Harvard Ed School

“Find a common truth with others.” 

Emanuel Garza Fishburn’s words surprised me. At HGSE, it is common to engage in discussions about education by thinking through concepts like sector analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and theory of change. Certainly these concepts have their place, but Emanuel chose to talk about practicing a “different type of leadership”, one that hinges on relationships and serving as a bridge between people, organizations and ideas.

Emanuel Garza Fishburn is social entrepreneur and 2004 IEP alum. Last week a group of students had the opportunity to engage Emanuel around his innovation in education which includes developing democratic citizenship and participatory approaches to poverty reduction and community development.

Emanuel found his purpose in an urban politics course at the Kennedy School. It was then he realized the power of civil society, and abandoned his plan of entering electoral politics for the chance to learn how to cultivate civic engagement. This new vision brought him to HGSE. Here he worked with IEP Director, Fernando Reimers, and began collaborating with fellow IEP students on an idea that became Vía Educación (www.viaeducacion.org), a nonprofit he co-founded in Mexico, his home country, that focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of educational strategies, primarily in the field of civic education. Vía Educación, an idea in 2004, has grown into a respected organization with a staff of 60 and become a leader in community transformation and the implementation of quality education.

Since establishing Vía, Emanuel has continued to work closely with others in launching a corporate responsibility network, a community foundation, and two schools. One of these schools, Universidad Carolina (www.ucarolina.mx), is the first university in Latin America specifically designed to serve underserved youth. The school seeks to support students in recognizing and achieving their potential. Therefore, it has coupled its academic curriculum with institutionalized strategies that address a student’s full experience.  

Emanuel has accomplished much in 12 years, but the minute you meet him, it is hard to think beyond his warmth, joy, and openness. You know that when he talks about empathy, listening, and vulnerability as key leadership traits, you believe him because he embodies them. As I reflected on my time with Emanuel, I felt grateful to be gently reminded that civic engagement or any kind of social change work must be communal, and always center ours and others’ humanity.

By Asmaa Elsayed

A great teacher once asked her students: “In five minutes, describe yourself in 3-5 words.” By the end of the five minutes, every student was done, except for one shy student sitting in the corner. The teacher approached the student and pushed her to just write the first thing that came to her mind. The student wrote, “Muslim, Egyptian, and woman.” The teacher looked at the student’s answer long enough to worry the student even more. “Suspend expectations and fear for a bit. Suspend right and wrong for a bit. Listen and write what you hear inside,” said the teacher. “A free spirit/thinker, a learner, an explorer and … content,” the student wrote finally.

I cannot remember that teacher’s name, but I am forever grateful that she pushed me to look beyond the tip of the iceberg in an education system steeped in memorization, which continues to mold rather than set free.

Mark Van Doren once said, “The art of teaching is the art of assisting a discovery.” We often think of discovery in terms of empowering our students with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to fulfill their potential and discover their true passion in life. Yet, we often overlook the deepest discovery of all — that complex, sometimes emotional and unconscious, discovery of who we are as educators and, above all, humans.

For me, the strongest influencers were my family and my cultural and religious upbringing. I came from a deeply beloved place, yet it is where women are often raised to be seen not heard, where violence against women, homophobia, religious prosecution, and conformity are often the norms. It can be a grave of human dignity and freedom, unless you are cushioned with wealth, power, and position. My beloved grandmothers were illiterates who never stepped a foot in a school, and my widowed mother was not allowed to finish her primary education. I was to be in the same boat. Yet, my mother encouraged me to pursue education. It is as if she wanted to give me everything she never had.

Knowledge has always been my torch, a safe haven where I have repeatedly lost and found myself. Family instability and financial struggles transformed me from an academically gifted child on track to graduate college at age 19 to a nontraditional student who was at points homeless. Whether dealing with traumatic parent loss due to cancer; living with illiterate grandmothers and a mother who was not allowed to finish her primary education; moving between four countries, 17 homes, and 11 schools, losing three years by not going to school; ending unhealthy relationships; or surviving domestic violence and homelessness; knowledge has been my refuge. There is a ton of injustice in the world but you can give opportunity to people and get the best out of them through education.

The education I received up to coming to the U.S. was more of an indoctrination, another instrument of the government to mold young generations into certain ideologies. It was like you can only color within the lines, conform to survive the system. For me, the level of access to all kinds of knowledge that was often forbidden in the Muslim world. The exposure to different cultures and religions; the level of freedom to choose your classes and take responsibility for your own learning; the level of interdependence and collaborative work; the level of encouragement for critiquing, questioning, innovating — it all expanded my world more than I ever thought was possible. It was a transformative experience; it was like learning how to breathe. I was blinded by having to see life through the lenses of predetermined cultural, religious, and gender ideologies imposed on me, never of my own free will. I was longing for a life where my mind and my consciousness were my anchors and where my humanity was my drive, not fear of hellfire or external power. Fighting for my right to quality education, choosing my religious and gender identity seemed to be too revolutionary ideas for my family, friends, and community. But it always seems impossible till someone does it, and I wanted to be that someone.

I am now committed to service and human rights. I have worked with immigrants in volunteer positions with Catholic Charities and HANDS, a U.S.-based NGO dedicated to promoting intercultural understanding and cooperation between the U.S. and Egypt. Also, while studying for my master’s at American University, I was an executive board member and a Friday forum coordinator for the International Development Program Student Association, the goal of which was to educate and motivate future international development practitioners and bridge the gap between academic knowledge and field experience. In 2007, I co-founded an NGO which provides such aid as scholarships for orphan girls to continue their education, a wheelchair for a handicap child, and food distribution to over 700 people in some of Cairo’s poorest neighborhoods in 2008. 

This past fall, I arrived on Appian Way with a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans to join HGSE’s International Education Policy Program. During the interview for the Soros Fellowship, I was asked where I could see myself failing. There was an internal struggle in answering this question; part of me wanted to think of a clever answer that may impress the selection committee, part of me wanted to just vent, which includes the possibility of revealing parts of me that may not be the most attractive, yet they are the truest, purest, and most vulnerable me. “If I stopped failing,” was my answer. From the committee’s lack of facial expression, I elaborated with a quote by Gandhi: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

I remember having an “aha” moment during my fall’s class with Visiting Professor Pasi Sahlberg, when he mentioned that Finns invite everybody to celebrate failure on October 13. It is a way to highlight not only success, but having the courage to try, a way to cultivate a growth mindset. Despite embarrassment and sometimes degrading criticism by family members, friends, and colleagues, I’ve always allowed myself to try and to make mistakes without ever losing my sense of self-respect or self-worth.

