C1 Cover_S06.qxd - Penn GSE - University of Pennsylvania

From its founding, the University of Pennsylvania
has had a decidedly practical bent. Ben Franklin
wanted students to pursue “useful knowledge” for
the improvement of the community.
More than 250 years later, Penn President Amy
Gutmann articulated her vision for the University in the
Penn Compact—a document that follows Penn’s founder in
believing both that a university should develop useful
knowledge and that the search for useful knowledge, in turn,
advances academic understandings.
Central to that task is the ability of scholars and experts
from across disciplines to find common ground for collaboration.
In the words of the Compact, “The most challenging
questions and problems of our time cannot be
addressed by one discipline or profession. To comprehend
our complex world, we must better integrate knowledge
from different disciplines and professional perspectives in
our research and teaching.”
Penn GSE may be uniquely positioned to take a lead
role in forging partnerships within the University and
beyond. Education is, by its very nature, an interdisciplinary
field of study, and Penn GSE is populated with scholars
who represent a broad range of academic foundations.
Not including education, at least ten different disciplines
are represented in our faculty—e.g., sociology, economics,
psychology, philosophy, history, and anthropology.
Moreover, our work with schools and practitioners, locally
and globally, encourages our students and faculty to collaborate
with a wide range of colleagues.
Penn GSE has the additional advantage of being located
in a university that values the work we do. Unlike many
universities, Penn sees its ed school as a key player in the
life of the institution.
With these advantages, Penn GSE has been pursuing
integrated research, teaching, and service that crosses disciplinary
and other institutional barriers.
The following are some prime examples of Penn GSE’s
engagement with partners across the Penn campus.
By Nancy Brokaw
Collaboration:
Student Learning
Our close ties to academic departments and schools throughout
Penn allow our students to get the kind of cross-disciplinary
preparation they’ll need to solve the complex challenges facing
the field of education. Whether they’re planning careers as classroom
teachers or educational researchers, Penn GSE students
may choose from an array of programs culminating in either a
joint or dual degree in seven of Penn’s 11 other schools. And, in
recent years, GSE has been developing an array of innovative
programs with highly targeted audiences in mind.
The Executive Program in Work-Based Learning
Leadership, a joint project with the Wharton School, is
designed for executives charged with the task of workplace
education—the chief learning officers, vice presidents of
human resources, and training directors of corporate
America.
As Penn GSE Vice Dean Doug Lynch points out,
“Most adults learn on the job rather than in a formal educational
setting. In fact, the average Fortune 1000 company
spends 2.5 percent of its operating budget on learning.”
The GSE-Wharton program is flexible and the faculty
stellar. The curriculum is broken down into five blocks,
allowing students to step in and out of the program as their
schedules dictate, and the faculty is an impressive roster of
Penn professors, industry experts, and consultants.
Students in the program’s first cohort cut across the
public and private sectors—and early reports are positive.
Says Mike Barger, chief learning officer of JetBlue
Airways, “There is a burning need for a program to help
align enterprising learning leaders across all industries.
That’s what I’m so excited about in this program.”
With China’s explosive entry onto the world stage, the
demand for Chinese speakers is growing. At Penn GSE,
Professors Tere Pica Gr’82 and Kathy Schultz Gr’91 are
partnering with GSE International and Penn’s Center
for East Asian Studies on the Teacher Preparation for
Mandarin Chinese Language Instruction Program,
designed to prepare teachers
proficient in teaching Chinese to American students.
Building on the Penn Chinese Language Teachers
Summer Institute, founded in 1998 to help native speakers
get teacher certification, the teacher preparation program
will culminate in a master’s degree in education for current
and aspiring teachers of Chinese.
Fall 2007 | Penn GSE | 11