In a presentation about teaching adolescents to appreciate diversity, Harvard University Professor Robert L. Selman spoke to an audience of about 60 people in the Jacobs Center Wednesday.
Selman, part of the Distinguished Speaker Series presented by the Center on the Science of Diversity, focused on the research he has conducted in evaluating Facing History and Ourselves, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to teaching civic responsibility and tolerance worldwide.
Facing History contacted Selman to evaluate their practices and make recommendations to the organization.
“I think most of you know times have changed in educational research,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to convince a policy person or district superintendent to consider a program unless it has evidence-based outcomes.”
For Selman, practice-inspired research means taking problems students and teachers experience in educational environments and pursuing the reasoning behind their actions and issues through further study.
The key goals of the project were to evaluate Facing History’s impact on teachers and students and to contribute to knowledge in various fields. The project also sought to build Facing History’s capacity to be more effective and self-evaluative, as well as to help them impact governmental policy on how history is taught in schools.
The testimonial of Chicago ninth-grader Eve Shalen was “one inspiration for taking the road from practice to research,” he said.
In a video, Shalen, who said she was outcast and subject of ridicule from her peers, narrated an incident in which she joined in on the harassment of another classmate. Shalen, though disappointed in her actions, said she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t do the same thing again if given the opportunity.
Selman presented the research done ten years after Shalen’s story. The research studied students of different ages and backgrounds to learn how adolescents make choices in issues of exclusion and inclusion. The goal of this research was to transfer this information into new teaching techniques.
“We think that teachers can foster intellectual rigor and emotional connection,” he said. “Students will develop a historical understanding and social awareness, and this will energize teachers.”
Selman said the research is not fully completed yet, as the project will follow teachers for a second year. He added that one year was not enough time to complete conclusive research on the subject.
As a teacher at a religious education center, Anita Panjwani, a Weinberg senior, said she learned a great deal from Selman’s theories.
“It helped me develop my career plans and my career goal to be a better teacher,” she said.
Others said they felt conflicted by Selman’s theories.
“I think he had a clear mission, but the fact that the research has been inconclusive so far made it hard for him to make a point,” Medill freshman Terri Pous said.
However, Selman said Chicago public schools are considering adopting the Facing History program into its classrooms in the future.
“We’re not sure what we’re going to find,” he said.
