We must acknowledge all that is happening right now in our country: A global pandemic disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx people; the recent police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis; the sadness and anger that has led to widespread protests against police brutality (primarily targeted at Black folks); larger unrest about the vast racialized inequities wrought by our institutions; the astronomical wealth inequality in this country; and the dangerousness and instability of our political ecosystem.
We, in the Education Department at Tufts University, firmly stand against White supremacist fascism, extrajudicial killings of Black and Brown people at the hands of law enforcement, and broader systems of structural oppression--including those that operate within schools and universities.
These are heavy, sad, confusing, and angry days for many of us, but they are also days where it feels like there are opportunities to do better, to work towards a more livable, more just society, and to continue to strive for educational institutions shaped by humanization, radical healing, and love. In fact, everything that we do in this Department is predicated on these very hopes and commitments. Teaching and supporting students (in the classrooms and hallways of schools, in museums, and in the public squares, both physical and virtual) is essential culture work. We teach, coach, mentor, counsel, and educate students for the purpose of continually creating the kind of society that we want and need. In schools, for example, this means asking hard questions about what we learn and why, as well as answering students’ questions about what matters in learning. It means analyzing the disciplinary systems in our institutions and whose behavior gets policed and punished. It means examining the power relationship between teachers and students. It means calling out how civics and civic engagement are defined and delineated. It means making explicit the hidden and null curricula and reshaping whose stories and ideas are centered and whose stories and ideas are peripheral. In sum, it is about challenging White supremacy and systems of unequal power. All of these matters are urgent. And they require each and every one of us to answer the call to action. Now.
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faculty featured
in Tufts Now
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Deborah Donaghue-Keegan - "Navigating the Pandemic: Knowledge, Resilience, Civic Purpose and Engagement"
Navigating the Pandemic: Knowledge, Resilience, Civic Purpose and Engagement will be launched this summer as an eight-part weekly webinar series sponsored by Tisch College of Civic Life. The series is aimed at supporting students during the COVID-19 pandemic and will be broadcast via Tisch College's YouTube channel on Wednesdays from 11am - 12:30pm EST, beginning June 10th. Tisch College faculty and staff, Tufts faculty, and experts from Boston-area universities, hospitals, and community nonprofit organizations will participate in the series. Deborah Donaghue-Keegan, who is leading the effort along with Tisch Associate Dean Peter Levine, explains: "We have developed this webinar series to help mitigate the sense of isolation and unsettledness many students are experiencing...We are offering a way for students to stay connected to the university community and to each other over the summer. We also want to help students acquire more knowledge and skills in order to navigate conflicting information and misinformation regarding COVID-19." The weekly seminars for undergraduate and graduate students are free. Additional information, a list of topics, and registration and certificate information can be found on the Tisch College of Civic Life website.
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Brian Gravel -
"With Classrooms Closed, Will Kids Fall Behind?"
"Fall behind whom?" Brian replies. "Everyone is doing this...We have this vision that if we're not doing traditional work, then we're not doing good learning."
The interview focuses on Brian Gravel's research specialty; learning that occurs outside of the traditional academic work taught in classrooms. "While children are home with family members or loved ones, that is an opportunity to learn together as a family and to teach traditions," he said. "That looks different than so-called 'on-line learning solutions,' but this is the moment to think about what learning looks like and what forms it can take. We have created this false distinction that learning happens in school and life is some other thing."
In the interview Brian also calls attention to the inequities of our society and how COVID-19 is casting a spotlight on this harsh reality, stating: "Part of the re-examining means looking closely at these inequities and how schooling often furthers them."
The entire interview is featured in an April 2020 Tufts Now article.
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Alum Duncan MacLaury, MAT History '14, awarded the Richard Aieta Promising Teacher Award
Reflecting on his recent recognition, Duncan shares: "I am honored to have received the Richard Aieta Promising Teacher Award this year from the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies. I have had amazing teaching mentors and peers including my nominating colleague at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Kevin Dua, and Professors Steve Cohen, Linda Beardsley, and many others at Tufts who have helped me get where I am, and continue to push me (both directly and indirectly) to become a better teacher for all of my students."
