Joel Westheimer | |
|---|---|
 Westheimer in 2018 | |
| Born | March 24, 1963 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Parent |
|
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions |
|
Joel Westheimer is an American-born academic who researches citizenship education. He is a professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Joel Westheimer was born to Manfred and Ruth Westheimer in Washington Heights,New York City. Ruth Westheimer,better known as Dr. Ruth,was a sex therapist,professor,author,and media personality,and one of the first to develop the field of media psychology. [1]
In his youth,Westheimer attended private schools in New York City,which were balanced by a socially-minded educational experiences with Hashomer Hatzair ,a socialist-Zionist youth group in weekly meetings,outings,and summer camps,enforcing ideals of community values and equality. [2] : 3 Here,he was influenced to believe in building strong education communities that are open to critique and youth leadership. [2] : 3
Westheimer pursued his undergraduate studies in engineering at Princeton University,studying electrical engineering and computer science. He was passionate about this exciting new field and the "counter-cultural cachet" that it exuded in the 1970s and 1980s. [2] : 6 His time at Princeton,however,would inform his future world views and pursuits. He studied the connections between society and technology,and took smaller courses in liberal arts,including courses in gender studies. Westheimer went on to be the first male student,and first male engineering student,to earn a certificate in Women's Studies at Princeton. [2] : 7
Westheimer also engaged in travel while studying at Princeton,and spent a half-year working as a computer programmer in Argentina. He became interested in the political scene in the country,which was vastly different from the USA. His time there helped formulated his conceptions of civic education and social movements,as he witnessed protests and Argentina's political recovery. [2] : 7
Music was also important during his time at Princeton. He wrote and played music with Michael Mann,and started a group called "Folksinging" with friend Michael Berkowitz. With this group,they engaged students over politics,social issues,and music,eventually forming strong bonds that created campus movements. [2] : 8
Westheimer's interest in engineering decreased as he became more interested in his other pursuits in university. At the end of his second year,he failed out of his program at Princeton,and was made to reapply in order to be readmitted to the school. He reapplied and graduated from Engineering with Honours. [2] : 8
Westheimer went on to receive a Master's and Ph.D in Education from Stanford. He taught for a brief period at Stanford,before moving to New York University. He left the USA when he received a position at the University of Ottawa,where he now serves as the University Research Chair in Democracy in Education,and is the education columnist for CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning show. [3]
Joel Westheimer lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children. [4]
In 1987,Westheimer began to teach in the New York City public school system. During this time,he enrolled in some courses at Columbia University's Teachers College. He taught middle school at an alternative public school,and utilized a variety of methods such as music,politics,and social examples to teach his students. [2] : 10 Eventually wanting to understand the process of schooling more,and needing to enrol in a master's program to continue to teach,he began his post-graduate studies at Stanford University in 1989. He received his Masters in Design and Evaluation of Educational Programs. Rather than returning to teaching,as was his original plan,Westheimer went on to pursue a Ph.D. [2] : 11
While at Stanford University,Westheimer developed and taught a course called "Experimental Curricula:The Case of Wilderness Education",a project that created curriculum for project-based experiences outside of the classroom,and ran for five years. [2] : 12 As a Spencer Dissertation Fellow at Stanford,Westheimer completed his Ph.D. thesis in 1995,titled "Among Schoolteachers:Community,Individuality,and Ideology In Teachers' Work". [5] He thus took on a teaching position as an assistant professor at Stanford.
Westheimer was hired as an assistant professor at New York University in 1996,to fulfill a position as a professor of civic engagement,teaching communities,and service learning. [5] In September 1999,Westheimer testified at National Labor Relations Board hearings on behalf of NYU graduate students. The students were attempting to form a union. Westheimer was the only non-tenured professor to testify. He had applied for tenure,and although both internal and external reviewers approved his request,it was later revoked due to "insufficient scholarship". Westheimer believed his tenureship was revoked because of his defense of the rights of graduate students to unionize:"I remember that,shortly after I testified,I got a letter from an associate dean about something saying that he was "shocked and disappointed" at my behavior." [4] [6] University authorities urged Westheimer to withdraw his bid for tenure "for his own good" so he would not have to put a failed bid for tenure on his CV. Doing so would have prevented him from taking further legal action,so instead he made the case public. [4]
At the start of 2002,the federal government charged the university with illegally firing Westheimer,as his 'extramural utterances' had no bearing on his academic work. [4] After a five-month investigation,the Labor Board concluded that "the real reason for [Professor Westheimer's] denial of tenure was because of his union activities." [4] [7] A settlement was reached soon after,in which the university offered Westheimer financial compensation and redacted its denial of his tenure. [8] Westheimer then moved to Ottawa and became an associate professor of citizenship education at the University of Ottawa. [4]
Westheimer started his position at The University of Ottawa in 2002,where he teaches today as the University Research Chair in Democracy and Education. His research focuses on social studies education,citizenship education,social justice,and politics and education. He also comments on current affairs in education as CBC Radio's education columnist for the Ottawa Morning show. He was the co-founder and executive director of a research collective focusing on democracy in education and society,called Democratic Dialogue. [9]
Source: [11]
The Doctor of Education is a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for academic,research,administrative,clinical,or professional positions in educational,civil,private organizations,or public institutions. Considerable differences exist in structure,content and aims between regions.
