Arts and Sciences and Simultaneous Renewal: Collaboration and Expertise
Summary of Arts and Sciences Inquiry Session
September 16 - 17, 2005
Institute for Educational Inquiry

The concept of simultaneous renewal of schools and places that prepare educators grows out of the work of John Goodlad. Over more than a half century, Goodlad has been a national leader in efforts to improve the quality of schooling for America’s youths. During that time, he has articulated the critical need for tripartite involvement to prepare better teachers and provide better schools. This tripartite collaboration includes faculty and professionals from university arts and sciences departments, colleges of education, and public schools. Future teachers learn content from their arts and sciences course work while learning educational theory and its application in education course work. They apply their learning from both areas in their practicum work in schools. Experiences in each of these areas and their confluence form new teachers and intimately shape learning in their classrooms.

In the traditional structure of universities and schools, however, large divisions exist among these three partners. Arts and sciences and education faculty do not, as a regular part of their work, meet together, co-plan education paths for students, or work collaboratively with their public school colleagues. However, collaboration is necessary to engender and foster quality educators and quality schools. Therefore, John Goodlad has proffered the concept of simultaneous renewal of schools and places that prepare educators. This strategy is embedded in the Agenda for Education in a Democracy (AED), which provides a mission and purpose for the work of simultaneous renewal.

Agenda for Education in a Democracy

The Agenda consists of a four-part mission, a set of strategies, and conditions that are necessary to carry out the strategies.

The agenda is mission-driven and research-based, and it seeks to:

1. Foster in the nation’s young the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for effective participation in a social and political democracy.
2. Ensure that all youth have access to those understandings and skills required for satisfying and responsible lives regardless of race, religion, gender, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, or birth-language.
3. Develop and provide continuing support to educators who nurture the learning and well-being of every student.
4. Ensure educators’ competence and commitment to serving as stewards of their schools.

To carry out this mission, participants seek the simultaneous renewal of schools and the education of educators. They work to develop a broad base of well-educated leaders. They emphasize reflective practice and inquiry, stressing the value of educators’ learning from each other and from those who share their commitment to the education of the nation’s young. These strategies are carried out with recognition of conditions needed for continuing renewal of education.

John I. Goodlad’s Institute for Educational Inquiry (IEI), a Seattle-based nonprofit; the Center for Educational Renewal (CER) at the University of Washington; and the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) are the primary agencies that implement the Agenda. The NNER consists of 24 settings in 20 states and 1 Canadian province. Some settings involve one institution of higher education in partnership with local P-12 schools. Other settings involve two or more institutions of higher education in partnership with P-12 schools.

The NNER recognizes the crucial role of arts and sciences in forwarding the AED and seeks to learn the best ways of engaging arts and sciences expertise in the preparation of teachers and the work with schools. Recently, a group of individuals representing a range of arts and sciences backgrounds in NNER settings met at the IEI for a two-day inquiry session on how to most authentically and effectively engage the arts and sciences in preparing quality teachers for our schools.

The session began with Chinese historian Alan Wood leading a conversation to help the group think broadly about our society. He observed that it is important to recognize the systemic nature of things. As a historian who has emphasized the study of China, he noted that the Chinese tend to see things as interconnected, while his western colleagues tend to categorize and specialize. He sees civilizations as healthy when the parts are related and acting in a complementary, synergistic way. His studies have led him to conclude that the notion of compartmentalization of family and education is not as common in most of the nations of the world as it is in the U.S. He also suggested that leaders must constantly look at the big picture and observe how the pieces fit together, noting that the absence of that way of thinking in the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina was obvious.

“So,” Alan asked, “what do such thoughts have to do with the issue of democracy (at large) and with trying to tie that issue to the role of A&S?” In part, he suggested, these notions lead to some realizations about the nature of democracy. For example, they lead to an understanding that freedom is not just the absence of restraint but the realization of potential.

Building on his earlier comments about problems of higher education, he noted that successful universities have managed to stimulate innovation by getting scholars to think about fundamental issues across disciplines. Moreover, successful institutions are bridging the communication gap between professional schools and the arts and sciences.

The ensuing conversation evolved from these opening comments. During the intense two-day session, the group grappled with the responsibilities of the arts and sciences in relation to the work of preparing educators. The arts and sciences provide strong content background to a wide variety of student interests. However, as Goodlad has noted (Teachers for Our Nation’s Schools, 1990), future teachers are the only ones who use their subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical-content skills as their basic professional tools. Therefore, they must be well educated through general education courses and specialization in the disciplines they teach in order to become effective teachers.

In addition, arts and sciences faculty collaborate with schools and with colleges of education in a variety of roles. The group identified the following criteria that it believes would be useful in assessing the work of arts and sciences faculty as they fulfill the responsibilities associated with these roles:

1. The end result needs to be a worthwhile effort that will advance the Agenda—keep it going and challenge it so that it continues to renew.
2. The initiative should seek justice and moral consistency in what will be done.
3. Participants at all levels who are involved in a new initiative must be passionate about what they are doing and be willing to engage in pre-planning with all affected parties.
4. There should be a mechanism to disseminate the results.
5. Participants should spread out the collaboration and its rewards over time—prepare for the long road.
6. Participants should work as equal partners with appreciation for what each contributes.
7. The initiative should have a defined focus that includes developing the skills of students (in schools and preservice), shared needs, and mutual benefits.
8. Sufficient resources must be available to achieve the desired outcomes.
9. New initiatives may be introduced creatively as pilots, but they need to be initiated with an aim of providing enough continuity to accomplish the intended ends.
10. There should be an incentive to expand or follow up on the initial work.

After considerable conversation, the following multidimensional responsibilities were cited as examples that would meet many of these criteria.

Arts and sciences faculty should:

1. Engage in conversations, within departments and elsewhere, that are related to the AED and its relation to changing the mission of the institution.
2. Be good stewards of the disciplines that make up the content taught in the schools.
3. Model nurturing pedagogy for those they teach.
4. Provide instruction that reflects the best of the discipline and the AED for all students in both general and specialized education.
5. Engage in partnerships that promote reflection on the AED.
6. Contribute to leveling the “citizenship field” (the status relationships within and among colleges of education, arts and sciences, and P-12).

As an additional outgrowth of their deliberations, participants suggested that a statement concerning the Agenda for Education in a Democracy should be widely adopted by institutions. It might serve as evidence of institutional commitment much like the “greening document” does with regard to environmental issues. Anny Morrobel-Sosa provided the following links to examples of such documents as a starting place for further exploration of this possibility:

• For the Talloires Declaration on environmental sustainability on university campuses:
  • http://www.ulsf.org/programs_talloires.html
• For a universal statement on academic freedom from the first global colloquium of university presidents:
  • http://www.columbia.edu/cu/president/communcations%20files/globalcolloquium.html

The following individuals participated in the study session:

This paper represents a brief summary and overview of the work to provide preliminary information for the Governing Council and Tripartite Council discussions at the NNER Annual Conference.

Copyright © 2005 National Network for Educational Renewal. All rights reserved.