I feel a deep sense of responsibility to help other students decide who they want to be, and cultivate the courage and resilience to live up to their own standards and not anyone else’s. For me, resilience was “an opportunity to be.” My current advocacy efforts to balance the focus of education from merely doing to experiential learning is a reflection of my deep belief in the transformative power of a holistic approach to education that guarantees not only our students’ academic success, but wellbeing, resilience, and, may I dare to say, happiness.

Research has consistently shown that school counselors can and do have a positive impact on student aspirations and achievement.  For example, when counselors are actively involved with students and families from middle school on, the student’s chances of enrolling in a four year college increase.  Furthermore, counselors are uniquely positioned to assist low-income students who lack access to the knowledge and support that is commonplace for students from middle and upper-income families.  And yet, while the benefits of counseling are clear—particularly its role in ensuring equality of opportunity—there have not been corresponding investments in the field.  To begin, there just aren’t enough counselors—a public school counselor in the United States must serve an average of 478 students per year.  One in five high schools in this country has no school counselor whatsoever.  In addition, many of the counselors that are currently working in schools haven’t received the kind of training and professional development that they need.  Finally, districts—often driven by budgetary restrictions—are more and more asking school counselors to take on tasks well outside of their job descriptions and distracting them from what should be their top priorities: supporting the social, emotional, academic, and career development of the students they serve.  

And although, as we have seen through the reflections this week, counselors serve a wide-variety of functions and engage with students in a number of ways, one of their most important roles—from an economic perspective—is supporting access to postsecondary education.  An advanced education is increasingly becoming synonymous with economic opportunity in this country.  By 2020, there will be roughly 55 million job openings in the United States, with more than 60% of those requiring some form of postsecondary education.  But at our current rate of training, millions of students will be unprepared for those jobs.  If we are to meet the demands of this economy; if we are to prepare a generation of citizens who can solve the complex problems our country faces; if we desire to expand educational opportunity and foster economic and political justice, then we need more, better-prepared, and better-supported school counselors. That is why I am so proud of the rigor and design of our PSP/CAS curriculum, the leadership and instruction of the program faculty, and—perhaps most importantly—the passion and potential of its students.  Counseling is essential to ensuring that all children can reap the benefits of a high-quality education, and I am delighted that its importance is being recognized here at HGSE and across the country as part of National School Counseling Week.

James E. Ryan

Dean of the Faculty

Charles William Eliot Professor of Education

Resources:

Joanna Wood is the current 9th grade counselor at North High School in Denver Public Schools, and alum of the PSP/CAS program.

College and career readiness should be an integral part of the fabric of each and every school. At North High School, conversations about college and career readiness can be heard in every corner of the building. From the volunteers hanging banners to celebrate post-secondary options in the hallways to the counseling lessons delivered in learning communities, every member of the North High School Viking family is expected be a part of the dialogue.

In Denver Public Schools, Individual Career and Academic Plans (ICAPs) help guide conversations about college and career readiness. Each student creates a personal ICAP over the course of many years through conversations, lessons and reflections. This process recognizes the individual nature of college and career readiness. The ICAP program is designed to ensure that conversations are happening early and often for each and every student.

As the 9th grade counselor at North High School, my role is crucial in our college and career readiness process. I talk with students about their post-secondary plans daily. I consider where students want to be after high school in order to ensure that as a school we are providing them with the resources and education they need to be successful. I advocate for my students and work to connect them with opportunities in our school and in our community that will help them achieve their college and career hopes and dreams.

Resources:

Interested in learning more about this important topic?

The First Lady knows a thing or two about college and career readiness - check out the Reach Higher Initiative:https://www.whitehouse.gov/reach-higher. Also, check this video out - you won’t be sorry!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1yAOK0nSb0

In practice, you may see a school counselor:

Guiding classrooms in taking and interpreting interest and career inventories

Organizing college visits that include families to better include all stakeholders in the college decision process

Providing professional development for teachers to better use advisories to teach important self-regulatory skills that are key to post-secondary success, including managing time, planning ahead, and reflecting on progress

As my plane took off, leaving behind a blistery winter, I thought ahead to the tropical air, rolling landscape, and soft sand of Rio de Janeiro where I was headed. I had given my reasons for traveling to Brazil for J-term to numerous professors and friends, had contacted dozens of music educators in Brazil, and submitted a research proposal in order to receive a DRCLAS (David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies) grant; yet as I stepped off the plane into the humid sea-scented breeze, I felt a twinge of nervousness, excitement, and uncertainty. My plan was to come to Brazil to research how principals of peace education are implicitly and explicitly taught in music social programs located in favelas and poor areas. As a musician, composer, conductor, and current student at the HGSE Arts in Education program, I sensed that these organizations, many of whose mission is to use music for social change, could provide lessons on teaching principals of peace education, including teamwork, critical thinking, conflict-resolution, democracy, and social justice within a creative space.

This would be my third trip to Brazil, but I knew my Portuguese was only at a conversational level. Nonetheless, I intended to improve my language skills quickly and conduct all of my research and interviews in Portuguese. Several months prior to this trip, I had contacted a few close musical friends in Brazil to see if I could interview them, and also to ask if they had additional educators with whom they could put me in touch. Within a month, four contacts multiplied into 25! By the time I arrived in Rio, I had set an intimidating goal of completing twenty interviews in twenty days. While this seemed daunting, I was encouraged by the presence of my dear friend and colleague, Aly Kreikermeir (HGSE ’17) who joined me for two of my three weeks in Brazil.

Once in Rio de Janeiro, Aly and I talked at great length about the objectives of my research, strategies for asking unbiased and intentional interview questions, and ways that I could (hopefully!) work around my language barrier. We became engrossed in many philosophical discussions around the ideas of peace education, forms of violence, and what it is to conduct research outside one’s own culture, community, and language. These were daunting and new realities in my mind, and there were many moments when I was stretched by being forced to analyze my own intentions, assumptions, and motives.