Duncan MacLaury has been a U.S. History teacher at CRLS since 2016 and in 2019 received the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Faculty Distinction Award for his exceptional teaching. He earned both his Bachelors of Arts in history and Masters of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University, in 2013 and 2014, respectively. In 2018, his research on the Black Panther Party of Boston was published in the edited collection, The Black Panther Party in a City Near You. Duncan is grateful to be teaching young people, and in particular, the diversity of youth in Cambridge, about history each day. By using complex primary sources and scholarly texts in his classes, he engages students to study history and its importance to the current world. His teaching uplifts the voices of people marginalized in the traditional study of U.S. History and emphasizes the power of people in making change in the world. By providing students with tools to use as active agents of progress, he encourages them to create a world in which they wish to live.
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Alum Matthew Callahan, MA Education '19, Keeps Students Connected with "Chalk Talk"
Alum Matthew Callahan, a US history teacher at Catholic Memorial, was recently featured in the Boston Globe for his exceptional dedication to keeping his students motivated during their cancelled lacrosse season. To engage his students during the COVID-19 pandemic, Callahan created "chalk talks", a forum which is open to students ranging from high school seniors to seventh graders. During these sessions, Callahan and his staff discuss lacrosse strategy and answer student questions, before dividing the players into grade level subgroups.
Student Gage Mohammed shares: "As a coach, I think [Callahan is] doing everything in his power to keep us motivated, and you can tell he genuinely cares for us...He's always there as a coach, and teacher."
As a senior at Tufts, Callahan was named the outstanding defender in the US Intercollegiate League, later serving as an assistant coach of Tufts Division 3 national championship squad in 2015.
Callahan expresses what many teachers are feeling these days: "No one gets into teaching or coaching to spend all day in front of a computer. You get into it for the relationships...It's been difficult given the circumstances, but we're just teachers trying to help students better themselves, and we happen to be teaching lacrosse." |
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Recent Graduate, Abigail Robichaud, MAT Art Education '20,
I hated my dress, featured in the Boston Arts Book Fair. |
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I hated my dress by Abigail Robichaud |
Abigail's book entitled, I hated my dress, was featured in the 2019 Boston Art Book Fair and received First Runner-Up in Illustration at the SMFA Graphics Annual. The book aims to bring awareness to child abuse and neglect and promote child advocacy. The book was inspired by the complicated relationship between the author and her mother. Abi reflects on her creative process: "Drawing on some of my earliest childhood memories (particularly the unsettling ones) I drew simplistic illustrations of material objects, playing with Piaget's theory of object permanence in infancy. The seemingly meaningless objects became permanent in my mind, along with the traumatic response to them. The objects as well as text are often floating in space without obligation to conventional borders. As the story progresses, the narrator ages, and the "thoughts" you are reading become more developed, more perceptive." The story was first hand written with sketched illustrations. The illustrations were then recreated as digital drawings, printed, and water colored by hand. The book can be ordered here.
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Susan Barahal Promoted to Senior Lecturer
For nearly 20 years, Susan Barahal has been playing a number of pivotal roles in the Art Education MAT program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts modeling her work as an artist, researcher, and teacher. Most recently, these have included program director and co-coordinating student teacher field placements.
Susan’s teaching is exemplified by the practice of Artful Thinking, an inquiry approach that explores art objects through close looking and open-ended questions. Her work is frequently shown at juried sculpture exhibitions around New England. She mounted a powerful “Art of Resistance” exhibit in collaboration with Tisch Library following the 2016 election and featuring MAT graduate student work. Each year, she and her colleagues stage a wonderful exhibition of k-12 student art work produced by the children in the classrooms of our MAT student teachers, demonstrating their success as art teachers. Don’t miss this next year!
In recognition of her outstanding teaching and advising, Susan has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education. Brava, Susan!
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Julia Gouveau Promoted to Associate Professor of Education
Our colleague Julia Gouveau has been tenured and promoted. Her new title as of July 1 will be Associate Professor of Education and Biology.
Julia’s research focuses on learning and teaching in biology. In one line of her research, she redesigned labs for Biology 14, “Organisms and Populations.” Her assignments challenge students to think for themselves, formulate their own questions, to design their own investigations, and to draw their own conclusions. They do this in part through computational modeling - including this spring modeling the transmission and evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Julia’s teaching was highlighted in an Inside Higher Education article about college faculty adapted instruction during the pandemic.)
Julia writes a regular "Current Insights" column for the journal Life Sciences Education in which she summarizes recent articles from the learning sciences and education research communities that may be of interest to science educators and researchers. Her most recent feature highlights research on students' identities with implications for disrupting inequities in science education. Julia is a leader in Biology Education Research, a founding member of the Tufts Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction, and a bold, innovative scholar. We are delighted, proud, and so very fortunate to have her on our faculty.
