Lagemann’s role will be to facilitate such research and push faculty to reach out to the greater educational community.
“One of the most important roles that a school of education can play is to be deeply involved in educating the public about education,” Lagemann says. “GSE has a wonderful faculty, and their voices and insights need to become part of the national debate on education even more than they already are.”
Joining Forces
Expanding research is only the beginning of raising GSE ’s profile.
Lagemann says that she would like to see the school develop more joint programs with Harvard’s graduate schools and the College.
Singer and Willett say that GSE has already begun to address this goal by including representatives from several graduate schools on the committee that advised Summers during the dean search.
A good place to start the interfaculty cooperation would be to enable GSE doctoral students—candidates for a doctor in education (Ed.D.)—to earn a doctor in philosophy (Ph.D.), Willett says.
He says GSE is the “only major graduate school of education not to offer the Ph.D.,” a fact which must change in order for GSE to compete with other top schools.
Current GSE students cannot earn Ph.D.s since historically the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has been the only school permitted to award a Ph.D., according to Singer.
“Our students are doing Ph.D. quality work but getting Ed.D. because of the way the University is structured,” she says.
Lagemann has plans beyond working with Harvard graduate schools—she also wants GSE to inform undergraduates about education, by offering forums for them and inviting them to attend GSE classes.
“I hope we can get more Harvard undergraduates to become teachers, principals and superintendents,” she says.
Learning about education, Lagemann adds, is important even for those who do not plan a career in the field.
“All of the undergraduates will be taxpaying citizens, and many will be parents, so the state of public education is vitally important to them,” she says.
New Faces, New Places?
Lagemann’s ambitious agenda won’t come cheaply—and it won’t come easily to a school sandwiched on Appian Way between Radcliffe and a cemetery.
Singer and Willett lament how squeezed for space GSE has become in recent years and how it has been forced to rent space around Harvard Square.
While final decisions are still years away, administrators have said that it is likely GSE might take up residence in Harvard’s land holdings in Allston. Even if GSE itself doesn’t move, the movement of other schools will free up land for GSE in its present location.
Lagemann says that wherever the spaces come from, she’s anxious to have it.
—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.