As weeks of interviews passed, I heard incredible stories, such as the one of a community whose gang members have donated to fund musical instruments for children. I also learned about weekly roundtable discussions led by young musicians seeking social change and an orchestra whose humble beginnings 20 years ago led them to a performance for the Pope in 2013. Through these conversations, I glimpsed into the ways in which programs as small as 15 members and as large as 47,000 students function, develop, and promote peace.

Throughout my J-term in Brazil, I interviewed 20 people, visited 15 programs, led two workshops, and fumbled my way through countless Portuguese words. I was reminded of how music can bridge language barriers, as I performed alongside Brazilian ensembles and laughed over musical jokes that were seemingly universal. Yet, I also learned unforgettable lessons about the power of words, communication, humbleness, and trust between a researcher and those from whom she is trying to learn.

Danielle would like to thank Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies for making this research experience possible through a generous Term-Time Study Grant.

As 2015 comes to a close, we look back on the stories with the most pageviews on the HGSE website. Here are the Top 10 stories of 2015:

10.) The Kindergarten Milestone (Usable Knowledge)

9.) Smart Talk (Usable Knowledge)

8.) The Education of Immigrant Children (Usable Knowledge)

7.) Teenage Dreams (Usable Knowledge)

6.) How to Raise a Voracious Reader (Usable Knowledge)

5.) Bilingualism as a Life Experience  (Usable Knowledge)

4.) HGSE Remembers Yan Yang (News)

3.) Because I’m Happy (Usable Knowledge)

2.) What’s Worth Learning in School (Harvard Ed. Magazine)

1.) The Science of Resilience (Usable Knowledge -- 140,284 pageviews!) 

By: Leanne Trujillo, IEP ’16 and Nicholas Moffa, IEP ‘16

           On the evening of Thursday, December 3, Wendy Kopp appeared pleasantly surprised by the immense interest demonstrated by a large portion of the International Education Policy cohort eager to engage in a roundtable discussion with her. While Kopp, the Founder and Chair of the Teach for America (TFA) Board and the CEO and Co-Founder of Teach for All, only had half an hour to answer our questions, it turned out to be one of the richest discussions in which we have yet participated here at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).

           With a number of TFA and Teach for All alumni in the audience, the conversation initiated out to a rapid start. In response to a question about the contextualized transfer of the Teach for All model to diverse locales, Kopp explained the Theory of Change of the organization she co-founded. By combining a strong and local entrepreneurial enterprise with a global sharing of lessons learned, she hoped to respond to the initiative of local people interested in the model by fostering local innovation and avoiding mistakes. She emphasized the idea that the model has a very limited prescriptive piece. Currently, Teach For All operates in thirty-eight countries worldwide and hopes to continue their expansion, particularly to developing countries on the African continent. Kopp exclaimed in excitement that Teach For All had just recently built a partnership in Ghana, which she was gleaming about.

           The conversation then turned to one of the most controversial issues which has permeated many of our discussions both inside and outside of the classroom this fall: the impact of Teach for All on teacher professionalization. With many former TFA teachers in the room, the audience braced themselves for an answer. Predictably, Kopp provided a cogent and well-thought-out defense of the Teach for All model. Teach for All, she explained, does not try to only bring people in to teach for two years, nor does it attempt to address teacher shortages. On the contrary, it attempts to address the ways in which the privilege of one’s birth affects one’s educational outcomes. She believes that countries almost never direct their best and brightest young people into education, and that is the fact Teach for All hopes to remedy by investing intensively in individuals. Kopp underscored that their goal is not to minimize the profession of teaching in any way; on the contrary, she believes that the net effect of the programs are positive for the image of teaching by demonstrating how only the very best should become teachers. Kopp attempted to sway the thoughts of the audience from thinking of TFA as a teaching organization to thinking about it, rather, as a leadership organization. However, she did acknowledge the controversy that permeated the audience during her comments.

By Ishita Ghai, Ed.M. ’16

In the developing world, systemic reform in the education sector is slowly being pushed higher up in the political agenda. While most countries are now increasing their national budget on education, it is important to understand how educators and political leaders can drive effective reforms in the most efficient manner. Our guest for the week, the former Vice Minister of Education of Columbia and an HGSE alumnus, Luis Enrique Garcia, spoke about the same, in the context of Columbia.

Mr. Garcia graduated with a degree in International Education Policy (2007) with an understanding of the issues surrounding the education system in Columbia and the different interventions that have been put in place by other comparable developing countries to address similar problems. He then went on to use the skills he developed during the period to start three ventures whose turnovers and impact led him to be invited by the President to serve as the Vice Minister of Education of Columbia.

According to him, systemic reform is all about leadership, people and their buy-ins. The buy-ins need to come from three major stake holders: the President, the Community and the Civil Organizations. The most important ingredient in leading such a reform is to ask the question, “؟lo que preocupa?” or “What worries you?” to all stakeholders, and design interventions and incentives that create a win-win situation for the leader and the people he/she serves. In other words, leading and sustaining change requires genuine effort to empower people in a manner that they own the vision and work towards realizing it with the skills they have. People have the potential to make the change happen.

Mr. Garcia owes his success to the things he learnt at the grad school and the political environment in Columbia that turned in favor of the Educational reform he had set out to achieve as the Vice Minister of Education. Having said that, his focused vision and humble grounding played huge roles in his success.

Reflections on International Lessons from Successful Education Systems course with Professor Pasi Sahlberg

By: Asmaa Elsayed, Ed.M in International Education Policy Candidate

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)

There is no silver bullet in improving education. Education reforms are complex, progress slowly, and results that matters the most are often difficult to measure. Education Ministers and leaders are rarely public figures whose names are remembered for their deeds. It is not a field for instant gratification and recognition. To be an education reformer is to pave roads for those whom you may never meet and plant seeds knowing you may never live to see the harvest.

As I reflect on the lessons I learned in International Lessons from Successful Education Systems course with Professor Pasi Sahlberg, a Finish educator, scholar, and a visiting Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, I cannot help but wonder what makes an effective education reformer. It seems that there is not a single right answer but a blend of several qualities that yield effective education reformers.

Self-Awareness and Reflection

Education reform is a responsibility that requires great strength, moral compass, and the cultivation of an undefeatable sense of inner-validation. It starts with reflecting on one’s own identity and purpose. In this process of self-awareness, the reformer may identify the core values he shares with the community he works with, where he sees himself fit within education reform processes, his theory of change, and what qualifies him to be an education reformer. As the reformer reflects on his position of power, he may start to question the very same privileges that positioned him as a leader in the first place.

