Woodrow Wilson Foundation Awards TCNJ "Teachers as Scholars" Grant

The College of New Jersey School of Education’s Professional Development School Network (PDSN) has been notified by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation of Princeton that it has been awarded a grant in the amount of $15,000 to initiate a Teachers as Scholars program at the College. 

The Teachers as Scholars program will recognize outstanding teacher scholars who, along with TCNJ professors, share a passion for a subject or topic about which they wish to learn more. Their participation in program seminars will allow teachers the opportunity to gain greater understanding and knowledge through the intellectual discourse that will take place during the seminars. Throughout their experience in the program, the teachers will gain a sense of renewal, recognition, and expansion of their intellectual, personal, and professional development.

Each two-day seminar will be conducted on campus. The seminars will promote intellectual growth on the part of both the teachers and the professors, and will engage participants in thought-provoking discussions that will enrich, expand, and stimulate the intellectual and creative development of teachers.   

Teachers as Scholars began in 1996 as a collaborative project between Harvard University and the Brookline School District in Massachusetts. Since 1998, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has promoted the program as a national network by providing modest startup funds and technical assistance for colleges and universities. Each year across the current 27 network sites, thousands of teachers participate in seminars with arts and science faculty from nearby universities. 

These programs are open to all K-12 teachers, regardless of certification or teaching assignment. 

During the initial year, Teachers as Scholars will present four two-day seminars led by faculty members at the College. Each member school district of the Professional Development School Network at TCNJ will select one teacher to attend each of the seminars during the spring 2006 semester.

The spring Teachers as Scholars program will feature Daniel Crofts, professor of history, presenting, "The Coming of the American Civil War;" Cassandra Jackson, assistant professor of English, presenting "Remembering Slavery in Twentieth Century African-American Literature and Art;"  David Blake, associate professor of English, presenting, "Moby Dick:  Before and After 9/11;" and Roman Kovalev, assistant professor of history, presenting "Unconventional Sources of Study of Pre-Modern History:  Archaeology, Ethnography, Numismatics, Graffiti-Inscriptions and Pictorial Evidence."

TCNJ joins more than 20 colleges and universities that host Teachers as Scholars programs at their institutions, such as the University of California – Los Angeles; the University of Colorado – Boulder; Fordham University; the University of Notre Dame; Rutgers University – Newark; and Princeton University.

The program has been made possible through the cooperation and collaboration of TCNJ's School of Education, School of Culture and Society, and the 19 school districts that comprise the Professional Development School Network of The College of New Jersey School of Education.

Robert J. Bartoletti, director of PDSN and the Support of Teacher Education Programs (STEP) at the College, will serve as the director of the Teachers as Scholars program.  Based upon the success of the inaugural year of the program, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation will consider a request for a second year of funding.