By Thomas R. TrittonRead the rest, including the reading list and assignments.
What does a college president do after leaving the high intensity rigors of the job? One likely calling is the classroom, whence many of us came in the first place. So after a decade as president of Haverford College, I returned to the classroom at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Professor Judy McLaughlin — she one of the world’s experts on college presidents — created the unique position at Harvard of “President-in-Residence”. Each year Judy invites one of the newly departed to join the faculty, participate in a seminar on the broad topic of higher education, and teach a course of one’s own design. The usual courses a former president might teach — Theories of Leadership, Fundraising 101, Navigating Campus Politics — seemed too easy and too obvious. I decided instead to angle a different approach, an idea which morphed into: A710f: Social Justice in the Undergraduate Experience. You’ll find it right there in the Harvard catalogue. . . .
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Social Justice Teaching
From Inside Higher Ed:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I can't think of a better course to be taught. I think it should be taught as an undergraduate requirement, particularly for education majors. I spent 34 years as a high school teacher and secondary school administrator. In my peer groups there was little understanding of the concept of social justice. I filed a lawsuit on sex discrimination in 1987, won in Federal District Court in 1990. As a result, I got my job as high school principal, but then the retaliation began and continued until I retired in 2001. When I challenged the retaliation, there was little or no support from peers - that's the "chilling" effect of retaliation. My website, www.plaintiffblues.com, describes those experiences and the book I wrote about them.
ReplyDeleteI've started a blog to continue a conversation about education issues, civil rights, social justice and constitutional issues. Check it out and keep up the good work!