While others consider reflection a luxury available only to those who are free or privileged, it is a daily practice for effective education reformers. A solid understanding of one’s self is the foundation of becoming an effective education reformer. It cultivates consciousness, enables awareness of his frames of reference, the identification of any hidden biases, and it empowers him to capitalize on his strengths and unique experiences.

The goal of international comparisons in education is not simply the identification of the pros and cons of each education system. What is more important is the deep reflection process that happens when we start to examine and critically analyze our own education system. Because our practices are often rooted in deeply held beliefs, sometimes to change these practices is to change the incubator paradigm. For example, in many high-performing education systems, such as Finland and Singapore, every student, including students with special needs, has the right to education. “Special needs education is generally provided in conjunction with mainstream education[1].” Students with special needs are provided plentiful of resources, support, and guidance to help them succeed. This is a reflection of these countries’ common belief that every child can succeed, regardless of his background or starting point. In contrast, special education in Egypt is largely inhumane. Students with special needs are often subject to physical punishment, humiliation, alienation and segregation from main stream education system. This is a reflection of a widespread misconception in Egypt that students with special needs are incapable or severely limited performers. They are considered a burden on society. They are to be seen not heard. Without this process of understanding and reflection on deeply rooted assumptions and beliefs towards students with special needs in Egypt, a quick fix or policy transfer is unlikely to create the desired effective and sustainable reforms in special education in Egypt.

Vision

Futures and long term thinking in education is under-developed.[2] It was once said that leadership without vision is merely management. Effective education reformers are visionaries.  They do not take other’s visions for the future on their face value; they critique them and help others understand that the future they see is merely a product of their assumptions. Effective education leaders see the future as “a dynamic and emergent reality…a consequence of decisions taken today and in the past.”[3] They help others build connections between the past, the present, and the future. By doing so, they help change the paradigm of seeing the future as “something done to us” into a process in which we can intervene, mold, and shape a better tomorrow.4

Our ideas about the future are important for education because they help “frame our assumptions about the possibilities, the limits and the purposes of education.”4 By exploring alternative visions for the future, effective education reformers help rewrite the relationship between education and the future4 in the hope of shaping more equitable, democratic, and just societies. This was especially relevant working on Sweden case study. “A vision attracts commitment, energies people, and establishes a standard for excellence[4].”

While effective education reformers build on the legacy of those who came before them and pave the road for those who will come after them, they don’t shy away from knocking off a dam, and building a new road when a given map doesn’t guide to the desired outcome.

Responsiveness to Communities’ Needs

Effective education reformers understand that education does not happen in a vacuum. They understand that education reform is too complex to reduce to individual compartments; every factor is interwoven and overlaps with other factors. The political and development realities of a community signal messages that cannot simply be rejected or validated through research. They have deep knowledge and understanding of the geo-political, historical and socio-economic conditions of the community where they work.

The common misconception in many developing countries is that ‘copying’ policies of high-performing education systems or the enactment of a new law are the only concrete ways to guarantee effective and sustainable education reforms. Yet, effective education reformers know that laws and policies are often changing and they are not optimum standards against which the value of education reforms should be judged. There were once laws that permitted slavery and child marriages.

In the “Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence,” Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley highlight the idea that “beliefs change before practice when teachers work in a culture where the professional responsibility resides in the hands of these dynamos of change themselves.”[5] Effective education reformers avoid top-down mandates. It is easy to dictate rules and laws from an ivory tower but these are not the type of reforms that will create long lasting impact. They listen to the diverse needs of local stakeholders, try to understand what worries them, what they need assurance for, and provide them a platform to write their own narrative, define their own struggle and empower them to practice agency in overcoming that struggle.

Effective education reformers never forget that numbers on a statistics chart represent people. A lesson often forgotten by policy makers. They are attached to ideals and values rather than titles or organizations’ missions and profits. They work for and with people. They have an open-door policy. They value contextual transfer and positive deviants.

Persuasion

Exceptional education reformers understand that aggregate change is the result of everyday individual changes. They may not be able to change people’s views by citing statistics or Harvard University research papers but do so by capitalizing on shared interests and values and building consensus so reforms are not seen as “foreign” impositions for political agendas. Effective education reformers know how to build buy-in when reforms disrupt the status quo creating resistance to change. They tell and sell education reforms in a language that is inspiring, interesting and inclusive. They cater for everyone so that everyone feels, and knows, that they have a stake in the success of education reforms.

Leadership

Leadership is fundamental to the success of any education reform. It was once said that “a teacher is the one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”[6] By the same token, an effective leader creates more leaders. They are invested in the capacity building of others. They balance ensuring that the potential of every individual is maximized while allowing each individual to progress according to his own abilities. A leader leads by example. He carries himself with dignity and professionalism. He does not force others to respect him but understands that respect is earned. People may not agree with everything he says, but they will listen.

Leadership includes expanding opportunities for others to lead without fear of failure. I cannot forget the day when Professor Sahlberg talked about celebrating failure. It was one of my most profound moments in class. As someone who was raised and educated in a culture where failure is only a sign of weakness and mistakes are to be eliminated, the idea of not limiting students’ creative processes for the sake of ‘protecting’ them from failure, or so I thought, was enlightening. I saw this lesson reflected when studying Alberta’s education success. For example, Dave Hancock, Former Minister of Education of Alberta, a high-performing Canadian province, said: “If every project is a success, we are either not being honest with ourselves, or we are not experimenting enough.”[7] Effective education reformers encourage others to innovate and dare to fail. They balance self-initiated innovations with responsibility and foster a culture where failure is seen as a catalyst for learning. They develop networks of knowledge sharing, teamwork, collaboration, and accountability.

Conclusion

As I reflect back on my own journey, I cannot help but feel extremely grateful for the opportunities I sought, confident in the power of quality education in transforming lives, and eager to give back in the hope that one day every child has an equal opportunity to fulfil his potential.

Thank you Professor Sahlberg and Bryan Mascio (TF) for making it worth all the efforts!

