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Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Askwith Education Forum, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is endowed through the generosity of Patricia Askwith Kenner and other members of the Askwith family, and acts as a galvanizing force for debate and conversation about education in its narrowest and broadest perspectives. Each year, the Forum welcomes a number of prominent people from diverse fields to speak about issues relevant to education and children. Recent topics have included immigration, values, affirmative action, education reform, and the arts. All of these events are free and open to the public.break

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith

Holding the Truth: Reflections of a Navajo Artist

Thu, Feb 24, 2000

Melanie Yazzie, contemporary Navajo multimedia artist, and visiting professor at the University of Arizona, gives a lecture and slideshow on "Holding the Truth: The Personal and Political in Art." This event iss co-sponsored by the Harvard Native American Program. **Melanie Yazzie** is a Dine (Navajo) artist of the salt and bitter water clans. Yazzie works in a variety of media including prints and ceramics, among others. Through her installations, she examines both internal and external influences on Native people. For instance, neither the cloth in the Dine skirts nor Blue Bird flower are indigenous to the Dine people, but after being filtered through the hearts and hands of one of its women, they become synonymous with it. The monotype is another example of art that challenges Native portrayal in the dominant culture. By using the personal example of her own family, Yazzie presents real portrayal of Native culture, without idealizing, degrading or commercializing it.

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College Sports and Educational Values

Mon, Dec 1, 2003

William Bowen and Sarah Levin disentangle the admissions and academic experiences of recruited athletes, walk-on athletes, and other students, as described in their book, *Reclaiming the Game*. Over the last four decades, the athletic-academic divide on elite campuses has widened substantially. They examine the forces that have been driving this process and presents concrete proposals for reform. Thanks to an expansion of the College and Beyond database that resulted in the highly influential studies *The Shape of the River* and *The Game of Life*, the authors are able to analyze in great detail the backgrounds, academic qualifications, and college outcomes of athletes and their classmates at 33 academically selective colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships. They show that recruited athletes at these schools are as much as four times more likely to gain admission than are other applicants with similar academic credentials. The data also demonstrate that the typical recruit is substantially more likely to end up in the bottom third of the college class than is either the typical walk-on or the student who does not play college sports. Even more troubling is the dramatic evidence that recruited athletes "under-perform." In other words, they do even less well academically than predicted by their test scores and high school grades.

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Meet the Poet: Dana Gioia

Tue, Feb 10, 2004

Dana Gioia speaks about the relationship between poetry and education. **Dana Gioia**, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is an internationally-acclaimed poet. His books include *Can Poetry Matter?* and the award-winning poetry collection *Interrogations at Noon*. A teacher of writing at several colleges, Gioia founded "Teaching Poetry," a conference dedicated to improving high school teaching of poetry and the West Chester University Conference on Form and Narrative, the nation's largest annual all-poetry writing conference.

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PAR: Research in Youth Development

Mon, Apr 17, 2006

This forum focuses on the method and theory of engaging in participatory action research (PAR) approaches in educational settings and on the strategies, values, questions, and processes of PAR in education and youth development. Using examples from their experience, panelists offer diverse points of view on designing, implementing, and writing about PAR; the role of the academic researcher in school or community-based inquiry; the skills needed to conduct this type of research; the desired and actual outcomes of their work; and the special dilemmas and resolutions faced by participatory action researchers.

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Paradigm Spinning: Artists as Agents of Social Change

Wed, Mar 14, 2001

Suzi Gablik departs from what she calls "the faded ethos of modernism," and explains why she sees artists as agents of social change. This lecture is part of the Arts in Education Program's John Landrum Bryant Lecture Performance Series.

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Essential Conversation: Between Parents and Teachers

Tue, Oct 28, 2003

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, MacArthur fellow, and author of eight books including *Balm in Gilead, The Good High School,* and *I've Known Rivers,* discusses her newest book, *Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other.*

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(Not) Talking About Race Talk

Wed, May 5, 2004

Mica Pollock discusses race talk dilemmas with local educators, as presented in her new book, Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School.

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Education for All

Tue, Oct 26, 2004

Fernando Reimers, associate professor of education at HGSE moderates this conversation on universal primary education. Panelists discuss why children across the world, particularly girls, children from poor societies, children who work, and children in conflict - do not have access to a basic education, why they should, and what's being done about it. Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann will introduce the distinguished speakers which include: Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Gene Sperling, director of the Center on Universal Education, Council on Foreign Relations; Vivien Stewart, vice president for Education, Asia Society; and Elaine Wolfensohn, World Bank.

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Closing the Nation's Racial Achievement Gaps I

Thu, May 5, 2005

Organized by the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University, this series kicks off a forum entitled Race, Culture, and K-12 Achievement Gaps. Popular discourse among national leaders has assumed that some black and Latino youth are embedded in a culture that is oppositional to achievement and that this culture is a major impediment to narrowing the nation's achievement gaps. The speakers present a more complex picture, identifying issues upon which future research will be helpful, and suggesting some practical implications of the emerging research consensus. Panelists include Prudence Carter, assistant professor of sociology, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Ronald Ferguson, lecturer of public policy, Kennedy School of Government; and Mica Pollock, assistant professor of education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Closing the Nation's Racial Achievement Gaps II

Tue, May 10, 2005

Organized by the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University, this is the second in a series of forums that address Racial Gaps in College Access and Success. Closing achievement gaps is not merely a matter for K-12 educators. People of color are underrepresented among students who enter college; they have less success in college and complete college at a lower rate than whites. Speakers review what we know from research and suggest implications for policy and practice as well as for additional research under the AGI umbrella. Panelists include Christopher Avery, Roy E. Larsen professor of public policy, Kennedy School of Government; Bridget Terry Long, associate professor of education and economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Vivian Shuh Ming Louie, assistant professor of education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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