Education can and should be empowering. Creating a healthier, more equitable world requires more than just knowledge: it requires that people apply that knowledge, learn from the experience, and adapt. This kind of iterative creativity is so important, but it is contingent upon people feeling empowered as agents of change -- that they believe they can in fact create new conditions and different outcomes in the world. To be empowering, education should be inclusive, learner-centered, and designed to strengthen self-efficacy through hands-on, experiential learning.
I've been a university instructor, workshop facilitator, and research mentor.
At the University of Utah, I developed and taught anthropology courses (both introductory and upper level), co-designed a campus-wide faculty development workshop for incorporating sustainability into the curriculum, and helped establish a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in sustainability (for details on how we institutionalized these initiatives, see this paper).
Later, working with the USPCASW project in Pakistan, I developed and contributed to capacity strengthening workshops on a range of topics, including writing policy briefs, social science research methods, diffusion of innovations, community-based research, and human subjects research ethics. The latter two topics were presented at the National Academy of Higher Education, Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
Some of the superstar educators involved with USPCASW's capacity strengthening efforts truly modeled the kind of teaching all educators aspire to: engaging and inspirational. The USPCASW experience was a kind of "learning community" for effective pedagogy and curriculum design -- and I was exposed to new techniques and tools that I have integrated into my own teaching practice. Our team also contributed to the development of graduate degree programs, which included regular curricular revisions to improve alignment with student needs and market demand. Many of the lessons we collectively learned regarding curriculum reform and capacity strengthening can be found in the USPCASW Final Report.
One especially salient take-away for me was that research capacity is probably best strengthened through collaboration on a real project (for which all parties feel there is shared ownership) rather than through classroom or workshop-style training. The implications of this for research capacity strengthening are significant.
Taken altogether, these experiences have shaped how I think about and approach education as an educator -- but also as an advisor for educational reform.
At the University of Utah, I developed and taught anthropology courses (both introductory and upper level), co-designed a campus-wide faculty development workshop for incorporating sustainability into the curriculum, and helped establish a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in sustainability (for details on how we institutionalized these initiatives, see this paper).
Later, working with the USPCASW project in Pakistan, I developed and contributed to capacity strengthening workshops on a range of topics, including writing policy briefs, social science research methods, diffusion of innovations, community-based research, and human subjects research ethics. The latter two topics were presented at the National Academy of Higher Education, Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
Some of the superstar educators involved with USPCASW's capacity strengthening efforts truly modeled the kind of teaching all educators aspire to: engaging and inspirational. The USPCASW experience was a kind of "learning community" for effective pedagogy and curriculum design -- and I was exposed to new techniques and tools that I have integrated into my own teaching practice. Our team also contributed to the development of graduate degree programs, which included regular curricular revisions to improve alignment with student needs and market demand. Many of the lessons we collectively learned regarding curriculum reform and capacity strengthening can be found in the USPCASW Final Report.
One especially salient take-away for me was that research capacity is probably best strengthened through collaboration on a real project (for which all parties feel there is shared ownership) rather than through classroom or workshop-style training. The implications of this for research capacity strengthening are significant.
Taken altogether, these experiences have shaped how I think about and approach education as an educator -- but also as an advisor for educational reform.
MORE EXPERIENCE
ADVISOR
Achieve goals, not only targets
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RESEARCHER
Impact the real world
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