[1]  National Board of Education (2012). Finnish Education in a Nutshell”. Helsinki: NBE. http://www.oph.fi/download/146428_Finnish_Education_in_a_Nutshell.pdf

[2]  OECD (2015). Futures Thinking in Action: The Starter Pack. Paris: OECD. (Parts I, II and III). http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/38981492.pdf

[3]  Facer, K. (2011). Learning futures: Education, technology, and social change. London & NY: Routledge. Introduction: pp. 1-16.

[4]  Sylvia Méndez-Morse, Research Associate, Services for School Improvement, SEDL.

[5]  Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. L. (2012). The global fourth way: The quest for educational excellence. Corwin Press.

[6]  Thomas Carruthers

By Anina Hewey

This week, we had our last class for Education Policy and Research in a Comparative Perspective. Throughout the semester, as we read research and theory on education policy processes, Professor Fernando Reimers invited a number of HGSE alumni — including USAID Education Officer LeAnna Marr and Andrew Johnston of RTI International — to share their insights on real world implementation. Each presenter drew our attention to the tensions among cultural, social, political, and economic factors, each of which inevitably influences education policy and development.

As the class progressed, I began to question the role of research and knowledge in education policy. If, in the end, decisions are driven by political and economic interests, why are we learning about best practices anyway? Can knowledge actually lead to positive developments in global education policy?

Our final guest, Luis Enrique Garcia, spoke eloquently on this very topic. Garcia, Ed.M.’07, is an education entrepreneur and former vice-minister of education in Colombia, where he played an integral role in enacting large-scale education reforms. As an HGSE alumnus, Garcia had spent hours reading research on exemplary policies and programs, but, as he told us, “system reform is very different from reading a paper.” He found that generating support from the public and understanding the context were just as essential as creating well-designed programs and policies. In the end, Garcia found that policy reform is a balancing act. He had to cede ground on some issues, but he was also able to use his knowledge to ensure that the reforms were not just politics and created real, positive change.

Will what we learn at HGSE really help us in the field? Garcia says that it will — even when least expected. Garcia told us a story of a time when the guerrilla group FARC had planted land mines within a rural school’s playground. After a harrowing ride in a tiny plane, he found himself in the tiny school supporting the demeaning process. In that moment, he thought, “I did not learn this at school.” However, even during this traumatic time, parents and teachers approached him with concerns about the school. As he considered further, he realized that what he had learned — of education in emergencies, of building community capacity, of creating policies to support learning — had stayed with him and helped him respond to the community’s needs.

Not everything we learn at HGSE will apply in every context, but I believe that my classmates and I will carry the knowledge and skills we’ve developed at HGSE with us to our respective corners of the world. Along the way, we must also stay open to continuing to learn and changing our opinions, by deeply engaging with each context and the people in each education system. I thank Luis Enrique Garcia and each of our class’s guests for taking the time to tell their stories and to inspire us to continue learning.

By Aditi Adhikari

A few students at HGSE participated in a roundtable discussion with alumna Dibra Gittler, founder and executive director of ConTextos, an educational nonprofit that transforms the quality of education in El Salvador (http://contextos.org/). The discussion focused around reading and libraries, as well as the nature and challenges of social entrepreneurship.

Before starting ConTextos, Gittler had taught in South Bronx, New York, and was the lead author of El Salvador's national teacher training policy in literacy. While at HGSE, she and a group of friends organized a book drive in El Salvador. Currently, her organization works with schools through the Turnkey Library program, which works to build a culture of reading and writing in schools. ConTextos also works with incarcerated youth (mostly youth who were involved with gangs) throughout the Justice System in El Savador, helping them write their stories.

We started the conversation talking about libraries. I had, in Nepal, seen a lot of instances where nonprofits had set up libraries and oriented teachers on how to use them, only to find, a year or two later, that the libraries weren't being used. I asked Gittler about her work with libraries and literacy. She told me that ConTextos' teacher-training spans a period of three years, and includes training, mentoring, coaching, diagnostics, workshops, and an annual conference. Youth leaders and parents are involved in the process. Schools that are currently in the project mentor new project schools. In addition, project schools are chosen carefully, and all schools have to apply to be a part of the intervention. With such an intense program, I could understand why ConTextos’ literacy programs had done well.

During the discussion, Gittler, who is a 2013 Echoing Green fellow, talked about the challenges of starting a new organization, much of which had to do with fundraising. “Unless you have a family member or friend who is willing to make a donation of hundreds of thousand dollars, it will be tough,” she said. Her own experience was that friends and family were more willing to give in the very beginning than they were after the first year, but that she was still struggling to get major grants. Gittler was well-connected in El Salvador from when she was working in the country’s teacher training program, and work was going well, but because of fundraising challenges, she did not know that her organization was there to stay until the third year was over.

Gittler also talked about the challenges of being a female social entrepreneur, fundraising among corporate leaders who are mostly men. She shared some experience of the challenges, and told us about how she has largely overcome them. “It is very important to have women mentors,” she said to the group of women students that stayed back after the hour-long formal conversation was over. She shared that although friends and family tried to be supportive, only a woman who had been through similar experiences are able to empathize and give guidance.

By Asmaa Elsayed and Hibatalla Ibrahim

“I began teaching when I was seventeen, some of my students were even older than I was.” Professor Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, associate professor of education at Wheelock College and an expert on teacher professional development (TPD), stood before us in class and introduced herself; she was the consummate educator, with a teaching career spanning over three decades. She was presenting the day’s lecture on TPD as Professor Fernando Reimers, also her husband, sat back and listened. She managed to give us both a broad overview and thorough analysis on the topic and raised a number of issues, three of which, we feel particularly compelled to reflect on.

First, she challenged the notion that choosing “the best and the brightest” alone will guarantee quality teachers. This idea is entrenched in the common myth that knowledge of a content area translates to knowing how to teach it. Teaching is a complex, relational, and multidimensional process. It involves knowledge and understanding of psychological and cognitive development, different learning theories, transitions, communication, etc. At its core is pedagogical knowledge. For example, the way you ask a question can help a fourth grader learn something, not necessary the content but the way you ask it. People need to be developed and supported to be effective teachers; that’s certainly more necessary than choosing “the best and brightest.”

Many may speculate that technology will eventually replace the teaching profession completely, however the teacher’s role is irreplaceable. As Villegas-Reimers asserts “I wonder if content is readily available on your phone, what does that mean for content-specific teaching? Pedagogy cannot be done by a computer.” Teachers could simply become the designers of educational learning experiences or the facilitators in technology-based conductive learning environments.