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Laura Rogers Receives Student Accessibility Services Disability Advocate Award
Kimberly Doan, Associate Director of Student Accessibility Services, shares: "We are extremely grateful for Laura’s collaboration with the SAS team, efforts around accessible course design, and compassionate understanding for each student’s experience as a diverse learner in her classroom. Congratulations again, Laura (on this award, as well as upcoming retirement after so many years of impactful work). The Student Accessibility Services team, the accessibility community, and its students thank you!"
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Click on the image above, then click on the collage to play the video.
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Laura Rogers,
Senior Lecturer Emerita |
Laura Rogers is doing her best to retire from our Department, but it is proving to be a struggle. Chairing the search committee for our Coordinator of Teacher Preparation Programs and introducing the candidates this past week, planning for the uncertainties of schools reopening in the Fall and the possible scenarios that our school psychology and MAT students might be facing, and helping to optimize our Fall scheduling of courses to determine what can best be offered online, in-person, and in hybrid form continue to occupy her time. She has graciously agreed to "break-in" the new Coordinator in September and will oversee the final year of the BHEST grant in 2020-21. Officially, her retirement was recognized at the final AS&E faculty meeting of the year and her Senior Lecturer Emerita status was announced by Provost Aubrey at the virtual graduation ceremony on May 17. So, we shall see... Read the Department resolution on Laura's retirement here.
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Welcome,Justin
As a sociologist of education, Justin Jimenez works with interdisciplinary methodologies and frameworks, including critical race feminisms and decolonial thought, to illuminate the conditions, challenges, and possibilities of redressing the enduring acts/processes of violence and dispossession inflicted on marginalized students. He has worked collaboratively with students, educators, and community members to engage narrative as a method for evaluating the character of relationships in teaching and learning contexts. Justin shares: "I am delighted to return to Tufts this fall and to be part of the acclaimed Education Department. In Anthropology and Sociology of Schooling, I hope to facilitate a dynamic learning environment that rigorously harnesses the "sociological imagination" to foster social change. Through hearty discussion and deliberate reflection of ethnographic studies and personal narratives (and maybe while having a meal or two!), we will address issues of power, identity, and difference that have effects on social practices and everyday life in and out of school. I'm looking forward to learning with you!"
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Welcome, Milo
We are excited to announce Professor Milo Koretsky, currently at Oregon State University, will be joining us in April, 2021.
Milo began his career as a chemical engineer, doing research on plasma processes in thin film materials. He became interested in education, first to write a textbook, Engineering and Chemical Thermodynamics (which is widely used), and then as the focus of his research. Milo is now a leading scholar in Engineering Education Research. He will join Tufts as the McDonnell Family Bridge Professor in Education and Chemical & Biological Engineering. In that role he will be part of the Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction.
We look forward to having him on our faculty!
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Welcome, Ira
We look forward to having Assistant Professor Ira Caspari at Tufts starting this summer. Ira’s primary appointment will be in the Department of Chemistry, but she’ll have a secondary appointment in Education, and she’ll be a member of the Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction. Ira's research focuses on the learning and teaching of Chemistry. Ira is currently at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, having been a post-doctoral research associate in Chemistry Education with Professor Hannah Sevian.
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Update on Certificate in Program Evaluation
A four course Certificate in Program Evaluation is expected to be approved by the Graduate Programs and Policies committee this week. The program will be housed in the GSAS office and primarily involve Data Analytics, UEP, and Education. Our involvement will focus upon a new course in Advanced Survey Design and Evaluation. Cynthia Robinson, Silas Pinto, and Steve Luz-Alterman joined with faculty from Data Analytics and UEP to help in shaping the final proposal. Click here for details.
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Judah Schwartz
1934-2020
Judah Schwartz often referred to himself as a "failed retiree." He was right. He retired from MIT and wound up at Harvard. He retired from Harvard and turned up on the Hill. So, you could also say that he was just improving his status each time.
