National Network for Educational Renewal
National Network for Educational Renewal
• John Dewey said the following: “Education
is not preparation for life; it is life itself.”
• John Goodlad made education and the study
of schools his life and his legacy, and in part,
this has been manifested in the National
Network for Educational Renewal.
A Brief History
• 1985 Goodlad and colleagues created the
NNER to advance the simultaneous renewal
of schools and the education of educators
• From Univ. of Chicago, to Emory Univ., to
UCLA and then the Univ. of Washington
• Over 35 books and more than 200 articles
• “A Place Called School” (1984, 2004) &
received the book of the year award from
AERA
Foundational Texts – Goodlad et. al
A Place Called School 1984
The Nongraded Elementary School 1987
Places Where Teachers Are Taught 1990
The Moral Dimensions of Teaching 1990
Educational Renewal: Better Teachers,
Better Schools 1994
• Education For Everyone 2004
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National Network for Educational Renewal
• School, Community, Arts and Science, and
Education colleagues who work across the
boundaries within our institutions and
across settings
• We co-labor to provide access to quality
education for current P-12 students and
future educators.
Why Focus on Schools?
Schools, as no other public institution can,
open doors to life’s possibilities and advance
students’ understanding of their
responsibility to the public good.
Ann Foster
National Network for Educational Renewal
The NNER facilitates the simultaneous
renewal of schools and the education
of educators to promote the public
purposes of education in a democracy.
To accomplish this, the NNER is
committed to facilitating close
collaboration among colleagues in
education, arts and sciences, and
schools.
The NNER is not a program or a
prescribed way of doing our work, rather
it is a network of collegial support to
advance our common purpose of
providing excellent and relevant
education to all using the Agenda for
Education in a Democracy (AED) as our
compass.
The Agenda for Education in a Democracy
(AED)
Encompasses:
• A four part mission
• An overarching strategy
• Specific, idea-driven set of conditions on
which to focus renewal efforts
NNER Mission
– foster in the nation’s young the skills,
dispositions, and knowledge necessary for
effective participation in a social and
political democracy;
– ensure that the young have access to
knowledge and skills required for satisfying
and responsible lives;
– develop educators who nurture the
learning and well-being of every student;
and
– ensure educators’ competence in and
commitment to serving as stewards of
schools.
Unpacking Access to Education
Sounds Simple
• …But what are the critical resources that
must be included for Equitable Access?
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A possible list might include–
Well prepared and supported teachers,
High quality curriculum,
Best possible instruction for every child
Access to Knowledge cont.
• Sufficient resources,
• Schools organized for learning,
• Ongoing professional development for
educators, and
• Standards, curriculum, and assessments
supportive of educational goals.
• Your list…?
Unpacking the Rest of the AED 4 part
mission in your partnership
• Stewardship – we all have a stake in what
happens in our public schools. Stewardship
means holding a commitment to the entire
learning community.
• Engaged Learning through Nurturing
Pedagogy – results when educators use
developmentally appropriate, motivational,
and intellectually meaningful approaches to
teach substantive and essential content.
Participation in a Social and Political
Democracy
• Civic Preparation and Engagement
• Citizens are not born with the necessary
knowledge, skills, or dispositions to make a
democratic society possible. Democracy
essentially means government by the
people. A thoughtful and prepared public is
critical to maintaining and sustaining this
form of government.
Overarching Strategy
• So how is the AED enacted in a setting?
• Simultaneous renewal of schools and the
education of educators.
Necessary for Simultaneous Renewal
to Occur
• There must be critical agreement on
common goals & moral principles that guide
collaborative work.
• There must be ways to deliberate and come
to working agreements on common
purposes and processes.
Renewal Elements cont.
• Responsibility for change must be in the
hands of those who make changes that
improve schooling or are largely influenced
by the changes.
• These conditions must be operational on
both individual and collective levels.
The NNER: Simultaneous Renewal in
Practice
In short, good schools require good teachers
and good teachers learn their profession in
good schools.
We put into practice our belief that the
improvement of schooling and the renewal of
teacher education must proceed
simultaneously.
Conditions
20 Postulates that advance:
• the connections between a healthy
democracy and schooling
• Equity and excellence in structures,
processes, and outcomes
• The importance of quality educators who
take care of their students and the
profession
• Goodlad, 1990, 1994
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“Public schools must be understood as
public not simply because they serve the
public, but because they establish us as a
public.” Benjamin Barber
“To sustain and thrive, democratic societies
require a well educated population.” John
Goodlad
Three Assumptions
• What teachers know and can do is the most
important influence on what students learn at
school.
• Recruiting, preparing, and retaining good teachers
combine as a central strategy for improving and
sustaining good schools.
• School improvement cannot succeed without
including conditions in which teachers can teach
all students well.
Our mission takes a long view; by
improving schools and teacher
education, we open doors to life’s
possibilities for our students and our
grandstudents.
Conversation: Turning to One Another
• I believe we can change the world if we start
listening to one another again. Simple,
honest, human conversation. Not mediation,
negotiation, problem-solving, debate, or
public meetings. Simple, truthful
conversation where we each have a chance
to speak, we each feel heard, and we each
listen well.
-M. Wheatley
Conversations
• What can we do better when we work
together across boundaries?
• How does working together in partnerships
improve results for our students?
• What are some examples of simultaneous
renewal that are occurring in your setting?
What are democratic practices? Where do you
see them in practice?
How democratic are the
school/university/partnership practices?
Student voices?
Faculty voices?
Community Partners’ voices?
Vision and Commitment
• So What Does an Evolving Partnership
Setting’s Commitments Look Like?
• Conversations over time
• An investment of partnership resources
• Time, expertise and …
• One Setting’s Example
• Used with their permission
Renewing the Partnership through
Conversation
Who would you invite to the conversation?
Who would convene?
What roadblocks are there…how to
overcome?
The Partnership Puzzle Pieces
The Big Picture Can Help As You Get
Started
Quotes for thought
• We must BE the change we wish to see- M .
Gandhi
• We have to do the best we can. That is our
sacred responsibility-Albert Einstein
• You can never cross the ocean unless you have
the courage to lose sight of the shoreChristopher Columbus
• Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the
only way- Albert Einstein
• Imagine-John Lennon
What Questions Remain
• Contact us…
• Annfoster@nnerpartnerships.org
• Gregory.bernhardt@wright.edu
• www.nnerpartnerships.org