Organizers and participants say this fall鈥檚 series of Lynch School of Education colloquia on educating the 鈥渨hole person鈥� 鈥� encompassing three major conferences in a five-week span 鈥� showcased the school鈥檚 leadership in an emerging field, while providing a much-needed forum for scholarly conversations.聽聽
鈥淭hese events demonstrated the breadth of work we are doing on formative or whole-person education, and brought to campus an elite roster of researchers and practitioners who were drawn to the quality of that work,鈥� said Stanton Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School
With support from major foundations and national and international education associations, the three-part conference kicked off Oct. 18-20 with a convening of national and international leaders from the field of integrated supports for K-12 students living in poverty, led by Mary E. Walsh, Kearns Professor of Urban Education and Innovative Leadership and executive director of City Connects, the multi-city, evidence-based, urban student intervention program.
鈥淭he conference broke new ground,鈥� said Walsh, whose event was funded by a grant from the American Educational Research Association. 鈥淓xperts in human development, statistical methodology, educational evaluation, economics and other fields engaged questions whose answers will allow us to better support the whole child, especially in high-poverty schools.鈥澛�
Among the 20 invited researchers was Henry Levin, the William H. Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Columbia University Teachers College, who pointed to implementation as a key challenge to the integrated school services model embodied by City Connects.聽
鈥淢any schools lack the capacity for undertaking systematic approaches to evaluating the needs of every student and identifying and enlisting effective services in response. One of the fears is that schools will adopt the rhetoric of the approach without addressing it systematically or providing tailored and effective support services.鈥澛犅�
Walsh, who seeks to 鈥渆xport鈥� City Connects to more schools and cities, said, 鈥淲e know these programs work, but we need to better understand why they work through deepened and expanded research.鈥澛�
One day later, Lynch School Professors Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, in partnership with ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum and Development), chaired 鈥淭he Whole Child, Whole Person Summit.鈥� Launched with an invitation-only pre-conference for 40 global researchers and policymakers, the preliminary session focused on shaping an agenda for future research in the field of emotional, social, and educational wellbeing, as well as whole-person development.
The main two-day event attracted nearly 200 local, national and international teachers, principals, superintendents and other education professionals who participated in panels and discussions on expanding the definition of academic achievement beyond content mastery and test scores.
鈥淲e wanted educators to think broadly about educational change and to tap their aspirations, not only for better schools, but for a better society,鈥� explained Shirley.
Added Hargreaves, the Thomas Moore Brennan Professor of Teacher Education:聽 鈥淎s the dissatisfaction with the narrowing of education鈥檚 exclusive focus on literacy and math competency of the past decade has grown, there鈥檚 been an upsurge in interest in social/emotional learning.聽 情色空间 took a leadership position, in partnership with ASCD, to express a bold and courageous vision for education that鈥檚 rooted in 鈥� and extended from 鈥� the University鈥檚 historical work in formative education.鈥澛�
At the final conference (Nov. 15-17), Boisi Professor of Education and Public Policy Henry Braun led an effort to quantify what he鈥檚 characterized as the ultimate outcome of a liberal arts education: a life of meaning and purpose.聽聽
鈥淒espite the varied, interdisciplinary backgrounds and research expertise of the attendees, all of the participants readily engaged and embraced the challenge to define the undefined,鈥� reported Braun, whose session was funded by the Spencer Foundation.聽 鈥淭he group truly trusted each other in their collaborative effort to wrestle this task to the ground.鈥澛犅�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a valuable goal to take abstract ideas such as meaning and purpose, and bring them down in a way that educators could actually work with them,鈥� said conference participant William Damon, a professor of education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and a leading researcher on the development of purpose in life who authored the book The Path to Purpose.聽
鈥淭he first great step in that direction is to operationalize the ideas, which means eventually being able to actually pin down through assessment where a student has to go in order to fully develop a sense of purpose 鈥� and then how do you fill that gap?鈥�
Braun affirmed that the conferees achieved an important, foundational step: identifying a targeted research agenda to help facilitate design of a tool that will quantify students鈥� progress toward leading fulfilling lives and contributing to their communities. He plans to pursue funding for the group to continue its quest.聽聽
Wortham expressed confidence in the school鈥檚 ability to take on the major action items from the colloquia: expanding the City Connects model to more schools; collaborating with ASCD to advance 鈥渨hole person鈥� education; developing assessments for formative education.
鈥淲e have a full plate, but we鈥檙e committed to achieving the respective objectives from each conference in an effort to attain the larger, longer-term goal of developing students 鈥� whether they鈥檙e K-12 or college-age 鈥� as whole people; to facilitate their success in school and life as a step toward leading purposeful lives.鈥澛�
-Phil Gloudemans/University Communications