The second theme echoed throughout Villegas-Reimers’ presentation was the need to emphasize the professionalism of the teaching profession. She recounted how in numerous countries around the world, teachers are undervalued and the teaching profession is looked down upon. This fact in particular hit very close to home with the both of us; becoming a teacher in Egypt or Sudan often looked down upon as not having other “more attractive” career options.

Furthermore, old approaches to organization of the profession by teacher unions, according to Villegas-Reimers, hurt the teaching profession in that they strongly resembled workers’ unions rather than professional organizations. In her view, teacher unions should become professional organizations, akin to those of accountants and lawyers and focus on a commitment to identifying and fostering the expertise necessary for skilled practice, which involves defining standards of practice, professional development and fostering collaboration. She cites the American Federation of Teachers as one union which has been successful in achieving that. Our biggest takeaway from Villegas-Reimers’ reflections on this issue is perhaps a hope that teacher unions evolve to become sophisticated organizations advocating professionalism in the profession and meaningful and beneficial professional development.

Thirdly, effective teachers’ professional development does not operate in a vacuum. It requires having clear national and local goals of education, guidelines or standards to achieve those goals, a structure of the education system that allows for the implementation of those standards, a well-defined role for teachers in the system, and a way of assessment that is revised on a regular base. Unfortunately, many countries jump into professional development training without having a clear idea of how their professional development relates to the main education goals of their school, county, or country.

In an attempt to improve teachers’ quality, some counties “copy/paste” other countries’ professional development approaches. As educators, we can never assume that what worked in one country will work in another. The kind of professional development needed for teachers in a fragile country is different from those in a peaceful or stable country. Perhaps start with asking the teachers what they need the most. She recommends that if you must transfer professional development training materials, contextualize!

Villegas-Reimers’ presentation highlighted the importance of going beyond the traditional providers of teachers’ professional development (i.e. schools, universities, etc.). Editorial and publishing housing, libraries, international organizations, and teachers’ unions are potential providers as long as there are national standards of practice to which they align their efforts and insure quality. All in all, we walked out of this class with enhanced knowledge on teacher development programs, a renewed sense of enthusiasm and hope that someday teachers will be regarded with the respect they deserve.

By Nicholas Moffa, IEP ‘16

On the evening of November 18, a small group of International Education Policy students had the opportunity to have a roundtable discussion with the Minister of Basic Education in Brazil, Manuel Palácios da Cunha e Melo. Organized by Professor Fernando Reimers, the discussion provided a unique forum for us to learn about the intricacies and challenges of policymaking and seek counsel on careers in the field from a current minister.

Palácios spoke at length about the fiscal and budgetary challenges he and his colleagues currently face in Brazil. After years of consistent growth in the national basic education budget, he had to not only refrain from increasing spending this year, but also make large-scale cuts across the board. He explained that he managed to avoid eliminating programs by simply reorienting them and targeting what he dubbed “priority schools,” or those that need the most assistance.

One area on which he has focused during his eight months in office has been teacher training and professional development. In addition to focusing in on teachers who work with students between the ages of six and eight, he is attempting to implement extended learning days and transform schools into centers that offer both education and a variety of other services for the local communities. He plans to implement this program in about 28,000 schools in which the literacy rate is 50 percent or less for students in their fifth year and/or 25 percent or less for ninth-year students. However, he has encountered significant pushback from the universities, who want teachers to have more autonomy than they will be given under this new program.

This conversation proved to be an extremely timely one for all of us, as we had recently engaged in thought provoking and passionate debates over teacher professional development and school autonomy in Professor Reimers’s class. Having the chance to hear from a current minister helped concretize the theoretical concepts and case studies we analyzed in the classroom and provided a framework for considering the implications of these policies in the Brazilian context.

After his introduction, we began asking Palácios a variety of equity-focused questions about private versus public schooling, educational opportunities for rural and indigenous populations, and the university quota system. He explained that in Brazil, while an assessment of the private education system as a whole exists, there is currently no evaluation of individual private schools. He admitted this is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, private schools tend to help get their students into the best universities, yet the majority of the students at private schools are wealthy. Despite the fact that increasingly high numbers of low-income families are sending their children to private schools, the private schools they attend are usually of lower quality. He concluded that while the private education system is no longer only serving the wealthiest students, it remains impossible for the poorest students to attend private institutions and inequality remains an immense challenge. As a result, Palácios believes it is necessary to publicly supervise the private sector.

The conversation then turned to educating students in rural areas and the quota system. He explained his belief that bigger schools with more teachers can serve as the solution to the problematic lack of quality education in rural areas. He has proposed constructing additional infrastructure to provide public transportation for rural students to attend larger schools outside of their home communities. However, he expressed his surprise that rural communities have powerfully pushed back against his proposal and claimed the government does not understand rural needs. Shifting briefly to the racial quota system at the university system, he affirmed his support for the racial quota system, arguing that it currently works well and will not be changed in the near future.

The conversation about equity emphasized in the minds of everyone the complexity of the Brazilian education system. While many of us did not agree with the approaches Palácios recommended regarding educating students from rural areas and the racial quota system, encountering viewpoints and perspectives different from our own is exactly what makes the time we spend here so rich and unique. His openness afforded us the opportunity to recognize how challenging effecting authentic systemic change can be outside of the welcoming walls of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the International Education Policy program.

By Shajia Sarfraz, Ed. M. Candidate, International Education Policy Program

Ask yourself the following questions: Over time, has extreme poverty in the world increased, decreased or remained the same? Has world hunger gone up or down? Has access to education increased in the past twenty years?

           Let's see how you did. 1) The latest World Development Indicators shows that extreme poverty headcount rates have fallen in every developing region between 1981 and 2010.  2) There has been a 42 percent reduction in the prevalence of undernourished people and world hunger has markedly gone down in the past 20 years. 3) Across the world, literacy rates have gone up, school enrolment rates have risen and gender disparity has decreased.

           If you didn’t get most of these questions right, you’re not alone. The Gap minder Foundation asked members of the public in the United States and Europe the same questions. What it found was a real lack of information amongst people on basic facts about the world. A less than a fifth of Americans, Swedes, Germans and Britons answered these three questions correctly.

