What’s a paradigm?  According to Thomas Kuhn,  a paradigm is a set of rules or assumptions which a science uses or assumes as true.   A paradigm is a world view that provides the structure in a field of study.  In science, research is based on paradigms so that everyone in a field is operating within the same framework.  In a nonscientific sense,  when we follow a paradigm, our actions conform to what people like us feel we should be doing and that they would do in similar circumstances.   Each of the roles we fulfill is based on a set of assumed rules.   Paradigms offer the rules and standards which put a similar group on the same playing field.

           Are there paradigms in my life?  Every role I have carries its own paradigms.  I am a mother, daughter, wife, student,  professional, teacher and 100 other things.  Each role has its own rules and set of standards.  My profession has paradigms.  I follow them while trying to think ‘outside the box’ to find what is best for my students.

           As an educator, my professional paradigms are constantly changing. (1)  In this era of brain research and how this research relates to learning,  more and more attention  is given to learning styles.  Howard Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences changes the focus from teaching the curriculum to teaching the individuals.  On the flip side, the emphasis on the SOLs shifts the focus back to teaching the curriculum at the expense of the individual.  The paradigms are changing as the research results keep coming in.

           As an English language teacher my profession has definite paradigms.  Most of my students are learning English as a second or third language.  Some students have just arrived; some were born here but have had very little exposure to English.  The paradigms I work under teaching ESL are different from the ones of classroom teachers.  So part of my job has been to get the classroom teachers to shift their perceptions of the new student from a child who is incapable of working in the class to the view of a child who is absorbing, learning and will be performing in the class when he is ready.  Another difference in paradigms from my role as ESL teacher and the mainstream classroom teacher comes when assessing language ability.  When a teacher of a student who has been here for one year tells me that the student is fluent in English, I know that the teacher and I need to talk about academic English versus social English.   She hears a student speak well but that student probably can not function on a grade level test.   We can both listen to the same student speak and our perceptions of her ability will conform to the paradigms of our own professions.

           What about paradigms in my personal life?  Up until last year, I continued living according to the paradigms of my various roles.  Then it happened.  Call it mid-life crisis, a paradigm shift or a revolution, but I questioned what I was doing.  My life was the same but I was different.   I realized that I had put my professional life on hold so long  that I could scarcely remember my dreams and ambitions.  Within one month, I  left my consular job at the US Embassy, Mexico City.  I separated from my husband of 25 years.   I gave up my home and domestic staff to rent one room in the house of a friend.

           My mother, sister and women who knew me from my job in Mexico thought that I was crazy.  How could I leave all the trappings of a comfortable, diplomatic life to live in one room and teach in an elementary school which was known for low test scores and the culture of poverty?  Aren’t 50 year old women supposed to be surrounded by loving family and beautiful things?  Aren’t they supposed to want more, not less?  How could I leave a husband to fend for himself?  How could I go back to school to pursue long term studies when my husband was so close to retirement?  All these questions were thrown at me because I was breaking the rules.  I was not keeping to the shared set of rules and standards that other spouses and sane women my age were following.  My actions made them question theirs.  My actions made them start to think rather than live life on automatic pilot, following the assumptions which came with the roles.

          So was it a paradigm shift?  Yes and no.  My husband had a breakdown after I left.  He curtailed his assignment in Mexico to come back to this area.  I went back to our house to live with him.  That part of my actions conform to the paradigm.  I am a good wife again.  But, I am still questioning my  professional roles and re-evaluating what is important in my life.  I am not where I want to be but I am heading in the right direction through my studies and my awareness of myself as an individual as well as part of a couple.  I am still constructing my life; I am still in crisis.  (2) I don’t know where I will be or what I will be doing in 5 or 10 years.  Whereas many women my age find that remark negative,  to me it is positive because I’m not conforming to the mold.  I’m trying to stay outside the box, outside the paradigm,  creating my own set of rules, continuing the revolution.