 FROM
THE DIRECTOR
by Geoffrey Maruyama
I am excited about the opportunities that go with being director of the
Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI). Because a
college like ours-that is research-based and oriented toward graduate
students-inevitably works to attain many goals, to address many needs, and to
fill many roles, it is important to have "a place" where our most important goal
is the central focus. CAREI is that place. In his presidential address to the
American Educational Research Association, Elliot Eisner articulated goals for a
college of education and human development like ours:
"The major aim...has to do with the improvement of educational practice so
that the lives of those who teach and learn are themselves enhanced. Put more
succinctly, we do research to understand. We try to understand in order to make
our schools better places for both the children and the adults who share their
lives there. That aim, from my perspective, needs to remain as frontlets between
our eyes. We should fix them as signposts upon our gates. In the end, our work
lives its ultimate life in the lives that it enables others to lead (1993, 10)."
CAREI will continue to do its best to build and nurture relationships between
the faculty, staff, and students of the College of Education and schools and
their staffs. Kyla Wahlstrom continues as associate director. She and I are
committed to building strong long-term partnerships between researchers and
practitioners and between "educator developers" and educators. We will be
working to find ways to connect school staff with University researchers and
resource people and to develop services that promote the transfer of the
expertise of our colleagues to practitioners on an ongoing basis. (The long-term
ways in which our goals may be accomplished will be covered in the next
newsletter, which should follow shortly after this one. In that issue I will
look at CAREI and University 2000.)
I come to CAREI having spent 17 years on the University faculty. My
experiences here have been varied, including faculty governance, legislative
liaison work for faculty, and collaborative research projects covering a range
of topics. I can see that CAREI will draw from all aspects of my background. My
goals include:
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Continue work to establish CAREI as a primary vehicle within the
University for bringing together individuals interested in working with
and in schools.
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CAREI's partnership with schools provides a natural link for pilot
testing of programs, demonstration projects, and so forth in areas of
educational innovation and educational reform. Such projects should
provide research opportunities for faculty and resources for schools
that want to try out innovative projects. We need to build awareness in
legislators and other policy makers of the role that CAREI could play in
evaluating innovative programs during their developmental stages.
-
Focus on research about urban and heterogeneous schools and what happens
in them.
-
Develop capabilities for providing assistance in the areas of technology
and program evaluation.
I am excited about the possibilities that CAREI's structure and the
college's activities and priorities make available to our staff and to
others. I look forward to a bright future. I would like to acknowledge my
indebtedness to my predecessor, Jean King, for all of her efforts,
particularly the work she did building visibility for CAREI. Many of
you know us well enough to pronounce the acronym the same way we do! I am
particularly happy that she was willing to reflect on her involvement with
CAREI from the perspective of her new roles.
See: CAREI Seen from the Other Side of Pillsbury
Drive by former Director Jean King
Editor's note:
Geoffrey Maruyama, professor of educational psychology, has succeeded
Jean King as director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational
Improvement. Geoff joined the College of Education faculty in 1976,
after earning his doctoral degree from the University of Southern
California. His teaching and research have focused on human relations,
diversity in education, cooperative education, and translation of
research into educational practice-all areas of central relevance to his
work with CAREI.
Jean King has returned full time to the college's Department of
Educational Policy and Administration, where her involvement with
schools continues in new ways.
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