Teachers as Scholars

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
                                                          - John Dewey

The Teachers as Scholars program recognizes teachers as scholars and learners who are eager to engage with others in the process of continuous intellectual growth.  The program provides K-12 teachers with the opportunity to explore new ideas in the company of fellow educators through participation in seminars taught by Swarthmore College professors.

The Program:

  • College professors offer 2-3 seminars each year on a topic within their area of expertise.
  • Each day-long seminar is held on Swarthmore's campus.
  • 15 teachers from Swarthmore College Educational Studies Department's partner schools participate.  Breakfast and lunch are provided.

Offerings 2023-2024:

Past Seminar Topics:

2022-2023
Lei X. Ouyang - Asian American Soundscapes
Anthony Foy - African American Autobiography

2020-2021
Joseph Derrick Nelson - (Re)Imagining Black Childhoods through Educational Practice: A Focus on Relationships, Listening, and Connection,
Nina A. Johnson - Race, Poverty, Policing, Prisons and Schools: Understanding the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Philadelphia

2019-2020
Sa'ed Atshan '06 - The Middle East Conflict
Ben Geller - Science: Energy Theater
Nanci Buiza - Central America and the Traumas of History: Of Wars, Peace, and Migration

2018-2019
Farha Ghannam - Gender and Power in the Middle East
Ralph R. Gomez - Great Ideas in Math

2017-2018
Keith Reeves - Understanding and Disrupting the "School-to-Prison Pipeline"
K. Elizabeth Stevens - Let’s Tell Our Own Stories: Making Theater from Scratch

2016-2017
Tariq al-Jamil - What is Islam?
Nick Kaplinsky - The Biology of Plants
Ayse Kaya - Globalization

2015-2016
Nat Anderson - Poetry Workshop
Lynne Steuerle Schofield - Playing with Numbers:  Design and Discovery (Statistics)
Farha Ghannam - Gender and Power in the Middle East

2014-2015
Mark Wallace - Climate Change:  The Current Debate
Sunka Simon - Film and Media Studies
Sibelan Forrester - Folklore and Literature

2013-2014
Patricia Reilly - Cracking Visual Codes (Art History)
Deb Bergstrand - Great Ideas in Math
Robert Weinberg & Tyrene White - Cults of Personality and the 20th Century

2012-2013
Steve Wang - The Fossil Record (Statistics & Science)
Ellen Magenheim - Making the Irrational, Rational: Using Behavioral Economics to Improve Decision Making                                               
Peter Schmidt - 20th Century Poetry and Music

2011-2012
Tyrene White - Global Demographics
Betsy Bolton - Natural History and the Crum Woods  (Delaware County)

 

Contact:
Professor Lisa Smulyan
lsmulya1@swarthmore.edu
610-328-8343