           Why is that people are unaware of how our world has changed in the past twenty years? Is it ignorance or mere pessimism? Is it the case that the media only highlights what is wrong with the world? I got the opportunity to talk to Oxford economist and founder of Our World in Data, Max Roser about these questions earlier this month. Max has built a website that visualizes change in the world through data. Max feels that there is no reason to be complacent, but it is true that our world is headed in the right direction. Incomes are growing in all parts of the world, world poverty is declining rapidly and the poorest countries now have the highest growth.

           If it is a fact that our world has improved over time, why is that these ideas seem so counter intuitive? Max feels that the notion that things were going down the drain has been a really old one. The idea of decline has existed for a long time. There is a thing in psychology called the Negativity Bias, which is the idea that we have a greater tendency to be psychologically affected by negative things, than by positive things. We have evolved to be more alert to threats than to opportunities.  When we raise our children, we always try to warn them about the threats in life (like burning themselves from a hot object) than missed opportunities. It is therefore unsurprising that we pay more attention to negative news than positive news and perhaps that is one major reason for why people are so misinformed about how the world has changed.

           With the recent development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is all the more necessary to talk about how our world has improved over time. The fact that literacy and access have improved is proof that the Millennium Development Goals accelerated growth and progress. International development organizations, like the World Bank, the United Nations, the Global Partnership for Education and others have been instrumental in reducing world poverty, improving health and increasing enrolment in schools. Knowledge of this fact is essential to believing in the efficacy of these international organizations. Change will only happen if we believe that change is possible.

Reflections After Listening to Eleonora Villegas-Reimers Address Future Policy Makers At the Harvard Graduate School of Education

As we all headed out of the Longfellow building on a late Thursday evening, I felt an urge to bring together my thoughts on Professor Villegas-Reimers lecture on teacher training for our Education Policy Analysis and Research in Comparative Perspective class. Luckily, I bumped into Zohal Atif and Esther Ohrt, fellow International Education Policy students, who shared a similar conundrum of energies. We debated over certain themes around teacher quality especially drawing examples from each of our developing contexts- themes that were raised in class but due to a shortage of time, could not be expanded as profoundly as we felt about them. Therefore, we decided to put our thoughts in words, and continue a conversation that we felt was not only integral to the ideology of our school but beyond, to the institution of education!

Changing Social Structures and Mindsets

By Esther Ohrt from Ghana

While Ghana struggles to provide quality teacher training programs, certain stereotypes and beliefs are deeply embedded in our culture that affect the way teachers instruct and students learn. For instance, many students are not encouraged to think critically- their role is to be seen but not heard, to intake information without analyzing it, to give “correct” answers and never make mistakes. The root of this problem is not the education system, but aspects of the Ghanaian culture.

Therefore, I asked myself what type of teacher training programs are needed to reform the Ghanaian education system?  I do not have ground breaking solutions to address this issue, but I think we can learn from many education systems around the world. For instance, in the underperforming public middle school where I taught in Texas, one of the reforms implemented was an emphasis on “positive narration.” This meant that instead of pointing out the mistakes students made, teachers were rather encouraged to highlight positive behaviors and give all children the chance to succeed. This helped to change the culture of the classroom and the school. Additionally, in most Ghanaian classrooms, students sit in rows and simply regurgitate information. Why not change this dynamic by integrating group activities where students can share their thoughts with their peers without the fear of giving “wrong answers”? This will not only create an open space for students to express themselves but will also encourage collaboration, a skill that is vital in and outside of the classroom.

Therefore, in order to provide teachers with quality professional development in Ghana, we must break some of these cultural norms that harm young people from thinking critically and truly being active participants in their learning. The education system will not change in a day, but if some of these techniques are implemented and enforced in teacher training programs and schools, I strongly believe that we will start to see a difference in the way students learn.

Summoning Teachers in Conflict Zones

By Zohal Atif from Afghanistan

As I reflected on professional development for teachers in the context of Afghanistan I was reminded of the day I visited my cousin’s Teachers College about three years ago. It was a typical two-year private Teachers College in Kabul. The daylong schedule included Math, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Information Technology and English but nothing on developing pedagogical skills. The classrooms were filled with young females aspiring to become teachers. During his morning rounds the principal announced an increase in tuition, which meant some students would have to drop out of the college. To make matters worse, later that day, the ground shook as a bomb exploded in the main square with reports of two more bombs still in the city. At the end of the day, my cousin and I opted out of public transportation to avoid the main square and took a taxi home. The constant insecurity and the financial burden make it hard for aspiring teachers to complete their training.

If and when these aspiring students do become professional teachers they face many challenges. In Afghanistan educators are under constant threat from the Taliban and other insurgents that view them as perpetrators of government-western ideology. Teachers are sitting ducks for the Taliban to target. On the other hand the government that they represent by virtue of being a public employee do not value them. Teachers are one of the lowest paid professionals with monthly salary of 7,000 Afghani (about $109) and in certain regions of the country teachers go months without pay. In the classrooms, they face pupils from diverse backgrounds. These pupils are retracted refugees from Pakistan, Iran and internally displaced as the conflict shifts. Also, pupils come from multilingual backgrounds and have behavioral issues caused by the trauma of the conflict and the day-to-day hurdles of poverty. How can teachers support these students when they haven’t received any professional development? Upon graduation these student-teachers have to work the first six months for free on trial period before getting any confirmation for permanent placement in the school. Generally placement letters depend on bribing the school and the district administration. Finally, the influx of education aid channeling the country rarely prioritizes professional development for teachers.  

I firmly believe actual difference in the literacy rates would be realized if teachers are prioritized both by the Ministry of Education and the numerous donors involved in the country. Teacher colleges need to add teaching pedagogy in the curriculum and financial assistance should be offered to encourage and retain aspiring teachers. Afghanistan needs a robust teaching force - not concrete buildings to act as targets for the Taliban and fill the progress reports of foreign aid donors.

Training Teachers in Special Education

By Syeda Farwa Fatima from Pakistan

Growing up in Pakistan with a brother with special needs, I've had some strong personal experiences that have shaped my personality and now, I'm reaching a point where I am finding inspiration from those same experiences to put myself back in the system-so I can change it- as much I can. The matter definitely goes well beyond the school system to really transform the social mindsets of people and cut through some divisive norms.

