Dean's Perspective

Dear Alumni and Friends:

My first experience in international education took place in March 2006, when I joined a team of HGSE colleagues to work on a project in Mexico. At the request of the Mexican government, we were invited to study and make recommendations about Mexican education policy. The third day was a poignant one for me. It began with a two-hour trek to a rural village to visit a preschool. When we arrived, every parent was there to greet us. A father approached me and told me how the community from this small village had built the school themselves with their own supplies. It is little wonder that these families are proud of their preschool.

I spent some time in one classroom, watching a young teacher lead the children in a science experiment. There were hardly any materials in this school. She had assembled a number of objects -- pieces of trash, really -- and the children's task was to predict which ones would burn. As she lit the objects on fire, one by one, her captivated students checked their predictions. Pedagogically, it's a tough lesson to beat, even though it probably would have been in violation of most U.S. city fire codes.

Later that afternoon, the Harvard team visited the Ministry of Education, which is housed in a stunning, Baroque, stone building. The arcades are decorated with colorful frescos, most painted by Diego Rivera. The minister of education arranged for us to have a tour of the Rivera paintings after our meeting. We stopped for a long time in front of one painting called The Rural Teacher. It depicts a circle of people, young and old, listening to a woman with an open book on her lap. Surrounding the circle are soldiers and farmers. For me, the message of the painting is the strength of education to change lives, regardless of the context.

Our experience in Mexico, captured briefly in a short story in this issue of Ed., reaffirmed a belief the HGSE community shares: Education is the single most important ingredient for a just society. In today's world, that means we increasingly need citizens who are able to understand and confront global issues -- this is a challenge for schools everywhere. At HGSE, our students, faculty, and alumni are committed to taking on this challenge.

This issue of Ed. magazine illustrates some of the ways that our collective work is having an international impact. From an alumnus struggling to make policy changes in Kenya, to teachers in Beijing working with HGSE faculty to find new ways to reach their students, we are active participants in the global education community. We hope you find these stories inspiring, as I do.

Sincerely,
Kathleen McCartney
Dean of the Faculty of Education

photo by Dina Konovalov/A Dream Picture