Bridgewater State University launched its observance of its 175th anniversary on March 26 with an all-day conference which drew 200 educators from across the nation to attend lectures, participate in workshops, and listen to panel discussions focused on a variety of topics related to teacher education.
“The Arc of Teacher Education: From The Normal School to Now” served as both title and overarching theme of the conference, and those in attendance heard not only of teacher education history but of its future as well.
Dr. Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and former president and faculty member at Teacher’s College of Columbia University, focused on the past, present and future in his keynote address at the opening session in the Campus Center Ballroom.
“The nature of schooling is going to change. We’re still processing students by age, requiring twelve years of schooling, 180 days a year at most schools – a length of time dictated by the Carnegie Corporation in 1910,” said Dr. Levine, who is also a former faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “We’ve assumed that all people can learn the same amount of things in the same amount of time. Information outcomes don’t care about process – they care about outcomes. The most exciting aspect of what’s going on now is that we’re shifting from an emphasis on teaching to an emphasis on learning. Here, we’re going to see more and more that we evaluate teachers and reward teachers based on what students have learned and are able to demonstrate that they’ve learned.”
Other major changes are coming as well, he said: “Higher education has moved from a growth industry in the years after World War II to a mature industry. . . . We treat mature industries differently than we treat growth industries. We ask for greater efficiency; we ask for greater regulation; we ask for greater accountability. What we’re going to see is increasing demand for data about outcomes, we’re going to see more emphasis on areas like Common Core, and we’re going to see a demand for higher standards and higher graduation rates and higher performance throughout higher education. We’re also beginning to see alternative routes to becoming a teacher.”
The conference began with a welcome by Dr. Howard London, provost emeritus.
“As you may know we were founded as a normal school in 1840 by Horace Mann and we are rightfully I believe very proud of our institution,” he said. “Our purpose today is to not only celebrate Bridgewater’s history but to place it in social intellectual and political context of teacher education and to do so with a discerning and critical eye. As we do so we will see, among other things, that the development of the ways that we educate teachers today — that is, the ‘arc of teacher education’ — was not inevitable.”
Dr. London, a veteran of 30-plus years as a faculty member and administrator at BSU, said there is much still to be learned about this topic.
“Approaching the history of teacher education by examining what successive college and university administrations and their faculties have put together would conceal vastly more than it would reveal. Rather, this history is better seen as a never-ending series of struggles over who should be educated and why, what the education should consist of and why and who among different social ethnic and racial groups should teach whom? And whether the teachers be male or female? And with what preparation? In some places and times, in what languages they would be teaching?”
Following Dr. London’s welcome, the audience watched a video in which Dr. Robert Sylvester of the university’s education faculty discussed topics related to the conference theme.
In his remarks at the opening session, Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria, president of BSU, spoke of Horace Mann, the state’s first secretary of education and father of the normal school movement.
“As I think about this institution’s legacy and history, I know we have seen over these 175 years that our mission has not been altered; it’s a mission that has spun again and again been reinvigorated and refocused,” he said. “One evening, not long after I had assumed the presidency, I was walking behind the campus center on my way to my office in Boyden Hall. There were very few people on the campus. As I ascended the stairway to the Boyden quadrangle, where I saw was this magnificent building which words could not describe. Like a bolt of lightning came a realization that I was responsible for leading this institution in the future, that I was standing on the shoulders of ten previous presidents and so many scholars and contributors to the health and well-being of this institution. Frankly, for a moment I panicked.
“That led me to spend a good deal of time subsequently reading about the life and achievements of Horace Mann. I felt the need to understand as completely as I could the genesis of all of this,” the president continued. “Looking back, I understand that this was a turning point for me and for my presidency. I recognized then that we were not simply imparting knowledge to students, that it wasn’t only students coming here to get a quality college education. Instead it was about transforming lives and helping students understand who they are, which I believe, is what motivated Horace Mann to found this school. His intent was to create the greatest equalizing force possible in our society; our students needed then and need now to understand that carrying this forward is part of their responsibility. At the same time, this institution needed to ground itself, and reground itself, in that belief. So we did and so we have. Everything we have done – all of the growth, all of the development which Bridgewater has experienced – has been about finding ways in which we delivered that message and created that vision for our students, which enabled each generation to move successfully into a new horizon. Educating students to live and work and contribute to society is our goal in our mission.
“We are very proud of the history of this institution,” President Mohler-Faria concluded. “We are proud of what it stands for and we’re proud of Bridgewater’s accomplishments. I feel humble that I have been able to be a part of this legacy. “
Gene Durgin, chairman of the BSU board of trustees, and former chairman of the university’s foundation, brought greetings to the conference during the morning session.
“Clearly, the last 25 years on this campus have been its finest and part of the reason for that is the foundation that was built many years before that,” he said. “I’m often asked why I spend so much time on campus, and the reason is very simple: I get to meet with inspiring and dedicated students all the time; I get to observe closely the skilled leadership of our administration; and I get to hang out with gifted faculty all of the time. Therefore I’m exceedingly happy to be able to witness and participate in today’s superb program in honor of Bridgewater’s 175th anniversary.”
Dr. Levine followed Mr. Durgin to the podium for his address, and
Traced, in general, the evolution of teacher education in America and then outlined what he sees as the future trajectory of teacher education: “There are presently somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 teacher-education programs in America. That’s 78 percent of all four-year colleges and universities; they are public and they are private; they are for-profit and they are not-for-profit; they are universities and they are also libraries and museums and corporations. They award one out of every 11 baccalaureate degrees; one third of all masters degrees and 15 percent of all doctoral degrees.
He said he sees a number of changes coming and the first i—changing demographics – is already evident.
“The population in the United States, and in Massachusetts, is aging, changing color and coming from abroad. What we see is shrinking and growing large. In the Northeast and Midwest, and the middle-Atlantic states, we have more institutions than we have students to fill them. In the West we see a boom in the number of students going to college as the numbers in those regions are booming too. . . . We’re going to see retirements and the need to turn over the teaching force and the people who lead our schools.
“Maybe the most interesting demographic change I can think of in terms of teacher education is this: we did a study traditional and nontraditional students and what it showed was the nontraditional students – people over the age of 25 – part-time, working, largely women – want something very different from college than what traditional students want.
“We asked them what kind of relationship do you want with your college? In the answer was, I want to kind relationship I have with my college that I have with my bank, my Internet provider and with my supermarket. . . I don’t want my bank to offer me intramural sports; I don’t want my bank to offer me personal counseling or religious services. I can get all of that somewhere else. What they want is convenience, such as classes that are offered 24 hours a day, and when they go to the financial aid office, there is more predictability than playing the lottery, and that the registrar is actually there to help them. What they want is high quality instruction and they want low-cost. They are prime candidates for online learning available 24 hours a day which is going to get better and better and better in terms of quality. What we’re seeing now is primitive. The United States is moving from a national analog industrial economy to a global digital information economy. People need the highest level of skills and knowledge ever required,” he said.
Following the opening program the rest of day was divided into workshops and panel discussions that explored topics such as “Past as Prologue: The Early History”; “Exporting the Normal School Movement”; “Turning Students Into Teachers: Case Studies From the Early Years”; and “Contemporary Issues in Teacher Education.” (Story and photos by David K. Wilson, ’71, University News)