However, as far as the teachers go, very rarely do people talk about teacher development programs in Pakistan- and if so, these programs seldom focus on how to help teachers become inclusive in their practices, let alone talk about the programs as an ongoing process instead of a one time experience-a fact reiterated by Villegas Reimers throughout the lecture. Having spent a lot of time at my brother's school, I always felt that a teacher can literally be the change-agent for students, especially for those with special needs. But unfortunately, I see very few teachers of that kind at special education schools in Pakistan; and the few that are there have the potential to productively expand their skill sets and teaching capacities that can help them better respond to the needs of all students in their classrooms.

Therefore, I am eager to understand how to incorporate integrated learning strategies such as universal designs for learning in professional teacher development programs, especially in the context of developing countries where there are no formalized special education systems. I aspire to take these teaching frameworks back home and reframe the face of special education in Pakistan.

Conclusion

Bringing together reflections from each of our contexts, we hope to influence conversations on teacher development around these sensitive themes. We plan to understand different strategies to incorporate into teacher programs that toughen teacher resolve against rigid social structures and mindsets, conflict-ridden emergency circumstances and diverse students with unlike learning abilities, in order to creatively influence policy and programs back home.

The International Education Policy (IEP) cohort had an impactful and empowering interaction last week with IEP alumnus Andrew Johnston, Ed.M.’11, deputy chief of party for the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity implemented by RTI International. This meeting proved beneficial for students as well as for our honored guest.

Johnston works under challenging conditions. He works on EGRA — the Early Grade Reading Assessment — in areas where complex structures of multilingualism  among students and teachers present implementation challenges. His team’s success in Haiti (a place where good intentions and mountains of money far too often yield little tangible good) gave him a chance to join the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity. The USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity focuses on two important aspects to further success in school: early grade literacy and reducing school violence. In his work in Haiti and Uganda, he has already demonstrated the pragmatic wisdom of Professor Fernando Reimers: he is a team player with no apparent ego.

Johnston’s humility was most clear when, as guest speaker in Reimers’ course, he agreed to hear current students’ advice on how to incorporate positive deviance, the concept of solving a problem by harnessing the solutions already present within a community (Pascale, Sterning and Sterning, 2010) into his current project in Uganda to aid early literacy development and the reduction of violence in schools. He earnestly and thoughtfully engaged with the ideas and suggestions of students. Similar to many of the other leading practitioners in this field, he did not assume to have all the answers. He thought critically about students’ proposed’ ideas for the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity and sought out the potential for contextualized transfer.

Following the class session, Johnston engaged in an intimate discussion with a small group of students. He welcomed students’ questions about his career path since leaving HGSE and responded to sought advice for students’ own potential interventions in the field of international education. Toward the end of the intimate roundtable, Johnston remarked, “Today has been really helpful,” a sentiment the students shared equally. He agreed that the positive deviance approach has considerable potential to inform reading and school violence reduction interventions. He also testified to the tremendous potential of the EGRA to help practitioners to measure results to inform programmatic adjustments and to demonstrate impact to inform policy dialogue. EGRA is a unique and powerful tool that allows education professionals to quantify impact (which is rare in the development sector) and to advocate accordingly at the country and donor levels.

Johnston also emphasizes the strategic importance of early-grade reading as a development intervention because learning to read on time is fundamental to succeeding in school and is associated with better health, livelihoods, and governance outcomes.

Listening to Johnston’s trials, successes, and openness to students’ solutions, I looked down at my IEP class pen which tells me to “live, learn, and lead with the purpose to empower all children.” Johnston certainly adheres to the values that remain at the core of our IEP Program. Having the chance to engage in thoughtful and open conversation with Andrew Johnston, a practitioner of meaningful change who five years ago was in our shoes, reminds us that we can and will go on to “empower all children.”

On a cool fall day, LeAnna Marr, Ed.M.’03 came to HGSE to help bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the reality outside. She talked to current students about how she is applying the skills and knowledge she learned in the classroom here to her illustrious career. As an International Education Policy graduate herself, Marr has had a career and experience many in the program today hope to mirror in the future. Certainly it is inspiring to think that one who had just a decade ago been taking the classes we are taking now has risen to such a position of influence. The journey that led her to her master’s degree was also very interesting. Listening to her talk made all the learning in class so much more concrete, and the challenges more real.

Throughout her career, Marr has worked in a multitude of countries around the world and has focused on Africa. For more than 11 years, Marr has been at USAID as a foreign service officer. She currently serves as the education office director for South Sudan. In this role, she has helped design and set policy priorities alongside high-level government ministers. She has been instrumental in providing official development assistance from the United States to promote effective and feasible education programs.

Marr was gracious enough to devote three hours to interacting with HGSE students. First she spoke as a guest in Professor Fernando Reimers’ course and then later at an open forum for all HGSE students. She provided a wonderfully engaging, exciting, and most importantly, honest, account of her work abroad, focusing on the challenges of designing and implementing policy in South Sudan. It was illuminating and encouraging to hear of her many successes, but some of the most impactful lessons came from learning about the difficulties she has faced in her role, both professionally and personally. It was refreshing to have an insider’s view of an organization from an honest broker rather than an advocate or recruiter.

Of course, working in countries in the midst of economic strife and active conflict is not easy. Marr spoke of this and recounted a painful episode when a program had to be defunded after expending millions of dollars on a seemingly lost cause. The story of how trust was rebuilt in preparation for the next program, and the outsized roles that some individuals played in that process, gave a fascinating look into “how the sausage is made.” Policymaking is a messy process.

One of the biggest aspects that Marr highlighted was the importance of communication and rapport building. When outsiders come into a country with money and power but little local knowledge of the situation, it is easy for them to be treated skeptically and with mistrust. The only way to overcome this barrier is by forging meaningful relationships with individuals at every level of the policymaking and implementing process. The takeaway is somewhat comforting: building a relationship with an important counterpart over a beer is every bit as essential a part of policy work as understanding and applying the most current educational research. After all, as Marr said, you can always hire a new technical expert, but mutual trust, camaraderie, and rapport are impossible to recruit. Big ideas can only be realized when they are politically feasible.

Another big take away from her talk was, if you really want to achieve something or work toward a particular goal, do it. Once you’re sure of your bigger/main goal, you’ll figure out a way to reach there. She is highly committed to the work she’s doing, and it is as inspiring as it is commendable.

Overall, Marr’s visit was a good opportunity for current IEP students to get a glimpse into one possibility of a future career and the good, the bad, and the ugly that come along with it.