University Business - August 2008 - (Page 24)

FUTURE SHOCK in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, throughout the United States, and in other parts of the world.” Joseph Berger, chair of the school’s Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration, adds, “Given the new mandates of the global economy, the rapid expansion of knowledge, and the need for highly skilled workers, higher education is one of the most signiﬁcant growth sectors around the world. Governments, donor agencies, and postsecondary institutions in places like China and the Philippines recognize that increasing access alone is not enough. Sustained increases in quality require strong leadership in order to fully realize returns on investments already being made in curricular reforms, new campus facilities, and improved technologies.” Harvard University’s School of Education mirrors a special amalgamation of research, theory, and evidence-based practice. In a welcome address to incoming students posted on the school’s website, Dean Kathleen McCartney explains, “Our comparative advantage is rooted in the belief that working at the nexus of practice, policy, and research is the most powerful way to improve education. Whether preparing students, working with education leaders through professional education eﬀorts, or conducting research, we operate at this intersection.” In this way, Harvard students learn to apply theory through classroom, research, and ﬁeld practicum experience. “The challenges facing education are complex, extending beyond our schools to families, communities and our nation. At HGSE, we recognize that we are at a signiﬁcant juncture in our history,” McCartney adds. HELPING TO OVERCOME LONGSTANDING INEQUITIES In our follow-up research, we learned that Columbia University’s Teachers College has become known as an education partner to the world, with an enduring commitment to providing policymakers and practitioners with the best and most im- partial research-based information. In fact, TC has intentionally positioned itself as “trainer and trainee, learner and teacher.” In her May 2008 letter to the TC community, President Susan Fuhrman explains, “Nowhere do these two ideals converge more meaningfully than in our eﬀorts to address … the gulf in opportunities and Urban education work is messy, and the problems can seem colossal. outcomes that separates poor students and students of color from their wealthier, typically white peers.” Columbia’s niche is its growing commitment to international projects, especially global collaborations among faculty, students, and staﬀ. While announcing TC’s new director of international aﬀairs position, Fuhrman notes, “There are numerous countries that have asked for TC’s help with their educational reform and training eﬀorts.” Toward this end, TC takes pride in its educational ties to Japan, China, Bolivia, Iceland, and Ghana, among other international collaborators. Consider as well the Graduate School of Education of the University of California, Berkeley. In his message to prospective students on the school’s website, Dean P. David Pearson explains UC Berkeley’s philosophy this way: “The work of the faculty and students in the school is grounded equally in theory and practice. We work from the premise that the two enterprises are synergistic—that theory informs practice as much as practice informs theory.” Through collaborations with urban schools and community-based nonproﬁt organizations, the School’s Center for Urban Education—one of its featured centers of excellence—supports eﬀorts to improve the quality of education available to students in low-income urban areas. Blossoming education leaders are constantly reminded that they cannot address urban school problems without looking at social and economic factors simultaneously. The work is messy, and the problems can seem colossal. In this context, UC Berkeley earns its stripes by encouraging future education leaders to recognize this reality and embrace it with vigor and idealism. “If you want to engage in conversations about the big ideas in education and if you are prepared to ask how those ideas can make life better for students and their parents and teachers, then Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education is the right place for you,” remarks Pearson. TEACHING FOR SOCIAL EQUITY AND EMPOWERMENT These top-tier education schools have their distinctive centers of excellence, but they also share a number of common traits. The highly successful schools intuitively transform global competitors into collaborators, while viewing themselves as international higher learning enterprises, capable of developing human capital from which future education leaders will be drawn. Unlike our contemporaries, today’s graduate level education students will increasingly aspire to serial professional careers, moving around the world to learn, teach, and serve in diverse cultures and settings. Teachers, policymakers, and politicians expect more than proﬁcient test-takers as educational process outcomes. They want schools that produce students who are not only college ready, but world ready. These star schools have undertaken their higher learning often out of the spotlight. Yet their individual and collective impact is felt in thousands of communities across the nation and around the globe. The moment of relative quiet associated with conventional teacher preparation programs has passed, as fast-changing needs of the global classroom take center stage. School of ed students and staﬀ should prepare for a new wave of serious interest in teaching as the professional path of choice to shape the new world order of education change and innovation. 24 | August 2008 universitybusiness.com http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - August 2008

University Business - August 2008
Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
On the Hill
Future Shock
Independent Outlook
Community Colleges
Dorms of Distinction
Streamlining Admissions: Opening the Front Door
E-mail, Gmail, and Beyond
EduComm Deals a Winning Hand
What's New
End Note

University Business - August 2008