Academic freedom is the right of a teacher to instruct and the right of a student to learn in an academic setting unhampered by outside interference. It may also include the right of academics to engage in social and political criticism.
Frederick Emmons Terman was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is widely credited as being the father of Silicon Valley.
Teachers College,Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education of Columbia University,a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887,Teachers College has served as one of the official Faculties and the Department of Education of Columbia University since 1898. It is the oldest and largest graduate school of education in the United States.
Robert Owen Keohane is an American academic working within the fields of international relations and international political economy. Following the publication of his influential book After Hegemony (1984),he has become widely associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism in international relations,as well as transnational relations and world politics in international relations in the 1970s.
Claude Mason Steele is a social psychologist and emeritus professor at Stanford University,where he is the I. James Quillen Endowed Dean,Emeritus at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education,and Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences,Emeritus.
The Institute for Citizens &Scholars is a nonpartisan,non-profit institution based in Princeton,New Jersey that says it aims to strengthen American democracy by "cultivating the talent,ideas,and networks that develop lifelong,effective citizens". It administers programs and fellowships that support civic education and engagement,leadership development,and organizational capacity in education and democracy.
Andrew Hargreaves is Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa and Research Professor at Boston College.
Linda Darling-Hammond is an American academic who is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She was also the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute. She is author or editor of more than 25 books and more than 500 articles on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on school restructuring,teacher education,and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for United States Secretary of Education in the Obama administration.
Caroline Minter Hoxby is an American economist whose research focuses on issues in education and public economics. She is currently the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor in Economics at Stanford University and program director of the Economics of Education Program for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Hoxby is a John and Lydia Pearce Mitchell University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. She is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
James Albert Banks is an American educator and the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and founding director of the University of Washington's Center for Multicultural Education,which is now the Banks Center for Educational Justice. He focuses on the discipline of multicultural education.
Thomas S. Popkewitz is an professor in the department of curriculum and instruction,University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education,US. His studies explore historically and contemporary education as practices of making different kinds of people that distribute differences. He has written or edited approximately 40 books and 300 articles in journals and book chapters translated into 17 languages. Recent studies focus on the comparative reason of educational research as cartographies and architectures that produce phantasmagrams of societies,population and differences. The studies entail theoretical,discursive,ethnography,and historical studies that explore school,professional identities,and the relation to conceptions of differences inscribed childhood,learning and cultural differences.
Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics.
Ivor Frederick Goodson is a British educationalist. He is a professor at Tallinn University.
Martin Carnoy is an American labour economist and Vida Jacks Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education as well as of the International Academy of Education. Professor Carnoy has graduated nearly 100 PhD students,a record at Stanford University.
The Graduate School of Princeton University is the main graduate school of Princeton University. Founded in 1869,the school is responsible for all of Princeton's master's and doctoral degree programs in the humanities,social sciences,natural sciences,and engineering. The school offers Master of Arts (MA),Master of Science (MS),and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in 42 disciplines. It also administers several pre-professional programs,including the Master in Finance (M.Fin.),Master of Science in engineering (M.S.E.),and Master of Engineering (M.Eng.),Master in Public Affairs (M.P.A.),Master in Public Policy (M.P.P.),and Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) degrees.
Marshall S. Smith was an American educator. He held academic positions at Harvard University,the University of Wisconsin at Madison,and Stanford University,where he was Dean of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. He also held positions in the Gerald Ford,Jimmy Carter,Bill Clinton,and Barack Obama White House administrations.
James W. Stigler is an American psychologist,researcher,entrepreneur and author. He is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of California,Los Angeles and a Fellow of the Precision Institute at National University,San Diego.
Gregory A. Clark is a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Utah;he is also the Director for the Center for Neural Interfaces at the University of Utah. Dr. Clark’s current research is in neuroprostheses,bioengineering,sensory information processing,and electrophysiological and computational analyses of neuronal plasticity in simple systems.
Richard Francis Gunstone is an Australian academic and researcher. He is the Emeritus Professor of Science and Technology Education at Monash University. He has authored or co-authored 8 books along with various monographs and chapters and has published over a hundred research papers. He has coedited 6 books providing reports of contemporary research in a particular area of science education. His principle research areas include teaching,curriculum,assessment,teacher development,science,physics and engineering.