities to build economic capital, if they so choose.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
My biggest hope is to support my students in having more choices when they’re designing their futures.