He was a truly remarkable colleague. His knowledge was encyclopedic, and his brain worked "faster than a speeding bullet." He could stop you in the hall to ask you a question, and you would be actively thinking about it for the rest of the week. Literally. I don't know if I have ever worked with someone who thought as deeply about so many things. And he loved to have his fun with the "deanery." It was our great luck that he spent those years in Paige Hall. (Steve Cohen)
Judah was trained in theoretical physics and mathematics and conducted research for many years in the area of atomic physics. His research interests included the design of microcomputer software environments to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics and the application of cognitive science techniques to the study of mathematics and science education. Having published extensively in the area of educational technology, his software environments included: The Semantic Calculator, The Algebraic Proposer, What Do you Do With a Broken Calculator?, Sir Isaac Newton's Games, and The Newtonian Sandbox. His most recent publications included case studies of educational reform entitled, "The Geometric Supposer; What Is It A Case Of?" and "Software Goes to School: Teaching for Understanding in the Age of Technology".
Judah Schwartz's publications can be found on his personal website: mathMINDhabits.
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Diane Lind
1937-2020
Tufts Department of Education learned last week that former Program Supervisor and Coordinator of Teacher Placements, Diane Lind, passed away on May 15, 2020 after a brief illness. Diane graduated from Malden High School and Jackson College at Tufts University and received her MAT degree from Salem State College. She taught English at Wakefield Middle School from 1958 until 1975 when she moved to Wakefield High School to teach in and chair the English Department for more than 20 years until her retirement.
It was in her “retirement” that she brought her commitment to preparing a new generation of teachers to Tufts MAT programs. We were fortunate to have benefited from her considerable experience in classrooms and the delightful energy she always brought to her work. In observing student teachers, she offered clear critique balanced with boundless encouragement. (“Your mini-lecture on Keats was impressive and truly scholarly. But did you notice that your 10th graders weren’t paying attention?”). In working with cooperating practitioners and other university supervisors, Diane always communicated to them the vital role they played in preparing educators who would be ready to inspire a love of story, drama, social justice and the power of the human voice in their students.
Reading the messages of condolence that followed her death notice, many are from former students. After reading these expressions of appreciation for a generous, dynamic person I thought: Such is the legacy of a teacher. Even long after the lessons of the classroom end, a teacher who has touched our lives and shared their knowledge with us continues to help us find meaning in our own lives. Thank you and we will miss you.
(Linda Beardsley)
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A Note from the GSAS:
Graduate Student Summer Speaker Series (GS4)
Dear Graduate Students,
You must know by now that our thoughts are constantly on you, your well-being, and the well-being of your families. During this period of unprecedented separation, creating opportunities for GSAS students to come together and enrich each other’s lives is critical to the future of our community.
In the spirit of maintaining our connectedness and for the enrichment of our community, the GSAS is launching the Graduate Student Summer Speaker Series (GS4). Series speakers are invited to prepare a 30-minute research talk. The presentation will be given with a Zoom audience. Audience questions will follow the presentation. Twenty-four finalists will be selected to present on their own current research, proposed research, or completed research projects. Two speakers will be scheduled to present each Tuesday at 11:00 AM (Eastern) between June 2nd through August 25th. An Amazon gift card will be given to each speaker.
The GSAS Dean's Office invites you to volunteer or nominate a fellow GSAS student to become a featured speaker in our series. To nominate yourself or someone else please email the following:
- Full name, Department, and Advisor(s).
- Brief abstract (200 words, single space) of your topic with full title of the presentation.
- Indicate if you are nominating yourself or a fellow student. If nominating a fellow student, include their full name and department and their email address.
View a current listing of the graduate speaker presentations and registration information.
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Graduate Student Council Forum - Join In
The AS&E GSC invites you to join their temporary online forum to connect with the graduate community at Tufts. Visit the site to find answers to any questions you might have, or to discuss issues that you are experiencing. Please contact the GSC at gsc@tufts.edu with any questions or suggestions.
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Education Opportunities Website
The Department of Education Opportunities website provides information on available opportunities for our current students and alumni. There are opportunities ranging from babysitting and home care to teaching and scholarship. Make sure to subscribe to the site if you would like timely updates. If you have an opportunity that you would like to post on this site, please send us an email.
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Covid-19 Department Updates
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Department Online Community
Introducing our new Google Site. Visit the site for resources and archived communications. This site will also include links, focused on community building activities within the department. Cast your vote on upcoming student socials - your input regarding which Zoom events you would be most interested in attending and what times work best for you is most welcome!
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Department Newsletter
The Department Newsletters and Updates will be sent periodically to communicate any upcoming events or pertinent information.
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